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RealDoll's first sex robot took me to the uncanny valley
During my four-hour visit to the birthplace of the RealDoll, the frighteningly life-like full-body sex toy, I've seen mounds of silicone vaginas, sheets of detached nipples, headless women hanging from meat hooks, a 2-foot penis and skulls with removable faces that attach like refrigerator magnets. NSFW Warning: This story may contain links to and descriptions or images of explicit sexual acts
Canada hid the Konami Code in its commemorative $10 bill launch
Canada's currency is already the world's dorkiest, with its plastic material, transparent windows and holograms everywhere. For a $10 bill celebrating the nation's 150th anniversary, however, the Bank of Canada outdid itself with an Easter egg on its website that rewards visitors with (a dorky version of) the national anthem and a shower of tens down the screen. The best part is that to get it, you punch in the "Konami Code" first made famous in Konami's 1986 Contra NES game.
The Morning After: Tuesday, April 11th 2017
Hey, good morning! You look fabulous. This Morning After is brought to you by the death of phone calls on flights (hooray!), how Persona 5 manages to digitally manifest Tokyo and the news that the most valuable car company in the US is now Tesla -- with a lot of that value resting on the incoming cheaper Model 3.
Google says its own analysis shows 'no gender pay gap'
In a new post on pay equity, Google VP Eileen Naughton says the company was "taken aback" by the US Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) accusation that it paid women less than men, especially since the regulator gave no data to back up the claim. To counter it, the company supplied its own study that it called "extremely scientific and robust," showing that women and men are paid equally at the firm with a 95 percent confidence rating.
PewDiePie starts a weekly Twitch show
Let's say you're YouTube star PewDiePie, aka Felix Kjellberg. You're facing an exodus of advertisers that could hurt your bottom line, and it doesn't help that you shot yourself in the foot by making tasteless jokes. How do you keep the money coming in? By shifting some of your attention to Twitch. PewDiePie has launched a weekly Twitch show, Best Club, that airs every Sunday at 11AM Eastern. The talk show won't be anything shocking if you know Kjellberg's style (for better or for worse), but it gives him another avenue -- and notably one where he'll make the brunt of his revenue through direct contributions, not ads.
San Francisco airport can now record all visitors' license plates
When you drive to the airport, you expect a certain amount of tracking, if just from security cameras. However, San Francisco International Airport might be taking things a step too far. The travel hub recently received approval from the Airport Commission to collect the license plate info for everyone who uses its roads and garages, storing that data for over 4 years. It's ostensibly meant for collecting revenue from parking and commercial drivers like taxis, but SFO has permission to release that info to both local law enforcement and the FBI.
FCC axes plan to allow phone calls on flights
There hasn't exactly been a groundswell of support for in-flight phone calls in the US, and regulators are now ready to drop the idea. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has proposed that his agency cancel a 2013 proceeding that would have let people make cellphone calls on aircraft. It's in the "public interest," he claims, and removing the option from the table would be a win for people who "value a moment of quiet" in the skies.
'Planet Earth II' on 4K Blu-ray will make you want a new TV
Planet Earth II looks so good on 4K Blu-ray that it completely justifies the existence of the doomed disc format. The original Planet Earth sold most consumers on the benefits of Blu-ray and HD video in 2007. It was like peering through a pristine window for the first time, after being stuck with muddy standard definition video for decades. This version of Planet Earth II, on the other hand, is like stepping through that window and into a whole new world of clarity.
Gorillaz are getting a TV show, apparently
Prepare your brain's weirdest synapses for an animated TV show starring the members of Gorillaz, the lauded cartoon hip hop group led by Blur frontman Damon Albarn and Tank Girl co-creator Jamie Hewlett. Hewlett revealed the TV series in an interview with Q Magazine, as spotted by Pitchfork. The announcement is light on details, but the show will apparently span 10 episodes and Hewlett is in charge of all things animation.
Spain arrests Russian citizen for connections to US election hack (updated)
The evidence that Russia hacked the US to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election continues to grow. The latest comes from AFP, which says that that a Russian "computer expert" was arrested in Spain today at the Barcelona airport on suspicions of hacking the US presidential election campaigns. Furthermore, the US has already put in an extradition request so that the subject Piotr Levashov would have to stand trial here for his alleged crimes.
Google's AI will take on the world's top Go player next month
It's been a busy year for Google Deepmind. You might remember AlphaGo resoundingly beating Go grandmaster Lee Sedol by four games to one and secretly schooling some of the world's best Go players online, but the team has also found time to help Britain's national health service treat patients and arm its computer with new tricks to help it learn faster and "remember" previous knowledge. AlphaGo can now justifiably be considered one of the world's best Go players, but the Deepmind team can't make a bonafide claim until its AI has beaten the world number one: 19-year-old Chinese player Ke Jie. Deepmind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis has now confirmed that after months of speculation, the match is on.
