Jun 22
Niantic has decided that forcing Pokémon Go cheaters to a life of catching Pidgeys isn’t quite enough of a punishment. Now, any Pokémon caught using “third-party services that circumvent normal gameplay” will be marked with a slash in p…
Jun 22
Slack’s team chat can be extremely helpful for coordinating with your coworkers, but it can also be supremely distracting. Do you really need a constant stream of alerts and unrelated funny GIFs when you’re trying to get work done… or avoiding wor…
Jun 22
Democrats are playing the blame game after losing two special elections for Congress on Tuesday night, but at least one analyst believes there’s plenty of good news for the party.
David Wasserman, who analyzes U.S. House races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, wrote Wednesday that the Republican majority could be at risk in next year’s midterm election.
“Although it’s true Democrats have agonizingly yet to capture a red district, they have outperformed their “generic” share of the vote significantly in every contest,” he wrote.
That includes Tuesday night’s special elections in Georgia, where Republican Karen Handel defeated Democrat Jon Ossoff by 4 percentage points, and South Carolina, where Republican Ralph Norman defeated Democrat Archie Parnell by 3 percentage points.
But in both cases, they overperformed the partisan leanings of their deeply red districts, he wrote. In other words, the vote totals for Ossoff and Parnell, even though they lost, were better than what would be expected in such solidly Republican territory. Democrats also overperformed in three other special elections held so far this year, as seen in the chart with his essay.
Over those five special elections, Democrats beat their districts’ leanings by an average of 8 points. If Democrats were to overperform by that much nationwide next year, it could swing 80 seats.
Wasserman added that they wouldn’t actually gain 80 seats in reality, as incumbents will be tougher opponents than special election candidates.
“But these results fit a pattern that should still worry GOP incumbents everywhere, regardless of Trump’s national approval rating and the outcome of the healthcare debate in Congress,” he said.
Wasserman added that the numbers so far show an enthusiasm gap “big enough to gravely imperil the Republican majority next November.”
Not everyone agrees with that assessment.
David Jolly, a Republican and former congressman from Florida who has been critical of President Donald Trump, said Democrats should have won in Georgia on Tuesday night ― and the fact that they didn’t should be a warning.
“This is a district that Donald Trump won by 1.5 percent. A metro area, urban district that frankly should be trending Democrat,” he said on MSNBC on Tuesday night.
He said he thought five months of a “disastrous” Trump administration would have helped Ossoff win.
“As a Republican in some ways I wanted him to because I want to see our party hit the reset button,” Jolly said.
But Republican voters supported their party even if they didn’t support their president.
“And that should strike fear in the heart of Democrats going into ’18,” he said.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Jun 22
They’re really back.
Seth Meyers was joined Wednesday by his old “Saturday Night Live” colleague Amy Poehler on “Late Night,” and the two wasted no time bringing back a classic.
They did a new edition of “Really?!? With Seth And Amy,” a regular segment back when the duo anchored “Weekend Update.”
It was the segment that launched a thousand GIFs, and Wednesday night they added one more:
The two went after the conservative protesters who keep interrupting the production of “Julius Caesar” in Central Park, in which the Caesar character is played by someone who resembles President Donald Trump.
So what did the protesters accomplish? You REALLY have to see this one to find out.
Check it out above.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Jun 22
T-Mobile has released a new 4G LTE-enabled Android 7.0 smartphone from Coolpad on their network. Called the Defiant, this budget-minded smartphone packs a 5.0-inch 854 x 480 FWVGA display, a 1.4GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, an Adreno 308 GPU, a 1GB RAM and an 8GB of expandable internal storage (up to 32GB).
For taking pictures and videos, the handset is packed with a 2MP front-facing camera and a 5MP rear-facing camera with LED flash. Powered by a 2450mAh battery, the Defiant provides 4G LTE, WiFi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2 and GPS for connectivity, and runs on Android 7.0 Nougat OS.
The Coolpad Defiant is available now for just $100 (w/ an additional $25 for a T-Mo SIM) or $4 per month on a two year installment plan. [Product Page]
The post T-Mobile Releases Coolpad Defiant 4G LTE-Enabled Android 7.0 Smartphone appeared first on TechFresh, Consumer Electronics Guide.
Jun 22
Lenovo hits back by bringing you their newest 23.8-inch all-in-one desktop PC, the ThinkCentre M910z. Powered by a 3.2GHz Intel Core i5-6500 quad-core processor, this space-saving system is built with a 23.8-inch 1920 x 1080 Full HD VA display, an integrated Intel HD Graphics 530, an 8GB DDR4 RAM and a 500GB 7200rpm hard drive.
