Technology news

David Cameron got a little emotional — for David Cameron, at least — at this week's NATO summit on Ukraine.
The British prime minister, who will resign in October in the wake of the "Brexit" referendum, posed for photos with President Obama, German chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi and French president Francois Hollande after their meeting with Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko in Warsaw.
SEE ALSO: 'It's Always Sunny' outside of the confines of the Eur

Serena Williams won her 22nd Grand Slam singles title on Saturday when she emerged victorious at Wimbledon. As if that weren't cool enough, Beyoncé was cheering Serena on from the champion's player's box. 
Queen Bey took a quick break from the European leg of her Formation tour to support Williams, who appeared in her video for "Sorry" earlier this year.
SEE ALSO: Serena Williams takes down hecklers for all of womankindImage:karwai tang/WireImage/getty imagesFor all those wondering,

GUEST: Arnold Schwarzenegger had cameos in all major sports broadcasts this month — and it’s all thanks to one hit mobile strategy game.
GamesBeat has partnered with iSpot.tv, which measures TV advertising in real-time, to bring you a monthly report on how gaming brands are spending and which are generating the most digital response. The results below are for the top five spending gaming industry brands from June 1 to June 30.
The gaming industry’s TV ad spend took a dip last m

First there were smiley emojis, then there were poop emojis, and now finally, we'll have Disney emojis.
Emojiholics of the world, rejoice.
SEE ALSO: This LED handbag lets you literally wear emoji on your sleeve
On Thursday, Disney Games released a trailer debuting nearly 400 new emojis, all of them Disney or Pixar themed. Emojis come from both Disney classics, including Alice in Wonderland and Mickey Mouse, and (slightly) more modern movies, like The Little Mermaid and Lilo and Stitch.
In order

Inmates who escape their cells usually do it to fly the coop, but some have more altruistic motives.
At Parker County Jail in Weatherford, Texas a group of prisoners recently broke out of their cells to rescue a guard who'd slumped over and lost consciousness.The guard, the inmates later learned, had had a heart attack. The eight inmates who successfully left their cells banged on walls, hoping to catch other guards' attention and get help.
SEE ALSO: Crowds line up to hug Dallas police officers

One college student is having a bit of Insta-fun with his roommate's FIFA fixation.
The student, who remains anonymous but Instagrams under @fifaroommate, noticed early in the school year that his roommie was really into playing FIFA on Playstation.
Like, really into it.
SEE ALSO: 10 virtual realities to look forward to
So he did what any good roommate would do: from March through June, he took a photo of his friend playing FIFA every single day (except those lost to final exams, because academ

The system responsible for the first moon landing is now readily available online, after an enterprising former NASA intern uploaded the Apollo Guidance Computer code to Github this week.
Although the code for the MIT-designed system has long been available to interested researchers, it's never been quite this at hand. Quartz has an excellent, thorough breakdown, but the jokes and asides are a special point of interest.
Reddit has already taken a look under the hood, and unco

More than a dozen women have stepped forward to accuse Fox News CEO Roger Ailes of sexual harassment in the days since a former host for the channel filed a related lawsuit against Ailes, according to New York magazine. 
SEE ALSO: Anchor sues Fox News CEO for sexual harassment
Gretchen Carlson, who hosted "The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson" until last month, alleged that Ailes subjected her to "severe and persistent" sexual harassment. She also claims that Ailes fired her in June in a r

GUEST: It’s trendy for marketers to BAM-KAPOW their visitors with pop-up pleas to “JOIN OUR MAILING LIST!” These animated boxes, powered by hot startups like SumoMe and OptinMonster, promise a firm ROI handshake. In exchange for a smidgen of JavaScript, you’ll receive a lifetime of customer correspondence. But hold onto that handshake a little longer and you might feel the ROI go limp with hidden costs.
Here are four considerations to keep in mind before employing an emai

