Technology news

After a long absence, Harry Potter is back. The script for J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child came out in bookstores earlier this week, and it’s a welcome return to familiar magical stomping grounds. What’s most rewarding about this story however, is that it’s grown up with its characters and readers.
The first thing to get out of the way with this book is that it’s not a novel, which is one of the things that has been confusing to a lot of people: it&

Showing its serious about improving its virtual assistant, as well as the company’s online storefronts, Apple purchased Seattle-based AI/machine learning startup Turi today for a reported $200 million. Details are still hard to come but so far we know that the Turi team plans to stay in Seattle, joining Apple’s growing engineering outpost in the city. Turi, formerly Dato (and GraphLab before that), has a number of products designed to help developers in creating machine learnin

AMD has made it clear that it wants the low end of the graphics card market, and now it’s time to see how committed it is to that strategy.
In July, the company revealed the Radeon RX 470 and 460 chips that are meant to fill out its latest video-card offerings. The 480, on the high end, is a solution for 1080p gaming and virtual reality. The 470, however, drops the VR capabilities in favor of a slightly lower price, but AMD promises that it can still pump out most games running on their hi

 Toronto-based B corporation Komodo OpenLab thought Pokémon Go using its Tecla product, an assistive hardware device designed to make it easier to use smartphones, tablets and users for people who might not generally be able to interact with these gadgets, including, for example, wheelchair users with spinal injuries or multiple sclerosis.
As you can see from the video above, the Tecla… Read More

The Washington Post has a big team of journalists covering the Rio Olympics.Also covering the games for the paper: Robots.The Post is using homegrown software to automatically produce hundreds of real-time news reports about the Olympics. Starting tomorrow morning, those items will appear, without human intervention, on the Post’s website, as well as in outside channels like its Twitter account.Continue reading…

A Philips Hue motion detector may soon be a reality, according to a new FCC filing spotted by Dave Zatz. Instead of having to deal with a second smart home system like SmartThings to get a proper motion sensor, Philips Hue owners may soon be able to easily integrate a sensor designed to work with their lights.It shouldn't be that expensive either, according to British online retailer Alza, which has the motion sensor available for preorder for £34 ($44). The description says

Apple has acquired Turi, a machine learning software startup. The startup formerly went by the names GraphLab and Dato.
Apple provided no information other than its standard boilerplate message for confirming acquisitions. “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans,” an Apple spokesperson told VentureBeat in an email. (Hat tip to Geekwire for breaking the news.)
Carlos Guestrin, cofounder and chief executive of the

Shopping has never been the same experience from person to person, and merchants are constantly searching for a service that creates the ultimate personalized experience. While a few companies are using some machine learning to tailor things for consumers, NeoWize believes there’s a better solution. It thinks that its use of artificial intelligence can offer better customization in real time. The company has launched and is offering its services to ecommerce platforms l

EXCLUSIVE: In-home care startup Honor, backed by famed investors Andreessen Horowitz, Max Levchin, and Jessica Alba, is adding another noteworthy name to that list: Thrive Capital.
The Slack, Warby Parker, and Jet.com investor is leading a new $42 million round for the on-demand senior care company, a source close to the matter tells us, to help the startup expand beyond the two regions it currently serves: the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Ange

Google has revealed that it will be shutting down the Together watch face feature in Android Wear on September 30th. As first reported by Android Police, the latest version of the Android Wear app informs users of the coming shutdown when they attempt to configure Together. Google says that "many of the best features of Together will be integrated directly into" the forthcoming Android Wear 2.0 update, due to arrive sometime this fall.
Together was launched just about a year ago and is

Just when you thought there would be no Song of the Summer for Summer '16, a savior descends.
And that savior is my teammate in social media management, The Verge's Dami Lee. She found this little ditty on YouTube called "Can I Get a Box?" You really need to listen to it to understand. It's very..."I've been a server for 5 years. I made a song about the way white girls ask me for boxes," says Joy Brooker, the songstress behind "Can I Get a Box?" The song is what some might call "a banger." It is

As if Cool Runnings hasn't already taken you on enough emotional journeys...
Creative YouTuber schmoyoho songified some of the 1993 classic film's most inspirational scenes into an uplifting auto-tuned anthem.
If this doesn't get you psyched for the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics, you can look forward to watching the bobsledders at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics.Toddler wholeheartedly refuses to participate in carseat demo
Morgan Freeman uses his divine voice to narrate a bald man crossing the

