Technology news

Hiddle, as we now must refer to Tom Hiddleston in a post-Hiddleswift world, is somehow moving on with his life. 
Hiddleston made good use of his special talent for being outshined by posing for the new Gucci tailoring campaign with some fantastic Afghan hounds. 
SEE ALSO: Spencer Pratt shares his opinions on Hiddleswift, 'The Bachelorette' and healing crystals
The suits are quite dapper, but they have nothing on a good I Heart T.S. tank top as statement pieces.
Hiddleston is pensive in

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — If you Google "Charlotte, North Carolina," after you wade through stories about the police shooting of Keith Scott, you're likely to see the city pop up on lists of the "best cities" in the United States.
The Huffington Post called Charlotte "the new Atlanta" in late 2014. Last year, Forbes listed it as the 14th best city in the country for business and careers. Earlier this year, U.S. News and World Report named it the 15th best place to live in the United Stat

A California mom is feeling praise from moms around the internet after sharing a note that her teenage daughter asked her to write. 
Nicole Poppic, from Clarksburg, California, is done coddling her teenager daughter, Cara. Like any high schooler, Cara had a little trouble getting out of bed earlier this month, causing her to be late for class. But in most schools, an unexcused lateness can lead to punishment, so Cara asked her mother for a note to excuse her tardiness. 
Unfortunately f

Just about every channel you can think of is showing Monday's presidential debate. And they all have promos for their special coverage.
Or, at least most of them.
Which should you watch? Well, check the promos to see which one fits you best.
Corniest: Fox News
Let's be perfectly clear — I love this promo. It is my favorite promo. 
It is also the corniest.
"The stakes couldn't be higher," says the movie trailer guy they got to voice this promo.Trump. Clinton. Head to head!
Don't miss t

Lenovo today confirmed that it is laying off a significant number of employees. The company says that the layoffs impact “less than 2 percent of its 55,000 employees” across the world, and that the majority of the layoffs are from the mobile phone division. Lenovo wouldn’t specify exactly how many jobs were slashed from Moto, however. The news was first reported by Droid-Life this afternoon.
Today’s layoffs follow significant cuts last year, where Lenovo reduced its headc

Two scientists carried a urine-filled, 3D-printed kidney onto Disney World rides in the name of science. Sixty rides later, they confirmed that getting jostled in a roller coaster makes it easier to pass kidney stones.
Kidney stones are incredibly painful mineral deposits found in urine. Passing them is notoriously painful (and has been frequently declared "more painful than childbirth"). So the results of this study, published today in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, sugges

NASA has discovered more evidence that water erupts from beneath the surface of Europa, one of the many moons of Jupiter. The new findings lend more legitimacy to observations from 2013, and further tease the possibility that Europa contains a subsurface ocean. A team from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) made the observations using the Hubble Space Telescope, and the agency announced the findings during a teleconference this afternoon. The full findings will be published in the Ast

Marvel's Luke Cage is only days away from its premiere on Netflix, so there's just enough time for one more trailer. In this new spot we get a closer look not at Luke Cage, but his main adversary, Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes, played House of Cards alum Mahershala Ali. Cottonmouth is gangster supreme in Harlem, and is clearly as dangerous as he is charismatic. But with the indestructible Luke Cage in his sights, the neighborhood has suddenly gotten a lot more dangerous.
Luke Cage is only the lat

Earlier today we ran a piece by the infamous — and admittedly much cooler than me — Juan Buis titled: ‘Think Snapchat’s Spectacles are weird? I’m sorry, but you’re old.’ As an old guy myself (34) I felt it was my duty to weigh in… after I get these fucking kids off my lawn. Snapchat’s ‘Spectacles‘ aren’t cool. I mean, unless you think Google Glass was cool, then you should definitely grab a wearable that’s

Google said that one of its self-driving cars was involved in an accident in Mountain View, California last week. The accident was first reported Friday by 9to5 Google, which characterized the incident as Google’s “worst accident yet.”
In a statement, Google insisted its driverless car was not at fault. A crash report with the DMV has yet to be posted, so all the details have yet to be confirmed.According to the Google, the accident occurred when a vehicle heading west on El Ca

Disney is the latest high-profile name to consider an acquisition offer for Twitter, according to a report today from Bloomberg. While a formal bid has not been placed, Bloomberg says Disney is working with Bank of America to put one together. Just last week, various reports stated Google, Salesforce.com, and Verizon were all interested in potentially placing offers. TechCrunch has also independently confirmed Disney's interest in placing a bid for Twitter, while CNBC reports that

