Technology news

Nothing screams excess like a pop culture-specific memorabilia purchase that costs more than a house. For gearheads, there’s now a one-of-a-kind Final Fantasy XV-themed Audi R8 that costs nearly half a million dollars. Developer Square Enix teamed up with the German automaker to design a “Star of Lucius” edition of the car for the CGI prequel film Kingsglaive, and now a real-world version of the vehicle is going on sale to one lucky raffle winner.The price is about 50,000,000 y

Remember sweet, sweet July, when Donald Trump promised the Republican National Convention that he would do everything in his power to "protect LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a foreign ideology?"
Well, he hasn't even taken the oath of office and he's already broken that promise. 
This morning, Donald Trump announced that former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell would be heading his domestic transition team. Blackwell, who once compared LGBTQ people to animals, is a Se

America in 2017 will begin to experience life under Big Brother Donald Trump. 
The president-elect is still a little more than two months away from having the United States's massive security apparatus at his fingertips, but it's not difficult to imagine a spike in domestic surveillance after he sits down in the Oval Office. 
SEE ALSO: Edward Snowden warned us about a president like Donald Trump
Trump plainly laid out his thoughts on surveillance during the campaign and it is terrifyin

Friday is National Sundae Day and boy, do we need it. SEE ALSO: Good luck, America: You just elected Donald Trump president
If there was ever a time to eat your feelings by way of a huge bowl filled to the brim with ice cream, hot fudge and toppings galore, this is it. 
Get on your sweatpants and pull out the hugest spoon you can find. It's National Sundae Day and here are a few of the delicious ways you deserve, and perhaps need, to experience some edible joy. 
Go classicImage:wh

GrubHub is at the center of a social media firestorm after its cofounder and CEO Matt Maloney sent an anti-Trump email to employees earlier this week week. Following the election results on Tuesday, Maloney wanted to reassure his staff that neither he nor the workplace culture he oversees would tolerate hateful rhetoric consistent with Donald Trump’s campaign. However, some misinterpreted the language in his email as a call for Trump supporters to resign, which many viewed as a step too fa

GUEST: It seems like every television season plays host to a single show that takes over our cultural consciousness by coating modern fears in fantastical drama.
Game of Thrones taps into the cutthroat nature of modern politics, while The Walking Dead plays into our ever-present fear of a worldwide contagion. This year, with Elon Musk’s dire warnings about the dangers of artificial intelligence, Siri and Alexa permeating our personal lives, and self-driving cars threatening to run dow

The University of Pennsylvania is investigating a GroupMe account after black students were added to chats called “Nigger Lynching,” “Mud Men,” and “Trump is Love” today.
The mobile messaging app was used to harass students en masse with racial slurs and threats. Images began circling on social media earlier today, where students shared screenshots. In one image, a user called “Daddy Trump” proceeded to sling slurs at students. Another image inclu

President-elect Donald J. Trump will enter office on Jan. 20, 2017 with an agenda that includes dismantling President Barack Obama's environmental actions, particularly when it comes to global warming. Environmentalists are gearing up for a fierce fight against him, and it's easy to see why.
Trump is set to become the world's only leader who does not believe human-caused global warming exists. 
In just his first 100 days, he is seeking to green light the Keystone XL Pipeline, a project Obam

Our CineFix series, Homemade Movies, travels back to 1990 to reimagine the original trailer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, completely made from household items.
Even clad in cardboard, these homemade heroes-in-a-halfshell pack a punch that we think would make Jim Henson proud.
Subscribe to CineFix for more videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/cinefix Read more...More about Mashable Video, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Homemade Movies, Movies, and Cinefix

Dear 2016,
You're the worst.
No seriously — from the death of some of the most talented artists in the world to that whole presidential election thing — you have been such a completely awful year and now everything is screwed. 
SEE ALSO: Today in America, a couple bald eagles got stuck in a storm drain
One jaded soul decided to cope by creating a Brexit-themed parody of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to highlight what a shit show this year has been, and we re

President-elect Donald Trump has plans to address college affordability and student debt, though many details remain to be worked out. In an Oct. 13 speech in Columbus, Ohio, Trump outlined the basics of his views on student debt, tuition rates, administrative “bloat,” income-based repayment and loan forgiveness.
“Students should not be asked to pay more on their loans than they can afford,” Trump said. “The debt should not be an albatross around their necks for the

Donald Trump’s surprise win has been good news for end-to-end encrypted services. The Swiss company Protonmail announced today that weekly sign-ups had doubled after Donald Trump’s surprise win on Tuesday, although the company did not disclose raw numbers for the jump. “Regardless of which side of the political spectrum you are on, Trump’s control over the NSA is now an indisputable fact, and we think it is worth taking a closer look at what this means,” CEO Andy Ye

