Technology news

On Friday, Mastercard announced that it is partnering with payment processing companies Verifone and Global Payments to help speed up chip-and-pin transactions at stores by incorporating its M/Chip Fast technology into checkout terminals.While chip-and-pin cards are widely used in Europe, American consumers and retailers has been slow to accept them. Retailers were supposed to implement chip readers two years ago, but still lag behind on deploying and activating terminals for customers to use. T

GUEST: I’ve lived in Santiago, Chile for six years, and in just this short time I’ve witnessed Latin America’s tech ecosystem grow by leaps and bounds. Programs like Start-Up Chile, 500 Startups: Latam, and NXTP Labs are seeding Latin America’s tech ecosystem and providing incredible resources for local entrepreneurs. Thanks to these programs, and many others, I’ve seen a surge in not only Latin American companies launching for local markets but also in US startups

Star Trek and Tron aren’t two things that typically go together, but filmmaker Patrick Collins recently mashed the pair together in a short film called Star Trek: Legacy. In this 22-minute film, he recut Star Trek: The Motion Picture and set it to Daft Punk’s fantastic score from Tron: Legacy. The resulting film works better than it sounds on paper, and makes for a really cool viewing experience.Collins noted that he wanted to give the original film a bit more of an updated feel, whi

Footage of a family getting kicked off of a JetBlue flight over the placement of a birthday cake surfaced on Saturday. 
Minta and Cameron Burke were heading to Las Vegas from JFK Airport in New York on Flight 611 on May 3 to celebrate Minta's 40th birthday with their children when an incident between the family and the airline caused the entire family to be kicked off the plane, despite the NYPD admitting to the family that they did nothing wrong.
According to ABC 7, the incident started wh

Harry Styles likes The Life of Pablo, apparently.
The One Direction heartthrob-turned-solo star celebrated his first album on Saturday with an intimate London performance. Among the new material Styles let loose with was an unexpected cover: "Ultralight Beam," off of Kanye West's latest album.
SEE ALSO: Paul McCartney revealed his 'Pirates 5' character and honestly just WHY?!
The gospel-flavored original features West with The-Dream, Kelly Price, Kirk Franklin, and Chance the Rapper. Styles' cov

In Trump's world, you don't have to be a scientist to land a high-level science job.
President Donald Trump has reportedly picked Sam Clovis — a conservative talk show radio host and climate change denier — to be the "chief scientist" of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's research division. If appointed, he'll oversee key scientific work on everything from nutrition to the effects of rising temperatures on food supplies.
SEE ALSO: Here's why thousands of scientists are (and aren't)

“The latest technology isn’t always easy to use for people of a certain age.” So says the narrator in one of sketches from last night’s Saturday Night Live, which imagined an Amazon Echo speaker designed for the elderly.The sketch runs through a handful of features for the device, Amazon Echo Silver, playing to the usual senior citizen stereotypes. It’s super loud, responds to any name that sounds remotely similar to Alexa, and has an “uh huh” conversati

Back in 2014, YesVideo set up its Legacy Republic division and invested $6 million in it to hire consultants to help people convert their family photo albums and old videos into digital formats.
While YesVideo focuses on providing services at retail, Legacy Republic goes directly after consumers in their homes. And to do that, it has created the modern version of the Tupperware party, only where hosts who are hired consultants try to help others deal with the challenge of gathering their memorie

This week marks the 2017 television upfronts, in which networks reveal next season’s programming for advertisers. To get ready for the new group of shows, lower-rated programs have been getting the ax. One such show was NBC’s time travel show Timeless, which was canceled last week. However, the network took an unusual step by reversing that decision on Saturday, thanks in part to outcry from the show’s fans.
Timeless follows a history professor, a soldier, and an engineer as th

A helicopter pilot with the munchies landed his chopper next to a McDonald's to grab some food.
At approximately 4:20 pm (seriously) on Saturday, a pilot landed his his chopper onto the lawn next to a McDonald's in northwest Sydney, got out of the aircraft, entered the restaurant to get food, got back into the helicopter, and flew away. 
SEE ALSO: McDonald's wants us to eat our burgers with a fork made of friesBut in the modern day of documenting every single thing that you do, the man snap

