Technology news

While the audience for live broadcast television programming has been steadily shrinking over the last few years, there was one bastion of strength that had consistently bucked this trend: the NFL. For the last 10 years, viewership of NFL games continued to grow and grow — until now. This season, the NFL is seeing double-digit drops in television viewership, according to research by CivicScience conducted on behalf of SportsBusiness Journal/Daily.
Sunday Night Football, 

Faraday Future, the well-funded electric vehicle startup, is partnering with LG for the lithium-ion battery cells in its upcoming EVs. LG makes batteries for a number of electric vehicles including the 60kWh pack in the Chevy Bolt, which should hit dealers late this year.
LG and Faraday Future have worked to develop a "tailored cell chemistry," according to a press release. It isn’t specified whether this is a custom battery built solely for FF, or if the companies have merely been working

A lot of people are scared of bats, so given our proximity to Halloween, we thought we’d remind you of how polite they are! Today, we stumbled upon the cutest video of a baby bat flapping its wings. What struck us — other than how adorable it is — is just how well-mannered this lovely creature proves to be.
In the video — published on YouTube by Batzilla the Bat, a user that only publishes baby bat videos — the bat yawns and covers its mouth with its right wing. How

When Netflix launched its English-language reboot of the 1980s anime series Voltron, fans had a lot of obvious questions, most of which boiled down to "How closely will this new series follow the old one?" So far, the answer has been "Closely enough to satisfy old-school fans, but not so closely that it feels dated or rigid." The new series is big, bright, and modern, with slick animation and a lot of up-to-date humor. But the central characters — the five pilots of the lion-ships that for

The group that defines and promotes USB standards issued specifications for USB-C headphones this past week. The new guidelines from the USB Implementers Forum will help accessory manufacturers get their devices to market more quickly by essentially guiding them through the steps to produce USB-C headphones that don’t suck up power. We've already seen a few USB-C headphones from brands like JBL, but this will speed up the process for other companies.
"Fewer connectors will open t

Westworld creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy have been thinking a lot about simulations. The creative duo have divided their last few years between writing for television and raising their first child. Nolan, the brother and writing partner of Dark Knight and Interstellar director Christopher Nolan, has built a career around highbrow thought experiments in cinema and TV. Among other things, he wrote the short story that became Christopher Nolan’s film Memento. He also created and scripte

Microsoft gave it two tries, but the company's wrist-worn Band fitness tracker is seemingly no more. The Band 2 has been removed completely from Microsoft's online store, signaling that production has ceased. It's no longer available from Best Buy either, though Amazon is still selling through its remaining inventory. ZDNet reports that the company has no current plans to release a Band 3. The team responsible for the Band was recently dissolved, throwing doubt on Microsoft's futu

Apple will soon trigger an automatic download of its latest desktop operating system update, macOS Sierra, on Macs that are compatible with the new software. According to The Loop, users with automatic downloads switched on — and enough storage space on their Mac — will get the Sierra update sometime "over the next week."
Since this is a full-fledged new OS release, the update won't actually install itself automatically; you've still got to start it on your own. If you're n

Yoshinori Ohsumi has received this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for figuring out how and why cells eat themselves. In key experiments from the 1990s, the Japanese biologist brought attention to this important process — called "autophagy," or "self-eating" — which occurs in many diseases, from type 2 diabetes to cancer.
Think of autophagy like the cell’s own recycling program: useless parts are destroyed to create energy to build new parts. First, cells enc

If the Cold War had gone differently, Russia would probably already have a reserve of walking tanks. Instead, our somewhat more peaceful reality will have to settle for mobile games about mechanized combat robots.
Mail.Ru, one of Russia’s top internet companies, has acquired developer Pixonic for $30 million. The studio’s War Robots, a strategy game featuring legged combat vehicles for iOS and Android, is a major hit in that nation, regularly ranking in the top 10 for highest-gr

Recently a report suggested that Microsoft would perhaps stop fighting public cloud market leader Amazon Web Services (AWS) when it comes to cutting cloud prices in order to win and retain business. But Microsoft’s latest cloud announcement contrasts that considerably. Today Microsoft said that Azure virtual machine (VM) prices would be going down by up to 50 percent.
To be specific:
DV2 VM prices will drop by as much as 15 percent
A1 and A2 Basic VM will drop by as much as 50 percent
Comp

 Benchling, a biotech company out of Y Combinator providing cloud-based software for researchers, tells TechCrunch it has raised $7 million in growth funding to continue creating tools to help the science community access research from big pharma and other leaders in the space.
You might think of Benchling as the Google Docs portion of the life sciences industry. While IT solutions software… Read More

The Zika virus lingers in the saliva, sex organs, and nervous systems of monkeys long after the infection is gone from the blood, new research shows. This means that certain organs might harbor the virus even after the immune system has beaten it back, extending the risk that Zika might be spread. And if the virus infects adult human brains as well, it could mean that Zika might be causing more neurological issues than we realized.
"Every study that gets done is filling in pieces of this puzzle.

