Technology news

GUEST: So you’re thinking of implementing a chatbot, like every other company on the planet. Now, the issue is training the thing.
There has been an endless stream of coverage about all of the wonderful things chatbots are going to do for business by automating conversations with customers. The problem is, bots are only as good as the training that goes into them, and training isn’t something you just knock off in a few days.
Many bot startups seem to want to treat bots lik

Blizzcon 2016 took place last weekend in Anaheim, California. It's an annual celebration of all things Blizzard Entertainment, one that attracts thousands of cosplayers who show off their costumes inspired by the company's games. This year, British filmmaking duo Sneaky Zebra documented the convention's cosplay scene in a slick music video.
With the rise in popularity of gaming and comic book conventions, cosplaying has become a serious hobby. With costumers flocking to conventions to show

As much of the country has been in mourning this week, people are concerned about the woman herself who lost the presidential election. 
The activist group Ultraviolet sent Hillary Clinton 1,000 red roses to help her through the painful week, Clinton's digital director posted on Twitter. I meanpic.twitter.com/FRsyuTdoLx
— Jenna Lowenstein (@just_jenna) November 12, 2016Clinton, digital director Jenna Lowenstein said, distributed the roses to her staff. Someone sent 1000 red

GUEST: Offices are dead — at least in the way we use them today. Why? Because they limit your resources.
Let me explain.
Offices are about proximity. You pull all your employees together into one building where they can interact and share resources. Of course, we don’t need physical proximity anymore due to social collaboration tools, telepresence, and coworking spaces that provide shared resources. But that’s not the reason we should kill offices as we know them.
The real reas

Pink and her 5-year-old daughter, Willow, put on their gauziest dresses Saturday to announce a new member of the family is on the way.
The singer filled the internet in with a lovely outdoor photo posted to Instagram with the caption "surprise!"
SEE ALSO: Please admire this baby's seriously addictive laughSurprise!
A photo posted by P!NK (@pink) on Nov 12, 2016 at 9:52am PST
The child will be the second for Pink and her husband, Corey Hart. Read more...BONUS: Jennifer Aniston blasts the way wome

LONDON — Move aside Lady Mary, the leading lady on everyone's lips right now is Queen Elizabeth II. 
The nation watched Her Majesty celebrate her 90th birthday this year, but now the world is getting a glimpse into the early days of HRH's reign with the release of Netflix's transfixing new show The Crown. 
SEE ALSO: 'The Crown' could well cure your 'Downton Abbey' nostalgia
The famously private royal family has always endeavoured, successfully or not,  to keep its family squ

VB LIVE: By 2020, customer experience is going to be wiping the floor with price and product as the key brand differentiators. Customers are seeking personalized, human experiences — and ironically, artificial intelligence is the key to nailing that, and at scale. Catch up on this VB Live event for in-depth insight into what brands need to drive customer loyalty in 2017.
Access this VB Live event on demand right here.
“It’s very important for marketers to be extraordinaril

We guess we should never underestimate David Blaine.
The magician appeared on The Tonight Show to perform some fun, chill card tricks with Jimmy Fallon and the Roots. Then, he spit out a living frog, because David Blaine loves a grand finale.
What the frog, David Blaine?John Legend's new music video reminds us that we need more love
Baby Dexter thinks crumpling paper is just so funny
Watch a baby gender reveal party backfire spectacularly
Stephen Colbert doesn't pull punches with President-elec

Titanfall 2 is an awesome game, and it would be very sad if it got overlooked in the crowded slate of fall titles. In a moment of folly, Electronic Arts released Titanfall 2 on October 28, a week after EA’s Battlefield 1 debut and a week before Activision released Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. It was a mistake for EA to do that, but you shouldn’t make the mistake of not playing it.
Predictably, Titanfall 2 got sandwiched. According to analyst Ben Schachter of Macquarie Capital, Tit

