Tag Archives: gear

Meet Taylor Swift’s Pro-Russia Doppelgänger

Does your favorite movie star or pop singer really love the Kremlin? Though the ads in your Facebook feed may lead you to believe such a thing, it’s just not true. In recent months, a major disinformation campaign has run rampant on Meta and X (aka Facebook and Twitter). The …

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Why Even a Partial Digital Detox Is a Good Idea This Christmas

This Christmas I will leave the frigid state of Iowa to spend the holidays with my daughter, Kristil, in Paris. Despite my excitement at reuniting with her after a year apart, I'm also grappling with the unintended strain digital tools have put on our relationship during past visits. Before the …

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How to Use Double Tap on WatchOS

A smartwatch is designed to make your life easier and get you off your phone. Every time you have to dig your phone out of your pocket to read a notification, a digital fairy dies. However, a smartwatch is also less useful if you have to drop whatever you’re doing …

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Panasonic’s New Powder-Powered Batteries Will Supercharge EVs

Sila, a Californian company cofounded in 2011 by Tesla’s seventh staffer, is going to supply Panasonic with a US-made silicon powder for EV batteries that could banish range anxiety, slash charge times, and even reduce reliance on China. Panasonic’s main US customer is Tesla, and produces around 10 percent of …

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Sony’s New Access Controller Reveals a Big Problem in Adaptive Gaming

For the past five years, engineers at Sony have been developing the PlayStation 5’s answer to the Xbox Adaptive Controller, finally completing a triumvirate of accessibility-focused controllers for all three current-gen consoles, including the Nintendo-licensed Hori Flex. The palm-sized, turtle-shaped Access controller arrives three years into the lifecycle of the …

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Green Chat Bubbles Aren’t the Problem—Texting Is

When an Android user sends a text message to an iPhone user, their chat bubble shows up in iOS shaded green rather than iMessage's default blue. This color coding signals to the iPhone user that the incoming text is arriving from outside the Apple ecosystem. But the divide goes beyond …

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