Technology news

Marissa Mayer announced today in a note posted to her personal Tumblr page that she will be redistributing her annual bonus and equity stock grant to Yahoo employees. The chief exec is doing so as a tacit admission of failure following Yahoo’s two separate security breaches revealed last year that collectively compromised the personal information of more than 1.5 billion users. The move, a rather unprecedented act in the tech industry, signals just how severe a mistake it was to allow Yaho

In Stranger Things and The OA, Netflix has found success with shows about missing children with possible supernatural connections. Now, it’s adding a third show to that roster, Dark.
The trailer shows off a grim premise: children are vanishing, seemingly being swallowed by the earth near the down of Winden. We see glimpses of distraught parents, and search parties looking through fields and forests. It’s not long before a supernatural connection is made: it’s not who kidnapped

The Game Developers Choice Awards are basically the Oscars of gaming, when the industry comes together and a group of specially selected members vote on the best video games of the year. It’s a night when the entire gaming community comes to celebrate the developers, designers, and companies that make the entertainment we enjoy.
Along with the Game Developers Choice Awards, which focuses on more mainstream titles, there’s the Independent Games Festival Awards. Those highlight the ach

Before every episode of The Vergecast I sit down, read through a bunch of news, and take a bunch of notes. It’s one of the most enjoyable parts of my week, and I started thinking it might be fun to do every day on the site. So, every day this week I’m sitting down and writing some notes on the news as though I’ll be talking about it later. Are you into this? Am I into this? I don’t know. But it’s fun to do! Give me some feedback and we’ll keep mutating this in

BioLite is known for its CampStove: a device that generates power from fire so you can charge electronics out in the wilderness. The company announced its new CampStove 2 today, which features a LED interface that provides real time data about the strength of a fire, the power stored in its 2,600mAh battery, and the airflow level. BioLite also says it upped its power generation so the CampStove now has a 3-watt output through its USB port. The CampStove 2 costs the same as the original at $129.9

Apple shareholders rejected a proposal yesterday that would have required the company to improve the diversity of its top ranks. This is the second year in a row that Apple shareholders have shot down the proposal, with just over 95 percent of the vote opposing it this time around — slightly more than last year.
The proposal, submitted by shareholders Tony Maldonado and Zevin Asset Management, asked Apple to “adopt an accelerated recruitment policy ... to increase the diversity of se

Science is expensive, and for most of its history, the funding has come from wealthy patrons: nobility, the very rich, and — most notably — the US government. President Donald Trump plans to change that, with his plan to slash spending on basic science by 10.5 percent in 2018.
Don’t panic yet: there’s a hurdle. The White House has to convince lawmakers to roll back the Budget Control Act (BCA) of 2011, which is aimed at keeping a balance between military and civilian spen

Have you ever wondered what Link from The Legend of Zelda would look like if he shopped at Hot Topic and played guitar in a crappy metal band? Well, so did Nintendo’s Satoru Takizawa, who oversaw art direction for the latest entry in the series, The Breath of the Wild. Speaking at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Takizawa revealed some early concept art for Link that showed a more... modern look, shall we say. He also showed some bizarre early versions of BoTW that indicate

Another day, another iPhone rumor. Today’s comes from a UBS research note summed up by Business Insider that claims that Apple "may have over 1,000 engineers working on a project in Israel that could be related to AR.” The UBS note also commented that the company expect Apple to include augmented reality tech as early as its next iPhone (which should be released this fall assuming the current release pattern holds).
The rumors fall in line a report from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Ch

In case you just can’t stomach another Sean Spicer press conference, New Zealand is offering you a way out. The city of Wellington is attempting to fill 100 open tech jobs by flying worthy candidates to the land next to the land down under, free. The program, called LookSee Wellington, requires interested parties to fill out an online job application. If accepted, candidates receive free flights and accommodation for a four-day stay in one of the most beautiful places on earth. The t

The FCC has halted a set of privacy rules that would have required internet providers to more responsibly handle your sensitive data.
Internet providers have been lobbying to overturn the entire set of privacy rules for a couple months now — in short, they don’t like that they’ll soon have to ask permission to share your web browsing habits.
And with today’s action, it seems that they’re likely to get their wish. The stricter consumer privacy protections aren’

Snap, parent company of the popular Snapchat app, will reportedly price its offering at $17 a share, giving it a valuation of $24 billion and putting around $4 billion in cash into its coffers.
The company had been hoping to sell around $3 billion worth of stock at around $15 a share, which would have given it a valuation of roughly $21 billion. During its last big round of funding Snapchat was reportedly valued at about $20 billion.
Like Twitter, Snap has growth but no profits
Like Twitter, Sna

