TECH NEWS

It took Robert Gomez about five months to get his Kaffe coffee grinder to the big leagues in e-commerce: among the first three search results for “coffee grinder” on Amazon.com. Gomez, founder of Atlanta-based consumer goods startup 4Q Brands, said he obsessively refined his photos and description, amassed reviews from happy customers, and paid Amazon $40,000 a month on advertising to boost sales, one of the elements Amazon tells sellers will increase search ranking. Robert Gomez, owner of startup 4Q Brands, in his warehouse in Buford, GA on October 6th, 2021. For more than two years, his coffee grinder had…This story continues at The Next WebOr just read more coverage about: Amazon

Truth, justice and a better tomorrow.

HBO's razor-sharp Emmy-winning drama returns this weekend with Alexander Skarsgard and Adrien Brody. Here's everything to know about the upcoming season.

In the aftermath of The Suicide Squad, John Cena's Peacemaker has a new team and a potential partner, if he can stop being such a huge jerk.

It happens. You dump a load of laundry in the washer, and your AirPods are tucked into the pocket of your favorite pants. Or you’re sitting on the toilet, and you know what happens next.

Electronics meet water, triggering a frantic search for a way to dry them off. Can they be saved? Maybe. Here’s what you can do if your AirPods get wet.

But wait...there are a few important things to clarify first.

Are AirPods actually waterproof?

In a word, no. No version of AirPods — standard AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max — are waterproof. Charging cases and Smart Cases are not waterproof, either.

Are AirPods water resistant?

It’s a no for the standard AirPods, the AirPods Max, charging cases, and the Smart Case. But there’s a bit of good news for AirPods Pro owners: They are sweat and water resistant, boasting an IPX4 water-resistant rating. That means that AirPods Pro hold up if they get splashed with water from any direction or wet from sweat. But you should know that their water resistance wanes over time. Normal wear can decrease the water resistance of the AirPods Pros.

See Also: The best smart speakers: See where the Amazon Echo Dot, others rank

OK, so, how do you dry off AirPods?

If your AirPods do get wet, it may be possible to salvage them. As soon as you can, use a soft, dry, lint-free cloth, such as a microfiber cloth, to dry them off. Then, place them in a safe spot to dry. Depending on how wet they were, it might take a day or longer for them to fully dry out. Cases dry best when the lid is open and they are stored upside down.

Before using your AirPods again or storing them away in their charging case, they must be completely dry, Apple warns. Putting wet AirPods into a charging case could cause further damage to the case itself.

Can I dry my AirPods with a hair dryer?

Don’t try to speed up the process with a hair dryer or other heat source; the heat could cause more harm to your AirPods.

What can I do if my AirPods don’t work after drying them off?

Some AirPods users claim success using rice or desiccant, in the form of silica gel packets, to suck out any moisture. Silica gel packets are those little packets that say, “Do Not Eat” and are typically found in shoe boxes, vitamin containers, and packaged with electronics to ward off moisture build up. To try to dry your AirPods off in this way, place them in a container with the packets. If you use rice as an alternative, wrap the AirPods in paper towels so an individual grain doesn’t get stuck in the device. Again, it may take a day or more for them to dry out completely.

When should I give up trying to dry my AirPods off?

If they no longer connect to your device or sound off after a couple of days, it’s probably time to call it quits and get a new pair.

After several years in development Hell, the first footage from Black Adam debuted at DC Fandom, courtesy of the film's star, Dwayne Johnson.

My son can't figure out how to get his Chromebook connected to the Starbucks wifi network when we try to work there. My PC connects fine, but his warns that he needs to go through the 'login screen' but never shows that screen. Help!

The post Connect to the Starbucks WiFi Network with a Chromebook? originally appeared on Ask Dave Taylor.

At DC FanDome, Ezra Miller shared the first look at The Flash's upcoming film, and the chaos that Barry Allen leaves behind in the wake of his actions.

If you need a printer, you probably need it now. We’ve rounded up a handful of the best printer deals available along with a list of a few that we recommend.

Sometimes you need a chill down your spine to shake off the doldrums and know you’re alive.

Thrillers are a perfect pairing for this craving. Such suspense-rich movies give us a first-class ticket to journeys wild, winding, and exciting. They allow us to live vicariously through reckless thieves, smirking vigilantes, and brave tough guys who never shrink from a fray. If you're on the search for cinema that will rattle your nerves and leave you breathless, we've got just the thing. Whether you want some new or old, fun or frightening, mind-bending or heart-warming, there’s a perfect pick just for you.

Here are the 10 best thrillers now available on HBO Max.

1. M

“M” is the mark of a murderer in this unnerving Fritz Lang classic, which boasts layers of sinister thrills. Released in 1931, this German gem explored the terrors of “stranger danger” way ahead of its time by tracking the crimes of a sneaky child killer. Rather than show kids slaughtered onscreen, Lang employed German Expressionism to imply carnage, thus turning an abandoned balloon into a horrific image. Suspense is wrought not only from the threat that this merciless murderer will strike again, but also from a raging mob's mounting quest for vigilante justice. With wide eyes and an unsettling screen presence, Peter Lorre made his mark with this role of a revolting fiend.

How to watch: M is now streaming on HBO Max.

2. Twelve Monkeys

Like some sci-fi with your thrills? Then, dive into director Terry Gilliam’s 1995 tale of madness, plague, and love. Bruce Willis stars as a prisoner who time-travels from a dystopian future to a doomed past, searching for the source of a virus that wiped out much of humanity. Nothing goes right on these ramshackle missions. So, our befuddled hero desperately seeks help from a bombastic mental patient (an Academy Award-nominated Brad Pitt) and a skeptical yet alluring psychiatrist (Madeleine Stowe). Combatting confounding clues, a shattered psyche, and a yearning to stay in this sun-dappled past, can he save the future before time runs out?

