Technology news

If you’re buying a used phone, there’s always been one critical thing to look out for: whether the device is stolen. And finding that out is getting a bit easier today. The US wireless industry, through its trade group the CTIA, has launched a tool called the Stolen Phone Checker, which lets you look up whether a phone has been reported lost or stolen.
The site works by looking up a device’s IMEI, MEID, or ESN — unique codes that get assigned to every phone. These are som

People once routinely brushed off bullying as a normal part of childhood that built character. Now we know with certainty that it actually tears people down in devastating ways. 
The longterm risks of bullying, however, don't have to shape the rest of your life. While the research on protecting yourself from those effects is still limited, there are some important steps you can take to boost your resiliency and improve your coping skills. 
SEE ALSO: How to protect yourself when live vi

Microsoft is planning to introduce a number of what it calls Mixed Reality headsets later this year. While the software maker first unveiled HoloLens as its answer to augmented reality, it has expanded its plans with a larger “Mixed Reality” focus. I got a chance at Microsoft’s Build developer conference to try out Acer’s Mixed Reality headset.
The hardware itself felt comfortable on my head, and I was able to quickly adjust it for a tighter fit. It didn’t feel part

There has been talk on the internet of doughnuts going too far. A recent article argued that purveyors of fried dough have overreached with their unorthodox takes on the original treat. 
But wary as I am of doughnuts made from fried spaghetti, Doughnut Plant's pretty "Doughflowers" make a strong case for the unusual.
SEE ALSO: This craft beer company tackles food waste in a very real, delicious wayImage:lili sams/mashablePer the New York Times, the doughnut shop is selling pastries formed i

Snapchat may soon be introducing a new way for it to make money — with a little help from some furry friends. 
SEE ALSO: I'm starting to love Instagram Stories more than Snapchat because I'm incredibly thirsty
A tipster sent us a snap taken by Gabe Lehrman, a partnership associate at Snap, that shows a selfie of him surrounded by a bunch of virtual stickers. The stickers are of characters in Sanrio, including Hello Kitty and Badtz-Maru.
Text over the snap reads: "First partnered stick

Box office early tracking is like a broken clock — there are times when either can be right. 
So take this with a cinematic universe-sized grain of salt: Wonder Woman predictions for opening weekend in North America, which just started coming online this week, range from $65 million (modest, but acceptable) to over $100 million (still a bit soft, in my humble estimation).
SEE ALSO: Did the 'Wonder Woman' sneak peek just reveal a major new character?
The numbers come from a variety of

Life may soon get more complicated for anyone flying from Europe to the U.S.
The U.S. is reportedly considering an expansion of the March electronics ban, which forbids anyone from carrying a laptop into a plane cabin if they're flying from eight Middle Eastern and African countries. If the U.S. Department of Homeland Security does what's expected, that same ban may soon apply to select countries in Europe as well.
SEE ALSO: Confused? Here's how to get your laptop to your destination
The reason

Bill Clinton loves ants.
Yeah, you read that correctly. He loves 'em. In fact, Clinton loves the tiny insects so much that he is the very proud owner of two ant farms. Not just one. Two.
On Thursday during a speech at the Partnership for a Healthier America Summit — an organization dedicated to fighting childhood obesity, chaired by former FLOTUS Michelle Obama — the former president revealed he is now the father of many cute little ants.
Aww. 🐜
SEE ALSO: Bill Clinton is co-w

It's 2017, and the television personality who lives in the White House and gets to play with bombs over chocolate cake just tweeted at a rival television personality about an apparent (and rare) agreement over the firing of the FBI director.
Also, does President Donald Trump read r/The_Donald?
SEE ALSO: Trumpniks have no defense for the James Comey mess, so duh, they're blaming the media
Trump dug up a tweet from last year from rival and comedian/actress/television personality Rosie O'Donnell on

Hey Apple: WTF is going on in Germany?
The Cupertino company might be up to something on the down low in Deutschland, according to Business Insider's Sam Shead. The reporter investigated rumors of a secret Apple office focused on automotive development in Berlin, following an initial leak last year that Apple was snatching up German engineering talent in the wake of Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia.  
It took almost half a year, but Shead's tenacity appears to have paid off. He claims to ha

