Technology news

As self-driving cars slowly make their way onto our roads, how will developers help these autonomous vehicles make difficult decisions during accidents? A new MIT project illustrates just how difficult this will be by mixing gaming with deep moral questions. 
SEE ALSO: Where you can hail self-driving Uber cars
The Moral Machine presents you with a series of traffic scenarios in which a self-driving car must make a choice between two perilous options. 
Should you avoid hitting a group o

You can do a lot in 94 seconds, including register to vote, says Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
The Rock took a small break from filming Jumanji to help record a silly, slightly NSFW song encouraging viewers to register to vote. After all, registering takes the same amount of time it would take to drink a beer, unless you drink beer very fast or very slowly. But we're not questioning The Rock's judgement here.'Voyager' animated short warns against a tech-obsessed future
Sarah Silverman and Bill Mah

The year is 2085. Ordinary Americans are so economically pressed that they must commute some three hours to work as independent contractor chauffeurs for companies that do not provide basic benefits. Not even those easing the driver's burden of staying overnight in cheap boarding houses before traveling back to their homelands with what profits they manage to muster. The companies, meanwhile, consider this "very cool!"
Haha, no wait — that's 2016. That's now! Our dystopian future has arriv

Netflix users hoping to get their fill of weekend content were stalled on Saturday afternoon after the company experienced a major service disruption. 
SEE ALSO: What's coming to and leaving Netflix in October
"Hi all - we are aware of streaming issues and we are working quickly to solve them," read the statement from Netflix on Twitter at 4:30 p.m. ET. "We will update you when they are resolved."Hi all - we are aware of streaming issues and we are working quickly to solve them. We will upd

April 3, 1933The two planes fly towards Lhotse and Everest at 32,000 feet.Image: ullstein bild via Getty ImagesThough the 29,029-foot-high summit of Mount Everest was first conquered on foot by Tenzing Norway and Edmund Hillary in 1953, it was conquered by air two decades earlier.In April 1933, RAF squadron leader Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, otherwise known as Lord Clydesdale, led an ambitious attempt to fly over the summit of the world’s tallest mountain.With the financial backing of philan

Netflix has gone offline on Saturday afternoon, a day after the company made its new Marvel TV series Luke Cage available to stream. The outage appears to have started around 3:00PM Eastern time for United States and UK customers. According to a tweet from Netflix’s customer service feed, the company is working to fix the outage. The service does appear to be working on mobile devices and tablets.Hi all - we are aware of streaming issues and we are working quickly to solve them. We will up

Netflix has gone offline on Saturday afternoon, a day after the company made its new Marvel TV series Luke Cage available to stream. The outage appears to have started around 3:00PM Eastern time for United States and UK customers. According to a tweet from Netflix’s customer service feed, the company is working to fix the outage. The service does appear to be working on mobile devices and tablets.Hi all - we are aware of streaming issues and we are working quickly to solve them. We will up

Legality was short-lived for Uber and Lyft in Philadelphia. 
A July agreement to legalize ride-sharing in the city ran out on Friday, leaving the two main ride-hailing companies in limbo. 
The Pennsylvania legislature approved a temporary agreement in July to legalize the services in Philly. An extension of the agreement doesn't look likely and there are no immediate plans to permanently allow ride-sharing, according to the Philly Voice. 
Uber and Lyft are now operating without th

European antitrust regulators are set to order Google’s parent company Alphabet to stop incentivizing Android phone makers to pre-install Google Search on their phones, according to Reuters and are are also considering imposing a substantial fines on the company.
Last year, European Union regulators lodged a formal antitrust complaint against Google for how the company prominently installed search and other proprietary apps on Android phones. Reuters cited a document that was sent to

San Francisco Giants outfielder Angel Pagan just might have a future in pro wrestling after he's done with baseball. 
At the very least, he produced Major League Baseball's most bizarre highlight in quite some time by body-slamming a fan who rushed the the field during Friday night's Giants-Dodgers game in San Francisco. Better yet, Vin Scully was on the call. 
Let's break down the footage. 
SEE ALSO: The bittersweet ballad of 'Captain Earthman,' the most beloved beer vendor in ba

Yes, Gordon Ramsay fixes kitchen nightmares, but he had much worse luck when a beachgoer's nightmare came along.
A jellyfish reportedly stung the TV chef on the penis while Ramsey was on the Italian island of Sardinia with his family.
"F*cking hell, it hurt," he told the Daily Star.
SEE ALSO: This baby couldn't look any more like a young Gordon Ramsay
Perhaps most tragically, Ramsay wasn't even able to urinate on his wound due to its unfortunate placement (that homeopathic cure, contrary to popu

