Technology news

The Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 launch and subsequent two recalls were arguably the most embarrassing consumer electronics mishap in recent memory, so you’d think users might be a bit more cautious buying Samsung gear just a few short months later. Nope: if Samsung’s S8 sales are any indication, consumers have all but forgotten the whole flaming phone fiasco just six months prior. Not only did the device exceed break Samsung’s record for mobile

A former Lyft driver is filing a class action lawsuit against Uber less than a month after The Information exposed its controversial “Hell” program. Between 2014 and 2016, the software program allowed Uber to track how many Lyft drivers were available and where, as well as which Uber drivers also worked for Lyft.The Information reported that Uber created fake Lyft rider accounts and spoofed their location, thereby allowing them to gather data on available drivers. The company reporte

A cat hanging out with a giant, scary rattlesnake is not something you see every day, but that's what you're about to see.
We don't know if they were friends or destroy each other or didn't care either way, but one police department caught sight of the two unlikely animals inhabiting the same three-foot space.
The Laguna Vista Police Department posted images around this unlikely possible friendship last Thursday, when the department posted a warning about the emergence of a simply enormous rattl

Over the weekend, an unknown intruder broke into HipChat, the Atlassian-owned team communication platform, and made off with a significant amount of data. According to a security notice published on the HipChat blog, the attacker was able to access user-account information, including names, email addresses, and hashed passwords. Ganesh Krishnan, Atlassian’s Chief Security Officer, said the company hashes all passwords using the bcrypt algorithm, with a random salt. In short, security best

Silicon Valley is Mike Judge and Alec Berg’s biting comedy about the American tech industry, now in its fourth season. Every week, we’ll be taking one idea, scene, or joke and explain how it ties to the real Silicon Valley and speaks to an issue at the heart of the industry and its ever-lasting goal to change the world — and make boatloads of money in the process.
Spoilers ahead for the first episode of season 4, “Success Failure.”
HBO’s tech industry comedy S

Several embassies of the United States would like you to know about Mar-a-Lago. The one in the United Kingdom is promoting Trump's extravagant resort on its website. The one in Albania, meanwhile, is promoting the place on its Facebook page. Have you heard of Mar-a-Lago? Perhaps you have. 
Mar-a-Lago is the Florida estate purchased in 1985 by President Donald Trump and owned by The Trump Organization. He visits it often, and did so many times during the colder months of early 2017. He tried

Drivers aren't too happy with Uber — that's not news.
SEE ALSO: All the details of Uber's 'PLEASE LOVE US AGAIN' phone call
But one driver is taking advantage of a previously unknown business practice, reported by The Information, that made the life of Lyft drivers hell. The program, aptly codenamed "Hell," reportedly spied on Lyft drivers from 2014 to 2016, giving Uber an unfair advantage. Michael Gonzales filed a class action lawsuit against Uber in the Northern District of California co

The Circle's premise is darkly obvious — the trailers alone are overt PSAs for the evils of social media. So is anyone surprised that things took an awkward turn when the film's freethinking cast did a live Q&A at Twitter with C.E.O. Jack Dorsey?
There was no way this did not end with Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, Patton Oswalt and director James Ponsoldt accidentally roasting Dorsey as he silently fidgeted and fumedThe Circle comes out this weekend and hasn't screened for critics yet, but

If this isn't some sort of sign, we don't know what is.
According to The Weather Network, Mississippi and Alabama experienced severe storms this past weekend, including at least three reported tornados. In the aftermath of the storms, Janis Melton took this photo of a tree burning from the inside out after being struck by lightning in Baldwyn, Mississippi. Alabama meteorologist extraordinaire James Spann tweeted the photo, and oh dear God nature has opened up the fiery gates of Hell.This tree wa

A hacker is waging war on ISIS, with porn. WauchulaGhost — who formerly pointed out security flaws in President Trump’s Twitter account, as well as those of his cabinet members —  claims to have hacked over 250 Twitter accounts known to be associated with ISIS. He told CNN: We started hijacking their accounts, taking over their accounts, basically just to troll them. To annoy them and make fun of them. Take screen shots, phone numbers, IP addresses, the whole nine yards.

