The Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC), a non-profit community of open-source advocates, today announced its withdrawal from GitHub in a scathing blog post urging members and supporters to rebuke the platform once-and-for-all. Up front: The SFC’s problem with GitHub stems from accusations that Microsoft and OpenAI […]
Month: July 2022
These activists are taking SUVs off the road, one flat tire at the time
How far would you go to save the planet? Well, there’s a movement of activists aiming to make it impossible to own a huge, polluting 4×4 SUV in the world’s urban areas. So, they are taking out SUVs and their owners, flattening one tire at […]
Robotaxis block San Francisco street for no reason, surprising no one
Picture this. You’re in San Francisco. It’s late at night, and you’re driving back home. You’re dreaming of your warm bed. But, you arrive at the intersection of Gough and Fulton Streets — and shock! Horror! You’re forced to stop. The road, it seems, is […]
SpaceX’s Starlink is coming to planes, trains, and automobiles
This week saw a big win for SpaceX, with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granting the company authorization to use its Starlink satellite internet system on vehicles in motion — including cars, trucks, boats, and aircraft. Starlink is SpaceX’s network of Earth-orbiting satellites, providing […]
Happy 15th birthday, iPhone! Here’s a brief history — and some predictions for its future
It is 15 years since Apple released what’s arguably its flagship device: the iPhone. A decade and a half later, there are few products that have managed to reach a similar level of brand recognition. Announced to an eager audience in 2007, the iPhone has […]
Instagram’s plan to make all its video Reels is a transparent TikTok ripoff
It’s no secret that Instagram is losing the social media war to TikTok. If Meta’s app is ever going to reverse this trend, it needs to come up with new and interesting features. Or so you’d think. Instead it appears that Instagram is going to […]
How quantum batteries could lead to EVs that go a million miles between charges
The automotive industry has a ‘million-mile’ dream for electric vehicles, but it’s a boring one. They want to build a battery capable of being recharged over and over as many times as it takes to reach a million miles without losing its ability to retain […]
Ukrainian whose startup de-aged Luke Skywalker on stopping deepfake disinformation
AI has become adept at recreating, altering, and restoring human speech. But as the replicas become indistinguishable from the real, fears about the tech are growing. Alex Serdiuk has a unique understanding of both the opportunities and threats. As the co-founder and CEO of AI […]
Firefox continues its fight for privacy by automatically stripping URL trackers
Mozilla has rolled out Firefox version 102, which takes an extra step in preventing websites from tracking your movements on the web. The new version automatically strips query parameters in a URL string. These are the series of letters, numbers, and symbols following the question […]
The future of micromobility is your ebike coming to you, autonomously
Ever wondered what would happen if bicycles could think for themselves? Well, this week, MIT researchers released a paper exploring the potential impacts of an autonomous bike fleet on city mobility. The MIT Autonomous Bicycle — a multi-year project — explores on-demand bike sharing. The […]