The best science fiction mixes unlikely events with reality in ways that make us ask big questions, and in the case of Voyager, the film brought a tear to my eye. Yes, really.
Written and directed by France-based Loïc Magar and Roman Veiga, the short 3D animation-meets-stop motion film tells a story in which the real Voyager space probe returns to a future, dystopian Earth. 
NASA sent the real Voyager 1 and 2 probes into space back in 1977. They carried 12-inch golden records containi

Image: Bettmann/Getty ImagesIn 1934, Sammy Fuchs opened a saloon at 267 Bowery on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Surrounded by flophouses and missions, Sammy’s Bowery Follies catered mainly to the homeless, the penniless, and the generally down and out.That changed somewhat in the early ‘40s after a surprising customer passed through: a monocle-wearing gentleman who turned out to be a British lord tired of the fussy formality of the uptown clubs.Sensing a new market, Sammy acquir

With Facebook taking more swipes at Snapchat and courts upholding your right to take selfies while you vote, you may have missed some of this week's best new apps.
Each weekend, we round up a few of our favorite new and updated apps. This week's list includes an app to help you try out new makeup looks, a travel app and a video app that will make editing a breeze.
SEE ALSO: Teen-friendly app Houseparty comes from an unlikely developer
Check out the gallery below to see our top picks. If you're l

Hillary Clinton said Bernie Sanders supporters are "children of the Great Recession" who live "in their parents’ basement," according to hacked audio from a private conversation with donors in February. 
The reveal comes during the homestretch of the 2016 presidential election, with Clinton struggling to connect with young voters in a close race with Republican nominee Donald Trump. 
SEE ALSO: 2 Years Ago Sandra Fluke Was Called a Whore. Now She Wants Your Vote.
Clinton told dono

You’ve finally moved out on your own and you’re feeling free. Free to decorate how you want, blast your stereo whenever, and — oh, right — pay your own bills.
NerdWallet has found that many young adults stay on their family’s cell phone plan because it saves money all around. If you’re not so lucky, consider setting up your own family plan with friends or roommates.
Having roommates may already lower your cost of living: You share rent, utilities, maybe even f

Elon Musk doesn’t want to simply send humans to Mars. The SpaceX CEO has bigger ambitions. He wants us to be an “interplanetary species,” which means creating a self-sustaining civilization on Mars, which means living and dying on Mars — which at some point might mean sex and pregnancy on Mars.So how would that work?
Given that Musk hasn’t figured out how to keep people alive on the trip to the Red Planet, it’s unlikely he has details on how people will make m

It's been a long year. At least, it feels that way if you spent it waiting to pay for things with your chip card. 
One year ago today, regulations surrounding liability for credit card fraud switched to encourage banks and stores to start using EMV (Europay, Mastercard, Visa) technology, also known as chip cards. 
Since the liability shift hit on Oct. 1, 2015, 33 percent of merchants have started accepting chip cards, Mastercard spokesperson for safety and security Beth Kitchener told

1906"Ruthenian woman."Historically inhabiting the kingdom of the Rus ranging from parts of modern day slavic speaking countries, this example of Ruthenian traditional dress consisted of a shirt and underskirt made from linen which was embroidered with traditional floral based patterns. The sleeveless jacket is constructed from panels of sheepskin.Image: Augustus Francis Sherman/New York Public Library & Jordan Lloyd/DynamichromeThese photographs show a tiny handful of the more than 12 millio

Android 7.1 is expected to come with some new Launcher features, including Launcher Shortcuts and a sliding All Apps drawer as soon as next week. If you don’t want to wait until then, or you don’t have a device that will get a quick update to the latest version of Android, you can check them out now through a third-party app called Action Launcher. Chris Lacy, the developer of Action Launcher, was inspired by Android Police’s breakdown of the Launcher update and integrated the

Sarah Silverman and Bill Maher are not pleased with the remaining "Bernie Bros."
On Friday night's episode of Maher's Real Time, the two chastised voters who switched their loyalties to Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson after Bernie Sanders lost his bid for the Democratic nomination. 
"[Sanders] needs an ally in office. That's why I don't understand these 'Bernie or bust' people," Silverman said. "I don't know what their long game is."
Maher, for his part, did not mince words in his criti

Google's Tilt Brush, the app that lets you "sculpt" paintings in virtual reality, is getting a new set of features that move the VR tool far beyond the realm of interactive art. 
SEE ALSO: Virtual reality fans are disappointed in Palmer Luckey's secret Trump fund
Previewed in a video released on Friday, a new set of prototype features includes a multi-user mode that allows several users to work on the same piece of art at once.Usually, art is a single-person activity, but given the three-di

You may not be done wiping your tears about Mel, Sue and Mary Berry's Bake Off departures, but just know Anna Kendrick is right there with you.
On Friday night's Graham Norton Show, Kendrick (and Justin Timberlake) discussed her despair at the Bake Off shake-up — but she's also looking at the bright side.
"It immediately turned Mel and Sue into folk heroes, and we're all so proud of Mary for following suit, and then it's like, of course Paul [Hollywood] stayed, with your bread and your go

