An anonymous reader quotes a report from Fast Company: In spring 2018, Facebook announced that it was launching its own version of Tinder — but designed for people who are interested in meaningful relationships. Now, after rolling out in 19 countries including Colombia, Thailand, and Canada, Facebook’s dating service is available in the United States. Instead of the rapid-fire swiping found…
Tag: vice president
Should We Be Allowed To Kick Robots?
“Seen in the wild, robots often appear cute and nonthreatening. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be hostile,” argues a new article in Wired, reporting on what appears to be a pre-meditated kicking of a Knightscope K5 patrol robot in a parking lot in California: K5’s siblings, it turns out, don’t fare much better. In 2017 a drunk man attacked a K5…
Inside Plex’s Quest To Become a One-Stop Shop for Digital Media
Get ready for yet another ad-supported video service: Media center app maker Plex is gearing up to add free movies and TV shows to its app, starting with content from Warner Bros. From a report: Plex announced a deal with Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution Thursday, which will allow it to add a still-unspecified amount of the studio’s movie catalog to…
Verizon’s Anti-Robocall Service Will be Automatically Enabled on Android Phones
Verizon on Tuesday said it’ll begin automatically enrolling eligible Android phones in its free Call Filter service. The company said it’s making the move after the Federal Communications Commission in June voted to give wireless carriers greater power to “aggressively block” unwanted robocalls. From a report: “We know our customers are sick and tired of the endless onslaught of robocalls,” Ronan…
Whoa. It’s been 30 years since our 1st and last visit to Neptune
On today’s date – August 25, 1989 – Voyager 2 passed only 4,950 kilometers (3,000 miles) above Neptune’s north pole. It was its closest approach to any planet in its Grand Tour of the outer solar system. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/voyager-2-neptune-flyby-august-25-1989…
The Facebook Users Who Can’t Get Their Accounts Back
“While many users are abandoning Facebook, fed up with what seems like a never-ending series of privacy violations, a small cohort find themselves in the opposite position,” reports New York Times enterprise reporter Kashmir Hill. [Alternate source here.] “They’ve been kicked off the platform, and no matter how hard they try — and they try really, really hard — they can’t…
New US Space Command Will Launch Next Week, VP Pence Says
The United States Space Command will officially be up and running by the end of the month, Vice President Mike Pence said today (Aug. 20) at a meeting of the National Space Council. Source: https://www.livescience.com/space-command-launches-august-2019.html
Three Years Later, France’s Solar Road is a Flop
DigressivePoser and schwit1 both submitted the same story. That 1-km ( .62-mile) “solar road” paved with photovoltaic panels in France is “too noisy, falling apart, and doesn’t even collect enough solar energy,” reports Popular Mechanics: Le Monde describes the road as “pale with its ragged joints,” with “solar panels that peel off the road and the many splinters [from] that enamel…
Domino’s Launches E-Bike Delivery To Compete With UberEats, DoorDash
Domino’s is planning to become more competitive with on-demand apps like DoorDash, GrubHub and UberEats by delivering pizzas with custom electric bikes. According to TechCrunch, the pizza company has partnered with Rad Power Bikes to deploy hundreds of e-bikes across corporate-owned stores later this year in Baltimore, Houston, Miami and Salt Lake City. From the report: The e-bikes supplied by Rad…