Technology news

GUEST: You could say Amazon Go almost broke tech media’s internet this past December. Driverless shopping, checkout-free shopping, almost “shoplifting,” deep learning, computer vision, and job killer AI were a few phrases that made the rounds. Taking a step back, one does wonder why this is surprising, and how we all missed this entirely. The signs have been there all along.
The online giant realized earlier than anyone else that being the fastest shipping service in

Every once in a while, you stumble upon a must-have product. These purchases combine low cost and supreme utility with an overabundance of cool, geek, or nostalgia factor. The Elago W3 Apple Watch stand hits every one of those checkboxes. It’s a $15 silicone smartwatch stand that makes your Apple device look like a miniature Macintosh, equipped with a floppy drive cutout and everything.A fitting stand for a wrist computer more powerful than a 1984 desktop
It supports Apple’s nightsta

Reuters — iPhone app purchasers may sue Apple over allegations that the company monopolized the market for iPhone apps by not allowing users to purchase them outside the App Store, leading to higher prices, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling revives a long-simmering legal challenge originally filed in 2012 taking aim at Apple’s practice of only allowing iPhones to run apps purchased from its own App Store. A group of iPhone users sued

Death rates in the US hit a historic low in 2014, but they’re dropping much more slowly outside of the big metropolitan areas, new science says. This disparity reveals a massive health gap between rural and urban populations. The 46 million people who live in rural areas need better access to affordable medical care, and public health programs that promote healthy habits, CDC scientists say.A higher percentage of people under age 80 who live in rural regions die of heart disease, cancer, l

Inside Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco, the run-up to the US presidential election played out much as it did elsewhere. Most employees went about their business assuming Hillary Clinton would win, and Donald Trump would be relegated to a historical footnote. His antics on the platform, where he regularly barrages opponents with insults, were viewed largely with amusement.
“The political climate then was still pretty giddy about Trump and how he’s a total joke,” sa

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is officially issuing a recall for the battery pack on the second-generation Boosted Board. The news follows two reported incidents of smoking batteries, an issue that Boosted had previously announced it was working with the CPSC to resolve.The recall impacts around 3,300 Boosted Dual+ skateboards. Boosted is recommending that owners stop using the Boards immediately; it’s also urging owners to visit its website for more information on the recall and

The ElliQ is a new product from Israeli startup Intuition Robotics that aims to help take care of elderly family members, allowing them to continue to live at home even as they grow older.
The company describes ElliQ as an "active aging companion," and it looks like a combination of an Android tablet, a digital assistant like Alexa or Siri, and software designed to help the elderly connect with friends and family. What makes ElliQ unique is the robot component: an attached bobble head-esque anim

The ElliQ is a new product from Israeli startup Intuition Robotics that aims to help take care of elderly family members, allowing them to continue to live at home even as they grow older.
The company describes ElliQ as an "active aging companion," and it looks like a combination of an Android tablet, a digital assistant like Alexa or Siri, and software designed to help the elderly connect with friends and family. What makes ElliQ unique is the robot component: an attached bobble head-esque anim

Smartwatch data can be used to detect and even predict disease, researchers say. This is good news for people betting on the potential of smartwatches to improve health beyond encouraging us to move more. If it becomes common to use this data to predict illness, we might be able to take better care of ourselves and save a lot of visits to the doctor.Most people wear smartwatches continuously, so it generates an enormous number of metrics that can paint a fuller picture of health data than one do

Pokémon’s yellow mascot is ageless. The franchise celebrated its 20th anniversary last year, but aside from some small tweaks, Pikachu remains as reliably cute as it was the day it was introduced. But now, we have photographic evidence that something has gone terribly awry. Behold: the melting Pikachu of your darkest dreams.
Star Wars Episode VI (1983)
Jabba the Hutt pic.twitter.com/LBBhQ4hB21— Tiffakoの奇妙な冒険 (@tiffako) January 11, 2017

The Justice Department’s internal watchdog announced today that it will conduct an investigation into the Justice Department and FBI’s actions during the 2016 presidential election, according to a statement.
Investigation will look into FBI actions before election
The investigation, conducted by the agency’s inspector general, will focus on several controversial actions taken during the election. Among the items to be investigated are FBI Director James Comey’s July press

Audiophiles are getting a new way to listen to one of the top formats for lossless music. As spotted by 9to5Google, Google has begun adding FLAC support to Chrome, and it should be rolling out to the masses very soon.
FLAC support is already live in Chrome’s beta build, and 9to5Google says it’s live in the current version of Chrome OS, too. If you have local FLAC files or come across one on the web, the added support allows Chrome to open it up in a completely bare-bones music player

This is the trailer for Raw, a French movie about teenage cannibals. I watched it while eating mashed potatoes. I don’t recommend you do that.
Raw is the debut film for director Julia Ducournau. It’s about a young girl who, after being hazed at veterinary college, finds herself craving human flesh. So I guess you could say it’s a classic coming-of-age tale, kind of like Old School.The trailer is mostly wordless and very gory. Animal bits get eaten, skin gets peeled off of bodie

