Technology news

Duolingo, the popular free language-learning platform, launched three language "tutors" in its iOS app today, marketing the AI-powered chatbots as a way of helping users learn a new language without having to pay for expensive lessons. Users can text back and forth to practice a new language, giving learners an eternally patient, nonjudgmental, on-demand instructor.
Chatbots, the services you interact with via a chat interface like Facebook messenger, have been hailed as the next big thing

Prisma, the popular photo app that turns your plain photos into works of art using sophisticated image processing, has just rolled out support for 15-second video clips on iOS devices.
That means the app will now take those short video clips and turn them into comic book-like animations in under a minute. All of the processing happens right on your smartphone, as well, so users can create Prisma videos without a cellular connection too. There are nine different "styles" of videos available with

Thanks to the rise of Donald Trump, conspiracy theorists are having a moment — and it's now an imminently dangerous one. Right now Hurricane Matthew, a Category 4 storm, is headed toward Florida. The state's Republican governor, Rick Scott, said today that "this is going to kill people," as he asked residents to evacuate. Coastal surges, waves beyond 18 feet, extreme winds, and debris all will threaten lives and property if the predictions of scientists and civil authorities hold up.
But t

Amazon is planning to launch its long-rumored on-demand music service, which will compete with Spotify and Apple Music, by the beginning of next year, according to a source close to the situation. The company will also launch its Echo-based music service, which will cost $5 a month, within the next few weeks, according to a source. That service will allow Echo owners to access Amazon's music library on-demand just like the more expensive offering, but playback will be restricted to the

Today's Oculus Connect 3 keynote covered a lot of ground. Over two hours of speechmaking Facebook and Oculus executives covered everything from release dates, prices, content, social, and diversity, to mobile SDKs and foveated rendering. If you want to relive it the way it happened, you can check out our liveblog, or watch the whole keynote on Facebook.
Here are some of the highlights:
Mark Zuckerberg took a VR selfieFacebook's CEO is an obvious fan of VR, and not just in a I-spent-$2-billion-on

If you buy a Google Pixel or Pixel XL from Verizon Wireless, you'll be at the mercy of the carrier when it comes to future Android updates. Google has apparently confirmed to 9to5Google that Verizon will be in charge of delivering Android software updates to all Pixel phones that it sells. That includes units purchased from Best Buy, since the popular electronics store is carrying Verizon's Pixel models and not an unlocked version of the "phone by Google." For Pixels purchased from the Goog

Earlier today, at its Connect keynote, Oculus announced a new avatar system for its Rift — and eventually Gear VR — headsets. Yes, the avatar is not exactly a new piece of technology, even in VR. You can already build an avatar in AltspaceVR or vTime, and Facebook has its own animated avatar setup that Mark Zuckerberg showed off on stage. But these avatars are classy, and I made one.
Instead of being either cartoonish or photorealistic, Oculus decided to go for severe monochrome bust

The solemn and disturbing side-scrolling adventure Inside is one of the year’s best games, and also one of the creepiest. And it turns out that eerie nature extends to the game’s development. In an in-depth article on Gamasutra, Martin Stig Andersen, Inside’s composer and sound designer, revealed that he recorded the game’s haunting soundtrack with the help of a human skull.
Andersen says that the decision was made because he was interested in the way your voice sounds di

Facebook is planning to launch its subsidized internet service in the US, according to a report from The Washington Post. The service, known as Free Basics, would provide limited internet access to rural and low-income areas through deals with wireless carriers. The service would prioritize Facebook's services over others. A version of this same service was recently banned by regulators in India because it was deemed as giving an unfair advantage to Facebook. It has faced similar

AT&T and T-Mobile just announced pricing and availability for the LG V20 smartphone, LG's flagship phablet that is meant to compete at the high end of the smartphone market.
AT&T is selling it for $27.67 per month for 30 months, or $34.59 per month for 24 months, through its AT&T Next plan. That's $830 either way, for those not counting. T-Mobile still hasn't said exactly how much it will charge for the phone, but has said it will throw in a pair of $149 Bang & Olufsen

The Verge turns five on November 1st, and we’re in the process of refreshing our entire brand for the next five years. In Refreshing The Verge, we’ll be looking at how that refresh process works, and what it’s like to adapt a brand like The Verge to a world where media platforms have become dominant.
One of the best things about The Verge is that our audience actually knows and loves so many of the people that work here — our staffers have big voices and strong opinions,

We finally know exactly what you'll be playing when Oculus' Touch controllers launch in December. Today at its Oculus Connect keynote, the company unveiled a number of new titles that will support its fledgling controllers, including apocalyptic sci-fi shooter Arktika.1 from the creators of the grim Metro series, and Lone Echo from Ready at Dawn, a narrative-driven game about being trapped on a space station. Epic Games, meanwhile, will release its own sci-fi first-person shooter calle

