Technology news

GUEST: “Hey Siri! Why did Apple make you?”
Even if you haven’t tried it, everyone knows about Siri, Apple’s speech interpretation and recognition personal assistant. The bot is available at the touch of a button or voice activation to answer questions about tomorrow’s weather or recommend a nearby coffee shop, all with its signature sassy style.
Siri was just an apple in Alan Turing’s eye when he developed a test in the 1950s to see if machines could think. Th

She won five Olympic medals. She met Zac Efron. Now, Simone Biles will carry the U.S. flag during the Rio Olympics' closing ceremony.
The ceremony, which will take place on Sunday, will conclude a sensational Olympic Games for the gymnast, who won one bronze medal and four gold medals, including the women's all-around gold.
SEE ALSO: Bow down to badass Simone BilesImage:alex livesey/stringer/getty images"It's an incredible honor to be selected as the flag bearer by my Team USA. teammates," said

GUEST: You can’t offend a bot. Most of them don’t have enough of a personality to be offended. Not only that, few of the bots available today are smart enough to debate with anyone. There are plenty of bot development tools, an immense amount of venture capital, and a massive number of bots. But no one wants to speak to a dumbot. They’re frustrating, and their very existence puts the botverse in jeopardy.
Let’s start by defining dumb. Primarily, it means the bot

The group behind a growing list of celebrity social media breaches has struck again, this time taking over the Twitter account of Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales.
SEE ALSO: Sarah Silverman's Twitter account hacked by Anonymous
On Saturday, Wales' verified Twitter posted the message "RIP Jimmy Wales, 1966 – 2016." 
The tweet immediately stirred speculation about Wales' whereabouts and whether the post was indeed an alert that something serious had happened to the internet luminary.&nb

We really dug the Xbox One S, calling it "svelte and good-looking". The latest update to Microsoft’s flagship gaming console is a very pretty box, and now we know why: Andrew Kim was part of the design team.
In case the name doesn’t ring a bell, Kim is a "visual and product" designer who came to work for Microsoft after making a splash when he put together his own design concepts for the company’s rebranding in 2012. After seeing his designs, the company hired him to work

One of the world's biggest media companies has been embroiled in a complex personal and professional power struggle for months. That may all have come to an end this week. 
Control of Viacom, the $40 billion media company that owns MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and Paramount Pictures, will go to Sumner Redstone, the 93-year-old billionaire who ran the company for years but is now in failing health. 
Redstone took over the company in 1987 after a power struggle of his own. He became

Our kitchen sponges do a lot of work. Don't they deserve a good night's rest?
"Sure," said design studio Ototo. And thus, the Clean Dreams sponge holder was born.
SEE ALSO: 7 must-have back-to-school tech products for college studentsImage:ototoFor all its goofiness, Clean Dreams is a nice little tech product. It even has an internal spine and slots to help your sponge drain as it rests. Plus, it's adorable. You'll be penning sweet sponge lullabies in no time.
Each sponge bed costs $15 and can b

GUEST: Recently, I had a call with an eager government organization exploring how to start integrating securities-based crowdfunding into their financial markets. Unfortunately, I believe they are pursuing a strategy that is not structurally sound. They see crowdfunding/online finance as a possible solution to their economic ailments. But they don’t understand that it will require investing time and resources in technology and training as well as policy, to successfully reach their goals.

Ryan Lochte is just a 32-year-old kid who embellished the truth a little bit to avoid trouble while having some harmless fun abroad at the Olympics. Actually, in a sense, he is the real victim here and all lives ...  
Hard stop. Nope — we already told you why Lochte's lie matters. 
SEE ALSO: Olympics star Gabby Douglas is not defined by Rio's social media drama
Still, some commentators and pundits have rationalized and excused Lochte's shameful behavior over the past several days

Ride sharing service Lyft has been looking for a buyer in recent weeks, speaking with a number of potential partners including Google, Apple, and GM. One other company said to be in talks was Uber, though no deal was struck.
Uber executives have told investors that it wouldn't pay more than $2 billion for Lyft, reports Bloomberg.
Even with that price in mind, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said that he wouldn't support a deal because of the antitrust investigation that would inevitably follow.The

