Dustin Rowles knew early on he wouldn’t deal with publicists. A few months after he launched movie review sitePajiba, his correspondence with a movie studio PR flack led to the request that he not use any profanity. Given that the tagline for Pajiba is “scathing reviews for bitchy people,” the site is not exactly timid about dropping four-letter expletives, in fact that’s what gives it its edge. So Rowles decided almost immediately that he wouldn’t deal directly with the studios, and Pajiba’s coverage has always reflected that....

It’s usually around this time of year you hear people complain about their phones slowing down. Apple and Google release new versions of their operating systems (OS) and suddenly there’s a slew of peopleclaiming their old devices have started to lag– conveniently just before Christmas. But do manufacturers really slow down our phones on purpose to nudge us towards shiny new ones,as has been claimed? The answer to this, as usual, is complicated....

One of the most interesting trends in social media in the past six months has been the rise of photo sharing apps likeInstagram,PicPlzandPath. On the face of it, these services do little more than take what we’ve been doing for some time with services like TwitPic, throw in a social network and (in some cases) a few filters, and package it all up in one easy-to-use app. The field received a huge endorsement this week with news of an$8....

Are plug-in hybrids worse for the planet than we’ve been told? It depends How carmakers measure emissions A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle has both a petrol engine and battery, either of which can power the wheels. Unlike a normal hybrid vehicle, where all the energy comes from the fuel, a plug-in hybrid has a larger battery and can be plugged into the mains to charge. Because a plug-in hybrid has two energy sources, petrol and electric, its emissions will vary widely depending on how much time is spent in full electric or petrol mode....

EVs are a green alternative and we love them for that. But they could be even greener if we regularly recycled the valuable metals their batteries contain instead of relentlessly squeezing Mother Earth. The good news is battery recycling has been getting traction, and there are now many companies in North America and Europe building recycling plants, includingLi-Cycle,Northvolt,Redwood Materials, andReLIB, to name a few. But here’s the bad news: there’s still a big fat elephant in the room for consumers and carmakers alike —can recycled materials be just as good a virgin ones?...