Technology news

“Let everyone in the office know I’m running late.”
This simple statement could change everything about the modern workplace.
It’s not possible for an artificial assistant to execute this command today, for several reasons — issues with calendar programs, subpar artificial intelligence, or even the fact that there are so many different definitions of everyone. A chatbot today — like Siri or Google Now, or even Amazon Alexa — could almost handle this

If you thought you'd seen every Pokémon Go accessory possible, think again. We present to you: Pokémon Go-enabled sneakers! 
SEE ALSO: A beginner's guide: How to play 'Pokémon Go'
The idea, which is still a concept at this stage, was created by New York-based start-up Vixole, a company working on "smart sneakers" with embedded LED displays and sensors. On Vixole's website, the smart sneakers are described as being controlled by a mobile app that allows you to cont

Niantic Labs’ John Hanke will be delivering a fireside chat for AR/VR day (augmented reality/virtual reality) at GamesBeat 2016. Get a ticket here!Microsoft today announced the release of the Xbox Summer Update for the Xbox One and the Xbox app. The release finally brings Microsoft’s Cortana voice assistant to all Xbox One systems in the U.S. and the U.K.
“With Cortana, gamers can expect more from voice commands on Xbox,” Mike Ybarra, head of Xbox platform engineering at

Canadian singer Justin Bieber was offered $5 million to perform during the Republican National Convention, according to TMZ, but only passed after his manager threatened to quit.
Bieber wouldn't have been permitted to say anything negative about the GOP or Trump
The multimillion dollar offer would have been the largest the singer had ever received, and it appears to have come with some strings attached: he would have been forbidden to hang banners reading Black Lives Matter (All Lives Matte

GUEST: Elon Musk recently released part two of his master plan for Tesla. And predictably, especially for those who have seen Musk’s ability to tackle society’s largest problems, it’s causing some excitement.
There’s a lot to love about the new plan. But one of Musk’s new key objectives could actually worsen the very problems he’s trying to solve: his declaration that autonomous buses of the future take riders “all the way to their destina

Microsoft is rolling out a significant update to the Xbox One today. The summer update brings a number of new features, including Microsoft's Cortana digital assistant for those in the US and UK. Cortana is designed to look and feel just like the Windows 10 variant, and most of the same queries work. You'll also be able to use Cortana to set up parties through Kinect or via a headset, see what friends are playing, and control media playback. Cortana replaces the old Xbox voice commands with "Hey

Watching Rihanna bound toward her adoring public is more exciting than most action movies.
RiRi's new video for "Goodnight Gotham," an ANTI bonus track that samples Florence and the Machine, brings those thrills, as the singer runs to meet her fans after a Paris photo shoot.
Bonus: it involves a cool jumpsuit and crowdsurfing.Margot Robbie fills Jimmy Fallon in on her artsy secret talent
Beetle lands a solid high five during passionate insect orgy
'Hillary Diss Track' is a catchy auto-tune win

A number of rumors have surfaced about Apple doing away with the headphone jack on the iPhone 7. Now, we have a peek at what that might actually look like. 
SEE ALSO: Video shows possible new iPhone 7 without headphone jack
On Friday, a video surfaced showing how Lightning port-enabled EarPods might work, in this case using what appears to be an iPhone 6S. Image:EverythingApplesPro via youtubeThe YouTuber doesn't go into great detail beyond showing that the EarPods actually work, so i

We’ve known for a while that the end was coming for Game of Thrones, and during this year’s Television Critics Association press tour, HBO programming president Casey Bloys confirmed that the eighth season of the fantasy epic will be its last.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Bloys noted that the showrunners had gone into the show with a plan for a certain number of seasons, and that he was abiding by their desire to end in 2018. The final two shortened seasons of the show will ai

Taken in 2003, this adorable photograph of a six-month-old baby girl with her mum is a perfect example of early Harry Potter fandom. 
The baby, Rhiannon Braeger, is now a 13-year-old girl in 8th grade. Thirteen years after being dressed as a baby Harry — complete with lightning bolt scar — Rhiannon has grown into a Harry Potter fan. 
SEE ALSO: Everything you need to know about the new Harry Potter book
This photo was snapped at Barnes and Noble in 2003 at the release of the

Traveling to Mars and setting up a human settlement is not yet a reality, but a new television series promises to give us the closest view yet of how it might actually happen. 
SEE ALSO: NASA's Curiosity rover can now fire its laser on its own. What could possibly go wrong?
Produced by Hollywood veterans Brian Grazer and Ron Howard (Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind), the film is a combination of fact and fiction. It features an international crew of astronauts embarking on a mission to Mars and