Ride sharing service Lyft has been looking for a buyer in recent weeks, speaking with a number of potential partners including Google, Apple, and GM. One other company said to be in talks was Uber, though no deal was struck.
Uber executives have told investors that it wouldn't pay more than $2 billion for Lyft, reports Bloomberg.
Even with that price in mind, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said that he wouldn't support a deal because of the antitrust investigation that would inevitably follow.The

The era of Barack Obama as U.S. president is gradually winding down, with less than six months left before we get either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump in the White House. 
One of the memories of Obama's tenure will be his presence on social media, a dynamic highlighted on Saturday by Twitter as Obama's verified presidential account, @POTUS, hit the 10 million follower mark. 
SEE ALSO: Twitter's Periscope videos will now play inside embedded tweets
Launched back in 2015, the account s

It’s probably not a good idea to use the word disintermediating on a Saturday.
Yet the legal term might be one you should learn if you are developing a new chatbot or already have one available. In a recent post, Chris McBride — the creator of the Julia cooking bot — explained how he was contacted by the legal team at the New York Times telling him to stop using their recipes. It turns out he wasn’t really “using” them, though. In a demo, you can see that

When No Easy Day was first published two years ago, it was one of the first accounts depicting the mission that resulted in the death of Osama Bin Laden. Now, its author, Matt Bissonnette, will pay $6.6 million to the government to settle a case alleging that he failed to clear the book with the Department of Defense.
The book was controversial before it hit bookstores
Bissonnette wrote the book under the name Mark Owen shortly after leaving the US Navy and generated considerable publicity. It s

1934Brando at 10 years old.Image:Archive Photos/Getty ImagesMarlon Brando, Jr. was born on April 3, 1924 in Omaha, Nebraska, the third child of a chemical manufacturer and an actress.His childhood was a troubled one. Both parents were alcoholics. His mother frequently vanished only to be found drunk in a bar. His father beat and belittled him.Trauma at home led to trouble at school. He defied teachers, set fires, defaced property and was eventually expelled from high school for riding his motorc

Sometimes, even the stars of a music festival just want to enjoy it like the little people in the crowd. 
That was true for Big Boi, a founding member of Outkast and one half of the Big Grams duo. He performed at San Francisco's Outside Lands music festival earlier this month. And although he was only officially slated to perform on day two of the three-day event, the rapper spent his first evening taking in the Outside Lands sights in Golden Gate Park.
After a round of putt-putt, a turn on

Samsung users are going to have to find a new way to listen to music: the company announced that it would be shuttering its streaming radio service Milk Music.
According to Variety, Samsung will be shutting down Milk Music on September 22nd, urging its Galaxy and Note smartphone users to switch over to Slacker Radio, which powered the system. The elimination of the service has been rumored for several months, with reports that the company was going to shutter the service because it had fail

Trinket the corgi deserves the gold medal in bike rack weaving, a sport we just invented but feel very strongly belongs in the games.
Behold this corgi's agility. Behold her flexibility. Behold her wiggles.
This is top-level athleticism, people.Feel free to laugh at these 'SNL' stars breaking character
'Spirited Away' told in the style of an old-school, 8-bit game
How Steven Spielberg created the 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' boulder masterpiece
Usain Bolt flipbook perfectly captures the world's fa

FEATURE: Treasure still hides in those app store waters.
And I am just the man to excavate it. With me, a Samsung-provided mobile crew, one tablet (Samsung Galaxy Tab S2) and two phones (Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge Plus) strong. Before me, the app store, and all it contains. Let’s head back on in.
This marks my tenth expedition into the app store waters, so be sure to refresh your memory of my previous adventures (parts one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine) before get

Tesla has introduced a new pricing option that should appeal to those holding out on buying either a Model S or X vehicle. For a limited time, the electric car company is providing a two-year lease program, but only on orders placed by September 12.
Under the terms of this new lease, customers will pay at least $593 per month in estimated payments, which will vary based on the type of Model S or X they get and how many miles they plan on driving it annually. Tesla announced the news in

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.
Dear Leah,Before I start, I'd just like to say how great your articles are on The Verge and I've been reading most of them since the start of it. I know you

