Technology news

Google has been releasing its beautifully immersive Spotlight Stories since 2013, with each showcasing the talents of acclaimed directors. The company’s latest, released today, is no different. Rain or Shine is the company’s latest 360-degree short, and it promises to pull Android users into a cute little story about a young girl and her seemingly cursed pair of sunglasses.
Rain or Shine, directed by animator Felix Massie, mostly follows a little girl named Ella who gets a pair of su

The key to developing a new drug to fight HIV may lie in the blood of a patient whose immune system can control the infection, a new study says. Scientists discovered proteins in the patient’s blood that blocked the virus from infecting immune cells. Researchers hope to harness these proteins not only to treat the virus, but to help develop a vaccine.HIV is such a dangerous virus because it attacks the very cells that would normally fight it off, called T cells. These cells protect the bod

Warner Bros. is buying Machinima, granting the company better access to gamers and comic fans. Machinima’s online network features programming focused on classic geek franchises like Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, and the DC Universe.Machinima has a sizable online presence, with more than 12 million subscribers on YouTube and over 220,000 on Twitch. The company has attracted investment from companies like Google. Machinima did land itself in hot water for secretly promoting games from adve

Google is releasing two “Live” phone cases for its Pixel today that not only look nice on phones but also change the wallpaper daily. The more logical of the cases is Google Earth-themed, which changes your phone’s wallpaper to a different landscape photo pulled from Google Earth each day. You can press the shortcut button to learn more about that location, too. The live wallpaper magic relies on a NFC connection.
Okay, so the Google Earth case sounds nifty and perhaps even use

James Clapper, the US Director of National Intelligence, submitted his letter of resignation yesterday, making room for a new head of national security operations to be appointed by President-elect Donald Trump.Clapper oversees the NSA, the FBI, the CIA, and the DEA, as well as 13 other agencies that operate under a total budget of $52 billion with more than 107,000 federal employees reporting under him.Continue reading…

Tesla’s shareholders have approved the acquisition of Solar City, bringing together two of Musk’s companies under one (solar-powered) roof. The vote clears the way for the $2.6 billion deal to close “in the coming days,” Tesla said.
The acquisition of Solar City is part of Musk’s master plan, which has Tesla expanding its offerings to include integrated energy generation and storage, entering the electric truck and bus markets, and vehicle sharing. The first product

Climate scientists and science reporters are buzzing about a new graph showing data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center, which gives a unexpectedly bleak portrait of current sea ice area at the poles.The conversation around the graph has been heated at times, and gives those with a casual interest in science a window into how controversial data gets analyzed and presented. While the science you learned in school might seem mostly fixed, the science of today is still a nerdy battleground.

What.cd, an invite-only music torrent website first launched in 2007, has been shut down after a raid by French authorities. The private tracker offered free (and often illegal) access to a massive, deeply thorough collection of music and was popular among audiophiles for its strict rules around quality and file formats. The site was created after the shutdown of another well-known torrent website, Oink, which operated between 2004 and 2007. Though its primary focus was music sharing, What.cd al

Google has redesigned its news reading app, improving Google Play Newsstand to better compete with competitors like Apple News and Flipboard. This is the second app Google has overhauled just this week, following Google Play Music. The updated news app has a new design and is generally meant to make it easier to find something to read; it’s also launching on the web for the first time.
Newsstand now has four tabs to make it easier to navigate the news. The main For You tab houses both a pe

Yesterday afternoon, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportationmet with representatives from the world of augmented reality for the first Congressional hearing on the industry. That included general counsel from the Entertainment Software Association; the CEO of AR helmet company Daqri; and John Hanke, CEO of Niantic — the company behind this summer’s massive hit game Pokémon Go.
Depending on how you define it, augmented reality has implications for everythi

My dear colleague James Vincent checked out Star Wars drones in the UK earlier this year. At the time, they weren’t available in the US. Things were bleak on the Star Wars drone front. In a minor holiday miracle, though, the cogs of consumerism have started turning again and the Star Wars drones will be available for preorder on November 22nd through Brookstone. As a reminder, these drones are more detailed than previous Star Wars drone attempts and rely on swappable, rechargeable lithium-