As brick-and-mortar retailers flounder, investors are pouring money into new ways to shop on your phone.
Shopping app Spring just raised $65 million to grow its online market of more than 2,000 clothing brands. 
SEE ALSO: Venmo's in-app purchases are now available to everyone
Fidelity Investments led the cash infusion with support from previous backers like Thrive Capital and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner. With the latest round, Spring has raised $100 million to date.
Spring CEO Alan Tisc

A redesigned iPad Pro might be announced next month.
9to5Mac has obtained an image of what it claims is an inventory listing for cases for an iPad Pro with a 10.5-inch screen — an iPad that doesn't exist yet.
SEE ALSO: Apple sends out press invites for June 5 WWDC keynote
According to the listing, Urban Armor Gear (UAG) is preparing to ship folio cases made for a 10.5-inch iPad Pro in June. 
Case leaks are a dime a dozen and nothing new when it comes to revealing unannounced products,

 Improbable, the London startup that has developed a platform for third parties to build vast virtual and simulated worlds, has landed a stratospheric round of funding to double down on its product and expand its ecosystem of developers. The company, which also has offices in San Francisco, has raised $502 million in funding led by SoftBank, with previous investors Andreessen Horowitz and… Read More

If you're still puzzled over Nintendo's baffling decision to discontinue the extremely popular NES Classic, I have some good news: Hyperkin's got your back.
The hardware maker's latest creation — out May 25 — is the RetroN HD. It's basically a Nintendo Entertainment System, only it can play your old cartridges in HD.
SEE ALSO: 'Minecraft' is now on Nintendo Switch. The good news is: It's still great.
While you'll need to actually own copies of the games you want to play — unlik

Stealthy "superbugs" that cause dangerous infections are one of the world's biggest public health concerns. Yet these antibiotic-resistant microbes, which are spreading fast in hospitals, aren't a new phenomenon.
Today's "enterococci" superbugs likely arose from ancestors dating back 450 million years ago, according to a new study in the journal Cell. That's around the time animals first emerged from the ocean and began crawling on land, and it's well before the age of dinosaurs.
Scientists said

A lot has changed in the past 14 years. Our big ol' soft spot for Love Actually isn't one of them. 
And NBC knows this, which is why they've just dropped a brand-new trailer for Red Nose Day Actually – the reunion special that brings the entire gang back together for a good cause (a version of which already aired in the U.K.).
SEE ALSO: The U.S. version of the 'Love Actually' sequel will have one huge difference
Everyone looks older and wiser, especially little Sam. Nowadays, he's a

When it comes to tech giants, Apple and Amazon have one of the better rivalries. 
Both are trying to be the living-room platform of the future. Apple is doing that through Apple TV; Amazon is doing that through its Fire sticks and boxes. Neither wants to cede ground to the other, which has meant they haven't been playing nice.
The result? No Amazon Prime Video app for Apple TV owners, and no Apple TVs available on Amazon.com. For now. 
Amazon and Apple reportedly have a deal to end thi

You must use at least one uppercase letter, a symbol, and a number. Or, wait, maybe not. 
According to the experts at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), some of the password-strength requirements drilled into our skulls over the years are actually not that helpful. 
What's worse, they may be counterproductive. 
SEE ALSO: New tool teaches you how to set stronger passwords
As such, the institute issued a new draft of security guidelines on May 11, 2017, aimed

From what we've seen on the internet lately, house hunting feels less like you're making a huge, happy life decision and more like WTF is happening.
Don't believe us? Well, there was that one house with what looked like a grave in the backyard and came with a mysterious upstairs tenant that will never pay rent. Or how about that other very quaint two-bedroom that we'd describe as cozy with a heaping spoonful of clowns?
SEE ALSO: Well, it's come to this: Buy this house to get free avocado toast f

IMDb has put together a video that runs the latest trailer from Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 alongside scenes from Ridley Scott’s original film, showing that sequel is borrowing not only from the design and feel of the world, but its visuals as well.Our first glimpses of the film have seen a world that looks incredibly familiar, from the moody dystopian atmosphere and haunting music, but IMDb’s mash-up shows that the attention to detail lines up visually, too. The posit