In the almost two weeks since it released on May 5, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 has already generated an estimated $246.2 million at the U.S. box office.
Just for context: it took the first Guardians a month — including four full weekends — to reach a similar domestic total in Aug. 2014.
SEE ALSO: How 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2' raises the stakes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe
It's only been two weekends for Vol. 2 thus far, and the second weekend estimate of $63 million l

Aerospace startup Rocket Lab is finally about to launch its first vehicle to space. Later this month, the California-based company will try to pull off the inaugural test flight of its Electron rocket — a new launch vehicle capable of sending small satellites into orbit.The first Electron is slated to fly sometime during a 10-day launch window that will open on May 21st at 5PM ET. The test vehicle, aptly named “It’s a Test,” will take off from the company’s private

Since its discovery on Friday afternoon, the WannaCry ransomware attack has continued to spread this weekend, impacting over 10,000 organizations and 200,000 individuals in over 150 countries, according to European authorities. However, while measures have been taken to slow the spread of the malware, new variations have begun to surface.
This morning, Europol Director Rob Wainwright told the BBC that the cyberattack is “unprecedented in its scale,” and noted that it will likely cont

Adjust chief technology officer Paul Muller had a warning for attendees at our recent GamesBeat Summit 2017 event when it comes the future of user acquisition and attribution — or advertising to get users and figuring out where they are coming from.
Adjust helps mobile game and app developers figure out who among the ad networks is responsible for driving users to their app. Muller noted that “data is the new oil,” but clients are often giving away data rather than treatin

An Australian woman named Anna unknowingly wore her engagement ring around her neck for over a year, thanks to her boyfriend Terry's crafty plan.
Terry explains on YouTube that he made Anna a necklace for their one year anniversary. Anna wore the necklace every day, but little did she know that there was something very special hidden inside the necklace. 
A year and half later, Terry and Anna visited Smoo cave in Scotland, a place they had always wanted to visit. Terry asked Anna to borrow

What do you get when you cross 200 protesters with a Donald Trump-branded golf course?
It's not a joke; this actually happened, and those 200 protesters hit the dirt at southern California's Trump National Golf Club to spell out an emphatic statement: "RESIST!"
SEE ALSO: Scorching 'SNL' Weekend Update hits Comey firing, Trump-Russia
The group in question is the San Pedro chapter of Indivisible, a nationwide network that formed after the 2016 election. Using the example set by the right-leaning T

NASA and the U.S. military weave a tangled web. 
Ostensibly, NASA is run by civilians. Its astronauts aren't active duty service members and NASA officials aren't military either. However, if you examine the history of the space agency, it becomes clear that the reality is more complicated.
SEE ALSO: Space Shuttle Atlantis Launch Video: The Final Flight
According to a report by Matt Novak at Gizmodo, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) — the secretive intelligence organization re

Wait for it.
It's 2017, so we completely understand that you may not be exactly excited to hear the beat drop for "Uptown Funk." The song has been drilled into our skulls every time we turn the radio on or enter the grocery store. But, if you're a young kid, you basically grew up on the 2014 hit.
Just watch this toddler named Maddie, who waits patiently for the chorus to drop, then promptly showcases some of the sassiest and smoothest toddler dance moves we've seen from a carseat. 
You do

Google is expected to formally announce more details on the version 8.0 of Android, which we know to be codenamed Android O. But the biggest question about Android O — more so than what new features it will bring to the mobile OS or if Google will be able to actually get carriers and hardware companies to offer the update to older phones — remains unanswered: what is Android O going to be called?
What is Android O going to be called?
If the usual naming scheme that Google has used fo

This year, people are expected to spend more than half their day reading e-mail, articles, or posts on social media, and it’s only going to get worse. To help solve this problem, researchers at Salesforce have developed an algorithm that uses machine learning to produce “surprisingly coherent and accurate” summaries according to MIT Technology Review.Automatic summarization would be a particularly useful technology for Salesforce, which produces a variety of customer-service fo

When the number of fans watching esports tournaments began to surpass the numbers viewing the NBA finals, traditional sports companies, such as the Philadelphia 76ers, were taken aback.
And that is one reason that in September 2016, the NBA’s 76ers became the first major North American sports franchise to have its own esports team. It actually acquired two separate squads — Dignitas and Apex — and merged them into one as Team Dignitas.
At our recent GamesBeat Summit 2

