Technology news

Summer is here, and that means it’s time to break out the water guns. Or, if you’re YouTuber Mark Rober (formerly a NASA engineer), it’s time to build the largest water gun ever made (via Gizmodo).
Rober’s giant water pistol is a little more overpowered than the original backyard toy, firing jets of water at 272 miles per hour, with enough force to slice through a watermelon and shatter glass. But despite the giant scale, the supersized Super Soaker works pretty much the

Get ready to see more ads popping up in Facebook Messenger.
An exec at the social network said Tuesday that it plans to roll out ads to the Messenger home screen worldwide by the end of the year after testing them in Australia and Thailand earlier this year, Venture Beat reports.
SEE ALSO: Some Facebook users will start seeing ads in an unexpected place
The company plans to gradually wean them in as to avoid annoying users with a flood of new ads.
“We’ll start slow,” Facebook's

No offense to Apple, but the MacBook Pro's Touch Bar hasn't been the game-changer we originally thought it would be. Most people now agree it's a gimmick.
But you know what's not a gimmick? A laptop with built-in wireless charging. 
Dell's new Latitude 7285 is being billed as the world's first laptop with wireless charging, which means you'll never have to worry about tripping over a charging cable ever again, despite the fact that it looks like your dad's favorite computer.
SEE ALSO: The w

Google launched today a venture capital fund, named Gradient Ventures, that will focus on early-stage AI startups.
Gradient’s site says the new fund aims to “invest in and connect startups with Google’s resources, innovation, and technical leadership in AI.”
“Many members of our team are engineers, so we’re familiar with the journey from big idea to product launch,” Gradient managing partner Anna Patterson wrote in a blog post. “The goal is to help

Lucid Motors is building an all-electric, self-driving luxury car, the Air, and the fledgling automaker isn't skimping on the speed. 
Lucid showed off some new footage of a beefed up prototype of the car, dubbed the "Alpha Speed Car," blazing around a test track at a ridiculous 235 mph, a marked improvement from the 217 mph a previous version of the car hit back in April. 
SEE ALSO: Elon Musk just gave us our first real look at the Tesla Model 3
Lucid pulled out all the stops for the t

If you're an American who's been harassed online, you're not alone. You're probably surrounded by others who have experienced something similar.
More than 40 percent of Americans have been harassed on the internet, according to a Pew Research Center survey of 4,248 "nationally representative" American adults that was published on July 11. 
SEE ALSO: Tesla fires engineer who alleged sexual harassment, wage discrimination
Pew distinguishes harassment behaviors as either "less severe" or "more

In the immediate wake of Nelsan Ellis' death from complications following heart failure, his family did something remarkable. 
On Monday, after news of Ellis' death spread, they chose to elaborate on how the 39-year-old True Blood actor experienced heart failure in the first place. 
SEE ALSO: This adorable chatbot wants to talk about your mental health
The health crisis was brought on by alcohol withdrawal, they said in a statement delivered to The Hollywood Reporter by Ellis' manager.

We just got what is likely our first good look at Google's next Pixel XL and it could have one big gimmicky feature. 
The new image, which comes to us via Android Police, shows a handset that looks pretty similar to what Google launched last year. 
SEE ALSO: What the actual hell is going on with Google's newly redesigned Android emoji
There are a couple noticeable changes, though, including a larger rear-facing camera (notice how it's not a dual-lens setup) and a much slimmer bezel on

By now, you've probably seen the damning email chain between Donald Trump Jr. and music publicist Rob Goldstone regarding Russia's attempt to harm the Clinton campaign.
Trump Jr. released the emails ahead of the New York Times this morning, because he wanted to prove he was a liar himself, I guess....?
SEE ALSO: Fine yes but did you notice the SECOND-dumbest thing in the Donald Trump Jr. emails?
This was, naturally, a hot topic at Tuesday White House Press Briefing, and Deputy Press Secretary Sa

EXCLUSIVE: It’s been a full year since Pokémon Go’s meteoric rise last July, and it still speaks to a group of loyal fans. And according to mobile analyst Sensor Tower, the fans that are spending the most dollars are in Japan.
The mobile game has reached $1.2 billion in lifetime revenue, and nearly 329 million downloads in the Apple App Store and Google Play store combined. The U.S. remains Pokémon Go’s largest market, leading with $424 million spent on

