Technology news

Wearable maker Jawbone recently tried to sell itself to a hardware manufacturer, according to a report today from The Information. People with knowledge of the company's plans told The Information that Jawbone's top executives have continually engaged in conversations with potential buyers, stressing the company's financial obligations to investors. The company has, since 1999, raised close to $900 million. Any discussion of an acquisition is apparently separate from Jawbone's plans to sell

James Clear writes at JamesClear.com, where he shares self-improvement tips based on proven scientific research. You can read his best articles or join his free newsletter to learn how to build habits that stick. Human behaviors are often tied to one another. For example, consider the case of a woman named Jennifer Lee Dukes. For two and a half decades during her adult life, starting when she left for college and extending into her 40s, Dukes never made her bed except f

NASA has created a camera that can film slow motion footage of booming rocket engines with higher dynamic range than ever before. It’s called the High Dynamic Range Stereo X camera, or HiDyRS-X, and late last week the agency released some of its footage to the public for the first time.
The three-minute clip shows the most recent test of one of the boosters for NASA’s upcoming Space Launch System rocket in unprecedented detail. SLS will use two of these 17-story tall solid rocket boo

Earlier this year NBC announced that it would be bringing the 2016 Olympics to Snapchat, and now the network is ramping up its mobile video plans with some of its most notable shows. Variety reports that NBCUniversal will be producing original episodic Snapchat programming from shows like Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, with the network's debut offering — a five-part series called The Voice on Snapchat — debuting on August 22nd. Alicia Keys,

Oracle’s MICROS system — which you’ve almost definitely used to pay for something via debit or credit — is suffering from a data breach. It’s not yet known how large the data breach is, but a source tells Krebs On Security it may affect up to 700 systems. A hacker collective known as the Carbanak Gang (which Krebs refers to as “a Russian organized cybercrime group” because it has been accused of stealing over $1 billion from banks and retailers over the

Rumor has it that Microsoft copied CP/M to create the first version of MS-DOS for the IBM PC. These rumors have been put to rest on numerous occasions, but consultant Bob Zeidman — who himself found no evidence DOS was copied — isn’t ready to let it die. In 2012, Zeidman used forensic software tools to analyze the code. He found no evidence it was copied and reported his findings in a piece titled ‘Did Bill Gates Steal the Heart of DOS?‘. Since that analysis, Micro

SpaceVR has signed a launch agreement to send its virtual reality satellite to the International Space Station using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in 2017. The small startup has contracted NanoRacks — a company that runs the commercial laboratory aboard the International Space Station — to prepare Overview 1, SpaceVR’s twin-camera cube satellite, for release into low Earth orbit using NanoRacks’ CubeSat Deployer. Overview 1 will head to the ISS inside one of SpaceX’

For people at home unable to compete in Rio for the Olympics, there are plenty of avenues to make their own records of sorts, even if the thing you’re breaking records for have just about zero meaning. Such is the case with the record for largest human mattress dominoes. The previous record was broken just four months ago by the United States at 1,200 people. Now, China’s gone and nearly doubled that number, putting together 2,016 people who are willing to fall on top of each other

While autopilot isn’t always used for its intended purpose, or even used correctly for that matter, it’s undeniable that the feature has utility. Joshua Neally probably recognizes this more than most. After the 37-year-old Neally started suffering from piercing pain in his stomach and chest, he decided to engage his Tesla Model X’s autopilot function to get him to the nearest hospital — some 20 miles away. He told Slate, the only time he manually steered the car was in t

Game of Thrones viewers had a lot of questions after the fifth episode of season six, "The Door," aired this past May. My main question was "Why does this show need time travel in addition to zombies, wolf people, ice monsters, dragons, shadow demons, and shape shifters?" But another pressing question, for those less bratty than I, was how the show managed to translate the wordplay of the name "Hodor" being a contraction of "HOLD THE DOOR."
Cases like these are major sticking points in any

It’s surprisingly easy to add charges to a phone bill, and surprisingly difficult to take them off. It has gotten a little better in recent years, but it’s still a huge headache for anyone who finds an extra few dollars on their bill. This sort of thing is not an accident! This setup has been worth hundreds of millions of dollars to phone companies over the years, until federal agencies started actively suing carriers and they had to tamp it down.
But like any good scam, it’s h

Facial recognition already posed serious problems for privacy advocates. Used by everyone from law enforcement to churches, the privacy concerns with facial recognition are very real, and they’re about to get a lot worse. The ability to identify anyone just by analyzing an image of their face creates a severe imbalance of power from the common citizen to the people in charge. The ability to identify those whose faces are blurred or otherwise obstructed kills that balance entirely. Ye

