Technology news

Last night, Tesla announced some exciting hardware upgrades for the Model X and Model S that feature fully autonomous driving, at some point anyway. The announcement came just before a video detailing a Tesla ‘navigating a complex urban environment’ — which saw the car get on a drive itself through a suburban neighborhood, get on the freeway and then drop off the driver and park itself. It even ‘recognized’ a no parking zone found another spot. If you planned on gr

Paleontologists have discovered a new species of dinosaur in Australia. The wide-hipped, long-necked, four-legged plant-eater was about half the length of a basketball court, and its shoulders stood as high as the hoop. Dinosaur fossils in Australia are exceedingly rare, and this discovery could help scientists understand how these massive creatures spread across the planet millions of years ago.
"There are entire lost worlds of dinosaurs waiting to be found."
David Elliott, now the chairman of

Poor Samsung. Even the leader of the free world won’t spare them from ridicule. In a speech today, President Obama compared Obamacare to a smartphone, noting that when a smartphone (or a law) has a few bugs, you fix it or upgrade it. You don’t just throw it away.
Unless it catches fire. Then you pull it off the market. But you don’t go back to using a rotary phone. You don’t say “well, we’re repealing smartphones.” We’re just gonna do the dial-up t

Microsoft posted its first quarter of its 2017 fiscal earnings today, reporting revenue of $20.5 billion and net income of $4.7 billion. The highlights of Microsoft's latest earnings come in the form of Office and Cloud. Office commercial revenue grew 5 percent, while Office consumer revenue was up 8 percent in the latest quarter. Revenue in what Microsoft describes as "intelligent cloud" rose 8 percent, with Azure revenue up 116 percent, and server revenue up 11 percent.
On the Windows side,&nb

Microsoft posted its first quarter of its 2017 fiscal earnings today, reporting revenue of $20.5 billion and net income of $4.7 billion. The highlights of Microsoft's latest earnings come in the form of Office and Cloud. Office commercial revenue grew 5 percent, while Office consumer revenue was up 8 percent in the latest quarter. Revenue in what Microsoft describes as "intelligent cloud" rose 8 percent, with Azure revenue up 116 percent, and server revenue up 11 percent.
On the Windows side,&nb

Battlefield 1’s campaign is nothing like its recent predecessors. That’s why it works.
Imagine living in someone’s shadow for a decade, and you’ll get the gist of the Battlefield brand as of late. While more creatively ambitious, more technically impressive, and all around prettier than the Call of Duty series, the Battlefield video games have been its competitor’s perpetual runner-up. Battlefield’s publisher Electronic Arts and developer DICE have themselves

Alpine Electronics just introduced its new 14-gallon cooler that doubles a speaker. It’s unfortunately named the PWD-CB1 Alpine In-Cooler Entertainment system. The thing is massive, and Alpine suspiciously doesn’t list its weight anywhere, so I’m guessing it’s heavy, too. Apparently the speaker was designed to match the "lifestyle activities" of people who own Jeeps, full-size trucks, and SUVs. I agree that the aesthetic of the cooler matches that lifestyle.
The 180-watt

Samsung hasn’t been in a joking mood lately, but I’d like to think somewhere deep down inside, even the disparaged weapons maker mobile device manufacturer might get a chuckle over this one. Or, it could go the DMCA route we saw yesterday and threaten to sue the living bejesus out of whoever made the Explo-Sung case. Explo-Sung is an iPhone case that turns your Apple product into a Samsung device — an exploded Note 7, to be exact. The case fits every iPhone from the 5 on up an

Sony’s PlayStation 4 Pro launches next month, and there’s still a whole lot we don’t know about how this new device will affect the quality of games and what it means for the cadence of the console industry as we know it today. We’re still unsure of exactly how game developers will make use of it, how it will aid Sony’s recently released virtual reality headset, and whether the Pro’s existence will undermine in any way the sizable audience of the current

Last night, Tesla announced that all of its vehicles going forward will (eventually) have full self-driving capabilities. But buried in the fine print is a warning to customers who may be seeing dollar signs in Tesla’s new driverless upgrades (which won’t be activated for a few years).
“Please note also that using a self-driving Tesla for car sharing and ride hailing for friends and family is fine, but doing so for revenue purposes will only be permissible on the Tesla Network,

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos saw Neil Armstrong step on the Moon nearly 50 years ago and the moment changed his life. Now, as the head of one of the robust online retailers in the world, Bezos says that space is the next frontier, a new internet if you will, that is desperately lacking in infrastructure to support new entrepreneurs. Speaking at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit in San Francisco today, Bezos said the sole purpose of his rocket venture Blue Origin is to build out the same kind of