It’s October, which means that it’s time to take a look at the next crop of books that are slated to hit your favorite local bookstore in the days ahead.Here’s 19 books to pick up this month:
October 4th
Rise of Io, Wesley Chu
Wesley Chu is returning to the world where he started his career: Tao. Rise of Io is the start of a new trilogy that will follow Ella Patel, a thief, con-artist, and smuggler. She comes across an assault late at night and is soon inhabited by Io, an alien

There’s an app for everything today, so why not use one for car shopping?
Shopping for a car online requires diligent research and repeated checking of listings — usually on multiple websites.
Smartphone apps cut out some of that work. They can send mobile alerts when prices drop or new cars surface, and have abilities their company websites don’t, like scanning a window sticker or vehicle identification number for price estimates. Plus, you’ll have bargaining p

A jury has ordered Apple to pay $302.4 million to VirnetX Holding Corp. after it found that the tech giant's FaceTime feature infringed on the VirnetX's patents related to secure communications. The case will now go to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington DC.
Virnetx is a communications technology company founded by a group of employees at the Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) which developed security technology for various federal agencies. Howe

 On Thursday night, at a StrictlyVC event at SurveyMonkey in Palo Alto, this editor sat down with CEO Zander Lurie to learn more about the direction of the 17-year-old company, known for the roughly 90 million surveys that the outfit and its customers create for their various constituents each month (and whose average order volume is $300, says Lurie).
I was particularly interested… Read More

Hi everyone, I'm back to writing about trailers again after taking a couple days off last week. I haven't been watching all that many things lately — I'm trying to watch Atlanta, but my (parents') cable account won't authenticate... — but over the weekend I caught up on Gone Girl, which I'd missed despite how insanely buzzy it was two years ago.And, um, I have a lot of thoughts that probably cannot be contained in the brief paragraph or so I allot myself here. Searching aro

The Electric GT World Series is an all-Tesla racing series that was announced back in March. But the announcement was accompanied by very little detail: the series was being started by a new company called Electric GT Holdings, it was supposedly going to run its races on famous circuits like the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and the Nürburgring, and the entire field would be made up of Tesla Model S sedans. That was it.
The series’ creators have remained mostly mum since then. Pirell

You likely find yourself typing the same word, phrase or sentences repeatedly throughout your day. Automate those mindless tasks with Keyboard Maestro, an award-winning productivity tool. This handy app will save you considerable time and effort, and it’s now 44 percent off from TNW Deals. With Keyboard Maestro, you can create or record custom macro shortcuts to streamline your tasks. You’ll be able to assign various tasks to a single keystroke or keyword, with the option to au

The Moto Z Play from Lenovo has the best battery life of any smartphone I’ve ever used. It’s so good and so superior to the competition that this — the third member of the Moto Z family — just became my top recommendation if battery life is your most important criteria in choosing a smartphone. Smartphone makers have claimed again and again that their devices can last for “up to two days” on a single charge. It’s almost always braggadocio and overpromisi

Call it Human Civilization 101 — a record that contains sounds, music, and images from Earth to teach extraterrestrials everything they needed to know about us. That’s NASA’s Golden Record, a precious album that was printed onto gold-plated copper disks and launched into space aboard the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft in 1977.
The two original records are still attached to the probes, which are traveling through space billions of miles from our planet. Only a dozen copies were made

(Reuters) – Accounting software maker BlackLine filed for an initial public offering with U.S. securities regulators on Friday, looking to ride on the recent success of technology offerings in a relatively quiet year for IPOs.
Los Angeles-based BlackLine, founded in 2001 by Chief Executive Therese Tucker, counts Coca-Cola, Under Armour and Dow Chemical Co among its 1,500 customers.
Reuters reported last week that the company was preparing for an IPO that could value it at more than $1 bill

Robots are capable of truly amazing things, and they’re getting more intelligent and functional by the day. Wait, that should have said ‘some’ robots… Some robots are capable of truly amazing things. This one? Well, this one is really only capable of making a mess. In the video, Barret’s WAM robot is learning to flip pancakes through reinforcement learning. It’s the same way this robot learned to play ball in cup. It was slow going at first. But ev

Meerkat, which last year kicked off the modern mobile live-streaming craze now led by Facebook and Twitter, has been removed from the iOS App Store. Ben Rubin, CEO of Meerkat maker Life On Air, broke the news on Twitter earlier today, calling it a "bittersweet" moment given his company's new release. On Monday, Life On Air revealed that it's been operating a private video chatting app it now calls Houseparty that's designed to facilitate group hangouts in a private, instead of public,