Technology news

Google Fiber, for all intents and purposes, was a failure. For all the promise of Gigabit speeds nationwide, Google managed just to install its super fast internet in just 20 cities while burning through billions of dollars and numerous staffers — including two CEOs in just nine months. But even in failure, few things are black and white. Google may have failed as an ISP, but we’ve all won — including Google. From day one, journalists speculated Fiber was less about competing

Todd McFarlane has been working for some time to bring his comic book character Spawn to the big screen once again. Now, it looks like he’ll be able to do that, signing with Blumhouse Productions, the company behind recent hit horror films Get Out, Paranormal Activity, The Purge, and Split.
McFarlane made the announcement alongside Tusk director Kevin Smith with a Facebook Live video earlier today, saying that the film was no longer theoretical: “we’re now making movies.”

Here’s this week’s newsletter: Last week, VentureBeat invited Amazon, Facebook, Google, IBM, and other giants of AI into a big tent with brands like Coca-Cola, The New York Times, Tumi, and Walmart, as well as such promising startups as Bark.us, Mezi, Visabot, and Octane AI. The gathering was MB 2017, and the need for practical AI was on nearly everyone’s mind.
Walmart, for instance, is using machine learning to better serve its 140 million weekly shoppers and to make new servi

We’re streaming some PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Today is the birthday for one of our squad members, Gary Whitta, and so we’re going to try to get him some chicken.
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Samsung may be making AirPod-like headphones powered by its smart assistant Bixby that could launch alongside the Galaxy Note 8 next month, according to a report from Etnews. The headphones will reportedly feature noise-canceling technology as well, the report says.
The main problem with this is Bixby, is well, crap. It’s just not good right now, and releasing a pair of expensive Bluetooth headphones won’t improve that situation. Until Samsung can get Bixby up to par with the Alexas

The Eisner award-winning comic series The Walking Dead finally has an expiration date. Series creator Robert Kirkman admitted as much at The Walking Dead’s panel today at San Diego Comic-Con, writes The A.V. Club. The writer said that he’s known that the comic series — which has spawned two TV shows, an acclaimed Telltale Games series, and a handful of novels — would eventually reach its end for some time.
“I think about two or three years ago, I had a pretty good i

Microsoft is taking down suspected Russian hackers using American trademark law, with a year-long legal battle tentatively drawing to a close this week. Microsoft filed suit against the hackers last year for computer intrusion and infringing on its trademarks. It alleged the John Does responsible, through an operation called “Strontium,” have broken into Microsoft accounts and stolen info from Microsoft customers. A classic Law & Order legal battle, this is not. The ha

REVIEW: The gaming-headset market has endless options from dozens of vendors, and that’s because each person has a slightly different use case in mind when they are shopping for one of these devices. If you play primarily on PC and split your team between single-player experiences and online multiplayer, then I think headset manufacturer Turtle Beach has built its latest product specifically for you.
The Turtle Beach Elite Pro PC Edition is the same as the Elite Pro that I reviewed la

Fitness-tracking app Strava is introducing some new perks for subscribers of its Premium membership option, which go on top of the additional in-app features the service already provides. Chief among the new perks is an offer for accidental damage coverage to phones or GPS devices through Sunday’s Insurance. The coverage is good as long as you broke your phone while recording a cycling activity with Strava.The insurance is for members in the US, UK, and Australia, and it offers customers f

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) are creating a new microscope technology they hope will empirically determine if life exists beyond our planet. The device is called a Digital Holographic Microscope and it’s designed to find microbes in space. The last time NASA actively searched for life outside of Earth was with the Viking space program in 1976. Since then, there hasn’t been any clear consensus in the scientific community on how best to continue the

Air France is introducing a new airline for millennials called Joon. Launching in September, Air France said in a statement that Joon will be “aimed at a young working clientele, the millennials (18 to 35 year-olds), whose lifestyles revolve around digital technology." How do they plan to do that? Why, with an “innovative and offbeat” experience, of course.
Although there are scant details about any in-flight services that might cater to a more digitally minded group, Air Franc

Wacom tablets are normally associated with digital artists and illustrators. I am neither of those, but when Wacom sent me their new Intuos Pro M, I decided to give it a go anyway. I figured many artists used drawing tablets and their primary mousing device, so I wanted to see if it could replace my trusty Logitech G900 on the desktop. Almost. While I’ve rarely used drawing tablets, I’m no stranger to the stylus; I’ve been using tablet PCs since Vista. After I built myself a d

