Technology news

Brianna Wu, a game developer who stood up for women facing harassment in the game industry, has official declared that she will run for the U.S. House of Representatives.
In a blog post, Wu said she would run for the House of Representatives seat in Massachusetts’ District 8 to help create a “bolder Democratic Party.” Previously, Wu declared her intention to run but held back from an official announcement.
She said that she was at Hillary Clinton’s headquarters

President Donald Trump took over the sprawling US government today, and some of his new employees are using the occasion to poke at him on Twitter. Whoever is running the National Park Service's Twitter account is subtweeting the new president with messages that appear to challenge his ideas and his stature.
Early today, @NatlParkService posted a tweet by The Wilderness Society about Obama’s recognition of LGBTQ history and places — the same day that the LGBTQ rights page disappeared

Barack Obama has stepped down as president and is heading off for a brief vacation as a private citizen. But that doesn’t mean he’s done working. In the hours before today’s inauguration, Obama and his team launched a new website, Obama.org. The site was created by the Obama Foundation, which is overseeing the creation of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, and its stated mission is to provide a forum for those looking to work with the Center to improve the lives o

Kickstarter has suspended the campaign for Adoptly, the project to crowdfund a Tinder-like app for finding children up for adoption.
No explanation was given for why the campaign was suspended, but it’s pretty easy to make some guesses, the leading one being: Adoptly looked completely fake.
The service sounded like satire and listed employees whose identities couldn’t be verified in any way. While one member of the Adoptly team who spoke with The Verge insisted that it was real, ther

Apple is onto its next big legal feud: Qualcomm. The company today filed a $1 billion lawsuit against giant the chipmaker, according to CNBC. The lawsuit claims that Qualcomm withheld payments from Apple for licensing some of its patented technology in exchange for using its wireless modems. The Apple suit comes right after a similar one by the Federal Trade Commission claiming Qualcomm was using monopoly tactics. Though Qualcomm is best known for its Snapdragon chips that dominate the And

GUEST: The rise of chatbot technologies has not been the stunning success many people anticipated. The technology is now ubiquitous, but chatbots are more famous for their failures than successes. For instance, Microsoft’s Tay faced a wave of media scorn after the internet trained it to become a misogynistic racist in the span of a day.
Less snarky criticisms have been leveled at Google’s Allo. Experts have called the tech giant out for failing to equip Allo with end-t

With the United States transitioning from one president to another, a lot of changes happened today immediately after Donald Trump was sworn into office. Whitehouse.gov completely changed and now features some of the new president’s plans for energy and jobs. The White House Facebook page is eerily empty, and @POTUS on Twitter — first used by the Obama administration — was handed over to the new administration.
Also changing is the White House We the People

Remember BlackBerry? It was the gold standard of mobile business communication when it launched in 1999, and no one had a functional alternative. That was until Apple launched the iPhone in 2007 and rendered BlackBerry obsolete. Salesforce appears to be on a similar trajectory to BlackBerry. Earlier last year, Salesforce announced that it beat Q1 earnings following a 20 percent pricing increase. Its thousands of embedded (read: captive) users have had no choice but to pay up. Soon, however, a n

Remember back to the campaign when Donald Trump famously said: “I’m very highly educated. I know words; I have the best words.”? Well, just in case, here it is. He wrapped up that back patting session with this: “But there’s no better word than stupid.” We disagree. Urban Dictionary has some pretty great words too, and some of them bear Trump’s name, or were created out of thin air in his honor. Let’s take a look at some of the words we

At Sundance’s post-world-premiere Q&A for I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, first-time feature film writer-director Macon Blair told the audience that the film was essentially “a wish-fulfillment fantasy” stemming from a house robbery. Someone broke into his home and stole his laptop and an item of sentimental value, and the police told him not to bother tracking the laptop, or otherwise following up on the case. Hence I Don’t Feel at Home, a film that

Having a rough day? Watching an endless stream on YouTube videos might just be the pick-me up you needed. Astronaut.io is a website that provides a virtually endless stream of random YouTube videos from around the world. But rather than a simple sequential mashup, the stream looks specifically for videos that exist on the border between mundane and interesting. As Wired points out, and algorithm searches for videos that have been uploaded within the past week, have zero views, and use gene

Apple is suing Qualcomm for $1 billion, saying that the mobile chip maker has been dramatically overcharging it for the use of basic patents, according to CNBC.
The lawsuit comes just days after the US Federal Trade Commission began suing Qualcomm for anti-competitive practices over the same issue. The commission said that Qualcomm had been forcing phone manufactures to pay “disproportionately high” fees for use of patents necessary to make a smartphone. This is exactly what Apple is

