Technology news

GoPro’s awful 2016 can finally be put in terms of dollars. The company just released its fourth quarter earnings, and it turns out the camera-maker operated at a loss of $373 million for the year. While the company did pull in $540 million in revenue in the fourth quarter — the second-best ever for GoPro, and about $100 million more than its awful 2015 holiday season — that figure was still about $30 million below industry projections.
Multiple rounds of layoffs, the closing of

Dell announced today that its XPS 13 and XPS 15 laptops now can be configured with a fingerprint sensor built into the keyboard for an extra $25. The sensor is compatible with Windows Hello, Microsoft’s system for alternative, faster login methods on Windows 10, making it a useful addition to the devices. And the price is on par with external solutions, so it’s a good deal if you’re looking for the feature.The option is available on all versions of the XPS 13 and XPS 15, includ

Spectacles were one of the hottest gifts this holiday season — they were also one of the hardest to find, since Snap only sold them through a single store and a pop-up vending machine.
But sometime soon, it sounds like Spectacles will get much easier to find. In a filing with the SEC today, in which Snap detailed the state of its business ahead of going public, the company writes, “we plan to significantly broaden the distribution of Spectacles.”
Spectacles haven’t made m

Acer announced its 37.5-inch XR342CQK curved monitor this past June, and today the company confirmed that it’s now available in the US for $1,299.99. It’s okay if you can’t source that jumble of letters and numbers back to a specific product. Here’s a spec reminder:
2,300R curvature
21:9 ratio
3,440 x 1,600 QHD resolution
Up to 75Hz refresh rate that works with AMD FreeSync
Up to 5ms response time
HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.2 inputs
Four USB 3.0 ports and one USB-CStereo

Snapchat’s just-released IPO filing reveals that the app sees far more usage on Apple’s iOS mobile operating system than on Android. That trend has led the company to focus development resources on the iPhone experience, leaving Android lower down in the priority list. “We have prioritized development of our products to operate with iOS operating systems rather than smartphones with Android operating systems,” the company said in its S-1 filing.
Snapchat is very aware tha

The US Navy plans to deploy its squadron of highly trained, bomb-locating bottlenose dolphins this spring. But the dolphins won’t be using their sonar for their usual missions of hunting down underwater mines or warding off enemy swimmers. Instead, the dolphins will be searching out their tiny, highly endangered relatives called vaquitas in an effort to conserve the last of these rapidly disappearing porpoises.There are less than 30 vaquitas left in the world
According to a new report, the

Nintendo’s second major mobile game, Fire Emblem Heroes, is now available to download in the US for Android and iOS. Unlike Super Mario Run, Heroes is based on one of the company’s lesser-known franchises, and has a more in-depth gameplay style.
It’s essentially a turn-based strategy game, but it also connects to the wider Fire Emblem universe with a number of role-playing elements. It’s a freemium title, meaning you can play it without paying, but in-app purchases let yo

Amazon’s ability to turn a profit from the razor-thin world of online retail was once uncertain. The company, which decided to invest heavily in once-unorthodox areas like streaming video, hardware, and shipping networks, had to spend years convincing Wall Street that its plans would, eventually, bear fruit. During that time, Amazon struggled through occasionally harsh losses, while its cloud computing division grew steadily in the background but still struggled to make up the difference.A

Sprint announced this week that it would be enabling three-carrier aggregation on iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 edge, LG V20, and LG G5 smartphones. Those phones join the HTC Bolt in supporting the faster LTE Advanced specification, as first reported by Wireless Week. In Sprint’s case, the carrier is claiming that the switch to three-carrier aggregation offers peak speeds of up to 200 Mbps, a dramatic improvement over the 100 Mbps top speed of two-channel carrier aggregatio

Facing a backlash from customers embracing the #DeleteUber hashtag, the ride-hail giant’s CEO Travis Kalanick told employees in a memo today that he was leaving the economic advisory council formed by President Trump, according to multiple reports. A spokesperson for Uber confirmed that Kalanick has left the president’s advisory panel.
BREAKING: I am hearing that @Uber ceo @travisk has told employees in a memo that he has quit Trump's business advisory council. More TK.— Kara S

It’s now just a tiny bit simpler to find your way around Google Photos on Android.
In an update today, Google has reworked the app’s “albums” tab to make it easier to explore all of the photos on your device. The tab is now split into three sections: one allows you to explore your camera roll in different ways (sorting places by location or people, for instance), another section will let you dive into photos taken inside of other apps, and the third section shows your act

When it comes to Super Bowl commercials, T-Mobile seems to always be on point with casting musicians who live permanently on the radio (and thus, in our earholes). Last year, it capitalized on the crazed that was Drake and “Hotline Bling.” This year, we get Justin Bieber.
Make no mistake though, Bieber songs may have gotten catchier thus making him more likable to olds like myself, but that doesn’t necessarily make him a good actor. The ad, touting T-Mobile’s One plan, wa

