My phone is massive. If this were 2014, it would go mostly unnoticed. But today, people treat me like I’m a freak. The phone I’m talking about is the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro. It proudly carries the name “phablet” — a term most of us haven’t used for the better part of a decade. With a size of 179.8 x 88.6 x 10.7mm (that’s almost seven inches long) and a weight of 259g (over a half-pound) it certainly deserves that label....

Quarantine, isolation, social distancing — no matter what the occasion for you to be apart from your nearest and dearest, it’s never easy. But luckily in this day and age it’s easy to find solutions to keep up digitally. And while that’s no substitute for the real thing, sometimes a WhatsApp group might be what you need to keep in touch with your friends, family, and colleagues. So here’s how you can get started with your own Whatsapp group....

Satisfied customers can’t be wrong — especially when they number almost half a million. Thanks to reviews in Apple’s App Store and Google Play, Babbel Language Learning gets an impressive 4.5 out of 5.0 stars from more than 430,000 customers. Glowing reviews like that have made Babbel the top-grossing language app in the world — and you can join those happy ranks right now with a lifetime subscription to Babbel Language Learning at 50 percent off its regular price, slashed to $149 from TNW Deals....

If you’re actively trying to market a brand in 2021, it’s increasingly difficult to launch an effective awareness strategy that doesn’t involve Facebook as a central plank. Considering the numbers, it isn’t hard to understand why. As opposed to the finite reach of print, TV, and radio advertising, brands can reach approximately 2.14 billion users with a Facebook ad. Meanwhile, the average Facebook user clicks on 11 ads each month — even as the average cost per Facebook ad actually went down last year....

Packed to the gills with top-end components for serious performance, the Legion 7i doesn’t immediately give away the fact that it’s built to obliterate baddies with. Its design allows for commendable cooling, narrow bezels around the screen, a comfortable keyboard, and a webcam above the display where it should be — making for a laptop that I’m happy to use for work and play. I’ll break down this baby at length, but let me start with the specs of the model I tested....

Tour was announced last year, and according to Bloomberg, insiders claimed Nintendo was betting a lot on the app’s success. I prophesied that it might be Nintendo’s biggest smartphone hit thus far. In terms of numbers, it seems my prediction isn’t that far off. The app was released on September 25. According to mobile data firm Sensor Tower, it has the highest number of day-one downloads out of any of Nintendo’s six mobile games, with none of the others even coming close....

“Our approach to privacy starts with the belief that privacy is a fundamental human right and includes our commitment to provide robust protection for every individual,” Microsoft’s chief privacy officer Julie Brill said. Called the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), the law emulates the EU GDPR framework to protect the privacy of California’s citizens. It compels companies to be more transparent in the way they collect and use their customers’ data, and gives users more control over their personal information, particularly when being sold....

According to the Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection team, a new malware dubbed Dexphot has been infecting computers since last year, but since June 2019 has been burning out thanks to machine learning. Dexphot used a number of techniques such as encryption, obfuscation layers, and randomized files names, to disguise itself and hijack legitimate systems. If successful, the malware would run a cryptocurrency miner on the device. What’s more, a re-infection would be triggered if system admins detected it and attempt to uninstall it....

According to The Guardian, Microsoft software used to replace the human journalists running news site MSN.com confused two mixed-race members of British pop group Little Mix. In an MSN.com article headlined “Little Mix star Jade Thirlwall says she faced horrific racism at school”, the software mistakenly picked a photo of Thirwall’s fellow band member Leigh-Anne Pinnock. MSN.com has since replaced the incorrect image. The outlet’s remaining human staff have been warned that the software could automatically publish the Guardian’s article again, and told to remove the story when it does....

Moog announced the $1,999 Matriarch, the top-end model of its semi-modular synth lineup, a few months ago. It’s finally begun shipping to customers, already arriving at the doorsteps of some of the folks who’ve pre-ordered. Moog says production is “in full swing.” You can watch the Matriarch in action in the video below, featuring composer Lisa Bella Donna: Moog says the circuitry on the Matriarch is based on Robert Moog’s original designs....