Baked goods brand Sister Schubert's developed a basket that will both keep your bread buns cozy and charge your electronic devices. Holidays just got so much weirder.Details are a little hazy on exactly how the “Basket of Warmth” works. The device appears to support USB-charging devices, but says it “uses the very electronic devices that create distractions at dinnertime to keep freshly baked Sister Schubert's dinner rolls warm.” It’s intended to help families bond

There’s a new trailer out for Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events adaptation, and unlike the brief hints of the earlier teasers, we’re finally getting a good look at what to expect from the series when it debuts on the streaming service next year.The trailer shows off the series’ distinct style, a dark and quirky blend that brings to mind earlier works like Pushing Daises, or basically anything directed by Tim Burton.Neil Patrick Harris’s take on the villainous

Now that AR is a big deal, we have to decide what it's for. Is it for trippy Snapchat filters? Serious business stuff? Children? Or maybe it's for simulating warfare between spider robots.
I'll take "all of the above," thanks.
MekaMon is a new $329 robot you control with your phone. When viewed through the phone's screen the robot inhabits a virtual battlefield, and can fight virtual opponents with missiles and lasers. There's even a backstory and "Mekamon Universe" to tie it all together.There'

AT&T just announced that beginning tomorrow, its mobile customers will be able to compose and send text messages using Amazon’s Alexa assistant. So if you’ve got an Echo, Echo Tap, or Echo Dot somewhere in the house, you can ask Alexa to “have AT&T text” a contact’s name (Alexa can store up to 10), followed by your message. You’ve got to take that first step of adding people to the skill before Alexa can do anything; you can’t just call out the n

Astronomers have detected another mysterious flash of radio waves originating from deep space — and it’s the brightest one found to date. This is the 18th fast radio burst, or FRB, that’s ever been found, and while researchers still don’t know exactly what causes these odd flashes, the source of this particular FRB has been narrowed down more precisely than ever before.
Such precision has allowed astronomers to use this FRB as a kind of probe to measure the swirling matte

Good news for those despairing at our rapidly warming planet: we can supercharge plants to help fight the effects of climate change. Scientists have found two ways to make plants better at turning carbon dioxide into energy — and these techniques could help plants help us create better biofuels and produce more food to save the world.Two studies published today in Science show different ways that beefing up the process by which plants create energy — called carbon fixation, or photos

If big data dining sounds like your cup of tea, then Uber’s new restaurant guide might be right up your alley.
Instead of relying on user-submitted reviews like on Yelp or one critic’s assessment from The New York Times, Uber is hoping to use its rider data to determine each city’s most popular restaurants, reports TechCrunch. To create its Best Of lists, Uber looked at restaurants where users have requested rides to the most. For example, its top 10 brunch spots are determined

Airbnb is expanding from a short-term rental service to a full-scale travel agency. The San Francisco-based company upended the hotel business by letting homeowners and leasers rent out rooms and houses. Now, it’s trying to do the same for the travel and tourist industries. The new initiative is called Airbnb Trips, and it now provides the company a way to offer an experience instead of an accommodation. This could a be class or lesson in an obscure subject like ramen making in Tokyo, or a

Is Kermit the perfect meme star? In 2014, a picture of the frog sipping tea, dubbed “But that’s none of my business,” was used as a passive-aggressive retort; the meme saw a brief resurgence after the #tealizard gaffe earlier this year. Now, Kermit is back in the form of Evil Kermit.Evil Kermit plays off of a still taken from the 2014 film Muppets Most Wanted, in which pure and wholesome Kermit is chatting with his sinister doppelgänger, Constantine. In this meme’s c

Volvo is creating a service ecosystem around its cars, giving its customers access to third-party service providers to remotely fuel up, get a car wash, service the car, and more. It’s called Volvo Concierge Services, and it’s a digital platform that aims to make owning a Volvo easier and more convenient.
The heart of the system is the digital key, a one-time-use location- and time-specific key that allows service providers access to the vehicle. This is a big advantage as it keeps t

 Renew.com has raised $3 million in Series A funding from Venrock, Expa and others to launch a platform aiming to give the baby boomer generation adequate information on their benefits after retirement.
American companies started to shift away from pensions and healthcare benefits packages for retirees in the mid-1980s, leaving the last bit of the boomers without the same compensations their… Read More

