Technology news

Hello, fellow fidget spinner enthusiasts. Are you sick of how nobody appreciates the cool stunts and tricks you're always doing in the back of class? Does it make you hopping mad that you can't pair your fidget spinner to your phone over Bluetooth? Are you ready to challenge the worldwide leaderboards and see if you have what it takes?
Lucky for us, Indiegogo exists. A company called BlueSpin is about to launch a crowdfunding campaign for the "first Bluetooth fidget spinner." The BlueSpin Blueto

T-Mobile announced earlier this year that it would begin supporting LTE-U sometime this spring, and today the company announced that it’s making good on its word, as itstarts rolling out support for the new wireless standard in six cities.
If you live in Bellevue, WA; Brooklyn, NY; Dearborn, MI; Las Vegas, NV; Richardson, TX; or Simi Valley, CA and have a compatible device — which for now, is only the Samsung Galaxy S8 — you’ll be able to take advantage of the faster spee

Developer Tomás Garcia has a few of the more notable augmented reality demos since ARKit, Apple’s augmented reality tool, was released earlier this month. But his newest one is the most impressive yet. Standing in the backyard of his office, Garcia trains his iPhone 7’s screen at the sky, where a digital version of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket booster comes barreling toward the ground. He follows the booster until it gently settles onto a facsimile of one of the company&rsqu

McMansion Hell is a Tumblr blog that highlights the absurdity of giant real estate properties and the ridiculous staging and photography that are omnipresent in their sales listings. The blog, started by 23-year-old Johns Hopkins graduate student Kate Wagner, began in July 2016 as a way to poke fun at pretentious architecture. It has since gone viral, but now she’s facing potential legal charges by real estate site Zillow for allegedly violating the site’s terms of service by reprodu

As the world gets ready to celebrate the iPhone’s 10th anniversary on Thursday, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City gave a sneak peek at its experimental Talking Pictures exhibit today, which invites artists to communicate to one another only in photos snapped on smartphones.
For the exhibit, the Met commissioned 12 artists of different backgrounds and asked them to invite another artist to be paired with to engage in these digital and visual conversations. The rules were simpl

Amazon has a new software update for its Echo products, enabling users with multiple Echos to use them as a room-to-room intercom system. The new feature is rolling out over the next few days, and will be available for the Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Show.With the intercom features, users will be able to single out a specific Echo device and communicate with it directly. For example, using an Echo in your kitchen to call family members from the living room, or letting someone in an office know that

For those looking to test out the upcoming iOS 11 update, you’ll now be able to download the public beta version of the software from Apple’s website. Announced earlier this month during WWDC, iOS 11 comes with your standard tweaks and refinements, but also a huge focus on making the iPad a more powerful computing tool worthy of its larger screen and keyboard attachment.
You’ll now be able to drag and drop info and media across apps, expand the dock on iPad to fit far more apps

Today, private spaceflight venture Blue Origin announced its plans to manufacture the company’s new rocket engine, the BE-4, at a state-of-the-art facility in Huntsville, Alabama. It’s an interesting move for the company, which has been mostly developing the engine at its headquarters in Kent, Washington, and testing the hardware in Texas. But the benefits for Blue Origin are both practical and political.
On the surface, it’s a seemingly innocuous decision meant to capitalize o

Apple’s iOS 11 public beta begins today, and it brings with it a huge number of improvements and changes. While there are UI tweaks, feature additions, drag and drop, and lots of improvements for the iPad, a change to the way screenshots work might seem bigger. Like many people, I use screenshots on my iPhone every single day, and the process of storing or sharing them is about to get a lot better in iOS 11.
Apple is introducing a new preview for screenshots. It looks a lot like Android&rs

Silicon Valley ended its fourth season on Sunday after a string of episodes that even some of the HBO comedy’s most devoted fans have found a bit too cynical. For three years, brilliant programmer and Pied Piper company founder Richard Hendricks (played by Thomas Middleditch) has been the show’s bumbling hero: a gawky genius with great ideas, a good heart, and a nagging tendency to shoot himself in the foot. But then season 4 began turning Richard into a heel, at times as callously m

Earlier in this season of HBO’s Silicon Valley, Erlich and Jian-Yang of the fictional SeeFood startup launched an app that could identify hot dogs. Put a hot dog in front of it, and it’ll say “hotdog!” Put something else, like a shoe instead, and it’ll say “not hotdog!” It’s simple. A real version of the app showed up in the App Store after the episode aired. Today, it’s available on Android through the Play Store. A bunch of knockoff apps ar