The next Zelda adventure is the biggest yet, but it’s also a game that helms closely to the series’ roots on the NES. And it actually started life as an 8-bit game. During a presentation at the Game Developers Conference today, Breath of the Wild director Hidemaro Fujibayashi revealed a prototype of the game that looks remarkably like the original 8-bit rendition of The Legend of Zelda — but with concepts introduced in Breath of the Wild.
The prototype was used as a proof of co

The Fullbright Company staked out a very distinct space with its 2010 debut Gone Home, a domestic slice of life set in 1990s Oregon. Its next project, Tacoma, couldn’t look more different. Tacoma takes place in the year 2088, on a space station of the same name. At first glance, it’s a return to the genre roots of Fullbright’s co-founders, who previously worked on the Bioshock 2 expansion Minerva’s Den. But it’s also shaping up to be a clever, sophisticated new take

Gaming in VR has a bit of a barrier to entry. Nestled between the phone-based headsets and the high-end experiences is the PlayStation VR, but that’s still $399 plus the PlayStation itself. For Oculus or HTC you’re looking at $800-plus and a high-end gaming rig that should set you back at least a grand. Oculus today narrowed the margin, if only slightly. The company today announced a price drop on its Rift headset with Touch controllers. The bundle will now sell for $598, down from

Augmented reality is a tough trick to pull off in the real world, and one only need to look at things like the Google Glass to see how hard it is to make wearable technology that both enhances life digitally without awkwardly intruding on the real world. The WatchThru is a concept created by a team of researchers from University of Bremen, Google, and Hasselt University that offers a different spin on AR with an intriguing expansion to traditional smartwatches: a second transparent display for a

Tinder built its app empire on the idea that dating is superficial, so now, multiple students at the New Jersey Institute of Technology are leaning into that idea. They have developed a new dating app called FaceDate that relies on a facial recognition algorithm to generate potential matches.
When setting up an account, users upload photos of people they find attractive. The app will then suggest people who match their preferences. There probably isn’t a George Clooney in the mix, but mayb

Wolverine has been a fan-favorite member of the X-Men since the mid-1970s, but he’s only been visible on-screen since the ‘80s. Since then, he’s become perhaps the most recognizable (and, at times, the most over-extended) X-Man in the franchise’s history. He’s been everywhere, and Hugh Jackman’s breakout performance in 2000’s X-Men only further cemented him as the X-Men character for a good portion of fandom. You just can’t get away from Weapon X.

A new way to warm up frozen tissue using tiny vibrating particles could one day help with the problem of organ shortages.We know how to cool organs to cryogenic temperatures, which is usually below 320 degrees Fahrenheit. But the organs can’t be stored for long — sometimes only four hours for heart and lungs — because they get damaged when you try to warm them up. As a result, more than 60 percent of donor hearts and lungs aren’t transplanted. In a study published today i

Most cars are used for a single, simple task: get the driver and their passengers from point A to point B. If we’re honest — though they start around the $200,000 mark — most McLaren sports cars are probably used for the same purpose.
But some McLarens are used to go from point A to point A over and over again — that is, to drive around a racetrack. And the needs of a driver on a racetrack are very different from someone going to the grocery store.
To suit those needs, Mc

It’s March, which means that there’s a whole new slate of books ready to crowd our bookshelves — books about robots, revolutions, and vast space empires to tear into.Earlier this year, I mentioned that I’m trying to expand my reading horizons in 2017. Left to my own devices, I tend to sink into science fiction and fantasy novels, but I’ve been trying to whittle down my pile of other books lately. One book I recently knocked off the list is The Lion in the Living Roo

Microsoft today announced that Acer’s first mixed reality headset will ship to developers later this month, making it the standard development edition for the Windows Holographic platform. The news, shared onstage this morning at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, means that Microsoft is moving fast to try and expand its augmented and virtual reality ambitions beyond the HoloLens headset. The company first announced that it would be partnering with device manufacturers for Wi

If you see something worrying on a Live broadcast, Facebook is making it easier for you to get help. The company is introducing new suicide prevention measures, including crisis support and streamlined reporting. It’s aiming to help at-risk people on Facebook Live and Messenger. If you see something concerning on a Live broadcast, you will see an option to contact an organization to get help for yourself or the broadcaster. Participating organizations are Crisis Text Line, the N

At the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco today, Microsoft announced a couple of important steps in its push toward mixing the real world with the virtual. First off, the company confirmed mixed reality experiences are coming to the Xbox family in 2018, including the next-gen Project Scorpio. If you’re confused about what “mixed reality” is, you’re not alone. Basically, it’s a term encompassing both virtual reality and augmented reali

The PlayStation Vita is nearly impossible to find on store shelves as Sony lets its quirky handheld ride into the sunset. But an unexpected group isn’t ready to let go of the Vita just yet: indie game developers working on its new competitor, the Nintendo Switch.
At GDC 2017, Nintendo gathered a band of indie developers to talk about the pleasure and ease of bringing their games to the Switch. And while the room was full of enthusiasm for the new hardware, a couple developers said the upco