Get ready for a lot more 360 videos in Facebook articles. After introducing Instant Articles in May 2015 and 360 content in September of the same year, Facebook is bringing the two together. Starting today, any publisher can implement 360 content in their Instant Articles. They work pretty much the same as on your News Feed: wave your phone around or tap and drag to explore. To be clear, instant articles only work on iOS and Android, but it’s a neat addition to add some interactive m

 Health tech startup Cardiogram has raised $2 million in a seed round led by the a16z Bio Fund for an app that screens users’ cardio health and gives them help improving or maintaining it. The company started out with an Apple Watch integrated app, initially. But it is ultimately planning to be a “device agnostic” business, and to make its app utilizable with all manner… Read More

The trailer for Nintendo's new Switch console plays like a Mission Impossible heist. Just when you think Tom Cruise is stumped, his gadget does one more weird trick to save the day.
Dog needs to go outside?
No problem, just take apart your modular controller and snap the pieces onto the sides of the Switch screen.Your friends haven't seen you in weeks, even though they live on the rooftop directly opposite your Brooklyn loft?
No problem, just carry your Switch in one hand while you give sidehugs

Donald Trump has a propensity for spouting off at the mouth, especially on Twitter. At this point, that statement should surprise no one. In fact, it’s one of the most oft-mentioned reasons his followers love him — he lacks the filter of previous presidential candidates. But there are two sides to every coin. On the other, you’ll find those that equate Trump rhetoric to be akin to nails on a chalkboard. It’s that side Hillary Clinton targeted with her new tool: &lsq

Today Razer is overhauling its biggest and baddest machine, the 17.3-inch Razer Blade Pro, with a formidable spec sheet and probably the best keyboard ever attached to a laptop.
Specced to be a true "desktop inside your laptop," the new Blade Pro starts off with a 2.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i7-6700HQ processor. It’s last year’s Skylake architecture, not the freshest Kaby Lake silicon, owing to Intel not yet having any seventh-generation quad-core parts — but fear not, it will

After more than a year and a half of speculation, we finally know what Nintendo's NX project is: the Nintendo Switch. The company revealed the first details today via a three-minute video posted to its website. You can watch it above, and read our breakdown of the trailer here.
The Switch isn't a surprise to anyone who's been following rumors surrounding the system. It is, as has been reported, a hybrid device — the console itself is essentially a tablet, yet it's designed to be hooked up

Google's pop-up shop opened today in New York City, and it's a swanky space in the heart of SoHo for people to check out the Pixel, Google Home, and Daydream VR for themselves. The shop doesn't actually have any products for sale, though — you'll have to do that online or at Verizon and Best Buy retail stores.
The space showcases different products in different corners, with an IKEA-esque living room and kitchen setup where people can test out Google Home's features in a setting that

A whole lot of companies take design inspiration from Apple, like, pretty much exact design inspiration. It makes for a boring phone landscape. But do you know how companies think they’ll win the hearts of consumers and tech writers to outdo Apple? Antenna lines. Those dang antenna lines, while crucial to cell reception, are ugly. Wouldn’t it be nice to not have any antenna lines?
Oppo just released a new phone in China called the R9S, which it claims is the first to have "six-string

The short animated film Borrowed Time, made over the course of five years as a side project by two animators at Pixar Animation Studios, has been circulating at film festivals since 2015. But this week it was made publicly available on Vimeo, which marked the first time most of the public could see it. The internet response has been tremendous. Writer-directors Lou Hamou-Lhadj and Andrew Coats say that as artists working on a huge team at a large company, they're used to being out of the public

Long before he wrote The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien served in the British Army during the First World War. Upon his return to England he resumed writing, laying down the foundations of what would become Middle-Earth — an epic story that includes The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. Now, a century after it was first written, Tolkien’s estate is publishing one of his earliest stories, Beren and Luthien, as a standalone book.
World War I had a profound impact

As with most reveal trailers from Rockstar Games, the first teaser for Red Dead Redemption 2 focuses on tone over gameplay. Considering the developer’s reputation for creating violent open worlds full of cynical troublemakers, the footage is notably absent of a singe gun being fired. So what does this rather serene look tell us about the game?
Here’s an initial breakdown. Let’s continue picking at the footage in the comments.Wildlife
If there’s one recurring focus of the

How exactly does marijuana make us high? We’re a little closer to knowing now that scientists have figured out the structure of the brain receptor that interacts with the drug. The discovery will help us understand how to better use marijuana for medical purposes — and solve the mystery of why synthetic marijuana is so dangerous, but nobody dies from the natural stuff.People get stoned when an ingredient in marijuana called THC binds to a receptor called cannabinoid receptor 1, or CB

The Nintendo Switch — known before its announcement as the NX — is one of the weirdest and most interesting pieces of major gaming hardware we’ve seen for a while. It’s a modular device that can be used as a portable console or placed in a dock for living room gaming. But Nintendo packed a lot more detail than that into its three-minute trailer for the Switch, so here’s everything we’ve just learned.We’ve seen at least five configurations for the Switch