How to watch: Twelve Monkeys is now streaming on HBO Max.

3. North by Northwest

Among Alfred Hitchcock’s most successful and iconic films, this 1959 thriller stars Cary Grant as a Madison Ave ad exec (yep, he’s a Mad Men), whose life is derailed when he’s mistaken for a secret agent. You might recognize the scene where the dapper Grant is chased down in a field by a cropduster airplane. But there’s much, much more to this chilling mistaken identity story, including a spine-tingling climax at a national landmark. The plot's treacherous turns earned screenwriter Ernest Lehman an Oscar nod for Best Original Screenplay. The swaggering charm of Grant and his enchanting co-star Eva Marie Saint helped make this film a big hit. All these decades later, it’s still a stunner.

How to watch: North by Northwest is now streaming on HBO Max.

4. Stoker

South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-Wook earned global acclaim for his jaw-dropping Vengence Trilogy, made up of three sensational thrillers: Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Oldboy (2003), and Lady Vengeance (2005). In his English-language debut in 2013, he brought together an all-star cast for another deliciously devilish tale of twisted love and violence. Following the death of her father, introverted India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska) becomes fascinated with her long-estranged uncle (Matthew Goode), which rankles her jealous mother (Nicole Kidman). As their taboo bond grows, terrible family secrets are unearthed, leading to a shocking climax. Wentworth Miller’s sharp screenplay has a diabolical wit that urges dark laughs amid the horror, while Chan-Wook’s gothic aesthetic transforms a brutal world into something hauntingly beautiful.

How to watch: Stoker is now streaming on HBO Max.

5. Dog Day Afternoon

No bank robbery movie can compare to Sidney Lumet’s 1975 classic. Based on outrageous real events, Dog Day Afternoon stars Al Pacino as Sonny Wortzik, a neurotic thief who gets in way over his head when he takes a bunch of hostages in a Brooklyn stick-up. The Academy Award-winning screenplay by Frank Pierson ushers audiences into the vault, behind the police barricades, and into the cramped apartments of Sonny’s family, unfurling a complicated but compelling portrait of a contemporary American folk hero. Pacino’s frantic energy and chaotic charisma have us rooting for Sonny, whether he’s mocking the cops, playing to the gawking crowd, or bickering with his distraught mother. The tension is nail-biting. But what makes this film spectacular is the deeply engrained comedy that’s born from the quirky characters, who cuss, clamor, and crack-wise like born-and-raised New Yorkers do.

How to watch: Dog Day Afternoon is now streaming on HBO Max.

6. Promising Young Woman

With this 2020 release, writer/director Emerald Fennell flips the script on vigilante-centered thrillers, giving audiences a freshly exhilarating and deeply unnerving tale of vengeance. Academy Award-nominee Carey Mulligan stars as the titular anti-heroine, who stalks bars and nightclubs in search of self-proclaimed “nice guys” who are up to no good. Far from a straightforward narrative of eye-for-an-eye, Fennell’s Oscar-winning screenplay delves into a murky moral grey area, exploring complicity in rape culture with a series of harrowing turns. Candy-colored and spiced up with a badass soundtrack, this celebrated yet controversial movie gives a difficult subject a glossy coating that’s meant to entrance, then crumble and crush you.

How to watch: Promising Young Woman is now streaming on HBO Max.

7. The Bodyguard

It was the 1992 smash hit heard ‘round the world. Whitney Houston starred as an ultra-famous singer/actress, whose life is being threatened by an anonymous stalker. Kevin Costner co-stars as the titular bodyguard, who has a history in the Secret Service and a hard rule about not getting too close to his clients. However, once he protectively sweeps her away from danger and up in his big strong arms, romance is inevitable and — thanks to the chemistry of its stars — absolutely intoxicating. Mick Jackson directs this romance-laced thriller, which was not only a box office smash but also boasted Houston’s iconic rendition of “I Will Always Love You.'

How to watch: The Bodyguard is now streaming on HBO Max.

8. Argo

Ben Affleck pulls double-duty, serving as director and leading man of this heralded historical thriller from 2012. Inspired by a stranger-than-fiction CIA scheme, Argo follows an imaginative agent (Affleck), who goes undercover as a sci-fi movie producer, so he might rescue Americans from the Iran hostage crisis of 1979. To make the ruse work, he must collaborate with some real Hollywood types, including a snarky make-up artist (John Goodman) and a surly producer (Alan Arkin), both of whom bring spunk and levity to an otherwise pulse-poundingly tense scenario. Critics cheered Affleck’s riveting balance of drama, suspense, and cheeky Hollywood ribbing, and the Academy followed suit, awarding Argo three Oscars, including Best Picture.

How to watch: Argo is now streaming on HBO Max.

9. The Maltese Falcon

Like many a great film noir, this 1941 thriller begins with a hardnosed detective (Humphrey Bogart) and a gorgeous dame in distress (Mary Astor). Based on Dashiell Hammett’s novel, The Maltese Falcon follows private investigator Sam Spade as he seeks not only to solve the mystery of who murdered his business partner, but also the whereabouts of the titular — and hotly sought — statuette. Along the way, he’ll meet suspicious characters, uncover horrid clues, and tango with a femme fatale as dazzling as she is deceitful. Crackling with biting banter, shocking reveals, and old-fashioned star power, John Huston’s directorial debut still hits harder than a shot of whiskey.

How to watch: The Maltese Falcon is now streaming on HBO Max.