Rapper Kanye West this morning took to Twitter to weigh in on the report that Apple was considering an acquisition of Jay Z’s Tidal music streaming service. He demanded a meeting with himself, Jay Z, and Apple executives, and insisted that Apple “give Jay his check for Tidal now.”
Apple, whose premium Apple Music service competes with Tidal, is typically silent about deals it is making or, in some cases, has made. So it’s fascinating to see someone prominent make noise ab

Apple CEO Tim Cook is scheduled to host a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, according to a report from BuzzFeed. 
Cook will host the event as a private citizen, not in his capacity as Apple's chief executive. He will be joined by Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives. 
The money from the event will go toward the Hillary Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee that supports Clinton's campaign as well as the Democratic National Committ

Yes, it's that time again: Kanye West is using Twitter to talk to tech moguls and, like before, he's pretty amped. But this time, he's taking aim at the real king of tech: Tim Cook. 
SEE ALSO: Is Kanye West really asking Mark Zuckerberg for $1 billion to clear a massive debt?
In a series of tweets posted on Saturday, Kanye goes in on the heated competition between Apple Music and Tidal. The two companies have recently been the subject of rumors, with some reports hinting that Apple may be i

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 a Senior User Researcher for Slack, 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,
I'm 25 and was in a relationship for five years. I loved my life with him so much. It was literally picture perfect. We respected each other, loved

GUEST: The way technology companies grow may be broken, destructive, and wasteful. At least that’s the gospel some renegade venture capitalists at Indie.vc have been spreading. If you’re working in venture capital or tech, you might not have heard of Indie.vc yet (some partners I’ve spoken to haven’t), but at Cornerstone Venture Partners, where I’m working this summer, it comes up almost every day. To understand what’s going on, you’ll need some backgrou

At the end of June, word broke that Apple was looking to acquire Tidal, Jay Z’s streaming service. There hasn’t been any official confirmation about the rumored takeover, but according to Kanye West, the Apple needs to stop playing hardball and make a deal.
Apple taking over Tidal has its advantages and disadvantages: it would give Apple a leg up in the music streaming world, even as the deal appeared to be a bit of a long shot. As we noted then: a lot could go wrong before the acqui

Tech employees already get free food, free dry cleaning and free beer. Now, they also get deals on housing. 
New hires at Google and other Silicon Valley companies are often offered home loans with no money down and a host of other financial planning services, Bloomberg reported this week. 
The help for tech employees buying houses, of course, is taking place in one of the least affordable and most competitive housing markets in the country.
And if people in the tech industry need this

Welcome back to The Verge’s weekly musical roundup. I’m Jamieson, I’m still your host, and I hope you didn’t miss me too much last week. I took a break from jam curation because I had my hands full with the Panorama festival, the celebration of music, art, and technology that gobbled up last weekend in New York City. We presented an ultra-cool (seriously, it was air-conditioned) collection of art installations called The Lab, and we also spent plenty of time backstag

Niantic Labs’ John Hanke will be delivering a fireside chat for AR/VR day (augmented reality/virtual reality) at GamesBeat 2016. Get a ticket here!GUEST: There is a meme that the mobile game market is mature and that growth is slowing. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. According to market research firm Newzoo, mobile game revenue has surpassed PC and console and is growing an order of magnitude faster than other segments. However, even that view aggregates all game segments, a

True love can last a lifetime.
Joe Ray, 86, and Billie Wanda Johnson, 83, have been married for 65 years, and their feelings for each other are as strong as ever.
In 2014, to celebrate 63 years of marriage, their granddaughter, photographer Shalyn Nelson, gave them a very special present:  a photoshoot to capture their evergreen romance.
Though the heartwarming photos are two years old, they have recently resurfaced because Nelson's grandfather's health has been suffering over the past few

All shows must die — even Game of Thrones.
HBO programming executive Casey Bloys confirmed at this weekend's Television Critics Association press tour that GoT's shortened eighth season will be its last.
SEE ALSO: The 'Game of Thrones' Season 6 outtakes are a battle of the bloopers
The news, rumored for months by showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, comes as no surprise to fans. Still, it's the first outright confirmation from HBO. And if we've learned one thing from Game of Thrones,

If you're in the market for a new smartwatch, you might want to put your wallet away and wait just a little longer.
Samsung is reportedly planning to announce the Gear S3, the successor to the Gear S2 and Gear S2 Classic the company launched last year.
SEE ALSO: Samsung's new 256GB microSD card is so fast no devices support it yet
According SamMobile, the Gear S3 will retain the Gear S2's round display and rotating bezel. The watch itself will likely receive a design revamp, although it may simp

