Technology news

You may want to check Google before you head out on your next holiday shopping spree.
The company's latest search feature makes it easier to find out how crowded stores are at any given time.
SEE ALSO: Be careful, there's a fake Google out there
An extension of Google's "popular times" update, which shows how crowded restaurants and coffee shops are based on search trends, the new feature will show a real-time estimate for how busy a particular location is. 
Search for a store, restaurant o

The Smithsonian works to preserve the most iconic aspects of history, and thus, it's acquiring a soon-to-be-historical artifact: the original ice bucket from the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.
Yes ladies and gentleman, with any luck, years from now your children and quite possibly your children's children will be able to marvel at the first bucket that led the world into the Ice Bucket Challenge craze of 2014.
SEE ALSO: Why Is Everyone in Your Facebook Feed Dousing Themselves in Ice Water?
In case yo

Google today announced that Google Play services 10.0.0 and Firebase 10.0.0 client libraries for Android will be the last versions to support Android API level 9 through API level 13. The next version of these libraries (10.2.0), slated for release “in early 2017,” will increase the minimum supported API level to 14, meaning Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will be required. As a result, support for both Android 2.3 Gingerbread and Android 3.0/3.1/3.2 Honeycomb will be dropped next yea

Pokémon is back in the newly released section this month with Pokémon Sun and Moon. The pair introduce a new region to explore, additional creatures to capture, and more importantly, a delightful mess of terrible nightmares to disrupt your sleep.
Despite being a franchise beloved by children and adults alike, each new Pokémon has always featured a handful of horrific backstories. Occasionally they’re about specific locations in the game, like Pokémon Tower in th

The Los Angeles Auto Show is like two car shows in one. It imagines a digital, electrified future and an emphasis on all things connected. But it's also a place for practical shoppers to go crazy over crossovers whether it's electrified Jaguar I-I-Pace, the attractive Alpha-Romeo Stelvio, or the more sedate Ford EcoSport. The super car count is low this year, but Aston Martin's Vanquish S and the Mercedes-Maybach S650 Cabriolet add an extra bit of eye candy.Continue reading…

Google today said it has acquired Qwiklabs, a startup that developed commercially available training courses that people could use to become familiar with public cloud infrastructure services. For now the startup will keep offering credits and selling subscriptions, but clearly Google will be using Qwiklabs to more directly support the Google Cloud.
“We want to help businesses get the most out of their cloud investment and, with Qwiklabs, we’ll give users a place to learn and expand

2016 has been a rough year in the life of Pablo.
Kanye West celebrated many successes —the release of his album The Life of Pablo, a remarkable deal inked with Adidas, multiple sold out shows across the country and a Video Vanguard award to boot. 
But if you were paying any tiny bit of attention, you might have realized that it was a really awful year for West, too. We compiled all the times he sparked a feud, infuriated fans and left us all a bit confused/worried in 2016.
SEE ALSO: K

Blizzard launched a major update for Overwatch last week, and it has made what was already one of the best games of the year even better.
I’ve already covered playing with Sombra, which is the new hacker character that can make a huge difference in team fights, but don’t let the purple cyber criminal overshadow the excellent new Arcade mode. Blizzard has dropped the weekly Brawl mode, which would introduce a new and often wacky remix of the shooter’s standard format. In its pla

Vrideo, a startup that set out to be a hub of virtual reality (VR) videos, today announced that it’s shutting down.Vrideo offered apps for several VR platforms, including the Oculus Rift, SteamVR, and PlayStation VR. It also had mobile apps that could work with the Google Cardboard headset and Samsung GearVR. But the little startup has been overshadowed and underfunded. Facebook continues to promote its 360-degree videos, and Google has been doing more with YouTube, which carries 4K and 36

