Tingle Tech

Some Microsoft employees feel the company's business entanglements with the U.S. military aren't OK, and they want the bosses to know about it.

An open letter to CEO Satya Nadella and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith from Microsoft Workers 4 Good makes the position of protesting employees clear: "We are a global coalition of Microsoft workers, and we refuse to create technology for warfare and oppression," the letter begins.

Specifically at issue is a $479 million "Integrated Visual Augmentation System" contract that Microsoft entered into back in Nov. 2018. As the letter notes, the intent is for the company to "rapidly develop, test, and manufacture a single platform that soldiers can use to Fight, Rehearse, and Train that provides increased lethality, mobility, and situational awareness" against America's foes. Read more...

Welcome to Small Humans, an ongoing series at Mashable that looks at how to take care of – and deal with – the kids in your life. Because Dr. Spock is nice and all, but it’s 2019 and we have the entire internet to contend with.

If you’re pumping breast milk, what would you pay to not feel quite so much like a literal dairy cow? With the release of a new and improved breast pump, that’s no longer a hypothetical question. 

Despite a built-in customer base thanks to insurance coverage from the Affordable Care Act and a lack of paid maternity leave pushing American mothers back in the workplace as fast as possible, meaningful improvements to the breast pump are few and far between.  Read more...

It wouldn't be awards season without Hollywood taking some healthy distance and noting the year's worst work in addition to its best. The 39th Golden Raspberry Awards honored identified (convicted?) some of the year's worst films and performances, including a not-so-fictional on-screen turn by the President himself.

Donald Trump got two Razzies: One for his "performance" in Death of a Nation and Fahrenheit 11/9, and one for constantly choosing to work with his "self-perpetuating pettiness" on an international stage. It would be funnier if it weren't depressing, but isn't that the tightrope we've been walking for two years? Read more...

This is One Good Thing, a weekly column where we tell you about one of the few nice things that happened this week.

By now everyone should be well aware that we are incredibly blessed to live in a world where there are dogs. But you can never really have too many reminders, so here's another.

For your weekly dose of Dogs Are Absolute Angels, we invite you to turn your attention to a video that Mountain Rescue Search Dogs England recently shared on Twitter.

Welcome to Small Humans, an ongoing series at Mashable that looks at how to take care of – and deal with – the kids in your life. Because Dr. Spock is nice and all, but it’s 2019 and we have the entire internet to contend with.

Black History Month is often misunderstood as a time to exclusively address contributions made by Black Americans in the past. However, the potential of this month is so much richer than only revisiting historical events. It’s also a great time to evaluate (and push back against) the way Black people are portrayed in media and literature today.

One way to do that, especially for children, is through books. Exposing your children to fiction and non-fiction stories that center Black characters is an accessible method for humanizing Black Americans and highlighting the diversity of Black people’s experience. Read more...

Risk it all for A Star is Born, baby! 

For the first time in American history, betting on the grandest night in cinema will be 100% legal — at least for gamblers placing their wagers in New Jersey. 

In an unprecedented move, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement is allowing sportsbooks to accept wagers on the Academy Awards. 

For Jersey residents and those willing to travel for the big night, that means viewings in licensed gambling establishments with up-to-the-minute odds updates. For those voting online, it means rigorous geolocation checks to assure no one's attempting to skirt around the law. Read more...

News of data breaches and cybersecurity threats were a mainstay in the headlines in 2018. Even behemoths like Facebook, Amazon, Under Armour, and Macy's weren't immune. Grim. We know.

2019 is no differentForbes predicts that this trend will continue well into the year, with new plots to pop up here and there. In fact, the first data breach of 2019 happened less than 24 hours into the new year. *Sigh* 

Organizations are taking increased precautions to safeguard their networks and avoid future breaches, like, for example, actively hiring ethical hackers to do the heavy lifting for them. You can use this desperate need for cybersecurity experts to your advantage by picking up the Complete White Hat Hacking and Penetration Testing Bundle, in which you'll be groomed to become a computer security specialist and maybe even score a high-paying gig. You can nab the bundle today at the Mashable Shop on sale for $19. Read more...

