Technology news

In the weeks before it laid off most of its staff, Yik Yak employees believed the company was back on the right track. After a bruising fall, in which users revolted against the end of anonymous posting, the company appeared to have stabilized. “In the weeks leading up to it, everyone was sort of plugging away,” one former employee told The Verge “There was no assumption like, ‘guys, we’re sunk.’”
Then some employees heard the app’s founders, Brook

8i’s production studio, from the outside, looks like any other Hollywood movie studio. A series of unremarkable brick buildings crowd the Culver City lot. It’s a place where scenes from Gone With the Wind, The Matrix, and countless other movies and TV shows have been filmed, but you wouldn’t know its spectacular history to look at it.Inside Stage 8, it’s a different story. This is where 8i is looking to bridge the old world of entertainment with the new world of “co

Back in 2014, Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s The Lego Movie became a critical hit and an immense financial success, turning a $60 million budget into nearly $470 million in box office take worldwide. That’s the kind of conversation rate that gets studio attention: Warner Animation was already developing The Lego Ninjago Movie, based on the existing Lego toy line, and it immediately signed deals for a Lego Movie sequel and a spinoff, The Lego Batman Movie, as well. Batman seemed like an

It’s been only a day since Verizon resurrected its unlimited data plan, and the company’s competitors are already doing their best to try and counter. T-Mobile has made the first move, with CEO John Legere moments ago announcing two improvements to the carrier’s T-Mobile One unlimited plan that both take effect this coming Friday. Beginning February 17th, the plan will include HD video, an upgrade to the 480p/DVD-quality “optimizations” that are currently in place.

I count many Facebook Messenger chatbots among my closest friends, that’s just me. But did you know some people also count chatbots among their lovers? Are you one of those people? Have you met one of those people? Is everything okay?According to a special Valentine’s Day data report compiled by the analytics platform Dashbot and emailed to me only after I agreed that I was emotionally prepared to digest the contents, about 2.5 percent of the images people send to chatbots are &ldquo

Humble Bundle is known for its charity bundles — pay whatever you want and get a package of books or comics or games with some or all of your payment donated to a designated cause or organization. But the company’s latest effort — The Humble Freedom Bundle — does things a little differently.The minimum donation is $30, and 100 percent of all money donated will go directly to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Doctors Without Borders, and International Rescue Commi

Major automakers are pushing Congress to change the rules regarding vehicle safety to speed the deployment of self-driving cars, according to Reuters. And elected officials from both sides of the aisle appear to be on board, aiming to craft legislation that would relax regulations on autonomous vehicles.Currently, the federal government requires that all vehicles must have steering wheels and brake pedals before if they are to be sold to customers. This presumes there will be a human driver, whi

Seemingly out of nowhere, every post on The Verge’s Facebook page (and several other Facebook pages, including Vox, Polygon, Business Insider, and I Fucking Love Science) has been flooded with GIFs of a purple bird who is not happy about what is going on. One New York Times article has a comment thread in which one person posted the purple bird GIF and then replied to his own comment with the same GIF 92 times. It’s sort of hard to have a conversation about the news through all these

Uber announced today that it would begin generating its own 3D maps of Singapore. This was the latest in a blizzard of news surrounding the ride-hail company’s increased investment in mapping, the goals of which appear to be twofold: outpace Google, and lay the groundwork for Uber’s fleet of self-driving cars.
To map Singapore, Uber says it will be attaching cameras and mapping equipment to vehicles that are already being used to drive on the ride-sharing platform. That way Uber says

Google has spent a lot of money on its self-driving car project, now spun off into a new entity called Waymo. Much of that money has gone to engineers and other staff, according a new report from Bloomberg. In order to keep self-driving staffers happy — and, presumably, from leaving the company for other firms doing similar work — Google backed the proverbial Brinks truck up to the self-driving department and unloaded.Bloomberg says that early staffers “had an unusual compensat

All-electric racing series Formula E is getting a facelift in its fifth season, which starts in late 2018. While we’ve already seen a few fanciful ideas, a new set of concept images has been released by Spark Racing Technologies — the company that will actually be building the second-generation Formula E cars — and they look incredible.Spark, which created the car that the series runs now, published the images over the weekend. The French company promises improved aerodynamics,