Ajit Pai, the new chairman of the FCC, published an op-ed today in Multichannel News advocating for the television industry to move forward with implementing ATSC 3.0, the latest standard to govern over-the-air broadcast TV. Along with the editorial, Pai presented a proposal to the FCC commissioners yesterday that would allow broadcasters to begin voluntarily using the new standard by the end of the year.What is ATSC 3.0?
Now if you're like me, chances are you read that and have questions like,

Since Inauguration Day, several terrestrial radio stations from around the country have been dealing with the same problem: an unstoppable audio loop of YG and Nipsey Hussle’s track “FDT (Fuck Donald Trump).” Stations in South Carolina, Indiana, Texas, Tennessee, and Kentucky have all had their signals hacked over the past two weeks resulting in unexpected airtime for “FDT,” according to multiple sources.
On January 20th, reports began to surface of radio stations i

The Treasury Department today announced vague changes to sanctions issued against the Russian government for alleged election-related hacks. The move raised fears that Donald Trump — who likely benefited from the election malfeasance — was moving away from the United States’ stance toward Russia.
The move is likely benign
The confusion was understandable. At a glance, the document released is strange: it’s titled “Authorizing Certain Transactions with the Federal Se

In a video of the surgery, two hands in latex gloves are seen pulling what looks like a white fettuccine out of a man’s mouth. Except, that never-ending white string is not pasta, it’s a tapeworm. It’s a 6-foot tapeworm.The surgery occurred at the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences Hospital in New Delhi, India. The 48-year-old patient had abdominal pain for two months before getting checked out. A colonoscopy showed that the parasite was infesting the man’s guts. Nex

An estimated 1,200 Comcast employees left their desks for a rally on Thursday afternoon, marching through downtown Philadelphia in protest of Donald Trump’s executive order banning immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries. “Love, not hate, is what makes this country great,” chanted the protesters, who began marching through Center City around 2PM ET. It was the second major corporate protest of the week, following a company-endorsed walkout at Google on Tuesday.Employee

In an effort to help narrow down food recipe searches to get you away from the smartphone and into the kitchen, Google is updating its algorithm to help you find the exact recipe you need based on cooking method, flavors, and ingredients.
A search for “Thai curry,” for example, lets you specify whether you were looking for green or red curry, or with chicken or tofu. You can click multiple tabs to really nail down the recipe you want, such as “red curry” and “shrimp

I just saw this iPhone 8 concept made by Thadeu Brandão, and I have to say I'm intrigued. The phone looks almost exactly like the iPhone 7 from the back, but in front there's one of those bezel-less screens I've been dreaming about. To make room for all that LCD (or OLED?), Thadeu moved the earpiece up to nearly the top of the phone, but left the home button indent exactly where it is on existing iPhones. And then, instead of just pretending like the button isn't there, the concept video

Microsoft has asked the Trump administration to set up a formal exemption process for its recent immigration ban. President and chief legal officer Brad Smith laid out the company’s request in an open letter, proposing what Microsoft calls an exemption for “responsible known travelers with pressing needs,” sponsored by a US company or university. It would allow visa holders from the seven countries affected by Trump’s ban to safely travel outside the US without fear of be

 Spotify — the music streaming company with over 100 million users (40 million of them paying) — has long been seen as one of the more likely candidates among larger tech startups to go public in 2017, but it looks like this plan may be shifting.
TechCrunch has heard from multiple sources that the company is now weighing a plan to delay an IPO until 2018. The delay would give… Read More

Mozilla is shutting down its “connected devices” group, which was responsible for the failed smartphone operating system Firefox OS and, more recently, attempts to build the OS into devices like routers, streaming boxes, and even basic computers.
CNET first reported the news, saying that “about 50 people” are being laid off from the company. Ari Jaaksi, who’s been in charge of Mozilla’s connected devices unit for a little over two years, is also said to be lea

The fantastical realms of Final Fantasy will soon be a real-world escape room game. Today Square Enix announced a new partnership with Scrap, the same design studio behind the Legend of Zelda-themed “Defenders of the Triforce” game.
Called “Trials of Bahamut,” the new escape room is set in the world of the massively multiplayer online Final Fantasy XIV. Players will have to work together to prevent the return of the dragon Bahamut; few details on the game itself are avail

Republicans in Congress are quietly carrying out a plan that’s long been part of the GOP platform: giving away public lands to the states. But when lands Americans use to hunt, fish, and camp are transferred to states, these public areas are often developed or sold — because states either don’t have the resources to manage it, or are trying to make the most money off of it. This Republican plan threatens to cut off access to wilderness Americans cherish.
Last month, the House o

Facebook is updating its search feature today with the help of its computer vision platform. Now, you can search for photos on Facebook using any keyword that describes the contents of the image.
For example, you can search for “pictures of pizza” or “orange shirt photos” and the results will highlight posts from your friends that match the description. Facebook will show these results higher in the grid, followed by other relevant images that you may be interested in. Th

At this year’s CES, troubled electric car startup Faraday Future presented itself as the company that would usher in “the next generation of sustainable luxury mobility.” But even though it finally unveiled its first car to the world, the FF91, the company keeps tripping over its own feet as it attempts to move past its problems and enter production. Sources tell The Verge that FF is still hemorrhaging top engineering talent. Meanwhile, suppliers keep suing FF for unpaid bills.