As Suicide Squad stumbles its way into theaters nationwide, we have before us the music video for Skrillex and Rick Ross' "Purple Lamborghini," a certified mess of a thing that can't seem to decide whether or not it's in on the joke. But really, are you surprised? 
SEE ALSO: The first 'Suicide Squad' reviews are in, and they are savage
Jared Leto's The Joker stars in the clip with the Miami rapper and DJ. And while there's really no way to be certain, the premise seems to be that the dapper

In a new test, Facebook has started promoting links to other sites in a “Links you may like” feature.
The post, which has a carousel design that you can scroll through horizontally, contains several articles, each with an explanation above it, such as “Based on pages you follow” or “Because you follow ‘Techmeme.'” Share and Save buttons are underneath each article, along with a down arrow that leads to an option to hide the individual article. Interestin

New York has the cupcake ATM, and now an Ohio college has the pizza ATM.
Xavier University in Cincinnati is home to the United States' first pizza ATM that delightfully dispenses hot pizza to hungry students at any hour.
SEE ALSO: Hydraulic press channel bakes a smashed pizza that’s almost edible
As reported by Cincinnati.com, the $55,000 Paline ATM is located in the dorm Fenwick Hall and will be open 24/7 come fall.
"We were looking for a way to solve this problem of having a late-night p

Stock images don’t always make sense. Case in point, this one. At first glance it looks like two friends, relatives, or lovers enjoying a game of ‘Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’ on Sony’s PlayStation 2. For the clueless, I’m talking about the original one, not the current remake of the classic version featuring CJ wreaking havoc on the streets of Los Santos. Look closer though, and you’ll start to spot problems. Like the PS2 not being plugged into the TV, or

GUEST: Bots are here. Platforms are growing. Developers are shipping products. Conferences are being held. Speeches on the future of bots are being given. VC money is getting poured into the sector. Some exits have already taken place. Brands are getting on board. Picks and shovels are being made. The installation phase for this new paradigm is accelerating with great speed.
At the same time, a lot of interesting areas have yet to be explored and are still underdeveloped. If bots are indeed

In 2004, Orkut Büyükkökten and Githin Jose founded the social network Orkut as part of an independent project within Google. After a decade, it was shuttered with a community of more than 300 million people. Since then, Büyükkökten has reflected on that moment and decided to take another stab at it, saying that his latest effort is designed to make us “a little bit friendlier.” To that, he’s launched Hello.com, a social network to in

Aside from a couple distinctive designs, most electric vehicles (EV) from the long-established automaker set have been pretty tame. By that I mean they've been based on the traditional car layout: four doors, four in-line wheels, four seats and a steering wheel off to one side.
That doesn't mean EV of the future have to sustain the standard car layout, though. Proving that point, Nissan unveiled a working prototype of its BladeGlider EV Friday morning in Rio de Janeiro.
SEE ALSO: Saudi prince s

New drone footage shows Apple's Campus 2 under major development in Cupertino, California. Viewers can really see the immensity of it all, with everything from a 100,000-square-foot fitness center, a 2 million-square-foot parking garage and quite a few different research and development centers. 
SEE ALSO: The spaceship rises: A first look at Apple's new campus
The drone flies over what appear to be rooftop basketball and tennis courts, which will be built in front of the main "spaceship"

Three weeks of Olympic competition begin tomorrow in Rio, and there has never been more ways to tune in. That's a good thing, because NBC will be broadcasting 6,755 hours of the games. It all starts with the opening ceremony tonight — which, mind you, is going to be broadcast on a tape delay (but also in HDR!). No matter whether you're a cable subscriber, a cord-cutter, or prefer to follow along just on social media, we've got you covered.
Cable television
Most people will watch the O

YouTube filmmaker and DIY-engineer Thomas Kin harnessed the power of water to charge his iPhone. Meanwhile, my iPhone battery is dead because the outlet is just out of reach from my bed and ugh. If we competed against one another in some sort of survivalist contest, my only hope of beating Thomas Kin would be to curl up into a ball and hope he’d exhaust himself.
Kin's water wheel generator is made from recycled "plastic bottles, disposable platters, 3 Phase stepping motor, [and a] rec

As pre-race rituals go, Santo Condorelli's is a real F-U. 
The Canadian is scheduled to compete in three Olympic swimming events over the next week. Before each one, expect to see him raise a middle finger to the crowd. 
SEE ALSO: Concussions ended his promising NFL career, so he became an Olympian instead
Condorelli isn't flipping the bird to just anyone, though — it's meant for his father. 
The tradition goes back to when Condorelli was a frustrated child swimmer losing to

