Technology news

As we get closer to next week's Apple event where the world will presumably be shown a new iPhone without a 3.5mm headphone jack (along with some ridiculous explanation for removing it), you'll start to notice more and more companies introducing Bluetooth headphone adapters, and Griffin is first out the gate. The Griffin iTrip Clip will allow you to plug in your soon-to-be outdated headphones and turn it into a functioning pair of Bluetooth headphones.The iTrip Clip comes with the requ

A long-standing lawsuit holding Twitter responsible for the rise of ISIS got new life today, as plaintiffs filed a revised version of the complaint that was struck down earlier this month. In the new complaint, the plaintiffs argue Twitter's Direct Message service is akin to providing ISIS with physical communications equipment like a radio or a satellite phone.
It's the plaintiffs' third attempt, after two previous complaints were struck down by the judge. In each instance, the judge gave the p

GUEST: If there’s one thing you can say about chatbots, it’s that there’s a lot of buzz surrounding the phenomenon.
There’s an excitement in the air that hasn’t been around for some time. The pending bot revolution also comes at the right time. Even with the success of Pokémon Go in mind, there seems to be a case of app fatigue. The cure just might be bots. But who knows? I don’t, because I cannot predict the future. However, I can look into the past. T

French erstwhile portable media player manufacturer Archos is releasing a new phone this fall called the 55 Diamond Selfie. It feels misleading because it doesn’t involve diamonds, and it doesn’t do anything to improve your selfies. A press release describes the phone as having "chic design, powerful hardware and fancy functionalities." Hm. I wonder what this fancy functionality is. Let’s see, maybe the specs have the answer:Qualcomm MSM8937 processor4GB of RAM
64GB of int

This spring, I shared the international trailer for Guardians, Russia’s answer to Marvel superhero movies. I wrote then about the value of many international tributaries feeding into modern mythology. American action films, in particular, have been guilty of villainizing foreign nations. The Guardians trailer looked like a necessary rebuttal, but at that time, it was unclear when or if we’d get to actually see Guardians in the states. A new trailer, dubbed in English, final

Google parent company Alphabet is moving some developers from its Nest subsidiary over to Google as the latter ramps up its efforts in the smart home, The Verge has learned. These engineers are mainly responsible for the Nest platform, and they will now be working with Android chief Hiroshi Lockheimer to help bolster Google's ambitions in the living room. Fortune originally reported the news earlier today.
The engineering resource shift happens just as Google is preparing to launch its Amaz

The supposed danger of digital media made headlines over the weekend when psychotherapist Nicholas Kardaras published a story in the New York Post called "It’s ‘digital heroin’: How screens turn kids into psychotic junkies." In the op-ed, Kardaras claims that "iPads, smartphones and XBoxes are a form of digital drug." He stokes fears about the potential for addiction and the ubiquity of technology by referencing "hundreds of clinical studies" that show "screens increase depress

Life has brought you to Tim Allen’s official forum.
Naturally curious and bored at work, you skim the list of sections. Beneath a few sub-forums pertaining to "Tim’s Movies, TV and Books," you find the more evocative secondary message boards. These are "Tim’s Favorite Things."
There is "The Testosterone Corner," for lovers of cars, racing, tools, and garages. "Mac Attack" provides sanctuary for fans of Apple products ("No debating Mac vs. PC please").
The message boards ar

Snapchat has unpublished its official Facebook Page. Snapchat declined to comment as to why the page is no longer available, but a person close to the company told VentureBeat that the main reason was simply due to the lack of use.
As Snapchat continues to grow and plow ahead, there is increasing scrutiny on competition from the larger social giant, Facebook, and the duo’s relationship. But this quiet move is unlikely to change anything between the two — the reality is Snapchat

It’s time for some more monster husbandry.
Publisher Square Enix’s Collective program has introduced the independently developed monster-raising role-playing adventure Legend of Lumina. As with all Collective projects, the Final Fantasy publisher is inviting fans to vote on whether or not they would back it on a crowdfunding site like Kickstarter or IndieGogo that enable fans to put capital toward the production of a game. If Legend of Lumina gets enough support, Square Eni

Google is launching a new ride-sharing service focused on carpooling, reports The Wall Street Journal. Google launched a carpooling service through its Waze product back in May but it was limited to “a select group of employers” in the Bay Area.Google will reportedly now open the program to all Waze users in San Francisco, with plans to expand the service if it’s successful. The program will not use Google’s self-driving vehicles, but will instead be a way to connect comm

GUEST: Since 2014, there have been more mobile devices in the world than desktop computers, and people spend more time browsing the internet on their smartphones than on their desktops. So companies simply cannot ignore mobile as a channel to reach their consumers.
Today, marketing departments focus a meaningful part of their time and budget on mobile marketing. They have developed systematic methods to grow their mobile audience, including advertising and app store marketing. However, they are