When A Tribe Called Quest reunited to perform on The Tonight Show last fall, the group — Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Jarobi White, and Phife Dawg — couldn’t know what 2016 would bring. They were pioneers returned from hip-hop’s golden age, but not prophets. They couldn’t see Donald Trump taking the White House. They couldn’t see the rise of the alt-right as a significant corner of the electorate. And no one could foresee the personal tragedy the group would f

If you missed it on Tuesday because you were too busy watching the U.S. presidential election, here it is again: GoPro is recalling 2,500 of its recently launched Karma drones. In other words, all of them.
GoPro said "in a very small number of cases, Karma units lost power during operation." And there have been no reports of injuries or property damage. GoPro's urging all Karma owners to return their drones and get a refund.
SEE ALSO: Everyone is giving up on GoPro
Though the company's working w

GUEST: A Deloitte report released earlier this year describes 38 Israeli startups currently developing blockchain applications ranging across the entire spectrum of services: security, hardware, new currency, payments, P2P, online commerce, and social platforms.
These early-stage blockchain startups have been working closely with large, well-established financial institutions, banks in particular — a striking contrast to blockchain startups elsewhere in the world. From Bank Leumi’s &

Airbnb wants to remind everyone that it takes discrimination very seriously.
The home rental service is launching a flashy new ad campaign to show off its anti-prejudice efforts after a series of reports alleging racism among its hosts caused the company a public relations headache.
The 75-second ad involves a montage of ultra-zoomed faces of a diverse range of people sliding like a kaleidoscope into one another as diversity-affirming text flashes sporadically across the screen.
SEE ALSO: Black

Each year, The Strong National Museum of Play inducts a new group of toys to the National Toy Hall of Fame. This year, the museum inducted three new toys: Dungeons & Dragons, Fisher-Price’s Little People figures, and the classic swing. The recognition for fantasy roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons is long overdue, as its innovative approach to playing complicated, creative games has had an outsized impact on the larger gaming world.
The museum, which inducts a new class of toys an

We've endured a long, hard political slog this week, so it's only fair that we get a bit of respite this weekend. And that has arrived in the form of comedian Dave Chappelle hosting Saturday Night Live.
SEE ALSO: Dave Chappelle Surprises Connecticut Fans a Year After Stand-Up Meltdown
Ever since quitting his Comedy Central show years ago, Chappelle has remained elusive, often popping up unexpectedly to deliver a stand-up routine in small clubs around the U.S. 
But along with his new, myster

Uninspiring design aside, Google's new Pixel and Pixel XL are fantastic smartphones that really give the iPhone a run for its money, especially when it comes to taking photos and videos.
Earlier this month, Adrian Ludwig, the director of Android security at Google, told Motherboard at a security conference that the Pixels are as secure as iPhones.
SEE ALSO: 7 reasons Google’s Assistant stomps Siri
"For almost all threat models [the Pixels and iPhone] are nearly identical in terms of their

Nearly 300 students showed up to escort Baylor University student Natasha Nkhama to class on Wednesday after she reported being pushed and called the N-word while walking around campus.
In a video posted to Twitter by Nkhama's friend Jaileene Maite, Nkhama described the attack.
SEE ALSO: Black students barraged by terrifying hate text messages"On my way to class, this guy went out of his way to bump into me and ... shove me off the sidewalk," she said. "He said 'no n*ggers allowed on the sidewal

REVIEW: Mechanical-keyboard enthusiasts are intense about their love of loud, clicky keys — and most know exactly the kind of mechanical switch that they like (Cherry MX Blue for me). But Logitech believes this space has room to grow along with different kinds of switches from companies that aren’t named Cherry. It’s making that argument with the G810 Orion.Logitech G810 Orion Spectrum
Pricing: $160
Availability: Out nowThe Logitech G810 Orion Spectrum keyboard is $16

Electric cars are the future. Thanks to emissions restrictions and fuel efficiency requirements, plus the ease of using renewable energy to power an electric car means nearly every manufacturer will need to embrace it sooner or later.
One of those manufacturers is Porsche, which is working on the Mission E electric sports sedan. And that means the company’s engineers have an interesting problem. Porsche makes sports cars (or sports SUVs), and those cars all have a wonderful engine note. It