On Tuesday, Apple released something unique: not a phone or a laptop or wireless earbuds, but a coffee table book. Designed by Apple in California features exquisite photographs of iconic Apple products, beginning with the iMac in 1998 and culminating with the Apple Pencil. In true Apple fashion the book comes in two sizes: a 10.20 x 12.75-inch copy for $199 and a 13 x 16.25-inch copy for $299. Predictably, I chose the the coffee table book Pro edition.
The Verge bought the “small” v

2016 is a shit year, and Huawei isn’t going to take it anymore. The company is releasing three new MediaPad tablets — the M3, T1 7.0, and T1 10.0 — one of which is pretty good, and two you should not buy under any circumstances. Let’s start with the good.
The MediaPad M3 runs Android 6.0 and is a pretty impressive tablet spec-wise when you consider the $299 price tag:
8.4-inch, 2560 × 1600 display
HiSilicon Kirin octa-core chip
32GB of storage,4GB of RAM
8MP front a

C-SPAN’s website is currently streaming a live feed of the lobby of Manhattan’s Trump Tower. According to C-SPAN, the feed has been live since 8:00 AM EST.According to a representative from C-SPAN, the feed is hosted by the Trump Organization itself. “I’m not sure why this is happening,” said the representative.
The feed may be the same one that was set up yesterday to broadcast a speech by Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, but the representative wouldn&rsquo

After a long night of hacking into the computer system of a massive corporation, it was time to reward Marcus with a new outfit. Until this point, my colleague Megan had been working her way through Watch Dogs 2, but a clothing shop seemed as safe a space as any to hand over the controller — it’s like how you can’t let a baby put together a puzzle, but you can let him play with the box it came in.
Anyway I was happy to perform this task, not because I love capitalism, but becau

There are a variety of issues with Apple’s new MacBook Pros, including port selection, Touch Bar utility, and battery life. But despite all of the various controversies, everyone seems to be able to agree that the upgraded speakers are great.As iFixit’s teardowns reveal, the new MacBook Pros do have an improved speaker system, the speaker grilles on the top of the computers are largely cosmetic. While there are a few areas of actual through-holes for the speakers and microphones, mos

Watch Dogs 2 is a game about a young group of hackers looking to take down huge corporations that exploit citizens by way of their personal data. It’s a lot less serious than that sounds. Watch Dogs 2 tackles heavy issues with its tongue firmly in cheek, making light of the excesses of Silicon Valley and the tech industry. The game’s virtual rendition of the Bay Area is the kind of place where you overhear people on the street asking “Hey, how’s your startup?” and a

The last desktop PC I owned was a 2009 iMac. I now use a laptop every day for work, connected up to two monitors and a keyboard and mouse. Desktop computing hasn’t really changed for nearly 40 years of boring beige or black PCs, but Microsoft’s new Surface Studio is trying to shake things up in a surprising new way.
It’s going after the Mac’s oldest stronghold: creatives.Apple’s iMac might have tempted me a few years ago with its pretty looks and the chance to get f

Bethesda is transforming its biggest games into pinball tables: the publisher just announced that it’s partnering with Zen Studios on Bethesda Pinball. The game will feature three different tables, each based on one of its big three franchises, each with their own unique twists.
A Fallout table will have you exploring post-nuclear bunkers, while also somehow letting you join with different factions. In Doom you’ll be fighting off demons, but with a pinball, while Elder Scrolls will i

So Google has updated its Photos app, and one of the most peculiar new features is a slider called "Deep blue." It’s one small part of a vastly expanded suite of color adjustments added to Google’s built-in photo editor, and at first I couldn’t understand what it was for. It did nothing when I swung it back and forth on my indoor shots of avocados and headphones. But then I tried it on a photo with some sky in it and wow!
What Google’s put together is essentially a vibran

Microsoft is getting ready for the holiday season by prepping Cortana with a new list skill. You can now ask the digital assistant to "create a holiday list" and the new list functionality will generate a list that's available and synced across Cortana for Windows, iOS, and Android. While list functionality is a fairly basic feature, Microsoft is going one step further by integrating Cortana into Wunderlist.
Wunderlist, the popular to-do list app that Microsoft acquired last year, will now

