Technology news

Nobody wants plants to die of thirst and neglect. So how can we use the internet to solve this problem? Probably not with the Grovio personal plant assistant, which is currently up on Kickstarter.
Grovio is a white cylinder that sits next to your plant and waters it through a small, unsightly hose. The device can track the light, temperature, and humidity situation, so the Grovio app can tell you if your plant is sad or whatever. The device can also support up to three plants at once, in the unl

When The Next Web writers were in Austin for South By Southwest, we were pretty impressed with RideAustin. And now the municipal ridesharing app we called “the future of ride sharing” might be in trouble. Ridesharing apps Uber and Lyft are returning to Austin next week after a spat over background checks sent them packing last year. With them back, there might not be room for a homegrown app like RideAustin in the city anymore. Ride Austin said in a statement that it would continue

In the past decade, the popularity of online coaching has skyrocketed. It makes sense: the Internet allows anyone, in any industry, to connect with customers around the world. So where before you were limited to people within your physical space (imagine driving to meet with each client), now you can send a Google Cal invite and a Skype number and have a session with your laptop and a cup of coffee. But just like anything else that booms in popularity, online coaching has also become a tad satu

Game difficulty modes should come in Easy, Medium, and 144 frames per second.
Vanquish, an excellent 2010 shooter for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 from Platinum Games, finally launched on PC yesterday, and it picked up a glitch in the transition. Publisher Sega and Platinum worked to update the game for PC, which included adding support for 4K and unlocking the framerate. But if you set the game to run faster than 30 frames per second, you are also making it more difficult. That’s because en

GUEST: Bots hit the scene so quickly in 2016 that many people have started to wonder if they’re just a temporary fad that will give way to a new technology this year or next.
What these people fail to realize is that bots never mattered. They didn’t matter when Microsoft announced its Bot Framework; they didn’t matter when Facebook announced its bot platform. They still don’t matter today.
Bots are merely the interface — often just an experience delivered within an

This week marked the final weekly column from Walt Mossberg and the final in-studio episode of Ctrl-Walt-Delete. But we’ve still got one very special show to go — and you can be there in person.
Click here for tickets to the live taping of Ctrl-Walt-Delete!
On Friday, June 9th, we’ll be taping a special final episode of Ctrl-Walt-Delete in New York City, with Walt Mossberg, Nilay Patel... and Dieter Bohn. Yes, we’ve finally mentioned Dieter enough times to actually get hi

Apple is reportedly working on a chip for its devices to process artificial intelligence. Called the Apple Neural Engine internally, the chip will assist in functions such as computer vision, speech recognition, facial recognition, and other forms of artificial intelligence, an anonymous source told Bloomberg.
Third-party developers will be offered access to the chip in order to run their own AI, the source said.
Most A-Series chips that act as the main processors for iPhones

Apple is reportedly working on a dedicated artificial intelligence chip that would power AI-related tasks on mobile devices, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The chip, which may be called the Apple Neural Engine, would be used to offload tasks that require sophisticated algorithms related to facial and speech recognition and augmented reality tasks that rely heavily on computer vision. This chip could improve the device’s overall battery life, the report says, and

ANALYSIS: Sergey Brin is not given to half measures. The company he cofounded set out a 300-year plan and aimed for nothing less than organizing all the world’s information. So now that details about the airship he’s building are coming out, it should surprise no one that it will not just be big, but the biggest.
Brin hasn’t commented on his airship, but the Guardian quoted an unnamed source today as saying that Brin’s airship is “going to be massive on a grand

If you’re in the market for a Bluetooth accessory, there’s a good chance you should consider waiting until next year. The two biggest smartphone manufacturers — Samsung and Apple — are moving rapidly toward Bluetooth 5. The Galaxy S8 is already there and the next Galaxy Note and iPhone are also expected to adopt the technology.
When arguably the three biggest smartphones (I will hear your arguments for the Pixel over the Galaxy Note) make the switch to Bluetooth 5, the th

For two whole weeks, an all-electric car held one of the most coveted titles among auto manufacturers: the NIO EP9 had become the fastest car around the Nürburgring. But today, British manufacturer McLaren has let out that its hybrid P1 LM — the street-legal version of its track car, the P1 GTR — has broken the EP9’s record by two seconds and the Lamborghini Huracán Performante’s time by almost nine. Video of the 6:43.2-second lap can be seen above.The most im

