Technology news

The Supreme Court has ruled that patent holders can’t sue people for reselling or refurbishing a product that’s based on those patents. Today, it passed down a decision in Impression Products v. Lexmark International, declaring that printer company Lexmark can’t sue companies selling refilled toner cartridges for patent infringement. This reverses a two-part federal court ruling from 2016, affirming that patent law doesn’t justify eroding ownership rights.
Lexmark Interna

Forget what you've heard about Donald Trump's declining popularity from the #FakeNewsMedia. The president's approval ratings have spiked in the past few months among the critical egg avatar demographic on Twitter.
The president currently enjoys 31 million followers on Twitter, far less than Barack Obama's 89.2 million and way too high for a man who doesn't know how to thread properly. Though Trump nonetheless experienced a fairly steady increase in his number of followers over the past three and

Meggan Scavio, the general manager of the Game Developers Conference, said in a blog post that she has resigned from her job.
Scavio has worked in various capacities on the GDC, the big game industry event that draws 26,000 people to San Francisco each spring, for about 18 years. She was one of the most visible women in the vide game industry, but she rarely stepped into the spotlight.
“Over the years, I’ve held different roles within GDC but none as fulfilling as general manage

FEATURE: Look around at most video game companies founded in the 1990s, and you’d find similar stories: People growing up playing 8-bit games on their computers and home gaming systems. But it’s not the story you’d find from the people who founded Yager Development, one of the studios behind Dreadnought, a multiplayer combat game about big-ass spaceships.
No, for these five cofounders spent their childhoods behind the Iron Curtain, the dividing line behind East and West, f

If a soldier dies in war, can a virtual assistant play a role in their kid’s life to listen, encourage, and be a friend in hard times? How long should the assistant be an active part of that child’s life: A few weeks? Years?
These are questions being considered by The AI Buddy Project, an effort recently launched to create a virtual assistant for the children of active duty military servicemembers deployed overseas.
AI Buddy is being designed to read bedtime stories, play g

Airbnb is in hot water over its clumsy treatment of Native American culture.
The housing rental service hastily scrubbed an ad from its social media profiles on Tuesday after Native American scholars and activists slammed it for racial insensitivity.
The post featured a listing for an "off-the-grid" teepee, where visitors are promised a "true Sioux style" experience.  So @Airbnb wants you to "go off the grid...in true Sioux style" this weekendpic.twitter.com/14jmrc5LE3
— Dr. Adrienne

The ground was moving. 
When you think of scary nature in Australia, you may think snakes, spiders, and crocodiles. You should maybe think of adding rodents to that list.
Creepy footage from a farmer in Australia shows an uncountable number of rodents swarming after being disturbed. It's truly terrifying, even if things like mice or rats don't freak you out. 
It looks like they're going to need a cat, or 20.  Read more...
More about Watercooler, Animals, Nature, and Watercooler

Last week we told you how ESPN loud-guy Stephen A. Smith, whose only job is to opine on sports, has remarkably gotten his last six NBA Finals picks wrong. 
Well, Smith just released an updated pick for this year's NBA Finals — and Warriors fans should be worried. 
SEE ALSO: The Warriors have been unbeatable since Klay Thompson fulfilled a weird autograph request
Fans of the Warriors and Cavaliers were awaiting Smith's pick with bated breath; for six years running now, his best gu

The sun is out, and that means new summery additions to The Verge store!
For this update we have a few limited seasonal items including Wireframe logo tank tops in both unisex and racerback styles. We also have a new black canvas tote bag sporting the Wireframe logo. These items will only be around through the end of August.
New gear for spring and summer also means some classics are on their way out. This is your last chance to grab a Gradient Square or Color Palette shirt before they’re

No one seems to want a new tablet, but Asus is going to keep making them anyway. The company just introduced its new ZenPad 3S 8.0 at Computex this week. It follows the ZenPad 3 8.0 tablet that Asus released last year. The new tablet has some slight spec boosts, like more memory and an upgrade to Android Nougat. The company hasn’t put out official details on the device, but PhoneRadar got the specs:
Snapdragon 625 processor
4GB of RAM and either 32GB or 64GB of storage
7.9-inch, 1536 x 204

