Technology news

Another indie megahit is escaping its download-only origins to hit a retail outlet near you as a physical disc.
Stardew Valley, the life-simulating farming game that debuted on PC last year, is coming out on disc as a Collector’s Edition for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on April 11. Publisher 505 Games is printing the game on behalf of developer ConcernedApe, and you can expect to find it in stores like GameStop for $30. Inside the packaging, you’ll get the game, the soundtrack, a mini

There’s a single interesting idea floating around in Rings, the latest sequel in the franchise that turned dripping wet black-haired Japanese ghosts into mainstream Hollywood horror. “What if,” the film asks, “it was possible to scientifically quantify mind-numbing terror, turn it into harmless data, and use it for mechanical ends?”That’s a fairly heady concept, and in an age that’s all about mapping everything from individual great white shark travel pa

A federal judge in Brooklyn unsealed documents this week related to an investigation into a user of WhatsApp, the popular Facebook-owned messenger for smartphones.
The documents reveal a New York FBI agent used a grand jury subpoena to demand subscriber information and communications log for the WhatsApp user. Even though the request came in 2014, there has been no record of it until now due to a gag order forbidding WhatsApp from disclosing the existence of the investigation to the subscriber o

Eminem would like to be the American dude who gets away with saying the most ridiculous and and offensive things again. Thanks, Donald Trump, he'll take it from here.
Eminem comes after Trump and everything he holds dear (his brand) in a verse on Big Sean's "No Favors" from his just-released album, I Decided. "I'm anti, can't no government handle a commando," spits Slim Shady. "Your man don't want it, Trump's a bitch! / I'll make his whole brand go under."
SEE ALSO: Don't be afraid of Arthur rap

If you're feeling totally alone in the aftermath of a traumatic breakup, don't worry, Facebook knows what you're going through. Like, exactly what you're going through: When it happened, who you're pining over, and what you're trying to do to stave off that newly-reignited, deep-seated fear of winding up forever alone. 
You know what, scratch that. You should worry. Facebook is using its insider info to coach companies on the best ways to take advantage of your broken heart through targeted

Astralis and Virtus.pro were tied 14-14 when Virtus.pro used their last remaining timeout to figure out exactly how to turn the tide to take the next two rounds. 
A tactical timeout gave teams 30 seconds to convene and was the only time coaches are allowed to speak outside of warm-ups and halftime. 
Seconds ticked away. The crowd of thousands grew louder at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta.
"Let's go Astralis!"
"Let's go VP!"
The fans' dueling chants filled the historic theatre as the two te

It was bound to happen.
Who needs to pay $720 for a pair of Nike HyperAdapt 1.0 self-lacing sneakers when you can make your own? That's exactly what Vimal Patel did.
Using a worn-out sneaker, some Lego pieces and a battery to power it all, Patel cobbled together his own Back to the Future kicks. While the sneaker with Lego pieces grafted on isn't exactly practical or stylish, Patel deserves big props for going the DIY route.
Once again, there's nothing that you can't make with Lego.No silly hum

Fire Emblem: Heroes has already made millions.
Intelligence firm Sensor Tower has stated that Nintendo’s second mobile game has grossed $2.9 million in its first day. It launched for iOS and Android on February 2. The free-to-play game takes Nintendo’s popular strategy series to mobile while encouraging players to spend in-game currency or real money to build up an army of heroes from past games in the franchise.
For comparison, Nintendo’s first mobile game, Super Mario Run, ma

GUEST: When governmental leadership in industry and philanthropy have let us down, there have always been pioneering souls that pick up the slack. Andrew Carnegie, George F. Johnson, Bill Gates: all supremely wealthy, and all of them concerned with the well-being of the planet and the humans who call it home.
For the millennial generation, Elon Musk is that kind of captain of industry. And the vehicle he’s using to improve the world is called Tesla. Make no mistake: Tesla exists to make mo

Republicans in Congress are once again trying to change the Endangered Species Act in a way that would make it harder to protect species at risk of extinction. The bill, introduced last week in the House of Representatives, would require government agencies to consider the economic costs tied to listing a species as “threatened” or “endangered.” It would also eliminate clear timeframes the government has for responding to listing petitions; the bill would basically allow

I'm typing this on a unibody MacBook Pro, probably the most infamous laptop on the planet when it comes to lack of repairability and modularity. But in the drawer next to my desk is a Raspberry Pi and a loose LCD I bought from Adafruit. My heart is in that drawer. Figuratively. In every way, a MacBook is a superior computer, but a Raspberry Pi is more than a computer: it's an invitation to do something new and different with computers.
Now a Bulgarian company called Olimex is doing something new

The internet has exploded with memes mocking Donald Trump for signing bills and controversial executive orders, but in Sweden they've found a different way to make a point.
Over there, politicians have released a very similar photo with one significant difference. 
SEE ALSO: Best app ever lets you create your own Trump Executive Order memes
Swedish deputy prime minister and climate minister Isabella Lovin posted a photo of her signing a climate change bill to her social media accounts Frida

