Technology news

As far as tech and culture conferences go, SXSW has managed to maintain its reputation as a fair-weathered food-truck party over the past several years, while somehow simultaneously transforming downtown Austin, Texas into a Disneyland of brand activations. For some people who can’t make it to the festival, the FOMO is real: Tacos! Thought leadership! James Franco spottings!Really, though, SXSW is a lot like many other events now, where people pay money to fly in from all over the world to

Sony comes out to the SXSW festival here in Austin every year mainly to showcase its prototype and proof-of-concept projects, all part of its R&D-focused Future Lab program. We’ve seen some interesting touchscreen projector tech and headphones that let ambient noise in, but Sony this year moved into experimental wearables with a new device that uses movement to manipulate sound.The wristband, part of what the company is calling its Motion Sonic project, has sensors and microphones to c

Over the past two decades, we’ve filled our homes with devices capable of listening in on our conversations and surreptitiously recording our movements if we tap a bad link or install something that we shouldn’t, accidentally handing access over to a hacker. But the list of vulnerable devices includes phones and computers and connect speakers — not microwave ovens.
Over the weekend, Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway tried to defend the president’s unproven claims that he was

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

Atomic Blonde is a violent, neon-drenched pleasure romp. Charlize Theron is in her finest action form as an ass-kicking MI6 agent who can crack a man’s skull in — or sometimes with — a fine pair of heels. But her best accessory? The film’s killer soundtrack, a mix of ‘80s synthpop that elevates the film above typical action-genre fanfare.With every superbly choreographed move Theron takes, there is an equally perfect song added for garnish. The film leans into its 1

Look: I’m not saying that the Vinci headphones, which puts a full touchscreen interface on wireless headphones, are a good idea. But they are definitely an idea that managed to raise over a million dollars on Indiegogo. The idea is simple: you just want your music on your headphones instead of on your phone, but really you also want Spotify and the only good way to do that is to use a touchscreen. Bam: customize Android a bit and put it on the side of some cans — well they’re m

The 10th season of the rebooted Doctor Who is almost here, and the BBC is stepping up the marketing with a new trailer ahead of the April 15th premiere. While we’ve already seen bits and pieces from the upcoming season, the new trailer gives us our best look yet at The Doctor’s latest adventures, as well as the return of some familiar foes in the form of the Daleks and the Cyberman.Fans have been waiting a long time for a proper new season of Doctor Who, following the ninth season in

The SXSW festival here in Austin has always contained strands of futurism. Beyond the brands and the parties and the barbecue, it’s a place where people come and prognosticate about technology and what it’ll look like years from now. But in recent years, attendees of SXSW have taken on the bolder, weirder, and longer-term mission of trying to imagine what the world will look like when we have human-level artificial intelligence and science fiction-grade human augmentation. Because wh

Charlize Theron became an action star with her role as Furiosa in 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, but she had spent decades fighting for roles in a genre that favors men. She played support in The Italian Job and Reindeer Games, and leads in Aeon Flux and the pair of The Hunstman films. But never — Fury Road included — has Theron been given the chance to solitarily own the spotlight. That changes with Atomic Blonde.
Atomic Blonde, which premiered this week at SXSW, feels like the cu

Sony announced today that it’s expanding its PlayStation Now streaming service to include current-generation PS4 games. Currently the service lets players stream legacy PlayStation 3 games to PS4s and PCs for a $19.99 monthly cost. PS4 games will be added to PS Now at no additional cost to subscribers, but Sony isn’t saying exactly when to expect the new titles to be added to the catalog or what games to expect to be able to play.Sony recently announced that it would be discontinuing

Apple’s latest iPhone ad debuted today, and it’s focused on highlighting the Stickers feature that came to iMessage with iOS 10. As to be expected from an Apple ad, it’s a highly polished production, featuring a slew of diverse and attractive young adults running around their town, slapping animated iMessage stickers on the various and sundry inhabitants and locations.In an age where Snapchat reigns supreme among “the teens,” it feels a lot like Apple is trying to s

Ghost in the Shell will hit theaters in just over two weeks, and fans of the original, as well as online observers, are already gearing up for a fight. Paramount recently launched an online campaign to promote the film at IAmMajor.me, allowing anyone to upload photos of themselves and add bold, affirmative statements like “I Am The Best At Nickelrolling.” It was supposed to be some light fun.
It did not go well. Instead, fans took to Twitter to highlight how the film not only whitewa

Ever wanted an app to paint you like one of its French girls? No? When you see what Philm can do, you will! What is it? Philm is a photo-editing app which modifies your photos and videos to look like different kinds of artwork — kind of like Prisma. The series of filters available are an art lover’s dream. Want a selfie that looks like a Van Gogh painting? Easy! Want your dog to look like a comic book character? Simple. Want to make your daughter’s ballet class look like an ac

Seventy years ago this week, the first Ferrari hit the streets of Maranello, Italy for a test drive. It was the 12-cylinder 125 S, the first to bear the name of Enzo Ferrari, and, naturally, the company wants to celebrate.
Along with a video re-creating the first time the 125 S rolled out of Ferrari’s modest garage, the company has published a website commemorating major achievements from Ferrari’s last 70 years — everything from Formula One wins and championships to the releas

SXSW has been an absolute mess of open bars, breakfast tacos, and weird weather patterns. But there was also a live Vergecast — also a mess, although the very best kind of mess.We’re doing one more live show here in Austin, and if you’re around, we’d love to see you! Come by National Geographic’s Further Base Camp (née Vulcan Gas Company, at 418 E 6th Street) on Tuesday, March 14th at 12:30PM local time. Doors open at noon, and yes, there’s an open bar.