Human beings are in danger of being eclipsed by artificial intelligence and need to evolve the ability to communicate directly with machines or risk irrelevance, Elon Musk said in a typically heartwarming speech from everyone’s favorite billionaire technologist.“Over time I think we will probably see a closer merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence," Musk told an audience at the World Government Summit in Dubai, where he also launched Tesla in the United Arab Emira

As NASA continues to develop its next Mars rover, the space agency also has the important job of figuring out where to put the vehicle on the Red Planet. It’s a big decision since the future robot — known as the Mars 2020 rover — will be tasked with preparing samples of Martian dirt that could potentially be returned to Earth. So NASA wants to pick an area with a variety of different rocks and soils to study.
After years of discussion, the space agency has narrowed down the lis

After a stunning performance at last night’s Grammys, Beyoncé has released the music videos for her songs “Love Drought” and “Sandcastles” online. The visuals first appeared as part of the Lemonade film, which aired on HBO last year.
Beyoncé, who recently revealed that she’s pregnant with twins, performed both songs at last night’s event, draped in gold while being attended by a host of dancers. The imagery, certainly of a piece with Lemona

One year ago, Nikon announced the DL series — a new trio of cameras that looked ready to take at least a modest bite out of Sony’s dominant hold over the 4K compact corner of the camera market. Unfortunately it seems we’ll never get to stack Nikon’s cameras against the Sony RX100s of the world, because today Nikon killed off the DL line without selling a single unit.The three cameras were built around the 1-inch “CX” image sensor that Nikon uses in its Nikon 1

It sounds like the dream: a jacket that can hold all your gadgets and knick-knacks while still looking chic. The Airport Jacket is supposed to be that thing. It’s an outerwear designed to carry up to 15 kilograms (33 pounds) of luggage in its 14 pockets and two detachable “pocket panels.” Each of those panels has three pockets that hold up to six kilos, or 13 pounds, of luggage. The jacket itself is also “modular,” in that you can adjust how long it is to make it mo

Last year, AMC’s The Walking Dead betrayed its audience by throwing away beloved characters and coherent storytelling, all in the name of Negan. After the gory season 7 premiere sparked an outrage, viewers began leaving the show in droves, and by the time the midseason finale rolled around, ratings had dropped 40 percent.Now, after two months to rethink and retool, The Walking Dead has returned for the second half of the season. It’s an opportunity for the show to chart a new course,

Over the weekend, North Korea launched a midrange ballistic missile in an unannounced test, an implicit threat to much of East Asia. It’s the kind of unplanned crisis that puts the national security sector on high alert, prompting an emergency for the president and top staff.
Unfortunately, Donald Trump was at Mar-a-Lago, having dinner with Japanese Prime Minister Abe. CNN reports that, instead of retiring to a secure room, Trump took the briefing in the middle of the resort’s public

Razer released an updated version of its 14-inch Blade model last September with Intel’s Skylake chips, but now it’s upgrading to Intel’s latest seventh-generation Kaby Lake processors.Aside from the upgraded chips, the Blade is virtually unchanged from its predecessor, except for a slightly higher price, with the Blade now starting at $1,899 versus the previous model’s $1,799 price tag. The extra hundred dollars gets you a 2.8GHz Core i7 Kaby Lake processor (instead of a

Virtual reality and augmented reality headsets can offer mind-blowing digital experiences, but they are, by design, singular experiences. Trying to describe it to someone without a headset — who sees nothing but real-life objects and a nerd wearing a computer on her face — is an exercise in futility.Microsoft knows this is the case with its HoloLens “mixed reality” headset. So the company has come up with a new way for HoloLens users — specifically HoloLens app make

I had almost given up hope.
In my eight years of reviewing technology, I've been through the ups of anticipating the next Sony device and the downs of actually using it so many times that I didn't think I'd ever get to write about a Sony product that was uncomplicatedly good. But that changes today with the MDR-1000X headphones, which show off Sony's engineering skill at its finest.
These are my favorite noise canceling cans, bar none. The 1000Xs don't come cheap at $399.99, but for that price t

