Gadgets & Tech – Spoken Edition

It’s not just you. Twitter is down. At least for a lot of people in the US, Europe, and Japan. Down Detector is showing heavy outages in the Northeastern United States, Britain, Spain and Japan. As I sit typing this from Western Australia I can confirm that I haven’t had Twitter working since 9:50am New York time. Tweetdeck is reportedly working fine for a number of people, but on both web browsers and through iOS apps, Twitter appears to be negatively impacted.

Comedy is hard, and the past was no better. Just look at, say, what 19th-century jerks considered acceptable territory for an April Fools’ Day prank. Yet some jokes are timeless. Take, for example, this relatable juxtaposition of the dapper self-image of a cartoon man alongside his actual appearance under “flashlight”—a joke that still lands today, give or take a centuries’ worth of developments in fashion and camera technology.

T-Mobile has admitted it engaging in misleading calling practices with its rural customers, and as part of an FCC settlement, is coughing up $40 million. What exactly was T-Mobile trying to get away with? At issue is the practice of injecting false ring tones, causing rural customers to think their calls had already connected.

Wallet phone cases have always seemed like a total absurdity to me. Am I wrong? My phone is a very large concentration of value in an easy-to-lose, easy-to-break package that I’m constantly waving around recklessly. The next time you plop your phone down on a bar, which is a dark place buzzing with dizzy people holding containers full of liquid, remember that what you’re really doing is placing $600 to $1,000 in a situation in which it might instantly vaporize.

Growing up in the ‘80s, I assumed I was part of the generation that had the best kids’ toys: G.I. Joe, Transformers, Voltron. But after discovering this flawless miniature Volkswagen Camper Van that can actually be driven by a couple of toddlers, I’m genuinely envious of four-year-olds. Yes, I realize the adult version of the VW Camper Van is probably even more fun to drive, but can I find one of those for $400? Nope.

Yesterday, Google sent out an internal email to G Suite administrators announcing a new design for Gmail on the web sporting a “fresh, clean look.” Images of what is presumably the redesign appeared on Imgur late last night with key info redacted via large black blocks, and today The Verge obtained additional images of what the revamped Gmail could look like when it rolls out for real sometime in the next few weeks.

Surprise, surprise, turns out Apple’s debut foray into the world of voice assistant-enabled speakers isn’t quite living up to the company’s initial expectations. According to a Bloomberg report, the company has lowered the number of Homepods being manufactured by one of its partners, Inventec Corporation, and is reportedly looking to make a second smart speaker, one a bit less expensive than its current $350 offering.

Google appears to be done with two phones that were the company’s signature devices just two years ago. Ars Technica pointed out that the Pixel and Pixel XL have now disappeared from the Google Store and Project Fi store. Google confirmed to Gizmodo that the devices will no longer be made available to purchase directly from the company.

A fire-ravaged home in San Jose is selling for a staggering $800,000, local Fox affiliate KTVU reports. The high asking price is for both the abandoned home and the 5,800 square foot lot surrounding it. “They did leave it standing so you can remodel it versus tearing it down,” Realtor Holly Barr told KTVU. “You save a lot of money when you can leave a wall up and do a remodel versus a complete teardown.

You might think you have gravity pretty well figured out. If you drop a ball out of a window, a short time later it will hit the ground. The higher up you drop it, the faster it travels before it hits the ground. But something far more profound is going on, and it’s nicelyillustrated by the image you see above. Albert Einstein published his theory of general relativity back in 1915, and it’s now the agreed-upon math that describes gravity.