SAP wants to empower women in technology. So the big tech company is announcing today an initiative to support Girls in Tech, a nonprofit with 50,000 members worldwide aimed at empowering and educating girls and women in high-tech careers and startups.
To generate awareness and support for GIT’s mission, SAP will donate one dollar for every tweet that mentions both #sconnect16 and #All4GIT between October 3 and December 31. The initiative is part of SuccessConnect 2016, an event takin

Xiaomi has finally launched its Mi Box Android TV set-top box in the U.S.
While we did know that the Mi Box would be coming to the U.S. at some point, an official launch date has hitherto not been confirmed. But Hugo Barra, former Googler and current global VP for Xiaomi, posted this message on Twitter this morning, confirming that the product is now available to buy online for $69.
Mi Box: Xiaomi's first U.S. product launching today! Android TV, 4K/HDR, Google voice search & Google cast, $6

During a press junket for The Accountant, a very weird-looking upcoming movie about an accountant who does murders, Ben Affleck announced the title for his upcoming Batman film. It's The Batman!
He also said the title may change but he's "working on the script" and "the script is going really well." Affleck will direct and star in The Batman, which should probably give DC fans a tiny glimmer of hope. His previous directorial efforts (The Town, Gone Baby Gone, Argo) have been critical and po

The Verge will turn five years old on November 1st, 2016.
If you’ve been with us since the beginning, I’d bet that number is just as strange to you as it is for me — it feels at once like The Verge has been around forever, and also like it’s only just beginning. Five years ago, we didn’t have any audience at all; last month 36 million people read The Verge and millions more viewed our videos. Five years ago our staff of just under a dozen was largely in New Yor

Limitless has created a way for artists to create computer animations while inside a virtual reality world. The company has developed a tool that allows someone to use an HTC Vive VR headset and its hand controls to spell out exactly what will happen as the animation unfolds in real time.
The tool could save tons of hours for animators in creating both prototypes and final animations in VR, said Tom Sanocki, CEO of Bellevue, Wash.-based Limitless, in an interview with GamesBeat. It wil

What a homecoming.
Developer nDreams announced today that its story-based virtual reality game The Assembly will launch on PlayStation 4 with PlayStation VR on October 13. It’ll be available digitally for $30. Sony is the first major console maker to get into the modern VR game. With analysts predicting that the VR market could generate as much as $40 billion in revenues by 2020, Sony has a great opportunity here. But it’ll need compelling software to sell consumers on VR.
The U.K.-b

All around the world, women studying geoscience are half as likely to receive outstanding recommendation letters as men, new research shows. This is true no matter what region they come from, or whether the person writing the letter is a man or woman.
Previous research had already shown that recommendation letters for women are usually weaker than the ones men get. But today’s study, published in Nature Geoscience, is the first to look at letters from around the world and to focus on the f

Mainstream venture capitalists pumped up startups in virtual and augmented reality in the third quarter, with a record $2.3 billion invested in the last 12 months, according to tech advisor Digi-Capital.
Tim Merel, managing director of Digi-Capital, said that half a billion dollars was invested in AR/VR startups in the third quarter. That was the ninth consecutive quarter of increased investment in the hot sector, which Digi-Capital estimates could be a $120 billion business by 2020.
While angel

Lately, Uber has been positioning itself as the ultimate solution to the eternal challenge of shuttling people between transit hubs and their homes, also known as the “last mile challenge.” To that end, the ride-hail giant announced today that it struck a deal with the suburban town of Summit, New Jersey, to launch the state’s first subsidized commuter program.Under the deal, Uber will offer free or extremely cheap rides to commuters who have struggled to find parking at Summit

The best game show in the history of television is Jeopardy! and it is very obvious why. Every week, three contestants answer trivia questions out loud on TV, and in tandem, viewers try to answer trivia questions out loud in their living rooms. This is the best thing television can do — instigate light sporting events in American homes and give intellectualism a 30-minute spot to shine after the nightly news.
Out of curiosity, and to make sure our favorite game show isn’t letting its