10. Fear

Plenty of thrillers center on the male fear of female sexuality, featuring a femme fatale and her deadly allure that can drive men to ruin. Director James Foley turned the tables on this trope with his 1996 offering. Mark Walhberg stars as a sexy but volatile hunk, who falls hard for a teen girl (Reese Witherspoon) and won’t let her go. The fear of the film comes from her father (William Peterson), who worries this guy is up to no good. Yet dear old dad is impotent in his attempts to keep the young lovers apart. While the fear of female sexuality lurks in a father's anxieties about losing his daughter to finding a romantic partner, Foley invites audiences into the girl's perspective by harnessing the Female Gaze on Walhberg and providing a sometimes swooning soundtrack (cue 'Wild Horses'). The allure of this bad boy is so profound that many a fan still recalls a certain rollercoaster scene with a shudder of excitement.

How to watch: Fear is now streaming on HBO Max.

Zachary Levi takes on Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu with a first look at the Shazam sequel.

If you haven't yet seen The Suicide Squad then you might not be familiar with John Cena's Peacemaker.

Well he's got a spin-off series coming to HBO Max and this first teaser does a great job of selling the idea of a 'douche-y, bro-y Captain America.' That's how The Suicide Squad director James Gunn told Cena to approach the character from the start.

The teaser goes beyond the recently released clip by also introducing more of the team that assembles around Peacemaker in the series. But what you're likely to remember best is Peacemaker sitting with his crew, explaining his theory on 'butt babies.' It's... definitely a bunch of words that aren't biologically accurate in the slightest, but nonetheless make sense given the character doing the talking. It's quite a moment.

A sustained backlash against the CSAM-scanning feature forced Apple to hit pause on its plans. Is this a permanent pause?

Want to get a notification every time it’s about to start or stop raining? With iOS 15, you can get them from the stock Weather app.

Get out from under that oppressive annual percentage interest rate.

Evidence from the Hubble Space Telescope shows persistent water vapor on Jupiter's moon Europa -- but only in one hemisphere.

Robot vacuums are a convenient way to clean your home, free your hands, and minimize the weekly chore list. Here are the best models in every price range.

The asteroids are 4.6-billion-year-old relics from the solar system's earliest days.

Ever heard of room tone in film-making? Stick around to learn what it is and why you need it.

As it turns out, converting HEIC files in Windows 10 and 11 requires no third-party downloads whatsoever.

This week, we’ve got our regular gadget reviews plus our thoughts on a forthcoming video game. Cherlynn Low strapped on the Apple Watch Series 7 to see how it compares to the previous version and to find out how much of a difference the larger screen makes. Igor Bonifacic tested the 2021 Motorola Edge smartphone and found it offers a lot of high-end features — including a 144Hz display — at a budget-friendly price. Terrence O’Brien played with the effects and inputs on the Roland SP-404MKII and reported that it makes chopping samples more fun. Finally, Jess Conditt sat in the virtual driver’s seat to play Forza Horizon 5, a game she declares a perfect getaway in a time of travel restrictions.

The Apple Watch Series 7 is bigger and better

Cherlynn Low acknowledges that the main difference between the Apple Watch Series 7 and the previous model is the larger screen, but she’s adamant that even this small change makes a big impact. The Series 7’s display is 20 percent larger than that of the Series 6, and has significantly smaller bezels. It’s also the first Apple Watch to be IP6X certified for dust resistance, making it more durable. Cherlynn said the larger display made things easier to read and navigate, and the extra screen space made it easier to enter in the right keys and see more of messages.

Apple also debuted some additional watch faces and a full QWERTY keyboard on the Series 7. Cherlynn says the new faces are designed to display more information at once. The full QWERTY keyboard provided more flexibility, but since she only got roughly a 60-percent accuracy rate when tapping on the display, Cherlynn said she still preferred using dictation. Apple still doesn’t offer advanced sleep tracking, though this model will log your respiration rate while you sleep and report back the next morning. If sleep tracking isn’t your main reason for wanting a smartwatch, Cherlynn says the Series 7 will be a satisfying purchase.

The 2021 Motorola Edge is easier to recommend than its predecessor

Of the various upgrades to the 2021 Motorola Edge, Igor Bonifacic thinks the 6.8-inch LCD 144Hz screen is the stand-out feature. The flat edges made it easier to hold and the improved refresh rate makes the Edge feel smooth and responsive. The screen is vibrant, bright and has support for HDR10, plus Igor says the 19.5:9 aspect ratio works well for scrolling through vertical apps. He also liked the move to a capacitive fingerprint scanner on the side-mounted power button because it made unlocking the phone while wearing a mask significantly easier.

However, there are some tradeoffs for the $550 smartphone, notably the LCD screen, which lacks the power efficiency and deep blacks that OLED can offer. The 144Hz display also produced some slight glitching. In addition, the device’s single speaker produced tinny sound, and he found the ultra-wide camera mediocre. But he did like the battery life, which lasted a whopping two days, and the extended 2-year software support. If you don’t mind a few compromises, Igor says the 2021 Edge is well worth checking out.

Roland’s SP-404MKII sampler is a pleasure to use

Though the new SP-404MKII sampler physically resembles previous versions, Terrence O’Brien says the new OLED screen and 16-pad layout are huge upgrades. The new display can show the actual waveform as it’s being edited, which makes recording and editing samples easier and more fun. And the 16-pad set up is not only more standard, but it also offers users more samples and patterns to make beats. Terrence also preferred the refreshed color scheme of grey and black with muted orange and white accents.

The SP-404MKII has a few more minor upgrades: it’s the first sampler in the line to feature velocity sensitive pads and it has MIDI out as well as MIDI IN connectors. This means the 404 can get hooked up to a PC via USB-C, or be used with external gear. Terrence played around with both the input effects, courtesy of the ¼-inch audio input and headphone jacks, as well as the bus effects and found that chopping samples on the machine is actually enjoyable instead of a chore. The SP-404MKII is also fairly portable: Terrence says it can fit in a bag easily enough and it can be powered with six AA batteries. And it's affordable at $500, which makes it a reasonable purchase even for those who are just looking to dabble in sampling.

