Technology news

Kendrick Lamar has never been shy about his struggles with depression. 
The subject colored many of the lyrics on his critically acclaimed 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly, in which he opens up about spells of sadness in a raw emotional manner.
Kaiser is repurposing some of these rhymes in a new ad encouraging people to be more forthcoming about discussing the illness in order to break the stigma around it.
SEE ALSO: Kendrick Lamar joins Maroon 5 for their bouncy new single, 'Don't Wanna Know

Well, it's official: Alec Baldwin, who's currently playing Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live, has made his presidential endorsement. And — surprise! — it's for Charlie Brown from Peanuts.
Baldwin announces his endorsement, and encourages people to make sure they're registered to vote, in a new video from Peanuts Rocks the Vote. Charlie Brown, he says, has always "wanted the same things [he] did, and ... was as anxious about achieving them."
Snoopy seems disappointed, but we're sur

Western tourists visiting Thailand in the wake of King Bhumibol Adulyadej's death this Thursday seem to be a bit taken aback by the intensity of the country's mourning.
Several vacation-goers tweeted their disappointment at the closure of nightlife venues and cancellation of "entertainment" events — though most were sensitive to the glum national mood. Others advised anyone thinking of making the trip to reconsider the dates.
SEE ALSO: Facebook blacks out ads in Thailand out of respect for

Not that there aren't successful Walking Dead video games already, but what about an old, NES-style shoot-em-up? 
CineFix presents the first two seasons of AMC’s The Walking Dead retold via old-school 8-bit (and a little 16-bit) game tech. Our 8-bit Cinema series "gamifies" your favorite Hollywood blockbusters (and now TV shows) into '80s arcade- and NES-inspired action.
Subscribe to CineFix for more videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/cinefix Read more...More about Mashable Video, 8 Bi

If you thought the first trailer for the BBC's Planet Earth II was dazzling, wait until you see the extended version.
Featuring an original score by Hans Zimmer, the latest glimpse into Planet Earth II gives viewers an even closer look into the series' stunning, groundbreaking new footage.
There are penguins, giraffes, a swimming sloth, a bear scratching its back — and, of course, a few peeks into those triumphant underdog moments the original series portrayed so spectacularly.Alec Baldwi

GUEST: For marketers, innovation can bring about impressive opportunities (like the rise of social media), or throw up obstacles that force them to redirect and rewrite the gameplan (like ad blockers).
The World Wide Web went live in 1991. Smartphones began their rise to prominence in the mid 90’s. Social media in late 1997. Blogging sites in 1999. Facebook in 2006. Snapchat? 2011. Instagram Ads launched just last year.
Here are five tech innovations I’d love to see next.
Fully Integ

Deuntay Diggs is back, and his moves are more flawless than ever.
The Virginia police officer, already famous for busting a move to Beyoncé's "Formation" during a school fundraising event in August, has delivered a follow-up performance, this time at a North Stafford High School pep rally.
SEE ALSO: Bridal party executes a Beyoncé-worthy dance at wedding
Yes, this one was another hit — at least according to this large group of screaming, dancing teens.According to a profile i

c. 1936A stone carver hangs on to Thomas Jefferson's eyelid.Image: George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty ImagesIn 1923, looking to attract tourists and stimulate the economy of his state, South Dakota state historian Doane Robinson proposed creatinga massive monument in the Black Hills. He envisioned a memorial to great heroes of the West, suggesting Lakota Sioux leader Red Cloud as a possibility.The proposal was granted federal funding, and Robinson selected architect and sculptor Gutzon Borglum to d

As one of the hit breakout apps of 2016, Prisma needs little introduction. The photo-processing app that uses artificial intelligence (A.I.) to transform your simple smartphone snaps into works of art became a runaway success in a handful of Eastern European countries when it launched on iOS back in June, and went on to garner 10 million downloads globally ahead of its arrival on Android in July.
In the intervening months, Prisma has gained offline functionality, a new video editor, and now clai

Australian alt-rock singer Dan Sultan just released his latest single, "Magnetic". It was accompanied by a really cool music video: one that features an stop-motion film of a 3D printed bust of the singer.
Sultan contacted Melbourne-based studio Dropbear Digital to produce the animated video, but according to Dezeen "due to other commitments, he couldn't be around" to be filmed for the project. Director Jonathan Chong came up with the idea to use a 3D scan of the singer's head, which w

Ever get the feeling that we're preaching to the choir all day, every day on Twitter and Facebook? Ever thought about a different way to reach friends and family across the aisle — through movies and TV? 
With less than a month to go before Election Day, a straight-up majority of the American electorate continues to not support Donald Trump as president. Yet Trump's support remains surprisingly strong for a man who is essentially promoting both sexual abuse and dictatorship at home an

