Thursday, June 9, 2016
Get a Dell 17.3-inch desktop replacement for $299.99 - CNET
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
Get notified when the Amazon Echo goes on sale - CNET
Thursday, June 2, 2016
Instacart partners with the Food Network for recipe-ready deliveries
Instacart is teaming up with the Food Network to make it easier to order ingredients for specific recipes. The company says it's integrating with the TV channel's web tools, including Recipe Box and Grocery List, so you can better plan meals, with an Instacart shopper doing the work of mining the store aisles for every item.
The partnership should help Instacart better compete with recipe- and meal-delivery companies like Blue Apron and Hello Fresh. Those services package up all the necessary ingredients for a meal and ship them to customers, typically twice a week for around $10 a meal per person. The goal is to stop you from wasting food (and eating unhealthily) while alleviating the hassle of grocery shopping. Instacart already does...
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Satanic figures are hidden in Doom's soundtrack
Until now, no secret could challenge the Doom reboot's best and most beloved easter egg: the toy soldier fist bump. But it turns out there's an even juicier hidden item that goes well beyond the game itself. Reddit user Tomcb ran Doom's soundtrack through software to see its spectrogram, which is a visual representation of an audio file's spectrum of frequencies.
The result, if you take a look at the song appropriately titled "Cyberdemon," is an easy-to-see combination of "666" and an inverted pentagram spelled out in the graph. That's a clear sign that video games are using subliminal messaging to turn young children into satanists. Or it's just a really cool wink and a nod from creator Id Software, which faced those very accusations...
Friday, April 15, 2016
Verizon reportedly plans FiOS overhaul with new internet-based set-top box
Verizon is planning on releasing a new set-top box model later this year that could substantially change how it delivers cable and internet services to FiOS customers, according to a report from Variety today. The new device, codenamed "Mallard," is said to incorporate technology from OnCue, an Intel internet TV service sold off to Verizon in 2014. The phrase "video set-top box" and OnCue are both also mentioned in a series of FCC filings reported first by Light Reading earlier this week.
Verizon may drop the Fios brand
The box would deliver content from streaming services and online video from Verizon's AOL subsidiary with an all new interface distinct from the current FiOS one. (Verizon may even go so far as to drop the FiOS branding...
Thursday, April 14, 2016
Three-deal Thursday: GoPro, Lenovo and, um, mo' - CNET
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Get writing software Scrivener for $18 - CNET
Thursday, March 24, 2016
Twitter taught Microsoft’s AI chatbot to be a racist asshole in less than a day
It took less than 24 hours for Twitter to corrupt an innocent AI chatbot. Yesterday, Microsoft unveiled Tay — a Twitter bot that the company described as an experiment in "conversational understanding." The more you chat with Tay, said Microsoft, the smarter it gets, learning to engage people through "casual and playful conversation."
Unfortunately, the conversations didn't stay playful for long. Pretty soon after Tay launched, people starting tweeting the bot with all sorts of misogynistic, racist, and Donald Trumpist remarks. And Tay — being essentially a robot parrot with an internet connection — started repeating these sentiments back to users, proving correct that old programming adage: flaming garbage pile in, flaming garbage pile...
UK man arrested for posting anti-Muslim tweets after Brussels attacks
A man in the UK has been arrested on charges of inciting racial hatred on social media, after he tweeted about asking a Muslim woman to "explain" the terror attacks in Brussels. As The Guardian reports, London's Metropolitan Police on Wednesday arrested a 46-year-old man believed to be Matthew Doyle, a partner at a London PR agency.
Earlier Wednesday, Doyle tweeted: "I confronted a Muslim women [sic] yesterday in Croydon. I asked her to explain Brussels. She said "Nothing to do with me" a mealy mouthed reply." His comment was posted after bombings at the Brussels airport and at a metro station killed at least 31 people and wounded 300 others. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Imgur updates mobile apps to support iPad, 3D Touch, and Material Design
Imgur, the image sharing and hosting service, is shifting its focus from its desktop website to its suite of mobile apps, where the company is now seeing a majority of interactions. The transition began last year with the launch of its first iOS and Android apps, and continues today with the launch of Imgur's first dedicated iPad app. The company has also overhauled its existing mobile apps, adding 3D Touch support for iPhones and bringing Material Design to the Android version.
The site that began as a quick and easy way to upload an image and share it has already grown larger than Reddit, the social network it was designed to assist back in 2009. Now CEO and founder Alan Schaaf says it's trying to capitalize on the way people find the...