Over the last few days, several reports have emerged concerning Netflix’s gaming ambitions, including ones from The Information, Reuters, and Axios. Those are all reliable sources, so it’s pretty clear gaming is in the cards for Netflix’s future. Here’s the summary of the reports: Netflix is actively searching for an executive to lead the move into gaming. The service might look a bit like Apple Arcade, offering a collection of games for a fixed fee, although according to Axios, Netflix seems to be aiming for a smaller set of more curated content....

There’s a good chance you remember your PIN number from memory. And if you log into certain accounts every day for work or at home, there’s a fair chance you can remember that as well. But what happens when you start changing passwords every three months? Or what about that website login that you don’t return to for six months? Researchers say your brain is actually a few steps ahead of you — and if it’s not a vital password, there’s a very good chance your brain won’t put in the effort to make sure you remember....

In his resignation letter posted to Twitter, Milton signaled his intent to distance himself from his company, and promised to defend himself “against false allegations levied against me by outside detractors.” “I will be cheering from the sidelines with you. Your greatest fan,” Milton tweeted late Sunday night. — Trevor Milton (@nikolatrevor) September 21, 2020 Milton’s referencing a damning September 10 report released by short-selling crew Hindenburg Research that claimed Nikola was more of an “intricate fraud” than a leading US automaker....

“Given that Twitter is a publicly traded, $37 billion technology company, it was surprising how easily the [h]ackers were able to penetrate Twitter’s network and gain access to internal tools allowing them to take over any Twitter user’s account,” said the DFS in a report published Wednesday. The DFS urged policymakers to consider regulating social media giants for their cybersecurity on top of antitrust matters and content moderation processes. This would bring Twitter and Facebook in line with critical infrastructure such as utilities, telecoms, and finance....

We have secured assurances necessary to support our diverse creator community and have suspended the planned October 1 policy change. OnlyFans stands for inclusion and we will continue to provide a home for all creators. — OnlyFans (@OnlyFans) August 25, 2021 The move comes less than a week after the company revealed that it was pivoting away from porn. OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely had blamed banks for the move. He told the Financial Times that the banking sector had made it difficult for the company to pay creators....

Tweet of the week: I think what I’m trying to say is that I have sentry fatigue. Because both my fiancée and I have underlying conditions that place us in high risk groups for COVID-19 complications, we have to be hyper vigilant. It’s exhausting and it makes me want to start a mass-marketing campaign backed by Godsmack’s popular songs “Go Away” and “Keep Away.” We can print T-shirts that read: If you can read this then you’re close enough to give me COVID-19 you stupid jerk Alternatively, I may just start barking the “Oooh Ah Ah Ah” part from the intro to Disturbed’s “Down With the Sickness” at anyone who comes within one meter of me....

But there’s another chemical that could be used — and it’s abundant in your pee. What is ammonia, and why use it to power vehicles? Ammonia is a combination of Hydrogen and Nitrogen (NH3), and is one of the few liquid chemical compounds. It rapidly releases energy in combustion and has a high energy density by volume. It also comes with substantial environmental advantages. No carbon (C) in NH3 means that when burnt, ammonia cannot release carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, or other greenhouse pollutants....

The Stevens team, led by associate professor of physics and director of the Center for Quantum Science and Engineering Yuping Huang, developed a method for forcing photons to interact by etching a quantum-sized micro-cavity in the shape of a racetrack into a lithium niobate crystal compound. They then fired a precision laser into the compound which interacted with the individual photons in a manner that allowed the researchers to tune it for incredibly specific results....

It’s been less than a month since Activision unveiled the latest instalment of the Call of Duty franchise, Black Ops Cold War, and the company is already giving us a taste of what’s about to come. During yesterday’s PlayStation 5 event, Raven Software confirmed the game is kicking off its multiplayer alpha this Friday, September 18 and will be available through the weekend. The alpha will be available exclusively to PlayStation 4 owners, though....

Unfortunately for Microsoft, though, it hasn’t been much of a contest (save for perhaps the clash between Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3) and it seems the latest head-to-head isn’t much different — or so suggests data SimilarWeb shared with TNW. While visits to playstation.com and xbox.com were relatively neck and neck in the lead-up to each brand’s pre-order launch dates, traffic to PlayStation’s site peaked at a little over 892,000 on September 16 when Sony kicked off pre-orders for its next-gen console....