If you’ve ever had to wait hours for a delayed flight you’re fully aware of the difference between slumming it with hundreds of other frustrated travelers, or grabbing a nap, shower or just a nice drink from a first class lounge. Even if you’ve never experienced the latter, the difference should be clear — you always want to be in the lounge. Przemek Jaroszewski, the head of Poland’s Computer Emergency Response Team (and a frequent flyer) wasn’t able to

 This week tech companies worked their angles for the Rio Olympics, Uber China gave into Didi Chuxing and Instagram cloned Snapchat with an ephemeral new feature. Here are this week’s top stories in tech. You can receive the Weekly Roundup in your inbox every Saturday, if that’s your kinda thing. 1. Didi Chuxing will buy Uber China, its former competitor. The two companies… Read More

Spotify just added a new feature that's going to make it a lot easier to find new music.
The company introduced a new type of playlist called "Release Radar" that automatically curates weekly playlists of new music based on a user's tastes. The playlist will be available to all Spotify's users regardless of their subscription.
SEE ALSO: This pillow streams music, but doesn't wake your partner
Release Radar, which you can find now in Spotify's "Discover" section, is a playlist updated each Friday

Do you trust men named Steve? Then you'll be relieved that the economy would be in safe hands under a Trump administration. 
Donald Trump revealed his list of economic advisers, and they're pretty much what you would expect. There's Tom Barrack of the private equity firm Colony Capital, investor Andy Beal, real estate CEO Howard Lorber, Reagan- and Bush-era economic adviser David Malpass, academic Peter Navarro and mergers and acquisitions portfolio manager John Paulson. 
But then, the

In light of Pennsylvania's new car seat laws, local news station Fox 29 decided to do a quick live demo segment letting viewers know how to strap their kids in. Great idea, right? 
Not if 23-month-old Noah had anything to say about it.
Instead of getting into his carseat, young Noah (whose mom was offering her expert commentary) did just about everything else: yelling, crying, climbing over the carseat, sliding beneath the carseat, getting into the driver's seat, grabbing the steering whee

When the Rio Olympics are all said and done a couple weeks from now, they may well be remembered only for the competition and joy they brought to the world.
But right now, all anyone can talk about is how the water around Rio is toxic sludge and athletes are readying for war with a mosquito-borne virus. 
SEE ALSO: The Australian Olympic team is having a truly garbage time in Rio
We've listed some of the biggest problems and potential disasters of this Olympics, below.
The Zika threatIn this

Incipio Group today announced that it has bought another accessory maker, Griffin Technology. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Griffin offers cases, cables, chargers, desktop stands, and other products, with many available specifically for iOS devices. (Remember the iTrip transmitter for iPod?) The products will remain available under the Griffin brand, according to a statement.
Griffin started in 1992 and has its headquarters in Nashville — that headquarters will remain in place

You know, Carol, that movie about a couple of gal pals taking a road trip together who suddenly get very upset because they're both on their periods or something girly like that? 
Well, that's what you think Todd Hayne's film about a lesbian couple in the 1950s who suffer grave consequences to be together is about if you saw it on a Delta flight. The airline shows a version of the movie that is censored to the point that Rooney Mara and Cate Blachett's characters don't even kiss. 
SEE

Welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup! We had a busy week running and covering our GamesBeat 2016 conference, which you can read all about in our recaps below. Don’t worry, we were also writing plenty of news about the industry, including financial results from EA and Activision Blizzard.
Happy reading, and have a great weekend!
Pieces of flair and opinion
The DeanBeat: What we learned from GamesBeat 2016
Zynga boss looks to new games and reliable hits to replenish its audi

Over the past few years, virtual reality has brought the film and gaming worlds together like never before, offering a plethora of experiences that fall somewhere between the two. But relatively few tools exist for actually making these experiences, especially from inside a VR headset — and that’s something that LA-based studio Visionary VR wants to change.
Visionary VR’s ambitious in-development project Mindshow, which was announced at this year’s VRLA conference, i

App mogul Kim Kardashian West is adding another line to her already crowded résumé this week: iPhone case designer. Kardashian endorses case company LuMee — they make the ones with built-in selfie lighting you might've seen — and she's collaborated with the manufacturer on two new designs, both of which involve heavy use of marble. (That's "marble," to be clear — these things aren't chiseled out of countertop material.) The black marble case is available