BionicM is out to disrupt the prosthesis industry. Most of us probably weren’t aware prosthetic legs were ripe for disruption in the first place, but after seeing beautifully-crafted and highly-functional prosthesis from the team out of JSK robotics lab at the University of Tokyo, it’s clear BionicM is on to something. SXSW organizers seem to agree, as the company is up for an Innovation Award for its technology. What is it? BionicM is a project designed to improve prosthesis.

According to documents filed with the SEC today by Yahoo, CEO Marissa Mayer will receive “golden parachute compensation” totaling over $23 million when Verizon successfully closes its buyout of Yahoo’s internet properties. That payout will be a mixture of cash (around $3 million), equity, and benefits.“The values in this column represent the cash payments to which the executive officer would be entitled under either the change-in-control plan or under the severance agreem

In the past years, a collection of hardware, software and online service have managed to bring changes and reforms to classrooms and teaching methods. But the true disruption of education is yet to arrive. Artificial Intelligence has proven its role as a game changing factor in an increasing number of fields, causing transformations unimaginable in the past. It’s now showing glimmers of how it might forever change the learning process, one of the oldest skills that mankind has mastered. H

The Pagani Zonda S Roadster is more than a decade old. It was the first roadster from the Italian supercar maker, and just 40 were built. But, even though it was introduced in 2003 — kids born that year are starting high school this fall — it's still a gorgeous piece of machinery. And so, to show off a bit of its history, Pagani parked one in its booth at the Geneva Motor Show last week.Officially known as the Zonda S 7.3 Roadster, the car promised no loss of performance from the cou

Pandora is one of the oldest music streaming services around. Ever since it launched, users have had one main complaint: they want the option to choose their own music. Now, they finally can. The company is today launching Pandora Premium, a$9.99 a month subscription tier that leverages its acquisition of Rdio to finally offer a legitimate competitor to the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Play Music. On the face of it, it appears to work largely like you’d expect from an on-dema

Getting Android to run on iOS is one of the ultimate achievements for hacking, as the locked-down nature of Apple’s platform makes that extremely hard to do. The Eye is an iPhone case seeking funding on Kickstarter that looks to be the next contender for running iOS and Android on one device, by taking the somewhat obvious approach of simply attaching an entire Android phone to the back.The end result is a strange Franken-phone, where one side is an iPhone, the other an Android device. Eye

Health data collected entirely from smartphones can be reliable, research from Mount Sinai Hospital claims. The researchers involved found that Apple’s ResearchKit platform and an app for asthma were fairly accurate when compared to existing patient studies.Finding and recruiting participants is a big hurdle for medical studies. In recent years, people have started collecting health data from smartphones, which seems sensible given how common smartphones are. But this raises questions abou

Beer is great, and home brewed beers are some of the best (or absolute worst). Minibrew promises consistency in home brewing by making the process as idiot-proof as possible through a smartphone app and delivery service. In fact, it’s about as easy as making coffee (although it takes a bit longer). It’s also one of the more practical products I found on the SXSW show floor, and one that really fits a need. What is it? Minibrew is an interesting mix of hardware, software, and a deliv

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

The Austin-based band White Denim has a new song out today, but you can only listen to it if it’s raining where you are. Spotify is releasing the track, called “Seek No Shelter,” as part of a partnership with The North Face, which is trying to sell its new rain jacket, Pitchfork reports. I guess the idea is you won’t need to seek shelter during a rainstorm if you have a sick new jacket.A song for rainy days only
The streaming service is using geotargeting to make the song

By now, Kim Kardashian's presence in our lives is pretty much back to normal. 
She posts on Snapchat daily and her tweets fill our timelines—but it wasn't that long ago the media mogul was completely off the grid following the robbery in her Paris hotel room that had her tied up and at gunpoint. 
In the highly anticipated Season 13 of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Kim explains to her sisters—and all of us—what exactly went down that October night. 
SEE ALSO: M

When George Hankers stood blindfolded in Trafalgar Square, brandishing a sign that red "I'M HIV+" in big letters, he wasn't sure how members of the public would respond. But, he was moved when countless strangers left messages of support and solidarity for him, commending him for his bravery and encouraging him to stay strong.
Hankers' blindfold is symbolic of his feelings after he was first diagnosed with HIV. He battled with very low self-esteem and felt he'd "been blinded from hope." But thi

The exhibition floor at SXSW offers a mixed bag of experiences, from smart motorcycle helmets to devices that induce stuttering (true story, I tried it, it didn’t work). But one of the more intriguing products was to be found at Canada’s stand: Fragment, a smart commemorative object that helps grieving relatives get through their pain. At first glance, the object caught my attention because it looked like something straight off the internet of shit twitter. A smart urn, really? But