GUEST: Everyone is on social media. And we mean everyone. According to Pew Research, in 2015 an astounding 65 percent of all Americans were using social media. That’s more than 200 million people in the USA alone, and is approximately the same amount as the number of people in America who own pets. (And you wondered why the Internet is full of cat pictures.) Worldwide, the total on social media already exceeds 2 billion people. That’s twice as many people worldwide as the number who

PRESS RELEASE:NexGenic’s New ImageInbox® Cloud and Point-to-Point Sharing Solutions Expand Capabilities for Radiologists, Physicians, and Patients to Utilize Medical ImagesWESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–November 21, 2016– NexGenic®, LLC, the developer of the image sharing solution ImageInbox®, announced that its latest release includes cloud-based features for clinical specialists and hospital customers to provide comprehensive image tele-consultatio

Motorola announced that its 2016 line of flagship Moto Z handsets — the Moto Z and Moto Z Force — will begin receiving an update to Android 7.0 Nougat starting this week. Once updated, the two devices become the first non-Google phones certified to support the Daydream VR experience.
Furthermore, the phones will be compatible with Google’s Daydream View virtual reality headset, introduced last month alongside its first branded Android phones, the Pixel and Pixel XL.
Motorola, c

Amazon has held talks with a number of sports leagues including the NFL, NBA, MLB, and MLS as it explores the possibility of incorporating live sports with Prime, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
In talks with the leagues, Amazon has reportedly broached the idea of an exclusive sports package that could be sold alongside its Prime subscription, which could help attract new customers to the $99 a year service. Amazon has also reportedly shown an interest in sports leagues like

Of course the eighth episode of Westworld would be an hour of expository table setting. In this holy age of binge-friendly dramas, the next-to-next-to-last episode is an opportunity to tie up loose ends, clarify stakes, and put the characters on a path toward meaningful change. Which is to say that for a season of television to end on a high note, we get two episodes of all killer, preceded by one episode of all filler.
This episode sure delivered on the filler. Bernard’s “brain&rdqu

Lenovo is updating its modular Moto Z and Moto Z Force phones to Android Nougat starting this week. Lenovo says these will be the first official, Google-recognized Daydream-ready phones.
The Nougat update timeline varies by carrier and country. You can check out when your phone might be upgraded here, although it seems every that every carrier option, including Verizon’s, say, “This device will be upgraded to the Android 7 (Nougat) release, pending partner support.”
Currently,

Back in 2014, one of the biggest stories in the cinema world was the long-running war between studio mogul Harvey Weinstein and Korean director Bong Joon-ho over the American edit of Bong’s science fiction dystopia movie Snowpiercer. Weinstein wanted to cut 20 minutes from the 126-minute film, and Bong mounted a public fight against the edit. Snowpiercer finally made it to viewers intact, but only in a limited theatrical run, with a VOD release just two weeks after its big-screen debut. So

There are more than 60 applets on IFTTT that extend the functionality of the Google Assistant. With them, you can purify the air, set mood lighting for a party, and control home appliances and smart cars.
You can also create posts for Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and send messages on Slack, Salesforce, and Skype.
Further, the Google Assistant integration into IFTTT allows owners of Pixel phones and Google Home devices to mix and match connections and functionality between

Uber is rolling out a new feature today that allows riders to send compliments to drivers beyond leaving them a 5-star rating, according to Wired. Of course, most people would reward excellent service by tipping a few extra bucks. But Uber is known for being vehemently anti-tipping, so we’re getting a new in-app feature instead.After completing their trip, riders will be asked whether they want to send their driver a compliment from a list of canned responses: “Neat and Tidy,”

While Sonos has long been known as the king of multi-room audio setups, Mass Fidelity's Core system, which came out about a year ago, has been making a play for the crown. The Core tries to compete by offering good sound quality and a simple, "One-Button Connect" option for linking multiple speakers with a separate, dedicated network to connect devices.Now it's back with a new speaker in the line, the raD. While the original $599 Core was meant more as an at-home speaker (despite also having a b