Kayak is letting customers of its popular travel search site book hotel rooms directly from Amazon’s Alexa virtual assistant, thanks to a new integration launched today.
The latest version of the Kayak Alexa skill will let users say things like “Alexa, ask Kayak to book me a hotel room in Boston,” and Alexa will guide them through the resulting set of available lodgings. When users find a hotel they want, they can then talk through the process of booking it without ever having

AI is becoming a way of life for many of us. We check on flights using a chatbot like Mezi, we benefit from the AI within the booking engine used at Hopper’s website, and we are sending messages to businesses easier thanks to the machine learning at Yelp.
It should not come as a big surprise when the AI improves, advances, and becomes even more helpful. After all, taking a cue from the human brain, AI is always adapting, looking for new ways to help us on a constant iteration cycle. The en

Twitter, everyone's favorite social network for seeing inside President Donald Trump's mind, has struggled with pleasing Wall Street and struggled to improve its diversity numbers. 
On Tuesday, the company announced a new member of the flock who might be able to help with the first problem (but sure doesn't help with the second): Ned Segal will start as Twitter's chief financial officer in August.
SEE ALSO: Why celebrities leave Twitter
CFO is an important position to fill, especially for a

On Tuesday, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted out a bunch of his emails from his own account in regards to his meeting with a Russian lawyer that seem to be pretty damning. He tweeted them out in response to a New York Times article claiming that he met with Russians to learn "compromising information on Hillary Clinton."
SEE ALSO: Why is everybody so worked up about Donald Trump's Twitter account?
But there were some emails that he didn't tweet out; that he didn't want you to see. But luckily, we here a

A big story broke Tuesday morning about Russian collusion—but it didn’t have anything to do with Donald Trump Jr.  
A Bloomberg article reports that a Russian cybersecurity firm, Kaspersky Lab, has a much closer relationship with the Russian government than it has publicly admitted. 
SEE ALSO: Trump and Putin unironically discussed forming a 'cyber security unit'
Kaspersky Lab, according to the story, "developed security technology" at the behest of Russia's Federal Securit

After 27 years, Kermit the Frog is getting a new voice. 
Steve Whitmire, the actor who's been bringing Kermit to life since 1990, is no longer with the Muppets, according to numerous reports. 
SEE ALSO: A new Sesame Place theme park is moving to the neighborhood
Matt Vogel, a Muppet veteran, will instead take his place as the voice and action behind the iconic green frog.
Vogel joined Sesame Street in 1996, and has since played several roles, including Count von Count, Floyd Pepper, an

Facebook Messenger bot Epytom Stylist is now able to answer specific fashion requests in a conversational manner. Epytom Stylist is hands-down one of the bots most recommended by Facebook Messenger staff, one of only 30 featured bots in the Discover tab. Epytom Stylist is also one of the only bots that can appear as a chat extension.
The bot now receives roughly five million messages a month.
“With our NLP technology, they can simply type something like, ‘I’m going on a da

Decades from now, when American students learn about this abysmal period of history, they'll discover that the man behind the collapse of American democracy wore a golden baseball cap with the word "cunty" on it.
That man's name is Rob Goldstone, and he's a British music publicist and former tabloid journalist responsible for setting up the meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer. To understand Goldstone and Trump's alleged collusion, you need to look no further than Goldstone's sh

Twitter users blocked by President Donald Trump weren't just threatening legal action if the president didn't unblock them on the social media platform — they followed through. 
SEE ALSO: Trump blocked users on Twitter and now they're threatening legal action
The seven users through the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Trump for blocking them. They were cut from his feed because they criticized the president and his policies on th

Thanks to some quick thinking and innovative teamwork, approximately 80 beachgoers saved nine people from drowning at Panama City Beach in Florida this past weekend.
After a riptide trapped six members of Roberta Ursrey's family, and three other swimmers, in its current on Saturday, onlookers at the beach worked together to form an impromptu human chain and rescue those struggling to stay above water, reports the Panama City News Herald. 
SEE ALSO: This UV patch will fix the your bad sunscr