The first teaser trailer for Red Dead Redemption’s sequel has finally arrived – and while short, it’s oddly mysterious and ridiculously captivating. The footage gives out scarce clues and hints as to where the game will be set, who the protagonists will be or what the story will revolve around. The only cue the trailer gives us is a cryptic warning at the end of the video: “When the time comes… You gotta run and don’t look back. This is over.” Roc

Drones and pilots legally permitted to fly them are here in spades. So American businesses are scrambling to figure out how to use drones to gain a competitive advantage. Recent examples saw Travelers Insurance using drones to inspect properties after Hurricane Matthew, and Hahn Estate Winery using drones to monitor the health and density of vegetation on their vineyards, and forensic… Read More

Xiaomi has an event next week to unveil the Mi Note 2, but thanks to Weibo you don't have to wait that long to see the company's next flagship device. According to a leaked slide spotted by Phone Arena, the Mi Note 2 will be pretty stacked, with a Snapdragon 821 SoC, up to 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a dual rear camera setup with a 23MP Sony IMX318 sensor next to a 12MP Sony IMX378 shooter. A few more details:
5.7-inch Super AMOLED 2560 x 1440 display with force touch
8MP front-facing

Nintendo just unveiled a new console called Switch, and it’s powered by a custom Tegra processor from Nvidia. The chip has a checkered history of failure and success — it’s mostly been an impressive machine for graphics demos — but Nintendo choosing it for a major console release gives it a substantial new beachhead into the consumer market. The coup for Nvidia may help it realize one of the original dreams of Tegra, which was to bring desktop-level graphics to handhelds.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is real! The sequel to 2010’s open-world Western game has been hinted at since 2013. Rumors and leaks, however, have been uncommonly slim for such a big release. This trailer is our first clear look at the project, and safe to say, it has all the trappings of a Red Dead game.
Multiplayer was a standout feature in its predecessor, and Rockstar has said sequel appears will build on that framework. We expect the studio will incorporate lessons learned from the online com

Reviews for the Pixel are out, including one from our very own Walt Mossberg. This week on Ctrl-Walt-Delete, Walt and Nilay talk about the phone made by Google and how it ranks up against products by Apple and Samsung. Also, now that Google is making a bunch of hardware with their own software, the idea of brand lock-in is much more real for the consumer.Lastly, Apple is holding a Mac event next week, so Walt and Nilay speculate about announcements and specs for the long-awaited new laptops.
We

 Q Fifty One is Texas-based retailer that operates two different brands: Q Clothier, a custom-suit store with 6 locations and Rye 51, a more casual luxury men’s apparel brand with a few stores in Texas. The stores have quickly become popular – with fewer than10 locations and no e-commerce option they are now doing eight figures in revenue. But any successful and long-lasting… Read More

Jide, the Chinese firm behind desktop-orientated Android fork Remix OS, wants to supercharge your TV. The company has launched a Kickstarter campaign for what it's calling Remix IO — a small hardware box that runs Remix OS. Plug it into your TV, and you can use it to do anything you can on Android. Play games, use apps, and with the desktop features of Remix OS you can also plug in a keyboard and mouse for tasks like browsing the web or writing emails. The cheapest Kickstarter tier ge

When Elon Musk introduced the Tesla Model X, the crowd oohed and aahed when he revealed that the car could open and close its doors automatically. But it’s not just the rear Falcon Wing doors that have this trick feature — the Model X also has “self-presenting” front doors that can open as you approach.
At first glance, having front doors that open and close on their own seemed needlessly complicated — just one more thing to break. But now that Tesla has unveiled it

One of the movies I’m most looking forward to in 2017 is Alex Garland’s film Annihilation. Based on Jeff Vandermeer’s novel by the same name, it has the potential to be a unique, cerebral science-fiction film. It looks as though Paramount Pictures feels the same way, because the company has snapped up the option for Vandermeer’s next novel, Borne.
Variety reports that Scott Rudin and Eli Bush, who are producing Annihilation, will also produce Borne, which is expected to p

Messing around with the iOS Simulator, developer Steve Troughton-Smith has stumbled upon a nifty one-handed keyboard mode hidden in the code of iOS that has apparently “been there since at least iOS 8.” As the crafty coder explains, the secret feature can be activated by a simple edge-swipe. What’s particularly cool is that you can adjust the keyboard to fit either of your hands – all you have to do is pull up the feature from the side of yo

Nintendo has finally given us our first glimpse at its next home console…. and handheld. The hybrid console once called the Nintendo NX is now officially known as the Nintendo Switch. It’s every bit as crazy as you expected, and quite removed from the ‘leaked‘ designs we’ve seen the past few months. Concept We knew the console would work as both at home and on the go, but it’s a lot more modular than rumors suggested. It’s able to transform f