The App Store could be just months away from a major shakeup that would render thousands of apps obsolete, including many of the iPhone's earliest success stories.
After more than a year of encouraging developers to update tens of thousands of apps that were never adjusted to support the 64-bit processors that debuted with the iPhone 5S, Apple appears poised to begin forcing developers' hands.
SEE ALSO: Apps aren't dead — they're thriving to the tune of $89 billion
While previous versions

 Ford opened a location that it’s calling the FordHub in the Westfield World Trade Center mall this week — but you won’t be able to buy any cars there. Instead, the location includes a large screen highlighting different ways (bike, subway and otherwise) to reach New York City landmarks, a ramp-and-marble model that illustrates the idea of traffic congestion and another… Read More

Just a few days after news broke that Microsoft is planning a competitor to Chrome OS, the first screenshots of the operating system have leaked out. Windows 10 Cloud is reportedly a lightweight version of Microsoft’s OS that will be able to run on low-cost PCs targeted at the education and business sectors. But looking at the screenshots leaked by Windows Bog Italia, you’d be hard-pressed to point out any glaring differences between the Cloud OS and the standard version of Windows 1

Xbox One is getting another Fallout game, but it’s not the role-playing experience you may expect.
Microsoft announced today that Fallout Shelter is coming to Xbox One and Windows 10 on February 7. The free-to-play game originally came out for iOS and Android in 2015. It has players managing a Vault, an apocalyptic safe-place built underground.
The Fallout series consists mostly of role-playing games, but Fallout Shelter shows how the franchise could work in a casual-friendly capacity.&nbs

Language barriers can make a refugee's long journey even more grueling, but a new app is getting them the translation help they need —  wherever they are in the world.
Tarjimly, which launched Tuesday, connects volunteer translators to refugees and immigrants who need to speak with doctors, aid workers, legal representatives and other crucial services in a new country. It acts as a Facebook Messenger bot, allowing for easy, real-time translations on any smartphone.
SEE ALSO: 5 crucial

Ten teams of researchers are poring over the data collected for NASA’s Twins study — an experiment to see how a year in space affected the health of astronaut Scott Kelly, compared to the health of his identical twin Mark who stayed on Earth. One of those research groups, from Northwestern University, have been focusing on the changes to Scott’s gut microbiome, the thousands of microbe species that live inside the GI tract and help with digestion. And they’ve found an int

It’s Friday, which means we’re now officially headed into Super Bowl weekend. If you’re itching to catch the Patriots beat up on the Falcons this weekend (fight me), we’ve got you covered. Starting this Sunday at 3:30 PST/6:30 EST, you can get all the action as it unfolds without that pesky cable subscription we all hate. Over-the-air If you have a digital antenna, you can (probably) catch the game, in HD, over-the-air. The channel varies with your local area, but&n

On Saturday, a coalition of labor groups and progressive activists will stage a protest against Uber in Pittsburgh, a city of great significance to the ride-hailing company. Not only is the former steel town the location of Uber’s under-construction advanced engineering facility, but it also has played host to the company’s high-stake experiment with driverless cars.The protestors say they oppose Uber’s association with President Trump, even though the company’s CEO Travi

Comedian Josh Gondelman has been a New England Patriots fan his whole life, but this Sunday, he'll try to balance his political affiliations and his team loyalty.
With Super Bowl LI just two days away, many are tackling coverage of the big game from every angle, including politics — more specifically, the Patriots' ties to Donald Trump. Quarterback Tom Brady, head coach Bill Belichick and owner Robert Kraft are all "friends" with Trump, as the president says, causing some philosophical dis

Santa Clarita Diet is like Desperate Housewives meets The Walking Dead.
At least that's how Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos described it.The horror-comedy, which launches on the streaming service on Friday, follows suburban couple Sheila and Joel (Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant), real estate agents who have to adjust when Sheila suddenly finds herself craving only human flesh. 
Here's what critics had to say.
SEE ALSO: Drew Barrymore is all about that zombie mom life in Netf

Sony is rolling out the beta preview of the PlayStation 4’s latest firmware update, version 4.50, and it includes a pretty great new feature for early owners of the PS4 Pro console. In short, many older PS4 titles will run better on the new hardware — even if they’ve not been optimized to do so by developers. Once you’ve installed the software upgrade, you’ll find a new “Boost Mode” option in the settings menu. This is exclusive to the more powerful Pro

Google appears to be getting ready to kill off the Google Now Launcher – the stock Android launcher since Google Now was released – with no clear alternative in sight. Android Police obtained a memo sent to OEM partners indicating the Now Launcher will no longer be available in the Play Store starting Q1 of this year. Companies interested in using the launcher’s features, such as its information cards, can continue to do so, but the launcher won’t be available

You may have to put off your afternoon Dota 2 plans for a while because the game’s servers are not functioning properly.
Valve’s Steam PC gaming service is experiencing technical issues that are preventing many players from getting a solid connection. The Steam Status website confirms that games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2 are not working for everybody, and players on social media are complaining that they can’t get connected to Steam to launch many of thei

 Conductor is launching a new mobile app that co-founder and CEO Seth Besmertnik described as a way to get quick access to “the voice of the customer.” The New York-based company started with a focus on search engine optimization before broadening to offer a broader range of marketing tools. Now, Besmertnik said, “The core of what we do is understand your customers and… Read More