Forza Horizon 5 is an enjoyable escape

Since she couldn’t get behind the wheel of a real-life 2021 Ford Bronco, Jess Conditt did the next best thing: she drove it around the race tracks and lush environments of Forza Horizon 5. Though she only had access to a preview build, she reports back that Horizon 5 is a mellower version of the motorsport game, spread across a fictionalized Mexico and featuring tricked out vehicles including a 2020 Corvette Stingray Coupe and a 1989 Porsche 911 Desert Flyer.

Regardless of which vehicle you choose, Jess says they’re all magical to (virtually) drive. They get window cracks and door dents but are largely indestructible and always land tires-down. She also appreciated the layers of customization within the game, from accessories to creating characters to upgrading vehicles with designs. On the Xbox Series S, the game ran smoothly and looked lovely at 1080p/60fps. Jess says even without ray-tracing, Horizon 5’s distinct biomes, weather and environments were all a treat to view, making it a perfect virtual escape.

Grab your magnifying glass and get ready to investigate as Mashable uncovers Big/Little Mysteries.

True crime is one of the most popular genres ever. It's also going through a huge identity crisis.

In podcasting especially, the genre is almost exclusively made by women, for women (mostly). Many wildly popular true crime shows even claim to have lofty goals, of preparing folks so they don't become the next victim or of confronting the gender-based traumas of misogynistic violence.

But large swaths of the true crime community ignore the plethora of other systemic issues plaguing America's criminal justice system, namely when it's related to race. The stench of copaganda is all over this all-too-white phenomenon, as podcast hosts simultaneously try to camouflage victim exploitation as something honorable.

With each passing year — especially since the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 — the uglier parts of true crime have become harder to ignore. Enter Celisia Stanton: Wedding photographer, high school debate coach, prison abolitionist, and first-time podcaster.

Truer Crime, which Stanton launched in May, tackles the laundry list of ethical critiques lobbed at the genre — and then some. It covers some of the classic, popular true crime stories, like that of Darlie Routier (the mother convicted of murdering her two sons) and the Jonestown Massacre (with over 900 members of a predominantly Black civil rights group forced to poison themselves by their white leader Jim Jones). But you've never heard them told like this before. On top of that, the podcast even has a TikTok page that's helping to make TrueCrimeTok a less toxic, white-focused space.

In a genre with far too many false narratives, Stanton stands out by revealing the truth of crime in America and getting at the heart of those most victimized by systems that exacerbate the violence.

Editor's Note: This interview was edited for clarity and length.

Mashable: What inspired you to start making Truer Crime?

Celisia Stanton: A few things led me to become a podcaster, or more specifically a true crime podcaster.

One thing was living in Minneapolis. I don't live very far at all from where George Floyd was murdered. The uprisings over the summer of 2020 were obviously impactful to everyone globally, but it especially impacted the local community.

As a full-time wedding photographer, my social media presence was always a big part of the job. I was always told that, as an entrepreneur, you need to keep business and politics very separate. You don't want to run off potential clients and stakes are high when you don't have a guaranteed, regular paycheck.

But I always felt like my whole life was political — as a Black woman, raised by gay parents, living in the Midwest. And I'm a high school debate coach. So everybody who knows me in regular life knows I'm outspoken about my strongly held beliefs on social issues. There was this disconnect between my professional, sanitized persona on social media, and who I am in my personal interactions.

So when George Floyd was murdered, it was an opportunity to put my views out there publicly. A few of my posts online went viral at the time. I started gaining a following, going from about a thousand followers on Instagram to 40,000 in the span of a few months. It was an, uh, interesting situation that happened to multiple people then, when all eyes were on listening to Black folks. There's a lot to say about that moment of interest. But the overwhelmingly positive response to sharing my thoughts and views disproved this idea of not being able to talk about anything publicly.

Another big thing was that after the murder of George Floyd, during the pandemic in the fall of 2020, I was the victim of fraud from a financial adviser who was a Black man I really trusted and thought shared my values. I ended up talking to the FBI and discovered he'd defrauded about 25 clients of millions of dollars for frivolous things like a second million-dollar home, cruises, fancy jewelry. Black men aren't the typical perpetrators of financial crimes at all. So it was really life-altering. People don't think about financial crimes too significantly. We tend to focus on violent crimes, which are obviously awful. But this person stole multiple people's retirement savings. Financial crimes impact people in very tangible, long-term ways.

In the aftermath, I got pretty depressed. Then it was the holiday season, when no one's getting married in Minnesota, so I wasn't able to work. So I started filling that time with listening to lots of true crime while doing puzzles.

Out of all that — the mass consumption of George Floyd's murder, and my own experience as a crime victim — came the idea for my podcast I'd later start Truer Crime.

Mashable: Before making Truer Crime, what was your relationship to the true crime podcast phenomenon? Were you listening to the Crime Junkies and My Favorite Murders of the world? Or was that not your bag?

C.S: No, I definitely was.

Serial was the first podcast that got me into podcasts, which is true for a lot of people. My friend and I re-listened to the whole thing on a trip just so we could talk about it. I was interested in them as a social phenomenon. Then we listened to a bunch of My Favorite Murder. But I never consumed quite as much as I did during that pandemic holiday. It was basically all day.

Mashable: In general, what were some of your biggest criticisms of the typical approach to true crime? Like, what were its biggest harms that you saw as unethical practices?

It was wild because I'd just continue to pause whatever I was listening to and go off on my boyfriend about all my issues with it—and that ended up pushing me to create Truer Crime. After one of these rants, he was like, “Why don't you make a podcast that doesn't do all that?”

One of my main issues was that, as a crime victim who went through the criminal legal system, I had this experience that gave me a critical perspective that true crime podcasts were just missing.

So much true crime pretends to be victim-centered when it isn't. A lot of people seem to think that if you talk about how bad the perpetrator was and talk about how great the victim was and why they didn't deserve it, then it's victim-centered.