A baby beaver rescued from a Calgary golf course is now lovin' summertime in its very own pool.
The Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation is tending to the beaver after it sustained a tail injury in late June — possibly from a predator who picked it up, then dropped it.
SEE ALSO: Dogs throw raging summer luau party in pool full of tennis balls
Caretakers estimate the beaver will have to remain under human care for several years. Fortunately, the little fellow is making the most of i

I’m sure most people can vividly recall the frustration of starting the job search. Or, if they can’t, it’s probably because they’re blocking out the bad memories and choosing to move on.
I get it. I started my first real job search my junior year of college (I don’t count the one retail job I applied for in high school and got the same week—that’s just too easy). I was studying abroad in London, where the five-hour time difference and 30-minute maximum

GUEST: One of the issues facing chatbot developers, one which is particularly important given how popular some of the existing bots are and the number of bots already on Facebook Messenger, is that their bots will also have to compete directly with Google. This is a two-pronged problem. The first prong is that Google is making its own messaging apps with its own chatbot. The search giant already has a lock on making artificial intelligence work for everyday people, drivers, and smartphone users,

With Snapchat pushing out its biggest update yet and Pokemon Go finally hitting the App Store, you may have missed some of this week's best new apps.
Each weekend, we round up a few of our favorite new and updated apps. This week's list includes a game that tests your multi-tasking skills, an app for creating animations and an app that will make your selfies look like art.
SEE ALSO: 6 apps to help you win summer
Check out the gallery below to see our top picks. If you're looking for more items

LONDON — Serena Williams insisted she was not focused on No. 22.
Said she wouldn't discuss it.
Kept coming close without quite getting it.
Now she finally has it. And so she can flaunt it.
SEE ALSO: Serena Williams takes down hecklers for all of womankind
Williams lifted both arms overhead and raised two fingers on each hand right there on Centre Court to show off the magic number after winning her record-tying 22nd Grand Slam title by beating Angelique Kerber 7-5, 6-3 in the Wimbledon fi

Watching assorted junk hardware play music has been a weirdly popular, weirdly good internet phenomenon for some time now — on the order of, say, videos of the red hot ball of nickel being placed on things.
The latest entry in the genre: John Williams' Star Wars theme, played by machines from YouTube maestro Paweł Zadrożniak. The video says the "Floppotron 2.0" includes 64 floppy drives, along with plenty of other stuff. If you're into that, this week he also

GUEST: Russia began enforcing a law last year requiring data relating to Russians to be stored on servers that physically sit in Russia. Now, word has leaked of a new law (currently in draft form) that would attempt to further restrict Internet traffic along geographic borders.
The proposed law would give state regulators control over the “Russian part of the Internet,” including routing and domain administration, and would require surveillance of any cross-border traffic.

(Reuters) — Dallas police ended a standoff with a gunman Friday morning by remotely detonating a “bomb robot,” an unprecedented tactic by officers that rekindles concerns about the militarization of local law enforcement in the United States.
The bomb blast killed a black U.S. Army reservist identified by authorities as Micah Xavier Johnson, who shot dead five police officers and wounded seven others in Dallas on Thursday night following a peaceful protest over police shoo

A Wyoming teen was playing Pokémon Go near the Big Wind River Friday when she stumbled across a dead body.
Shayla Wiggins, 19, told local outlets she saw a floating object while searching for water-type Pokémon in the river near her home. "I had to take a second look and I realized it was a body," she said.
Wiggins immediately called 911 after the discovery.
SEE ALSO: Why are prominent YouTube gamers caught up in a gambling scandal?According to the Fremont County Police Department

The nation is reeling after the killings this week of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling and the Dallas sniper attacks that left five law enforcement officers dead. 
In Dallas on Friday, Police Chief David Brown held a prayer service in Thanks-Giving Square Park to honor the victims. Shortly afterward, local residents lined up to thank their police officers and give them hugs.
SEE ALSO: Man streams attack on Dallas police on Facebook Live
The service included remarks from religious and ci