When it comes to financial success in the business world, big data is everything. Broken down, big data is that fountain of raw undiluted information that comes surging out of most companies’ analytics reports. From production data to financials to customer specifics, it’s usually too much information for most to wrap their head around. Thankfully, you can unlock the mysteries found in those numbers and statistics yourself with the Essential Data Mastery bundle of courses, whic

Samantha Cristoforetti is an Italian astronaut with the European Space Agency. She currently holds a few spaceflight records — including being the first person ever to brew an espresso in space.In 2014 and 2015, Cristoforetti spent 199 days aboard the International Space Station, where she performed a variety of scientific experiments. She studied generations of fruit flies to chart gene changes in relation to disease; she looked after Caenorhabditis elegans worms used in a Japanese-led ex

Leslie Jones didn't just steal Kyle Mooney's virginity; she also stole his heart.
When we last saw the Saturday Night Live couple it was early days for their relationship. There was some minor jealousy over Leslie's close relationship with fellow cast member Colin Jost, but we were led to believe that the Jones/Mooney coupling would persevere.
It's now six months later. Somehow, Leslie and Kyle have a school-aged kid named Lorne. Their relationship is still going, but there are issues. Leslie i

GUEST: The news made the rounds in early April. “America’s Retailers Are Closing Stores Faster Than Ever” read a Bloomberg headline. “These 21 Retailers Are Closing 3,591 Stores — Who Is Next?” wrote Forbes.
It felt like the end of an era for many.
Back in 1998, I worked at a company called Snickelways (alas, it didn’t make it), but the focus was on e-commerce. Anyone working in the industry then (and there were a lot of us) saw the w

The Federal Trade Commission says it’s cracking down on pop-up scams selling tech support “fixes” to fake computer problems.The FTC says it has taken 16 new “actions,” from settlements to guilty pleas, as part of Operation Tech Trap, a plan to stop similar scams. In all, the agency says it’s now taken 29 law enforcement actions against the perpetrators.
FTC announced 16 new “actions”
According to the agency, the scams are generally similar. An unsu

There are plenty of reasons to keep watching this Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live, but you don't really need to go any further than Colin Jost's sick Trump burn in response to the unexpected firing of FBI director James Comey.
"How did Trump not realize that was suspicious? I mean, if a drug-sniffing dog came up to your bag at the airport and your response was to shoot the dog, people would really wonder 'what's in that bag?'"
Wait for it. Jost added: "Or they would just assume you work f

Workers gather to watch a launching ceremony.Image: Library of CongressIn 1941, the United States Maritime Commission ordered the establishment of emergency shipyards to build cargo ships for the U.S. and Britain that could be assembled as cheaply and rapidly as possible to replace losses from German torpedoes.The Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard on Baltimore Harbor was established in February and quickly set 27,000 employees to work building these new “Liberty ships."Each Liberty ship was des

Two 20-something cyber experts helped bring down the widespread ransomware attack that infiltrated networks at hospitals, banks, and government agencies in multiple countries.
A 22-year-old British researcher unintentionally found the so-called "kill switch" that authors of the malicious software left in the code. Later, he teamed up with a 28-year-old engineer in western Michigan to ultimately halt the infections, the Associated Press reported.
SEE ALSO: NSA tools at center of ransomware attack

As the massive WannaCry ransomware attack spread to over 100 countries this weekend, French automaker Renault halted production in several of its factories on Saturday, according to a spokesperson.Speaking to Automotive News, the spokesperson confirmed that the company shut down production in its Sandouville factory, saying that “proactive measures have been put in place, including the temporarily suspension of industrial activity at some sites," but declined to provide a full list of affe

Melissa McCarthy hosted Saturday Night Live on May 13, the evening before Mother's Day 2017. And since she didn't have her own mom there at the show, McCarthy treated Joan, a random audience member (also, a mother,) to a tour of the show's backstage area.
It's funny, sure, but more than that: it is adorable. McCarthy ferrying a visibly overwhelmed Joan through the hustle and bustle of a live TV show's working area — llama and all — has to be one of the cutest moments in the weekly c

FEATURE: Immigration restrictions in the U.S. could hurt game companies in our country. It will limit the potential talent pool, making it difficult for top designers, programmers, and artists to come to this country to work. But Canada, and its looser immigration policies, can take in just about all the foreign workers it wants.
And this is one reason why Canada’s gaming scene is growing — the country now has 472 game companies, up by 143 since 2013 — and not just in

