Technology news

The United States Cyber Command has made a number of incursions into Russia’s electricalinfrastructure in recent months, according to a new report in The New York Times. Officials that the publication spoke with characterized the moves as a warning to Russia that the US is willing to operate more aggressively in this arena to deter potential cyberattacks.According to the Times, “officials described the previously unreported deployment of American computer code inside Russia’s

A little over a year after discontinuing its Mac desktop app, Twitter says that it’s bringing the program back after Apple unveiled Project Catalyst for macOS 10.15 Catalina. It explained why it decided to drop the app last year.Twitter made the announcement during Apple’s WWDC conference last week, saying that the app would launch with Catalina this fall, and that this new version will have a variety of features like dark mode, keyboard shortcuts, multiple windows, and notification

On an otherwise normal, sunny day, a bird of prey rode around on the hood of a moving car near downtown Los Angeles.
The hawk, likely a red-tailed hawk common to the city, landed on the car and wouldn't budge for 15 minutes, reports The Eastsider. The bird didn't move even as the car drove through the city's palm-lined streets.
"He's staring at us like he's staring into our souls," one of the passengers says in a YouTube video documenting the incident.It may have been a younger, immature bird, e

Amazon Spark, we hardly cared about knew you.
The shopping social network (a kinda gross concept to start with) disappeared from the internet and Amazon's app some time in the past couple days, according to a report from TechCrunch.
Spark launched in July 2017, and was described by your friends at Mashable as "the grossest, purest thing on the internet." It attempted to bridge online shopping and authentic socializing while also bringing in sweet, sweet cash for Amazon. 
The service allowed

Last October, Kickstarter announced that it was ending its subscriber-based crowdfunding platform, Drip, but that it was planning a successor project with XOXO festival creators Andy Baio and Andy McMillan. Now, that project has been shut down, according to its creators.Drip’s unnamed successor project was designed to provide “financial stability and transparency to independent artists.” It came out of conversations from Kickstarter founder Perry Chen and Baio, Kickstarter&rsq

Magic school clashes with a murder mystery in Magic for Liars, the debut novel from Sarah Gailey, best known for their American Hippo short stories — but with one key twist.That’s because while the school and the murder may be magical, Ivy Gamble, the investigator hired to solve the case, is completely ordinary. Unable to sling a spell or cast a charm, she’s a far more relatable character than most other magical detectives that dot the literary landscape.Spoilers for the book

The melting Arctic is on dramatic display.
At mid-June, Arctic sea ice is now at a record low for this time of year, and melted ice is especially notable both in and around Greenland — home to the second largest ice sheet on the planet. Steffen Olsen, a climate researcher at the Danish Meteorological Institute, snapped a photo on Thursday of Greenland sea ice that had melted into a large lake of aqua water, pooled atop the icy surface.
Olsen, along with local hunters, had to sled across th

Netflix’s Aggretsuko was a surprise breakout hit last year, considering it was a Sanrio property that got unexpectedly real about sexism in the workplace and millennial anxieties.The second season is streaming now, and it’s as hilarious and painfully relatable as ever.While the first season introduced us to Retsuko, the 25-year-old red panda who deals with the stress of her power-tripping boss through death metal karaoke, season 2 finds her settling into her job and being given the

The cute-children-turned-post-pubescent-teens of Stranger Things proved they're still the charming kids Netflix viewers flipped over when the show debuted in 2016. 
Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp, and Sadie Sink squeezed onto The Tonight Show sofas to talk about the on-set antics they used to pass the time while shooting Season 3. The group even taught Jimmy Fallon the "Chicken Noodle Song," a purposefully irritating tune created by McLaug

Amazon has shut down its social network-like feature on its site and app called Amazon Spark, in which Prime customers could post pictures of the products they’ve bought, according to TechCrunch.The company launched the service for Prime members in 2017. It prompted customers to pick a selection of interests in the section in the feature, and would then show you a feed of posts from users that related to those interests. The service seemed to be designed to replicate influencers using soc

