Technology news

A few moons ago, I wrote some words under the title of "The Google phone is almost as good as the iPhone," and while I stand by the content of those words, I now have to revise my conclusion. On the basis of my extended experience with Google’s Pixel, I consider it an all-around better phone than the iPhone 7. The final exhilarating straw that broke the camel’s back was the photo below, coming straight out of the Pixel XL’s camera, undoctored other than for a horizon adjustment

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

Take heart, everyone, the election is winding down. There are only a few more days until we can heave a sigh of relief — at least, until campaigning for 2020 begins in six months.It hasn’t been a pretty election, and lots of ink has been spilled over the various tactics of the two sides. But that’s almost over, right? We’ve all made our well-researched decisions and we’re ready to head to the booths? Not quite. Up until the very end, our voting choices can be shaped

A trio of astronauts will depart the International Space Station this evening, embarking on a three-and-a-half hour journey back to Earth. The exiting crew includes Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin, Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, all of whom are wrapping up a nearly four-month stay aboard the ISS. During their time on the station, the three have helped perform hundreds of science experiments, and Rubins became the first perso

For 43 years, New York City’s Village Halloween Parade has been showcasing the creative spirit of the city in the form of giant puppets, neon-colored floats, and thousands of participants in their own costume creations. Though touted as the world’s largest annual Halloween parade, the production is run by a small non-profit group led by artistic director Jeanne Fleming. She's now entering her 38th year with the parade, and she likens her job to "being command console of the Starship

GUEST: It just may be the most confounding dilemma of our era: Despite having long embraced (or at least accepted) the digital transition in virtually every aspect of our lives, from banking systems to utilities to personal communications, we still remain curiously dedicated to upholding an expensive and fragmented system for voting — what is perhaps the central act of the citizenry in a vital democracy.
It’s not that we haven’t tried to bring voting up to date. In the U.S. we&

It’s October, and that means nightfall creeps earlier every day and the shadows lengthen from skeletal trees. The fall is the perfect time to start taking on the book list that you’ve had accumulate over the summer. With Halloween right around the corner, it’s a good time to take a look at some great horror novels to crack open.Our recommendations:Hex by Thomas Olde HeuveltIt by Stephen KingThe Fireman by Joe HillShirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery’ by Miles HymanT

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“I don’t think you’ll find many brands that can give you a full view of every touch point of the consumer in ge

FEATURE: Daniel Dilallo has worked on high-end console games such as Guitar Hero and Call of Duty. But now he has shifted into a hot new gig: making porn apps for virtual reality.
In some ways, this career transition is not a surprise, and Dilallo is not alone in making the leap. The move has opened new opportunities and a chance to make a fortune on the technological frontier, where everything is moving fast and the promise of riches awaits. VR is expected to be a $30 billion industry by 2

It's getting into that time of year when smaller, quieter dramas come out, and I got to see one I was pretty excited about last weekend: Certain Women, the new Kelly Reichardt film starring Laura Dern, Michelle Williams, and Kristen Stewart. I'm a huge fan of Reichardt's films, and this one is no exception.
The movie is essentially three standalone shorts about lonely women. They're all extremely different in subject, but somehow end up feeling so right together.
One thing I noticed about all th

GUEST: Chinese electronics manufacturer Hangzhou Xiongmai is in deep trouble. Its products are being blamed for having enabled last Friday’s historical DDoS attack, which shut down access to important websites across swathes of the U.S. and Europe and has caused a stir about IoT insecurity.
Aside from the blow to its reputation, the firm has to deal with recalling thousands of devices that researchers say might have been instrumental to the attack. The problem is that product recalls are e

An actress dressed as a killer doll with bloody scratches on her face is perched on a handrail, smiling wide as if she can’t wait to play with me. Just looking at her gives me the creeps. This is the entrance of Machine Shop, a haunted house attraction at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. Inside the attraction, zombies with shaved heads lead me through a maze of old, rusted machines and chopped legs and arms. They even lock me inside a cage. But I chose to be here. It’s Hal

(Reuters) – San Francisco entrepreneur George Hotz was so confident in his self-driving startup Comma.ai that he had T-shirts made that boldly proclaimed: “We are gonna be so rich.”
But U.S. federal highway safety officials this week forced Hotz to slam on the brakes, veering into a sudden detour, on the road to those promised riches.
In a letter and order on Thursday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) demanded that Comma.ai provide proof to regulators

Tesla released photographs of four different solar roofs that the company announced earlier today.Instead of adding bulky solar panels to an existing roof, the roofs themselves will be made of textured glass tiles that incorporate photovoltaic cells.The new roofs are the result of a collaboration between SolarCity and Tesla, and can be combined with Tesla’s Powerwall 2 battery. The tiles are hydrographically printed, a process that makes each one a “special snowflake,” Musk sai

