Technology news

When Zillow sent Kate Wagner, the 23-year-old behind the popular blog McMansion Hell, a cease and desist letter this week, the real estate listing company gave her until the end of today to delete photos obtained from Zillow from her website. It’s nearing the deadline and Wagner’s blog is back up, all photos remained, and Zillow has agreed to instead back away from a potential lawsuit.
Here’s the SparkNotes of what happened: on Monday, Zillow sent a letter to Wagner claiming he

Facebook’s Aquila drone completed its second flight this past May during which it flew for an hour and 46 minutes. Facebook detailed the flight in a blog post and explained the modifications it made to the drone after the failure of the initial test. That first go somewhat failed when a 20-foot section of the wing snapped off during landing. A gust of wind knocked Aquila off its flight path, and the autopilot’s attempt to correct course resulted in the drone going faster than intende

Square’s been slowly rolling out its physical Square Cash Cards to users for the last few weeks. Today, Square CEO Jack Dorsey announced that, starting now, anyone can get one of the prepaid debit cards through the Square app or website.Starting today anyone can get a #cashcard! Design your own: https://t.co/K2DfyJgs6y pic.twitter.com/n5AwX92DBw— jack (@jack) June 29, 2017The Square Cash Card more closely resembles a prepaid card than a debit card, since it’s only able to draw

With the flurry of changes happening at the FCC over the past few months, it may be hard to believe that the commission has been short staffed the entire time. But since the beginning of the Trump administration, the FCC has been missing two key positions and the associated staffers that support them. Now Trump is about to fill in the gaps, and it means the FCC will be able to start accomplishing a lot more.
The Federal Communications Commission is supposed to be led by five commissioners (one o

The phone is dead. The iPhone killed it.It’s hard to say when exactly the inflection point came. Was there was a single point in time that the devices in our pockets became computers first and phones as a distant second? Was it the original iPhone, released 10 years ago today? Perhaps it was the iPhone 3G, which added faster internet, or the iPhone 5, which supported LTE. Or maybe it was iPhone OS 2, which opened up the App Store for developers to create their own communication platforms o

Apple just launched the public beta of macOS High Sierra. It's available to download now if you're feeling brave (and enroll your devices), or you can sit back and let everyone else face the inherent risks and breakages involved in a new OS, then reap the rewards when the final version launches — presumably this fall. Also you can check out our preview of High Sierra while you make up your mind.
The riskiest and possibly most interesting part of High Sierra is the new APFS file system, whi

OnePlus’ latest flagship phone has gotten critical acclaim for its fast performance and clean software, but some owners of the new device have complained about a weird jelly-like effect that shows its face when scrolling through an app. It’s something I’ve noticed on the OnePlus 5 review unit provided to The Verge, and a Reddit thread has other owners reporting (and speculating as to what’s causing the issue) it, as well.
In a statement regarding the issue, OnePlus says &

Etihad Airways has introduced a new “Neighbour-Free Seat” concept, allowing passengers to bid on up to three extra empty seats adjacent to their booked seat. If the bid is won, the extra seats will remain vacant for the duration of the passenger’s journey, meaning you could have an entire row all to yourself.
According to Etihad’s site, the bid can be placed when buying your seat. There is a minimum and maximum bid the site will accept per seat, and priority will be given

After getting canceled by Netflix at the beginning of June following the release of its second season, Sense8 is now getting a last-minute stay of execution in the form of a two-hour special. It will air in 2018, as announced through a letter from creator Lana Wachowski on the show’s Facebook page.
Death doesn't let you say goodbye. 2 hour finale episode in the works. Tell your cluster.Posted by Sense8 on Thursday, June 29, 2017
The news is particularly unexpected given that Netflix previo

One of the most stunning elements of the first iPhone, which turns 10 years old today, is that it jettisoned the idea of a physical keyboard in favor of a software one. The idea, in hindsight, feels like a no-brainer. But during the iPhone’s development more than a decade ago, the idea of an on-screen keyboard was a radical concept that ultimately had a colossal impact on the future of software interface and smartphone design.
To commemorate the event, the creator of that software keyboard

