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Why you should always put your phone face down on a table (hint: it's not just about being polite)

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET A friend of mine recently told me, "I always keep my phone on silent mode… which doesn't matter because I compulsively look at it every three minutes anyway." He's not the only one. From becoming a text addict to having full-blown smartphone dependency, the urge to look at and interact with our "flat things" has been deeply ingrained into our collective behavior for some time now. Also: Best early Prime Day deals 2025: 30+ sales on tech products live now Monitoring your p

Transparent Ambition

Translucent user interfaces is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake. Aside from movie visual effect trickery, it started out in Mac OS X's Aqua, followed by Windows Vista's Aero, followed by (then) OS X's Vibrancy, followed by Windows 10's Acrylic. Over time, more and more of the user interface has become translucent similar to foggy/privacy-preserving sheets of glass. The unstated goal has always been to "look cool". The stated goal has always been to "give more pixels to your content"

Transparent Ambition: on translucent user interfaces

Translucent user interfaces is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake. Aside from movie visual effect trickery, it started out in Mac OS X's Aqua, followed by Windows Vista's Aero, followed by (then) OS X's Vibrancy, followed by Windows 10's Acrylic. Over time, more and more of the user interface has become translucent similar to foggy/privacy-preserving sheets of glass. The unstated goal has always been to "look cool". The stated goal has always been to "give more pixels to your content"

Digital Grave-Robbing: How AI Is Plundering Online Obituaries

My sister had only been gone for a few hours and the AI afterlife had already devoured her. Jamie went into the hospital with stomach pain on a Friday last January. By Tuesday morning, she had passed away from an aggressive lymphoma at 36. Later that afternoon, my mom got a text about a suspicious obituary my aunt saw online. The errors jumped out immediately. Her cause of death was listed as autism. The obituary chronicled a funeral that hadn't happened yet. The loss was described as saddenin

I recommend this Windows tablet for work travel over the iPad Pro - and it's on sale

ZDNET's key takeaways Microsoft made one of the best work tablets of 2024 with the 11th-generation Surface Pro for $1,000. It's one of the latest Copilot+ PCs housing next-gen hardware, long-lasting battery, and a stunning OLED touchscreen. As great as it may be, the device's generative AI features don't perform at the same level as the rest of the machine's features. $999.99 at Best Buy At Amazon, the 512GB Microsoft Surface Pro is on sale for $900. That is a 25% disount. Copilot+ PCs have

Something Big Is Twisting Mercury’s Crust

Mercury has it rough. Not only is it the smallest planet in the solar system, it’s also the closest to our Sun. This unfortunate position has caused Mercury to develop cracks and fractures across its surface, and generate stresses to its crust, a new study has found. Mercury is dry, rugged, and heavily cratered; the planet appears deformed with towering cliffs and ridges, as well as fracture lines that run along its surface. The origin of Mercury’s scars has long been a mystery: How did the pla

Public/protected/private is an unnecessary feature

public/protected/private is an unnecessary feature Regular code using this interface works great: Users can write generic code that works for any Vehicle, and use a Car with that code. The implementer of Car can restrict users to only ever use Car instances through the Vehicle interface, by only allowing construction of Car instances through, for example, a function make_car with return type Vehicle. But the interface doesn't work with inheritance: Users cannot write a generic class that can i

Facebook's new passkey support could soon let you ditch your password forever

NurPhoto / Contributor/Getty For all of us who hate passwords, passkeys represent a simpler and safer way of authenticating online accounts. But adoption has been slow, with many companies and websites still relying on passwords. Now the world's biggest social media platform is jumping on the bandwagon. On Wednesday, Facebook announced that it's now rolling out support for passkeys on mobile devices. This means you'll be able to use one to sign in to Facebook on an iPhone or Android device. Bu

I Tried Hear.com's At-Home Prescription Hearing Aids Test

Putting aside their exorbitant cost, the trouble with prescription hearing aids is the prescription. Find a doctor. Get an appointment. Sit in a waiting room. Suffer through an hour of testing before getting the hard sell on a pair of hearing aids. Why, the indignity of it all is even worse than going deaf. Telehealth offers a glimmer of a solution, but as everyone who’s tried to show off a concerning mole to a doctor via a smartphone camera knows: Video technology can only get you so far. Audi

I replaced my laptop with Microsoft's Surface Pro tablet - here's my verdict after a month

ZDNET's key takeaways The 12-inch Microsoft Surface Pro is available now starting at $799 for the 256GB option, and $899 for the 512GB model. The 12-inch version is exceedingly thin and light with a fast-charging battery, and the refreshed form factor looks more premium. The 256GB of storage is not enough for a device at this price point, and the cost adds up quickly, as the keyboard, mouse, and even the power adapter are sold separately. $899.99 at Walmart $899.99 at B&H Photo-Video more buyi