Donald Trump’s surprise win has been good news for end-to-end encrypted services. The Swiss company Protonmail announced today that weekly sign-ups had doubled after Donald Trump’s surprise win on Tuesday, although the company did not disclose raw numbers for the jump. “Regardless of which side of the political spectrum you are on, Trump’s control over the NSA is now an indisputable fact, and we think it is worth taking a closer look at what this means,” CEO Andy Ye

Retro gaming isn’t cheap.
The NES Classic Edition is now available (if you can find one). The miniature device has 30 built-in games from Nintendo’s classic system and comes with a controller … even if its cord is incredibly short. The whole thing costs $60.
Now, you may think, “Why should pay that much money for a bunch of old games?” Well, after doing some math, it turns out that the NES Classic Edition is quite a bargain. I used the site Price Charting to look a

Given the tumultuous and traumatic past few days, anyone would be forgiven for rolling up something large and potent for the weekend. However, a new marijuana mantra has been emerging as the drug has become increasingly legal and that is: less is more.
Microdosing, the practice of taking tiny amounts of marijuana for all the benefits and less of the side effects, is being increasingly embraced - and it's as much by professionals as professional stoners.
SEE ALSO: The United States of Weed: Elect

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg doesn't believe that fake news on his social network influenced the election. 
But recent findings from the Pew Research Center suggest the opposite is true, as 20 percent of social media users say they've changed their stance on a political issue because of something they saw on sites like Facebook. The shift was usually pessimistic.
SEE ALSO: Facebook is the most powerful force online — and these new numbers prove it
"People who said they had changed the

A strange Facebook bug spotted by Business Insider shows a memorial message sitting atop profiles that informs friends and families a user has died. The message reads: We hope people who love [User] will find comfort in the things other share to remember and celebrate his life. The message also includes a link to a Facebook form to set up an account for a deceased person as a memorial account. It’s not affecting everyone, so it’s unclear at this time how widespread the bug

(Reuters) — Many actors think there ought to be a law against posting their ages online, and California has obliged critics of ageism in Hollywood with legislation targeting a leading online source for information on movie and television figures.
The law, passed earlier this year, has been challenged in a lawsuit by the company IMDb, which is owned by Amazon and operates a repository of information on the film and television industry.
The lawsuit filed on Thursday in federal court for the

Many living Facebook users were "memorialized" Friday afternoon, meaning the social network claimed they were dead.
You just can't make this stuff up.
SEE ALSO: Facebook pledges to clear News Feed of misinformation, again
It's unclear why this happened, but the issue affected a variety of users — including the author of this post:"We hope people who love Damon will find comfort in the things others share to remember and celebrate his life," a new header said at the top of my profile page,

Facebook is capping one of the longest weeks in American history by telling everyone that they are dead. Log on to your profile and there’s a good chance it will have a memorial banner sitting on top of it, urging your friends and family members to remember you. “We hope people who love Casey will find comfort in the things others share to remember and celebrate his life,” the banner reads, because I am dead. Other people who are dead include everyone.
Omg catch this bug while

Today, Facebook decided to give race-based targeting the boot after many (myself included) raised issue with its possibility for misuse. But wait, let’s back up a second. As a Facebook representative explained to me ever-so-patiently back in March, you can’t target by race on Facebook. There are no tools available that allows you to check a box and reach an entirely Asian/Black/Latino audience. What you can do, however, is target users based on ‘ethnic affinity,’ wh

When Snap, Inc. announced earlier this year that it had created a pair of video-recording sunglasses called Spectacles, it was a little hard to get a handle on just what the end result would be. Snap was new to the hardware game, and more ambitious wearables like Google Glass had been expensive, niche failures. But yesterday a limited number of Spectacles went on sale, offered through a yellow pop-up vending machine near the company’s original headquarters in Venice, California — and

So you just bought Sony’s new PlayStation 4 Pro. Maybe you, like me, were itching to get a new console with a 1TB hard drive and thought, “Why not?” Or perhaps you’re genuinely excited about the prospects of 4K HDR gaming, and have the right living room hardware to make it a reality. Well, there’s good news and there’s bad news.The good news is that the PS4 is the easiest out-the-box solution to experiencing the kind of boundary-pushing graphical fidelity once

Earlier this year we brought you an in-depth exposé of how, for 12 days in February and March, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) ran the world’s largest child porn site, Playpen. According to newly unsealed documents, Playpen wasn’t the only site containing child pornography on FBI servers. The piece above can handle the in-depth explaining (if you’re interested), but it went down like this: the FBI seized the site, ran it on government servers for 13 days and a

