Technology news

Nintendo, a company perennially behind when it comes to consumer expectations for online functionality, revealed at the Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show that Psyonix’s car soccer hit Rocket League will enable crossplay between Switch, Xbox One, and PC. Sony reiterated at E3, however, that it isn’t interested in permitting PS4 owners to play with consumers on other consoles.
For Psyonix, this is frustrating. Studio publishing boss Jeremy Dunham said as much during a quick sit

Routers sit at the front gate of nearly every network, offering total access and few security measures to prevent remote attacks. If you can compromise someone’s router, you’ve got a window into everything they’re doing online.
According to new documents published by WikiLeaks, the CIA has been building and maintaining a host of tools to do just that. This morning, the group published new documents describing a program called Cherry Blossom, which uses a modified version of a g

As a standalone story, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy will leave behind Nathan Drake in favor for a team-up between Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross. It’s a first for the series, but not for developer Naughty Dog, who has experimented with this one-off style with experiences like The Last of Us: Left Behind — an experiment that gave the studio the confidence to experiment with smaller experiences, says game director Kurt Margenau.
When Naughty Dog released Left Behind, they told a story abou

GUEST: Conversational commerce has been a hot topic recently. For quite some time it was linked to virtual assistants, but it has really only gained traction as messaging platforms have spread like wildfire. Here’s the proof:In 2015, the shift from social to messaging ultimately created the perfect environment for the bot and automation ecosystem to emerge. While the bot market still has some maturation to do, we’re already seeing an outgrowth of conversational commerce that I call &

Last E3, Cory Barlog revealed a wildly ambitious plan for his update on God of War: the game would take place in a single, uninterrupted shot. This year, the director shared that, in the early days of production, some members of the development team were hesitant to take on the ambitious plan. So, to show the power of the film technique when done well, he screened the hotel scene from John Woo’s action movie masterpiece, Hard Boiled.
“There’s that great one shot [in Hard Boiled

The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) drew more than 68,400 industry professionals and fans this week to the Los Angeles Convention Center.
That number included more than 15,000 fans, who were allowed inside the sprawling convention center for the first time. Millions more around the world watched the event on the internet and TV, according to the trade group that puts on the show, the Entertainment Software Association.
And yes, with the consumers in the queues this time, it was crowded. On Th

Netflix has renewed Bill Nye’s talk show, Bill Nye Saves the World, for a second season. The series, which blended comedy and science, premiered back in April with 13 episodes. A premiere date for the new season will be announced later this year.
Bill Nye Save the World initially received mixed reviews from critics. Some critics said the science portrayed was too childish and trivial, and attacked the show for wasting a great platform to talk about real science that matters. Others appreci

An area larger than the state of Texas in West Antarctica melted to an unusual degree last year, with pools of the meltwater remaining on the surface for as long as 15 days. That’s trouble, since meltwater can accelerate the thawing already occurring from warming ocean temperatures. West Antarctica alone could contribute 10 feet of sea level rise, according to a 2009 paper published in Science.
This area in the Ross Ice Shelf, the world’s largest chunk of floating ice, likely melted

Lyft likes to set lofty goals for itself. Last year, one of the ride-hail company’s founders went on record predicting that “a majority” of Lyft’s trips will be in self-driving cars by 2021. Now Lyft says it wants to be less of a pollutant, too. The company is setting a goal for itself that all of the electric, autonomous vehicles on its platform will be powered by “100% renewable energy.”
Lyft says it will provide 1 billion rides per year using electric, auto

EXCLUSIVE: In an effort to try to distinguish itself from other accelerators in the Bay Area, 500 Startups has been offering two different programs since last year: Seed and Series A. Today, the 500 team announced the launch of its first Series A program in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and provided VentureBeat an exclusive overview on why it chose Doha, Qatar to run the three-month program.
Nine MENA startups from countries that include Egypt, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and the U