The iPhone, which turns 10 years old today, is arguably one of the most transformative pieces of consumer technology ever created. It kicked off the smartphone boom by putting the first accessible and easy-to-use computer in our pockets, helped usher in entire software industries in just a few years’ time, and obviated the need for scores of single-purpose gadgets, from point-and-shoot cameras to GPS units to MP3 players.Yet for all the benefits that the iPhone helped deliver, our current

The shoddily mass-produced electronic gadgets are at it again! In a completely expected twist in its sad, inevitable fate, two cases of exploding Bluetooth-enabled fidget spinners have been reported in Michigan and Alabama this week, as spotted by Gizmodo. The fidget spinners, both of which used Bluetooth to hook up to phones to play music through built-in speakers, exploded while charging for less than 30 and 45 minutes, respectively.
Kimberly Allums of Gardendale, Alabama, was downstairs when

In the last four years, Jay Z has released two albums, both through non-traditional means. While most artists would sign with a record label to release their album, the most successful hip-hop artist of all time, a man worth $810 million, has made deals with a smartphone maker and carrier to cover distribution and promotion. The total value of the agreements, which include not just Jay Z’s music, but his businesses is a whopping $220 million.Back in 2013, Jay Z struck a deal between his ow

A common insecticide really does contribute to the death of bees, according to a large-scale field study. This helps set to rest some of the controversy over the use of the chemicals.The type of insecticide in question, called neonicotinoids, is often used to coat crops. In a study published today in the journal Science, researchers grew rapeseed in 33 sites across Germany, the United Kingdom, and Hungary. They coated the crop with neonicotinoids, introduced various bee species to the area, and

Alpine showed of its wireless Apple Carplay receiver, the iLX-107, at CES this year, and now, that device is available from authorized retailers in North America. The 7-inch VGA touchscreen also controls external accessories through a separate controller. Depending on your car, you’ll be able to view customized vehicle information, like the gauge screen or a parking assistant, in addition to all of Apple’s apps. The device runs CarPlay wirelessly through Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.Alpine al

I don’t think anyone would argue that Faraday Future’s all-electric car, the FF91, doesn’t look fast. They might argue over the strange, “bulky crossover” design. They might argue that the videos Faraday has published about the car, both before and after it was announced, were heavily edited, which made it hard to make a real judgement about whether the car was as fast as the company said it is. But judging from the rides Faraday gave people in the car when it was a

To celebrate Prime Day, Amazon’s annual mega sale, Amazon is offering a $10 credit for Prime users to spend during the event. To earn the credit, Prime members have to stream a Prime video before Prime Day from devices like the Fire TV, Fire TV sticks, or streaming media players like Rokus, smart TVs, Blu-ray players, TiVos, and gaming consoles. It also has to be the first time they’ve ever watched an Amazon Prime video from the account.
The promotion sounds great in theory, but it c

Uber hasn’t had much to brag about lately. Its public image is in tatters, its CEO has resigned in disgrace, and hundreds of thousands of people have deleted the app. But despite almost daily evidence that the company is in free fall, the core product — Uber’s app — remains quite popular.Today, the company announced a significant milestone: 5 billion trips completed worldwide. This comes a little less than a year after Uber said it had completed its 2 billionth trip, whic

New Yorkers have known for a long time that their subway was busted. But until recently, they lacked a venue to vent their frustration publicly. Thankfully, Governor Andrew Cuomo came along and installed wireless internet in all 279 underground subway stations, so when someone is stuck on an F train with no air-conditioning for over an hour, or is forced to evacuate through the rat- and smoke-filled tunnels after an A train derails, they can do what they’ve always wanted to: tweet their co

The latest trailer for Netflix’s live-action version of Death Note is here with our first full look at many of the show’s iconic characters. L (Atlanta’s Lakeith Stanfield), the foil for Death Note holder Light Turner (Nat Wolff, The Fault In Our Stars), warns the public about the killer Kira before the two come face-to-face. The trailer also provides a better look at Willem DaFoe’s version of Ryuk.
In Death Note, a human who possesses the titular journal has the power to

