There are a few hallmarks that are often associated with smart people. First, they’re usually interested in the world around them and understanding smart things. They’re also fairly often pretty smart about protecting themselves when they go out to investigate that big expansive world. The CuriosityStream and KeepSolid VPN Unlimited Lifetime Subscription Bundle ($179, 60 percent off, from TNW Deals) is a double-barreled blast of smartness, satisfying a need to understand life, the universe and everything while remaining fundamentally secure on the web while that happens....

If you didn’t like documentaries before watching Tiger King, you might now believe that they can be as fun as movies. If you liked watching documentaries already, I don’t need to convince you. Here are some free-to-watch documentaries for you: Netflix is offering some of its documentaries for free on its YouTube channel. If you’re missing football action, you can watch the 2018 World Cup’s official documentary on FIFA’s YouTube channel....

Individually, ESPN+ and Hulu cost $4.99 and $5.99 respectively. Meanwhile, at the launch, Disney+ will cost $6.99 per month and will host all Disney, Pixar, Star Wars, and Marvel movies. The bundle seems like a good deal, as it costs $5 less than if you subscribed to these services separately. Apart from a huge catalog of movies, Disney will also launch original shows, including a 10-episode Star Wars series from Jon Favreau, and a show based on High School Musical in November....

But before I get into it properly, let’s begin with a few general points to set the stage: Blockchains are not designed to solve security issues. They minimize trust. They allow unidentified users to exchange scarce digital unit of value, by preventing double spending without relying on trusted third parties. If blockchains happen to include security features, it’s not inherently but rather by design, in order to achieve trust minimization....

The service is an open-sourced and continuously updated list of common trackers with details such as tracking behavior, prevalence, ownership, fingerprinting behavior, cookie behavior, and privacy policy. DuckDuckGo says anyone can make use of this tool: individuals can use it through the company’s mobile browser or desktop browser extensions, developers can use the code to embed the whole list in their apps or websites, and researchers can utilize it to learn more about trackers....

So far, all we know about Elden Ring is what we saw in a trailer shown at the Xbox E3 show this weekend. Details were scarce, but we can gather it’s going to be a dark fantasy game set in a world headed for a breakdown — which sounds a lot like Dark Souls, come to think of it. From president Hidetaka Miyazaki told Xbox Wire the game would be an open-world RPG, and will be full of “things that we weren’t able to do in the Dark Souls series....

On the face of it, this seems like a strange thing for the chief executive of an electric car company to say. After all, EVs are always marketed as a “clean” alternative to conventional cars. But the truth is a little more complicated. Electric vehicles do offer a route to climate neutrality, but it takes more than just buying an EV to “go green.” The trouble is that car manufacturers have not been clear about the environmental impact of their products....

After months of COVID delays and issues with construction permits due to environmental concerns, Elon Musk finally made it to Berlin this week to officially open Tesla’s new Gigafactory. ‘Giga’ is no exaggeration – the manufacturing hub is ready to deliver 500,000 Teslas into this world every year. While the first Model Y cars were presented to their new owners, Elon delivered on a promise he made earlier this month on — what else — Twitter....

According to French motoring outlet Caradisiac, the super hot hatch from US car maker Ford has been shelved. The decision, revealed by the American motor company in an interview with the French outlet, was seemingly made as engineers struggle to balance performance with European emissions regulations. [Read: Remembering the Nucleon, Ford’s 1958 nuclear-powered concept car that never was] Back in February, Ford bosses said that the company was rethinking the drivetrain of its now canceled Focus RS....

Summer comes to a close for residents of the northern hemisphere on Sept. 22. Unfortunately, if you think Mother Nature will flip a switch, dial back the heat, and send cooling temperatures our way on Sept. 23, then you probably haven’t been paying attention to October temperatures the past few years. Or November, for that matter. Across much of the world, the need for quick, easy methods for staying cool are now an almost year round pursuit....