It’s a pretty good New Music Friday, everybody. But today, while adding some new releases to my Spotify library, I ran into one of the app’s most aggravating restrictions: I crossed the 10,000-song limit. The “Your Music” section of Spotify is where all of your saved artists, albums, and songs go. It’s what makes Spotify feel like your Spotify — especially if you spent years using iTunes before music entered the streaming era. Your Music is everything you&rsqu

Google seems to be rolling out a new feature in search results that adds a “Personal” tab to show content from private sources, like your Gmail account or Google Photos library. The addition of the tab was first reported by Search Engine Roundtable, which spotted the change earlier today.
The Personal tab works similarly to the way the existing Maps, News, or Images tabs work — instead of showing you a search for links, it just takes the entered search terms and shows you resul

Chipotle Mexican Grill today announced that it has identified the malware that was responsible for the credit card hack earlier this year. Alongside the news, it also released a new tool to help customers check whether the restaurant they visited was involved. When pressed by The Verge, Chipotle did not disclose the exact numbers of restaurants affected, but said “most” locations nationwide may have been involved.
“The malware searched for track data (which sometimes has cardho

Influencer marketing is increasing in popularity, but the question of who to engage with raises an interesting quandary.
Brands are finding that employing celebrities and mega-connectors comes with a high risk, and it doesn’t necessarily translate into a reasonable return. These placements also tend to be “one and done” — not a relationship that builds and grows over time. Micro influencers, on the other hand, are often performing better than celebrities overall, but

David Fincher has directed a number of masterful films, but one of the things that’s most impressive about his work is the amount of CGI that slips into the background. A new video essay from Kristian Williams, aka Kaptain Kristian, takes a look at how the director uses CGI to serve his stories.Some of Fincher’s films have more CGI than your average blockbuster. Kristian points out that The Social Network contains more digital shots than Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla. In most blockb

GUEST: It’s the tech buzzword for 2017: artificial intelligence. You don’t need to look far to see the hype, whether it’s an AI chatbot that schedules your meetings, an app that parks your car, or even a bot that orders your coffee, machine learning/AI seems to be revolutionizing every industry.
At work, companies are assessing AI across all departments, including those in recruitment, sales enablement, and marketing automation. However, while AI is being assessed to suppo

Mobs in the Indian state of Jharkhand killed seven people in two violent attacks, apparently spurred into action by rumors circulating on WhatsApp. A rumor that spread last week via the popular messaging app said strangers were abducting children. Mobs of over 500 people descended on innocent men who happened to be in the area. Not only do local police state this was completely false (no child abductions have been reported), but they say it wouldn’t have justified the crowd&rsqu

I can’t sleep when it’s hot out. I just lie there, wide awake and growing increasingly irritated by any bird, bug, car, or human that makes even the slightest noise. When morning finally rolls around, I’m grouchy, sweaty, and covered in a bizzarro maze of pillow lines from my wadded-up sheets. The pillow lines are sweaty, too.Climate change could mean more nights of crappy sleep in the future
Well, science has some bad news for me: climate change could mean more nights of crapp

On August 21st, the United States will have an epic front row seat to a total solar eclipse — one that can be seen from the coasts of South Carolina to Oregon. Because of the country’s unique vantage point, the event has been appropriately named the Great American Eclipse, and people have already solidified their travel plans so that they can get the best view of the astronomical phenomenon. Of course, we still have some time to go before the event takes place, so if you need an ecli

Most massively multiplayer online role-playing games take their cues from World of Warcraft: lots of quests and storylines that the designers mete out to players. Legends of Aria wants to show that emergent gameplay can work in MMOs, too.
Ultima Online vets Derek Brinkmann and Tim Cotten founded Citadel Studios in 2013 with the aim of creating an Ultima Online- and Neverwinter Nights-inspired sandbox MMORPG. Its previous incarnation, Shards Online, raised a little over $105,000 on Kickstarter&nb

EXCLUSIVE: Owning Uber or Airbnb shares might sound appealing to envious investors — but until these unicorns ring the opening bell on the stock exchange, static shares remain difficult to trade within the private markets. Draper Associates and LawTrades are trying to tackle this issue of illiquidity by offering seed stage startups a new kind of deal: the Tradeable Automated Term Sheet, or TATS, details of which they shared exclusively with VentureBeat.
Draper Associates led LawTrades&rsqu

