Technology news

There’s nothing like a quiet room. Today Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company already operates an anechoic chamber of its own as part of Oculus Research and is now constructing a second in Redmond, Washington.
“We’re building our second anechoic chamber to perform sound experiments. When it’s done, this will be one of the quietest places in the world — so quiet you can hear your own heart beat,” he wrote in the caption for a phot

 Surely everyone who picked up a pair of Nike’s limited edition HyperAdapt self-lacing shoes had at least some small desire to rip them and and find out how they worked. But at $700 a pop, it’s an easy enough urge suppress. The nice thing about the internet, however, is that we can often count on someone else to do our dirty work for us. Bay Area-based engineering company Mindtribe… Read More

Surviving in Venus-like conditions is near impossible, even for machinery. The surface temperature is about 860 degrees Fahrenheit and the carbon dioxide rich-air has an atmospheric pressure about 90 times that of Earth. Just moving around on Venus would feel as if you were under water and deep underground, if the heat didn’t already obliterate your equipment. NASA, however, may have found a novel solution in the form of more resistant electronics.NASA
The new circuitry, announced yesterda

Microsoft and Sony both have something to brag about when it comes to 2017’s console sales.
According to Microsoft, the Xbox One console had its best January in the U.S. since launching in November 2013. However, Sony told GamesBeat that its PlayStation 4 was still the best-selling system of the month. According to Microsoft, the Xbox One was the only eighth generation console (at this point, that’s pretty much just the PS4 and Xbox One, with the Wii U just about dead before Nintendo

Google is making it easier for people with Daydream-compatible phones to access virtual reality content. The company announced today that with its latest version of the Chrome mobile app, users can navigate to VR-enabled sites to view any content. They just have to specify that they want to enter VR and then place their phone in the Daydream View headset.
Even people who don’t own one of the select Daydream-compatible phones can also view Daydream content through Chrome. They’ll just

This whole “games as a service” thing is really working out for Activision Blizzard.
The publisher had a record fourth quarter and a huge year for 2016. A large part of that success is thanks to money made from in-game purchases, such as card packs in Blizzard Entertainment’s Hearthstone (which leads a potential $1.4 billion card game market). Activision Blizzard noted that it earned $3.6 billion from in-game sales in 2016. That is up more than double from 2015’s $1.

After a long run of annual releases, Skylanders is taking a different direction.
Activision Blizzard announced today during its financial call for the fourth quarter of 2016 that its toys-to-life series Skylanders will not get a new console game in 2017. Instead, it’ll release more content for 2016’s Skylanders: Imaginators. It will also release a new mobile Skylanders game.
Skylanders had been an annual franchise on console since the original came out in 2011. The series has earned

GUEST: In many ways, we’re close to a tipping point in the development of artificial intelligence technologies, with fleets of self-driving cars, hive drones, automated retail experiences, and more. Companies of every size now must grapple with how AI will affect and possibly eliminate their sector, and how they can adapt and leverage AI and machine learning (ML) to disrupt themselves before they get disrupted.
While it’s crucial for companies to start participating in the AI mo

 Jose Moran, who claims to be a Tesla employee working at the company’s Fremont, California assembly facility, took to Medium on Thursday to detail working conditions at the company, and to detail efforts on behalf of factory employees to unionize, an initiative in the beginning stages of being supported by the United Autoworkers Union, the U.S. automotive industry’s largest… Read More

Ray Enterprises, the maker of a universal remote called Ray Super Remote, laid off all of its employees and stopped selling its device late last year, according to Variety. The $250 gadget, which contained a 4.8-inch touchscreen and controlled streaming apps and set-top boxes, is currently out at Best Buy. Amazon, the only other retailer that sells it, says the remote ships in one to two months.It’s not clear if Amazon or Ray Enterprises are simply clearing out remaining stock, or if the d

So long, sci-fi.
During a conference call today going over its record financial results for the fourth quarter of 2016, Activision Blizzard noted that the next Call of Duty game will focus on traditional gameplay and take the series back to its roots. Recent Call of Duty games, including last year’s Infinite Warfare, have featured sci-fi settings, but the original Call of Duty shooters were in World War II and later modern settings (no cybernetic soldiers or futuristic guns and space comba

It was a gigantic quarter for Activision Blizzard.
The publisher announced today that it achieved GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles, or earned) revenues of  $2.01 billion, up a whopping 49 percent from the same period for last year, $1.35 billion. It’s a record fourth quarter performance for one of the world’s largest video game companies.
Activision Blizzard earned $6.61 billion for the full year. This is up 42 percent from 2015, which earned $4.66 b