(Reuters) – After Facebook’s removal of an iconic Vietnam war photo stirred an international uproar last month, the social network’s executives quickly backtracked and cleared its publication.
But the image – showing a naked Vietnamese girl burned by napalm – had previously been used in training sessions as an example of a post that should be removed, two former Facebook employees told Reuters.
Trainers told content-monitoring staffers that the photo violated Facebo

This evening Elon Musk announced a “solar roof,” a new battery system, and most importantly, a vision for investors as his electric car company, Tesla, and his cousin’s solar energy company, SolarCity, prepare to merge.
Tesla summarized the idea in a single photo, above.
On your house, there’s a solar roof (available in four styles, including terracotta). Inside the garage, there’s a new Powerwall 2 battery system an

Tesla will build and sell its own line of solar panels with integrated batteries, the company announced at a press event at Universal Studios in LA, today. The Powerwall 2 will allow residential homeowners to replace their entire roof with solar panels and an updated Powerwall 2 battery system, making it much simpler for homes to be entirely powered by solar power.
The event is currently streaming live on Tesla.com.
The roof is made of a textured glass tile with integrated solar cells. The roofs

Elon Musk is about to unveil Tesla’s and SolarCity’s first integrated products: a “solar roof” and Powerwall 2.0.
If this sounds at all confusing to you, you’re not alone. Musk had to clarify in August that he wasn’t talking about regular solar panels: “It’s not a thing on the roof. It is the roof,” he said.
Musk is also expected to show off the next version of Tesla’s home battery system and vehicle charger &md

Soylent has paused production on its main product, the Soylent Powder, after determining that it’s been making people sick.
That’s now two items that Soylent has had to halt production of: the Soylent Powder, and previously, the Soylent Bar. Soylent said that both products led to “discomfort” in “a small number” of consumers.
The company has been inundated with social media reports over the past few weeks with customers complaining of nausea, vomiting, and dia

WordPress creator Matt Mullenweg has taken exception to the editor used in Wix’s mobile app, alleging that the do-it-yourself web building service has copied his platform’s editor and failed to give proper attribution and adhere to the general public license (GPL) — basically open source your work.
“If I were being honest, I’d say that Wix copied WordPress without attribution, credit, or following the license. The custom icons, the class names, even the bugs. You ca

 When will Apple ship a MacBook with an ARM processor? This is a question that has been top of mind for observers of the company ever since it started designing and building its own chips from the ground up. The answer to that question is now, sort of. Apple’s new 13” and 15” MacBook Pro models come equipped with a Touch Bar – that bar and the accompanying Touch ID… Read More

Brave Software, the startup behind the Brave internet browser that includes a feature for blocking ads, today launched a second Android browser following the launch of the original in January.
The first one was based on the previously available Link Bubble Android browser and showed websites in bubbles in the background that can be dismissed by swiping them down toward the bottom of the display, while the new one uses shows websites in more conventional tabs.
The Link Bubble version will remain

GUEST: Chatbot companies have raised over $140 million in the past six years. Over 60 percent of the funding came in 2015 and 2016 as the chatbot craze quickly took over Silicon Valley. The media remains optimistic about the potential of bots, but venture capitalists and other investors are increasingly wary of the proliferation of startups in the space.
1. Entrepreneurs underestimate the complexity of enterprise bots
“These days, every other pitch I get is some kind of bot compa

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A Bethesda game is not working for some people
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition launched today on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, and some players are encountering some game-breaking problems. Reports include game crashes right on booting up and that Skyrim’s not performing well even on capable PC rigs. Others are sharing clips of their game freaking out in a number of different ways. And GamesBea

All the hype around the new MacBook Pro has been about what its flashy new Touch Bar can do, but there’s good reason to be excited about its Touch ID sensor, too.
One early example: the maker of 1Password, AgileBits, is already showing off its planned support for the laptop’s fingerprint sensor. It plans to allow users to log into 1Password without typing in their (quite possibly complicated) master password.
Basically, the change would take the app from 1 to (mostly) 0Password, sinc

Why beg strangers for candy when you can enjoy some cheap games instead? Not that there’s anything wrong with trick-or-treating at 29 years old, mom.
Valve’s digital PC game store Steam is having another one of its sales events, offering massive price drops. The Halloween Steam Sale goes from today to November 1, and it features over 65 spooky games with discounts ranging from mild (15 percent) to huge (75 percent).
You probably don’t have the time or money to get all of them.