Technology

Notifications that pop up on the corner of your Mac’s screen can be really helpful, like when they remind you about a meeting you have coming up. But when you’ve got a deadline or are in the middle of something, notifications for every message or email can be distracting or even annoying. The good news is that you can easily adjust your settings so that you’re only getting notifications from the apps you want when you want them — and none from those you don’t want. You can also pause notifications whenever you want. Here’s how. To temporarily pause notifications Click the icon in the far right corner of the menu bar (the one that looks like a bulleted list) to access the Notification Center Scroll up, and toggle on “Do Not Disturb” at the top of the sidebar. This will pause notifications u...

The co-creators of indie hit Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP are back after nearly a decade with a new game, called Jett: The Far Shore, coming to Sony’s PlayStation 5 this holiday season. Little is known about the title save for an atmospheric teaser trailer showing a spaceship of some sort traveling in space and then through an almost isometric-looking overworld design on an alien planet. It will feature music by artist SCNTFC and is being co-created with a company called Pine Scented. Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, developed in partnership with indie developer Capybara Games, was an early and wildly successful mobile hit, arriving first on the iOS platform exclusively for iPad in 2011. It later came to the iPhone and then to other platforms, like Steam and traditional co...

Google is adding its Voice Match and default speaker selection features to all Google Assistant-compatible devices, the company announced Thursday. Google product manager Praveen Chandran wrote in a blog post that the additions are part of the company’s efforts “to support an open ecosystem and bring Google Assistant features to everyone globally.” Voice Match allows the Assistant to tell which member of a household is speaking, to personalize responses, and the default speaker selection allows users to choose a preferred option among several devices. In addition, Google will expand its hot word sensitivity setting to make a device more or less sensitive to the activation phrase “Hey Google.” Google said in the blog post that it will be rolling out the features to all Assistant-enabled dev...

Space robotics company Astrobotic will carry a water-hunting rover to the Moon in late 2023, NASA announced today. Which rocket will launch the commercial mission is still being decided, but the golf-cart sized rover will head down to the Moon’s surface using an Astrobotic lunar lander. NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, will hunt for water ice at the lunar south pole and try to figure out how much water is lurking in permanently shadowed craters in the region. NASA wants to map out where water is, in the hopes that it could extract water for future missions. Astrobotic was chosen from a pool of other commercial providers as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. CLPS is designed to help NASA send payloads to the Moon in support of t...

The US Environmental Protection Agency has ordered Amazon and eBay to stop selling pesticides that falsely claim to kill the novel coronavirus. The order applies to some products the EPA has already declared illegal, like a supposed disinfectant called “Virus Shut Out,” as well as chemicals like methylene chloride, which is hazardous and partially banned in the US. In addition to coronavirus claims, the order applies to inflated safety claims and other false advertising. The orders are based on consumer tips dating back to 2018, and they follow an earlier EPA settlement with Amazon, which was found to be distributing illegal pesticides. Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and other retailers met with the EPA in April to discuss fraudulent and restricted disinfectant sales, but an agency press release c...

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to limit face-to-face association, most of us are relying on video calls to keep in touch with work colleagues, family, and friends — and if you’re also facing financial difficulties, free is best. Zoom continues to top the list of videoconferencing apps, but there are a bunch of applications out there that will allow you to meet others online for free. We’ve listed a few of the best known videoconferencing apps, along with a couple of popular text chat apps that include video calling features. While most of these already have free versions, some are offering access to additional features for those who are currently working from home or who want to check up on friends and relatives online. There are a number of apps we have not included, such as Facebook,...

Apple’s virtual Worldwide Developers Conference keynote will take place on Monday, June 22nd at 1PM ET, the company announced today. Apple has also shared more details about the schedule for the conference, which will run from June 22nd to June 26th. Apple, unsurprisingly, didn’t share much about what it is actually going to show in the keynote. “Discover exciting new innovations and updates coming to all Apple platforms later this year,” the description for the keynote reads. But leaks and rumors have already revealed some new features that could be coming to iOS 14 and that Apple may announce a move to ARM-based processors. You’ll be able to watch the keynote on apple.com, the Apple Developer app, the Apple Developer website, the Apple TV app, and YouTube, according to Apple. The Platfor...

One of the big rules on Facebook is that you have to use your real name. This policy has created some controversy over the years, since it makes life harder for some activists, and crime victims, and (most famously) drag queens. But Facebook has always said that the service works so well because you can trust that the person you’re talking to is actually your friend or family member, and not someone who is faking their identity to influence you toward some malign purpose. If you break that rule, you are engaging in what the company calls “inauthentic behavior,” which it defines as “the use of Facebook or Instagram assets (accounts, pages, groups, or events), to mislead people or Facebook: about the identity, purpose, or origin of the entity that they represent about the popularity of Faceb...

The official beta for the next version of Android is out now, and if you have a spare Pixel phone, I really do recommend you check it out. If you don’t, my recommendation is not to install it — betas are never a great idea on something you truly depend on, and your main phone is likely near the top of that list. I’ve been using a build close to what Google released today for a week and I haven’t had any catastrophic crashes, but there have been some bugs. I wrote up a lot of observations and made a video detailing the new features yesterday, but something I struggled to get across then and I think I’m going to struggle to get across now is how much better the texting experience really is. I say that even though essentially no apps fully support Google’s new pop-out “bubble” feature yet. It...

Our faces have never been more vulnerable. Facial recognition algorithms make it easy to identify individuals from a single snap — a fact that’s particularly relevant at a time of protest. But with the help of advances in machine learning, it’s also easier than ever to anonymize photos and videos, removing information that would otherwise identify people. The latest example of this is a new camera app called Anonymous Camera, that launches on the iOS App Store today. It’s the work of London AI startup Playground, whose founders built the app with the help of investigative journalists who wanted an easy way to record anonymous footage. Although it’s no silver bullet for privacy, Anonymous Camera offers the most comprehensive and easy-to-use features we’ve seen in an app of its kind. Anonymo...

Grado is no stranger to building headphones out of weird and wonderful materials. Alongside its regular excellent-sounding pairs, it’s made limited editions out of whiskey barrels (with design help from Elijah Wood no less), wood from a yoghurt mill, and even the pistons of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Now, it’s turning its attention to hemp, using it to produce a pair of Hemp Headphone Limited Edition cans costing, wait for it, $420. Puns are like farts: funny to make, potentially tragic to receive. “To be blunt,” Grado says, the headphones were a “joint effort.” “Fine rolled,” they’re a “slow burn” that you appreciate more as you listen. To anyone who came across my own pun-laden take on a recent Animal Crossing update — I am sorry. “A slow burn,” according to Grado.Image: Grado Anyway,...

Apple has removed Pocket Casts, the popular iOS and Android podcast client, from the App Store in China. The Cyberspace Administration of China has determined that it can be used to access content deemed illegal in the country, and has demanded that Apple remove the app as a result. It’s the second major podcast app to be removed from China’s App Store this month. “We believe podcasting is and should remain an open medium, free of government censorship,” Pocket Casts says in a statement posted to Twitter. “As such we won’t be censoring podcast content at their request. We understand this means that it’s unlikely that our iOS App will be available in China, but feel it’s a necessary step to take for any company that values the open distribution model that makes podcasting special.” Apple di...