After almost 20 years locked in the Warner Bros. water tower with no baloney in sight, Yakko, Wakko and Dot are on the verge of escaping.
IndieWire reports that Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation are eyeing a reboot of beloved '90s cartoon Animaniacs, with original executive producer Steven Spielberg rumored to be on board to help shepherd the revival. (Here's hoping Pinky and the Brain are also involved.)
Warner Bros. declined to comment on the report, and insiders told IndieWire t

The Larry Page-backed Kitty Hawk Flyer isn't quite the flying car we were hoping for — but the footage above proves the craft could make the power of flight more accessible than ever (if you can afford the presumably high price tag, that is).
Unlike other flying machines in development, the Kitty Hawk is hoping to receive FAA clearance to be flown without a pilot's license. 
Here, we see two novices learning the ropes. The ride looks incredible — just as long as you have a nice

Late last year, we were the first to tell you that the UFC was testing virtual reality live broadcasts.
Now the testing is over—and we're a few days away from seeing our first live mixed martial arts fight in VR.
The development comes as part of Samsung Gear VR's new VR Live Pass service, which in addition to UFC fights, will also include live events from the X Games and concerts from Live Nation.
SEE ALSO: Virtual reality can help you feel more empathy for women harassed at abortion clini

PRESS RELEASE: BERLIN & LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–May 30, 2017– Market Logic, a leading provider of enterprise SaaS marketing information systems, today announced a €45 million investment from GENUI, Summit Partners and current investor Sycamore. The investment will help to accelerate Market Logic’s growth and further the company’s vision to transform marketing by providing software that delivers the right information at the right time. Kay Iversen, founder an

Apple has announced the release date for its first — and so far biggest — original series. Carpool Karaoke will debut August 8th on Apple Music, iTunes leader Eddy Cue tweeted out this afternoon. New episodes will debut on Tuesdays and will only be available to Apple Music subscribers.
The Apple Music incarnation of Carpool Karaoke will replace regular host James Corden with a series of guest stars, including actors, comedians, and athletes, giving the show an excuse to get even more

Of all the horrible things the internet has brought us, the word "platisher" is among the worst. 
That's the word used back in 2013 when Medium first launched. The brainchild of Twitter cofounder Ev Williams, Medium at the time was one of the most beautiful things online—very much the opposite of the word used to describe it. 
The company also launched with some of its own content, hence the portmanteau of "platform" and "publisher." Medium would have a few in house publications,

Turns out your favorite pint-sized badass once got this close to playing your other favorite pint-sized badass. 
Millie Bobby Brown, who plays Eleven on Stranger Things, revealed she once went for the role of the X-23 in Logan. 
SEE ALSO: The 'X-Men' franchise doesn't care about continuity – and that's what makes it so good
Brown dished on her Logan audition in an interview with Evan Rachel Wood for Variety:Asked what her best audition experience was, Brown recalled the time she

 The tech industry is opening its eyes to the possibilities of raising money using cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and Ethereum through ‘initial coin offerings,’ and it’s about to see the first ICO from a major venture-backed company. Last week, Kik, a messaging app popular with young people in North America, announced an ambitious plan to launch its own currency as a basis for… Read More

After being commoditized as a free app loaded with advertisements and a VR game, fidget spinners are finally coming to desks. Columnist Ross Rubin pointed out today that a new fidget spinner device, the Spinner Pad, will turn your handheld fidget spinner into standalone desk decor a la Newton’s cradle. You can fidget while you type.
"I love my fidget spinner but sometimes I need my hands free to be better at life." https://t.co/GKwQS9QQOg— Ross Rubin (@rossrubin) May 30, 2017I love t

GamesBeat’s Mike Minotti is going to be ecstatic. Sonic Mania will launch on August 15 on the consoles and PC for $20.
Fans can preorder the digital edition now for Sony PlayStation 4, Microsoft Xbox One, and PC. The Sonic Mania standard edition for Nintendo Switch will be available to purchase digitally at launch on August 15. It brings back the classic 2D side-scroller gameplay of the original Sonic the Hedgehog on the 16-bit Sega Genesis from 1991. Sega evidently released

Amazon is throwing money at young playwrights to spur new original stories for Audible, the audiobooks company it bought in 2008.
Amazon announced the news in the New York Times today, but the company has not yet said how playwrights can apply for grants from its thumping $5 million fund. Audible initially plans to fund “about a dozen playwrights,” the Times reports.
This isn’t Audible’s first move into original conte