Marvel’s Cinematic Universe covers the big summer blockbusters as well as their offerings on Netflix and regular television. Speaking to SlashFilm, Marvel Television’s president Jeph Loeb threw some cold water on speculation that Daredevil or Jessica Jones might appear in one of the upcoming films.
The reason comes down to the differences in speed between film and television productions
The reason for why you won’t see characters from Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage or Agen

I wouldn't exactly call myself a Star Trek fanStar Wars, not surprisingly, is much more my speed. Still, like every geek of a certain age, I watched reruns of what we now call The Original Series (TOS) as a child, back when there was almost no other science fiction to be found on TV.
But I wasn't exactly a discerning critic in those days. I'll never forget the evening that "Spock's Brain," now widely regarded as the worst episode of Star Trek ever, terrified the pants off me at age 7. My tastes

Niantic Labs’ John Hanke will be delivering a fireside chat for AR/VR day (augmented reality/virtual reality) at GamesBeat 2016. Get a ticket here!GUEST: Back in 2006, I remember wondering how many people were literally walking to their doom at any given time because their eyes were glued downwards onto their BlackBerries while they crossed a busy street. Fast-forward 10 years and now it’s an augmented reality game that has many of us completely oblivious to our surroundings.
Pok&eac

For students at the University of Idaho, the first day of class may involve choosing between Charmander, Bulbasaur and Squirtle.
Next fall, the school will introduce "Pop Culture Games," a physical education class designed to "teach students about leading active lifestyles, building teamwork and exploring their communities through games," according to a school press release.
SEE ALSO: Eye doctor reaches out to nearsighted Pokemon Go players
Among those games will be Pokémon Go, which has

VB LIVE: Every marketer thinks they need an app—and most of them are wrong according to the SVP of Expedia. In Part 3 of our Masters of Mobile Data series, Aaron Price explains why, when, and how you should be investing in an app that will keep users engaged and pay off in the long run.
Register here for free.
A mobile app might not even be worth your time and spend, says Aaron Price, SVP at Expedia, the world’s largest online travel services company — especially

Bill Clinton loves Police Academy. And Chelsea Clinton loves A Wrinkle in Time, as we found out in her speech at the Democratic National Convention this week.
Now, more people might love the classic children's book, too. Sales of A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle jumped on Amazon after Clinton's speech Thursday. 
Slate first spotted the spike in popularity. 
In her speech introducing her mother, Clinton recalled how her parents always listened to her ideas. 
“I remember

Tons of great cosplay videos pop up after every major comic and anime convention, but some of the absolute best come from Sneaky Zebra. They’ve put together some amazing videos over the last couple of years, and their latest is a great mix of choreographed camera work and poses from last weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con. Set to Allen Stone’s The Weekend, it’s just what we need to satisfy the post-con blues.
What’s particularly awesome about this video is the incredible

Even feathered friends need a little TLC.
Case in point: this spoiled pet chicken, who's receiving a glamorous makeover from its favorite human companion.
The girl, who is 5 years old, even applies some imaginary chicken lipstick to her bird buddy — just in case they go out on the town later.
SEE ALSO: These glamorous chickens are bringing back '80s chicAccording to BuzzFeed, the video was filmed on a Brazilian farm where all the animals are kept as pets.
“My animals are all treated

To celebrate the upcoming script for J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, we bring you a magic-inspired episode of our series, Trailer Mix. 
We reimagined Harry Potter and his friends heading back to Hogwarts as The Breakfast Club crew: a brain, a beauty, a jock, a rebel and a recluse — Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy and Luna Lovegood have it covered. a
For more Trailer Mix: http://on.mash.to/2awubg1 Read more...More about Mashable Video, Stand

Navigational app Waze might help give you directions on the road, but it’s now poised to help with a real problem: children left in hot cars. The company has introduced a new feature designed to remind drivers not to forget a child.
Since 1990, an average of 29 children die a year from heatstroke in a vehicle
Waze has introduced a new feature: Child Reminder, which will appear once the vehicle reaches its destination by displaying a reminder not to forget a child in the car.
According to a

Niantic Labs’ John Hanke will be delivering a fireside chat for AR/VR day (augmented reality/virtual reality) at GamesBeat 2016. Get a ticket here!China has become the biggest gaming market, surpassing the U.S. quite easily in the past couple of years. But only a handful of companies have moved from Western markets into Asia, or moved from Asia into the West, and succeeded at it. But companies that master such cross-regional challenges will find a gold mine.
Above: Daniel Cho, chairman of

