Technology news

President Trump has dismissed FBI Director James Comey, according to a statement today by the White House. According to press secretary Sean Spicer, the move came at the request of the Department of Justice, specifically Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his deputy Rod Rosenstein, as a direct result of Comey’s handling of the Clinton email case.In a recent memo, Rosenstein argued the case fundamentally compromised Comey’s position. “I cannot defend Comey’s handling of th

Current is a new startup that wants to take allowances into the modern age through an app-controlled Visa debit card, via TechCrunch. It’s a clever idea at its core: credit cards are more prevalent than ever these days, and this is a way for parents to help kids safely learn how to use them, which isn’t a bad thing.Current allows parents set up both recurring allowances for kids or one-time batches of money, and it gives plenty of control when it comes to things like shutting off the

I've never owned an Otterbox case, but I respect them. It's the sort of phone case that implies, "I might be in danger soon, or at least covered in mud, and I plan to survive and thrive in that environment." None of this really applies to me in any way. So you can imagine the combination of respect and indifference I felt when I learned that Otterbox is launching a line of coolers that you put food in. Since I don't like to go camping and am rarely given any responsibility over food, and due to

Meitu, the Chinese company behind that viral selfie app that may or may not take all your personal information, just released the M8 and upgraded Meitu T8. The company’s phones are known for letting its users take the most extra selfies, as seen on Ashley’s review here, where she says it gave her “baby skin.” And it’s definitely equipped to do so — the Meitu M8’s front-facing camera is a 12-megapixel Sony camera, with a 21-megapixel Sony rear-facing came

Nintendo has never been the most with it company at building out its digital games store. As just one example, until today you couldn’t actually save payment information when purchasing a title on the Nintendo Switch. Every time, you’d have to reenter your credit card number and billing details. Now it’s possible that some people don’t want Nintendo storing that sensitive data. But it’s also 2017, and I’d wager that a much larger percentage of consumers would

SpaceX has been promising to fly its next big rocket, the Falcon Heavy, for about four years now — but in a new video released today, the company revealed the vehicle may be finally getting ready for its maiden voyage. The video shows the Falcon Heavy’s main core going through its first major static fire test, which ignites the booster’s engines while the vehicle is strapped down. The test was conducted at SpaceX’s test site and development facility in McGregor, Texas, la

Asus’ ZenFone 3 Zoom, a follow-up to 2015’s original ZenFone Zoom, is now available with a starting retail price of $329. Like its predecessor, this gadget prioritizes mobile photography with optical zoom. Although, this time around, Asus has swapped out the original 3X optical zoom 13MP lens for a dual-camera 12MP system. One lens is a f/1,7 aperture 25mm wide-angle lens, while the second is a 59mm second with 2.3X optical zoom. The system can magnify up to 12X with digital zoom.Asu

A mysterious 90-million-year-old dinosaur fetus has finally been identified as an entirely new species, reports a new study published 25 years after the dino’s discovery. The paper closes the cold case by giving the fossilized fetus an official name: Beibeilong sinensis, which means “baby dragon from China.”Since it was first unearthed, the little fossil has crossed from China to the US and back again. It was originally excavated from a field in Henan, China, in 1992 and sold t

Now that we have self-driving cars, the next big challenge is figuring out where to test them. Most experts agree that the best places to do that are giant, government-run, fenced-off fake cities that mimic all the real conditions of the road. To that end, South Korea’s government is building an 88-acre site that it claims will be the largest test bed for autonomous driving in the world.The news, which was first reported by Business Korea and later picked up by Mashable, highlights South K

Amazon’s new Echo Show doesn't run traditional apps, it's based on Alexa "skills," just like the Echo and other Alexa devices. But Amazon is going to add some new functionality to its Alexa Skills Kit for developers so they can add more visuals and interactivity to their skills on the Echo Show.
First off, out of the box Echo Show uses the skill cards that already exist for Alexa — they're the same cards you see on the Alexa app or a Fire tablet. These cards can include an image and

Microsoft has been working on a new HomeHub feature for Windows 10 to better compete with devices like Amazon’s Echo. HomeHub is designed to create a family environment for a PC with shared access to calendars, apps, and even a new welcome screen. Microsoft is even planning to support smart home devices like Philips’ Hue lights, to enable Windows 10 to act as a hub to control and manage smart home hardware. While we’ve heard about HomeHub before, The Verge has obtained internal

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 found its mascot early in Baby Groot. But like all things golden, this youth cannot last. Marvel already has its eyes on what’s next, and the toys tell us the future is no longer Baby Groot, but Teen Groot. They grow up so fast.Groot, the team’s Vin Diesel-voiced, ass-kicking tree, exploded into splinters in the first film. In Vol. 2, he’s a pint-sized version of himself that has a lot in common with a cartoon puppy (as in, he’s clumsy, big-

Alipay, one of China’s most popular mobile payment solutions, is now available to use across the United States. A deal between Alipay and payments processor First Data will allow customers to use the service at 4 million merchants, reports Bloomberg.
The move is aimed mostly at Chinese customers visiting the US who will no longer need to exchange cash for local currency or pay credit card fees for using it internationally. It also brings Alipay into the same competitive market as US-based

Apple employees have been testing a product designed to rival Amazon’s Echo inside their homes for several months, according to Bloomberg. The company’s “Siri speaker” project has been in the works for some time, but so far Apple has managed to avoid any significant leaks about its features or design. Last September, Bloomberg reported that Apple engineers had begun in-home testing of a prototype device. A public unveiling could come at next month’s WWDC keynote.It&