As vain and manufactured as our online personas can be, Facebook is still a popular avenue for venting and rambling about our day-to-day struggles. Facebook recognizes this, and is now working on new ways to help troubled users with the use of artificial intelligence and pattern recognition, in addition to expanding its suicide prevention tools.
The new tools are similar to what Facebook launched back in 2015, which allows friends to flag a troubling image or status post. Now, this feature is av

If you’ve ever wondered how exactly car commercials get made — like how footage is captured of brand new, seemingly expensive vehicles driving dangerously fast — then visual effects studio The Mill would like to introduce you to the Cyclops.That’s the Grecian code name for a multi-purpose rig that combines a decked out off-roading dune buggy called the Blackbird with some cutting-edge camera, editing, and graphics rendering technology. The end result is a vehicle on the r

Prisma, that app that turns your photos into paintings using AI, is about to get a ton of new filters. First off, the app is launching an in-app “store” to download new filters. We say that in quotes, because so far, all the filters are free. Prisma says it will be adding new styles every week, and is looking to ramp up to daily additions. You’ll also be able to rate and share styles in the “near future.” What’s more, you can now delete the filters

Prisma, makers of the deep learning-powered image app of the same name, is finally letting users create their own filters. Today, the company launched a new web application that lets people upload a sample image and create a Prisma filter based on its characteristics. At the moment, Prisma is only inviting “the most active users” to try it out, but says it’ll be opening it up to more people in the future, and porting it over to mobile too. The company has also launched an updat

The original Street Fighter II was released in arcades in 1991. Since then, its developer Capcom released a truly breathtaking number of versions: Street Fighter II: Champion Edition, Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting, Super Street Fighter II, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Hyper Street Fighter II, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, and last but certainly not least, the upcoming Ultra Street Fighter II for the Nintendo Switch. Today, Capcom announced that Ultra Street Fighter II: The

In an oddly ironic turn of events, security researchers from Google have uncovered a vulnerability in Mac antivirus software that – contrary to its purpose – exposed your system to malicious interceptions. Curiously, the app was developed by the same company that discovered this cheeky Pornhub malware. Googlers Jason Geffner and Jan Bee found the flaw in ESET’s Endpoint Antivirus 6 for macOS built specifically to “eliminate all types of threats, inclu

I’ve finally figured out Sony’s mobile strategy. The proud Japanese company understands that its competitiveness in the mobile sector is over. It knows it will never again speak the same language as US carriers, and it’s aware that European consumers have shifted their preference over to devices from Samsung, Apple, and a bevy of cheaper and better Android rivals. Ergo, Sony no longer gives a fuck and has decided to just go out in a blaze of glory. And that’s how we arriv

Two rumors about Snap’s product lineup leaked today. The first: the company is building a drone. The second: it has also considered building a 360-degree camera. These products sound remarkably underwhelming and have me slightly concerned about the company’s future in hardware. Does Snap just want to be GoPro but better? (GoPro is floundering, by the way.)It’s unclear whether Snap intentionally leaked these stories or if reporters dug the scoops up themselves, but in either cas

For a few days now, rumors and reports have been circulating that the cartridges for the new Nintendo Switch taste really bad when you lick them or put them in your mouth. The Verge can now confirm that, yes, licking a Switch cart is the absolute worst. Don’t lick your Switch cartridges.
It never actually occurred to our reviewers to lick the cartridges we tested, because honestly who does that. But the internet could not be ignored. Here’s GiantBomb’s Jeff Gerstmann putting a

Microsoft is unveiling some changes to the way Windows Updates are applied to Windows 10 PCs with the upcoming Creators Update. The software giant has long been criticized by Windows 10 users for its aggressive approach to applying updates, and it’s introducing some new options to prevent annoying reboots. “What we heard back most explicitly was that you want more control over when Windows 10 installs updates,” admits John Cable, Microsoft’s Windows director of program ma

The Nintendo Switch is the most revolutionary console we’ve seen from the Japanese gamemaker in a really long time. It’s broken barriers in all sorts of areas – from portability, to the system of control. But one seldom-discussed area in which the Nintendo Switch excels is in getting kids not to eat the goddamn cartridges. Yes, if you’re lucky enough to own a Switch, it’s a really bad idea to suck on your cartridges. That’s because, according to several sourc

Security researchers have disclosed a concerning vulnerability in popular chat client Slack that allowed attackers to hijack your account and take control of your entire communication line. The flaw, which was initially spotted and documented by Frans Rosén from cybersecurity firm Detectify, basically allows ill-intended individuals to snatch your Slack token by tricking you into opening a malicious page. What tipped Rosén off about this loophole was a glitch in the