Meet your new favorite superhero. 
This isn't your next Marvel feature film, but man, this is a good movie, I mean, ad. Here we have UberMan, and he wants to "save San Francisco from the incredible distractive and inconvenient transportation system."
Ride-hailing giant Uber is having a rough, rough, rough year so far. But luckily this little gem of a video was surfaced thanks to some dedicated reporters (h/t Harry McCracken).
Oh how far you've come, Uber. Check out Uber's old YouTube Chann

Sunday marked the first anniversary of Beyoncé's legendary visual album, Lemonade. The project, which premiered on HBO, went on to collect Grammy awards, a Peabody award, and more—but perhaps more importantly, for the entire duration of the premiere, Twitter was united and in awe of the singer. 
Together as a timeline, folks went through the rollercoaster of emotions brought about by Lemonade. In honor of the short film and subsequent album, we've gathered the best throwback tw

MTV’s Catfish: The TV Show, a morally questionable documentary series based on the infamous, morally questionable documentary film of the same name, usually seeks out romantic relationships between internet strangers from which to draw poignant and/or horrifying human drama.But for the remainder of the show’s sixth season, it is trying something new: it’s uniting in the real world internet acquaintances who do not love each other!According to a series of casting calls posted on

It's hard out there for a street performer. To get attention, you either have to have a unique act or incredible skill.
The man in this video, known as the street artist MORF, has both. He is seen here captivating a crowd in the streets of London with his guitar skills, a combination of strumming, picking, and tapping to create his own percussive backtrack. As the song picks up tempo, his hands fly over the strings.
We can't look away and we can't stop listening. Read more...
More about London,

On Sunday, The Associated Press published a breathtaking 7,924 word interview with President Trump. Only a tiny percentage of those words were assembled into actual sentences.
The president's word salads aren't particularly new, nor are his hair-raising split-second shifts in foreign policy. But it's important that we all take a moment for the innocent intern forced to translate Trump's word potpourri into English-ish sentences. 
SEE ALSO: Here’s how two local Welsh lads made brewing

Search the sidelines of most marathons and you'll find kind spectators offering a bit of sustenance to the racers. 
But while most people offer runners water, gatorade, and maybe even a beer towards the finish line, at the London Marathon this weekend, one dude offered something much better: a slice of pepperoni pizza. Because he is a damn hero.
While a bunch of runners passed by the offer, one very excited dude gladly accepted and continued running like a champ. Hey, sometimes you just ne

A newly discovered ant species has a particularly moody name: Sericomyrmex radioheadi.
Scientists named the fungus-farming ant to honor both the music and climate change activism of British rock band Radiohead.
This particular species, found in Venezuela's slice of the Amazon rainforest, is a less-famous relative of the more popular leaf-cutter ant, they said in a study published Monday in the journal ZooKeys.
SEE ALSO: These hero ants perform dramatic, mind-boggling rescues of their wounded com

Copy-pasting on mobile is — to use a technical term — a fucking hassle. Now Android is trying eliminate the “copy” half with the help of your browsing history. Your phone would use “context” to determine what you want to paste. If you visit a specific site in a Chrome browser, then open a new window or app where you have to type something, you will get related information as a suggestion. Provide suggestions for text input, based on your recent context. For e

What’s holding you back from achieving everything you wish for? You.
Taking that first step towards your goals may be the hardest thing you’ll ever do, but it’s a step you’ll thank yourself for in the long term. By taking even one step towards your goal you’ll be closer than you were before, and by constantly moving towards it you’ll relish the thought of being closer than yesterday.
So how can you be unlimited?
Unlocking the unlimited version of yourself begi