My mom tells me bugs are more scared of us than we are of them. I don’t believe her, but maybe that’s what the creators of Venus Optics’ new camera lens are thinking. The 24mm f/14 Relay 2x Macro shrinks down to the size of a dime so that you can capture objects from a safe distance.
Apparently the company designed it so people can shoot various objects or animals without scaring them. It’s actually probably more to keep from scaring yourself, let’s be real. I don&r

It’s no secret that Donald Trump draws huge crowds. Within these crowds are doctors, lawyers, fry cooks at your local Wendy’s and, of course, the group Hillary Clinton recently called ‘a basket of deplorables.’ For what it’s worth, Clinton later backtracked and apologized for the statement. I won’t though; she’s right. A man that breeds fear and paranoia isn’t fit to lead. The crowds that follow this man are… well, let’s just say

Apple insists that the best path forward for audio is going wireless. And if that's going to be true, the future needs to involve a lot more than just earbuds. So today it's been announced that Sonos speakers are coming to Apple's retail locations. You'll be able to buy either the Play:1 ($199) or Play:5 ($499) starting today on Apple.com in the United States. They'll be in physical stores beginning October 5th. Web sales will also be available in international markets over "the coming week

We’re less than 12 hours from what is bound to be one of the most watched, and bloodiest, political showdowns of an already ultra-polarized US election season. So now would be a good time to remember what it looks like to be a civil human being. Let’s start with President Obama, who over the weekend found himself being tapped on the shoulder by former President George W. Bush at the opening ceremony of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Not for an excha

When you think of the on-demand economy, I bet you imagine services like Amazon Prime, Uber and Postmates. The London Sperm Bank Donors think of sperm. A new service, dubbed ‘Order a Daddy,’ lets users narrow down results from a sperm donor registry to find their ideal match. Browsing potential fathers is as easy as selecting a few desired characteristics and allowing the search function to do its work. Once finished, it’ll return names — such as ‘Do

Google is reportedly announcing a whole boat load of things at its upcoming October 4 event. While the new Pixel phones have gotten the attention, there’s also a 4K Chromecast on the way – and now it’s leaked. Evan Blass from VentureBeat corroborates an earlier report from Android Police that the device – known as the Chromecast Ultra – will cost $69 and be sold along the existing Chromecast, which costs $35. I can’t help but feel that’s not a grea

Riding in a yellow taxi used to be a miserable experience, which helps explain why Uber and Lyft were able to swoop in and so thoroughly disrupt the industry. Fed up with unreliable and dirty taxi rides, passengers migrated en masse to ride-hail apps that promised cleaner rides, friendlier drivers, and seamless payments. Taxi operators tried to stave off the bleeding by rolling out their own apps — but most were just pale copies of Uber. Now, the traditional taxi industry is launching a ne

Google's got a growing list of gadget announcements we're expecting at the company's October 4th media event, and this is one of the more exciting ones: a Chromecast capable of 4K playback. It's reportedly called Chromecast Ultra, according to a previous report from Android Police — but in this new image from VentureBeat, you'll notice that the Chrome logo is completely absent from the product's design. Instead, right in the middle is Google's G, which fits in perfectly with the

People will do crazy things to get to the top of the "real money slots" search rankings.
Last week, researchers at eTraffic uncovered a scheme that sent a certain site rocketing up the organic search rankings. When eTraffic investigated, 76 different university and foundation web pages — including Stanford, New York University and Carnegie Mellon University -- had suddenly begun linking to the site, each randomly inserting linked keywords into otherwise unrelated text. Because Google&rsquo

Wouldn’t it be nice to not need batteries to power our gadgets? Like if our drones could fly without us needing to plug them into the wall for some juice? One researcher at the Imperial College London is working on that goal. Dr. Samer Aldhaher designed a battery-less drone that can hover through wireless power. It can only float five inches above its power base, but still, no battery.
Aldaher wrote a paper about how he got this drone in the air. The tl;dr version is that it took a lo

Pen Pineapple Apple Pen. PPAP. Call it what you want, but it’s close to taking over the world. If you take a few seconds and look at the video above you’ll understand what I mean. It’s like the most addictive drug you could ever find, but worse. In the video you see Japanese artist Piko-Taro using its magical powers to combine a pen, a pineapple, and apple and another pen to form a pen-pineapple-apple-pen. It doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t have to, b