On a day when Donald Trump Jr. is tweeting out emails with a Russian lawyer offering damaging material on Hillary Clinton, it's worth revisiting a lawsuit haunting another member of the Trump family—and the lessons it contains.
Last Friday, President Donald Trump's legal team formally requested that a New York judge halt a libel suit filed against him in January. And as has been reported already, one justification for the move is the case of Clinton v Jones—the very lawsuit that led

The vast majority of language exchanged between people isn’t with words — it’s nonverbal. That’s why the newly formed startup Expressive is making stylized avatars that mimic body language and human emotion.
The avatars detect human emotion through the use of sentiment analysis, or understanding the tone in words used by a human. The avatars then respond with emotional reactions like happiness, sadness, shock, disgust, and anger. Ultimately the company wants to use c

We’re likely still a couple months away from an official unveiling of Google’s next Pixel phones, but Android Police just published what could be the first image of the larger-sized device. Android Police has a very strong, accurate track record with early Nexus and Pixel leaks, but the report still hedges that there’s a chance this might not be the finalized design of the Pixel XL 2017. Or, uh, Pixel 2 XL, or whatever this ends up being called. If it is in fact final (or close

The Dell Latitude 7285, the world’s first wirelessly charging laptop, is now on sale, but its charging capabilities will have to be added on at an additional cost. Dell just announced more pricing and availability details today on the device, which is a 12-inch, detachable 2-in-1 first announced back at CES, and others in its new lineup of hybrid laptops.So why the extra cost? Well, it’s not the tablet part that has wireless charging capabilities, as Dell achieves that through a kind

In his 2016 book But What If We’re Wrong?, writer Chuck Klosterman makes the somewhat obvious declaration that we’re usually wrong about the future. Considering that many of us have a hard time predicting what we’ll do for the holidays this year or if we’ll even be working in the same job next year, it’s not that surprising.
What is surprising is a recent report from Cornell University, which included the opinions of 1,634 experts predicting the future of AI back in

Some climate scientists are pushing back against a bleak portrayal of the coming climate apocalypse that was published Sunday night in New York magazine. The cover story’s vivid and doom-heavy forecast won’t help the fight against climate change, some scientists argue. In fact, it’s possible these scare tactics could do just the opposite.
The story, the “The Uninhabitable Earth,” trails the four horsemen as they thunder after runaway carbon emissions. Natural disast

Element led the charge when it came to selling the first round of “Fire TV Edition” smart TVs, and now Westinghouse has announced availability for its version of the Amazon-partnered TVs.
Westinghouse’s Fire TV Edition models will come in 43-, 50-, 55-, and 65-inch sizes, starting at $449.99. The key selling point, of course, is the built-in Amazon Fire TV, which is controlled with the bundled Voice Remote and features Amazon’s Alexa assistant.
The sets aren’t bad f

Take-Two Interactive is bringing games to the Switch, so the GamesBeat Decides podcast wants to talk about third-party support for Nintendo’s latest system. Are more publishers going to consider the hybrid console? We decide that and more.
Hosts Jeffrey Grubb and Mike Minotti also talk about the news and some of the games we’ve been playing.
Games discussed include:– Final Fantasy XII– Shovel Knight: Spectre of Torment– PUBG
Listen to the GamesBeat Decides podcast
S

Visabot, which began by helping people apply for the kinds of visas startup founders typically seek, can now help you apply for a green card, COO Andrey Zinoviev announced today.
The service will be offered for $150 and walk a person through the green card process and schedule appointments with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
“We created our own immigration AI so our success rate grows as the bot learns. what you need to do is answer are you a us citizen ot

The analysis of the words people use in chat environments can help businesses make money and improve the customer service experience for consumers. At Bark.us, however, analysis of 500 million messages has so far helped save the lives of 25 kids who were considered imminently suicidal but whose parents didn’t know.
The announcement was made onstage by Bark.us chief parenting officer Titania Jordan at MB 2017, a gathering of artificial intelligence and bot industry leaders held July 11-12 a

Old dogs can always learn new tricks, provided they are smart enough and have the right tools. Founded in 1962 — a generation or so before ecommerce giants like Amazon — Walmart has 11,700 stores and 140 million weekly shoppers in 28 countries around the world. Here in the 21st century, Walmart has also become the second largest online retailer.
As such, Walmart is in a unique position to build a bridge between its ecommerce operations and its global network of stores. That means dep