Just weeks after a US District Court Judge rejected the claims of fair use from the producers of the Star Trek fan film Axanar, Paramount and Axanar Productions have announced a settlement that will allow both parties to skip a juried trial.In the settlement, Axanar Productions and its owner, Alec Peters, acknowledged that the film and its prequel, Prelude to Axanar, were “were not approved by Paramount or CBS, and that both works crossed boundaries acceptable to CBS and Paramount relating

Woody Harrelson, ever the sidekick, is the hero in his newest movie. Not only because the film, Lost in London, is about a loser (Harrelson) and how he finds redemption, but because he was the director and mastermind behind its impressive premise: one shot, one take, 120 minutes, live-streamed directly into theaters.
Last night, Lost in London was beamed into more than 500 theaters in the US and UK, as Harrelson and a cast of 30 acted it out in real time. Keep in mind: this was no stage play. Th

People have made some pretty cool things in Google’s Tilt Brush VR painting app. But until now paintings made in Tilt Brush have pretty much been stuck in Tilt Brush, with no easy way to integrate those creations with other programs.
That changes today with Google’s open-source release of Tilt Brush Toolkit, which includes Python scripts and a Unity SDK for exporting Tilt Brush projects. Google is specifically highlighting the Unity integration, allowing users to use Tilt Brush sketc

We’ve already seen movies like Godzilla and Pacific Rim where monsters wreak untold havoc on major cities around the world. But what if you were somehow able to control those monsters with your every move. That seems to be the premise of Nacho Vigalondo’s Colossal. Here, Anne Hathaway is, like everyone else around her, terrified by the rise of a huge monster causing destruction. That is, until she finds out she can control it.
Colossal debuted last year at Fantastic Fest, and came aw

Is the hot new camera app hiding something? That was the question bubbling up this week, as a Chinese photo-editing app called Meitu began to catch on with stateside users. It was a natural hit, trading in gauzy filters as recognizable as they are shareable. But while out-of-nowhere naivete was part of the app’s appeal, it didn’t sit well with everyone, particularly once they started analyzing the code itself. Meitu was full of unusual code, potentially exposing sensitive information

President Trump’s election campaign focused on the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, nicknamed “Obamacare.” But on his first day as president of the United States, health care doesn’t seem to be a priority.In fact, President Trump’s inaugural address did not include a single mention of health. It also didn’t include the words medicine, insurance, care, sick, disability, Obamacare, or Affordable Care Act. His one reference to disease had more to do with resear

Amit Singhal, the former Google engineer who helped perfect the search engine’s ranking algorithm, is joining Uber as senior vice president of engineering, the ride-hail company announced today.Catching the next ride of my professional journey with @travisk at @Uber pic.twitter.com/EGQn7VQTDJ— Amit Singhal (@theamitsinghal) January 20, 2017Singhal will report directly to Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, and will work alongside Anthony Levandowski, vice president of engineering and head of U

PSA: The @POTUS Twitter account is no longer managed by Barack Obama’s team. As of his inauguration today, the account belongs to the 45th President of the United States and noted Twitter aficionado – Donald J Trump. Given how active Trump already was with his personal Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump, it’s not clear how the president will divvy up his blurbs. However, even now that the inauguration has passed, there have been several tweets from his personal a

Today’s transition of power means the White House website is undergoing a few transitions of its own. We’re approaching two hours after Trump officially became our 45th President, and his transition to the White House has already led to change — to the official White House website. Gone are all mentions (sitewide) of climate change. Also missing is the former LGBT rights page, which now redirects to an opt-in form to receive the Trump newsletter. I want to chalk this

Hundreds of thousands of women (and men!) will march in Washington, DC tomorrow to protest the Trump administration’s stances on numerous civil rights issues.In light of the obvious logistical hurdles for an event that large, the march now has an official app that’s vital for organization and live updates. The app has information about the day’s scheduled speakers, the march route, transportation, accessibility concerns, and safety, as well as an Instagram-inspired feed where m

In an extremely timely new spot promoting the next season of Broad City, Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer show how ready they are for Trump’s America, even if they’re completely undone by today’s inauguration. The entire spot takes place during a lengthy FaceTime call the duo are having, with Abbi trapped in an elevator and Ilana hoarding supplies like a doomsday prepper. “Abbi, it is about to get I Am Legend up in here,” she tells her, not long before the inauguratio

Following Obama’s farewell address last week, he tweeted: Thank you for everything. My last ask is the same as my first. I’m asking you to believe—not in my ability to create change, but in yours. — President Obama (@POTUS) January 11, 2017 As a woman in tech, I am vaguely familiar the struggle for minorities in such a fast paced and absolutely necessary industry, I felt it necessary to pay tribute to the man who has not only inspired multiple demographics, but has also