Google today pointed to results of a test from an independent company suggesting that its $129 Google Wifi routers can deliver faster internet connections than similar routers from other companies.
The promotion of the tests, conducted by Allion USA, comes ahead of the December 5 shipping date of the Google Wifi, which was first announced in October.
Unlike some other routers, a single Google Wifi can be hooked up to one or more others in a location to create a mesh network that will improve the

Many fans claimed that the original Watch Dogs unfairly sold itself with misleading trailers, and that may be costing Watch Dogs 2.
After Eurogamer posted a story noting that U.K. sales for Ubisoft’s open-world sequel (out for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC) were dramatically down in its first week compared to its predecessor (80,000 copies vs. 380,000), the publisher responded to the publication with a statement acknowledging the slow start while still remaining optimistic about future s

It’s a well-documented fact that geese are surprisingly unstable jerks who will not hesitate to hurt you physically, possibly with the help of their monstrous serrated tongues. A goose is the kind of animal you’d want to avoid in a dark alley, at a house party, or say, on a college campus. An easy way to do this: don’t go where the geese go. Canada’s University of Waterloo, which is home to a fairly large goose population, uses a digital tracker called Goose Watch to help

If you've been thinking about switching over to Eero's mesh routers, you can save up to $100 later this week. Eero is offering discounts on its routers over the course of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, starting November 23rd through November 28th at Eero's website, Amazon, and Best Buy. The discounted prices are below:
$399 for a 3-pack (usually $499)
$299 for a 2-pack (usually $349)$149 for a 1-pack (usually $199)
The market for mesh routers is getting more and more crowded,

Halo has a new big boss.
343 Industries studio head Joshua Holmes has stepped down from his position as director of the Halo developer, the company announced today. Holmes is leaving behind the blockbuster publishing industry to make games on his own as an independent developer. Most recently, Holmes oversaw the launch of Halo 5: Guardians for Xbox One in 2015. Going forward, former 343 Industries head of production Chris Lee will take over Holmes’ role as director.
“Like many o

 For those with hearing issues, simple dinner table group conversations can be pretty painful to stay on top of. Ava is aiming to bring deaf and hard-of-hearing people back into group conversations with their threaded speech-to-text application that gives people with hearing issues an easy way to stay on top of a conversation. The app, formerly known as Transcence, starts with each participant… Read More

 Tech and politics need a translator — at least according to Jamie Corley and Christyn Lansing, founders of The Bridge. Corley and Lansing have worked in both worlds — each of them, for example, has served as press secretary for a US senator (Bob Corker and Rob Portman, respectively), while Lansing was also communications director at Politico. They told me they got the idea for… Read More

Google’s popular times feature gives you an idea of how crowded a place typically gets throughout the day. It’s not complex given that you can probably assume a restaurant is busy during peak dinner hours and is quieter around 4PM. That makes sense. Now the company is launching a similar feature that will tell you how crowded a place is in real time. The company relies on aggregated, anonymized location history data, just like it does for popular times.
Along with that real-time feat

A little more than a week after hosting the first post-election Saturday Night Live, Dave Chappelle is gearing up for an even bigger return to television. According to Variety, Netflix has announced that the comedian has inked a deal for three standup comedy specials to air on the streaming network. The projects represent the first TV specials Chappelle has done in 12 years, and promises a return to form for one of the medium’s most influential acts.
“Dave Chappelle is a legendary vo

The first-person shooter Phantogeist has debuted as a social augmented reality game on Google Tango.
In this game from Chicago-based Trixi Studios, a friendly alien helps you identify nasty invading aliens and shoot them in the real world. You hold up a Tango-enabled smartphone, such as the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro, and look into the landscape around you. When you spot an enemy alien, you fire at it. The challenge is to spin around quickly to deal with the attackers coming at you from multipl

I’ve been a Netflix customer since the early 2000s, and have often been impressed with the service’s ability to recommend films and TV shows I’ve never heard of but perfectly fit my taste. It introduced me to Nightcrawler, a twisted thriller, and to Event Horizon, a delightful mashup of horror and sci-fi.Sadly, today’s Netflix has a different set of priorities. I was looking for something to watch the other day, and the first thing it showed me was True Memoirs of an Inte

