Colonial Pipeline resumes operations after ransomware prompted closure

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Colonial Pipeline said it restarted operations on Wednesday afternoon after a five-day outage brought on by a ransomware attack caused gasoline shortages and panic buying in East Coast states. “Following this restart, it will take several days for the product delivery supply chain to return to normal,” the operator...

3h

Vizio TV buyers are becoming the product Vizio sells, not just its customers

Enlarge / Vizio's 65-inch 4K OLED TV. (credit: Vizio) Over the past several years, TV-maker Vizio has achieved a reputation among home theater enthusiasts as the company that makes TVs that provide superior picture quality relative to their cost. While the most expensive TVs from Samsung and LG beat Vizio's in quality assessment by reviewers, Vizio...

5h

CDC advisory committee recommends COVID vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds

Enlarge / With new data, we're able to expand vaccinations to ever-younger populations. (credit: Roberto Jimenez Mejias / Getty Images) On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended that the CDC approve the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for the 12- to 15-year...

6h

Amazon’s 2nd-gen Echo Show offers better cameras, CPUs, and speakers

This Echo Show 8 is handling a group video call. [credit: Amazon ] Amazon launched hardware upgrades for its Echo Show 5 and Echo Show 8 products on Wednesday; the new versions have higher-resolution cameras and upgraded CPUs. There's...

7h

Better than holograms: 3D-animated starships can be viewed from any angle

Inspired by science fiction displays like the holodeck from Star Trek and the Princess Leia projector from Star Wars, a BYU electrical and computer engineering team is working to develop screenless volumetric display technologies. Scientists at Brigham Young University (BYU) have created tiny 3D animations out of light. The animations pay homage to...

7h

Xiaomi and the US government bury the hatchet, settle investment ban

Enlarge (credit: Pavlo Gonchar / Getty Images) Xiaomi is no longer on the government's blocklist, according to a new court filing spotted by Reuters. On its way out the door on January 14, the Trump administration's Department of Defense declared Xiaomi a "Communist Chinese military company," but now with Joe Biden in charge, Xiaomi and the US government...

10h

Neural implant lets paralyzed person type by imagining writing

Enlarge / An artist's schematic of the system. (credit: Nature) Elon Musk's Neuralink has been making waves on the technology side of neural implants, but it hasn't yet shown how we might actually use implants. For now, demonstrating the promise of implants remains in the hands of the academic community. This week, the academic community provided...

10h

$50 monthly broadband discounts available starting today via 825 ISPs

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Oscar Wong) The Federal Communications Commission today opened enrollment for $50-per-month broadband subsidies for US residents who have low incomes or who lost income during the pandemic. Over 825 Internet service providers across the US are participating in the program, with the full list of ISPs in each state and...

11h

Snap suspends Yolo, LMK anonymous messaging apps after lawsuit over teen’s death

Enlarge (credit: stockcam / Getty) Snapchat’s parent company, Snap, yesterday suspended two apps that allowed users to send anonymous messages to other users on the platform. The move came in response to a lawsuit filed Monday against Snap and the two messaging apps. The lawsuit seeks class-action status to represent all 92 million Snapchat users,...

11h

Valve’s Gabe Newell hints at vague console plans coming “this year”

Newell poses with faculty at Sancta Maria College before speaking to students at the Auckland school. [credit: Sancta Maria College ] Valve co-founder and Managing Director Gabe Newell hinted that his company may be planning an expansion...

12h