Under recently departed chief Tom Wheeler, the FCC opened inquiries into how companies might be using free data programs, which allow customers to use some services without them counting to a data plan limit, to anti-competitively favor certain services. But a new, Trump-appointed chairman recently took over at the FCC, and according to letters just posted by the agency, the inquiries have been dropped.The FCC dropped inquiries into four companies
In one case, the FCC was investigating whether T

The Internet Movie Database is an indispensable resource if you have any interest whatsoever in films. Want to try and figure out where you’ve seen that character actor before? Do you need to know ratings, runtime, or quotes? But if you want to discuss movies, you’ll now have to go elsewhere: the site is shutting down its message boards system.According to a statement on IMDB, the site’s message forums and the private messaging system will be disabled on February 20th, because

Google parent company Alphabet is backing away from another one of its peripheral and far-out missions, this time satellite imagery. The company is selling its imaging unit, called Terra Bella and formerly known as Skybox, to startup Planet for $500 million, the two companies announced today. Planet focuses on using satellite imagery to provide data for industries like ecological research, agriculture, and mapping. SkyBox did the same, and was acquired by Google back in 2014 for around the same

GUEST: The minute you mention chatbot technology, someone will inevitably bring up the Turing test. Created by Alan Turing in 1950, the test judges a machine’s capability to demonstrate intelligent behavior that’s indistinguishable from speaking to a human. There’s even an annual competition that started in 1990 called the Loebner Prize that judges chatbots on how humanlike they can be. In each round of the competition, a human judge concurrently holds a chat-based convers

We’ve been tracking the upcoming LG G6 phone over the course of this week, and while these leaks are enlightening, we still don’t totally know what the phone will look like. Initial photos suggested the G6 would have a glossy finish, but now it seemingly has a matte finish. Or maybe people will have options? Leaks are tough.Today some new images were put online. They depict the same dual cameras and back fingerprint sensor as previous leaks. It’s clear those features are legiti

 Snap Inc. files for its +$25 billion IPO, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick quits Trump’s advisory council and the tech industry reacts to Trump’s immigration ban. These are the biggest tech stories of the week.
1. Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, officially filed publicly for its massive IPO. It will be listed on the NYSE as SNAP. While this is just another small step in the… Read More

The Paris Regional Finals for FIFA’s Ultimate Team Championship Series are approaching this weekend, and fans will be able to watch the competition on ESPN. The telecast is the first time the network has aired an e-sports event on its main channel in the US. Previous broadcasts, such as the Street Fighter V world championship in 2016, have aired on ESPN2.The FIFA Ultimate Team Championship series will also be streaming on EA’s site, Twitch, and YouTube, with additional coverage airin

After nearly four years, the PlayStation 4 is getting a fairly basic feature that should improve the quality of life for people who own a lot of games.
Sony Interactive Entertainment is planning to add support for external hard drives to the PS4. The company is preparing to update the PS4’s system software to version 4.50 in the next few weeks, and external storage is the big new feature. Other new features include custom wallpapers, new improvements to the interface, and the option to wat

Let’s be real for a second; if you work online, chances are your parents have very little idea what you do. In fact, you can extend that to most tech jobs in general. If you’re not working a traditional job, chances are your parents have little insight into what it is you’re doing to afford ramen and beer. A Santa Monica-based company looked at this as less of a problem and more of an opportunity. Cornerstone OnDemand, one of LA’s largest tech companies, welcomed th

Vergecast episode 241! This week, Nilay and Dieter bring back Ross Miller and Megan Farokhmanesh to assist covering the news from this week. Snap Inc. filed for a $3 billion IPO, Apple is reportedly putting ARM chips in Macs, and Facebook is making a TV app. In between all that listen to Nilay’s take on fire logs, Dieter’s experience with a Zelda-themed escape room, and the wackiness of internet culture from Megan and Ross.Nilay and Dieter apologized for this episode to me personally

Feel the healing beat, Diablo.
Blizzard announced today that Lúcio will be the newest character for its multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) Heroes of the Storm. He will enter the game’s test servers on February 6. Heroes of the Storm is a free-to-play game for PC. Adding new characters is the best way to keep people engaged and earn more revenue, since players can spend in-game currency or real money to unlock new heroes.
Heroes of the Storm includes characters across all of

Satellite and mapping startup Planet Labs today announced that it has acquired the Terra Bella satellite business from Google. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Google acquired Skybox Imaging in 2014 and rebranded it to Terra Bella last year.
Once the deal closes, Google will have a multi-year contract with Planet to get satellite imaging, Planet Labs cofounder and chief executive Will Marshall wrote in a blog post.
“We’ve long admired what the team at Terra Bella has achiev

GUEST: Consumer insights have always been synonymous with marketing departments. Yet these valuable information nuggets need to be shared throughout the business, especially with product teams. They can reveal so much about how your brand is perceived in the market, what your customers really think of your latest feature update, and most importantly, the key to what people truly want. The world of consumer tech is one industry that would benefit from this type of information cross-pollination.
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