After the removal of the headphone jack, one of the biggest changes to Apple’s iPhone 7 is the new home button: it’s no longer a mechanical button, but a force sensitive static button. It seems that the company has introduced an additional workaround time when the new button might not work as expected.
According to a MacRumors forum user, the iPhone 7 displays a home button in the phone’s screen when it detects that there might be a problem with it.iwayneThe user noted tha

It's not unusual for trailing presidential candidates to ratchet up the rhetoric as the election date nears.
But perhaps because of the unprecedented antagonism of Donald Trump's entire campaign, his home stretch is starting to feel like a fireworks finale of bombastic bluster.
SEE ALSO: Animated 3D series 'Trumpocalypse' imaginesDonald Trump as president
The GOP nominee kicked off the weekend with more allegations that the November polls will be rigged by a media conspiracy, calls for a drug te

GUEST: Theranos, once Silicon Valley’s sexiest startup, recently announced plans to shut down its blood-test facilities and lay off almost half its workers.
But that shouldn’t mean the premise of Theranos is flawed. In fact, CEO Elizabeth Holmes’ vision — to remove the friction in blood diagnostics — is bang on the money. For all involved, blood draws are a pain — quite literally. The opportunity for a more convenient, accurate, and less painful draw, especial

NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has long been known for ripping the plots of its episodes out of real-life events, but NBC has decided to hold an upcoming episode of the show inspired by Donald Trump until after the upcoming presidential election. "Unstoppable", which features a Trump-like figure engrossed in a sexual assault scandal, was originally scheduled to air on October 26th. Now, Variety reports that NBC will not release the episode until after the election, though no n

If, for some reason, a passenger on your flight ignored the recall warnings, and somehow slipped past the new ban on Samsung Note7 devices, some airlines have deployed a solution for any burning smartphones.
SEE ALSO: Here's what to do if your smartphone's battery starts smoking
On Thursday, Alaska Airlines (whose $2.6 billion merger with Virgin America airlines is under Justice Department review) posted a safety notice on its site that prominently displays a fire containment bag in direct relat

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911).Image: Imagno/Getty ImagesWhile decorative funeral masks have been used to adorn the dead since ancient times, from those gracing Tutankhamen to Agamemnon, death masks record the very contours of a person’s face at the time of their death.Ancient sculpted masks were supplanted in the late Middle Ages by true death masks, which are created by making a wax or plaster cast of a person’s face shortly after their death.Death masks were made to preserve the visage

GUEST: We’ve come a long way since the soft launch of our mobile game, Walking War Robots, on iOS in 2014 — our monthly revenues have grown to $1.3 million, and we released on Google Play. Over these years, we repeatedly encountered problems that allowed us to get where we’re at now.
Based on our previous experiences, we developed a methodology for creating and evolving our game that relies heavily on rigorous re-evaluation of data and analytics, but on on constant  experi

When PlayStation VR came out earlier this week, one of its lesser-known launch titles was a horror game called Here They Lie. Developed by Tangentlemen, a studio that includes Spec Ops: The Line co-director Cory Davis and Tomb Raider series designer Toby Gard, it promised something unique in a lineup of abstract games, unconventional sports titles, and tie-ins to non-VR series: an original, full-length psychological horror experience created specifically for PlayStation VR.
Unfortunately, Here T

Madonna's famous cone bra, which celebrated its 26th birthday this year, was one of the biggest fashion moments of the '90s. Now, it's entered dog costume territory in perhaps the truest sign of its eternal relevance.
This Shar-Pei/beagle mix has won first place at her daycare's costume contest two years running. And this year, she's looking to vogue her way onto the podium once again.
This Halloween's costume? A stunning Madonna tribute.
SEE ALSO: 15 dogs that have no idea how to use the dog be

With recent tech headlines dominated by Samsung finally killing the Note7 and Periscope launching its new Producer platform, 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 for face swapping, an artificially intelligent messaging app and Pandora's new iMessage app.
Check out the gallery below to see our top picks. If you're looking for more items to fill up your phone, take a look

The problem-plagued Samsung Galaxy Note7 has already been banned from all U.S. flights and now the country's northern neighbor, Canada, has officially followed suit. 
SEE ALSO: Samsung to permanently stop production of Galaxy Note7
Transport Canada, the country's official transportation organization, posted the notice on its website on Saturday, stating that the device is "no longer allowed in any aircraft effective immediately."
Like the U.S.'s Note7 flight ban, the Canadian ban applies to

