Technology news

Google is rolling out an update to Chrome 51 (the current version) that will allow users to Cast without having to install the Google Cast extension. The update will add native Cast functionality to the browser and put a button in the tool menu. Users will also be able to right click on a page and click Cast, which will be faster for just about everyone.The new Cast feature will remove the ability to determine video quality, bitrate, and resolution — Google says it will automatically adjus

Be serious here, folks. The police are not joking. 
When the Westbrook, Maine, Police Department warned the locals June 29 about a large snake sighting in the woods, they probably meant it to be a genuine notice. That's not exactly how the good people of Westbrook took it.
Maybe it's the fact that that it was a just a snake sighting. Maybe it's because the police officers described the snake as eating, "a large mammal, possibly a beaver." Maybe it's because the warning explicitly stat

Did you know there's a bird that can see ghosts? That gibbons love soup? Or that ducklings play a mean tune on the trombone?
The Los Angeles Zoo was a font of interesting factoids this week after prankster Jeff Wysaski, the man behind the Obvious Plant Tumblr and Facebook pages, left some completely true and not at all made up nuggets on signs across the grounds.
Visitors got the chance, briefly, to learn some very new things about owls, bears and meerkats.
Here are some of the best signs he pl

As the United States celebrates Independence Day today, Huawei is celebrating its own independence, from facts. The Chinese smartphone maker posted the photo you see above on its Google+ page in an attempt to emphasize the quality of the dual-camera system in its flagship phone, the Huawei P9. It's a brilliant image, with great color balance and enough lens flare to make J.J. Abrams slow clap.
One problem: that photo was taken with a $4,500 DSLR setup. Oops.
Since Google+ makes the EXIF met

GUEST: How do you fill 4.5  million cybersecurity jobs – the number that the IT industry will need to protect itself by the end of the decade? If you’re an IT giant like Cisco, you set aside $10 million to fund a training program for qualified candidates that provides courses, mentoring, and certification in Cyber-Ops, equipping them with the skills needed to defend the business.
CEOs across the globe were telling Cisco that their ability to innovate was hampered by their securi

After Brexit, it appears Sir Patrick Stewart has found a new home on the range.
The venerable Shakespearean actor, who has also stolen scenes as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek and Professor Charles Xavier in X-Men, has inexplicably shown up in a YouTube video, singing cowboy songs. 
We don't really understand it.
SEE ALSO: 22 pictures you need to look at twice
The video was sneakily announced on Stewart's Twitter account June 30, along with a picture of him in full western regalia, ho

Image: Collection of Robert E. JacksonThis assortment of everyday snapshots, recently featured by the Humble Arts Foundation, comes from the collection of Robert E. Jackson, who has been collecting photographic ephemera for over two decades.Assembled around the theme of patriotism, this group of photos explores the ways that Americans throughout the 20th century honored and celebrated their country, from military service to fireworks to unique and bizarre displays.Image: Collection of Robert E.

PASADENA, Calif. — Jupiter is getting ready for its closeup.
NASA's Juno spacecraft has been speeding through the solar system for five years in the hopes of making it into orbit around Jupiter Monday night. 
A new photo and video NASA released just hours before the big event show the basketball court-sized spacecraft closing in on the huge planet.
SEE ALSO: We're about to get our closest-ever look at JupiterJuno's newest photo shows Jupiter and its four Galilean moons — Europa

Which filter is your ride-or-die?
While Snapchat is always changing it up and introducing fun new face filters, we can always count on the core ones to be there for us. And as face-recognition technology improves, the meanings behind the different filters become more complex.
SEE ALSO: Snapchat added over 300 new stickers you can put on your snaps
Your favorite filter can reveal a lot about you. Here's what it means if one of the following filters is your bae:Flower CrownImage:MASHABLE/SNAPCHAT

Succeeding Jeremy Clarkson as the host of Top Gear was always going to be an impossible mission, and it turned out that BBC radio DJ Chris Evans was no Ethan Hunt. After just one season of what was supposed to be a three-year contract, Evans today resigned from his position, saying "I feel like my standing aside is the single best thing I can now do to help the cause." And you know what? He’s absolutely right.
My expectations from a Clarkson-less (and Hammond-less and May-less) Top Gear we

If this is what summer reading looks like, sign us up.
Instagram account Ice Cream Books has a new way to get you to read this summer — by pairing book recommendations with ice cream and then letting the desserts get all melty. 
SEE ALSO: How to style gorgeous ice cream for Instagram
"In the summertime, the two best things in the world are ice cream and books," Ice Cream Books told Mashable. "Why not have them together."
The users behind the account, who happily answered ou