As it does every week, Twitter had its late July ups and downs. The Obamas sprinkled some love on their timelines and folks had a field day when images from both NASA and Beyoncé were released (no, Queen Bey was not on the moon; yes she is otherworldly). Sarah Silverman and Shonda Rhimes had to squash a Twitter hack and show rumors, respectively, while Perez Hilton and Demi Lovato started their own gossip with a public Twitter feud. Thanks to a successful Kickstarter, one teen had a memor

It's been a really, really busy week or so for entertainment. In case you missed it, we spent all last weekend at Comic-Con, where there was a ton of movie and TV news — and, of course, plenty of trailers to go along with it. If you want to check all of that out, you can read out Comic-Con trailer roundup right here; it includes everything from new Marvel movies, to Netflix shows, to some of the convention's standout trailers, like first looks at Wonder Woman and Kong: Skull Isla

If you go to a swanky new pop-up museum in New York City and don't post pictures of yourself aggressively enjoying the hell out of some ice cream, did those calories even count? Your intrepid reporter braved the brutal New York City summer to find out.
The Museum of Ice Cream’s entire month-long run is already sold out — all 30,000 tickets. But don't worry if you weren't able to grab one, because you’ll surely get a chance to experience it through your social media feed. It's o

GUEST: “Slightly devastated” was my typical British understatement of how I felt immediately following the Brexit vote last month. As a British man living in Berlin who has run an international e-commerce company since 2009, I understand the value of open borders to conduct business and embrace an agile workforce. During my tenure, my company became active in 18 markets, available in 12 languages, operated five global production sites, and last year shipped 3.6 million products to 18

Most women rely on a thermometer to measure their fertility throughout the month. Their internal body temperature fluctuates with their ovulation cycle, so it drops when an egg is released and returns to normal levels after the cycle ends. The thermometer has proved a reliable method since at least the 1960s and '70s, albeit one that’s time-consuming and kind of annoying. Now, a new wearable called Ava wants to replace the decades-old technique. It claims to be the world’s first fert

Game of Thrones Season 6 spoilers below, but this is assuming you've watched it.
Look, we can't wait for the next season of Game of Thrones, either. But it ain't coming soon.
The news broke this week that Season 7 will not air until the summer of 2017, which will make the off-season a bit tougher as you stew on this season's twists and deaths. It also means you people may risk taking things too far, so consider some healthy and less healthy ways to bide your time until Season 7.
1. Rea

When the 2012 film Lockout appeared in theaters, more than one critic pointed out that it shared a number of similarities with John Carpenter’s 1981 film Escape from New York. A court in Paris agreed, stating that it "massively borrowed key elements", and ordered screenwriter Luc Besson to pay €465,000 in restitution.
Lockoutwas directed by James Mather and Stephen St. Leger, based on a story by Luc Besson. It followed a wrongly-accused inmate named Snow (Guy Pearce) who was offered a

Learning to code is an increasingly valuable investment in your own skill set, with greater demand for programming basics rising every day. And while there’s a labyrinth of online courses offering cheap instruction, many of them fall short on quality and qualification. You’ll find true, high-caliber training in the Complete Front-End to Back-End Coding Bundle, delivering an essential foundation in widely used programming languages such as Django, Scala, Scheme, Linux, and more. For

The real test for any new technology is how quickly it gets picked up by the adult industry. As porn embraces virtual reality, what does that mean for the rest of us? Talking about virtual reality is a bit like “dancing” about “architecture;” we lack the vocabulary to do it properly, and you have to experience it to understand. That quickly becomes evident when watching someone try it out for the first time. People are invariably blown away — they gasp, they laugh,

Some time ago I visited my parents, and as these things tend to go, they had a list of things that bothered them about their computers, iPhones and iPads and the Internet connection. I like helping them, so tried optimizing their Wi-Fi network first. That was frustrating at first because I didn’t really know what tools to use. I Googled around a bit and found some very expensive tools, but I also uncovered a great and useful one hidden away in Mac OS X itself. In the past i

Being creative makes us happy – that’s true – but not just because we just enjoy dreaming up new ideas and having flights of fancy. In fact, research tells us that what we really love about creativity is the daily drudgery – the slow and frequently painful trudge towards getting it done and mastering our  creative pursuit. Mihaly Csikszentmihaly (pronounced six-cent-mihaly) is the Hungarian psychologist who first coined the term flow in 1975. He describes flow as be

HTC is raising the price of its VR headset in the UK thanks to Brexit. The company will increase the HTC Vive's price by £70 on August 1st, raising the price from £689 to £759. HTC is the third major tech company to raise prices in the UK due to the currency devaluation caused by Brexit, following up OnePlus and Dell, who hiked prices earlier this month.
The price increase doesn't apply to any other HTC products as of yet. But if you live in the UK and are i