In the wake of Donald Trump's election, Katy Perry urged her fans to "turn words into action" by donating to Planned Parenthood.
Perry, who was a vocal supporter of Hillary Clinton throughout the election cycle, posted a photo to Instagram of her own $10,000 donation alongside a poignant open letter.
The singer credited Planned Parenthood with teaching her about sexual health when she had no other resources. 
"Planned Parenthood educated me on my body and my reproductive health, so that I c

For the past few years trumpeter Niko Segal has gone by his stage name "Donnie Trumpet." But after Tuesday's election, he couldn't take it anymore. 
SEE ALSO: Donald Trump makes yuge mistake and mispronounces Beyoncé's name
The Chicago musician posted on his website (which is now nicosegal.com instead of donnietrumpet.com) and social media pages Friday that he couldn't continue being connected with President-elect Donald Trump.
He wrote that while on tour he felt "something heavy" lo

It's still early days, but it looks like Snap's new Spectacles wearable camera for Snapchat are a hit. And the next batch will be available in mere hours. 
SEE ALSO: Of course you have to buy Snapchat's Spectacles from a robot
Just days after the first Snapbot, the vending machine that sells the wearable tech, appeared near Snap's headquarters in Venice, California, the countdown has begun to reveal a new location for the next Snapbot.Currently, the Spectacles website shows a graphic of a s

Following the results of this week’s presidential election, there has been a rise in violence and harassment between the supporters of President-elect Donald Trump and his opponents. Earlier today, Silicon Valley stars Kumail Nanjiani and Thomas Middleditch took to Twitter to report that they had been harassed over their opposition to Trump.
Nanjiani noted that he and Middleditch had gone out to a bar in Los Angles, where they were approached by a pair Trump supporters who proceeded t

GUEST: Everyone in Silicon Valley has their own theory about how to launch a startup. There’s the “Soft Launch,” the “Rolling Launch,” the “Steady Drumbeat Launch.” You get the idea.
Then there’s the founder who brags that he didn’t spend a dime on marketing and sold his company for a gazillion dollars (that rarity — of which WhatsApp is a great example — is responsible for more company failures than we can count).
But for 98 perc

MSI wants to make virtual reality mobile by taking its new PC and strapping it to your back. And now you can preorder that rig.
The VR One is now on Newegg. The lower-end model, which features a GeForce GTX 1060 GPU, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD, and an Intel i7 processor, costs $2,000 and ships November 30. The higher-end model features a GTX 1070 and 512GB SSD costs $2,300, though the site doesn’t list a shipping date for it. UploadVR has reached out to MSI to confirm that all the

China's e-commerce giant Alibaba moved $17.8 billion in sales during its Singles Day sale on Friday, smashing its own records. 
The $17.8 billion (or 120.7 billion yuan) figured crushed Black Friday's $4.45 billion in e-commerce sales last year and Alibaba's own $14.3 billion record from 2015. 
Singles Day is China's biggest e-commerce day of the year, complete with a nationally televised party and concert. The day originated as an anti-Valentine's Day, encouraging single people in Chi

What's old is definitely new again.
Nintendo's highly anticipated NES Classic Edition launched on Friday and immediately sold out everywhere. Even before it launched, we knew the $60 mini-sized console, which runs 30 classic NES games, would be a hit this holiday season.
As with all hot items, scalpers quickly started selling the consoles on eBay and Craigslist with prices going from double to outrageous.
SEE ALSO: How, where and when you can finally buy the NES Classic
A quick search on eBay sh

Mark Woods said goodbye to his beloved dog Walnut on Saturday, but not before he — and a horde of well-wishers — accompanied the pup on his final beachside walk.
"Sadly I am having to have Walnut euthanised on Saturday 12th November and so we will be having a last walk together on his beloved Porth Beach at 9.30am," Woods, who lives in Cornwall, England, wrote in a Facebook post. "I would love it if dog lovers/owners and friends would join us for a celebration of Walnut on his favour