Google’s making it way easier and simpler to hail an Uber with Google Maps. Today the company announced that the latest version of Google Maps on Android and iOS lets users request a ride from Uber without ever leaving the app. Previously, you could use Maps to check for price estimates and start the process of getting a lift, but eventually you had to finish things up in the Uber app. Now, the entire request process takes place directly in Google Maps. You just sign in with your Uber acco

YouTube today is announcing a new feature to help creators monetize when they go live. It’s called Super Chat, and allows viewers to pay to pin a comment on live streams.
Soon, when someone goes on a live stream, you’ll see a dollar bill symbol in the chat window. Clicking this button opens up a slider that lets you set the dollar amount you’d like to send the YouTuber. The more you pay, the longer the comment gets pinned. You’ll also get a few more characters for your me

The Obama administration has greatly expanded the NSA’s power to share raw intelligence within the US government, as reported by The New York Times. The new rules were signed by the attorney general on January 3rd, putting them into effect less than three weeks before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The NSA collects vast quantities of data, including phone calls, emails, and satellite transmissions, but that data is typically only seen by NSA analysts, and only circulate

Opera released a new web browser today called Neon that’s meant to try out a bunch of untested design ideas. Neon isn’t close to being ready to replace your main web browser — it’s being called a “concept browser” — but it does have some neat ideas that are fun to try out and, in some cases, you can imagine becoming part of a major browser one day.
Neon’s homepage looks far different than any other browser’s. Though it still includes shortcut

Earlier this week, the FBI arrested a Volkswagen executive in connection with the Dieselgate scandal. Yesterday, Volkswagen reached a $4.3 billion settlement with US regulators stemming from its use of secret software to fool emissions tests. Today the Environmental Protection Agency has opened a new chapter in this sage, accusing Fiat Chrysler of using secret software to accomplish the same trick.Cynthia Giles, an assistant administrator at the EPA, said that the software prevented emissions of

Atlanta, FX’s critically acclaimed new series created by and starring Donald Glover, won’t return until 2018. According to Deadline, the Golden Globe-winning series is being delayed due to Glover’s production schedule, seeing as he’s set to appear as Lando Calrissian in the upcoming Han Solo movie.‘Atlanta’ just won two Golden Globes
FX made the announcement during its Television Critics Association tour this morning, coming off the series’ two major win

With the PlayStation 4 Pro, Sony ushered in a new era of mid-cycle console upgrades, one that will continue with the release of Microsoft’s Project Scorpio later this year. But according to a new survey from the Game Developers Conference, game creators aren’t necessarily on board with the idea. Based on GDC’s findings, only 18 percent of developers view consoles like PS4 Pro and Scorpio as a positive thing for the industry.
The majority of respondents, 41 percent, were undecid

A few months ago, we reported on the collapse of Karhoo – a fledgling ride sharing startup that served the New York and London area. The company failed after it ran out of cash. By some estimates, it burned through an impressive $250 million funding round (although some sources say the real figure was lower) in 18 months, leaving in its wake a mountain of unpaid salaries and bills. In the startup world, it’s rare that you get a second chance. But here we are with French car man

 Daimler has led a new $17.2 million funding round in Starship Technologies, a startup created by Skype founders Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis, the WSJ reports. The round will help U.K.-based Starship expand its efforts to bring rolling drone deliveries to city sidewalks around the world. Starship’s six-wheeled autonomous delivery bots are essentially coolers on wheels, keeping contents hot… Read More

One success story doesn’t guarantee another. The executives at Nintendo know that better than most.
This week, the video game publisher and hardware maker will present the details of its latest console, the Nintendo Switch. An early trailer shrewdly emphasized Nintendo’s history of excellence, both in building iconic franchises, and dominating the world of portable games. You can play Zelda on the go, it promised, then finish the game on your living room TV. A decade ago, that pitch

Paul Srivorakul is a Thai-American serial entrepreneur. Paul graduated from UC Berkeley and started his career working in sales for Ask Jeeves Inc. Since then he’s successfully started and exited three startup companies. Today he’s wearing shorts and a blue short-sleeve t-shirt with “Acommerce” across the front. Paul’s sitting in an open office filled with young people and with wild animated characters covering the walls. He’s wildly gesticulating with his ha

Exxon Mobil must turn over decades’ worth of documents showing how much the company knew about climate change. The decision was taken yesterday by a Massachusetts judge in an investigation brought by the state’s attorney general Maura Healey.
In 2015, reports by Inside Climate News and the Los Angeles Times showed that Exxon played down the risks of climate change after its own scientists revealed what those risks would be as early as 40 years ago. Following the reports, Haley and Ne