If you’re following the Olympics, you’ve probably noticed the buzz around "cupping" after Michael Phelps and US gymnast Alex Naddour performed in Rio. The two athletes sported big red dots on their skin and social media exploded with viewers wondering what those remarkably large, round hickeys are.
It turns out they’re marks left by an ancient Chinese healing technique that uses suction cups to relieve pain, but has limited scientific evidence to back it up. A 2012 review said

Despite the dismal critical consensus surrounding both Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad, Warner Bros. is charging ahead with a sequel to 2013's Man of Steel. A source tells TheWrap that the followup is now in active development at the studio, though it will likely hit theaters well after the current slate of DC Extended Universe epics.
Not much is known about this eventual sequel, but Warner Bros. is reportedly committed to doing right by the character in future outings. It certainly mak

The US government has announced it will look to auction 2,719 Bitcoin it seized during cases like Silk Road. An auction will be held on August 22, and those expecting to participate in the action must register by August 18. According to CoinDesk, the Bitcoin are worth about $1.6 million. Reuters reports the Marshal Service acquired the digital currency from nine different criminal, civil or administrative cases. Included in them are Bitcoin seized during the Silk Road trial, where founder

Britain’s railways are terrible, especially when compared to their much more modern and efficient European counterparts. They’re basically sweaty, uncomfortable Smarties tubes that reek of Burger King and trundle across the country at an excruciatingly slow pace. One rail company is considered to be worse than the others though. Southern Rail operates routes between London and the South coast, and is now a byword for incompetent and indifferent service. They’re so bad, so

Today, NBCUniversal signed a multi-year deal to bring some of its top shows — like ‘Saturday Night Live,’ ‘The Voice,’ and ‘The Tonight Show’ — to Snapchat. Well, mostly. What the programming looks like remains to be seen, but the deal states the network will work with the platform to create new “shows” while using some of its most popular programming as a starting point. Speculatively, it seems this could translate into Snap

The logic board for the incoming iPhone 7 may have been spotted in spy photos from Apple’s supply chain, and suggests there are some significant design changes in store. First spotted by TechTastic, the images show a macro form with two logic boards cut from it. The L-shaped board is nothing new, but some of the subtle changes hint that previous rumors are correct. When compared to the logic board from the iPhone 6S, this model further suggests rumors of a more squat iPhone 7 are accurate

Two years ago, Striker VR demoed an early version of its haptic recoil system designed to make fake guns feel like they're being fired while in virtual reality, a project that was initially designed for military training. Now the company is back with the Infinity v1, a working prototype of a haptic VR gun that can simulate a number of different weapons being fired.
Striker VR gave Road to VR a demo of its new Infinity v1 prototype:The Infinity v1 features single, burst, and auto f

Sony plans to unveil a 4K version of its PlayStation 4 next month, according to Vice Gaming. The machine will reportedly be announced on September 7th, during an event that'll serve as a "technical showcase" for what the updated PS4 can do. That means we're likely looking at a preview of the new console's graphics, but not necessarily firm details on when consumers will be able to buy it.
The upgraded PS4 is supposed to have improved specs that'll allow it to run games at a higher resolutio

Once upon a time, Lyft customers who needed to make multiple stops during a trip needed to explain this to their drivers using spoken words. Starting this week, such verbal interactions will be a thing of the past, thanks to a new feature offering riders the ability to input an extra destination within the app.Like Uber, Lyft does allow passengers to change destinations mid-trip. But this new feature allows customers to add a second destination before the driver even arrives, removing the need t

On Friday, more than 60,000 people packed into Rio’s Maracanã stadium for the opening ceremony of the 2016 Olympic Games — but above their heads, something disconcerting was happening. Observers reported as many as three drones hovering above the stadium, triggering a security panic that reached all the way to the teams providing protection for visiting heads of state. It was the exact scenario Brazilian security had hoped to avoid — but despite the latest equipment and

Playing football in a 3,000 square foot room is not easy. That’s less than 10 percent the size of a football field, and considerably smaller than a backyard or a driveway. But that was entirely the point when Wilson Sporting Goods picked Lightbox, a swanky event space on Manhattan’s west side, to preview the company’s newest product, the Wilson X Connected Football. The company was trying to say that with this ball — which goes on sale September 8th for $199 — and

After 12 years of being a private, family-owned business, headphone manufacturer V-Moda is being acquired by Roland — another company with deep roots in music electronics. Roland is buying a 70 percent stake, leaving 30 percent ownership with V-Moda founder Val Kolton.
Kolton will remain on as CEO after the merger; both brands will remain separate, letting V-Moda hold onto its strong reputation with audiophiles. The company has also fared well with Amazon customer reviews; its headphones l