Anchor has been getting some buzz as a really simple way to create and listen to podcast-like radio shows. But those shows have always been stuck inside of Anchor — until today.
The app can now publish those recordings to podcast platforms, sending them to Apple’s and Google’s collections of shows for even more people to find. It’s limited to just those two services for now, but they’re among the biggest locations for podcast discovery out there. In the future, Anch

Here’s the good news: Game of Game of Thrones is back.Season 7 is still a little over two weeks away, but we want to give you plenty of time to think through your selections. It’s going to be a tough year for anyone who doesn’t have Daenerys’ dragons on their side. So get your league set up on Fantasizr as early as right now. We’ll be drafting for our staff league and spitting out our season 7 predictions as trash talk sometime next week.oh boy, it’s dragon an

After a month of trying, NASA finally launched one of its small sounding rockets from the coast of Virginia, creating a delightful mix of colorful clouds in the upper atmosphere. The vibrant show was no fluke, but the main point of the mission. The rocket, a Terrier-Improved Malemute, was tasked with releasing canisters filled with multi-colored chemical vapors into the sky to create vivid clouds that could be seen from the ground.It’s a launch that’s been a long time in the making
I

The “homecoming” in the title of Spider-Man: Homecoming has two meanings, and they both speak directly to the movie’s small focus. The film is a literal homecoming, as Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man (aka Tom Holland), returns to Queens after the epic Berlin battle in his last Marvel Cinematic Universe outing in Captain America: Civil War. But Peter’s sophomore homecoming dance also plays a significant part in the story, as he sweats over whether to confess his crush on his

Comcast and AMC just announced AMC Premiere, an ad-free, simultaneous broadcast streaming service for Xfinity TV customers. The service will also include “an array of exclusive and first-look content and curated movies.” The service soft-launches today with additional features to come.The service sounds similar to HBO Go, the online version of HBO that includes content like trailers, movies, full episodes of HBO’s TV shows, interviews, and broadcasts airing simultaneously with

Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA) has proposed legislation to specifically outlaw internet harassment-based crimes like swatting and devote $24 million a year to stopping them. The Online Safety Modernization Act of 2017 collects several of Clark’s earlier bills, with sponsorship from Rep. Susan Brooks (R-IN) and Patrick Meehan (R-PA). It imposes penalties on several relatively new forms of abuse that may be only indirectly covered under other laws, while funding research and investigation into

The Echo Show is thick. It's shaped like a rear-projection TV, except its screen is an LCD. Since almost every other gadget on the market has a moral duty to be thin, I was curious what Amazon was going to use all that space for. And, lucky for me, iFixit is on the scene with a detailed teardown.
It turns out, the Echo Show is a real electricity monster. Look at this power supply board! It's basically a 21-watt amplifier, which is a lot more power than you get in the average Bluetooth speaker. T

Instagram is introducing an enhanced comment filter today meant to wipe out nasty remarks using AI. The app first began offering a comment filter last September, but it was a very simple approach: Instagram would only remove comments that contained words and phrases it had specifically identified as offensive. (Users could also add their own custom banned phrases.)
Now, the system is getting a lot smarter. It uses machine learning to identify comments that seem offensive, giving the system some

It’s easy to see how the iPhone changed the world 10 years ago — now pretty much every public place is packed with people peering into their palms in a way that would have been difficult to imagine before 2007. But as Steve Jobs pointed out during his famous introduction to the product, Apple was entering a market where the existing competitors weren’t all that great — they were either somewhat hard to use and dumb, or hard to use and somewhat dumb.What if Apple had enter

French President Emmanuel Macron today released his official photo, which features the newly-elected head of state standing in front of his desk. The photo is perfectly centered, with Macron framed by French and EU flags in front of an open window, but it’s the items on his desk that are most interesting: three books, a clock, and what appear to be two smartphones.Portrait officiel. pic.twitter.com/fAhSZJvPa5— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) June 29, 2017Including the smartphones i

When I was a teenager, this time of year would be insufferable. My bedroom would be nearly 90F without air conditioning, but it wasn’t even particularly hot outside. I had at least five tower PCs running inside my bedroom, all contributing a lot of heat to my tiny little room. Each performed its own role in my home network, with a file server, domain server, Exchange server, and media center PC among them. All of those tower PCs are now inside my pocket, thanks to the iPhone.
I used to run