There is something undeniably appealing about a little monster. That’s why people can call their human children “little monsters” and it’s not an insult.
Everyone loves a tiny, chaotic neutral, nonverbal goober upon which to pour their affections — all the better if the baby meme’s behavior careens between crushingly sweet and harmlessly violent. That’s my explanation for Stitch, a character fiercely beloved by many for 15 years now, and affectionately r

Amazon Echo Silver responds to dozens of names that sound like "Alexa," tolerates rambling anecdotes without argument, and is programmed to carefully sidestep casual racism.
Saturday Night Live had some fun with Amazon's cylindrical talking speaker, turning the Siri-like voice interface into an eternally patient caretaker for "the greatest generation."
The punchline here — "LOL aren't old people lame and adorably hateful?" — is questionable, but SNL's talented cast capably milks it

Long before she bowled us all over with her jaw-droppingly perfect Sean Spicer impression on Saturday Night Live, Melissa McCarthy had proven herself as a master of physical comedy.
While the temptation must have been high for SNL writers to give "Spicey" an outsized presence during McCarthy's May 13 hosting gig, they showed restraint. Spicey's play date with Alec Baldwin-as-Trump paled next to this game show sketch, which put a fresh spin on one of comedy's oldest props: the cream pie.
McCarth

Virtual reality is great at bringing two of our senses into the digital world: sight and sound. That VR tech is already well-established and improving rapidly. However, we still aren’t at a point where we can touch, smell, or taste things inside of a VR headset. Obviously taste is the most important of these to solve (can you imagine VR Pac Man?) but for now let’s settle on haptic feedback for touch.
The Cornell University Organic Robotics Lab has created a prototype t

Warning: Contains spoilers for Stephen King's novel It (and possibly spoilers for the upcoming film adaptation, too).
For rampant Stephen King fans like myself, 2017 is set to be a year of glorious, clown-filled happiness.
We now have two trailers for Andrés Muschietti's upcoming adaption of It, and so far things are looking promising. We've seen the iconic opening sequence with Georgie chasing his paper boat through the streets of Derry, and the beginning of a nicely creepy journey into

GUEST: The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) continues to drive changes in how enterprises innovate and communicate their business. But for the humans and consumers interfacing with products affected by this technology, what will an AI-empowered future look like? What will it feel like? Empowered by rapidly advancing machine intelligence, product designers are rethinking the fundamental principles that guide the way they work.
Faced with an evolving and exciting set of problems, product desig

The wonderful thing about Melissa McCarthy hosting SNL this week is we knew she was going to bless us with another turn as White House Press Secretary Sean “Spicy” Spicer. But things got a little… weird. 
The sketch began with Aidy Bryant as deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders greeting the press in lieu of Spicer, who she said was fulfilling some Naval Reserve duties (but who was totally hiding in the bushes outside the press room).The press took the opportunit

Alec Baldwin is back on Saturday Night Live for what may be one of his last appearances as President Donald Trump. And he used the opportunity to fess up to pretty much all the suspicions about the administration that we’ve had over the first 100-ish days. 
In an interview with Lester Holt (Michael Che), who he called any number of inappropriate and incorrect other black men, Baldwin as Trump admitted he fired former FBI Director James Comey because he was investigating White House t

GUEST: As technological advancements have revolutionized the driving experience, car interiors have become seamlessly integrated with the outside world.
Sensors and software make it possible for vehicles to interact with your home or office, allowing you to stay connected while on the move. While autonomous vehicles are likely years away from becoming mainstream, connected cars are here and now. Those working in the automotive industry realize that as artificial intelligence solutions continue t

GUEST: Embrace it and get used to it — AI is here to stay.
While some robots may be out to take our jobs, there’s a big skills gap in the AI-fueled services industry that’s just waiting to be filled.
There will be two major drivers around the jobs of the future. The first will be what can be automated, and the second will be what level of comfort do we have with things being automated.
However, while everyone likes to talk about widespread fear that automation and art

We’ve all heard it said; porn will help the VR industry succeed, much like it did VHS and the internet itself. It’s a point people have made ad nauseum, but now leading adult entertainment site Pornhub has revealed some stats to back it up.
The site’s new infographics confirm that it gets around a massive 500,000 daily views of its 360 videos, which you can watch with mobile VR headsets like Google Cardboard. Not surprisingly (though somewhat disturbingly), those views surpasse