The Morning After: Monday, April 10th 2017
Still haven't cut the cord from your cable TV package? YouTube might get you there. In more outlandish weekend news, international scientists plan to drill deep into the Earth, and are searching for the ideal chunk of oceanic crust to get things started. We also explain why Ghost In The Shell's remake underwhelms and ransomware that demands a high score.
Carrie Fisher will be in 'Star Wars: Episode IX' without use of CG (update: no)
Lucasfilm swore that it wouldn't create a digital version of the late, great Carrie Fisher for future Star Wars movies, but that doesn't mean she'll be cut out entirely. Her brother Todd has revealed that Disney still wants to include Carrie in Episode IX, but that it plans to use recent footage of the actress instead of relying on a computer generated facsimile. Both Todd and Carrie's daughter, Billie Lourd, have granted permission to use the shots.
GameStop looks into a potentially serious credit card breach
Did you shop at GameStop's online store for the holidays, or take advantage of its post-holiday clearance sales? You might want to check your credit card statement. GameStop has confirmed to security guru Brian Krebs that it's looking into a possible data breach that compromised credit card info between September 2016 and February 2017. Krebs' financial industry sources claim that the intruders not only took card numbers, expiration dates and cardholder addresses, but the three-digit security number that's ordinarily hard to get (as it's not usually stored online). This suggests the attackers planted malware on the site to harvest the info before it was transmitted -- this was clearly not a run-of-the-mill breach if so.
Bernie Sanders quietly launched his own podcast
Just because Bernie Sanders is no longer a presidential candidate doesn't mean that he's out of the internet's spotlight. In fact, it might be easier than ever to listen to his ideas: the Vermont Senator has released a podcast version of his Facebook Live stream, The Bernie Sanders Show. The podcast has actually been available since late March (there are three episodes as of this writing), but Sanders is just now advertising its existence.
'Shadow Brokers' give away more NSA hacking tools
The elusive Shadow Brokers didn't have much luck selling the NSA's hacking tools, so they're giving more of the software away -- to everyone. In a Medium post, the mysterious team supplied the password for an encrypted file containing many of the Equation Group surveillance tools swiped back in 2016. Supposedly, the group posted the content in "protest" at President Trump turning his back on the people who voted for him. The leaked data appears to check out, according to researchers, but some of it is a couple of decades old and focused on platforms like Linux.
White House hires Lyft manager for a key transportation role
It's tempting to oversimplify the ridesharing industry into an ideological battle: Lyft is the kinder, more generous outfit that donates to the ACLU, while Uber is a champion of hyper-capitalism that makes political compromises in the name of its bottom line. However, the truth is that both of these companies are complex beasts that reflect a wide range of views. Case in point: President Trump's administration has unveiled plans to nominate Lyft's General Manager for Southern California, Derek Kan, as the Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy. And it's not as if he's suddenly revealing his political stance, as this is really a logical next step given his career.
Recommended Reading: iFixit wants to show you how to repair everything
Meet the $21 Million Company That Thinks a New iPhone Is a Total Waste of Money David Whitford, Inc. We're no stranger to iFixit's in-depth teardowns here at Engadget, but the company has a plan that's much more than ripping apart the latest gadgets to see what's inside. Inc. takes a look at how the the company is helping the masses repair everything from smartphones to kitchen appliances and why they offer guides for doing so free of charge.
'Ghost in the Shell' is more cyberposeur than cyberpunk
Spoilers ahead for the Ghost in the Shell anime and US remake. The original Ghost in the Shell anime feature is a cultural landmark. It was a neo-noir story set in a startlingly fresh vision of a connected world, and it was particularly timely in 1995 since the internet was just finding its legs in the real world. The film's lead was a badass cyborg woman privy to bouts of existentialism. And, like the best cyberpunk science fiction, Ghost in the Shell (and its original manga) asked deep questions about our relationship with technology. There was little chance a Hollywood remake could successfully grasp what was special about its source material. And, unfortunately, the Scarlett Johansson vehicle is just as disappointing as we expected. It completely misses the point of cyberpunk.
Uber must leave Italy in 10 days after nationwide ban
Trouble seems to follow Uber wherever it goes. A court in Rome has just banned the ride-hailing service in Italy for contributing to what it says is "unfair competition" faced by the local taxi industry. Uber must now stop promoting its services and cease all operations in the country within 10 days, unless it's willing to pay a $10,600 fine for each day it remains active after that grace period. While Uber's $70 billion valuation makes that amount sound like chump change, it hasn't exactly been profitable and actually bled billions in 2016.