GUEST: There has been a lot written about diversity (or the lack thereof) in the tech industry. Even with Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding affirmative action, tech companies are looking for alternative approaches to increase diversity. The first step is combating hiring bias. A recent survey found that black and Hispanic computer science graduates were less likely to be hired than their white and Asian counterparts. The statistics on women i

Warning: Spoilers for all of Season 6 follow. Why would you read this if you didn't know that?
No matter how satisfied most fans were with the last season of Game of Thrones, the questions that it left unanswered continue to spark furious Internet debate.
One of the most recent fan theories out there is trying to make more sense out of the whole Tower of Joy flashback. Sure, the show mostly confirmed the its biggest fan theory: that R+L does equal J, and that Ned Stark took Lyanna's baby, promi

NASA’s Juno spacecraft is about to make a terrifying plunge into orbit around Jupiter later tonight — one that involves passing through a terrifying hellscape of powerful radiation. Jupiter’s massive magnetic field, known as its magnetosphere, traps charged particles around the planet, creating huge radiation belts that can fry spacecraft that pass by. These high-energy particles get accelerated to near the speed of light and can rip through an unprepared vehicle, shredding its

GUEST: In case you haven’t noticed, chatbots are having a moment right now. It’s easy to see why.
In their simplest form, chatbots help brands deliver intimate, one-to-one engagement, at scale. Bots are all about creating interactions that feel personal instead of transactional. It’s an approach that isn’t lost on discerning millennial and Gen-Z consumers who value uninterrupted, genuine user experiences over those that seem forced or too self-serving. Plus, bots liv

U-S-A! U-S-A! 
Mental Floss brings the Fourth of July holiday spirit Monday with 26 facts dripping with red, white and blue patriotism. 
By the way, there's nothing interesting on the back of the Declaration of Independence. Sorry, Nic Cage.
Slick action indie game 'Tokyo 42' channels 'Grand Theft Auto'
Rat vs. snake: A mother's crusade
These Irish guys perfectly summed up just how spectacularly confusing Brexit is
John Oliver lists things Americans miss 'after kicking Britain unceremo

You're not alone — summer lovin' can get a little ... sweaty.
Congratulations! It's swamp ass season, which means temperatures are high, crevices are full of sweat and "sex" has become synonymous with "a pungent Slip 'n Slide." This is nothing to be ashamed of because, yes, it is happening to literally everyone.
SEE ALSO: It's officially summer: DJ Earworm's 'Summermash '16' is here
But if freshness is more your speed, never fear — there are plenty of ways to stave off swamp ass on

UPDATED 16:37 p.m. PT
The body of a teenage Wisconsin student who went missing shortly after he arrived for an exchange program was found in the Tiber River Monday.
John Cabot University confirmed that the body was that of 19-year-old Beau Solomon, who was last seen by his friends in the early hours of Friday morning.
They last saw him at the G-Bar in the Trastevere district of the city, and his body was discovered by the Guglielmo Marconi bridge some three miles down river, the Guardian report

NASA has released the last image of Jupiter from the agency's Juno spacecraft before it attempts to enter the planet's orbit tonight. The color image was taken on June 29th, with Juno 3.3 million miles away from the gas planet. Juno has now powered down its instruments to avoid any issues during orbit insertion.
If all goes as planned Juno will slow down by 1,200 miles per hour using its main engine and enter a 53-day orbit of Jupiter right before midnight tonight. Given how far away Juno i

GUEST: Here’s a secret no one wants you to hear: Marketing agencies are destined to die, and if you rely on one, you’ll die with it.
This may sound like insanity coming from someone who founded a digital agency and has seen that agency grow from two people to over 60 in just under two years. But it’s true. When I realized the truth, it hit me like a freight train. As an agency, we are set up to fail from the very start. The relationships we build with our clients cannot go on i

Kevin Durant is joining All-Stars Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson with the Golden State Warriors.
Durant announced his decision Monday morning on The Players' Tribune Monday morning. He can't officially sign until July 7.
SEE ALSO: Last laugh: How Steph Curry is the world's most subtle assassin
"It really pains me to know that I will disappoint so many people with this choice, but I believe I am doing what I feel is the right thing at this point in my life and my playing career," Durant wrote.&

LONDON — If there's one character who has arguably more influence than any of the others in Game of Thrones, it's Varys.
Like Littlefinger, the Spider is one of those sneaky types that specialises in manipulation and playing people off against each other; he's brilliant at getting others to do his bidding without ever getting his own hands dirty.
SEE ALSO: This 'Game of Thrones' theory about Tyrion just got some compelling new evidence
Following Season Six, we now know that Varys has been