Euphoria is a jarring exploration into the dark gamuts of growing up with addiction, depression, and immense peer pressure among other coming-of-age obstacles. HBO's gritty teen drama pushes boundaries in its attempts to realistically display the how and why of high schoolers indulge in drugs and sex.
The show found its way into the news before its June 16 premiere when it was revealed that one of the actors quit while filming the pilot after feeling uncomfortable with explicit scenesIn an inter

This is One Good Thing, a weekly column where we tell you about one of the few nice things that happened this week.Jake Gyllenhaal sleeps naked, folks. 
During the actor's appearance on Ellen this week, Gyllenhaal answered all of Ellen Degeneres' Burning Questions. The pair had a hilariously good time, pressing buttons and chatting about everything from his underwear preferences (briefs) to his favorite body part (the nape of a woman's neck). When asked what he wears to bed, Gyllenhaal

Google’s Home Max is the biggest, most powerful smart speaker that it makes. This weekend, Daily Steals is offering readers of The Verge an exclusive deal that takes $40 off of its $299.99 price. The cheapest price is $259.99 right now, though it’s not the only retailer discounting this speaker. Google Store, Best Buy, and B&H Photo, to name a few, are selling it for $269.99.
If you choose to purchase a Google Home Max through Daily Steals, you’ll get a brand-new unit that

The Martian desert is rich in curiosities. 
And Star Trek symbolism, too. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter — a satellite zipping around the red planet — captured a mass of ancient lava rock that looks strikingly like the Star Trek Starfleet insignia donned by the show's galactic explorers. 
"Enterprising viewers will make the discovery that these features look conspicuously like a famous logo: and you'd be right, but it's only a coincidence," NASA scientists said. 
N

In many ways, Animal Crossing has always been a friendship simulator. 
Sure, over the years it also became about being the mayor of your own town, or crafting, or collectibles. But from the beginning, the true heart of this nearly two-decade old franchise came from developing long-term connections, whether with adorable talking animal NPCs or IRL friends who could visit your virtual utopia. 
"Since I became involved in development during the Nintendo 64 days, the core concept of the ga

With the 50th anniversary of the lunar landings coming up next month, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the vast canon of Apollo histories that are out there. There has been of ink spilled in the last five decades exploring every detail of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions, and there are more on the way.A handful of works stand out in the history of spaceflight literature. The first is a pair of books authored by Francis French and Colin Burgess: Into that Silent Sea, about NASA

Every day of Pride Month, Mashable will be sharing illuminating conversations with members of the LGBTQ community who are making history right now."Get up, look sickening, and make them eat it!" 
Latrice Royale, the "chunky, yet funky" queen of RuPaul's Drag Race, has been offering those immortal words of confidence to fans for years. 
But in 2020, she'll be taking them straight to the polls — voting not only as a beloved leader of the LGBTQ community, but also as a former inmate

iOS 13 is going to be a whale of an update, available for free this fall for iPhone SE, 6S, and newer models. It comes with much heralded features like a system-wide dark mode, redesigned Photos app, new Memoji customizations, and more. 
But as with previous versions of iOS, the software update also has a whole bunch of lesser-known features that aren't as flashy but are greatly welcome. Here are the eight we're most excited for — and one that we wish Apple would take back.
1. Un

Whether you're treating your father to some barbecue, a game of flag football, or something less stereotypical, there's always time to squeeze a movie or show into your Father's Day plans!
Here are 15 movies and series, all streaming now, about dads, for dads, and perfect for watching with your dad this weekend.
Note: Many of the films and shows on this list are not suitable for all ages, so we've marked the kid-friendliest options with an asterisk (*) for your knowledge. Enjoy! 1. Bob's Bu

TL;DR: The slim, 17-inch LG gram laptop is on sale in the PCMag Shop for just $1,499. (That's $200 less than what you'd pay on Amazon or the LG website.)Lightweight laptops are excellent for on-the-go productivity, but as our friends at PCMag have mentioned, it's common for manufacturers to sacrifice display size for portability. 
Not with the LG gram 17Z990. Its sleek frame and display are ample at 15 and 17 inches wide, respectively, but it weighs a mere 2.95 pounds, making it the lightes