BMW’s motorcycle division has shown off a new concept bike called the BMW Motorrad Concept Link. And while it’s far more tame than the BMW Motorrad Vision Next 100 concept that the company flaunted last year, it’s a much more realistic take on what the near-future of Beemers could look like.That starts with how the Concept Link is an all-electric vehicle. BMW positions the bike as a representation of its “vision of zero-emission urban mobility on two wheels,” which

In a letter sent today to House lawmakers, major tech companies asked for reforms to a legal authority underpinning controversial National Security Agency programs.
Section 702 is set to expire at the end of the year
Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, which is set to expire at the end of this year, is the legal basis for NSA programs that broadly sweep up electronic communications. The programs are meant to target non-US citizens overseas, although critics have long charged that Americans a

If you thought that wearable computing was the stuff of science fiction movies, companies like Vuzix are bringing this technology to life. With a Smart Glasses range for enterprise and entertainment; hands-free, digital eyewear is becoming an accessible option for all. Why would you want a computer directly in front of your eyes? Here are a few of the benefits this latest technology brings. Increasing worker productivity With a range designed for business and industry, Smart Glasses can increas

Not long after a pair of excellent new trailers for Spider-Man: Homecoming landed online, Sony and Marvel unveiled a poster for the film, showcasing nearly everyone in the principal cast. It is, to say the least, crowded. Peter Parker, Tony Stark, and the Vulture appear twice; poor Marisa Tomei is a tiny floating head at the bottom right; and the background features fireworks, lasers, the Manhattan skyline and the Washington Monument.
It didn’t take long for fans and critics to roast the p

Welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup! This time, Rockstar delayed Red Dead Redemption 2, and we went hands-on with Middle-earth: Shadow of War.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Pieces of flair and opinion
The DeanBeat: Prey is a game where the developers decided to torture gamers
PC Gaming Weekly: How modding may play into Take-Two’s strong earnings
Ranking the best of ParadoxCon
2017 Unreal E3 Awards: Epic and GamesBeat call for entries
How Unity convinced investors it’s worth

Former Playboy model Dani Mathers was sentenced to community service by a judge this week for a Snap she took of another woman. While at an LA Fitness gym last July, Mathers took a picture of a naked 71-year-old woman in the locker room. She captioned the photo, “If I can’t unsee this then you can’t either” and posted it to her public Story. She was quickly — and rightly — raked over the coals for it: LA Fitness banned her from all 800 of its gyms and re

Crash Bandicoot helped Sony cement the popularity of the original Sony PlayStation. And now the marsupial is coming back in a remastered version for the Sony PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 4 Pro, dubbed The Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy. I got some hands-on time with the third game in the trilogy, which debuts on June 30.
Activision and developer Vicarious Visions have re-created the originals with modern graphics in a bid to get nostalgic gamers to plunk down another $40 for the three ori

Tidal has lost another CEO. Billboard has confirmed that Jeff Toig, who came to the company following a two-year stint at SoundCloud, is no longer with the company. This is the third CEO Tidal has let go in the last two years, following the departures of Andy Chen and interim boss Peter Tonstad.In a statement to The Verge, Tidal says it will announce a new CEO soon. "As part of TIDAL’s continued expansion this year we will be announcing a new CEO in the coming weeks. We wish former CEO, Je

Three months to the day after Huawei announced its Watch 2 Classic, you can now purchase the smartwatch in the US. The standard Watch 2 went on sale in April, but it took a bit longer for the Watch 2 Classic to hit retail shelves. Photo: HuaweiThe Watch 2 Classic is very similar to the Watch 2: both are water resistant, come with a 420mAh battery and a 1.2-inch AMOLED display, and run Android Wear 2.0. The Classic, however, comes with metal chassis, and a hybrid leather-and-rubber strap (to prev

I’m much better at controlling myself now than I was when I was a kid. I’m more organized and less impulsive. Why is that? What happened in my brain to make this happen?A study published yesterday in Current Biology could have a clue. Scientists studied the changes that happen in the brain as kids become adults. During this process is where they, hopefully, also become much more well-behaved. In a sense, scientists analyzed the physical changes that occur as “executive function