I was scurrying across the Sinai Desert today in the open beta test for Electronic Arts’ Battlefield 1 game.
The new Battlefield is one of the biggest games of the fall season, debuting on the PC and consoles on October 21. EA was no doubt eager to spread the world about Battlefield 1’s gameplay before rival Activision held its Call of Duty XP event this weekend in Los Angeles, where it will show extended demos of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.
The beta includes the new Sinai D

EXCLUSIVE: Open source big data software company Cloudera wants to do more.
About one month ago, Tom Reilly, the company’s chief executive, approached Intel with a proposal requesting $1 billion in new money, a source familiar with the matter told VentureBeat. The companies have a history together; in 2014 Intel announced a major partnership with and investment in Cloudera.
The plan is for Cloudera to build out the necessary data center infrastructure for new cloud services that the c

Google DeepMind is launching a project to reduce the time it takes doctors to prepare treatment for head and neck cancers. Alphabet’s London-based artificial intelligence division has partnered with the UK’s National Health Service and will be conducting the research in coordination with the University College London Hospital.
Head and neck cancers are hard to plan treatment for because of their close proximity to important parts of the body. Before any kind of radiation treatment, c

Microsoft today announced updates to several of its Office products, and the most interesting one is coming to the OneNote note-taking app. If you’re an Office 365 customer using Windows 10, OneNote will now show a new Math button that, when you tap it after writing out a math equation with ink and circling it with the lasso tool, will bring out a right drawer containing steps for solving the equation.
“This intelligent assistance makes OneNote your math coach and pairs nicely with E

Uber announced on Tuesday that it has hired Target’s chief marketing officer Jeff Jones as its new president of ridesharing. He’ll be replacing Ryan Graves, who was Uber’s first hire and is a member of the company’s board. However, he won’t be leaving the company; CEO Travis Kalanick explained he’ll be “integrally involved with Uber as our resident entrepreneur and builder.”
In a blog post, Kalanick said that in his new role, Graves will

After introducing Pebble Health last December, Pebble has been building out its smartwatch health and fitness features. A new update released today brings redesigns to Pebble’s health app, as well as revised timeline features, iPhone updates, and more for most (but not all) Pebble smartwatches.
The company has redesigned Pebble Health around activity tabs that display step count and sleep performance. Users can now access historical information for activities by pressing right on each tab.

Snapchat has let you create custom geofilters for events since February, but until now you've needed image editing software to make one. Today the company rolled out a tool for creating on-demand geofilters on the web, using templates for weddings, birthdays, and other celebrations. The filters, which can cost as little as $5 for a party in a small geographic area, will appear alongside the other geofilters inside the app when your guests post snaps during your event. Snapchat's tool lets y

Microsoft is adding a neat little trick to its OneNote app today: ink math assistant. Popular with students, OneNote is often used to jot down notes with a stylus, and the new ink math assistant is designed to help students convert handwritten equations into text, and teach them how to solve them.
It works by automatically detecting equations that have been digitally inked into a OneNote page, and allows you to circle the equation and get step-by-step instructions on how to solve it. Alongside t

Back in March, Snowman — the team behind breakout mobile hit Alto’s Adventure — announced a collaboration with designer Sam Rosenthal and his new studio The Game Band on a game called Where Cards Fall. That announcement was coupled with just a single piece of art: but now we finally have a teaser trailer that gives a better indication of what the game will be.
While the first Where Cards Fall teaser doesn’t show any actual gameplay, it gives a good idea of the v

Abzû generates a lot of the same sense of wonder as its predecessor Journey, but it trades the desert sands for underwater exploration. This PlayStation 4 and Windows game is a beautiful stylized simulation of life under the ocean, with non-realistic, breathtaking art. I enjoyed the experience, but it seemed a bit too much like Journey in the way it unfolded.
The game is a fine first experience from Giant Squid Studios, founded by Journey artist Matt Nava. The music comes from Austin

Google’s newest smartphones won’t be Nexus devices after all. According to Android Central, Google is dropping the Nexus branding with its two upcoming, HTC-made smartphones. Instead, the company is expected to market the devices under a different name and to lean heavily on the Google brand in the process.
This news jives with recent rumors surrounding the upcoming devices, codenamed "Marlin" and "Sailfish." Android Police reported earlier this month that Google may strip

Snapchat is making it easier for anyone to create on-demand geofilters through the launch of templates you can customize right through the company’s website. For those that just want something quick and more “do-it-yourself,” this eliminates the need to use image editing software such as Photoshop to create a geofilter around events.
No matter whether it’s a birthday, wedding, festival, party, graduation, or any other cause for celebration, Snapchat wants users to be

 Online furniture shop Wayfair has acquired a Boston-based mobile messaging application called Trumpit, with the aim of utilizing its technology in order to expand its customer service offerings. So yes, that means messaging will be a part of the mobile Wayfair application in the future.
Today, the app only offers users the ability to email or call the company when they click into the… Read More

Because you have clicked this story, I will assume you have moved into your first dorm room, continue to live in a small apartment because modern rent charges are stacked against us, or you have a perverse fascination with confined spaces. Whatever the case, welcome.
Normally on What’s Tech we focus on a single topic. Tiny computers. Encryption. No Man’s Sky. But today, my friend and colleague Ross Miller and I will have a conversation about the simple ways tech can improve dorm life

