Technology news

Photo by Andre Borges/NurPhoto via Getty Images Facebook has blocked the accounts of a dozen allies of President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, BBC News reported. Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered the 12 accounts blocked back in May, as they are under investigation for allegedly spreading false news about judges in the country. A Supreme Court judge said Friday that Facebook had not fully complied with that earlier order.A Facebook spokesperson said in a statement to The Verge that the company ha

These are hard days for the humans of planet Earth, especially those of us who despise inequity and fascism. Wouldn't it be nice, then, if you could flap your brilliantly colored wings and take off into the stars?
The below image, captured by the European Southern Observatory's "Very Large Telescope" (great name) in northern Chile, gives us a look at the vibrant planetary nebula known as NGC 2899. Yeah, I know, it's not a real butterfly. But imagine if. Then go further, and pretend the butterfly

Sheesh, can't a billionaire CEO tweet out a racially insensitive conspiracy theory in peace?
We are of course talking about Elon Musk, who loves to post wild shit in a way that makes it unclear as to whether he's joking or not. Experts on ancient Egypt weren't so tickled by his latest proclamation. 
On Thursday, Musk tweeted, out of the blue: "Aliens built the pyramids obv." The claim that aliens built the pyramids is a conspiracy theory that spreads on YouTube and Reddit.Aliens built the p

President Donald Trump casually dropped Friday that he would “ban” TikTok. That added heft to earlier statements made by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the administration was considering a ban.
But how would a ban on an app that’s already been downloaded by 165 million Americans, and that anyone can currently download from Apple and Google app stores, actually work? 
Trump provided few details, and any executive actions he might sign would be subject to legal challeng

After SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday and before NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley were out of the capsule, dozens of boats circled the area, creating chaos as recovery crews tried to get to the spacecraft.Quite the crowd in the vicinity of Crew Dragon as the main recovery ship approaches. #Demo2 pic.twitter.com/D0MwhT3GCn— Jeff Foust (@jeff_foust) August 2, 2020The spacecraft completed a two-month mission to the International Spac

By now you've almost certainly heard of deepfakes — perhaps all the sinister things they can do — but honestly... they can also be kind of fun. 
In a rudimentary sense, deepfakes can be a face-swap of sorts, but really it's more complex. It makes something that wasn't — swapping in a person for another, changing what they say, shapeshifting reality. That's why it can be scary. Imagine the damage that could be done making someone say something they did not. 
But again.

NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley safely returned to Earth inside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule this afternoon, bringing their historic two-month mission at the International Space Station to an end. The spacecraft carrying the two astronauts splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Florida at 2:48PM ET, where recovery boats were waiting nearby to receive the crew.
With this landing, the Crew Dragon has now successfully completed its first-ever passenger fli

Five months into self-isolating alone in a one bedroom apartment, I’ve accepted that my expectations of how all this was going to go were unrealistic. I don’t mean that in reference to the physical reality of the COVID-19 pandemic or even the whiplash unpredictability of the time loop that is 2020 — I mean my expectations for me, personally. I have not baked a single loaf of bread, planted no herbs, and completed exactly zero virtual yoga classes. 
The reality of my isolat

Don't call it a "murder hornet."
The stinging. honeybee-hunting insect that first made the news in May is back in headlines once again. Months after it was first sighted in the U.S., the Washington State Department of Agriculture actually managed to catch one in a trap.
A WSDA press release confirms that an Asian giant hornet was recovered on July 14 from a trap set near Birch Bay, just south of the Canadian border. It wasn't formally identified until July 29, at which point it became the first

Murder hornet. Dead.| Washington State Department of Agriculture Hello it is I, your intrepid murder hornet correspondent. What’s a murder hornet, you ask? I wish I did not know. But as I wrote back in May, the Asian giant hornet (its official name) can grow up to two inches long, rips the heads off of honeybees, and has a stinger that can jam right through standard beekeeping suits. Oh and they can fly up to 20 miles per hour and their stings can kill you. Nature is the best.Guess what,

Back at the end of May, SpaceX became the first private company to launch NASA astronauts into space. Now, astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are back home.
In a process that kicked off on Saturday, Aug. 1, Behnken and Hurley made preparations for their return trip aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule that carried them to the International Space Station on May 30. The capsule's Sunday afternoon splashdown marked the end of the company's first successful crewed mission.
You can watch NASA's

The League of Legends World Championship 2020 will be held in Shanghai | Riot Games Even though many esports tournaments this year have been postponed or canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, Riot Games announced that it will hold the League of Legends World Championship 2020 in Shanghai from September 25th to October 31st. The finals will be held in Pudong Soccer Stadium. The company says by hosting the event at one site rather than several different sites, they’ll be able to more cl

Like many, many others around the world, we've been working from home for close to six months here at Mashable due to the coronavirus pandemic. We miss our coworkers and our lunch spots, but we've managed to get by knowing we're fortunate to be able to work from home at all. 
Since we work on the internet, a big part of "getting by" has been learning the myriad ways tech can help and hinder us throughout the day. With that in mind, here are just a few of the basics that we and other remote