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of Wild is a really big game. To prove it, Imgur user Dystify took the game's overworld map and compared it to some other famous game worlds.
Spoiler: Breath of the Wild is the biggest Zelda game yet.SEE ALSO: Kid won't take no for an answer: Builds a Nintendo Switch out of cardboard
The above GIF starts with Breath of the Wild's starting zone, the roughly 0.2-square-mile Great Plateau, and then plops Zelda: Ocarina of Time's map right on top. Although Ocarina of Time

Around the world, global warming is making unprecedented weather and climate events far more likely to occur, with the planet now teetering on the edge of a new era of routinely damaging global warming-related extremes, a new study found. 
The study, published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that in addition to making extreme events more likely across broad swaths of the globe, climate change is also making such events more severe.
The study is rooted in an

Fox News has a whole new problem on its hands — and it could cost its owners a $14 billion deal.
Fox News executives have been accused of conducting a social media harassment campaign and hacking into the computer of a former host for the channel, who alleged sexual harassment against the channel's ousted CEO Roger Ailes.
Andrea Tantaros, who hosted "The Five" on Fox News, made the accusations in a lawsuit filed on Monday (lawsuit posted below). In the suit, Tantaros alleges that spyware w

During a Periscope livestream to promote the upcoming tech-thriller The Circle, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey answered questions from cast members Tom Hanks, Emma Watson, and Patton Oswalt, as well as director-screenwriter James Ponsoldt.Watson’s first question was about diversity in tech, asking Dorsey to explain what he’s been doing to make his company more inclusive and why he “personally” thinks diversity is important. His answer was good, and acknowledged that many tech co

Here, watch this video of a train trapped on a circular track. The track is only made of three pieces of wood, but the train’s route is infinite. That’s because a disembodied robot hand is really in control, forcing the little train to repeat the same journey over and over again without actually getting anywhere.As Creators points out, this project, called Robotic Loop, was made by mechanical engineering student Christian Schürch for this year’s Luga Trade Fair in Lucerne,

Disney announced today that it had reached a deal with over 160 of its local affiliate networks to allow the overarching Disney|ABC Television Group parent company to negotiate streaming deals on their behalf, via Deadline.More opportunities for live streaming ABC
Like NBC, which reached a similar deal with its affiliate networks earlier this month, the deal could make it easier for customers to be able to access ABC content on both cable and satellite provided streams, as well as through over-t

President Donald Trump called up to the International Space Station on Monday to congratulate NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson on her record-breaking spaceflight.
Trump used some of his time speaking with Whitson and her fellow crewmember Jack Fischer to talk about the military and the inspiration that space brings to kids watching the long-distance video call around the country.
But he also asked a revealing, and unsettling, question.
SEE ALSO: Take that, dudes: Female astronaut breaks record for m

Obama is back, baby, and oh boy did he have a lot to say about selfies and social media.
The beloved 44th president of the United States and hip AF dad stopped by the University of Chicago on Monday afternoon to a.) torture us by asking, "what's been going on while I've been gone?" and b.) deliver his first major public speech since leaving office in January.
Obama spoke about many important matters ranging from his political career to the future of America's youth, but then, near the end of his

Sony’s “super mid-range” Xperia XA1 phone is now available to preorder through Amazon and Best Buy. It’ll go on sale at other retailers, like B&H and Fry’s, on May 1st. The phone will cost $299.99.
The company announced the device during Mobile World Congress this year. Here are the specs again:
5-inch, 720P HD display720PMediaTek Helio P20 processor
3GB of RAM; 32GB of storage
23-megapixel rear-facing camera, 8-megapixel front-facing camera
2,300mAh battery
USB

Snapchat has curated snaps about life in Baghdad to create an Our Story to go live Monday afternoon.
That's Snapchat-jargon for the mobile storytelling app opening up a geofence around Baghdad and encouraging Snapchat users to submit photos and videos to Snap (with Baghdad geofilters live in the app). Snapchat will later curate and stitch those submissions into one story exclusively available on the app. 
SEE ALSO: Anti-Trump protesters spread a powerful message on the Statue of Liberty
The

