Today we're going to have a chat about the various different places where charging your smartphone can cause a fire. Spoiler alert: fires can happen almost anywhere there's oxygen, and the vast majority of the time there's a fire involving a smartphone, it's due to shoddy equipment. Not only can your phone start on fire, your bed, your pillow, and your head can start on fire, too.
It’s a sad and unavoidable fact of life that innocent as well as not so innocent toddlers love putting things into their mouths. Most of the time it's food but other times it involves things they may perceive as delicious delights. It is a parent’s worst nightmare or at least one of them, and yet toy companies keep on producing potentially dangerous pieces of plastic. That is why a group of pediatricians has taken it upon themselves to go through the weirdest test ever to find out how long it will take for a kid to poop out a LEGO head in case the little one manages to swallow one.
NASA has initiated a safety probe into both SpaceX and Boeing reportedly due to a video of Elon Musk smoking weed, according to a new report. Musk partook of the substance on video during an appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, during which time he was filmed in September smoking cannabis and drinking whiskey. The video reportedly upset some people at NASA's "highest levels."
Mobile apps come and go but when popular ones like Tumblr suddenly disappear without a trace much less a warning, people naturally start asking questions. And when that has been the case for days, not just hours, people start worrying. While the folks over at Tumblr have regularly updated users with “we’re working on it” messages, it has now come out with an explanation on what really happened. And, unsurprisingly, it’s all about the social network being used as a channel for peddling illegal content.
Substance abuse, particularly of opioid, has been around for centuries and has never truly disappeared. It’s a never-ending battle to protect lives, families, and friends, using whatever means available at the time. For our generation, those means include the Internet, one of the most powerful tools in the world today. Fortunately, those who wield and shape that tool, like Facebook and Google, are teaming up to help fight this ongoing epidemic in the best way they can.
Google has launched a new workshop kit designed to help parents teach their kids about online safety. Called "Be Internet Awesome," the kit is offered in English and Spanish with all the tools necessary to get started, including a Google Pixelbook laptop. As well, Google says it has formed a $1 million Classroom Rewards program with DonorsChoose.org.
Instagram has revealed new tools that target bullying and other hurtful content, the aim being to reduce negative interactions on the site and improve the experience for everyone. As well, the company has introduced a new camera effect that it says will help "spread kindness" among users, at least when they're using the Stories feature.
It may have thought that its past is well behind it but it may never be free of the ghost of the ill-fated Galaxy Note 7. Lawsuits, settlements, and media coverage have made any Galaxy Note flagship, or any Samsung flagship for that matter, a prime target for claims of negligence or even outright wrongdoing. That seems to be the case yet again with the first report of a Galaxy Note 9 catching fire in New York, which could set of a chain of reports and claims, each of which can be true or not.
Toyota is recalling approximately 1 million hybrid cars around the world due to fire risk, 192,000 of which are located in the United States. The Prius vehicles recalled in the US include the 2016, 2017, and 2018 model years; impacted owners will be able to visit their local dealership for a free inspection and, if necessary, repair.
The thought of forgetting a child in a hot car should terrify any parent. Nissan's latest update to a range of new vehicles addresses just that, with Rear Door Alert. Nissan's Rear Door Alert (RDA) is the first in the industry that "uses the horn, in addition to door sensors and a message display on the center instrument panel, to remind drivers to check the back seat after the vehicle is parked." That's not a combination of alerts you grow used to and disregard.
Microsoft started in earnest to carve out its own app store platform back in Windows 8 and it was a disaster. Barely anyone paid attention to it, which also left its Windows RT variant devoid of actually useful apps. It tried again with Windows 10 and its Universal Windows Platform (UWP) and had more success. But now it might have a new problem it needs to deal with and fast. With the influx of new apps on its Microsoft Store, the company now has to face the reality that there are some who are ready to game the system to trick users, even to the point of getting them to pay for something.
Facebook has received a lot of flak recently for its mishandling of the Cambridge Analytica data leak. While that particular case has seemingly died down a bit, the social networking giant is far from being out of the fire. A new documentary from Channel 4 Dispatches puts Facebook back into the frying pan, revealing just how much its promises to protect its users from harmful content might mean squat, especially when such responsibilities are outsourced and offloaded onto third parties that might not exactly share Facebook’s concerns.