But it's also victim-centered to talk about the root causes of why and how these crimes occur, so you can help prevent this sort of thing from happening to future victims. In a real way, not in the way of scaring everybody about crimes that don't actually happen a lot. That's very reactive, and that reactivity is at the root of not only the problem with true crime media, but the criminal legal system itself.

The reason why I call it the criminal legal system is because, in the U.S., it's not actually about obtaining justice.

Then there's some true crime media that is just straight-up disrespectful. In general, true crime media produced by men felt way worse at making jokes — about the victim, even. In general, the blend of comedy in true crime is weird to me.

At the end of the day, everybody likes things that are problematic. It is what it is. I'm not saying you have to be ethically pure. But when we've used TikTok to promote the show and our critiques of true crime, it turned out a lot of people share them. But the comedy one gets pushback with people saying, 'I like comedy with true crime because it helps take some of the horror away from it. It's easier for me to hear it, I'd be too uncomfortable otherwise.' But for me, it's just like, well, yeah. It's supposed to be uncomfortable. These are people's real-life traumas.

One person commented about how a lot of people use humor as a coping mechanism, like when folks of color use side chatter and make jokes during a horror movie to feel better about the uncomfortable, horrific things on-screen — specifically if it has to do with race. But that's a fictional movie. It's also one thing to use humor to deal with your own trauma. I don't understand it as a coping mechanism for some stranger's trauma because you don't have to listen to true crime podcasts. You could cope by disengaging from it entirely.

Then there's that over fixation on crimes that are the least likely to happen.

Being the victim of a crime in general, especially of extremely violent crimes like the murders often covered by true crime media, is pretty rare. There are subsets of the population who are more likely to be victims of those violent crimes. But they're disproportionately Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other folks of color. Yet the primary focus of true crime media is white women.

If you listen to a lot of true crime, you start to believe in this distorted worldview that's not actually the reality. You start to feel like certain people are more likely to be criminals, and certain people are more likely to be victims, and it's not the truth.

The last major issue I had was how nobody ever talked about systems. The stories always seemed to end with, 'Then they found the bad guy,' or 'we didn't find the bad guy, so if you know anything please contact agencies like the police or FBI or whatever so we can serve justice.' Which is really wild to me.

If somebody is murdered, finding that perpetrator can sometimes bring the family peace. But I don't know that justice or relief can ever be given to relatives or close friends of the victim of something as violent as murder. There's so many other things at play there that we could address but we obsess over punishing the 'bad guy.' Never was there discussion about the ways in which the systems of society create the conditions for these crimes to happen, or the ways in which punishment of the perpetrators doesn't seem to prevent these events from happening over and over again.

Take policing. If you listen to any true crime podcast, every episode is like, 'Oh well just by chance the police couldn't help — Isn't that so wild?' or 'They botched this — isn't that messed up?' At what point does it stop becoming surprising every time and instead become a pattern of behavior actually embedded into the system? Is there something really wrong here that's worth interrogating more?

But it's always, 'At the end of the day, even though the cops flubbed this one yet again, hopefully there's some good Samaritans out there or some good cops that'll save the day next time.' Which just feels so naive — especially when it happens practically every other episode.

Mashable: I call it the girlboss-ification of true crime. It might be slightly better when women tell the narrative, but it's mostly white women like you said. As a white woman who isn't vulnerable to the injustices of America's legal system, even I feel a bit triggered by those calls to action. I can't imagine what someone who's vulnerable to police brutality and wrongful conviction feels when the hosts of Crime Junkie galvanize their Season of Justice charity for more genetic testing to help solve cold cases. Especially after listening to your episode that got into the flaws of genetic and DNA evidence. How is Truer Crime course-correcting away from that white woman #girlboss approach to the genre?

C.S.: Yeah the Season of Justice stuff is really vile to me, just knowing more about how DNA evidence is misused after researching the Josiah Sutton case.

So much of the problem with that type of true crime comes back to exploitation. That's a big thing for me and the show.

With the girlboss-ification that you're talking about: So often, they're searching for a purpose because they don't want to be 'canceled' or problematic. So they'll say stuff like, 'We care about the victims, it's about putting their stories out there' or 'it's about making sure the same doesn't happen to you.' That's a little disingenuous to me.

You all have that same exact mission, but nothing changes. Meanwhile, people are just becoming more desensitized to true crime stories, not even seeing victims as real people. At what point can we admit that's not an actual justification for what you're doing? Because what you're creating is just pure entertainment. And it's monetized, obviously.

That's where the exploitation comes in.

Some victims and families might not be happy having their stories covered by these podcasts. Exposure is important for some folks and families, like in unsolved cases, or to have their family member remembered. But it's even sadder to think about how that's their only option. You either have it covered this way, or not covered at all.

It's a hard thing, including for me, to continuously navigate, to toe that line of exploitation. On some level, all media is entertainment. I'm not gonna deny that my podcast is a piece of entertainment. It's just facts. But how do you make it a net positive for the world, instead of harmful to victims, family members, all that?

You make the real person the center of the stories.

Our first episode on Darlie Routier is one of those very popular true crime cases covered by everyone. So I wanted the challenge of finding something unique to share about it. I was astonished — got really upset, even going through all of the evidence myself and reading what her and her family had to say. There's so much left out to craft her narrative in a way that maximizes entertainment value, to make it a whodunit mystery, good for theories on her guilt or innocence.

But Darlie Routier is currently on death row right now, and she and her entire family have been claiming her innocence for about 25 years. You need to be extremely desensitized to the fact that she's an actual person, that her family members are real people, to the fact that her living son is a real person, to instead only care about swapping theories.

As much as possible, I don't want the people in these cases to just become yet another character in a true crime story. People say all the time that they binged all our episodes. And, OK, that's how people consume content. I did the same thing — like a lot. A couple of the hundreds of episodes I listened to stuck with me, but most didn't because of how coldly it's covered and the way I was consuming it.