GUEST: Venture capital investors, to a person, claim that they invest in teams, not product. Strong teams, they argue, can respond to changing market dynamics and pivot, if necessary, to the right product. For that reason they’re actively involved in the interviewing and hiring of all executive team members.
Historically, in assembling this team, the CMO is one of the last hired. Which means that this final key hire should be the clearest fit with the company’s charter and goals. So

 But before we go sagely nodding about the coming Augmented Reality revolution the Poképoaclypse foretells, maybe it’s best to take a step back and examine the components of Pokémon Go’s success, and its potential pitfalls. 1. Pokémon The franchise upon which Pokémon Go is based is one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time. It has sold upwards of 279 million… Read More

Buses have a famously toxic reputation; they emit fumes, clog highways and breed middle school bullies. 
But one giant, furry catbus promises to restore dignity to this mode of transportation.
Curators at Studio Ghbili in Tokyo this week revealed an enormous Catbus. The vehicle is modeled after the Catbus in the classic Hayao Miyazaki  movie My Neighbor Totoro. It's outfitted so that both children and shameless adults can ride.
SEE ALSO: Mirror kitty returns to engage in mind-boggling

Imagine a future where a plane lands at an airfield that doubles as a rail yard. The cabin — one of three that cling to the underbelly of the aircraft like a baby possum to its mother — detaches, is seamlessly transferred to a nearby train, and then continues its journey toward the city center. Your multi-seat trip (taxi-to-subway-to-airtrain) from home to hotel suddenly becomes a one-seat, hassle-free ride. That’s the aim of a consortium of Swiss researchers with the conceptua

VB EVENT: VentureBeat’s international botathon got underway this morning with more than 200 teams competing in a hackathon for chatbots. Believed to be the first of its kind, the competition is taking place in San Francisco, New York, Melbourne, Tel Aviv, and via online participation for teams outside these metro areas.
Teams began their work today at 9:00 a.m. (local time) and will work on their bots throughout the weekend, stopping at 5:00 p.m. (local time). Participants have been t

You may not have heard of Habitat. The video game, released in 1986, never made a huge splash, although the studio behind it —  Lucasfilm Games, later known as LucasArts — would go on to create some classics. But it's a forgotten piece of history: years before massively multiplayer online games came into vogue, the game allowed Commodore 64 users to interact with each other through a dial-in online service, billed by the hour.
This week, the Museum of Art and Digital Entert

Jack got hacked. 
But not just any Jack, Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and current CEO of Twitter. 
SEE ALSO: Hacker takes over Twitter account of Oculus CEO, has a good laugh
Dorsey had his Twitter account briefly compromised by hackers early Saturday morning. 
At around 2:50 a.m., according to a report from Engadget, hackers operating under the name OurMine, took over Dorsey's Twitter account, posting the message, "Hey, its OurMine, we are testing your security." 
That messa

Welcome back to The Verge’s weekly musical roundup. I’m Jamieson, I’m still your host, and it’s always tough to write this column — to write about music at all, even — when the world is being rocked by larger concerns. It feels a little frivolous, you know? When I start to feel discouraged, I remind myself that art has the power to lift people away from whatever’s ailing them, if only for a few minutes. It also has the potential to galvanize true change

Last night, after this week's deadly shootings made national news, Uber changed its app to have riders "reflect on gun violence" while using the service.
BuzzFeed first noted the changes as social media users began circulating messages from Uber early today. The company reportedly paused the app for one minute at midnight, as it asked riders "to create a moment of reflection for the Uber community." A message said the company would donate to anti-violence groups in Baton Rouge, Minneapolis, and

Stage eight of the Tour de France is notorious for its steep inclines, but riders may face another obstacle during Saturday's Col du Tourmalet ascent. 
We're talking, of course, about a bevy of llamas.
SEE ALSO: Some hero to humanity drew a huge penis on Tour de France route
On July 2, local resident Joël Adagas posted photos of about twenty llamas resting on the tarmac as they often do to keep warm on cool, misty days.Image:facebook/Joël AdagasAdagas told the Huffington Post the