A team of researchers led by a professor at the Czech Technical University in Prague has created an AI-powered algorithm that can animate faces in the style of another photograph. In other words, a bidding war between Snapchat and Facebook is probably about to begin.
The short sample video posted by Professor Daniel Sýkora is reminiscent of recent projects like this one, where researchers were able to manipulate video of people speaking in a way that made it seem like they said something

A Chinese entertainment company best known for car-based toys is making a big bid for gaming.
Rastar Group announced today that it is starting a new Rastar Games brand. This will help the organization take better advantage of the growing gaming scene in China. The total Chinese gaming market size is $24 billion based on the CGIGC 2016 Chinese Gaming Industry report, and companies big and small and in and out of gaming are trying to tap into it.
Three of Rastar’s main gaming holdi

Bethesda’s Prey turned out to be a surprisingly engaging game for me. It reminded me of BioShock and its progression system where I became more and more powerful in dealing with frightening enemies. But I also felt manipulated and frustrated. More than once, I slapped my head about why the developers at Arkane Studios, who clearly agonized over this game in the multiple years it took them to make it, made the choices they did. I felt they tortured me.
The game itself had a tortured history

Here’s The Vergecast. This week, Nilay, Dieter, and Paul plow through a week of news starting with (no surprise) the FCC’s ongoing mission to destroy net neutrality. This was also a week full of new gadgets — from the new Microsoft Surface Pro, to the Jamboard, to a $9,000 laptop, we walk you through the things we saw and reviewed in the Circuit Breaker world.
Also, even though we filled our time, we added a bonus segment in between it all: Vlad Savov, a fan favorite of the sho

Every week, a slew of new music videos hits the web. Watching them at your desk is not time theft because you deserve it; think of it as a nice reward for surviving another work week. But what if you don’t have time to watch every video? Maybe you have a deadline, a hungry pet, or other grown-up concerns. In consideration of your schedule, Lizzie and Kaitlyn bring you a series called One Video. Each week we’ll tell you “one video” you need to watch, why, and for how long.

Kyocera’s ruggedized DuraForce Pro smartphone is finally making its way to T-Mobile after being available on the other three major carriers for some time. That normally wouldn’t be news, but the smartphone is bringing a new feature with it — a heads-up display mode in the camera.
The new Action Overlay mode will allow users to record video with the HUD showing a number of different data points like speed, distance traveled, G-force, altitude, elapsed time, and date stamp. Other

In a confusing addition to the Amazon app earlier this week, you can now add stickers to pictures taken using the bundled camera, as spotted by TechCrunch. Taken at face value, that sentence isn’t inherently strange: after all, everyone wants their app to be the next big social networking thing, and stickers are just table stakes at this point. Basically every single messaging or photo app, from Instagram to iMessage to Facebook to (of course) Snapchat has stickers built it.
But this is th

Allow me to push my glasses up the bridge of the nose and murmur that, technically, the annual video game conference E3 begins June 13th, when the games industry, press, and (for the first time) paying members of the public will file into the loud and gaudily festooned halls of the Los Angeles Convention Center. But conceptually, E3 has already begun. And though, yes, you can drop hundreds of dollars on tickets, you really don’t need to be at the convention or even in LA to enjoy the spect

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is the fifth entry in the swashbuckling film series, and like its four predecessors, it’s packed to the gills with pirates, sea monsters, action, adventure, Johnny Depp doing whatever it is Johnny Depp does, and an egregious disregard for the laws of physics.The film is billed as the “final adventure” of Captain Jack Sparrow, though co-director Joachim Rønning called it the “beginning of the finale,” and said t

After a few days of teasing, Ubisoft has officially unveiled the next Far Cry with a debut trailer. The new open-world game will shift the setting to Montana and introduce a new cast of characters, including a religious doomsday cult and resistance force fighting against them. Far Cry 5 will launch on February 27th, 2018 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and will include features like two-player co-op and a map editor.
Here’s how Ubisoft describes the premise:Welcome to Hope County, Montana. When

In 2015, when Netflix debuted Bloodline, I didn’t think I was taking much of a risk by investing my time. Here was a moody crime drama set amid the lush visuals of the Florida Keys, starring Sissy Spacek, Friday Night Lights’ Kyle Chandler, Broadway legends Sam Shepard and Norbert Leo Butz, and ‘90s cult icons Linda Cardellini and Chloë Sevigny. What about this show doesn’t sound like a winning formula? Everyone, of course, would watch this show with me, I thought. I