OK. After attempting to play some Call of Duty earlier and running into server troubles, it’s time to give this another go.
Activision launched a beta test for Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare today. The publisher is giving anyone who preordered the sci-fi military shooter on PlayStation 4 access to an early technical test that will run through October 17. Xbox One owners will get a chance starting October 21 when the second half of the beta begins.
But let’s not wait. I’ve

The Huffington Post produced a great video that I seek out and watch from time to time: a supercut of all the times that arcade machines have appeared in film, set to "Burnin Through The Nite," by The Sweethearts. The video feels as though it encapsulates this rose-colored image that I have of the 1980s. Gervais Merryweather’s short film Mall 84 exists on that same plane: an exploration of nostalgia for a decade that’s receding deeper and deeper into the past.
I was born almost exact

Wardens practice life-saving skills on Blue Lake.Image: Provincial Archives of AlbertaIn 1929, Canadian magazine Forest and Outdoors published a story about how two young boys had spotted a small fire on British Columbia’s Bowen Island and helped a forest ranger to extinguish it.Young readers of the magazine wrote in, asking how they could emulate the heroes of the story. This response motivated the Canadian Forestry Association, which published the magazine, to establish the Junior Fire W

With the media circus swirling around the Donald Trump campaign, you'd think there would be more pop stars coming out to comment on the presidential race, but musicians have largely stayed out of the fray. 
One exception, though, is singer/rapper Will.I.Am, who just dropped a song specifically addressing Trump's offensive comments regarding women.
SEE ALSO: CNN finally admits that so much unfiltered Trump coverage was a mistake
The music video, posted by Funny or Die, is titled "GRAB'm by t

GUEST: The food delivery business remains a hot sector for investors, despite recent high-profile ups and downs. Here in Europe, for example, we saw Brussels-based Take Eat Easy fold recently after failing to secure a much-needed cash injection. The entry of global heavyweights such as UberEATS and Amazon Fresh certainly adds pressure to other players. However, with the UK’s Deliveroo being funded to the tune of £250 million ($306 million) recently, Berlin-based Delivery Hero rumored

Remember Chewbacca drawer? 
Well, there are a lot more household items that sound like Chewbacca out there. They've steadily appeared on the internet through the ages and they're ready to confuse you.
Behold a compilation of items that remind us so much of our beloved Wookiee friend that we're wondering whether the Force is somehow involved.Australia's new $5 bill is so high-tech it can play a vinyl record
Alec Baldwin endorses Charlie Brown for president
Watch 'Borrowed Time', the emotion

Karaoke is an inherently social activity, full of both joy and trepidation. The same holds true in virtual reality, based on my experience with Harmonix Music Systems‘ SingSpace karaoke app for the Samsung Gear VR.
I tried out the SingSpace app with a great deal of embarrassment at the recent Oculus Connect event, along with my colleague Giancarlo Valdes. We sat side by side, singing in different virtual spaces but sharing our pre-song jitters as we began. The VR game is an experiment with

Not that there aren't successful Walking Dead video games already, but what about an old, NES-style shoot-em-up? 
CineFix presents the first two seasons of AMC’s The Walking Dead retold via old-school 8-bit (and a little 16-bit) game tech. Our 8-bit Cinema series "gamifies" your favorite Hollywood blockbusters (and now TV shows) into '80s arcade- and NES-inspired action.
Subscribe to CineFix for more videos:https://www.youtube.com/c/cinefixAmy Adams has a foolproof method to make her

In a few days, I leave for Los Angeles — a city where I’ve barely spent a cumulative 10 days in my life. I know its geography about as well as that of Mars. 
And yet in a very real sense, I’m going home.
Specifically, I'm going to LeakyCon — a Harry Potter convention established in 2009 that I now work for, unpaid, as social media coordinator. 
This is my 10th year of attending Potter conferences, which have become a way of life.
SEE ALSO: The 'Fantastic Beasts'

The Blu R1 HD starts at $50, works on T-Mobile or AT&T, and will arrive on your doorstep in two days. It is, for all intents and purposes, an Amazon phone. 
Not the Amazon phone, the Fire, that failed so hard a few years ago. The R1 HD is a phone made by another company, with a few customizations by Amazon, and sold by Amazon. 
SEE ALSO: Amazon's new shopping 'wand' isn't as magical as it sounds
For Prime members who are fully entrenched in Amazon’s ecosystem, from Photos to

Audiences associate the word “horror” with scary movies or terrifying novels. But over the past half-decade, live theater and haunted house exhibits have merged, bringing new life to the genre with interactive, real-world experiences that let audiences step through the screen and into their own personal tales of terror. In The Future of Fear, we’re talking to the creators of some of the most striking, immersive horror experiences to see how they’re taking the genre in dir