The upcoming SNES Classic from Nintendo fixes at least one problem from its 8-bit predecessor. Just like the NES Classic, the new mini console will feature a replica controller that’s nearly identical to the original. But where the NES Classic controller was hampered by frustratingly short cables, Nintendo says that won’t be the case with the SNES Classic. Instead, it will include a cord that’s around five feet long, two feet longer than the NES. That’s somewhat on the sh

During his campaign and presidency, Donald Trump has used Twitter to circumvent traditional media broadcasters and speak directly to the masses. He is particularly known for one specific tweet construction: he sets up a situation that he feels should inspire anger or outrage, then punctuates it with “Sad!” New research from New York University suggests a reason why this style is so effective: a tweet containing moral and emotional language spreads farther among people with similar po

Nintendo’s SNES Classic mini console, which comes with a more vibrant system and controller color scheme in Europe, is now up for preorder on Amazon’s UK storefront. The page, which says the product is sold by Amazon EU S.a.r.L. (the company’s official European trading name), appears to have gone live sometime in the last hour.Pricing is listed on the page as £79.99 ($101.76), but the final amount with shipping mysteriously comes out to around £71.61 ($91.10). Amazo

Uptime, an app developed under Google’s Area 120 incubator, is now available to the public. The iOS app debuted in early March as invite-only. Uptime basically takes existing YouTube videos and makes them more interactive by letting you watch them with your friends. You can see where — time-wise — your friends are in a video as compared to you. You’ll also see reactions in the form of sparkles or different cartoon faces. It looks a lot like Facebook Live reactions or Anch

Didn’t grab the NES Classic last year? Your chances of getting an SNES Classic are going to be better. But don’t sleep on the console: the mini SNES may have the same fate as its predecessor.
In a comment to The Verge (and first reported by Kotaku), a Nintendo representative confirmed that the company will ship “significantly more” Super NES Classic Editions than the notoriously limited run of the NES Classic Edition. However, there’s a catch.According to the statem

Facebook is updating video chat in Messenger today with some new features, including live filters, animated reactions, and the ability to directly save screenshots.The reactions take the five reaction emoji from Messenger — a heart, a smiling face, a surprised face, a crying face, and an angry face — and animate them as an overlay on your face. For example, the crying emoji will cause animated tears to fall from your eyes, while the heart creates a halo of exploding hearts around you

“Social media spark[s] a revelation that we, the people, have a voice, and through the democratisation of content and ideas we can once again unite around common passions, inspire movements, and ignite change.” – Brian Solis Social media has become a prominent part of every brand marketer’s strategic planning toolbox. Additionally, it is the second largest driver of traffic to business websites, with the first driver being traffic generated from search engines such as Go

The transformation of Dell into Linux hardware maker is nothing short of extraordinary. It started in 2012, when Dell’s Project Sputnik started to offer Ubuntu pre-installed on specific developer-class laptops, like the Dell XPS series. Five years later, Dell is offering Ubuntu on an even broader array of PCs, including the gorgeous Precision series. Dell’s Precision 5520 Ubuntu is a capable machine, with looks to match. But does this justify its astonishing pricetag, which dependin

ViewSonic has announced the XG2530, a 25-inch 240Hz gaming monitor, according to 144HzMonitors. The 1080p monitor features a TN panel with a 1ms response time, 1000:1 contrast ratio, FreeSync support, two HDMI ports (one 2.0, one 1.4), two USB 3.0 ports, and a DisplayPort.While 40Hz is undoubtedly an improvement over the plethora of 144Hz monitors, it won’t be a huge leap in smoothness like the jump from 60Hz to 144Hz was, given that game engines don’t support it yet. (That should me

Panasonic is planning to release a new hanger in Japan that’ll deodorize your clothes. The deodorizing hanger, as it’s called on Panasonic’s website, apparently not only annihilates scent from your shirts and jackets, but suppresses pollen, too. The hanger relies on a proprietary technology called “nanoe,” which involves the releasing of nano-sized negatively charged particles into the air. These particles gather moisture from the air to get rid of smells attached t

Nintendo has revealed details for the SNES Classic. The standalone mini console will feature 21 games, including Super Mario World, Earthbound, Super Mario Kart, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. But the most surprising inclusion is Star Fox 2, the unreleased sequel to the original Star Fox for SNES.
The Super NES Classic Edition will launch on September 29th for $79.99. Like its predecessor the NES Classic, it will allow players to easily play retro games on high-definition televisio

