Facebook’s efforts to address a surge in social turmoil will extend beyond reviewing its policies. The company has posted recommendations (via The Verge) for group operators to help them address “race and social issues,” such as the Black Lives Matter protests gripping the US and numerous other countries. They’re logical, but are clearly built in direct response to discussions becoming increasingly political between anti-racist activism and the looming US presidential election.
The social network suggests that groups should have administrators and moderators from “impacted communities,” for a start. They should also review rules and outline them for group members, even if it means forbidding certain topics or requiring post approval. Facebook also wants group leaders to be open to member input, however, and they may have to accept that the nature of a group might evolve or even prompt the creation of another group.
A number of iPhone users are seeing a strange green tint on their devices’ displays for a few seconds after unlocking, and it’s still unclear what’s causing the phenomenon. Based on the complaints posted on Reddit and the MacRumors forum, the most affected devices are the iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max. However, some iPhone X and XS users seem to be experiencing the issue, as well.
Several users are saying that the green tint only shows up when they have Dark Mode and Night Shift on or if they’re in dark room. Affected users are also reporting that the issue popped up after iOS 13.4 came out, though there are those who’ve only noticed it after upgrading to iOS 13.5. At least one user says the green tint disappeared upon installing iOS 13.5.5, which is currently in beta, so it’s looking more likely that it’s a software issue. We’ve reached out to Apple for a statement and will update you when we hear back — if it is a software issue, then the tech giant is bound to roll out an update that’ll fix it in the future.
The Apple Card already has perks if you’re buying from Apple itself, but the company is apparently willing to further sweeten those incentives. Bloombergsources say Apple is planning a Card feature that will let you buy “many” products (not just the iPhone) in monthly, interest-free payments. You could pay off iPads, iPad accessories, Macs and even the Pro Display XDR in 12 months, and smaller gear like AirPods, Apple TV and HomePod in six months. The option would reportedly be ready in “the coming weeks.”
Apple declined to comment, although chief executive Tim Cook hinted in April that installment plans were coming for devices besides the iPhone.
You no longer have to use Roku’s platform if you want a modern TCL TV in the US. TCL has started selling its Android TV-based 3-Series sets in the US through Best Buy. You can buy a 32-inch, 720p starter model for $130, or jump to a 40-inch 1080p screen for $200. These won’t compete with Sony’s sets and are slightly less capable than their Roku counterparts (fewer HDMI inputs, for example), but they may do the trick if you’re looking for a no-frills set that still hooks into Google features like Assistant and media casting.
The company said this diversified the lineup to supply “popular software options” and give customers a choice At the same time, this also lets TCL hedge its bets — it doesn’t have to worry if Roku runs into trouble. This might also give TCL more control over its TVs where using Roku’s software requires relinquishing some of its power.
It’s now more practical to keep data encrypted while you use it, provided you’re using an Apple device. IBM has released (via ZDNet) a toolkit that makes it easier to implement fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) in iOS and macOS apps. In theory, hackers will have a tougher time prying on certain kinds of sensitive information that would normally need to be decrypted, like your financial or medical data. Apps can selectively decrypt content, too, so a user can only get the data they’re meant to see.
The kit is available on GitHub (iOS, macOS) now, with Android and Linux versions expected in “a few weeks.” IBM has cautioned that they’re “not perfect or final,” and that they won’t always be useful. They might, however, be complete enough to bolster the security in cases where even temporary decryption might pose a security risk.
“We took time this week to look inward and to be thoughtful and deliberate in how Riot can truly help combat racism and injustice. After all, true change starts at home. We have had a long standing commitment to combating this within our games, but we realized that is not enough,” Jadeja wrote in his letter. Riot Games, like many other developers, has to grapple with online games’ notoriously toxic environments, which are usually rife with racism, misogyny and homophobia.
It’s also not the only gaming company that’s donating to causes that support racial equality. Electronic Arts also recently announced that it’s donating $1 million to “organizations dedicated to the fight for racial justice in the US and against discrimination around the world.” Humble also announced a $1 million fund dedicated to helping publish games by black developers.
If you’ve wanted to learn more about SpaceX’s projects than you normally see in the news, now’s your chance. The company’s software team is holding a Reddit AMA session today starting at 3PM Eastern to answer questions on the software that guides SpaceX’s projects, including Crew Dragon and Starlink. Six key staffers will be on hand, so you can expect a fair number of responses.
The spaceflight firm doesn’t hold AMAs often, and it’ll likely be worth following the discussion to see what emerges. When Elon Musk held a Reddit chat about BFR (now Starship) in 2017, for instance, he touched on everything from engine design to his vision for Mars colonies. You won’t necessarily get any shocking revelations, but this could fill in some knowledge gaps and satisfy your curiosity.
This is something of a gamble. While D2 certainly has a sizeable player base and has been including more shared goals, it’s not clear if live events will have the same impact they do in Fortnite. After all, Epic’s battle royale game has the luxury of a massive audience and, to a degree, the cultural zeitgeist. This does give players another reason to sign in, though, and it suggests that D2’s storyline will be more involved going forward.