Controversy machine, couch-sitter, and presidential aide Kellyanne Conway is back in the fight after addressing accusations that the Trump campaign was wiretapped, as the president alleged during an early morning tweet storm over a week ago.
SEE ALSO: Calm down. Here's what you actually need to know about the WikiLeaks dump
And that's where we get our latest Kellyanne Head-Scratcher. During an interview with The Bergen Record, Conway discussed those wiretapping allegations and, during one exchan

Tonight, in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, SpaceX plans to launch one of its Falcon 9 rockets from Cape Canaveral, Florida, lofting a communications satellite into orbit for satellite operator EchoStar. Called EchoStar XXIII, the satellite will sit in a high orbit above Earth and provide broadcast services for Brazil. The rocket is slated to launch the satellite at 1:34AM ET.
This mission will not include a rocket landing post-takeoff
Unlike the majority of SpaceX’s launches over the pa

Cries From Syria is hard to watch.
The Syrian civil war documentary from Academy Award-winning director Evgeny Afineefsky examines Syria's painful struggle with an oppressive regime, and every stage of the story is riddled with horrific violence against the innocent.
"I realized that to answer the refugee puzzle is to go back and deconstruct the history, which is what I did," Afineefsky told Mashable.
SEE ALSO: Veteran speaks out against 'Muslim ban' with incredible Iraq storyAfineefsky started

Sometimes, you need to combine two magical foods to create a masterpiece.
The DIY YouTube food magicians over at Hellthy Junk Food are well known for creating ridiculous or oversized versions of fast food creations. And sometimes they also just make some truly odd meals.
This time, Julia and JP face off to create their own versions of an Oreo taco, because the world will never have too many tacos.  Read more...
More about Food, Hellthy Junk Food, Oreo, Taco Bell, and Watercooler

The political bomb you probably haven't heard of is the announcement of a second referendum on Scottish independence, to be held between autumn 2018 and spring 2019. 
SEE ALSO: J.K. Rowling trolls Donald Trump with the most British reference ever
But worry no more, because J.K. Rowling is here to remind us she predicted it basically one minute after the Brexit vote. 
Rowling just retweeted one post from the day after the referendum on Britain's membership in the European Union, 24 June

A young boy was stopped by a Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Association official when he attempted to hug his sister after her state championship win on March 11. 
SEE ALSO: Youth basketball coach savagely blocks a kid's shot on his own basket
After Appleton North’s girls basketball team was presented with its first ever championship trophy, junior guard Sydney Levy's little brother Jaylen was super excited to run onto the court to give his sister a big hug. That's whe

Apple’s list of HomeKit-compatible devices just got a whole lot better. While Apple has offered a list on its website that tracked which devices work with HomeKit, the new version (as first spotted by 9to5Mac) is far more useful. It now sorts products by category instead of brand, and notes whether or not the devices are actually available for purchase or not (along with links to purchase those that are).
The new directory breaks down offers for the following categories of Apple-compatible

Terriers are known for their energy and excitement. They are also known for their cute little faces while they run around like someone who has had too much caffeine.
There's no truer display of a terrier's personality than this Jack Russell named Olly. Olly competed in the Crufts dog show in the UK on Sunday, but his excitement was too much for an agility course to handle. He faceplanted, literally faceplanted, as he made his way through.
Olly may not have walked away with a trophy for his perf

It’s hard to think of a filmmaker who’s a better fit for SXSW than Edgar Wright. Movies like Shaun of the Dead, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, and The World’s End are odes to genre, whimsy, and Wright’s impeccable directorial talents — but they’re also movies that love other movies. The filmmaker-friendly spirit of Austin’s annual culture-fest makes a perfect setting for the world premiere of Wright’s latest film, Baby Driver.Spawned from a 22-year-o

By now, we've seen enough photos and videos of the belated Samsung Galaxy S8 to have a very good idea of what the phone will look like, and its specs aren't exactly a secret, either. 
But most of those leaks have shown either the black or the silver version of the S8. Now, courtesy of a new photos dug up by Android Central in the obscure corners of Twitter, we can see what the upcoming Samsung flagship will look in other colors. 
SEE ALSO: Samsung's gonna delay the Galaxy S8 again, rep

My least favorite thing about Breaking Bad is that it takes almost two days to binge-watch all of its five seasons in one go – unless you watch this truncated fan version of the show on Vimeo. One hardcore Breaking Bad admirer has cut the entire series and rearranged it into a full-fledged feature film. This means you can (re)witness Walter White’s grim transition from a harmless chemistry teacher to an all-mighty drug lord without losing your entire we

We all have our faults—mine just happens to be a really, really big one. 
The rumors are true. I have never seen the original Beauty and the Beast. With all the hype surrounding the live-action version, opening this week, I figured there was no better time to redeem myself than the present. So a few days ago, I downloaded the 1991 Oscar-nominated animated film. Below are my somewhat unfiltered thoughts while watching this classic for the very first time. 
Please don't shame me.&n