Google is reportedly working on a new Pixel laptop that will run on the long-gestating new operating system that merges Android and Chrome OS. According to Android Police and 9to5Google, the device is known internally by the codename "Bison" or Pixel 3, and will run on what's currently being called "Andromeda" when it sees release in Q3 2017. In addition, 9to5Google also reports that Huawei is working on a new Nexus tablet that will also run the new OS. Continue reading…

A computer scientist and a composer have restored an ancient recording of the first ever computer-generated music. Jack Copeland and Jason Long remastered a recording of three melodies, including "God Save the Queen," made by the BBC in the labs of computer pioneer Alan Turing in 1951.
The snippets of music were made on Turing's prototype Mark II computer, using the machine's extremely basic loudspeaker known to Turing as "the hooter." You can listen to the recordings below to hear exa

We’ve been talking about if and when Google will combine Android and Chrome OS for ages now, but it seems our wishes may finally come true at the company’s upcoming October 4 hardware event. According to Android Police, Google will be unveiling a new operating system, currently nicknamed ‘Andromeda,’ which combines its two major software platforms. That’s in addition to previously rumored announcements of two Pixel phones, a new Chromecast, a new Wi-Fi router, and

8bitdo — the company behind some of the best classic-style Bluetooth controllers around — is making something special to celebrate Apple’s 40th anniversary. Called the AP40, it’s a wireless controller that’s functionally similar to a SNES gamepad, but is designed to look like the classic rainbow Apple logo. It even has a little green leaf you can plug into the USB port when you’re not using it. The controller works the same as the rest of 8bitdo’s lineup

Earlier this month, the United States ratified the Paris climate accord. But new research shows that the US will likely fall short of the environmental pledges made in that agreement, unless new measures to cut greenhouse gases are passed. That’s bleak news ahead of a presidential election that could completely change the US’s commitments to fight climate change.
The Paris climate deal was reached at the end of last year, when nearly 200 nations agreed to cut fossil fuel emissions in

As we approach the one year anniversary of America’s switch from magstripe credit card readers over to EMV chip cards, the track record for them is not good. In fact, as I complained back in July, the entire technology stack is bad, slow, user hostile, and annoying. I still believe that the lion’s share of the blame can be laid at the feet of credit card companies. They put the burden of switching to the new system on businesses without doing enough to help them make the switch.
The

In the future, speaking may be all that’s required to diagnose health issues. Beyond Verbal, an Israeli company specializing in analyzing emotion from vocal intonation, is set to launch a platform today that could be the first step in doing just that. The Beyond mHealth Research Platform could usher in a brave new world of healthcare research by correlating distinct vocal features that are mostly imperceptible to humans. In doing so, these vocal ‘biomarkers’ could alert your p

Remember this moment: the smell, the look, the sound. Like the seconds before you first danced the "Macarena" or were asked "Who Let the Dogs Out," this moment is anendpoint of a phase of your life. Because you, my dear reader, will shortly click play on the video, above, and listen to "Pen-Pineapple Apple-Pen" (or "PPAP"). You will voluntarily allow the ear-worm to wheedle its way into your brain, where it will, for the foreseeable future, make a cozy bivouac.
Why will you do this? Because "PPA

The more remote someone feels, the less human they seem. This is the driving force behind large parts of what is wrong with communicating on the internet, and it often makes talking about politics on the internet a special kind of hell. But virtual reality, theoretically, can make people on opposite sides of the globe feel like they’re talking face-to-face. And this election season, a VR social network called AltspaceVR is testing whether this feeling of connection can bring its users toge

Believe it or not, there’s now an awesome webcam app that makes even Snapchat filters look lame. Built by developer-turned-designer Josh Beckwith, Temporalis is an interactive webcam filter that turns real life into the Matrix — and it’s so much fun. All you have to do is pose in front of your camera and start moving; Temporalis will then proceed to slice up your movements and generate cool GIFs like this one: To record yourself, tap the ‘Record GIF’ butt

Following in the footsteps of soccer clubs like Valencia and Schalke, the Philadelphia 76ers are getting into e-sports. The NBA team announced that it has acquired two e-sports franchises — Team Dignitas and Team Apex — and will be merging them together under the Dignitas name. 76ers ownership believes this will create “a powerhouse competitor” in the e-sports space. The newly merged team will compete in a range of games, including League of Legends, Counter Strike: Globa

Today, streaming giant Plex announced that it has teamed up with Amazon to launch a new product that’ll make its Media Server software easier to use than ever before — Plex Cloud. As you’ve probably already guessed, Plex Cloud is almost identical to the company’s desktop-based Media Server with the main difference being that it operates in the cloud instead of on a computer or NAS. What’s particularly neat about Plex Cloud is that it’s configured with a