Eating clay (or other minerals) to detoxify potentially dangerous food is arguably the very first thing we did as a species that could be considered “processing”: we took something from nature and—before eating or using it—we changed it in some way. At its heart, processing is simply changing nature to suit our needs. Now, if you’re thinking, “Eating clay with potatoes isn’t processing potatoes; it’s just eating two things at the same time,” I understand. Dipping potatoes into a clay slurry might fall just outside the broadest possible definition of processing; it’s basically like dipping fries in ketchup, if the fries were toxic and the ketchup was the antidote. So let’s take another example, also involving the Aymara and poisonous potatoes.
As a kid, I would make annual summer pilgrimages to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The highlight of these trips was always buying space ice cream, a small rectangular lump of freeze-dried ice cream: regular old Earth ice cream that had been simultaneously frozen and dried, leaving the flavor and (most of) the texture, but removing all the water. Freeze-drying something is a pain in the ass. With modern technology, the process goes something like this:
George Zaidan
1. Get a strong vacuum pump, some alcohol and dry ice, and some leakproof piping and flasks.
2. Freeze the thing you want to freeze-dry, then put it in a flask.
3. Connect the flask to some pipe, then connect the other end to a second flask.
4. Dunk the second flask into an alcohol/dry-ice bath.
5. Connect the second flask to a vacuum pump.
6. Turn on the pump, and let run for at least twelve hours.
7. A few hours in, heat the flask gently with one of those red lightbulbs that keeps you warm after a shower.
8. Wait a few more hours, and finally . . .
9. Enjoy your NASA ice cream.
Here’s how this works: the vacuum pump lowers the pressure to almost zero, which causes the frozen water in the ice cream to start to evaporate—without melting. Heat from the light helps this process along. As the water vapor enters the second flask, it freezes. Eventually you end up with freezing cold, bone-dry food.
Essentially what you’re doing is using low pressure, extreme cold, and gentle heat to remove solid water (ice) out of a frozen food without melting the food first. Freeze-drying food seems like a modern technology. But the Aymara figured out how to freeze-dry potatoes without pumps or pipes or a freezer. Here’s how they do it:
1. Get some wild toxic potatoes.
2. Freeze the potatoes by leaving them outside overnight at high altitude.
3. Trample the frozen-solid potatoes like a French winemaker tramples grapes.
4. Put the trampled potatoes in a loose wicker basket, put the basket in a stream or creek, and leave for a few weeks.
5. Put the potatoes on your front doorstep and let them freeze overnight and dry out in the daytime, squeezing occasionally, then leave for another few weeks.
6. ¡Y voilà! Freeze-dried potatoes.
This method is astonishingly similar to modern-day techniques. Instead of a vacuum pump, the Aymara use their environment: at high altitudes, the pressure is low. Instead of warming lightbulbs, the Aymara use the sun. The Aymara method is even a bit more sophisticated than modern methods: trampling the potatoes and then leaving them in running water leaches out about 97 percent of the toxins in the wild potatoes.* And not only is the final product edible without gastrointestinal distress, it’s much more storable. Fresh potatoes might last for a year; leached and freeze-dried potatoes can last for twenty (some people say in-definitely). If you were a member of a society like the Aymara, having a ready supply of edible stored carbs that would last you through a two- or three-year famine might just be the key to your survival.
The historical record is not clear as to whether or not this is the world’s first processed food, but it is clear that this is processing: taking something from nature and changing it to suit our purposes—in this case making it nontoxic.
After another extremely regular week, it’s not really a surprise to be comforted by something familiar — even if that something is a real-time strategy war game.
EA
I think my first Command & Conquer experience was on Sega Saturn, which quickly opened the door for its sequels and other games like Starcraft. While my reflexes are a little too slow to make an esports team at this point, this seems like a perfect time to take the 4K-ready Command & Conquer Remastered Collection for a spin now that it’s available via Origin and Steam.
— Richard
The Engadget Podcast: Twitter and Facebook’s showdown with Trump
What a year this past week has been.
Engadget
Devindra and Cherlynn chat with Karissa Bell, Engadget’s Senior Editor focusing on social media, about how Twitter and Facebook approached explosive posts by the president very differently.
Weber’s SmokeFire smart grills just got a lot better
It’s that time.
Baby Back Ribs cooked with SmokeBoost for about two hours.
Billy Steele/Engadget
Ready to go outside while still staying at home? A grill is a good excuse that still provides some social distance, and Billy Steele spoke to Weber CEO Chris Scherzinger about some updates that are making its smart grills better than ever. Most importantly, now you can set the temperature from your phone, and even shut the grill off remotely. Other tweaks have made push notifications more informative, and the algorithm won’t freak out if you lift the lid to make a small change. Continue reading.
How to protect your identity while protesting police brutality
Don’t forget your umbrella.
While there isn’t a whole lot you can do against a cop with a can of mace and an itchy trigger finger, there are plenty of ways to protect your safety, identity and personal data when you’re out exercising your First Amendment rights. Andrew Tarantola explains. Continue reading.