The ultra-trendy Paleo diet may claim to help you eat like your ancestors, but that feels a bit vague. Then there's the blood type diet, the elimination diet, and even the Beyoncé diet. It's all a lot. Especially when none of the above jives with your energy levels and love of vino. That's what makes Vitagene so interesting. It's basically your standard DNA test plus a nutritionist, and you can get a personal genetic report for under $70 during this special sale.

A Vitagene test works like the majority of DNA test kits in that all it requires from you is a simple cheek swab. Unlike its peers, however, Vitagene won't just show you your global ancestry, but also give you a detailed look at how your genetics affect your overall health and lifestyle. Upon receiving your results, you'll learn more about how your lineage affects your diet and discover which food choices, supplements, and workouts are best for you. Ultimately, you'll receive a report featuring customized meal plans, tailored macronutrient percentages, and gluten sensitivity info that can help you reach your health goals. Read more...

Don't call it a comeback, but vinyl records are doing pretty well for a technology that's more than a century old. Nielsen Music's latest annual report found that vinyl sales increased 15% in 2018, their 13th consecutive year of growth, a surge in popularity that's been credited to their rich sound quality and the obvious nostalgia factor. 

Still, the industry's done little to address the issue that's been plaguing the medium ever since its inception: Listening to vinyl isn't exactly something you can do on the go, because turntables aren't portable. Like, at all. 

Or so we all thought. 

With the Shark Tank-approved RokBlok, you can listen to your favorite albums virtually anywhereWe've covered this device before, but here's the skinny: Simply place a record on a flat surface, put the RokBlok on top of it, and then pull its control lever to start playing your tunes via its built-in speaker. (You can also pair the RokBlok with any Bluetooth-compatible speaker or smartphone within 30 feet to enjoy your records' sounds wirelessly.) Read more...

Criminals might want to think twice before stealing Tesla. 

A man led police on a chase through Riverside, California, after stealing a Tesla from a parking garage. The moment the Tesla was moved from its parking spot, the owner knew that his car was on the move and that he wasn't driving it, according to local news reports.

The Tesla owner informed the police, who eventually arrested the suspect. 

This was a shining moment for the Tesla app. Not only does it serve as a key, but it tracks the car's location, charge level, and can also control the interior climate.  Read more...

Two major car makers just out "Ubered" Uber. 

Last year, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said he wanted the app to do it all: individual rides, carpools, food deliveries, electric bicycles, e-scooters, self-driving vehicles, and even flying taxis. He wanted Uber to become "the Amazon of transportation."

But on Friday, German companies Daimler (of Mercedes-Benz) and BMW announced they were investing 1 billion euros ($1.13 billion) to offer many of the same services. 

Under the plan (which will initially focus on Europe, but could expand around the world), the two companies will combine existing services and companies with new transportation options.  Read more...

One of Twitter's cofounders is taking a major step back from the company: Ev Williams is leaving the company's board.

“It’s been an incredible 13 years, and I’m proud of what Twitter has accomplished during my time with the company. I will continue rooting for the team as I focus my time on other projects,” Williams said in a statement in an SEC filing announcing his departure from the board.

After The Wall Street Journal reported that popular period-tracking app Flo had been secretly sharing some of its users' most personal health data with Facebook, Flo is promising to make some changes.

Along with a number of other popular health apps, Flo used Facebook's developer software to track users' data in a way that could be used for advertising purposes, the report found. 

In Flo's case, the period tracking app "told Facebook when a user was having her period or informed the app of an intention to get pregnant," according to The WSJ. This data "was sent with a unique advertising identifier that can be matched to a device or profile." Read more...

Videos of cats opening doors are always good, but here is a particularly good one.

It was taken by Twitter user @steeleio_, who couldn't figure out why her roommate's cat was always able to break out of their bathroom. So she set up a camera on a shower shelf, shut the cat in the bathroom, and shook his food bag outside the door so he'd want to get out. 

He escaped in less than five minutes. "Once he got out, we gave him a treat and watched the video," @steeleio_ explained via Twitter DM. "My roommate was in complete shock."

Here is the video. Watch and be amazed.