The world may be at something of a standstill thanks to COVID-19, but Samsung is still out here making flagship phones and, uh, other things. As such, we have another Galaxy Unpacked event to look forward to this week.
Samsung previously announced that its next Galaxy Unpacked would be online-only for obvious reasons. The event will stream on Samsung's website at 10 a.m. ET on Aug. 5. In a blog post, Samsung revealed it would announce five new devices at the event. Since the new Galaxy Z Flip 5G

TL;DR: Snag the 3-in-1 Gotek Wireless Charging Music Station on sale for $47, a 20% savings as of Aug 2. While our gadgets and gizmos are practically essential to living our everyday lives, the clumsy collection of cords and chargers that accompany them are not. In 2020, we are blessed with more streamlined ways to keep our devices — from iPhones to AirPods and lots in between — juiced-up.
Take the Gotek Wireless Charging Music Station, for example. This multi-use gadget blesses

TL;DR: As of Aug 2, you can get a lifetime subscription to clinical hypnotherapist sessions for the price of one session ($49.99) via this deal from Mark Bowden's Hypnotherapy.Many have been recommended hypnotherapy at one time or another. Maybe it was for your fear of public speaking or giving up sugar or quitting smoking, but likely you forgot all about it. Before you forget the idea once again, consider trying out a virtual session.
Clinical hypnotherapist Mark Bowden is offering lifetime acc

TL;DR: Charge each of your devices at the same time with the Naztech 20,000mAh 18W PD + QC3.0 Fabric Power Bank for $59.99, a 33% savings as of Aug 2.With many of us out of the office, our time that was once spent in meeting rooms is now spent staring at or chatting on our phones, tablets, and laptops. And as a result, our devices are always dead. Always.
To ensure your batteries stay alive for your weekly chats with your boss, you have a few options. You could set up a full-fledged power statio

TL;DR: Enjoy HD audio wherever you go with the Coby® Waterproof True Wireless Portable Speaker, on sale for $37.99 as of Aug 2. Portable speakers are great for everything from socially-distanced cookouts and camping trips to office meetings and solo dance parties. But finding the one that's right for your needs is a bit overwhelming. Just a quick Google search shows you there's an incalculable number of portable speakers on the market, at all price points, with all sorts of looks and fe

TL;DR: Learn to get more out of your social media accounts and make your content perform better on Instagram, Facebook, an dmore with The SEO and Social Media Ads Certification Bundle for $29.99, a 97% savings as of Aug 2. Sure, you may know how to update your Facebook page, but do you know to craft an SEO strategy, perform SEO split testing, and run profitable Instagram ads? Didn't think so.
The term "digital marketing" continues to grow more complex and analytical by the day, and if you w

Wilford Brimley, whose work as an actor and as a spokesperson for the American Diabetes Association made him a transgenerational favorite, is dead at 85.
Brimley died on Saturday morning, his manager Lynda Bensky confirmed to Mashable. He was in intensive care at the time, receiving dialysis treatments and dealing with unspecified medical problems. He is survived by his wife Beverly and his four children.
"Wilford Brimley was a man you could trust," Bensky said in a statement. "He said what he m

TL;DR: The Complete MySQL Bootcamp is on sale for £6.85 as of August 2, saving you 95% on list price.Only three things in life are certain: Death, taxes, and the enduring importance of good data management. 
You're on your own when it comes to the first two (sorry), but as far as the latter goes, you'll find it easy to systematise and manipulate databases when you learn MySQL through the affordable Complete MySQL Bootcamp.
SEE ALSO: Master digital marketing with this stacked set of cl

TL;DR: The Complete Front-End Web Development course is on sale for £11.43 as of August 2, saving you 92% on list price.Interactive buttons. Scannable layouts. Flashy graphics. Beautiful typography. Elements of a website — or any digital product for that matter — that make you go "ooh" and "aah" are all thanks to the front-end developer.
The geniuses responsible for the look and visual aesthetic of a site, front-end developers make sure that it's pretty enough that people spend

It's looking like curtains for Cortana, Microsoft's digital assistant. On mobile, at least.
In an announcement posted on July 31, the company said it would pull the Cortana mobile app from both iOS and Android devices in early 2021. While this is new for American users, Microsoft did a similar scrubbing of mobile Cortana in regions like Canada, Australia, and the U.K back in Jan. 2020.
As Mashable tech reporter Alex Perry explained back then, this means that, "your reminders and lists won't work

Image: Google With a rumored $349 price, OLED screen, Google’s great camera, and a good-enough processor, the upcoming Pixel 4A sounds like it’ll be a tough deal to beat for those who don’t need a premium phone. And it looks like the phone will finally be launching on August 3rd.Google has officially confirmed that a new Pixel phone is coming this Monday, and while there’s a slight possibility it could be a different phone, Google itself had also leaked a picture of a ph