With Advertising Week New York 2016 wrapped, we take a moment to recap some of the trending topics, explain what got social media in a frenzy, and highlight some of the stories of the week.
Using data supplied by Spredfast, we’ve discovered the top three topics on Twitter across all four days of AdWeek NY — as the cool kids call it — and you won’t be surprised to hear that some of the most popular topics have nothing at all to do with advertising.Monday
The first day of A

I love October. The leaves turn orange and red; the baseball playoffs fill weeknights, and football devours weekends; I celebrate my birthday and my wedding anniversary; the outdoors smell like barbecue and beer and bonfires; and all of the festivities are affixed with grinning skeletons and pumpkins of Halloween.
Every year, to celebrate my favorite holiday in my favorite month, I take the October calendar and assign a Halloween-friendly movie or television show to each day. My wife and I do ou

Let’s learn about Nintendo’s 3D marvel! No, no, not that one.
YouTube channel Did You Know Gaming‘s latest video looks at Nintendo’s 3DS, the portable system that’s sold around 60 million units since its launch in 2011. The video gives out plenty of interesting facts and trivia, including Nintendo’s earlier attempts experimenting with 3D technology on the GameCube and Game Boy Advance. You can watch it below.I wish they kept those interchangeable circle pads a

Apple is planning on releasing three new versions of its iPad Pro next spring, two in brand-new sizes, if a new report from Japanese blog Macotakara is to be believed. The report states that Apple will release a new version of its 7.9-inch iPad mini under the Pro tagline, which will feature four speakers and a smart connector just like the current lineup of iPad Pros.
Apple is also reportedly building a new 10.1-inch iPad Pro, which will feature a 12MP camera and improved True Tone flash, b

PRESS RELEASE: SINGAPORE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–October 3, 2016– Coupa Software, a leader in cloud-based spend management, today announced that Paul Watts will lead the company’s Asia Pacific (APAC) region as vice president of sales. Watts combines more than 20 years of experience based in the APAC region with his extensive knowledge of the enterprise software space. In his new role, Watts will be responsible for advancing the company’s go-to-market strategy, business deve

Advanced Micro Devices is launching its 7th-generation AMD Pro desktop processors for business computers.
The AMD Pro chips are accelerated processing units (APUs), which combine a central processing unit and graphics processing unit on the same piece of silicon. The chips, previously code-named Bristol Ridge, will be available through Hewlett-Packard and other computer manufacturers.
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD is launching four new APUs that will use its AM4 computer platform. Previously, AMD

Earlier this year, I reviewed the Amazon Echo Dot, a smaller version of the company’s full-size wireless speaker with a voice-controlled assistant. The Dot lacked the room-filling sound of the larger Echo, but it still had all of the same smarts: you could use it to set timers, perform unit conversions, order a pizza, call an Uber, or answer random trivia, all hands-free. I found it best for controlling smarthome appliances — it’s far easier to use your voice to turn smartlight

Facebook is rolling out a new service designed to help users buy and sell things in their local community.
Arriving first in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and New Zealand, Marketplace is an extension of Facebook’s existing For Sale groups feature, which the social network says is used by 450 million people each month. In a nutshell, Marketplace lets you search for things that people are selling nearby, which could be anything from furniture to books and electronics.
Above: Facebook Marketplac

Paul Reiche III has wanted to let fans create their own Skylanders for a while. Ever since the toys-to-life video game debuted in 2011, fans sent letters showing the designs they imagined for their own Skylanders creatures. Today, the president of Activision Blizzard’s Toys For Bob game studio is announcing that players can finally do that.
Activision said that fans can create their own Skylanders in the video game or in a mobile app and then order a $50 custom 3D printed to

Activision is taking a big step toward mass customization today with the announcement that players will be able to design their own characters in the Skylanders Imaginators video game and then order a custom 3D-printed rendition of their own toy character. They can also upload the design to sites such as YouTube, where others can order the same creature. And they can also purchase custom trading cards or T-shirts with their characters on them as well.
Above: You can design your own Skylander and

Facebook is getting more deeply involved in e-commerce with the launch of Marketplace, its new user-to-user exchange for buying and selling goods with others in your community. The company says Marketplace — which launches this week in the US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand — is an evolution of an existing behavior on the social network. Up to 450 million people already use Facebook to buy and sell used goods every month, mainly through its groups feature, according to project manage