Illegal fishing causes permanent environmental destruction and economic losses of up to $23 billion a year, largely because it’s so easy to get away with it in unpatrolled waters. But UK scientists are fighting back with Project Eyes on the Seas, a j…
Technical
Here’s the code you need for Sony’s 10 percent PSN store discount
Sony took a bit of flack over the Christmas break when its PlayStation Network was hit by a devastating denial-of-service attack. It took a few days for the gaming service to recover from Lizard Squad’s assault and, to make up for the festive downtim…
Contactless charity donations could mean the end of ‘chuggers’
Charities play an important role tackling all manner of medical and societal issues, but without donations many would cease to operate. To ensure a steady stream of funding, some send representatives into Britain’s high streets to encourage giving, g…
Kim Dotcom launches MegaChat encrypted video calling service
It’s been in the pipeline for more than a year now, but finally Kim Dotcom’s Mega is ready to share its encrypted chat service with the world. ‘MEGAchat’ is pretty light on features — it’s basically just audio and video calls right now — but the fa…
Apple’s latest acquisition will tell it what the world is listening to
When Apple spent $3 billion to buy Beats, it certainly made the headlines, but the company also goes to great lengths to keep smaller deals under wraps. One that has completely flown under the radar is its recent acquisition of Musicmetric. The servi…
Acer’s latest Chromebooks are built to survive the classroom
Chromebooks are a big deal for schools because they’re cheap and relatively easy to lock down. However, not just any Chromebook will do — ideally, you want a laptop that can survive bumps and drops from less-than-careful students. Acer thinks it can…
Sky will soon switch on adult broadband filters for indecisive customers
As part of David Cameron’s plan to protect young internet users, broadband providers have been forced to offer an “unavoidable choice.” This impels new subscribers to decide whether they want to enable or disable blocks on adult content. However, UK …
Instant replay inventor Tony Verna dies at 81
TV instant replay helped drive football to the throne of US sports, and the inventor of the tech and first to deploy it, CBS Sports Director Tony Verna, has died at 81. Verna was a brash 30-year-old when he first used the tech in a 1963 Army/Navy foo…
Genetic ‘glue’ helps make 3D-printed organs
No, you’re not looking at a dessert gone horribly wrong — that might just be the future of synthetic organ transplants. Scientists at the University of Texas at Austin have developed a genetic “glue” that forms gels useful for 3D printing organic ti…
Bangladesh blocks mobile messaging apps to thwart protests
Countries are occasionally tempted to block mobile messaging apps when protests or riots flare up, and Bangladesh just gave in to that urge. The nation has blocked two popular services, Tango and Viber, on the grounds that anti-government protesters …
Sprint snags its first Lumia smartphone
Believe it or not, Sprint hasn’t had a Lumia-badged smartphone since Nokia (and now Microsoft) got into Windows phones — you’ve had to go with HTC or Samsung and forgo a bunch of apps and services. You won’t have that problem from now on, since Spri…
New York governor wants statewide 100Mbps internet by 2019
With a $1 billion plan, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo hopes to have every New Yorker hooked up to high-speed internet by 2019. The administration is billing it as the largest state investment in universal broadband in the country. Just how fast are …
Bellabeat Leaf activity and health tracker can also monitor reproductive cycle
There was a time when “gadgets for women” were silly novelty items or pink-colored, Swarovski-covered versions of existing devices. Well, OK, those still exist, but at least there are now decent gadgets for women with features we actually need, like …
Elon Musk spills details on SpaceX’s $10 billion space internet venture
Elon Musk doesn’t only plan to bring the whole world online using a fleet of low-cost communication satellites, he also wants to use the same infrastructure to provide internet on Mars. Months after confirming the new SpaceX project, Musk has finally…
Console sales up dramatically in 2014 as Xbox One finishes strongly
Console fanboys, get ready to gloat — or mope. Actually, (nearly) everybody can be cheered by the latest data from NPD, which showed console sales up a cool 20 percent from last year to to over $5 billion. Leading the final charge was Microsoft’s Xb…