Emoji and stickers are becoming more and more a part of how we communicate on a daily basis, and Google is getting in on the action with a new Allo feature that generates custom cartoon stickers out of selfies of you, according to Fast Co Design.Google being Google, though, generating your emoji avatar isn’t just a customizable tool, like Nintendo’s Miis or Snapchat’s Bitmoji. Instead, Google’s version implements machine learning and neural networks to map your facial fea

With their dollars and reach, entrepreneurs and investors have significant leverage to tackle the world's most pressing problems. A new tool shows them how — and that it's good for business, too.
The Global Opportunity Explorer details out 300 ways companies can engage in "sustainable innovation," leading to better societies as well as new business opportunities.
The platform's purpose is to inspire entrepreneurs and investors around the world to see big challenges — like world hunge

Minecraft, the game that was released in 2011 but you could buy as far back as 2009, came out — again — on Wednesday, May 11.
The Nintendo Switch version of the game is actually a repackaged version of the Wii U release, with some extra bits thrown in that were originally released as add-ons. If you're looking for something wholly new, look elsewhere.
SEE ALSO: Nintendo games were used to smuggle spiders. Sweet dreams, gamers.
If, on the other hand, you're looking for a way to play

The pitch for King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is "Guy Ritchie does medieval fantasy." Or so it would seem based on the marketing, which tries very hard to convince you that it is cool and different and Not Your Father's King Arthur Movie. 
SEE ALSO: The new King Arthur mobile game gives you the power of Excalibur
The trailers are set to pop songs, and emphasize Arthur's upbringing in the mean streets of Londinium. Arthur himself has the body of a superhero (and the camera spends plenty of

Microsoft introduced its new Fluent Design System today at Build, which it believes will usher the company into the future with a whole new look and feel for its products. The design language focuses on five areas: light, depth, motion, material, and scale. In between talk of what all these choices mean and why they’re important, the company gave us previews of how we can expect to see it executed. From the looks of it, Microsoft is experimenting with the design of a new email client, file

The long wait to be able to stream TV shows and movies from Amazon on the Apple TV is nearly over. BuzzFeed News is reporting that an Amazon Video app designed for Apple’s set-top box will be announced at next month’s WWDC keynote. Recode revealed last week that Amazon and Apple were nearing an agreement that would bring to rest their years-long living room standoff. The Amazon app is likely to launch sometime this summer, though BuzzFeed News notes that the release timeframe could c

Magic Leap might finally be closer to its long-awaited launch — so it needs more developers to help prep the software that will run on the mysterious augmented reality platform. 
The much-hyped company has been largely under wraps since its founding in 2011, minus some seriously impressive demo videos and massive rounds of funding from giants like Google and Alibaba.
But unless you're Beyoncé (you're not), few in the public have seen any evidence that the platform actually exis

In March, security researcher Chris Vickery made a remarkable discovery. In one of the most notable operations of its kind, he said in a blog post, a group called River City Media had collected about 1.4 billion personal information records, and was using them for spam. “Chances are that you, or at least someone you know, is affected,” Vickery wrote. RCM said it had used legitimate marketing practices to collect the data, but regardless, the scope of the program was massive, and when

American Gods, Starz’s new fantasy series about deities and their sex lives, has been renewed for a second season. The news comes just two weeks after the series premiered to rave reviews, and Deadline reports that the new season is expected to launch in mid-2018.
“Bryan Fuller, Michael Green and Neil Gaiman have evolved the art form of television narratively, structurally and graphically with American Gods, and we’re thrilled to be working again with these artists as they cont

The TV deities are smiling on American Gods — Starz has given a Season 2 renewal to Bryan Fuller and Michael Green's modern-day fable two weeks after the show premiered.
Based on Neil Gaiman's beloved novel of the same name, American Gods has earned more than five million multiplatform viewers for its first two episodes to date, according to Starz, with the first episode setting a premiere record for the network in live-plus 7 ratings with 1.6 million viewers.
SEE ALSO: 'American Gods' jus

They say that in the game of thrones you either win or you die, but stakes on the show's set should never run that high. According to Game of Thrones stunt coordinator Rowley Irlan, Drogon's fiery antics in "The Dance of Dragons" (Season 5, Episode 9) burned up to 20 people (19, according to the show's art director) — but was completely safe.
Irlam and his team used a 45-foot flamethrower on a crane to simulate the dragon's head while it shot flames at almost two dozen stunt people. 