Fans of Frank Ocean have waited years to hear from the singer and this week he finally delivered. Now, Apple Music has dropped another video from the singer that is, well, different. 
SEE ALSO: Frank Ocean releases visual album 'Endless' and the internet freaks out
Titled 'Nikes,' the video is a collage of images that includes everything from a Nike car, schoolgirls, a brief tribute to Trayvon Martin, Michelin logos (product placement?), and perhaps more glitter than any music video ever.&n

Looking to buy a Tesla? The company just launched a new two-year lease program for all of its Model S and X vehicles. However, the trial program will apply to all orders of the company’s vehicles from now until September 12th.
The new option comes with a hefty price tag
Tesla already offered a three-year lease program, but said it received numerous requests from potential customers asking for a shorter lease period. The monthly payment will start at $593, but that's only half the story &md

This isn't the first supercut of its kind, but Saturday Night Live stars breaking into uncontrollable giggles will always bring us joy.
This particular compilation features some old favorites ("Debbie Downer"), some newer cuts ("The Californians") and a whole lot of very funny people succumbing to their and their peers' funniness 
And yes, Bill Hader as Stefon is heavily featured.
[H/T: Uproxx]'Spirited Away' told in the style of an old-school, 8-bit game
How Steven Spielberg created the '

 Carbon nanotubes are one of those supermaterials — a cylinder with a diameter of one or two nanometers — that are full of dreamy applications, ranging from supercomputers to ultra-efficient smartphones. The problem is, they are difficult to manufacture, and commercializing these applications may require 10 or 15 years.
A nanotube is a tube-like molecular structure made of one… Read More

A server's simple act of compassion went a long way this week.
Kasey Simmons, who works at a Dallas-area Applebee's restaurant, was waiting in a grocery store checkout line last Monday when he noticed another patron — an older woman — looking dejected.
So Simmons chatted with the woman. When she reached the register, he even paid for her groceries.
SEE ALSO: Genius tip jar message will definitely mess with your head
"It was only $17, but it's not about the money. It's about showing s

Last weekend I watched two absolutely heartbreaking movies about sisters whose lives become confined and controlled by the horrid actions of men. The first, Mustang, came out last year and is about five sisters who become quite literally imprisoned by their uncle as he works to marry them off against their will. The second, The Innocents, which just came out, is about a group of nuns during World War II who have become pregnant after being raped by Soviet soldiers.What's fascinating about both i

We’ve been waiting for four years for some new music from Frank Ocean, and we finally got to take in his "visual album" Endless when it hit Apple Music yesterday. Now, he’s released a powerful new single called "Nikes" that plays tribute to Trayvon Martin, as well as southern hip-hop icon Pimp C and A$AP Yams. Just a warning: the video does include nudity, so maybe be careful watching it in public places.
"Nikes" opens with a kaleidoscope of imagery and sound that alternates bet

Tech is leaping past Wall Street in New York. 
The tech industry is creating more jobs than the finance sector. William Dudley, the president of the New York Federal Reserve, said the technology industry was stepping in where finance used to support the local economy, according to CNBC. 
Wall Street has in the past been integral to New York's recovery after an economic crisis, Dudley said. This time around, it was the tech sector that provided that key revival. 
"Growth in these h

GUEST: The day their son took his first steps, Mark Zuckerberg’s parents did what most anyone would do in 1985: they wrote it down. Fast forward to when Zuckerberg’s sister documented the first steps of her sons: she used a mobile phone. And later this year when Zuckerberg’s daughter takes her first steps, Facebook’s founder says he will be ready with a 360-degree, virtual reality-capable camera.
Baby steps and virtual reality – it’s the best way to descr

A lot of executives say they believe in diversity and creativity, but they don’t always know how to promote it inside their companies. At our GamesBeat 2016 conference, a panel of game industry veterans talked about how creativity can foster diversity, and vice versa.
The panel included Megan Gaiser, co-CEO of Spiral Media Ltd. and principal at Contagious Creativity. For many years, Gaiser ran Her Interactive, the maker of Nancy Drew video games, which sold more than 9 milli