Ya gotta have dance practice somewhere.
A police officer responding to a noise complaint at a Carrollton, Texas apartment complex last month stumbled upon something that wasn't complaint-worthy at all: a group of groomsmen practicing a dance to surprise a soon-to-be bride.
"When the officer first approached us, we were a little nervous, but we knew we were doing nothing wrong," groom David Opegbemi told ABC News.
SEE ALSO: Couple celebrates 50 years of marriage in wedding outfits they wore in 19

GUEST: The mobile gaming industry is booming. Smartphones have become more affordable and the mobile gaming industry has overtaken PC and console as the biggest gaming category; it’s worth an estimated $36.9 billion compared to PC, which are worth $29 billion.
But was this always the case? In short, the answer is no. It started in 1997 with Nokia’s hugely successful game, Snake, which came as a feature on the phone itself. Users didn’t need to search or download a thing. Today,

Just before we started dating, my girlfriend and I went together to see Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life in theaters. I remember sitting there for the first hours with my jaw wide, marveling at the strange ways it intermingled modern life and the birth of the universe.So we went together again to see Malick's Voyage of Time this past weekend. It's a documentary, sort of. It's more like a meandering visual poem, taking inspiration from The Tree of Life's trippiest parts and turning them into a

Earlier this summer, rumors of a new Chromebook nicknamed ‘Kevin’ circulated around the web, and yesterday, ChromeUnboxed uncovered the yet-to-be-announced model through a series of retailer listings: the Samsung Chromebook Pro.
ChromeUnboxed noted that it had received a user tip of a listing for the device on B&H, which was quickly taken down. However, the site turned up a listing for the Chromebook on Adorama, as well as a landing page for the device.
The new Chromebook comes w

Image: Collection of Robert E. JacksonThese everyday snapshots, assembled from a variety of sources by collector Robert E. Jackson, capture people throughout the 20th century proudly posing with vinyl records.Jackson, who has amassed more than 12,000 pieces of vernacular photo ephemera over two decades, often finds recurring patterns and motifs among the images, from displays of patriotism to goofy photo-manipulated decapitations.These faded prints and Polaroids recall a time when a new record w

GUEST: Following Facebook’s recent admission of inflated video ad performance figures, we’ve seen a lot of debate on how measurements should be done. The video ad industry is often dinged for offering misleading statistics or unclear measurements, so it’s not surprising to see that a major player like Facebook was susceptible to faulty metrics too. Everyone in the industry feels pressure to show strong performance metrics because some vendors throw out video completion rates ab

Haiti is in the middle of a cholera crisis, and after Hurricane Matthew hit the Caribbean island last week, things are likely to get worse. To try to stem some of the spread of disease, the World Health Organization is sending 1 million doses of a cholera vaccine. Though 1 million doses might sound impressive, it’s still not enough to protect all the Haitians who are at risk of contracting the deadly disease.
Supplies worldwide are severely limited
The WHO isn’t sending more cholera

We’ve featured some great offers from TNW Deals this week, and are compiling the best of them in one place. Check out some great Bluetooth earbuds, a solid VPN, and a three-pack of Lightning charging cables. They’re all discounted by at least half, and worth a look (or two): 1Voice Bluetooth earbuds – 55% off The 1Voice Bluetooth Wireless earbuds give you unparalleled listening freedom with a completely wire-free design. They’ll fit snugly while delivering clear, resonan

In Netflix’s quietly affable reality program Terrace House, the setup is familiar, but the result is different. Six young, attractive strangers — three men and three women — all live under one roof in a swanky apartment. But there's absolutely no drama. All conflict is resolved through mature communication and polite respect for one another. Friendships and relationships form naturally, as if rebutting the reality TV mantra, "I didn't come here to make friends, I came here

(Reuters) – Britain’s banks are not reporting the full extent of cyber attacks to regulators for fear of punishment or bad publicity, bank executives and providers of security systems say.
Reported attacks on financial institutions in Britain have risen from just 5 in 2014 to 75 so far this year, data from Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) show.
However, bankers and experts in cyber-security say many more attacks are taking place. In fact, banks are under almost const

Apple has been quietly removing the security tethers that keep display iPhones from being stolen from its stores, which could make it a little easier for thieves to walk out with them in their pocket.
Though, apparently, Apple isn’t all that worried about it.
The company’s redesigned flagship store in London is set to reopen this weekend, and when customers walk in, the phones will be displayed without those pesky tethers chaining them to the tables. MacRumors also reported