Amazon’s new Echo Show is shipping this week, giving yet another platform for Alexa to exist on. The Echo Show is a lot like prior Echo devices in that you can control it entirely with your voice and it can hear you from across the room. But the Show is the first Amazon Alexa device with a screen, giving it a number of new capabilities. You can read our full review for more on what’s good and not so good about it.
The original Echo has already found a home in many kitchens
Many peopl

Honesty is 100 percent the best policy, especially when it comes to selling your underperforming social network to the general public. Which is why Twitter’s new ad is so damn good. It’s part of the company’s new #SeeEverySide marketing campaign and is supposed to show ”how large, real time and vibrant topics of conversation unfold on Twitter” — in this case, in reaction to a heatwave.What the ad really shows, though, is a bunch of strangers a) fighting online

Laughly is an audio streaming service focused on comedy. It works like Spotify or Pandora, but it treats artists like partners. Comedians get paid for every ‘click’, and all revenue is split 50/50. There are 250,000 registered users listening to over 700 comedians on Laughly; all the popular artists like Kevin Hart and Sarah Silverman are there. The app has plenty of offerings and, while it isn’t the only comedy app out there, it’s not focused on podcasts so you won&rsqu

Avis Budget Group, the parent company of car rental services like Avis, Budget, and Zipcar, has struck a non-exclusive deal with Waymo to manage its growing fleet of self-driving minivans. Avis will clean and tend to Waymo’s vehicles, providing services like regular oil changes, but it won’t tinker with any of the self-driving hardware.
The partnership, which will begin later this year, only covers the self-driving vans Waymo has deployed in Phoenix. (Waymo also tests vehicles in Mou

Since commerce went digital, there may be no more crystallizing snapshot of a business’ overall health than the simple spreadsheet. One quick look at the right columns and you can immediately tell where a company is succeeding or failing. In the world of spreadsheets, Excel has been and remains king – so understand this seminal program top to bottom with this Microsoft Excel Specialist Certification Bundle. You can pick it up now for a ridiculously low $19 from TNW Deals. Your instr

One resourceful company is reinventing the ruler. Creative collective Laan Labs has developed a nifty mobile app that relies on augmented reality technology to turn your smartphone into a legitimate measuring device. To accomplish this, AR Measure factors in the distance between various points in 3D space to help you measure any physical object by simply using your phone’s camera. All it takes to put the virtual ruler to use is point your camera, select your desired startin

Girlboss, Netflix’s recent series about the rise of controversial Nasty Gal CEO Sophia Amoruso’s online clothing empire, has been canceled after only one season. The series debuted in April, earning middling reviews from critics. It now joins shows like The Get Down and Sense8 that were canceled this year after just a few seasons.
According to Variety, Amoruso, who executive produced the show, announced the cancellation in an Instagram Story over the weekend. “So that Netflix s

If delivery drones become widespread, then creating aircraft control systems to stop them crashing into one another is going to be a big challenge. (That’s why Google, NASA, and the FAA are all working on it right now.) But hey, if we’re going to enable fleets of semi-autonomous vehicles to roam the skies in incredibly complicated patterns, why stop there? Why not let them drive as well?That’s what researchers at MIT have been looking into, creating the first “path planni

Cozmo was supposed to be the new face of robotics for Anki, previously known for its collection of connected toy cars. After Cozmo’s launch last October, the company offered SDKs for research groups to play with the robot’s facial and spacial recognition capabilities and path mapping, but this was mostly limited to adult developers who were familiar with programming in Python. To bring the focus back to Anki’s target market — kids — today the company is releasing a

Even if you work in a boring corporate office, looking good is still a very effective way to brighten your day and improve your confidence.  Appearance can say a lot about a person and no matter what your personal style – going the extra mile will put a spring in your step. On top of that, the more comfortable you are with the way you look, the more self-confidence and charisma you will acquire. Bottom line, looking awesome will also make you feel awesome. But who would we be if it w

This weekend, the British Parliament’s email system fell victim to a sustained brute-force attack. Over Saturday evening, an unknown adversary (believed to be either Russia or North Korea, because obviously) bombarded the British government’s email system with thousands of login attempts, and ultimately gained access to 90 accounts with weak credentials. In response, the security services have limited access to the email system, forcing parliamentarians, peers, and support staff to