When Ubisoft showed off the new sequel to its open-world racer The Crew on Monday, the publisher wanted to keep a big secret under wraps until players could try the game here on the E3 show floor. Considering The Crew 2 will let you switch with ease between cars, bikes, boats, and planes of all shapes and sizes, it’s worth asking how exactly you’ll be able to move from one vehicle type to another.Ubisoft’s answer: an on-the-fly system that lets you transform vehicles regardless

Sony’s new God of War on PS4 will be the first game in the series to ditch quick time events, according to its director Cory Barlog. The franchise is arguably most responsible for popularizing the quick time event design, which allows players to have minimal input into elaborate and cinematic action sequences.
Typically referred to as QTEs, the design requires players to obey an on-screen button prompt with precise timing (e.g., tapping the triangle button as it flashes on screen). Failing

GUEST: AI is constantly touted as the next big thing. But how many of us are aware that AI is already here? While the jury is still out on whether it will be a benevolent force or an existential threat to humankind, AI is active in many facets of our daily lives and will play a larger role in the years to come.For example, the NSA has basically a version of “Skynet” from the Terminator series to track suspected terrorists and predict terrorist attacks (Minority Report, anyone?). And

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is rethinking his approach to philanthropy in hopes of better assisting people who need help right now. Earlier this afternoon, Bezos asked Twitter users for suggestions on where his money and efforts would be best directed. “This tweet is a request for ideas,” Bezos said, explaining that he wants his philanthropic work to be less focused on the long term and more “at the intersection of urgent need and lasting impact.”
The businesses led by Bezos (A

 When it looks, feels and is packaged like a competitor’s, is it really competition or just a knockoff?
The Juiced Board comes dangerously close to echoing that sort of sentiment. Juiced and Boosted are words that loosely share the same meaning, but it’s the appearances where both electric skateboards really seem to converge.
Until now, I never would have recommended a sub-$1,000… Read More

If DirectTV Now hasn’t been able to tempt you yet with a free Apple TV set-top box, a free year of HBO, or its limited time launch offer, AT&T still isn’t done trying. In its latest promotion, AT&T is offering up to two Roku Premiere boxes for any new DirecTV Now, AT&T Unlimited Choice, or Unlimited Plus customer that prepays for two months of service.
DirecTV Now added support for the Roku platform in May. The $70 Roku Premiere is in the middle of the pack of current Rok

After a few months of wishy-washy statements on net neutrality indicating that the company had largely given up on it, Netflix is changing course. In a tweet today, the company wrote: “Netflix will never outgrow the fight for #NetNeutrality. Everyone deserves an open Internet.” It also linked to the Battle for the Net campaign, indicating that Netflix had signed on to take action.
This is a big change of direction for Netflix. Though the company was one of the most staunch net neutra

Scientists on Twitter have been working long and hard to answer one of the universe’s million-dollar questions: what is the worst smell in the world?The fierce Twitter debate was fueled by reptile and amphibian expert David Steen. In March, he suggested that researchers “RT if you’re a field biologist and you’ve ever asked yourself, ‘Why do I smell bad?’” One of his Twitter followers refreshed the subject recently, asking: “What’s the worst t

To try and edge the United States ahead of other countries in the arms race of building supercomputers, the Department of Energy today awarded a total of $258 million in funding to HPE, Cray, AMD, Intel, IBM, and Nvidia. The money will be put toward developing exascale computers, which are capable of a billion calculations per second.The $258 million in funding will be allocated over a three-year contract period. Each company has also agreed to provide at least 40 percent of their individual tot

As Facebook continues to face criticism over how it handles terrorist propaganda, the company is detailing its process for countering radicalization and other threats.
Facebook says it’s using a mix of AI and human intervention to root out terrorist content
Facebook said in a blog post today that most accounts removed for terrorism-related activity are uncovered by the company itself, and that it’s using artificial intelligence to find more threats. “We are currently focusing o