Como Audio is unveiling two new speakers today called the Amico and the Musica. They’re the follow-ups to the company’s Solo and Duetto speakers from last year. Unlike those speakers that were designed to stay in the home, the Amico is meant to travel. Meanwhile, the Musica is designed to stay in place but includes a built-in CD player. I know.
Here are the details on both: Photo: Como AudioThe Amico weighs a little over three and a half pounds and can handle eight hours of playback,

Amazon just formally revealed the Echo Show, its newest Alexa-infused product that, for the first time, adds a screen to the mix. But in the flood of information about the new device, chances are you might have missed a few of the more interesting details about the screen touting virtual assistant.
Alexa skills, not apps
Despite the seven-inch touchscreen on the Echo Show, it’s strictly not a tablet. The Echo Show is built to run Alexa skills, the same as the audio-only Echo speakers. (Dev

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University think that in the near future, an onslaught of smart devices will become overwhelming to use. Think of the number of apps you could conceivably have on your phone for all your random Internet of Things gadgets — and that isn’t even considering more industrial objects that are technically smart but maybe don’t have a public-facing interface. Apple’s tried introducing the Home app to centralize this, but even still, they require the

Translation has always been one of the most important applications of Facebook’s AI research. After all, the social network’s overarching goal is to “make the world more open and connected,” so the language barrier is an obvious obstacle. To help leap this hurdle, Facebook today announced a novel method of machine learning translation that the company says is nine times faster than rival systems.The work exists solely as research at the moment — it hasn’t yet

The Nixie Machine II is the answer to the age-old question: “Can a clock look like it can kill you?”Created as a very limited run art piece by Frank Buchwald and Dalibor Farny for the M.A.D.Gallery (the “M.A.D.” part stands for “mechanical art devices”), its uses six Nixie tubes to display the time in retro-futuristic glowing numbers (via TechCrunch).
While the Nixie Machine II may use one of the oldest digital technologies around for displaying the time, the

The world’s most popular motorcycle racing series is adding an all-electric class. Carmelo Ezpeleta, the CEO of the company that oversees the MotoGP racing series, told Motorsport.com that an electric support series featuring up to 18 bikes could start competing as early as 2019.Four manufacturers have already committed to the series, according to Ezpeleta. The electric motorcycles will have a top speed of around 124 miles per hour, and the races will be about 10 laps long.Electric bikes a

Most people who are looking for love in a densely populated city have one problem: how (how?) to keep track of the many dozens of promising romantic options they have at any given time. I’m sure you can relate. You’re busy! You have time to date 12 people but not to think about whether you like them. Wow, finally, there’s an app that gets it.Evolve, launched post-beta last month by a small team in Boston, is a “datings and relationships manager.” It’s pretty s

The US government has rolled out a plan to reshape airport security around facial recognition, playing off a wealth of passport photos and visa applications.
Led by Customs and Border Protection, the plan is built around the Biometric Exit program, which will register visitors leaving the US using facial recognition. But new statements show that CBP’s plans could make facial scans necessary for US citizens as well, documenting them when they reenter the country or pass through TSA checkpoi

The past few years haven’t been great for the luxury watch market. Economic downturns, currency devaluations, and the development of the smartwatch — once poised to be the next major tech sector following the smartphone and tablet — helped usher in two years of declines in sales and profits for the Swiss watch industry. The common narrative was that the watch industry was being killed by smartwatches and was ultimately doomed. But much like the introduction of quartz watches in

 One more regional on-demand transport startup is raising a big round of funding to fortify itself for the next phase of competition against the likes of Uber and incumbent taxi firms. Cabify, the ride-sharing startup that operates in Latin America, Spain and Portugal, has raised just under $100 million in new funding ($99,999,994 to be exact), according to a Form D SEC filing for Maxi… Read More

Amazon has officially unveiled its latest Echo product: a touchscreen device with built-in Alexa called the Echo Show. The device was extensively leaked this week, but is now available to preorder from Amazon for $229.99.The Show has the same basic capabilities as the regular, voice-only Echo (like setting timers and listening to music), but the built-in display adds plenty of new functionality. The Show’s screen will give users more information about their Alexa queries (displaying a full

Nevada teen Carter Wilkerson has successfully ousted Ellen DeGeneres for the world record of the most retweeted tweet of all time. The title, previously held by DeGeneres at 3.4 million retweets, comes a little over a month after Wilkerson asked the Wendy’s Twitter account how many retweets he would need for a free year’s supply of chicken nuggets, and the company responded with “18 million.”Image: CartervsEllen.comMay 9th, 9:36AM ET..@carterjwm is now the most retweeted

If you want to play Dustin Long’s most recent game, you’ll need a console that was first released more than 30 years ago. As a young musician in New York, Long found himself drawn to the chiptune scene, where artists craft sounds using classic gaming hardware. He would go to shows like Blip Festival and Pulsewave, where he saw artists coaxing music from old Game Boys and a Sega Genesis. But he went a step further and decided to design a game that could only be played on an obsolete c

Samsung has opened preorders for the unlocked variety of its new Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus smartphones. The company originally confirmed to The Verge back in March that unlocked versions would be arriving in May, and now Samsung will let you put money down with an availability date of May 31st. As we noted when the Best Buy listings first went live earlier this year, this time frame is about one month earlier than past unlocked Galaxy devices have been made available in the US.You’ll be able t