Thanks to some of its legacy games, Zynga had a good financial fourth quarter for 2016.
The mobile and social game publisher reported GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles, or earned) revenue of $190.5 million. This is on the high-end of its guidance range, and the number is also a 3 percent increase year-over-year and up 4 percent over the previous quarter. Bookings were at $201.5 million, up 11 percent year-over-year. Zynga attributed the success to strong performances

After having to halt its rollout of Android Nougat to Xperia Z5 devices in January, Sony is giving the updated OS another try. Xperia Blog reports that Sony is now releasing Nougat updates for the Xperia Z3+, the Xperia Z5 series, and the Xperia Z4 tablet. We’ve reached out to Sony for confirmation and will update when we hear back.Multiple issues popped up the last time Sony tried to update these devices, including audio playback problems when going through third-party apps, but maybe wit

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is showing off a new way to interact with the Oculus Rift headset: an Oculus glove. Today, he posted photos from a visit to the Facebook-owned VR company’s research lab in Redmond, Washington, where a team led by chief scientist Michael Abrash works on next-generation hardware. Most of the photos showed off the facility’s capabilities, but in one, Zuckerberg bragged about performing superheroics with a pair of white motion control gloves.
“We're wor

Natural Cycles, which until yesterday was marketed as a fertility tracking app, has announced today that it it is the first app to be certified as a method of contraception.
The Stockholm, Sweden-based startup, which launched in 2014, currently has 150,000 users in 161 countries. It bases its research on women’s body temperatures to determine peak fertility. The woman takes her temperature every morning, feeds the data into the app, and waits for the result — a green light indicates

Praise the Orb. Behold the Orb. The Orb is light. The Orb is smart. The Orb is life.The Orb is a smart lighting system from a new startup called Shade that’s looking for funding on Indiegogo. (Despite the name, it’s shaped like a disc, not an orb, but I digress.) Its unique circular-but-not-orb-like design is meant for controlling the direction of the light output in addition to the usual brightness and color settings that most smart lights offer.The Orb is also split into three diff

You may already know this if you have ever sent me an email and waited for a response, but I’m living in a post-apocalyptic world where email is not as viable anymore.
You can understand why. I’ve been processing email since the ’90s and now have 650,000 emails in my latest Gmail account in an archive. I receive hundreds of pitches per day, many of them (thankfully) flagged as promotional and dumped into a forgotten tab.
I’m mostly on Slack and Convo all day chatting and

BeatsX, Apple’s newest pair of $149 wireless earbuds, will finally hit store shelves tomorrow after a few months of delays. But it turns out there’s a slight silver lining, because buyers will find a card inside with a code that’s good for three free months of Apple Music — a $30 value. Better yet, Apple will also include the promo card in other Beats products, like the Powerbeats 3 Wireless, Solo 3 Wireless, Studio Wireless, and Beats Pill+ for a limited time.
Customers

Hitcents and Feelingtouch Games are making an offer you can’t refuse. They have launched The Godfather: Family Dynasty mobile game based on Paramount Pictures’ The Godfather films.
Above: The Godfather: Family Dynasty features Marlon Brando as Don Corleone.Image Credit: Hitcents
The licensed free-to-play title is an attempt to use a major brand to revive the mob family genre, and it comes a few years after Kabam unsuccessfully tried to launch a similar game based on The Godfathe

Dodge is cleverly repurposing existing technology in its Dodge Charger Pursuit police cars to help cops stay safe. It’s called the Officer Protection Package, and it is designed to keep officers from being ambushed from behind when sitting in a parked squad car.
When the feature is switched on, the car turns on the rear-facing ultrasonic parking sensors. If they are tripped by someone walking right behind the car, a chime will sound to alert the officer to the movement, the rear camera wil

Bipedal robots have been a tough ask for engineers. Creating a bot that’s steady, self-balancing, and able to adapt to uneven terrain (one of the main advantages of going bipedal in the first place!) is a tough ask. But, as this newly unveiled bot from Agility Robotics proves, we’re getting good at it.The bot’s name is Cassie, and, as reported by IEEE Spectrum, it comes from a fine lineage of bipedal robots. Agility Robotics is a spinoff company from Oregon State University, an