EXCLUSIVE: Often focusing on what you know best makes the most sense. In a nutshell, that’s the current business strategy of Line, the popular Japanese messaging platform. In an interview with VentureBeat’s editor in chief Blaise Zerega, Line CEO Takeshi Idezawa explained his decision to focus on four Asian markets: Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia.
A few years ago, Line sought to enter Western markets. The messaging app known for cute anime stickers encountered

Amazon has been ordered by a federal judge to set up a process to reimburse parents whose children made unauthorized in-app purchases through games. According to Reuters, the company will be required to alert parents and to begin reimbursing them beginning in 2017.
In April, a federal judge sided with the Federal Trade Commission, which claimed that the retail giant failed to sufficiently warn parents that some free games allowed players to make purchases within the app. Children playing these f

Brace yourselves, everyone: Black Friday is nearly upon us. 
SEE ALSO: 60 heavily discounted Best Buy Black Friday deals you don't want to miss
With the annual shopping holiday/Thanksgiving hangover/consumerist feeding frenzy imminent, it's foolish to even consider entering the fray unprepared. Without a game plan, you might settle for a bad deal for that hot ticket item at the top of your list — or even worse, miss out on it entirely. 
Keeping that in mind, we've pored over the

New iPads might be coming...in March 2017.
Apple's iPads are rumored to be getting refreshed in the spring, according to a Barclays Research note obtained by MacRumors.
SEE ALSO: iPhone 8 rumored to have larger, curved screens that extend to the edges
Analysts there believe that Apple is currently considering three differently sized displays for new iPads. In addition to 9.7- and 12.9-inch screens, Apple's reportedly considering a larger iPad with a 10.9-inch display.
A new iPad with a larger 10

GUEST: It’s been hard to ignore bots and virtual assistants lately. Google is integrating its Google Assistant into its smartphones, home devices, and Allo messaging service. Amazon’s smart-home Echo device is becoming an “unlikely hit” among American households, selling an estimated 3 million devices since its launch in 2014.
And, of course, every day sees a new article about a new bot service, smart messaging service, or digital virtual assistant.
In the coverage o

Whenever I feel bad, I can’t help but believe that I will feel bad forever. After we elected Donald Trump on Tuesday, I felt very bad.But I also know that self-reporting is notoriously inaccurate. Negative emotions feel overwhelming in the moment, but they almost always wane. So just how long will it be before I, and others who are unhappy with this outcome, go back to some semblance of normal?For some clues to that answer, we can look at an interesting study done by James Pennebaker, a ps

"Dear Hillary..." 
That's how many frustrated, shocked, upset, disappointed and confused people are starting letters to the Democratic candidate after her loss to Donald Trump on Election Day. 
SEE ALSO: This Hillary supporter just ran into Hillary in the woods, because we all need a long walk today
One woman (who, full disclosure, works for the Clinton Foundation) started a #DearHillary Tumblr Thursday to collect written submissions to create what she told Mashable is a "living, breat

OPINION: As we gear up for what will surely be a combative presidential term, and as Twitter’s most toxic users succeed in poisoning the service, more pressure should be placed on the company to ensure that updated policies and tools are in place to protect users.
Now is the time for Twitter to prove it has what it takes to curb abuse.
Company chief executive Jack Dorsey has publicly come out against harassment on Twitter, saying in July that “abuse is not part of civil dis

I rewatched The Big Short recently, and one moment near the end of the film stood out to me in a way that didn't quite register my first time through.
Steve Carell's character — a surly, idealistic investor — has been holding bankers' feet to the fire, watching them sweat by refusing to sell off valuable assets while the entire industry collapses around them at the beginning of the 2008 financial crisis. Bankers are disgusting and corrupt, he’s seen, and he wants to teach them

Online advertising's been built around the ability to know exactly who you are. Are you a guitar-playing, cat-owning botanist? You'll get served ads for guitar-shaped catnip hedge grow kits. Google, Twitter, and all other digital platforms where an advertisement can be served—with Facebook leading the charge—want to know everything about you, usually already do, and use that information to convince marketers that the ads you'll see are perfectly targeted to whoever you are (or aren't