Facebook is launching a new scheme to bring cheap internet access to rural India, just months after net neutrality protestors blocked the company’s plan to provide free internet to millions in the country. 
The company is currently testing Express Wi-Fi in India. The service, according to Facebook, will allow people to buy fast, reliable and affordable data packages without shelling out hundreds of rupees each month. 
In January, India’s telecoms regulator rejected Facebook

GUEST: The workplace dynamic is always changing to maximize performance. First, it focused on the individual: HR does performance reviews for individuals, we are hired as individuals, fired as individuals, etc. A few years ago, the focus shifted towards teams: Put together amazing teams and amazing results will come. In fact, the Deloitte Human Capital Trends 2016 report discovered that the technology-spurred evolution has fixed the organizational structure into a “network of teams.”

Up until now, users could protect their Chromebook by entering either using their Google account password or by using a paired smartphone to unlock it. There’s now a third option: a simple personal identification number.
In a recent Google + post, Google developer François Beaufort outlined how to use the feature:All you have to do is enable the flag chrome://flags/#quick-unlock-pin, restart Chrome, and go to Chrome Material Design settings page for now to set up your Lock Scre

Yeah, sure, we'll miss our families and stuff, but the worst part of leaving for college is bidding farewell to the family dog. 
Luckily, Jake Ostrowski doesn't have to. He's taking his family's golden retriever, Jesse, with him to Texas Tech this fall — in cardboard cutout form.
SEE ALSO: Justin Bieber's pup wears doggles while cruising in a boat
Jake's mom commissioned the cardboard pooch. She came up with the idea when Jake said he'd miss Jesse in the fall.The only downside? Less f

The 2001 animated feature Spirited Away tells the story of 10-year-old Chihiro Ogino's adventure as she enters the spirit world.
Our CineFix series, 8 Bit Cinema, tells the anime film story, with an old-school flare.  
Subscribe to CineFix for more videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/cinefix How Steven Spielberg created the 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' boulder masterpiece
Usain Bolt flipbook perfectly captures the world's fastest man
Welcome to the world's most poisonous garden
Real-life c

Sure, it takes a lot to create a film with as much action as Raiders of the Lost Ark. But how did the filmmakers do it? This episode of our CineFix series, Art of the Scene, investigates.
The 1981 film is a creation of two movie legends, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, who used some pretty creative techniques to capture the suspenseful boulder scene you see on screen.
Take a watch to see what sound effect was used for the boulder itself — you might be surprised.
Subscribe to CineFix for

Sure, it takes a lot to create a film with as much action as Raiders of the Lost Ark. But how did the filmmakers do it? This episode of our CineFix series, Art of the Scene, investigates.
The 1981 film is a creation of two movie legends, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, who used some pretty creative techniques to capture the suspenseful boulder scene you see on screen.
Take a watch to see what sound effect was used for the boulder itself — you might be surprised.
Can't get enough of Ind

In today’s world, data equates to business success. And Big Data mastery is a true competitive advantage for any aspiring IT pro. Add this valuable skill set to your resume in The Big Data Bundle, which boasts nine premium courses to prepare you for a lucrative IT career. For a limited time, you can take 93 percent off this training on TNW Deals, and pay just $29.99 for it. Through these courses, you can strategically apply the insights teased from datasets to make decisions that wil

Samsung launched its latest flagship phone, the Galaxy Note7, this week and I think it's the best smartphone on the planet right now. Yes, it's even better than the iPhone 6S Plus.
The phone is beyond elegant (especially in Black Onyx) and insanely powerful, brandishes a beautiful 5.7-inch display, has the best smartphone cameras, boasts super-long battery life, is water-resistant, includes wireless charging, comes with expandable storage, includes a precise stylus and packs an iris scanner.
Wha

A Mohawk warrior stands triumphantly atop an overturned police vehicle after an effort to remove the Mohawk barricades failed.Image: Tom Hanson/APIn the summer of 1990, long-simmering tensions among the First Nations of Canada reached a flash point around the Kanesatake Mohawk reservation 30 miles west of Montreal.The reservation was surrounded by the town of Oka, which was preparing to build a members-only golf course and luxury condo development on a pine grove and cemetery where many Mohawk f