UPDATE: July 4, 2016, 8:55 p.m. PDT Juno is officially in orbit around Jupiter. The engine burn ended right on time, 35 minutes after it began.
UPDATE: July 4, 2016, 8:19 p.m. PDT NASA just got confirmation that the main engine burn has started to bring Juno into its expected orbit around Jupiter. The burn will last for 35 minutes if all goes according to plan.
UPDATE: July 4, 2016, 7:34 p.m. PDT NASA TV is now live with updates from mission control as Juno maneuvers to get into orbit around Ju

(Reuters) – China’s internet regulator will launch a crackdown on the reporting of news gathered from social media, as part of what the government calls a campaign against fake news and the spreading of rumors.
In a statement late on Sunday, the Cyberspace Administration of China said that online media cannot report any news taken from social media sites without approval.
“It is forbidden to use hearsay to create news or use conjecture and imagination to distort the facts,&rdqu

Just in case you're kept awake at night wondering what Tom Hiddleston thinks of Taylor Swift, he wore a T-shirt to tell you.
Hiddleswift has already been a wild ride. In the three weeks since the couple was first seen smooching on the rocky beaches of Rhode Island, Taylor and Tom have traveled to Nashville to dance at a Selena Gomez concert and reportedly meet Swift's parents, explored the romantic ruins of Rome and galavanted off to a union-less England to hang out with Hiddleston's mom.

Donald Trump has ignored criticism that he tweeted an attack ad targeting Hillary Clinton using anti-semitic imagery. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee (or someone from his campaign) posted the image on Twitter on Saturday, which shows Clinton superimposed over a pile of money with the words "Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!" framed by a six-pointed star, which resembles the Star of David.
This morning, Trump said that the "dishonest media" was misleading the public, and that

You only have to look at Tokyo 42 to want to know more.
The brightly colored isometric cityscape created by SMAC Games is built around a shooting-and-exploration-and-stealth-driven action game — think old school Grand Theft Auto — but it's the setting that draws you in first.
This newly released video highlights some of the game's basic mechanics and flow — there's also a cat — but really, it's just another excuse to peer more into Tokyo 42's imaginative open world.
The t

China has finished the installation of the world's largest radio telescope, according to reports from state media. The last of the telescope's 4,450 triangular panels was fitted into the dish this weekend, ahead of the telescope's planned launch in September. The Five Hundred Meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (or FAST) is the size of 30 soccer fields, and has taken over five years and $180 million to build.
Looking for aliens, pulsars, quasars, and more
"The telescope is of great significa

This is my first Fourth of July as a pet-owner, so forgive me for what I'm about to say: I had no idea that my cat would hate fireworks.
I suppose it makes sense — what creature does like the sound of nearby explosions? Definitely not me. But I didn't realize fireworks were such a big deal for cats until I stumbled across a Tumblr called Little Cat Diary. A blog post directed towards American cat owners who celebrate their patriotism with fireworks warned that cats will often run around an

LONDON — Top Gear presenter Chris Evans has announced that he's stepping down from his role on the show.
SEE ALSO: We took a wild racecar ride with The Stig from 'Top Gear'
The British presenter, who replaced Jeremy Clarkson and Co. after the infamous 2015 "fracas" which resulted in the decision not to renew Clarkson's contract, announced his resignation via a tweet on Monday afternoon.Evans followed up the announcement by saying that he'll continue to focus on his other projects, includi

GUEST: Bots will soon transform the world of productivity tools, business workflows, and enterprise software. The change will happen incrementally, almost invisibly, until it redefines software completely. Remember the old story about boiling a frog?
Starting with mainframes and COBOL, each version of computing technology has been applied to the cause of automating, simplifying and codifying business processes. Enterprise software tools such as ERP, HR, CRM and accounting automate business workf

As many as 80 percent of all mobile apps that hit the marketplace never see a return on development investments. User interface issues, performance problems, and other issues are more often found by users than by the testing and development team, which means that insult is added to that financial injury. What if the business could see all those unknown issues ahead of time and get everything corrected before ever deploying a mobile app? This would be beneficial to developers, investors, and the

Professional wrestler, comedic actor, and dedicated student of Mandarin John Cena has an important Fourth of July message. The video, embedded above, is a PSA from the non-profit group Ad Council and the #WeAreAmerica campaign.
"Almost half the country belongs to minority groups," says Cena, midway through the ad. "People who are lesbian, African American, bi, transgender, and Native American, and proud of it. After all, what’s more American than freedom to celebrate the things that m