Last November, Google unveiled a prototype technology called RAISR that uses machine learning to make low-resolution images appear more detailed. Now, the company has begun the process of integrating RAISR with its online services, using the technology to upscale large images on Google+ and save users’ data in the process.So far, RAISR is only being used to tweak high-resolution Google+ images accessed on a “subset of Android devices.” When a user requests an image, Google+ ret

Do you often look at the ground while you’re walking? Who doesn’t! Soon, if you see a passing projected image shaped like a bicyclist on the streets of New York, don’t be alarmed: that’s just a new Citi Bike outfitted with laserlights to give cars and pedestrians an oncoming traffic warning.
Citi Bike, New York’s bike-sharing system, will be installing these safety lights on its entire fleet of 6,000 bikes by the end of the year, reports The New York Post. The light

Later today Nintendo will be unveiling a slew of new details about its next console. The device — a console / portable hybrid in the form of a tablet that docks with a television — is called Switch, and is due to launch sometime this March. Nintendo officially unveiled the machine with a teaser video back in October.But at its presentation this evening in Tokyo we’re expecting to learn a lot more about Switch. That includes details on its price and release date, as well as a fi

A couple of years ago, Google acquired Launch Toys, the company behind Toontastic, an app that allowed kids to easily create storytelling cartoons. That app has now gotten a big update with a 3D version. Toontastic 3D tries make it easy for kids to present their ideas without needing to work their way around complicated video software or be bored by PowerPoint. It’s a fairly simple process: You decide how many ‘arcs’ you want your story to have (with presets inc

At first, Gravity Cat may seem like your average kitten. It crawls on laptops when you’re trying to work. It knocks over liquids with a troll-like speed. It gets into trouble, strutting on the ceiling and then flipping your entire apartment upside down.This video is an ad for Gravity Rush 2 (also known as Gravity Daze 2 in Japan), in which heroine Kat and her actual cat manipulate gravity. If Gravity Rush 2 is the first great game of 2017, this is 2017’s first great trailer. Scratch

The first day of the Brains vs. AI poker tournament is in the books, and the Libratus bot from Carnegie Mellon University emerged as the clear winner, collecting $81,716 to the humans $7,228. Both the players and Libratus’ creators cautioned that it was still too early to make a judgement call about who might win the 20-day tournament. But it’s clear that this year’s AI has made some major improvements on the 2015 system, Claudico, which ended up losing to humanity.“I fel

Amazon announced today that it plans to create 100,000 new full-time jobs in the United States in the next 18 months. The company currently employs 180,000 full-time US workers, making this a massive expansion for the retail giant.
According to the press release, the new jobs will be in all areas of the company, but many will be specifically in new fulfillment centers that Amazon intends to open across the country. Amazon also has numerous, ongoing initiatives that could lead to new jobsin areas

Word on the street is Apple wants to bring you the next Stranger Things or Westworld. The company is reportedly gearing up to boost its original programming efforts with plans to release a series of scripted television shows and (perhaps even) movies later this year. The Wall Street Journal reports the Cupertino behemoth has set sights on enriching its Apple Music offerings with new original content, slated to arrive by the end of 2017. Apple executives have purportedly told

It’s a new year and Ctrl-Walt-Delete is back! On the first episode of 2017, Walt and Nilay reminisce on the origin and legacy of the iPhone, which was introduced 10 years ago this week. Also, Walt’s latest column tackles TV streaming, which is starting to look more and more like cable subscriptions. A great episode awaits you, please press play.
We love your feedback on the topics of the show and suggestions on how to make our podcasts better and more fun for the new year — you

President-elect Donald Trump’s administration will hold private industry meetings on cybersecurity preparedness, led by Rudy Giuliani, the transition team and Giuliani announced today, although important details on which companies may be involved are still unclear.
Giuliani announced initiative on ‘Fox & Friends’
“The president-elect decided that he wanted to bring in, on a regular basis, the people in the private sector, the corporate leaders in particular, and thoug

Coming up with the perfect design is easier said than done — especially when you’re trying to create a truly gorgeous, eye-popping website or flyer. One way to cut down on all those hours of creation? Our handy 2017 Creative Design Bundle. This web creator’s dream package is on sale now for over 90 percent off from TNW Deals. If you’re creating a website, you’ll have complete templates and wireframes for building menus, pages, button, and all the rest. You’ll

Apple may finally get serious about original TV shows. According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple has come around to the idea of buying scripted TV series from outside producers and is thought to be looking for something that could become comparable in popularity to Westworld or Stranger Things.
The TV series would reportedly be bundled with Apple Music, Apple’s $9.99 per month subscription service, as a way to help it stand out from Spotify. Spotify by and large offers the same library o

Today HTC announced the first major smartphone launch of 2017, the HTC U Ultra, and that new device represents a unique combination of failed and misguided ideas from years past. Instead of learning from the mistakes of others, the Taiwanese company has seemingly decided to compile them all into one singular handset — hoping, perhaps, that a half dozen bad ideas would somehow magically transform into a genius concept. Sort of like Louis C.K. trying to eat his way to the other side.
So what