Teenage basketball player Nahziah Carter is a "long and athletic wing with significant upside," according to ESPN.com. 
He's also Jay-Z's nephew, but Carter seems to be making a bit of a name for himself in the world of elite youth hoops. 
This weekend Carter dunked on two of the nation's top basketball prospects. Here he is throwing down over Bol Bol, the son of former NBA star Manute Bol and a player we recently wrote about. Now, there's a kernel of a bigger, weirder concept at

VB EVENT: It’s time for us to take action.
The nation sent a strong signal during November’s election. A good number of American workers say they feel left behind. They don’t have the job or education to partake of the tech revolution that we on the coasts are enjoying.
And yet, really, SF- and NY-based tech companies and entrepreneurs should have a strong interest in expanding in the American heartland — and bringing high-paying jobs with them. Housing is prohibitively e

We finally know what it takes to get fired at Uber. 
No, not allegedly propositioning your subordinates for sex, but pleading the Fifth Amendment in a massive court case in which you're accused of stealing Google's self-driving car technology and bringing it to Uber. 
SEE ALSO: Mark Zuckerberg and Travis Kalanick laugh it up at 'Babes and Balls' party
So reports The New York Times, which notes that the news of Anthony Levandowski's ousting was delivered to Uber employees Tuesday in a c

Today, the Pentagon will launch a missile in an attempt to shoot down another larger missile — in space. This is the very first test of our defenses against a simulated intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, a long-range missile that could conceivably threaten the US. Some experts warn that the United States’ missile defense system may not be as reliable as people think — and today’s trial is meant to test our capabilities.
Right now, a constellation of sensors and

Scientists have extracted and analyzed DNA from mummies that are thousands of years old, and they have found that the ancient Egyptians are actually more genetically similar to people living today in the Near East — countries like Israel, Lebanon, and Syria — than modern-day Egyptians.For a long time, we thought that mummies preserved no DNA. In 2010, a team analyzed ancient DNA from 16 royal mummies, but the method they used wasn’t very good at distinguishing actual mummy DNA

The Pokémon Company International’s new mobile game, Magikarp Jump, is about raising the series’s most unloved fish into the best jumper it can be. Magikarp swims around its own little pond and gleefully gobbles snacks. It trains by bashing its face into punching bags. It gets itself into trouble. It dies.Yes, Magikarp can die, and much like the demise of their very first goldfish, players have mourned the death of their Magikarp with surprise, confusion, and a little anger.Th

The Essential Phone is designed to work on all four major US mobile networks: Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint. It has the necessary technology inside for compatibility with each. So the $699 debut device from Andy Rubin’s new company, at minimum, should be able to place calls, send texts, and use wireless data. The core smartphone functions are there. Essential’s own support page confirms wide support, pledging that “unlocked Essential Phones bought on Essential.com wil

Uber has fired Anthony Levandowski, the former head of its self-driving car project, according to The New York Times. Levandowski came to Uber after a long stint at Google, where he shepherded that company’s own self-driving car project before it was spun off into a standalone business called Waymo. Earlier this year, Waymo filed a lawsuit against Uber, alleging that Levandowski stole some 14,000 documents from Waymo, and that the information became the technological basis for Uber’s

MGM and Hugo Games have teamed up to create a mobile game based on the Vikings television show. With the Viking-themed Clash of Clans has been a top-grossing mobile game for years, it may not be a bad bet.
Since 2013, Michael Hirst’s Vikings has told the epic tales of raiders and explorers of the Dark Ages. Now, fans will be able to enter that world in Hugo’s upcoming release, Vikings: The Game, which will be released worldwide on iOS, Android, and Steam in 2018.
It will be a pl

PRESS RELEASE:Advanced hydrogel technology from Augmenix used during prostate cancer radiation therapy now available to cancer treatment centers in Japan.BEDFORD, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–May 30, 2017– Augmenix, Inc., a medical technology company that develops, manufactures, and sells proprietary absorbable hydrogels that separate and protect organs at risk during radiotherapy, today announced that it has received Shonin approval from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Wel

Last night, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang announced Max-Q, a new approach to designing gaming laptops to deliver three times the performance in a third of the size of previous laptops. In doing so, he held up a 10-pound gaming laptop from a few years ago and compared it to a lighter and thinner laptop from Asus.
And today, Nvidia’s Mark Aevermann, director of notebook product management, further explained how Max-Q makes that possible. He noted that five years ago, efficient mai