It may be last minute, but it still isn’t too late to pick up a gift for your dad to help celebrate Father’s Day this weekend. (And check out our last-minute gift guide for more options.)
Sure you could get him a new mug or t-shirt that says “#1 Dad” (though we recommend going a more thoughtful or unique route), but if your dad happens to be a lover of all things tech like us, you should definitely check out some weekend deals on laptops and tablets that we found.
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TL;DR: Build your own gadgets with this Arduino e-books bundle that's on sale — you can name your own price. Want to indulge your inner builder? Arduino, the open-source electronic prototyping platform, is a pretty cool way to do so. It's basically a way to create and program robots and IoT devices that can interact with the world around us. If you have a curious mind and a modest budget, this cheap Arduino e-book bundle can help you start building your own gadgets from the comfort of

TL;DR: The ionbox Negative Ion Generator is on sale for $59.99, a savings of $15.When talking about air pollution, smoke belched by cars and trucks, fumes from factories, wildfires, and emissions from air conditioning are probably the first things that come to your mind. But did you know that indoor air is also something you should worry about?
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, indoor air can be two to five times as polluted as the air you breathe when you're out and about.&

Every body is a swimsuit body. Full stop.
Working out should make you feel strong and capable — don't believe any of that bullshit about "swimsuit season."
That said, if you're looking to start a workout routine now that the weather is nicer, or have been trying to lose weight, then go for it. Summer can be the busiest time of the year, though and hitting the gym every day isn't always feasible. Plus, a gym membership can quickly eat up your vacation spending money — and then what's

TL;DR: Pick up a compact Echo Dot smart speaker for just £34.99 from Amazon, saving £15 on list price.The weekend is great for many reasons. It's a time to relax, unwind, and basically do everything you wish you could have done in the working week, including shopping.
We have tracked down two of the very best deals for the weekend, on some of Amazon's most popular smart devices. You can save on both the Echo and the Echo Dot, which sounds like a pretty good way to spend the weekend.&

Welcome to TNW Basics, a collection of tips, guides, and advice on how to easily get the most out of your gadgets, apps, and other stuff. We’re all used to typing emoji on our smartphones and tablets, but not so much on our PCs. I certainly don’t know of any desktop or laptop keyboards with an emoji button. But shouldn’t we be able to be as expressive on our primary computers? It used to be that you had to access emoji via a virtual keyboard, download a third party app, o

Welcome to TNW Basics, a collection of tips, guides, and advice on how to easily get the most out of your gadgets, apps, and other stuff. So you, like most everyone out there, love posting on Instagram. Selfies, food shots, travel photos… you do it all, and your followers love you for it. Or maybe you’re a lesser-known ‘grammer and want to create a little something to commemorate how you’ve done this year or see what your friends enjoyed most. Nine-square grid coll

Tesla owners, prepare to be entertained. 
Elon Musk made an appearance at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, known as E3, in Los Angeles Thursday and said in a conversation with game designer Todd Howard and video game journalist Geoff Keighley that entertainment options are expanding in Tesla vehicles.
"What can we do to make the car the most fun possible?” Musk mused on stage.First up is the game Cuphead, which Tesla announced earlier this month as an addition to the gaming options

Ever since Amazon introduced its “Amazon’s Choice” label in 2015 to recommend certain products, a skeptical world has been trying to find out what the badge actually means — because some items that are “Amazon’s Choice” really shouldn’t be.
Even if a product has the badge and seems to have a high star score, you still might wind up with a stinker that you’d have been warned against if you’d just done your homework, BuzzFeed reports tod

Hundreds of active and retired police officers and law enforcement personnel are congregating in private Facebook groups where they engage in open racism, Islamophobia, and even lend support to violent, anti-government groups, according to an investigation from nonprofit news organization Reveal, which is run by the US Center for Investigative Reporting.After Reveal notified law enforcement agencies, more than 50 departments have reportedly opened internal investigations. In some cases, departm

Welcome to TNW Basics, a collection of tips, guides, and advice on how to easily get the most out of your gadgets, apps, and other stuff. One of the most important skills any discerning media consumer can have is the ability to comprehend a scientific research paper. Reading a paper won’t imbue you with the ability to understand all the science behind it, but it could help you debunk BS when you see it on the news or social media. There are numerous types of research papers, but we&r