Facebook's new passkey support could let you ditch your password once and for all

NurPhoto / Contributor/Getty For all of us who hate passwords, passkeys represent a simpler and safer way of authenticating online accounts. But adoption has been slow, with many companies and websites still relying on passwords. Now the world's biggest social media platform is jumping on the bandwagon. On Wednesday, Facebook announced that it will soon support passkeys on mobile devices. This means you'll be able to use one to sign in to Facebook on an iPhone or Android device. But the passke

Meta is finally adding passkey support for Facebook and Messenger

Meta is finally adding passkey support for Facebook and Messenger on mobile devices. This should make for more seamless logins, as a passkey lets people sign in by using the same data they already use to verify their identities on a smartphone. This includes stuff like a PIN code, a fingerprint or a quick face scan. This is not only convenient, but more secure than traditional passwords. Passkeys are resistant to many types of malicious attacks, as they can’t be easily guessed or stolen. This w

Facebook rolls out passkey support to fight phishing attacks

is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO. Facebook is adding support for passkeys on its mobile app. That means you’ll be able to log into the platform using your device’s authentication method, like your fingerprint, face scan, or PIN, making it more difficult for bad actors to take control of your account. Passkeys offer a more secure alternative to typical passwords because they can’t b

Facebook will soon roll out support for passkeys on Android and iOS

Facebook is rolling out support for passkeys on both iOS and Android, the social network announced on Wednesday. Passkey logins make it harder for bad actors to remotely access your accounts because they require physical access to your phone. Unlike standard logins, passkeys use Face ID or Touch ID, a PIN, or a physical security authentication key to validate logins. Passkeys remove the need to rely on username and password combinations, which can be susceptible to phishing and other issues.

Meta is making all Facebook videos reels

is a news editor covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme. Meta is making a change to how sharing videos works on Facebook. Right now, you can share videos as a video from the post composer or as a reel, and both have different sharing workflows. In “the coming months,” however, “all videos on Facebook will be shared as reels,” according to a blog post. “Facebook remains a home for all types of video – short, long, and Live,” Meta sa

Facebook announces that all videos on its platform will soon be shared as reels

Facebook announced on Tuesday that all videos on its platform will soon be shared as reels, regardless of their length or orientation. Up until now, users have been able to share both video posts and reels. The company is also renaming the “Video” tab on its platform to the “Reels” tab. The update won’t change what videos are recommended to you, Facebook says. In the coming months, users won’t have to choose between uploading a video or reel, as it will automatically be shared as a reel. In add

Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 Is Going for Peanuts With Over 60% Off, a Limited Best Buy Certified Refurb Deal

Looking to replace you laptop but don’t feel like shelling out thousands for the latest MacBook? Well you don’t need to sweat. You can grab yourself something perfectly capable of meeting your everyday needs. New is overrated. Like-new is good enough for just about anything and is a great way to save yourself hundreds and hundreds of dollars. What happens to new products anyway? Well I’ll tell you. They become old. It happens to us all. Stop trying to fight the entropy of the universe and just a

DC Studios Has Found Its Clayface

Clayface keeps picking up heat at DC. After a reportedly barnstorming pitch and script from Mike Flanagan, James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Studios has run forward to make the Batman rogue one of the first big stars of the new DC universe–and now we know who’s going to be playing him. Deadline reports that Tom Rhys Harries has been cast in the title role in what will now be the third major film out of the rebooted DC universe after Superman and Supergirl (formerly titled Supergirl: Woman of Tom

Microsoft fixes Surface Hub boot issues with emergency update

Microsoft has released an emergency update to fix a known issue causing startup failures for some Surface Hub v1 devices running Windows 10. As the company explained when it acknowledged this issue last week, users see Secure Boot Violation errors on affected devices, prompting them to check the Secure Boot Policy in setup. These boot problems only impact Surface Hub v1 systems running Windows 10, version 22H2, after installing the June 2025 Windows security update (KB5060533). Microsoft also

Microsoft’s Windows Hello facial recognition no longer works in the dark

is a senior editor and author of Notepad , who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years. Microsoft’s Windows Hello face unlock feature no longer works in dark rooms, and it’s not a bug. Microsoft quietly made the change to Windows Hello in April, in order to fix a vulnerability with Windows Hello spoofing. Fixing the security flaw has now removed key functionality from Windows Hello in Windows 11. Windows Central spotted April’s change after some Surface Laptop us

