Technology news

Another one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets successfully landed back on Earth this evening after launching cargo and supplies to the International Space Station. This time, the rocket touched down at the company’s landing site at Cape Canaveral, Florida, called Landing Zone 1.That means SpaceX’s success streak of recovering its vehicles on solid ground continues. So far, all five of the company’s attempts to land on land have worked just fine. Now, SpaceX is in possession of

Essential hasn’t yet shipped its first smartphone, but Andy Rubin’s new company has already come upon its first trademark dispute. Spigen, a fairly well-known smartphone case and accessory maker, has sent Essential a cease and desist letter demanding that Rubin’s latest business stop using the “Essential” mark. Spigen holds a trademark for the Essential mark that covers a slew of consumer products — though not smartphones directly. Android Police has a good wr

If you live in Canada, you can now preorder a Google Home device. In an ironic twist, Google has beaten Amazon to Canada when it comes to smart assistants — the Echo still isn’t available in the country, despite being available for two years in the US.The Google Home will cost $179 in Canada, right on par with US pricing when you consider the ongoing devaluation of the Canadian dollar. Google hasn’t given a release date for the speaker yet, but Best Buy’s preorder page sa

Last week, after the Alamo Drafthouse theater in Austin, Texas announced that it would host a screening of Wonder Woman limited to women (with proceeds benefiting Planned Parenthood), the men’s-rights types of the world lost it. The screening, just one of dozens of Wonder Woman screenings scheduled at the Drafthouse, was deemed “sexist,” “illegal,” “tacky,” and “bigoted.” After New York City’s Drafthouse location announced similar scree

When it comes to school projects, some parents go all out. One father did just that recently when he constructed an amazing snowspeeder from The Empire Strikes Back out of cardboard for his daughter to take to school.John Stoddard explained that his daughter’s school holds a “drive-in” movie event each year, “where the kids and their parents are supposed to bring a cardboard car or spaceship to sit in while they watch a movie on the last day of school.” A couple of

"Don't see an Alien sequel" is some of the most reliable moviegoing advice you can get, but Covenant looked gorgeous — and its reviews have been pretty good, too — so I went to check it out last weekend.
It’s really interesting how many elements Ridley Scott carries over from the original Alien. Covenant has an almost identical structure, one designed to warm you up to the characters, stress you the heck out, and then watch you squirm until it's all over. That's why I was so su

You now have another opportunity to save on the Echo Dot if you missed out on Amazon’s flash deal last week. For a few days only, Amazon is offering a targeted sale on the Echo Dot, and it’s adding the Echo to the mix (restrictions listed below).Other standout deals include Monoprice’s big sale on USB-C cables and gadgets, and 20 percent off DJI’s OSMO Mobile Handheld Stabilized Gimbal (the first discount we are seeing on this).
Without further ado, here are our seven fav

Science fiction is a genre that’s uniquely suited for making the internal into the external. Authors can take an intangible issue, whether it’s a relationship problem, a philosophical belief, or a scientific quandary, and make it material. John Kessel’s new novel The Moon and the Other does just that, playing out a complex, but relevant story about politics, gender identity, and social conflict through a series of characters living on Earth’s inhabited Moon. A wonderful,

It’s been an eventful two years since Neill Blomkamp’s last film, Chappie, hit theaters. He spent part of that time working to develop a fifth installment of the Alien franchise, only to have it overtaken by Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant. At the same time, he directed an installment of BMW’s The Hire series, starring Clive Owen, and signed on to help write and direct an adaptation of Thomas Sweterlitsch’s upcoming novel The Gone World.But what’s more exciting

If you were at a Disney park over the Memorial Day weekend, the crushing lines were likely even more intense than expected. On one coast, the company’s Animal Kingdom park officially opened Pandora, its immersive land inspired by James Cameron’s Avatar, while in California the public began riding the new attraction Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout! It was a one-two punch that underscored the company’s brand-focused strategy under the stewardship of CEO Bob Iger: our th