I want every episode of Truer Crime to feel impactful.

With Darlie, there was this 911 call she makes the night her two older sons were killed, and it's super famous — a lot of true crime media plays that public access audio to speculate on her tone, what she says wrong, what she should've said, why she's guilty. But when I listened, it just sounded like the most terrible moment in somebody's — in a whole family's life.

I went back and forth on whether using the audio was an invasion of privacy. Long story short, I put a small bit in because it's a big part of her story, and her family and supporters are still trying to recapture the narrative about it to show people the true emotion behind how she sounded. Framing it that way felt like a more positive impact.

Mashable: Another major question hanging over these issues around true crime media is: Why aren't George Floyd or Breonna Taylor covered?

C.S.: Those [stories] get labeled political, social justice, or historical. And that's only because of people's framing of what true crime is. Overwhelmingly, true crime is when a white, pretty blonde woman gets murdered by a stranger.

And people are nervous to cover them. If you've already attracted an established audience over the years that's pretty pro-law enforcement, maybe more conservative in their thinking, not just politically but generally — that's a big risk. Even if your audience is a mix of people, since I believe all different types of people consume true crime. But George Floyd or Breonna Taylor could still potentially alienate lots of customers.

It's weird because we're in this phase after the Minneapolis uprising where it's like, 'Oh shoot we have to be 'woke.'' So people are toeing the line by covering cases about Black people, but never a case of someone being murdered by police or anything flagged as political. Others are just scared to talk about these issues, especially since white folks are overwhelmingly the true crime media creators. They fear saying the wrong thing, being critiqued.

When people are critical of the true crime genre, their conclusion is usually that it just shouldn't be consumed. But first off: People aren't going to stop. It's by far one of the most popular podcast genres, with new documentaries and specials on Netflix, Hulu, all the platforms literally every other day. People are fascinated by it. And there's real reasons why: These are important stories.

History gets this special classification as important, while true crime is treated as more frivolous. But they're so often the same. People criticized our Tulsa Race Massacre episode on Truer Crime for being history. But it's also a true crime story, of crimes committed against Black folks in Tulsa. So those true crime stories speak to vital issues within our society.

One of the things that the murder of George Floyd drove home is how stories are crucial to catalyzing movements that inspire change. What happened to George Floyd had happened many times before. Yet it was this particular instance, this sort of perfect sequence of events that led to a global uprising and movement.

If one event can spark that level of outrage, then that means telling stories about injustice is crucial. For me, that means there's a high obligation to create true crime media that has a real purpose.

Mashable: Would you ever cover George Floyd and Breonna Taylor?

C.S.: I would never say no. But with everything I cover on the show, I want to make sure I have a unique perspective to offer in the telling of that story. With both being so recent, I think I would need more time to reflect.

We are already planning for Season 2 and Season 3, though, with crimes that are related to George Floyd. Not to his murder, but to the events that transpired.

Mashable: True Crime — especially podcasts — are largely seen as this guilty pleasure. But what do you think the genre can contribute to conversations about justice?

C.S.: From the beginning, my vision was not to be the social justice podcast. I wanted to be a true crime podcast. That's why we call it Truer Crime, because it gets to the core of what I'm trying to do: I don't want to be outside of the genre. I want to shift the genre.

These stories aren't just extremely important. They also have mass appeal. Tons of people are listening to it, especially women and femme folks. So meet folks exactly where they're at, where they're listening — specifically those who love true crime podcasts. With Truer Crime, I of course want people who are social justice-oriented, who are leftists, activists, abolitionists to listen and like it. But I also wanted people who were also maybe liberals, maybe pretty apolitical, even folks who are a bit more conservative to find something in the show too.

I want to create a show that doesn't feel like it's lecturing people, telling them what they should believe. Instead, I meet them with a format they're already familiar with, where I can provide evidence for what I say and believe, and why I question. It's a way for people to more comfortably engage with the difficulties around justice, the legal system, crime, criminality — all that.

True crime stories are important because they reveal so much more than just what's directly related to the criminal legal system. Every facet of society impacts the ways we punish people, be it sexism, racism, homophobia, whatever — these systems of how we interact with each other feed into it.

I believe that, if you just add something extra to the food people already love, it'll makes those ideas a lot more consumable.

Mashable: I love how you have a section at the end of each episode with action items to combat the issues you've raised or support the victims. Why was that important for you?

C.S.: When I was writing the show, Tamir Rice's mom was in the news. She spoke out condemning activists she felt had used her son's story for their own benefit and platform, without engaging with her or supporting her family and their community. I found many of her points valid. Even if those activists didn't feel that's what they were doing, or had a different opinion, or there were nuances to each person she called out — the argument she made was important.

For me, it opened up this question about who owns these stories? If you are the victim or a close family or friend, obviously that story is very personal to you. You feel a connection, a claim, certain ownership over it. But the problem is that stories take on a life of their own. To use Breonna Taylor or George Floyd as an example — their stories are still their families. But with George Floyd especially, they now have zero control over how their loved one's story is now global. Obviously George Floyd as an individual, his personality, who he was — that all still belongs to them. But the story of what happened to him also came to mean something to a lot of other people too. So how do you connect that?

If I'm going to tell these true crime stories, then I'm essentially doing exactly what Tamir Rice's mom critiqued activists for — unless I take special steps to ensure I'm always centering those most directly affected. Given that I'm just one person, it's not always possible for me to get in contact with the victims or family members. But we try a lot. So at the end of each episode, when the listener feels emotionally connected to these individuals and what happened to them, to their community — how can we direct that energy in a way that actually helps them?

With the Jonestown episode, I found all this information on the People's Temple with survivors' contact information. When I reached out, I didn't ask them for an interview, because they'd made plenty of primary sources available to me already.