"Are we doomed?"
This is a question I'm sure will run through the minds of many Americans upon learning that a url praising Hydra, a fictional Nazi terrorist organization from Marvel's Captain America series, re-directs to the official White House website.
Yep. Yep. This is real.
SEE ALSO: Marvel Comics has taken this Nazi Captain America thing too far
On Thursday, ComicBook.com reported that the website www.hail-hydra.com brings curious users straight to President Donald J. Trump's official Whi

Corsair is not exactly new to making absurd-looking RAM — the company describes itself as “a world leader in enthusiast memory,” and has released products like the illuminated Corsair Vengeance LED, which adds fancy aluminum detailing and glowing lights to computer memory.
It lights up, too, because how could it not?
But the company’s latest release takes things even farther, with a special edition color variant of Corsair’s Dominator Platinum RAM. The Corsair Domin

Interviews can be high-pressure. The last thing you want is to arrive at an office feeling awkward about your outfit. After working in the recruiting industry for over a decade, I’ve witnessed and heard about too many of those moments. 
Your business professional interview outfit should be a stress-free experience, for both you and the hiring manager. Leaving a lasting positive impression starts the moment you walk in, starting with your physical appearance.   
When I gradua

Mom knows best. Whether she’s doling out advice on how to heal a broken heart, reminding you to take a jacket, or simply teaching you about life, one thing is for sure: She’s always looking out for you.   
In honor of Mother’s Day on May 14, we interviewed people to learn about the “MOM-isms” they often heard while growing up and aren’t soon to forget.   #1 “You have to kiss a lot of frogs – and maybe a few toads – before

For a group of 10 older gentlemen in Jersey Shore, the day started off at 11 a.m. as they hopped into a series of convertibles led by the day’s Honorary Grand Marshall Regis Philbin (yes, that Regis). What followed behind them were furries, hundreds of basset hounds and a group of women with signs that read "The Real Housewives of the O.C. (NJ)."After driving down the boardwalk with smiles from ear to ear and pageant waves to adoring onlookers and family members, the day had only just begu

If you happen to find yourself on Jupiter's moon Io, you could be in for some trouble. 
The moon is thought to be the most volcanic place in the solar system, with hundreds of volcanoes dotting its surface and lava spewing all over the moon. 
And now, scientists think they've spotted waves of lava moving through a huge crater on Io.
SEE ALSO: 5 solar system worlds that are probably more watery than Mars
Observations taken in 2015 but published this week in the journal Nature show what

To many people in the world, bears are majestic and mysterious beasts — the king of the forest. To others, bears are a trash-eating nuisance. 
Considering bears are capable of ripping off your face, getting them to stop eating your trash once they've discovered the deliciousness of your leftover spaghetti isn't so simple. Bear-proof trash cans can help, but they're smart creatures, and they love to eat trash.
YouTuber Jordan Ogle discovered a brand new way to protect his garbage from

While Game of Thrones creator George R. R. Martin is hard at work (we hope) on the sixth novel in his A Song of Ice and Fire series, Syfy has announced that they're developing another one of the author's stories for television. 
Sadly, it's not set in the GOT universe — although Martin is said to be working on at least two of the four Game of Thrones spinoffs currently in development at HBO — and is instead based on the author's 1980 space novella Nightflyers.
Set in the future

Astronomers have found lots of water in the atmosphere of a Neptune-sized exoplanet — a planet far outside of our Solar System. It’s just one of a handful of times that scientists have been able to detect water in the atmosphere of an exoplanet of this size and mass. And they’re using these measurements to piece together how this world may have formed.
The planet, dubbed HAT-P-26b, was first spotted in 2011 tightly orbiting a star 430 light-years away. It was found because it&r

Game of Thrones stunt coordinator Rowley Irlam won an Emmy for his work on season 5 of HBO’s hit show, and it should be obvious why. He successfully coordinated the barbecuing of 20 people, and none of them died. That’s award-worthy, if you ask me.In a recent interview dug up by Watchers on the Wall, Irlam discusses what he considered one of the most dangerous Game of Thrones stunts — a season 5 sequence where the most bonkers-looking of Daenerys’ dragons protects her fro