The live-action Ghost in the Shell movie is a little more than a month away, so it’s about time we saw more of what it’s about it. Here, we meet with the film’s villain, who lets on that the Major (Scarlett Johansson) has a history that her bosses at Section 9 have been hiding from her.
The new trailer gives us the clearest sense of what the film will look and feel like as a whole, and it certainly captures the cyberpunk aesthetic series creator Mamoru Oshii established in the

Rumors of Apple’s next iPhones coming with wireless charging are looking more believable now that the company’s officially listed under the Wireless Power Consortium’s members list. As reported by 9to5Mac, Apple appears to have recently joined the consortium, as a cached list from a week ago did not yet include the company.
Last week, a leaked note suggested that Apple is working on adding wireless charging to three phones scheduled for release in 2017. The technology may be si

LG plans to announce its new flagship G6 phone in a few weeks, but details are continuing to trickle out about the upcoming device, including today’s news that the G6 will feature a quad-DAC system for sound output.Per LG’s Korean newsroom, the G6 will feature an ESS-designed 32-bit quad-DAC system, as an upgraded version of the system found in last year’s LG V20. In addition to the improved sound quality found in the V20, LG is touting the new DAC’s ability to control th

Last night’s Grammy Awards were 100 hours long and rife with injustice, including an all-too-predictable Album of the Year snub for Beyoncé’s Lemonade, a boy pop-punk duo taking off their pants in public, and an inexplicable zero nominations for Carly Rae Jepsen’s Emotion Side B.
However, there was one bright spot that nearly alleviated the sting of the other awful stuff: a Target commercial! Congratulations to capitalism, the real winner of the night. Carly Rae Jepsen a

The UK government is considering new laws that target whistleblowers and journalists who obtain or share state secrets. Draft legislation proposed as part of an upcoming overhaul of the UK’s Official Secrets Acts (OSA) could see individuals jailed for up to 14 years for handling leaked information. This is a substantial increase from current laws, which carry a punishment of up to two years’ jail time and an unlimited fine, but only cover the disclosure of such leaked secrets.Advocac

Google Maps just added a new feature that allows users to create lists of favorite locations, for themselves or to share with family or friends. You can also follow your friends’ lists of favorite spots, or send them yours via text, email, messaging apps, or social media. All of which raises the question: is Google Maps trying to become a social network?
The update, which is available today for both iOS and Android, is being billed as a better way to organize all your favorite restaurants,

 Uber’s Southeast Asia rival Grab is in the process of buying up Indonesia-based online payment startup Kudo in its first major acquisition. A source close to discussions confirmed to TechCrunch that talks are ongoing and a deal could be announced as soon this week. Reuters first reported the deal, which it said would be over $100 million however our source suggested that the figure… Read More

Welcome to a new week, Verge readers. Today's the oldest you've even been, but also the youngest you'll ever be again. So, with that in mind, let's take a look at your future.
Today kicks off the big two-day Code Media conference in California with a focus on the trends and topics that shape media. This year's event features the likes of Apple's Eddy Cue, and execs from Google, Facebook, Buzzfeed, and The Washington Post. No doubt there will be plenty of discussion about operating strategies in

If you’re in the UK and looking to buy a Sonos speaker, you better get your order in before February 23rd. After then, prices will be rising by up to 25 percent across the company’s various product ranges, thanks to Brexit.Sonos’ most affordable speaker, the Play:1, is increasing in price from £169 to £199; the mid-range Play:3 is going up from £259 to £299; while the top-of-the-line Play:5 used to cost £429 and will now set you back £499. Th

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver is back, and although the world seems to have changed irrevocably since it was last on air, Oliver’s shtick remains pretty much the same. The first episode of Last Week Tonight’s fourth season aired on Sunday and was dedicated almost entirely to President Donald Trump. During the course of half an hour, Oliver’s outrage built over Trump’s cabinet picks, his inability to shake hands, and his love of fiction, opinion, and belief, instead a