Apart from that, the system also has a built-in 1080p webcam, a SuperMulti DVD Burner, a card reader, 6x USB 3.0 Type-A ports and a pair of 3W speakers. Running on Windows 7 Pro OS, the ThinkCentre M910z provides dual-band WiFi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.1 for connectivity.
The Lenovo ThinkCentre M910z is currently available for pre-order for $1,039.99. [Product Page]
The post Lenovo ThinkCentre M910z 23.8-Inch All-In-One Desktop PC appeared first on TechFresh, Consumer Electronics Guide.
Jun 22
The University of Michigan is a hotbed for self-driving car research, so it stands to reason that students and faculty should use self-driving vehicles to get around, right? The university clearly thinks so. Mcity (the university’s public-private p…
Jun 22
The European Space Agency has joined forces with 16 European space companies to demonstrate and champion satellite-based 5G internet. They’re calling their new initiative “Satellite for 5G,” and they signed their agreement at the Paris Air and Space…
Jun 22
Thanks to technology being so advanced these days, the engines used by our video games are more realistic than ever. So much so that in some cases, in-game footage could pass off as better quality cinematics compared to back in the day, and it is also why it is not surprising that many gamers have taken in-game footage to create movies and trailers.
This is pretty much what Matt MacDonald did as he managed to piece together a rather dark short film that was shot entirely inside of Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V, although to be fair there were mods involved to help achieve a more polished look. In fact one of the mods used was the OpenIV software which has undergone some scrutiny as of late and is currently being involved in a legal dispute between Rockstar and Take-Two.
Legal controversies aside, the short film is dubbed “Not Normal”, we have to say that MacDonald did an extremely stellar job. According to the brief description, “In a time of anarchy and forgotten morals, one man obsesses over the way to fix it.” We won’t spoil the film for you, but if you have about 15 minutes or so to spare, then this is definitely something you’ll want to check out.
This Short Film Was Made Entirely In Grand Theft Auto V , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Jun 22
Trump Blames Democrats For Obstructing Health Care Bill They Haven't Seen Yet
Posted in: Today's ChiliPresident Donald Trump again blamed Senate Democrats for blocking the passage of a health care bill that no one outside of a handful of GOP lawmakers has actually seen yet.
Speaking Wednesday at a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Trump lamented criticism that his administration hasn’t accomplished much yet and pointed a finger at Democratic lawmakers for slowing the passage of a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
“If we went and got the single greatest health care plan in the history of the world, we would not get one Democrat vote, because they’re obstructionists,” Trump claimed. “If we came to you and said, ‘Here’s your plan, you’re going to have the greatest plan in history, and you’re going to pay nothing,’ they’d vote against it, folks.”
Trump tweeted similar complaints earlier Wednesday.
“If we had even a little Democrat support, just a little, like a couple of votes, you’d have everything. And you could give us a lot of votes and we’d even be willing to change it and move it around and try and make it even better,” he continued at the Iowa rally. “But again, They just want to stop, they just want to obstruct. A few votes from the Democrats, seriously, a few votes from the Democrats, it could be so easy, so beautiful, and you’d have cooperation.”
What Trump failed to mention is that Senate Democrats haven’t actually had the opportunity to even read the bill, which Republican senators have written almost entirely behind closed doors. The unprecedented lack of transparency has drawn outrage from Democrats, the media and the public, while Republicans have falsely claimed that Democrats engaged in similar secrecy while writing the Affordable Care Act in 2009 and 2010. (Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he plans to release the text of the bill Thursday.)
Trump, who described the House version of the bill as “mean,” said Wednesday that he hopes Republicans will “surprise” the public with a “plan with heart.”
Reports, however, indicate that the Senate bill will be substantially similar to the one passed in the House last month. An estimated 23 million fewer people would have health care coverage under that bill, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis of it.
And as HuffPost’s Jeffrey Young points out, the bill’s intent, regardless of what the Senate version looks like, is already clear. “The purpose of this bill is to dramatically scale back the safety net so wealthy people and health care companies can get a massive tax cut,” Young wrote this week.
The president also mocked Democrats for failing to pick up seats in special elections in Georgia and South Carolina on Tuesday, singling out Jon Ossoff, the Democrat who narrowly lost in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District.
“They thought they were going to win last night in Atlanta,” he said. “And they’ve been unbelievably nasty, really nasty. They spent close to $30 million on this kid, who forgot to live in the community he was in.”
Trump then acknowledged that his criticism may not be doing Senate Republicans any favors in winning over their Democratic colleagues.
“I am making it a little bit hard to get their support, but who cares?” he said.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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