DJI has finally dished full details of the FPV goggles that were teased at last year’s Mavic Pro event. The DJI Goggles, as they’re called, work with the Mavic Pro, Phantom 4, and Inspire series drones. They’re reminiscent of the PlayStation VR in their size and design, but that extra bulk allowed DJI to pack the this $449 headset with tech. The headsets are available for presale today and start shipping in late May, and here’s a look at what they offer:Two viewing modes:

Amazon announced today that it’s launching a new marketplace hub for third party companies to sell subscriptions for digital services.
The new service, called “Subscribe with Amazon,” will serve as a central, trustworthy hub for digital subscriptions. While business will have to apply and get approved by Amazon to be featured on the marketplace, the requirements aren’t too tough. For now, that the product must be a “digital app, website, or software,” with a U

It’s not just you — Instagram is down for many users around the world on both the web and mobile app. Logging into Instagram.com brings up either a server error, or takes a long time to load. Instagram has confirmed the outage but has not clarified what caused the down time.
We know some Instagrammers are experiencing issues with the app. We're working on a fix!— Instagram (@instagram) April 24, 2017The outage appears to have started around 1:30PM ET. Service is intermittent fo

We used to take bright yellow chariots called “cabs” everywhere. They were expensive, hard to find, and inconvenient, but better solutions didn’t yet exist. Then a little company called UberCab proposed to take the concept of carpooling and make it involve a lot more money and strangers. Today, we call UberCab just “Uber,” but you can still view UberCab’s old YouTube channel. And it is a goldmine of cringe-worthy hilarity. In one video, they ask random people

 Boom has set itself with arguably one of the most ambitious tasks taken on by a startup: To restore the age of the Concorde, but bigger, better, and more sustainable than ever. We took a trip to Colorado and visited Boom’s airport HQ to find out exactly what it looks like to be a company with fewer than fifty employees trying to make supersonic consumer flight a practical reality. We got… Read More

Instagram is down for some users. The outage affects both the web and mobile versions of Instagram. According to DownDetector, Instagram’s outage seems to be widespread. It’s affecting everyone, but the heatmaps seen below are hottest in the heaviest use areas — US, Brazil, Europe, and parts of Asia. As of this time, Instagram hasn’t released an official statement as to what’s causing the outage, or when the service may return. We’ve reached out for comment,

Sling TV is making its cloud DVR add-on available to subscribers who watch the streaming service with an Apple TV. The company charges $5 extra per month for 50 hours of cloud storage. The DVR is already available for customers using Roku, Amazon Fire TV devices, and Android. Sling TV is still referring to this as a “First Look,” as the DVR feature is still being worked on — and it doesn’t work at all on some channels due to licensing rights.Cloud DVR recordings remain av

The Federal Communications Commission is forming a committee to help improve diversity and cut out inequalities online and elsewhere in the communications industry.
The group will be called the “Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment,” and for now its goals are a bit vague. In announcing its formation, FCC chairman Ajit Pai said the committee would “be charged with providing recommendations to the FCC on empowering all Americans” (emphasis his).
Just days

Spotify is working on a wearable. Yes, you read that right: the music service is getting into the hardware game. According to a couple of job listings right on the service’s website – as first spotted by Zats Not Funny – Spotify is looking for a Senior Product Manager to help the company create a “category-defining product akin to Pebble Watch, Amazon Echo, and Snap Spectacles.” Presumably, it will have something to do with music (“above all, y

Amazon today announced the opening of its subscription service marketplace, where monthly fee-based services can fork over 30-percent of their profits in exchange for a crack at Amazon’s customers. The store has a lot of services already — some of which seem weirdly out of place. The store is admittedly pretty robust at the moment. You’ve got Princeton Review education courses, Disney Story Central, Dropbox, several meal prep apps — a nice variety of services to man