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Weekly Rewind: Tinder STDs, VR t-shirts and Happy Meals, Hack the Pentagon

Weekly Rewind 3-6-2016
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In the tech world, a lot happens in a week. So much news goes on, in fact, that it’s almost impossible for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of everything. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of the top 10 tech stories from the first week of March. Everything from the ongoing encryption debate to Kickstarter failures — it’s all here.

Stories: 1-5

Apple vs. FBI: A complete timeline of tech’s privacy standoff

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Apple has added a webpage offering access to amicus briefs from various groups in support of Apple’s stance in the ongoing case. An Amicus curiae means someone who is a friend of the court, and in submitting an amicus brief, the individual or group is throwing support to a certain side.

Read the full story here.

New study finds Tinder users twice as likely to have a STI

tinder
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A new study by a British pharmaceutical company has found that Tinder users are twice as likely to have a sexually transmitted infection (STI) as those who don’t use the app. The most common STI among users of the app was shown to be genital warts, followed by herpes, and chlamydia.

Read the full story here.

MQA is an impressive new file format that squeezes superior sound into less space

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A new way to render hi-res digital audio files, MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) makes files that are much smaller than today’s standard Hi-Res FLAC files. We weren’t given an exact number, but it looks like MQA will be about three times smaller than a comparable high-res FLAC file, meaning they’ll be pretty easy to take along.

Read the full story here.

The greasiest VR headset yet? McDonald’s launches viewer made from Happy Meal box

It may well be the greasiest VR viewer out there, but McDonald’s is nevertheless confident its Happy Goggles will be a hit with kids who get a chance to try it out. The Happy Goggles promotion, which takes place this month at 14 of the fast-food restaurant’s outlets across Sweden, lets the littl’uns convert their Happy Meal box into a set of VR goggles. Think of it as a smelly version of Google Cardboard.

Read the full story here.

Department of Defense recruits white hats for ‘Hack the Pentagon’ program

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The Pentagon wants hackers to put its websites’ cyber defenses to the test with its own bug bounty style “Hack the Pentagon” program. Vetted hackers will be invited to test the security of the Department of Defense website. The program, set up by the Pentagon’s Defense Digital Service (DDS), is focused on the public-facing sites.

Read the full story here.

Stories: 6-10

This VR t-shirt teaches anatomy by letting you virtually peer inside someone’s body

Everyone loves a cool t-shirt, but what if your funky new skeleton t-shirt were actually a virtual reality-enabled anatomy lesson? Curiscope created Virtuali-tee to give kids a cool way to bring anatomy out of textbooks and into the real world. The t-shirt looks like a stylized skeleton design at first glance, but when viewed through the accompanying mobile app, the shirt displays everything from bones to organs to blood vessels.

Read the full story here.

This ‘Apple freak’ CEO wants to build an Apple car

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Apple still won’t confirm the existence of a much-discussed car program known as “Project Titan,” but Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) CEO Sergio Marchionne hopes that if Apple really does launch a car, it will hire his company to build it. Marchionne describes himself as an “Apple freak” who owns every type of product the company makes, is apparently eager for a partnership with Cupertino.

Read the full story here.

Coolest Cooler, Kickstarter’s most-funded project ever, is too broke to ship to backers

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The coolest cooler on the Internet is in desperate need of some cold, hard cash. For the second time in its short history, Coolest Cooler is running short of money, and is now petitioning investors to raise the funds needed to deliver its goods to its 60,000 paying customers, reports Eater.

Read the full story here.

YouTube stars will now be in the running for Emmys due to new awards categories

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And the Emmy goes to; PewDiePie. PewDie who? That may be the reaction from a certain segment of viewers during the next Emmy awards as YouTube stars begin vying for the gongs, thanks to the introduction of new categories that will recognize digital short-form content.

Read the full story here.

Wanna sing for Stone Temple Pilots? They’re hunting for a new singer online

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How do you replace the irreplaceable? That’s the vexing task facing the three core members of Stone Temple Pilots — guitarist Dean DeLeo, bassist Robert DeLeo, and drummer Eric Kretz — who are on a mission-quest to find themselves a new lead singer. And they’re taking the search online.

Read the full story here.

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
AT&T just made it a lot easier to upgrade your phone
AT&T Storefront with logo.

Do you want to upgrade your phone more than once a year? What about three times a year? Are you on AT&T? If you answered yes to those questions, then AT&T’s new “Next Up Anytime” early upgrade program is made for you. With this add-on, you’ll be able to upgrade your phone three times a year for just $10 extra every month. It will be available starting July 16.

Currently, AT&T has its “Next Up” add-on, which has been available for the past several years. This program costs $6 extra per month and lets you upgrade by trading in your existing phone after at least half of it is paid off. But the new Next Up Anytime option gives you some more flexibility.

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Motorola is selling unlocked smartphones for just $150 today
Someone holding the Moto G Stylus 5G (2024).

Have you been looking for phone deals but don’t want to spend a ton of money on flagship devices from Apple and Samsung? Have you ever considered investing in an unlocked Motorola? For a limited time, the company is offering a $100 markdown on the Motorola Moto G 5G. It can be yours for just $150, and your days and nights of phone-shopping will finally be over!

Why you should buy the Motorola Moto G 5G
Powered by the Snapdragon 480+ 5G CPU and 4GB of RAM, the Moto G delivers exceptional performance across the board. From UI navigation to apps, games, and camera functions, you can expect fast load times, next to no buffering, and smooth animations. You’ll also get up to 128GB of internal storage that you’ll be able to use for photos, videos, music, and any other mobile content you can store locally. 

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The Nokia 3210 is the worst phone I’ve used in 2024
A person holding the Nokia 3210, showing the screen.

Where do I even start with the Nokia 3210? Not the original, which was one of the coolest phones to own back in a time when Star Wars: Episode 1 -- The Phantom Menace wasn’t even a thing, but the latest 2024 reissue that has come along to save us all from digital overload, the horror of social media, and the endless distraction that is the modern smartphone.

Except behind this facade of marketing-friendly do-goodery hides a weapon of torture, a device so foul that I’d rather sit through multiple showings of Jar Jar Binks and the gang hopelessly trying to bring back the magic of A New Hope than use it.
The Nokia 3210 really is that bad

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