Indie developer Vagabond Dog is promoting its next game, Sometimes Always Monsters, by doing something usually reserved for musicians or authors: going on a bus tour.
Our managing editor, Jason Wilson, is joining them today in their unconventional ride, and he’s streaming his experience live on Facebook. You can watch it here.
Sometimes Always Monsters is a sequel to Always Sometimes Monsters, a narrative-focused role-playing game set in the real world and about more grounde

Actor and entrepreneur Jessica Alba will appear on Apple's Planet of the Apps as a "mentor" for up-and-coming developers. She's the fourth big name to be added to the show's list of mentors, the last three including Will.i.am, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Gary Vaynerchuk.
Alba's addition shows Apple sticking with people who bring a mix of star power and actual experience starting up business. Alba founded The Honest Company in 2011 and has been selling "natural" (think: non-GMO, gluten fr

Okta has become the latest company to commit to the 1 percent pledge, an initiative that asks companies to give services and technology to support their community. The identity management platform provider announced that nonprofits will be able to use any product within its Okta Identity Cloud for free (up to the 25 employees). Additionally, Okta employees will now have a dedicated day to volunteer at nonprofits and causes they care about.
Started in 2014 by Atlassian, the Entrepreneurs Foundati

It was just last week that Sony announced that its PlayStation Now streaming service would be expanding to PC — and now it’s already available. The service lets users stream hundreds of different PS3 games for a single monthly fee of $19.99, making it something akin to Netflix for games. As part of a promotion for the new PC launch, Sony is offering a limited yearly subscription, which will get you 12 months of access to PS Now for $99.99.
The service is also getting a handful of big

Twitter wants the kind of video creators YouTube has — and the massive audiences that come with them.To make this dream a reality, the company is pulling a page from YouTube’s playbook: It’s going to sell ads alongside creator videos and share that ad revenue with the people making the content. And Twitter is offering very appealing terms.Unlike YouTube, which gives 55 percent of the money to creators and keeps 45 percent, Twitter is using the same revenue split it already offe

The latest drone from Yuneec isn't targeted at drone enthusiasts, but at people who want to step up their Instagram game. The Yuneec Breeze is a $499 "flying camera" that can take 4K video and 13MP images that can easily be shared to your social media accounts through the accompanying app.The Breeze comes with five automated flying modes (including a selfie mode), an indoor positioning system that utilizes optical flow and infrared positioning sensors so it won't crash into your TV, an

If summer movie season is when thought and reason are jettisoned in favor of explosions and bombast, then fall is when Hollywood decides to get serious. Or should we say, it's when Hollywood decides audiences are ready to get serious — because over the next few months a slew of Oscar hopefuls and more thoughtful films are coming to your local theater.
Things will be kicking off in earnest in September with Clint Eastwood's next run at the Oscars, the Tom Hanks-starrer Sully, with movi

Microsoft has been gradually detailing all the new car options in Forza Horizon 3 in recent months, but the company has saved a secret addition for Halo fans. Halo's Warthog will be driveable in Forza Horizon 3, alongside 350 other vehicles. It's the first time Microsoft has allowed the Warthog to be driven outside of a Halo game, and something that both Halo and Forza fans have been requesting for years. It follows Microsoft's move to include Fallout's cars in Forza 6 last year.
The full m

Google today announced a slew of Google+ updates. The redesigned Google+ is now rolling out to all users, a few new features have been added to the social network, and it is becoming a core Google for Work service.
Google first showed off the new Google+ for the web, which puts a greater focus on Communities and Collections, in November 2015. Since then, the new Google+ has seen twice as many Collections followed per day and 1.6 million daily new Community joins.
If you didn’t try preview,

Disembodied hands put a vinyl record on a turntable. It is not the turntable The Wirecutter recommends for casual listening. Nor is it The Verge's preferred turntable. The taste of the owner of these hands is suspect.
The hand-possessor sets the record to play."Five years ago today" Your Friend became Facebook friends with Total Stranger.
A white yeti and a brown yeti high-five, but it lasts too long and this embarrasses the yetis. We never see the yetis again.A train station flip board app

Welcome to episode 17 of VB Engage, the VentureBeat podcast where we dissect mobile and marketing in a brutally honest way.
This week, we take a look at the world of customer relationship management (CRM). Before you hit the snooze button, there’s a lot brewing in the world of mobile sales engagement, predictive selling, and social sales that makes this an interesting sphere.
Plus we get to chat with the Godfather of CRM, Jon Ferrara. He literally — not figuratively — invented

Flipboard has launched a new way for brands to advertise on its publishing platform with the creation of a private premium marketplace. Through a partnership with Rubicon Project, this invite-only offering lets select companies programmatically purchase advertising without needing to work directly with Flipboard’s staff.
“Our advertising partners have told us they want to be able to buy our unique inventory in both a direct and automated way. We developed our private marketplace to f