At its Social Good Forum in New York today, Facebook announced Community Help, a tool for its users to offer help during natural disasters or terror attacks. When such an event happens, users in the affected areas will receive a prompt to turn on Safety Check and can either offer relief efforts like food or temporary shelter, or seek the help they need.
Starting today, Safety Checks will only be triggered by an algorithm that notices trending posts in the local community. Previously, when natura

Barnes & Noble has announced that it would be releasing a new Nook tablet on November 25th and it will cost $49.99. The tablet, unimaginatively named Nook Tablet 7"is a simple Android tablet that has been customized with Nook software.
It features both front- and rear-facing cameras and has 8GB of space, but will allow users to add up to 128GB of storage with a microSD card. It’s supposed to get seven hours of battery life.
The bookstore chain has had some trouble with their e-readers

This week on Ctrl-Walt-Delete, we finally got a thorough review of the new MacBook Pro with the Touch Bar! As Walt and Nilay discuss on the show, it may not be what they expected. The duo go deeper into Walt’s review and discuss whether the Touch Bar is worth the upgrade.Also, they take time to talk about the problem with fake news on social networks and how it may influence its users.
We love your feedback on the topics of the show and suggestions on how to make our show better and more f

San Francisco startup Trim’s latest creation is a bot willing to wade into the darkest waters for you: negotiating service changes on your Comcast account.Trim has previously helped users ditch unwanted subscriptions. Its new AI, spotted by VentureBeat, works as a Chrome extension. It uses natural language processing to chat with customer service reps on your behalf.“Our goal is to help Trim users save money,” founder Thomas Smyth told The Verge. “Most folks are paying to

Long ago, many in the world decreed that the end of the calendar year should be a time to give people gifts. Some partake in this tradition with Christmas gifts, or gifts for Hannukah, Festivus, or even Oatmeal Muffin Day (December 20th, don't forget). Some celebrate via white elephant parties, family gatherings, or just because so many things were on sale on Amazon so why not? Whether you need something big for your best friends, meaningful for your mom, lavish for yourself, or a cheap $20 what

Eero, the company that popularized the trend of mesh networking for your home, is releasing its biggest software update to date today. The new software improves the connectivity between devices and Eero routers and adds the ability to control the Eero system using Amazon’s voice-controlled Alexa platform. Additionally, an updated smartphone app provides more information about connected devices and better troubleshooting tools.
Eero is calling its network improvements "True Mesh", and it sa

Chinese tech giant Baidu has been pushing its facial recognition technology for a while now, touting its industry-leading accuracy. Now, the technology is being used in its first major physical deployment: verifying visitors’ identities in the Chinese tourist destination of Wuzhen.
Wuzhen is a 1,300-year-old water town, a scenic destination that's been preserved as a historic park. Guests can stay in hotels within Wuzhen, and facial recognition will be used instead of passes to g

Any.do is releasing a powerful new version of its popular to-do app. Available first on iOS and coming soon to Android, it brings the two features that CEO Omer Perchik says were most requested from its users: an integrated calendar and real-time sync. But Perchik is more eager to talk about the third feature, launching in a limited beta for a subset of users: a personal assistant.When you enter a task into Any.do, the company’s servers will analyze it to see if it’s the sort of thin

For the uninitiated, Big Data is just what it sounds like: The study of all the vast number sets produced by voluminous business reports. Become your office’s data whiz with this nine-course Big Data Bundle, and master the science of finding the patterns, trends and opportunities hidden within massive heaps of data. This nearly $700 value was already marked down to $45, but we’ve sweetened the pot and dropped your price down only for 24 hours to just $33 on TNW Deals with coupon cod

US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy wants Americans to see addiction as a brain disorder instead of a moral failing.
In a new report released today, Murthy writes that, though substance abuse disorders are a public health crisis, many don’t receive the support they need. More people have a substance abuse disorder than have cancer, but only 10 percent receive treatment. And part of the reason people don’t get help is because they’re ashamed of their disease, he says.
It’s not

This afternoon, three astronauts will launch to the International Space Station on a Russian Soyuz rocket, bringing the total number of crew aboard the ISS back to six. The new arrivals are an international group, including NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and French astronaut Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency. And a couple of them will be breaking a few records during their six-month stay in orbit.
First off, Pesquet is going to space for the first time,