China’s quantum satellite has produced its first successful result. In a paper published today in Science, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced the satellite had successfully distributed entangled photons between three different terrestrial base stations, separated by as much as 1,200 kilometers on the ground. The result is the longest entanglement ever demonstrated, and the first that spanned between the Earth and space. Researchers say the system “opens up a n

It’s not often you come across a video game concept you’ve never seen before. Here at E3, gaming’s biggest and most lavish marketing extravaganza, it’s more common to find yourself inundated with sequels, reboots, and remakes than to stumble on a creative, original idea. That’s precisely what makes Minit, a new indie game from developers Jan Willem Nijman and Kitty Calis, so exquisite. The game has a simple premise: every 60 seconds, you perish. Your small, blob-lik

After peaking above $27 per share, Snap’s IPO highs have disappeared. Today the stock settled down to its initial public offering price: $17.
When Snap hit the New York Stock Exchange, the newly public company swelled to $24 per share on its first day at a reported valuation of $33.6 billion. The stock fell below $20 per share two weeks later, and has seesawed ever since.
We could play the blame game — and we will. Snapchat’s growth rate is lagging, and Facebook is ge

Armin Lizama is 19 years old. He is a recent high school graduate who lives in Mérida, Mexico. Just another teen in Yucatán’s capital city, he also counts 20-year-old New Zealand pop star Lorde, among his (long-distance) personal friends.
Lizama, of course, refers to the singer by her real name, Ella — her full name is Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor — and says she gives great advice. “I get to talk to her and ask her questions, not only about music but [al

 A woman raped by her Uber driver in India is suing both the company and three current and former top executives after it was revealed Eric Alexander, the company’s president of business in Asia Pacific, had accessed and was carrying around her medical records. The woman, a Texas resident identified as Jane Doe in the case, is suing for intrusion into private affairs, public disclosure… Read More

Scopely, the maker of free-to-play mobile games such as The Walking Dead: Road to Survival, has raised $60 million in a third round of financing. Revolution Growth led the round, and that company’s leaders are former AOL executives Steve Case and Ted Leonsis.
The studio has grown its revenues nine-fold over the past nine quarters, and it will likely use the funds for strategic investments, commercial partnerships, and acquisitions. In June 2016, Scopely raised $55 million in its bid t

Facebook says it’ll start being more forthcoming about how and why it addresses some of today’s most controversial issues surrounding social media, including its use as a terrorist recruiting tool, its role in spreading made-up news stories, and how people can be kept safe online.
In a blog post this morning, Facebook’s public policy VP, Elliot Schrage, says the company will begin writing blog posts “not only to explain some of our choices but also explore hard questions.

Eventbrite just announced a new Spotify integration that will promote its events to users based on their listening preferences and location. The recommendations will appear in an artist’s “Concerts” tab, and in emails to users when new tour dates are posted.Spotify launched the Concerts tab back in 2015, and already sends emails about tour dates based on artists you listen to. This new integration is just a way for Eventbrite to use Spotify’s algorithm to get more people

PRESS RELEASE:Out There Media’s proprietary platform enables mobile operators to monetize their data by connecting them with the world’s leading brands via OTM’s proprietary platform, Mobucks™VIENNA–(BUSINESS WIRE)–June 15, 2017– Accel Partners, DCM and Impact Venture Capital co-founder, Dixon Doll, has joined the board of directors and invested in Out There Media (OTM), one of the world’s leading mobile data monetization providers headquartered in

A woman who was raped in India by an Uber driver in 2014 is suing the ride-hail giant over the alleged mishandling of her medical records. Last week, it was reported that Uber’s top executive in Asia had obtained copies of the woman’s records and shown them to other executives, including CEO Travis Kalanick.
In her scathing lawsuit, the unnamed woman accuses Uber of “[violating] her a secondtime by unlawfully obtaining and sharing her medical records from that vicious sexual as