While we worry about artificial intelligence driving us into unemployment, a lot of job positions remain vacant and a large percentage of applicants never hear back from employers. This is largely due to the inefficiency of the manual recruitment tools and processes, which make it extremely hard for employers to find the right candidates. Among problems that recruiters struggle with are company job boards and applicant tracking systems that fail to deliver, email threads that become unmanageabl

Technology addiction has become rampant in recent times, thanks to the explosive evolvement of technological devices and the ease of use associated with it. Researchers define it as an uncontrollable urge to use different technological devices ranging from smart phones, social media, personal computers and gaming rigs. It’s more prevalent among teenagers who shy away from social interaction in reality and find a peaceful abode in a welcoming technological world, where there’s a meag

  Over the past year, it seems as though almost everyone is going “live.” You know, those notifications on Facebook, Snapchat or Instagram giving us real-time looks or even exclusive, behind the scenes footage. Yes, this phenomenon on our social feeds has only increased to becoming almost a daily occurrence, meaning it’s not going away anytime soon. While the practice of live streaming has been around longer than the webcam, the usage of it on social media is still in its

  When we think about how automation is changing our lives, images of a Jetson-esque world come to mind where everything just happens. Our lifestyles are curated and detailed down by the push of a button, making many of the practical activities we once took part of now obsolete. And for people in the sales and marketing world, this scares the pants off of some. However, that fear is based more on conspiracy than it is facts. Innovations, like AI and automation, are geared towards replacing

  For how much Hollywood loves remakes, I’m curious to see what a futuristic Mad Men is going to look like. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not expecting to see robotic Don Draper, who writes poignant lines of copy aggregated from data points all over the world (that’d be cheesy and boring). Rather, I’d be more excited to see how technology is going to change the world of advertising for good. A lot of people might think that under the reigns of Artificial Intelligenc

Racist, sexist, religious一 all forms of discrimination, prejudice, or hate speech could be attributed to boredom according to a study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology. According to Wijnand A.P. Van Tilburg: “Boredom puts people on edge: It makes them seek engagements that are challenging, exciting, and that offer a sense of purpose.” To summarize the research: in order to get through life sanely, you need to have a sense of purpose. If you&rsqu

After a lengthy preview period for insiders and Xbox Gold members, Microsoft’s Game Pass service went live for all users on June 1st. The service allows Xbox One owners to subscribe and download over 100 games for $10. I’ve been using it for a couple of weeks now, and after being excited to try the so-called “Netflix of games,” I’ve since learned the moniker is far from accurate. Services like Netflix rely on a constant internet connection to allow users to enjoy a

Amazon filed a patent for a parachute/packing label hybrid for their drone deliveries — meaning future Amazon packages could float onto your lawn from drones. The patent, filed on Tuesday, is for a package delivery system that includes “a parachute to enable the packages to be dropped from the aerial vehicle, yet land at the package’s destination without damage.” The parachute is apparently housed within the packing label itself, which is an unorthodox shortcut. But

We’ve hardly seen any devices with Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 4.0, and yet Qualcomm has already announced the next version: Quick Charge 4+. The charging tech is debuting on ZTE’s latest phone, the Nubia Z17, and it promises a 50 percent charge in 25 minutes on the 3,200 mAh battery. Qualcomm says Quickcharge 4+ is 15 percent faster than its predecessor, all while producing less heat – which should hopefully prevent less throttling on your device. Meanwhile the rest of

Ford is changing focus after a company shake-up saw the head of driverless cars become the CEO. The car manufacturer announced that (previous CEO) Mike Fields would be replaced by Bill Hackett. This comes on the heels of partnership talks between Ford and Google falling apart. Bill Hackett, former big furniture guy, will take over Ford with a nervous board of directors throwing support behind him. Board members began to lose confidence in Fields and his ability to pull Ford in the rig