Amazon and Walmart May Issue Their Own Company-Crypto

Retailers like Amazon and Walmart pay fees to credit card companies every time a customer uses their Visa or Mastercard. And it’s no secret that retailers are not happy with that chunk of change that gets siphoned off. But thanks to the emergence of digital money, these retailers are reportedly itching to get away from the big banks. In fact, they may even issue their own stablecoins, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal. Amazon’s efforts to develop a stablecoin are still in t

How to download your information from Facebook

Once upon a time Facebook was filled with posts about the minutiae of your day and album after album of photos of just about every experience you had. By now, a lot of this media is likely hidden with the "only me" setting. But, regardless of how much you use Facebook these days, it's probably home to a lot of memories you want to hold on to — or at least have the opportunity to laugh at later. The good news is that you can download your Facebook information. You can access things such as your

How to set up a WhatsApp account without Facebook or Instagram

There's no shortage of reasons to stay off the Meta ecosystem, which includes Facebook and Instagram, but there are some places where WhatsApp remains the main form of text-based communication. The app is a great alternative to SMS, since it offers end-to-end encryption and was one of the go-to methods to send uncompressed photos and videos between iPhone and Android users before Apple adopted RCS. Even though Facebook, which later rebranded to Meta, acquired WhatsApp in 2014, it doesn't require

Best Buy’s Giving You $1,000 Off Refurbished Microsoft Surface Touchscreen Laptop, Nearly Free Right Now

Looking to replace you laptop but don’t feel like shelling out thousands for the latest MacBook? Well you don’t need to sweat. You can grab yourself something perfectly capable of meeting your everyday needs. New is overrated. Like-new is good enough for just about anything and is a great way to save yourself hundreds and hundreds of dollars. What happens to new products anyway? Well I’ll tell you. They become old. It happens to us all. Stop trying to fight the entropy of the universe and just a

tvOS 26 hints at a big hardware change for the new Apple TV 4K

There’s a brand new Apple TV 4K coming later this year, and as sometimes happens, Apple’s just-announced software update for the platform—tvOS 26—seems to hint at a new hardware feature that’s on the way. New Apple TV 4K hardware expected this fall The last time a new Apple TV 4K released was 2022, so it’s very much time for an update—and a new model is indeed coming. Apple will reportedly launch a new Apple TV 4K this fall. Rumored features include: more powerful A18 or A17 Pro chip Apple

Microsoft: KB5060533 update triggers boot errors on Surface Hub v1 devices

Microsoft is investigating a known issue that triggers Secure Boot errors and prevents Surface Hub v1 devices from starting up. These boot problems only impact Surface Hub v1 systems running Windows 10, version 22H2, after installing the KB5060533 June 2025 Windows security update. Microsoft says that "Surface Hub v1 devices might fail to start with the following error: 'Secure Boot Violation. Invalid signature detected. Check Secure Boot Policy in Setup." It's also important to note that thi

Jemalloc Postmortem

Home Published Jun 12, 2025 The jemalloc memory allocator was first conceived in early 2004, and has been in public use for about 20 years now. Thanks to the nature of open source software licensing, jemalloc will remain publicly available indefinitely. But active upstream development has come to an end. This post briefly describes jemalloc’s development phases, each with some success/failure highlights, followed by some retrospective commentary. Phase 0: Lyken In 2004 I began work on the Ly

Google warns Wear OS users to install their favorite legacy watch faces before 2026

After Google introduced Watch Face Format (WFF) in 2023, WFF and non-WFF watch faces coexisted. This only lasted for a short time, however, as Google eventually made WFF mandatory. Since then, the company has been gradually phasing out support for non-WFF watch faces on Wear OS . Google has now announced the next step it will take to get to full adoption of WFF. If you’re a Wear OS user who cares about custom watch faces, then you may know that support for AndroidX and Wearable Support Library

How to Protest Safely in the Age of Surveillance

If you insist on using biometric unlocking methods to have faster access to your devices, keep in mind that some phones have an emergency function to disable these types of locks. Hold the wake button and one of the volume buttons simultaneously on an iPhone, for instance, and it will lock itself and require a passcode to unlock rather than FaceID or TouchID, even if they’re enabled. Most devices also let you take photos or record video without unlocking them first, a good way to keep your phone

iOS 26 dramatically overhauls the Camera interface, here’s what’s new

With iOS 26, Apple is redesigning the Camera app to make it more streamlined and easier to use. Here’s what it looks like. Photos and videos front and center, with other options a swipe away After years of accumulating new modes, toggles, and gestures on its Camera app, Apple explained today that the updated interface aims to bring a clearer focus to its most commonly used functions. For this reason, the main camera screen will prioritize Photo and Video modes. Additional capture options (suc