I’m playing way more PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds than is good for me, but it keeps delivering one memorable moment after another with every match. Over the past couple of days, I’ve come away with enough clips involving me and my friends that I could do my own collection of highlights. So I am.
Below, I’ve gathered a handful of my personal favorites from the last-man-standing online shooter. Watch me do work with a Groza, see a murderbot succeed in its mission, and witn

The Nokia 6 showed up in China in January, but now it's available in the US on Amazon.com. The low-end phone has a retail price of $229, but if you want to subject yourself to Amazon's lock screen ads and offers, you can get the subsidized version for $179.99, as spotted by Phandroid.
The unlocked handset works on AT&T and T-Mobile. To get the discount you'll need to be an Amazon Prime member, and the Prime version also includes preinstalled Amazon apps and Prime services like Prime Music, P

Volvo unveiled its new VNL series of semi trucks today with a host of high-tech goodies that are sure to appeal to many long-haul truck drivers. Volvo Truck, a separate entity from the Swedish automaker’s car group, is adding a suite of advanced driver assist systems (ADAS) to its truck lines as standard equipment. This includes forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning, and adaptive cruise control.
Advanced driver assist systems are quickly becoming po

AT&T is hardly a fan of net neutrality, at least as most people understand it. The company has been accused by the FCC of violating open internet protections, and has forcefully lobbied against the current rules. It’s even joined in lawsuits to block them.AT&T has lobbied against current net neutrality rules
Nonetheless, AT&T said in a statement today that it is participating in tomorrow’s net neutrality “day of action.” The protest, which will include major t

Asus announced its Chromebook Flip C213 at CES this year as a device for schools. It’s a ruggedized Chromebook with a 360-degree hinge that has rubber bumpers and “modular construction,” so IT departments can replace various pieces if kids destroy the thing. Specs-wise, it features an 11.6-inch Full HD touchscreen display and a battery that can reportedly last for up to 12 hours. It’s also got:
Intel Apollo Lake Dual-Core N3350 Processor
4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage
Two

Today, if you haven’t already heard, is Amazon Prime Day, the online retailer’s day of deals for Prime customers. But as Newton’s third law tells us, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. (As my college physics professor liked to remind us,that isn’t entirely accurately phrased since the forces are simultaneous rather than an action / reaction pairing, but anyway.)
Therefore, if Amazon is holding a day of deals, everyone else in the online marketplace

PRESS RELEASE:One of the largest investments of its kind for experimental video games Respected industry veteran Charles Huang joins Velan Studios boardTROY, N.Y.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–July 11, 2017– Velan Studios today announced it has completed its Series A financing with $7 million in new capital. It is one of the largest investments of its kind for experimental games and was led by Velan Ventures along with additional investment partners. As part of the investment round, Charles

Facebook must really like the revenue that it’s getting from ads on the Facebook Messenger home screen, because after a limited beta in Thailand and Australia, the company has decided to roll out the advertising option worldwide. According to VentureBeat, you’ll likely see the flow of your home screen broken up by sponsored ads before the end of 2017. And just like the ads you see on Facebook itself and Instagram, they’ll be targeted and specific to you.Aside from the home scre

Hulu is becoming an animation powerhouse. The streaming service announced today that it’s now the exclusive home for the complete libraries of Bob’s Burgers and Futurama, along with The Cleveland Show and past seasons of American Dad! The move comes out of a new agreement between Hulu and 20th Century Fox, and helps cement the service’s position as a major go-to for fans of American animation.
Episodes for Bob’s Burgers and The Cleveland Show are now available, and the co

Last year, Mobvoi, a Chinese voice assistant company, brought its Ticwatch 2 smartwatch to Kickstarter. For a $99 starting price the watch was a good deal, but the catch was it ran Mobvoi's own version of Android, and Mobvoi's own voice assistant. After polling its users to see what they would prefer, and, just as importantly, proving to Google that it can actually make and sell watches, Mobvoi has licensed Android Wear for its two new Ticwatch models: Ticwatch S and Ticwatch E.
The only real te