Up front: The European Commission ruled that Daimler, BMW, and the Volkswagen Group (Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche) had collectively agreed to limit the development of tech that could restrict pollution from gasoline and diesel cars. Daimler, however, avoided a fine after revealing the group’s existence. Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President of the Commission, said the collusion broke EU antitrust rules: — Margrethe Vestager (@vestager) July 8, 2021 The VW Group received the majority of the fine — $594m (€502m) — while BMW got the remaining $594m (€373m)....

The European Union wants at least 30 million electric vehicles (EVs) on its roads by 2030, a draft report set to be published this week has revealed. According to the report, seen by Reuters, other ambitious measures to tackle EU greenhouse gas emissions – 25 percent of which come from the transport sector – are also expected to be laid out. ‘The EU’s goal of climate neutrality by 2050 cannot be reached without introducing very ambitious measures to reduce transport’s reliance on fossil fuels,” the document said, with estimates that the bloc will need three million public charging points and 1,000 hydrogen refueling stations by 2030....

Over the last five years, the UK has rapidly ramped up its efforts towards electric vehicle (EV) adoption with a boost to EV charging infrastructure. But there are those in the media who are already peddling fear. Yesterday, the Daily Mail reported that from May, every new EV charger will be preset to turn off for nine hours a day, automatically set to not function at ‘peak times’ to ease the pressure on the national grid....

The video description calls it a “360° video teaser of Ubisoft’s VR experience, based on Notre-Dame de Paris 3D reconstitution from the videogame Assassin’s Creed: Unity.” Ubisoft debuted the VR experience last year to visitors at the UNESCO headquarters, but has so far not made it public, but that description makes me think it might be soon. Otherwise, why call it a “teaser”? Read: Ubisoft offers Assassin’s Creed Unity for free so you can visit Notre-Dame If you want to explore more of Ubisoft’s reconstruction of Notre Dame at the moment, I recommend buying Assassin’s Creed Unity....

As a scholar of cybersecurity and election security, I have argued that these firms must do more to rein in disinformation, digital repression, and voter suppression on their platforms, including by treating these issues as a matter of corporate social responsibility. Earlier this fall, Twitter announced new measures to tackle disinformation, including false claims about the risks of voting by mail. Facebook has likewise vowed to crack down on disinformation and voter intimidation on its platform, including by removing posts that encourage people to monitor polling places....

According to a report from Bloomberg, starting this week, some users will be able to make voice and video calls directly from the app. While currently, this is just a test, the company said this feature will “reduce the need to jump back and forth between Facebook’s main app and its Messenger service.” Tables have turned. In 2014, Facebook first started the push towards Messenger by discontinuing the chat feature in the main app....

According to app researcher Jane Manchun Wong, Facebook is testing encrypting video and audio calls over Messenger in Secret mode. However, this doesn’t mean your calls in normal mode will be encrypted. — Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) October 31, 2019 Currently, Messenger encrypts messages only in secret conversation mode, and it doesn’t have call functionality. It’s also important to note amongst Facebook’s messaging apps, only WhatsApp has end-to-end encryption on for chat and calls by default....

The company frames the feature as a way to tailor your Facebook when you go through a major life change, such as a breakup or a job hunt. Personally, I don’t think the impetus needs to be quite that much. Goodness knows we all go through that Facebook-awkward phase where we post aimlessly about how much we love BTS or how we’re “feeling bored” (or at least, I hope we all do or I’m really going to have egg on my face)....

This move comes ahead of Mental Health Day on October 10. But it also comes along with the recent allegations against the company about ignoring the mental health impact of Instagram’s algorithms on teens. The firm said that it has worked with experts on mental health all around the world to build these tools. Here’s what the company has launched: A new emotional health hub with resources related to different aspects of mental health including tips and links to organizations working in specific areas....

— Jerome Pesenti (@an_open_mind) May 13, 2020 The Facebook AI head is not the only one to criticize Musk’s AI opinions. In 2017, Musk said that AI might cause World War III and outlined the danger of AI-powered killer robots. He even went on to say AI is more dangerous than North Korea. Later, Bill Gates dismissed these claims and said people shouldn’t panic about it. In the same year, Mark Zuckerberg said that Musk’s doomsday scenario predictions about AI are “pretty irresponsible....