Moments ago at Oculus Connect 3, Mark Zuckerberg gave a very brief look at a prototype standalone VR headset that Oculus and Facebook are collaborating on. But the way Zuckerberg presented it was very familiar; it was basically a direct callback to Steve Jobs' introduction of the original iPad in 2010. The pitch is identical: something magnificent that fits between lightweight mobile devices and powerful PC environments. Continue reading…

Sony held an event in Manhattan today to announce two new cameras: the RX100 Mark V and the A6500. It was a relatively low-key event as far as Sony events tend to go — the A6300 launch event featured basketball players and sparring matches, for example — and that's probably because both cameras were ostensibly just upgrades to existing lineups. Despite the muted event and the lack of wholesale changes, though, the new cameras are emblematic of an ongoing revolution in

Brendan Iribe, the CEO of Oculus, announced today the the company's VR system will now be compatible with much cheaper, less powerful PCs. In the past Oculus had certified a number of machines as compatible, but all cost around $1,000 at a minimum. Today it showed off some new engineering advances that allow Oculus to provide a smooth VR experience with a PC that costs just $499.
To make VR feel truly immersive, and to avoid nausea, it helps to have your software running at 90 frames per second.

Oculus has announced a new way to listen to audio while immersed in the Rift virtual reality headset: a set of in-ear headphones that can be used in place of the on-ear headphones that currently come with the device. The new earbuds cost $49 and will ship in December.
Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe boasts that the earbuds sound as good as headsets that costs much more, but we'll reserve judgement on them until we're able to test that independently.Developing. Check out our Oculus Connect 2016 live blo

The Oculus Touch will be available for the Rift on December 6th for $199, the company announced at its Oculus Connect keynote today. Preorders open on October 10th. The controller bundle will come with two titles — VR Sports Challenge and The Unspoken — as well as a second camera users can put in their play area.  A third sensor that'll allow the Touch controllers to room-scale will also be released on December 6th for $79. Other games, including apocalyptic

At its Oculus Connect event today, the VR company announced a new project: Oculus Avatars, designed to give you a real presence in virtual reality.
The avatars themselves are stylized but much more detailed compared to something like Nintendo's Miis. You're able to customize your character to make it look like you, choosing from a range of cosmetic options. The process looks a lot like character creation in a video game. "We want to enable social presence at the platform level," explained N

During the keynote presentation at Oculus' annual Connect developer conference, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg showed off a demo of a new virtual reality device that's supposed to sit between mobile and full PC experiences. Zuckerberg said the product is still in its prototype stage, but it will offer a standalone experience, without relying on a phone like Samsung's Gear VR or Google's Daydream, but won't be as expensive as a full Oculus Rift.
The new product is designed to be portable, so you ca

Mark Zuckerberg says that world leaders often stop by Facebook's headquarters to see what kind of interesting stuff it's been up to. "And that means I usually get to be the person to show them virtual reality" for the first time, he said while on stage at Oculus VR's developer conference.
Introducing world leaders to virtual reality may be an unexpected part of Zuckerberg's job, but he seems to have fun with it. Zuckerberg says he shows people different creative tools and "depending on what kind

Facebook showed off its latest ideas for social interaction in virtual reality today, demoing more complex avatars at Oculus Connect, the annual developer conference for the VR company. The avatars could smile, laugh, or express anger and shock. They had arms attached to their hands and personalized clothing. All this was new and more robust virtual representation than anything we've seen from the company so far.
We've known for a while that Mark Zuckerberg's long term goal for virtual reality w

Apple is said to be taking steps to improve its cloud services, including consolidating related teams and developing new technology that could let Apple run its own servers, according to Bloomberg.
Apple has struggled in the cloud for much of the past decade while its competitors — basically every big name: Amazon, Google, Microsoft — have managed to create successful services or hosting platforms. Apple is now hoping to pick up the pace, according to Bloomberg, in part by movin

Greyp Bikes announced a new electric bike today called the Greyp G12H. It can reach speeds of up to 27 miles per hour while using its 3kWh Lithium-Ion battery. It’ll reportedly stay charged for up to 150 miles. We don’t know how much it weighs, but Greyp’s similar bikes weigh around 120 pounds, so I’d presume it’ll be around there. Greyp says this model is "fit for every day commuting."I say that I want to see all the New York food delivery people zipping aroun

Generally speaking, we've been referring to the upcoming sequel to Ridley Scott's 1982 sci-fi classic with a grab bag of shorthand titles. Stuff like The Untitled Blade Runner Sequel, or The New Blade Runner, or Director Denis Villeneuve's Upcoming Blade Runner Movie That Has Ryan Gosling In It. Today, that all ends, as the official title has been announced.
Blade Runner 2049.
There's a hashtag included in the press release, of course (#BladeRunner2049), but other than that there's little e

 Symphony, the enterprise messaging app that counts a number of major investment banks among its investors and customers, is today taking the wraps of a run of new features that catapults the app into the next level of productivity solutions.
The company is adding new voice, video and screen sharing features in the form of a new product called Symphony Meetings, and it is also launching the… Read More