The creators of a new gadget on Kickstarter called the Toasteroid want people to make the most of their morning toast time. Yes, toast is one of life’s simple pleasures, but it serves no functional purpose in our lives beyond satisfying hunger. We’re busy people; we have things to do, and we need to optimize our time.The Toasteroid lets users design images to go on their toast through a companion iOS / Android app. More crucially, they can program it to print the day’s weather

Italian design collective Studio Nucleo has in the past experimented with museum-friendly design installations. Their latest project: a cardboard frame that, when covered with dirt, becomes a chair that can be installed in your backyard.
Yes, for $279, you can buy instructions and cardboard to make a very beautiful pile of dirt. That’s if you back the collective’s Kickstarter at the early-bird stage for the full-sized chair. There’s a smaller, 1:5 scale version t

There is an odd game of musical chairs happening in the world of streaming television. Hulu, the service co-owned by many of the major broadcasters, announced that it will be eliminating its free tier, moving to a subscription-only model. At the same time, Yahoo announced a new streaming service, "Yahoo View," which "features" Hulu, and will let viewers see the five most recent episodes of the big broadcast shows for free. So consumers will still have largely the same set of choices, j

Apple might be getting rid of the 16GB iPhone in September, but we're not quite there yet, and in the meantime Google has created a fantastic Google Photos commercial that showcases the app's "free up space" feature. The ad features one missed photo after another — selfies, graduations, birthdays, Bigfoot sightings, etc. — all because of a phone that has run out of storage. (And yes, this is a headache that some Android users also face.) Google wants you to know that it's c

If you’ve read things like Ender’s Game, you probably know that every time you play a video game, there’s a small chance that it’s secretly some kind of advanced telepresence project or command system, and you’ve just accidentally killed a bunch of sentient beings in some far-off city or planet. Well, I’m increasingly convinced that covert telepresence is already happening in virtual reality — and that the effects are more subtle and insidious than

Some people make the mistake of playing Rocket League as if it's a game of skill, when really, this is a title that demands (and very occasionally rewards) chaos. The latest update to the game, Rumble, seems like it embraces this play-style, giving players the chance to pick up one of 11 special power-ups, from punching-gloves-on-springs to deployable tornados. Here's the full list, via Polygon:
The Boot (Kick's an opponent's car)
Disruptor (Forces the opponent to drive uncontrollably)

Amazon isn't wasting any time between airing new seasons of Transparent, its flagship comedy: its third season is premiering on September 23rd, less than a year after its crackling second season debuted. The new season's trailer debuted over the weekend, and it depicts a Pfefferman family that is still figuring out what it wants and needs in the wake of Maura's (Jeffrey Tambor) transition.
Shelly (Judith Light) is speaking to what looks like some kind of support group, and she reads a line

While Apple's iPad sales continue to decline overall, the tablet is surging in demand from an unlikely source. The New York Times reports that nearly half of all iPad sales are to corporations and governments, with high-end iPad sales to business customers particularly strong. "Apple is stronger in the enterprise market with its devices than it is with consumers," says Forrester analyst Frank Gillet, in a statement to the Times.
The boost from businesses and governments would have seemed hi

In a new interview with Fast Company, Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue revealed that the 2012 Maps debacle was directly responsible for the company moving to public beta testing for new iOS releases. Apple's replacement for Google Maps, which debuted as part of iOS 6, was so poorly received that it led to the departure of longtime executive Scott Forstall and numerous public apologies from CEO Tim Cook. "Look, the first thing is that you’re embarrassed," Cue told Fast Company

NBCUniversal just signed a massive deal with Warner Bros., giving it exclusive access to J. K. Rowling’s Wizarding World franchise and Harry Potter films, Deadline reports. The agreement will give NBCU on-air and digital rights to the Wizarding World properties, and cable TV rights (currently owned by Disney) for the eight Harry Potter films. The agreement spans from 2018 to 2025, and could be one of the biggest movie franchise deals ever, The Wall Street Journal reports. Continue rea

Walmart confirmed that it has acquired online retailer Jet.com for $3 billion in cash.
Rumors suggesting that Walmart was lining up a move for Jet.com first started circulating last week and were given further credence yesterday as fresh reports emerged that a deal had been reached between the two companies. In a nutshell, Jet.com promises to deliver cheaper prices on myriad goods by encouraging users to buy more items at the same time or to purchase goods located in the same dist