What I asked instead was: Where would you like us to direct support? They weren't interested in having a conversation, but they did appreciate being asked that. Sometimes, victims' families don't want resources directed to them. In the case of Jonestown, one survivor wanted to write a book and support for that. Another wanted people to donate to the memorial and Black Lives Matter because, ultimately, the People's Temple was a racial justice organization. That's what it meant to many of the folks that were in it.

Adding that piece became a critical part of the story creation process. I found that as I reached out to people to figure out ways to direct support, the story often shifted too.

Mashable: On that note, what's the best way people can support the podcast?

C.S.: We have to be able to to gain some support financially for the show because it's very expensive, takes a lot of labor, we're a really small team, and I still have a full-time job. Patreon is the number one way to support it financially, with $5 a month getting you different behind-the-scenes and bonus content, like the uncut interview with Carol Batie, the mother of Josiah Sutton.

But the biggest thing that can be done to support the show is to listen and to share it with friends and family.

There's no better platform for getting as much organic reach without needing to spend any money than TikTok. The increase we've had in listeners since making ours is huge. It more than doubled our listens in three weeks, even while we're offseason, not even producing episodes weekly. We had fewer listeners then than do now, which is wild.

But in order to be a show that actually does its mission of shifting the genre — we need so many more people listening.

Mystery lovers, keep reading

• The genealogy detective exposing family secrets

• Untangling true crime: Inside the ethics of Hollywood's greatest guilty pleasure

• 9 erotic thrillers that will suck you in

Here's everything you need to know to make the most of macOS Recovery if you ever encounter any issues with your Mac.

Is there anything more relatable to the tech-lovers of the internet than the thrill of tearing open the packaging on the latest, shiniest gadget? NASA and the European Space Agency get it.

On Friday, the Twitter account for Ariane 5, an ESA launch vehicle, shared a series of 'unboxing' photos for the James Webb Space Telescope. For those who might not know, that's the powerful successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, which has been peering into the furthest reaches of space since 1990.

In December, Ariane 5 will carry the new space telescope into orbit where it will bring its fancier optical technology to bear on the same kinds of tasks that Hubble once handled on its own. While it's a big moment for space research, the future satellite has been dogged by controversy due to its connection to Webb, a former NASA administrator who presided over the federal agency in the '50s and '60s when gay and lesbian employees faced discrimination there.

That controversy hasn't slowed down the launch plans, or led to a name change. But the concerns some have voiced continue to loom large as the Dec. 18 launch approaches. One NASA adviser even quit over their dissatisfaction with the agency's handling of naming concerns.

Tweet may have been deleted

Tweet may have been deleted

These photos nonetheless offer a fascinating look behind the scenes at how a massive and wildly expensive piece of space tech like this is transported. At roughly the size of a tractor trailer, the $10 billion satellite isn't exactly the easiest thing to ship.

The James Webb Space Telescope is currently set for its one-way trip to outer space to launch on Dec. 18, 2021. Although construction was completed in 2016, the launch has been delayed multiple times, first for further testing and later as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. For now, all indications are that the December launch will proceed as planned, barring any of the usual temporary weather hiccups that often disrupt space launch plans.

It's not just small companies facing Sony's wrath over aftermarket PlayStation 5 faceplates. Dbrand told The Verge it stopped selling its PS5 "Darkplates" after Sony issued a cease-and-desist letter earlier in the year threatening legal action over alleged design and trademark violations. Visit Dbrand's product page now and you'll only see links to news stories and testimonials.

Dbrand isn't going down quietly. In a Reddit thread, the company claimed it was submitting to the "terrorists' demands... for now." It believed customers had the right to modify hardware with third-party components, and speculated that Sony might be clamping down so that it can either sell its own covers or charge licensing fees. The company didn't definitively say it planned to resume sales, but did say it would "talk soon."

Whatever Dbrand's intentions, this takes away a major option (though not your only option) for customizing the PS5. The question is whether or not Sony can completely halt third-party faceplate sales. After all, the faceplates are designed to be easily removable and aren't much more than plastic sheets. Dbrand likened this to replacing a broken F-150 truck bumper with an aftermarket part — you have the right to choose the parts you use for fixes or cosmetic upgrades, and Ford can't sue simply because you're using an unofficial bumper. It won't be surprising if there's an eventual court battle over Sony's policy.

Spotify's data collection helps us discover new music and playlists suited to us. However, not everything is sunshine and rainbows.

When someone passes away, you can ask Instagram to delete that person's account. Here's how to do that.

Disclaimer: This story is not meant to discourage you. Rather, it should serve as a long hard look in the mirror. So you’re enthusiastic about Data Science, you’ve read a couple dozen blog posts and completed a few online classes. Now you’re dreaming of making this your career. After all, it’s the sexiest job of the 21st century, according to Harvard Business Review. But despite your enthusiasm, Data Science might not be for you. At this moment in time, you’re holding too many illusions and false stereotypes. Now, your task is simple: Remove the things that hold you back! And…This story continues at The Next Web

One of the more important missions to study the early Solar System is now underway. NASA has launched Lucy, a robotic spacecraft that will be the agency's first to explore the Trojan asteroids trapped near Jupiter's Lagrange points. They're considered "fossils" of planetary formation that will help understand the Solar System's evolution, much as Lucy the australopithecus helped humans understand their ancestors.

The spacecraft detached from a ULA Atlas V rocket about an hour after liftoff, successfully deploying its two 24-foot solar arrays. The vehicle is currently charging its batteries as it begins the first leg of its journey, an orbit around the Sun as it prepares for its first gravity assist around Earth in October 2022.

To call this a long mission would be an understatement. Lucy will return to Earth for another gravity assist in 2024, and won't see any asteroids until it swings by the Donaldjohanson asteroid (near the main asteroid belt) in 2025. The probe first visits its first swarm of Trojan asteroids, ahead of Jupiter, in 2027. It will then make four flybys before visiting Earth for a third gravity assist in 2031. It will finally visit the second swarm of asteroids in 2033.