On the side of a road, a legendary battle of beasts took place. 
On one side, a hungry snake who found a defenseless baby rodent. On the other side, the mother rat, desperate to get her baby back. 
Luckily Rojas Montecinos Evy took a video of the heated melée and we all get to see nature at work. 
These Irish guys perfectly summed up just how spectacularly confusing Brexit is
John Oliver lists things Americans miss 'after kicking Britain unceremoniously out'
Calga

Chris Evans, who headed the Top Gear reboot after the departure of Jeremy Clarkson, has stepped down from the show. Evans was brought in along side Matt LeBlanc and host of other new faces to fill the positions left by Clarkson, Jame May, and Richard Hammond. The first series of the show had poor ratings, with fewer than 2 million viewers tuning into its series finale this weekend — lower than any episode helmed by Clarkson.
Evans announced the news in a tweet, saying he'd given

This week, the US patent office issued 6,319 patents. Each patent adds a little something new to the human knowledge base. As we cannot list all six thousand, the PatentYogi team has selected the five most interesting patents.  Technology of Maglev trains now used to build artificial heart Patent number: US 20160184499 Worldheart corporation, in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University, has invented a miniature artificial heart that works on the same technology that powers super fast

The Tour de France 2016: 2,197 miles, 22 teams, one giant penis. 
Riders pumping their way through the second stage of the race hit a speed hump of sorts on Sunday. A spray paint-wielding artiste drew a penis on the route, forcing competitors to roll over the phallic distraction on live television. 
SEE ALSO: 22 pictures you need to look at twiceViewers at home noticed the pesky pecker.This certainly isn't the first dick we've seen on the Tour de France.
 
Have somethin

It's the halfway point of 2016, a perfect time to take stock of the best entertainment offerings of the half-year. Check out our picks for the biggest digital entertainment trends of the year are below — and since "The top 16 of 2016" is exactly 50% premature, we chose the Top 8.  
Also check out our lists of the best television episodes, movies, games, albums, and beauty moments that have happened in the first half of 2016.   
1. All things live Image:BRITTANY HERBERT

John Oliver really enjoys a good post-Brexit rant. 
After taking down Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson, the English satirist released a celebratory clip for July 4.  
“It might be worth thinking about just the handful of things you gave up when kicking Britain unceremoniously out of this country,” Oliver said.
“First, the accents: these beautiful vowel sounds could have been yours,” said the British host. “But instead, from sea to shining sea, you speak like

You may have heard about the Donald Trump bot army and the Twitter bots that have influenced elections in Latin America, but there are other bots out there, bots that connect citizens to services, bots that plan to crowdsource the election of a president or act as your personal assistant in government.
Bots won’t just upend business and the App Store. They’re going to change civil society, how people interact with government, and the self-governance of&n

Let’s say this Fourth of July will be your first experience with fireworks. The scenario is hardly unlikely. Fireworks are illegal in a majority of states, and in those states that allow for the civilian usage of consumer-grade explosives, dozens of cities enforce bans. Fireworks are also exceptionally good at removing one’s hand from their arm. Just ask New York Giants pass rusher Jason Pierre-Paul.
Anyway, in our figurative scenario, despite local prohibition and the threat of muti

This Fourth of July, you can celebrate one of the nation’s greatest musicians: Prince. The Prince Online Museum launched earlier today as an explorable archive of the 20 years of websites published by the late artist. Built around a reverse chronological timeline, the museum features links to active Prince websites, along with descriptions, screen captures, and video tours for the sites no longer online.
The Prince Online Museum is spearheaded by the site’s director, Sam Je

You probably have a bunch of times every day when you have some time left to check up on the best videos from around the Web. But who’s got the time to go looking for them? Enter Hyper, which presents a curated list of 10 videos that changes every day — and it’s all downloaded to your phone. During setup, you pick a couple of things you’re interested in  – such as pop culture and tech – and off you go. All videos are curated daily by the Hyper

If you're getting confused by this whole Brexit thing, you're most certainly not alone.
The sketch above, made by Irish YouTubers Foil Arms and Hog, explains just how difficult Brexit is to understand, and what leaving the European Union might mean for the UK.
It's tough to pick a favourite line, but we particularly enjoyed the question about "Brexit and Ook".
Calgary's skaters are so stoked to get their ramps back, my dudes
Experience the joy and terror of puppies discovering mirrors for the fi