Google is rolling out a new voice-controlled hub in Pixel phones so you can manage your smart home devices straight from Google Assistant. The feature, called Home Control, lets you use voice commands to control products like Belkin’s WeMo, Nest, Philips Hue, and Samsung SmartThings.
By centralizing the devices to Google Assistant, you won’t need to constantly look for individual apps or invest in a Google Home if you don’t already have one. You can find the new controls under

Amazon’s livestreaming platform Twitch is introducing Communities, a new way to discover content and reach the right audiences on the site.
The new directory — an open beta test — will help users find and create content that is native to the way they identify themselves, with categories that include speedrunning, retro gaming, cosplaying, and cooking. Twitch says this new feature should be live within the next 15 minutes to half-an-hour.
Supplementing the current directory,&nbs

Microsoft’s lawsuit against the Department of Justice will continue, according to a ruling today from Western Washington District Court. The ruling is a crucial early hurdle for Microsoft’s case, which argues that the government’s gag-ordered searches of Microsoft accounts violates the constitutional right to free speech.
"Microsoft brings this case because its customers have a right to know when the government obtains a warrant to read their emails, and because Microsoft has a

Before the US workplace sitcom The Office, there was the UK series The Office, and before Steve Carell’s Michael Scott, there was Ricky Gervais’ David Brent. Brent is crueler than his American cousin, less self-aware, and just as awkward. He’s a boss-cum-entertainer whose dance moves, high-pitched laugh, and endlessly quotable lines helped define the direction of British comedy for the new millennium.Writing, directing, and starring in The Office propelled Gervais on to bigger

Google today is talking for the first time about the system that powers its Smart Reply feature for responding to messages on Android Wear 2.0.
It goes beyond Smart Reply, as it has shown up inside Inbox by Gmail and more recently the Allo messaging app. Why? Two reasons, really.
First, on wearables running Android Wear 2.0, you’ll be able to respond to messages from any messaging app, not just a Google app.
Second, this is Google’s first completely on-device machine-learning technol

Microsoft today announced plans to launch Visual Studio 2017 on March 7, 2017. Visual Studio 2017 went into public preview in March 2016 and hit Release Candidate status in November 2016. Formerly referred to as Visual Studio “15” (or Visual Studio Next), the release was slated for general availability in early 2017, meaning Microsoft is going to be right on schedule.
On March 7, Microsoft will not just launch Visual Studio 2017, but will kick off a livestreamed two-day launch event

Grand Theft Auto fans that own an Xbox One might want to dig out their old copy of Grand Theft Auto IV.
Microsoft announced today that Grand Theft Auto IV and its two downloadable story campaigns, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, are now backward compatible on Xbox One. Grand Theft Auto IV came out for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2008, and it sold over 25 million copies.
If you own a digital copy of the open-world game, it’ll appear automatically in your Xbox One library.

Trump administration members and other Republicans are using the encrypted, self-destructing messaging app Confide to keep conversations private in the wake of hacks and leaks, according to Jonathan Swan and David McCabe at Axios. Axios writes that “numerous senior GOP operatives and several members of the Trump administration” have downloaded Confide, which automatically wipes messages after they’re read.
One operative told Axios that the app “provides some cover”

Grand Theft Auto IV — one of the most popular games from the last console generation — is now available on Xbox One through the console’s backward-compatibility feature. The game’s downloadable expansion, Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, is also available.
Like all of Xbox One’s backward-compatible titles, players who already owned the game digitally on the Xbox 360 will find it ready to install on their Xbox One consoles, while disk owners can access t

Now owners of Amazon Tap, Amazon’s only wireless smart speaker with Alexa inside, can use the device without pushing the button that gives the device its name, a company spokesperson has informed VentureBeat.
Starting today, hands-free mode can be activated by opening the Alexa app, going to Settings, choosing your device, and turning on hands-free mode. To mute the microphone, press and hold the play/pause button.
With the software update that enables hands-free mode f

 Greylock Partners, the Silicon Valley venture firm, has hired a “growth advisor in residence” to help goose growth at its portfolio companies. Casey Winters — who spent nearly three years at Pinterest, and nearly three years at GrubHub before that — will be working with Greylock exclusively for the next six to 12 months. The idea, he explains, is to join a company… Read More

If you play Minecraft on mobile or Windows 10, your worlds could get a whole lot sweeter.
Microsoft today released the Candy Texture Pack for the Pocket and Windows 10 editions of Minecraft, its hit block-building game. The downloadable content enables players to build with blocks that will make their worlds look like something out of Willy Wonka’s factory or that Sugar Rush arcade game from Wreck-It Ralph. It costs $3. Minecraft is one of the most popular games in the world, sel