SPONSORED: Presented by Murka
What hit $976 million in the fourth quarter of last year? If you bet on the social casino games industry, you’ve won the jackpot, according to analyst firm Eilers & Krejcik Gaming. These are the games that can draw some of the biggest and most loyal audiences, which tends to draw developers inexorably toward the idea that if they build it, the revenue will come.
And yet, like in any other games category, success can sometimes be a lottery with a long shot,

There’s a subscription service for everything these days, and GameMine thinks mobile games should get in on the action. The publisher just closed a $20 million Series A round that Palisades Venture Capital led, and it’s hoping to carve out a space in this huge market with its subscription-based library of casual mobile games.
In 2016, $24.8 billion of mobile games revenue was generated in Asia, over half of the $40.6 billion market worldwide. With so much profit to be had, mobile is

PRESS RELEASE: LAKEWOOD, Colo.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–May 30, 2017– AdAction recently celebrated its four-year anniversary on Monday, May 29th. Founded in 2013 by veteran digital marketing expert and CEO Brian Fox, AdAction has become a leading solutions provider across the mobile app industry. Throughout four years, AdAction has developed data-driven technologies unique to the app space and driven over 140 million installs. “We are proud of what we’ve been able to accompl

TwitchCon, the annual event for all things livestreaming, announced that its tickets have gone on sale this morning.
TwitchCon has become a place where the influencers on the Twitch social video livestreaming service gather. And this year, the event will take place will take place October 20 to October 22 at the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center in Long Beach, Calif.
This year’s event is also going to expand beyond gaming, and that’s one of the big questio

Welcome to Twin Peaks Top 3, where I look at last night’s episode(s) of Showtime’s Twin Peaks revival and draw bad fan art of the top three most baffling moments that made an impression on me. If you’re looking for actual analysis and fan theories, you can head over to Question Club, because you won’t find any of that here. Twin Peaks has always been a polarizing show, making even fans like myself question their loyalty at times. At the end of each Top 3, I’ll ask m

Samsung is bringing its S Pen technology to the company’s notebook line today. At Computex, Samsung is launching its new Notebook 9 Pro. Unlike the previous Notebook 9 series, this Pro version now has a 360-degree hinge just like Lenovo’s Yoga laptops and it means the Notebook 9 Pro can be used as a tablet or a laptop. Samsung is pairing that hinge with an embedded S Pen that slides into the base of the Notebook 9 Pro.
The S Pen includes 4,000 levels of pressure and the ability to de

EXCLUSIVE: Roll20’s latest move shows that sometimes, it’s good to be the king. Or in this case, the boss.
The digital tabletop company announced today that it’s getting into esports, sponsoring Heroes of the Storm pro squad Team 8 in the Heroes Global Championship. This group will compete as “Roll20 esports” going forward. It’s easy to see why any company would want to get into esports — market researcher firm Newzoo predicts will grow to a $6

Pokémon with You — which started as a disaster relief project after the devastating 2011 earthquake in Japan — took over Japan Railway East in 2012 with a pokémon-themed sightseeing train. Inside and out, it was decorated with characters and knickknacks from the series in extreme detail: fake plants, little tunnels, curtains, and decals. Starting July 15th, the train is getting a Pikachu-themed makeover.The train, spotted by RocketNews24, has been reimagined with Pok&ea

Australian electronic musician Pogo is best known for remixing classics of pop culture (particularly Disney films) into unexpected, often unsettling slow jams. His work is made up almost entirely of very short, pitch-shifted samples from films like Alice in Wonderland, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Robin Hood (not the Russell Crowe version), as well as old Pokémon and SpongeBog Squarepants cartoons, TV shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation, iCarly, and Dexter, news broadcasts, and

Kid-focused digital library service Epic has raised $8 million in a series C round of funding led by Reach Capital, with participation from Rakuten Ventures, Menlo Ventures, TransLink Capital, WI Harper, Brighteye Ventures, and Innovation Endeavors.
Founded out of Palo Alto in 2014, Epic offers unlimited access to around 25,000 books for $5 per month. The content is targeted at those under 12 years of age and includes thousands of accompanying learning videos, quizzes, and reading lists.&nb