Working for the TSA is a hard job whether you're a two-legged human or four-legged pup.
Every year the TSA seeks homes for dogs who've either failed TSA training or retired. It's not easy sniffing out bombs, and old dogs need good homes. Many of these dogs have spent their lives in kennels and are not used to a home environment.
SEE ALSO: 13 tail-waggingly important photos of dogs watching other dogs on TV
These dogs ages typically range between two and 10 years old. Common breeds include Germa

ANALYSIS: On March 3, 1991, after a drunken high-speed chase, Rodney King was pulled over by the Los Angeles Police Department and savagely beaten. The arresting police officers tasered King twice and clubbed the African-American man countless times with their batons, employing a striking technique called  “power strokes.”
Above: Stills from George Holliday’s video of the Rodney King beating.Image Credit: Fair use
The incident was videotaped by a plumbe

Not today, hawk. Not today.
Wildlife YouTuber John Dunstan recently spotted a lucky squirrel escaping the clutches of a hungry hawk looking for a meal in New Jersey's Lincoln Park.
Fortunately, the squirrel had some agile jumping skills and was able to escape to a more secure branch. 
Chewbacca mom knocks national anthem out of the park at Astros game
Badass woman tackles 6-foot snake like it's NBD
Confident little girl will make you think she's actually hula hooping
Floppy drives make beau

The recent news of the first-known fatality involving Tesla's semi-autonomous Autopilot system is undeniably tragic. However, it also highlights one distinct difference between the upstart carmaker and the rest of the established automotive industry: Tesla is beta testing the tech on the public.
Every other automaker — from BMW to Cadillac — flat-out refuses to beta test driverless tech on the public. Other semi-autonomous driving systems, like Volvo’s Pilot Assist system and

Leah Reich was one of the first internet advice columnists. Her column "Ask Leah" ran on IGN, where she gave advice to gamers for two and a half years. During the day, Leah is Slack’s user researcher, but her views here do not represent her employer. You can write to her at [email protected] and read more How to be Human here.
Hi Leah,Recently, my husband told me that he had been thinking about his ex girlfriend (this was five days after it started). He said he was at work when out of n

Millions of people fell in love with 'Chewbacca mom' Candace Payne and her exuberant laugh. It turns out she's also got some pipes.
Payne, sans Chewbacca mask, performed a skillful rendition of the national anthem at an Astros vs. Mariners game this week and the crowd was into it.
Singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" in the major leagues, free tuition, a trip to Facebook headquarters, her own action figure — this might be the most jam-packed 15 minutes of fame we've ever seen.
Badass woman t

GUEST: Within the venture capital industry, we all have different styles when we talk to entrepreneurs. Even within the same team: I tend to ask lots of detailed questions on the business and the product, for example, whereas other VCs on our team focus on the personal history of the founder, their background, and the problem that led them to set up a startup to solve it.
From my experience of pitching to potential LPs or supporting subsequent fund raising for our portfolio companies, I’ve

Battery packs are incredibly useful for keeping your gadgets charged when they're running low on juice.
But what about your laptop? MacBook users can pick up the HyperJuice, but it requires a little bit of modding to make it compatible with the MagSafe charger and not everyone is comfortable getting their hands dirty. 
A new product called the Omnicharge, currently crowdfunding on Indiegogo, charges any device through a standard AC/DC (120V AC and 150V DC) power plug and has two USB p

Maybe we shouldn't allow everyone to have access to technology. 
Most people like to think they have a pretty good grasp on all things tech. But just because you can turn a device on and navigate to your email doesn't mean you're IT professionals.
SEE ALSO: 25 people who will never forget to properly apply sunscreen ever again
Unfortunately, the life of an IT person is sometimes filled with horrifying acts against technology, like a mouse that had literally never been cleaned or a power st