All-electric racing series Formula E is back after taking a month off following its season three premiere in Hong Kong. This weekend’s race is in Marrakesh, Morocco, and it’s the first time the series has run a race in Africa. (It also happens to be the same week that the UN Climate Change conference is happening in Marrakesh.) That makes five continents so far for the young series — Africa, North America, Europe, Asia, and South America. And later this season, the series is al

AT&T today announced a new feature for its data plans called Stream Saver that will effectively throttle mobile video streams starting sometime next year. Touted as a “free and convenient, data-saving feature,” AT&T will cap what it says are most video streams to 480p by default. To watch video in high definition, consumers will have to opt-out using the myAT&T app or on the company’s website. AT&T says there is no charge to use the feature.
AT&T’s Str

Apple will launch a trio of new iPads this spring, according to Barclays research analysts. Citing the company’s Asian supply chain, the analysts report we can expect a 10.9-inch model with a borderless design. Due to the bezel-less display, the larger iPad would occupy the same footprint as the smaller 9.7-inch iPad Pro. We’ll also be getting a rather bad-ass iPhone 8, with an edge-to-edge display — if the rumors are true. It’s this that perhaps gives us a hint to Apple

In the past months, we’ve held hundreds of interviews with young startups in order to shortlist the cream of the crop and invite them to SCALE, our early-stage growth program at TNW NYC. The applications for SCALE are now closed, and we’re proud to have 60 of the world’s hottest startups ready to show thousands of tech influencers, investors and journalists the next game-changers. Missed your chance to apply? Startups can still attend TNW NYC by buying tickets here. Check

According to Barclays Research analysts Blayne Curtis, Christopher Hemmelgarn, Thomas O’Malley and Jerry Zhang, Apple’s next-generation iPhone, which is expected to be called the iPhone 8, could ship with a larger screen and a curved, bezel-less design. Citing sources within Apple’s supply chain, the analysts revealed that borderless design will enable the firm to pack a 5-inch display in the iPhone 8 and a 5.8-inch panel in the iPhone 8 Plus, while maintaining the same size a

B&O Play introduced its new A2 Active Bluetooth speaker this month that builds on the success of its original Beoplay A2 from 2014. The Beoplay A2 Active isn’t much different than the original A2, but it is now splash and dust resistant. It also ditches the old DC power input and instead relies on USB-C charging.
Similarly to the company’s A1 Bluetooth speaker, which was released earlier this year, the Beoplay A2 Active can reportedly last up to 24 hours on a single charge. It&rs

Nothing makes sense anymore. Shia LaBeouf, the actor and man who enjoys hanging out in elevators and calling it art, can rap. More precisely, he has bars. The man can spit. In a year when barely anything makes sense, Shia LaBeouf turning out to be a great freestyle rapper is completely unexplainable.
I’ve showed this video to 10 different hip-hop heads, who have unanimously responded with “WTF, how?” so now I’m bringing it to you, the people. Is this real? (Shia does have

It’s now possible to use a USB stick to measure the levels of HIV in a patient’s blood. The device has a 95 percent accuracy rate and takes less than 30 minutes, which is a big improvement over current tests.Patients usually need to send fluids to a lab to test their HIV levels. Depending on the specific test, it can take days or weeks to get results. In a study published this week in Scientific Reports, researchers from both Imperial College London and tech company DNA Electronics c

The NES Classic went on sale today, and Nintendo’s latest iteration of its older console is shaping up to be another holiday hit. The diminutive retro console appears to have sold out in minutes this morning, and availability at almost every online retailer is incredibly scarce.But like any product high in demand and low in supply, where there’s a will, there’s tons of people looking to make a quick buck by flipping things on secondary marketplaces. So it’s by no means su

It took 18 years, but A Tribe Called Quest has released its sixth and final album — and it already sounds as vital and important as their early ‘90s classics. We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your service sees Q-Tip, Jarobi White, Ali Shaheed Muhammed, and the late Phife Dawg reunite for their signature brand of conscious, eclectic hip-hop. Artists as varied as Elton John, André 3000, and frequent Tribe collaborator Busta Rhymes also appear.
A Tribe Called Quest disbanded af

Here we are, a few days after the election. With the world still adjusting to the future, we thought we’d give you a break from it all and briefly talk about what we know best: the future of technology. This week we have reviews for the Playstation 4 Pro and Google Daydream, the continuing saga of adapting to a plug drought, and Snapchat’s new Spectacles that were released to the public this week.So sit back, relax, (unless you are driving... if you’re driving and listening to

When GoPro launched its Karma drone earlier this year, it seemed like the perfect fit. The company was founded on action cameras, but had seen sales of its flagship Hero line sink since 2014. Over the same time period, the sale of camera drones to consumers had exploded. By bundling its camera with a drone, GoPro could breathe new life into a flagging product line.
Unfortunately for GoPro, its Karma drones started falling out of the sky in alarming numbers, and the company was forced to issue a