Disney and Pixar have published the first teaser trailer for Cars 3, and it suggests a serious tonal shift for the franchise. The brief clip portrays the main character of the series, racecar Lightning McQueen, spinning out in the middle of a race, followed by a slow-motion shot of McQueen busting into a cloud of wreckage. Just before the car makes impact with the ground, the movie's ominous new tagline appears: "From this moment, everything will change."Cars is one Pixar's most commercially suc

The majority of Dishonored 2 players will never know the satisfaction of attaining the game’s rarest achievements, but there’s always the next best option: watching someone else do the hard work.
In videos on Twitch, YouTube, and other social media platforms, players tear through the game’s trickiest elements. First we have the little accomplishments, like figuring out how to survive a long drop and the loss of your own humanity:
Oh my God, I just discovered I can survive a lon

The company has acquired Scroll, an e-commerce startup from Quirky founder Ben Kaufman.
Two years ago, Ben Kaufman, then-CEO of well-funded consumer product startup Quirky, delivered one of the most awkward, and candid, on-stage interviews I’ve ever witnessed at Fortune‘s annual Brainstorm Tech conference. Quirky was in meltdown mode at the time. But instead of trying to spin the situation into a positive, Kaufman, then 28, clearly articulated where Quirky had gone wrong, admitting t

Netflix 4K streaming is finally heading to Windows PCs this week. While a number of TVs and set-top-boxes already support 4K Netflix streams, the PC has largely been left out of the high-quality streams due to piracy fears. Netflix is now supporting 4K streaming through Microsoft's Edge browser, but you'll need a new PC to actually make use of it. Netflix is only supporting 7th generation (Kaby Lake) Intel Core processors, and there aren't many laptops that actually support both the 4K display r

OnePlus, the small Chinese upstart that has charmed Android smartphone enthusiasts with its combination of high specs and rock-bottom prices, has earned itself a small backlash of disapproval this week. Its sin? Introducing a newer and better OnePlus 3 — the 3T — too soon after the first one. The 3 came out in the summer, and the 3T is following up now, roughly half a year later.
Most aggrieved are the people who bought the OnePlus 3 most recently, feeling somehow cheated by the rapi

The year 2016 has ushered in a number of great flagship smartphones, such as Google’s new Pixel line, Samsung’s refreshed Galaxy S7 duo, Apple’s upgraded iPhones, and the slightly-more-under-the-radar OnePlus, which introduced a fantastic premium phone to market back in June.
All the aforementioned devices are broadly comparable in terms of specs — sure, some may have slightly better cameras or a higher resolution display or more on-board storage, but each of them deserve

Inexpensive smartphones have always been about compromise. You may save a few hundred dollars over an iPhone, Galaxy S, or other high-end phones, but you have to give up something, whether that’s performance, build quality, camera quality, display, software experience, or any combination of those. This year, there have been many Android phones that challenge that convention, and none flipped it on its head more than the OnePlus 3, released in June.
The OnePlus 3 retailed for just under $40

The past weekend saw the release of the much-anticipated fantasy film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the latest movie to take place in J.K. Rowling’s world of Harry Potter. It’s the first Rowling film to not feature Potter and his friends at all: it begins in 1926 New York City, thousands of miles and many decades away from the 1990s Britain setting of the Potter novels. It’s also the first Rowling film that isn’t based on a novel. Rowling’s book Fantastic

 Chinese electric car maker NextEV has debuted its NIO brand, along with the first car from that electric car line, called the EP9. The first vehicle it revealed is already a world-record holder: it has the fastest lap time for an EV at the Nürbhurgring Nordschliefe test track in Germany, one of the most famous proving grounds for supercars.
The EP9 also beat the EV record at France’s… Read More