You won't have to be quite so patient for every asteroid mission, at least. NASA will launch another explorer, Psyche, in 2022. The vehicle will arrive at the metallic asteroid (16) Psyche in 2026 and spend 21 months determining whether it represents the exposed core of an early planet or 'just' unmelted material. Lucy is the more ambitious of the two projects, though, and it may pay extra dividends if it sheds light on how the Solar System came to be.

Whether you're starting to learn Java or you consider yourself a Java expert, these blogs will keep you up to date on any Java news.

This post was originally published in The Conversation.

There is no question that Squid Game has become a global sensation. Since its release, the nine-episode survival drama has topped Netflix's charts in 90 countries and is poised to become the most-watched show in Netflix history.

As the global popularity of the Korean thriller continues to grow, there have been debates over the quality of the English subtitle translation, particularly on social media. Many people who claim to be English-Korean bilinguals argue the translation does not do justice to the brilliantly written stories, clever dialogue and script. Some even argue that if you have watched the show in English, you haven’t really watched it at all.

Spoilers for Squid Game Season 1 follow.

Subtitling is not easy

As someone who specialises in English-Korean translation and interpreting, I believe the ongoing debates on the English subtitles of Squid Game are missing some important elements.

Not many people know the difference between translation and interpreting. To put it simply, translation refers to rendering of written texts from one language into another, whereas interpreting refers to spoken language.

Subtitling falls between translation and interpreting, because a subtitler listens to spoken language just as an interpreter does, and translates the oral language into written form for viewers.

Subtitling requires not only bilingual competence but specific skills essential to deliver messages within a limited space on screens. Think about the famous quote by the Oscar-winning director of Parasite, Bong Joon-Ho:

Once you overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.

It is a subtitler’s job to find ways to condense messages into the one-inch-tall slots, no matter how long or complicated the original dialogues are. As you can imagine, subtitling is not easy.

Subtitling becomes even more complicated when cultural factors come into play, because many culture-specific words and concepts are difficult to translate.

“The untranslatable” exists in all cultures, and in the case of the Korean language, words such as aegyo sometimes described as 'performed extreme femininity,' han likened by some to 'a mix of sorrow and sadness accumulated from a series of life experiences,' and jeong described sometimes as 'deep connection and emotional bond that builds over time,' are some of the most well-known concepts that have no direct equivalent in another language. In literature translation, there are ways to deal with the untranslatable through footnotes or annotations, for example.

These strategies, however, do not work for subtitling due to the space constraints, so managing culture-specific elements is perhaps the most challenging aspect of subtitling.

The untranslatable in Squid Game

Comparing the Korean language with the English subtitle translation of Squid Game, occasional minor omissions and distortions are apparent — but the overall quality of the translation is, in my opinion, fine.

Most of the controversies seem to centre around the English closed captions, which are very different from the English subtitles on Netflix. The English captions which appear as 'English [CC]' are for people who cannot hear audio, so they include non-verbal descriptions such as the background music and sound effects. Translations in closed captions are, therefore, more concise than subtitles and are limited in terms of meaning delivery.

Despite the good quality of the English translation, a meaning gap inevitably exists between the original Korean and the English subtitles due to the untranslatable.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of the untranslatable in Squid Game relates to '호칭' or 'honorifics,' which Korean people use to refer to each other in conversation.

An age-based hierarchy is a key characteristic of Korean society, and people do not call each other by name unless they are friends of the same age. One of the most common honorifics is '형' (hyung) or 'older brother,' a title a younger brother uses to talk or refer to his older brother. This expression is often also used by non-family members who are close to each other to indicate the degree of mutual friendship.

If you have watched the drama, you might recall Ali, the Pakistani labourer, who came to South Korea to earn money. Ali got to know another participant, Sang Woo, a graduate of Korea's top university, who embezzled a huge amount of money at work and was determined to win the game to get rid of the debt.

As they became close to each other, Sang Woo suggested that Ali call him hyung, instead of '사장님' (sajang-nim) or 'Mr Company President,' one of the first terms that foreign labourers in South Korea pick as a result of spending most of their time at work under often exploitative bosses.

The moment that Sang Woo became Ali's hyung is one of the most humanistic moments in the gory drama. The poignancy of the moment, however, could not be fully delivered due to the absence of an equivalent English form. In the English subtitle, the line 'Call me hyung' was translated as 'Call me Sang Woo.'

When Sang Woo later betrays Ali in the game of marbles, the kinds of emotions experienced by viewers who are able to understand the degree of intimacy attached to hyung compared with those unable to do so may, therefore, be very different.

Scenes like this show, in a powerfully raw form, the cruelty and selfishness of human beings in real life, albeit in a different kind of 'game.'

There are other untranslatable honorifics, such as '오빠' (oppa), which was translated as 'baby,' and '영감님' (yeonggam-nim), which was translated as 'sir.' Close, but not quite the same.

Beyond language barriers

Understanding the honorifics in Squid Game is important to fully capture the bitter aspects of human relationships.

Considering the untranslatable, the recent addition of 26 Korean words to the Oxford English Dictionary is a welcome move. Interestingly, some of these newly added words include common honorifics such as noona, oppa, and unni, and I hope that this paves way for the inclusion of more Korean words in the future.

See Also: The best 4K TVs for gamers, Netflix binge-watchers, and everyone else

While translation and interpreting serve as an important cultural and linguistic bridge, the gap left by the untranslatable can only be filled by genuine understanding of the other culture and language.

Building on Director Bong's message, once you overcome the gap left by the untranslatable, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.

Clips makes audio snippets shareable even after a live discussion has ended. Here's how to use it.

Suction power from twin turbines is wonderful, but collision avoidance is equally just as important.