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Tech News13 Times Selfies Turned Tragic
Here's some good examples of what not to do when you're snapping one for the 'gram.
Shoshana Wodinsky & Blake Montgomery -
Tech NewsNerfies Might Be the Future of Selfies, Letting Your Friends Judge You on Social Media in Full 3D
Ever since cameras first existed people have been pointing the lens at themselves to snap so-called selfies—a term first coined back in 2002. At this point they’re long overdue for an upgrade, so a team of researchers have created what could be the next-generation of selfies: easy to capture 3D models of yourself dubbed nerfies … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgetsThis Puppy Photo Booth Lets Good Boys Take Selfies For Treats
Simone Giertz, the self-proclaimed Queen of Shitty Robots, has used her time in quarantine wisely to create the kind of serotonin injection we could all use right about now: a paw-operated (pawperated?) photo booth for her dog. It essentially works like a Pavlovian selfie, only instead of ringing a bell, Giertz trained her dog Scraps … Continued
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Tech NewsJapanese Flip Phones, a Hidden Ancient Roman City, and Overrated Pastries: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week
I hope everyone had a good week, except for my coworker Catie Keck who recently committed slander by calling macarons and oatmeal raisin cookies overrated. Fact: Those are fire and anyone who says otherwise is a cop. This week, the folks at Gizmodo covered some truly amazing stories. Like how a team of researchers used … Continued
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Tech NewsApple Wins Patent for Socially Distant Group Selfies
It can be difficult to return to business as usual during America’s first phase of reopening with federal social distancing recommendations still in effect. But a new patent from Apple gives us a glimpse into how one bit of normalcy—group selfies—might work even when we’re all at least six feet apart. As spotted by Patently … Continued
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Tech NewsWhy Do My Selfies Look So Weird?
It’s a fraught thing, selfie-taking. One moment you’re thinking of yourself as more or less human-looking, and then—click—you realize you’ve got it all wrong, and that strangers on the street probably pity you, on account of your dead eyes and strange head. Or you see, on your phone, a perfectly normal-looking person who just happens … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgetsThis Japanese Smartphone Uses AI to Prevent Users From Saving and Sharing Naked Selfies
Worried about what online shenanigans your child might get into with their first smartphone? In Japan, a company has released a budget phone with at least one feature you won’t find on a flagship iOS or Android device: an AI-powered sensor that prevents naked selfie shots from being saved or shared. With a price tag … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgetsOppo’s Under-Screen Selfie Camera Makes Notches Feel Like a Lazy Design Placeholder
You can tell yourself whatever you need to feel better about having to stare at your smartphone’s ugly notch all day, but it’s an awkward design decision that serves as a placeholder until a more elegant solution to hiding a front facing camera (and other tech) comes along. Apple seems to be in no rush … Continued
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Tech NewsThat Viral Story About Selfie-Takers on a Thai Beach ‘Facing the Death Penalty’ Is Totally Fake
Recently, you may have seen news stories claiming that tourists could “face the death penalty” for taking selfies on a certain beach in Thailand—which we can all agree is a little bit extreme. Thankfully, those claims are totally fake. This week, a flurry of fear-mongering reports came out warning that taking a photo on Mai Khao … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgetsHey OnePlus, Are You Sure About This?
When whispers started swirling that OnePlus was going for a fully bezel-less design on its next major phone, the immediate question became: How would the company do it? Will the OnePlus 7 get a punch-hole selfie cam like the Galaxy S10? Or would OnePlus go for a more low-tech solution like the manual slider found … Continued
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ScienceHealthResearchers Identify Hundreds of ‘Selfie Deaths’ From Media Reports
Next time you’re tempted to take a risk to get that perfect selfie, maybe think twice about it. A new study by medical researchers from New Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences has identified hundreds of people who suffocated in bodies of water, were struck by vehicles, plummeted off high surfaces, suffered lethal burn … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsWatch Gravity Punish This Paraglider for Using a Selfie Stick at 2,500 Feet
You’ve been told for years now to stop using selfie sticks. They’re obnoxious, they’re annoying to others, and they make everyone’s vacation photos look the same. It seems even gravity has now had enough of the stupid accessories, as this paraglider discovered while soaring at 2,500 feet in the air. Admittedly, it would have been … Continued
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Tech News
I Can’t Wait to Give Everyone a $55 Lickable Lollipop Version of My Face
It takes a healthy amount of vanity to gift someone a portrait of yourself, but a life-size, lickable, lollipop version of your face? That would require something closer to full-blown narcissism—or a private, long-running in-joke I never want to be a part of. Firebox’s new “Face Licker” service (yep, that’s what it’s calling it) simply … Continued
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Tech News
FBI Says Museum Party Attendee Took Selfie With Terracotta Warrior, Stole Thumb
If a museum hosts a tacky holiday party, it should be aware that it could bring in the type of people that will vandalize and steal historic art. Case in point: Authorities say an attendee at an ugly sweater party at The Franklin Institute snuck into the museum’s Terracotta Army exhibit last December, cracked off … Continued
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ScienceHealth
Report: UConn Dental Students, Staff Took Selfie With Severed Heads (Updated)
University of Connecticut dental school grad students and an orthodontics professor took a selfie “with two severed heads used for medical research at a training workshop at Yale University” in 2017, the Associated Press reported on Monday. According to the AP report, the students nabbed the selfies during the DePuy Synthes Future Leaders Workshop, “which … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech News
Your Selfie Obsession May Be Real, But ‘Selfitis’ Is a Fake Disease
From the annals of bad science reporting comes this latest confusion: Media outlets completely misconstrued the results of a study about a supposed selfie mental disorder—a study that itself was inspired by a hoax that also fooled media outlets three years earlier. Some of the headlines, blared from even reputable outlets like The Guardian, include: … Continued
By Ed Cara -
Tech News
Hey, So, Your iPhone May Have Tagged All the Photos of You in a ‘Brassiere’
Since mid-2016, Apple’s iPhone Photos app has used metadata analysis and image-recognition technology to sort users’ photos automatically and tag them for easy extraction. The categories include everything from various animals to inanimate objects like furniture—but as Twitter user @ellieeewbu noted on Monday, it also includes the archaic term “brassiere.” In a limited straw poll, … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsThis Photo Editing Software Hopes To Make Your Selfies Look More Attractive
Science has already proven that certain camera lenses can distort your face (so don’t worry if you just can’t seem to look right in photos), but there’s more that can go into your appearance in a selfie. For instance, the closer the camera is to your face, the larger your nose looks, the smaller your … Continued
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Tech NewsAfter a High-Speed Chase in LA, Suspected Burglars Have Time to Pose for Selfies Before Cops Arrive
It’s not really not the ending that anyone expected for one of LA’s most bizarre police chases ever. The convertible navy blue Mustang had been driving for hours with its top down in the rain, nearly T-boning a TMZ tour bus and doing doughnuts on Hollywood Boulevard. After meandering through traffic on the southbound 101, … Continued
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Tech NewsCommerce
Amazon’s New Payment System Patent Is Determined to Make You Look Like a Dumbass
In the future, your slightly awkward selfies will do more than just get you a few compliments from your grandmother: They might also help you shop for toilet paper, lube, and all the other things you secretly buy on Amazon. A patent application filed in October and published last week suggests that Amazon is intent … Continued