@POTUS is now the official handle of Donald Trump, but the 45th president turned to his personal twitter account to make his first tweets as America’s newest leader. The tweetstorm (sent from an iPhone) echoed Trump’s speech made just this afternoon.Today we are not merely transferring power from one Administration to another, or from one party to another – but we are transferring...— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2017power from Washington, D.C. and givin

One of the greatest arcade games of all time just got an update that allows you to trade in the likes of Karl Malone and John Stockton (what a great combination) for players like LeBron James, Steph Curry, and other 2017 fan favorites. Or, you can just go all Teen Wolf on the game and play as fallen hero Harambe. It’s not the first roster update to the 1994 console classic, but it might be the best. Aside from the above-mentioned stars (and gorillas), you’ll have players like Kyrie

Donald Trump plans to elevate FCC commissioner Ajit Pai to lead the agency, replacing outgoing Chairman Tom Wheeler, Politico reports, citing sources familiar with the matter. An official announcement could come as soon as this afternoon.Pai has been a reliably conservative voice on the commission
Pai, first appointed by President Obama for a Republican seat on the commission, has been a reliably conservative voice, often speaking out for deregulation and opposing progressive measures from the D

 A new company named Sigma, founded by alumni of mobile app search engine Quixey, aims to take records and certifications currently trapped in the analog world and bring them online. To do so, the company has raised $4.35 million in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz and other investors. The idea originated in late 2014, during a scuba trip in Belize that Sigma cofounder and… Read More

Shia LaBeouf, live-streamer extraordinaire, opened his latest project to the public at 9AM ET this morning. It’s called He Will Not Divide Us, and yes, it’s a live stream. A camera will be planted outside the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens for the next four years. Visitors will be able to stand in front of the camera and chant LaBeouf’s provided mantra... or just stare, dead-eyed, until the unending waves of terror feel like a distant memory.
Four years might be Shia&rsqu

Donald J. Trump has just been sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. With that title comes the official Twitter account, which has been just been turned over to him and his staff.The @POTUS handle was originated under President Barack Obama back in 2015, but his tweets have since been moved over to the @POTUS44 account. Trump will keep his @realDonaldTrump account, of course. We’re still waiting for President Trump’s first tweet, but it will almost certainly have someth

According to a lengthy report from the Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv, Tidal has been inflating its subscriber totals to the public since the company was acquired by Jay Z two years ago. Dagens Næringsliv says it obtained internal reports from the streaming service that show Tidal only had 350,000 subscribers in September 2015, the same month when Jay Z tweeted that Tidal had reached 1 million users.And when Tidal announced it reached 3 million subscribers back in March, its m

DirecTV Now added over 200,000 subscribers in its first month on the market, AT&T said in a filing with the SEC today.
That figure represents only paying subscribers, meaning people who signed up for a trial period and can still cancel aren’t included. The figure also cuts off at December 31st, so it’s likely grown in the three weeks since.
Early subscribers didn’t know how buggy this service would be
It’s a pretty good start for AT&T’s TV streaming service

Officially, Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States at 12PM ET on January 20th, 2017, at which point the office of the president, along with its accompanying social media accounts, will transition to him.
But over on Wikipedia, things are a little more complicated. As a crowd-sourced encyclopedia, anyone can edit the pages, and the users can’t seem to decide when Trump will officially take office. The Wikipedia page for president of the United States has

The poor, unemployed, and minorities are most likely to lose health insurance if Congress repeals the Affordable Care Act, researchers say. And because these groups tend to suffer from more health problems in the first place, the Republican plan to dismantle the ACA is likely to hurt those who are most vulnerable.About 20 million Americans have insurance under the ACA. In a research letter published today in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers used information from the 2015 National

This week on Vergecast, Nilay, Paul, Ashley, and Dieter take on the topics in the tech world you may have missed out on this week. Trump spoke with Tim Cook about moving production of Apple products to the US; Qualcomm is being sued by the Federal Trade Commission; and both Palmer Luckey and Mark Zuckerberg take the stand in the Oculus trade secrets trial.That’s only the first half of the show, so keep listening for more on this week in tech.3:07 - Trump / Apple17:03 - FTC / Qualcomm
24:29

Jessica’s mother was dying.
She’d been a larger-than-life figure while Jessica was growing up, an actress whose silver screen antics had filled her daughter’s childhood with grand visions of action and fantasy; of shoot-outs and fantastic flying beasts. But here, as Jessica remembered her mother’s final moments, she seemed weak, frail, impossibly small. And compared to the visions that had towered overhead just moments before, she actually was: the few lines sketching out