Drudge Report has made some memorable mistakes. You might remember the time it reported “The Revenant included a rape scene with a bear,” or when owner Matt Drudge made a dangerous situation worse by using Hurricane Matthew to push his anti-climate change agenda. But today, Drudge Report has really outdone itself with the help of — who else? — Jar Jar Binks.
The error started with a link to a Reuters article about tension between the US and Iran following a ballistic miss

We’ve seen lots of smartphones with screens on the front (okay, fine, that’s pretty much all of them). We’ve seen smartphones with screens on the side. We’ve seen smartphones with screens on the back. Now, a new LG patent found by Mobilescout is taking this trend to its logical conclusion, with the company filing for a display design that wraps around the top of the phone, putting a screen on the front, side, and back of the phone.
I don’t fully get why this is a th

Microsoft is bringing apps and add-ins to its Outlook for iOS email application today. The software giant has partnered with Evernote, Giphy, Nimble, Trello, and Smartsheet to bring the first third-party add-ins directly into its iOS email experience. Office 365 customers will be able to start using the add-ins immediately, and Microsoft plans to roll them out to Outlook.com users soon.
Add-ins will work by showing up as an icon when you’re reading an email. With apps like Trello you&rsquo

Late last week, news broke that The New York Times would be shutting down its graphic novel and manga best-seller lists, as part of a larger effort to streamline the company’s weekly published book-sales compilations.
Specifically, the Hardcover Graphic Books, Paperback Graphic Books, and Manga categories will be discontinued beginning February 5th. Going forward, graphic novels will now fall into the far more competitive general Fiction category when it comes to making the list. The New Y

The annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco is the largest gathering of game creators in the world, a place where designers can meet up, find inspiration, and show off their latest creations. But for many developers, President Trump’s recent executive order on immigration means they won’t be able to attend the important conference at all. GDC has already offered to refund those affected, and now indie publisher Devolver Digital is offering to feature the games of those una

There are few places left on the internet where you can avoid Donald Trump. News about the president and his administration dominate Facebook and Twitter in 2017. Seemingly every front page, news app, and headline have been yanked into the gravitational swirl of modern politics. Your options so far are limited: you can boldly embrace what it means to be politically active on social media or you can log off for extended periods of time, but not much else.However, there is one place where our dema

Everyone’s favorite holiday has arrived: the one where we celebrate small, featureless animals, the possible end of winter, and an okay Bill Murray movie.(Ed. Note: Groundhog Day is a masterpiece. Andie MacDowell is the perfect foil to Bill Murray, Chris Elliott delivers comedic excellence, and Michael Shannon appears for five seconds — and those five seconds are very good!)As such, I’d just like to take this opportunity to remind you that your love for Groundhog Day doesn&rsqu

In Walt’s column this week, he explains how immigration has influenced and built the tech industry we see today, in response to President Trump’s executive order restricting immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries. On the following episode of Ctrl-Walt-Delete, Walt and Nilay expound further on the tech world’s dependance on immigration.
In the second half of the show, Walt responds to Nilay’s wife Becky’s review of a Samsung curved screen TV, which has been

 The venture arm of Caterpillar Inc., a major manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, has invested in San Francisco drone tech startup Airware. Rather than make its own unmanned aerial vehicles, Airware has focused its efforts around providing software and services that help large enterprises use drones throughout their operations. Airware’s cloud-based software helps… Read More

Google has announced that it’s shutting down Hands Free, its experimental payment app that allowed customers to pay for items simply by saying “I'll pay with Google” to a cashier, on February 8th.The app, which launched on iOS and Android in March last year, allowed users to enter in payment and photo information, and then used a combination of Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and location services to identify if your phone was in a store. When paying, a cashier would be presented with a phot

After protests at UC Berkeley against prominent alt-right figure and Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos, President Trump questioned on Twitter whether federal funds would be pulled from the university.The protests began last night, when about 1,500 people gathered ahead of a planned speech from Yiannopoulos, according to the Los Angeles Times. Protestors smashed windows and sparked a fire on campus before university police canceled the event, putting all campus buildings on lockdown..@UCBer

Superheroes and villains cause a lot of collateral damage. That’s always been the case, but ever since Man of Steel drew backlash from fans for the wanton destruction wrought by Superman, movies like Batman v Superman and Captain America: Civil War have been keener about confronting the issue. Even if the world is saved, being caught in the middle of a superhero brawl on your way to work sucks. If only there were some way to make life a little easier while the super-types do their thing.
T

The Beats by Dre promise, the thing that’s driven millions of people to spend hundreds of dollars on headphones for the first time, is an intoxicating mix of premium design and bombastic sound. Style plus bass-soaked substance. But listen to any song with "promises" in the title and you’ll know that they’re most often just fragments of wishful thinking: Beats headphones look and sound flashy, but aren’t truly premium in either category. Look beyond the Doctor’s port