November 2021 – Page 2 – doriscmattson

‘Loki’ and the Return of Appointment Television

The Monitor is a weekly column devoted to everything happening in the WIRED world of culture, from movies to memes, TV to Twitter. Earlier this week, an old joke surfaced on Twitter. In the countdown to the release of Disney+’s latest Marvel show, fans began tweeting that they were staying “up all night to get…

Baltimore May Soon Ban Facial Recognition for Everyone but Cops

After years of failed attempts to curb surveillance technologies, Baltimore is close to enacting one of the nation’s most stringent bans on facial recognition. But Baltimore’s proposed ban would be very different from laws in San Francisco or Portland, Oregon: It would last for only one year, police would be exempt, and certain private uses…

Prime Day 2021: The 83 Absolute Best Deals

Our final update: Prime Day has ended. If you’re sale hunting, we’ve collected the best Prime Day deals still available (as of June 23). As always, we hope we helped you sift through the sales madness and find great products. Check our Buying Guides for the latest recommendations. Amazon’s Prime Day has grown into one…

How Underground Fiber Optics Spy on Humans Moving Above

DAS could be a powerful tool to track people’s movement: Instead of sifting through cell phone location data, researchers could instead tap into fiber optic cables to track the passage of pedestrians and cars. But the technology can’t exactly identify a car or person. “You can say if it’s a car, or if it’s a…

40 Best 4th of July Sales (2021): Tech, Mattresses, Outdoors, and More

Happy Independence Day! We hope you’re able to celebrate this holiday weekend with your family and friends. Maybe stay indoors this year to take your mind off the heat wave working its way through the US. If you’re outside, we have lots of advice on how to stay cool. The good news is there’s money…

China’s Nationalistic ‘Wolf Warriors’ Blast Foes on Twitter

On Monday, Li Yang, China’s consul general in Rio de Janeiro, took to Twitter to mock the rescue efforts following the Surfside, Florida, building collapse. “American-style rescue: very layman in saving people, but too expert in blasting!!!” Li wrote, including side-by-side pictures of the partially collapsed condominium and its demolition with explosives. In other recent…

LG Dual Inverter Air Conditioner Review (LW1019IVSM): Quick and Quiet

It’s almost impossible to dislike LG’s Dual Inverter window air conditioner (or if you want to call it by its official name, the LW1019IVSM), especially with temperatures topping 95 degrees in New York City this summer. It cools down my bedroom incredibly fast, and it doesn’t get egregiously loud. It’s smart too. Before entering my…

Corning Debuts Gorilla Glass DX and DX+ for Better Phone Cameras

At some point in 2019, phone buyers started to just accept ugly camera modules. The remarkably good photos these cameras captured justified their bulbous three- or six-eyed designs. And in 2020, society’s much greater ills took precedence over outrage about stamp-sized camera bumps. Where consumers saw clunky camera modules, though, the glass maker Corning saw…

Toyota Whiffed on EVs. Now It’s Trying to Slow Their Rise

Executives at Toyota had a moment of inspiration when the company first developed the Prius. That moment, apparently, has long since passed. The Prius was the world’s first mass-produced hybrid car, years ahead of any competitors. The first model, a small sedan, was classic Toyota—a reliable vehicle tailor-made for commuting. After a major redesign in…

Facebook’s Reason for Banning Researchers Doesn’t Hold Up

When Facebook said Tuesday that it was suspending the accounts of a team of NYU researchers, it made it seem like the company’s hands were tied. The team had been crowdsourcing data on political ad targeting via a browser extension, something Facebook had repeatedly warned them was not allowed. “For months, we’ve attempted to work…