The trailer for The Walking Dead season 8 was released today, first shown to the audience in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con. Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) seems pretty sure those watching will need their “shitting pants.”
An all-out war between the Saviors and Rick and his crew is teased in the trailer, including, of course, zombies, zombies, and more zombies, some strangers to us and others bearing a distinct resemblance to characters we know. Michonne is still alive, staring angrily i

The growth speaks for itself. The concentration of tech talent in Madison, Wisconsin increased by more than 30 percent over the past two years. In Fort Lauderdale, Kansas City (Missouri), Miami, and Salt Lake City, there were gains of more than 20 percent. Oh, and Omaha, Pittsburgh, and Columbus, Ohio? They each registered rises of more than 11 percent.
These latest figures from CBRE’s Scoring Tech Talent Report provide strong evidence that new tech jobs are being created far beyond Silico

The seventh season of Ryan Murphy’s FX anthology series American Horror Story is officially called American Horror Story: Cult, announced today via a typically creepy teaser trailer.The teaser shows a bunch of truly emo clowns with axes crowding in on a woman who looks sort of like Katy Perry and seems very nervous. The voiceover asks, “Does it seem like no one really understands you? Do some people just make you sick? Are you afraid? We can set you free.”Murphy said this seaso

Now comfortably outside of a 13-year, mid-career retirement, Aphex Twin has made it easier than ever for fans to listen to his music all in one place. The musician (born Richard D. James) unveiled a massive archive of unreleased and classic Aphex Twin albums this week, Ars Technica reports.
The archive lives at a website apparently run by James’ record label, Warp. The site functions as a kind of Aphex Twin-only streaming service, complete with nearly 30 LPs, EPs, singles, and remixes avai

YouTube is getting rid of its video editor and photo slideshows due to lack of use, the company announced yesterday. The changes won’t happen until September 20th, so if you still rely on YouTube to edit your videos, you’ll have a bit of time before you have to find a new service.
Apparently YouTubers didn’t bother to use the video editor, opting to use more popular editors like Apple’s Final Cut X and Adobe Premier instead. The company says enhancements like trim, blur,

Donald Trump’s name is linked to steaks, hotels, vodka, and an isolationist political platform. Some of these ventures have succeeded, many have failed, and the last one has put him in the White House. Less known, however, is the time he tried to clone Kickstarter. The site was called FundAnything, and despite its supposedly ambitious beginnings, it’s now literally a facade.
FundAnything was founded by Bill Zanker, also a founder of the Learning Annex online education company and co-

Summer editions of The Vergecast continue as Nilay and Dieter welcome Ashley Carman and Jake Kastrenakes back to the show to discuss the news that hit the site this week. Elon Musk said he got “verbal” approval from The White House to build a hyperloop on the East Coast, Comcast is back at it again with statements on net neutrality, and we’ve got a few updates in the AI department.
Also, Lauren Goode updates us on the newest episode of her series Next Level once again! This wee

OPINION: It’s been a tough month for wearables. Two weeks ago, The Information revealed that Jawbone is being liquidated. This week, CNBC reported that Intel had axed its wearables division.
As my colleagues and friends know, I’m one of the biggest skeptics of wearables in the world. As such, neither of these stories shocked me in the slightest.
At the same time, though, I’m also incredibly bullish on what wearables will one day accomplish. The technology just isn’t here

Last week, astronomers at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico announced they had picked up some strange radio signals coming from a small red dwarf star, and they couldn’t quite figure out what was causing them. Now, it seems they have an answer: it turns out these bizarre radio signals most likely came from the transmissions of a couple of satellites.
The radio signals initially perplexed the astronomers. A solar flare from the star could have caused the signals, but the waves weren&rs

Yesterday, we reported that Verizon Wireless appeared to be throttling Netflix traffic, — and today, the company seems to have come clean. In a statement provided to Ars Technica and The Verge, Verizon implicitly admitted to capping the traffic, blaming the issue on a temporary video optimization test.
“We've been doing network testing over the past few days to optimize the performance of video applications on our network," a Verizon Wireless spokesperson said. “The testing sho

Yesterday, we reported that Verizon Wireless appeared to be throttling Netflix traffic, — and today, the company seems to have come clean. In a statement provided to Ars Technica and The Verge, Verizon implicitly admitted to capping the traffic, blaming the issue on a temporary video optimization test.
“We've been doing network testing over the past few days to optimize the performance of video applications on our network," a Verizon Wireless spokesperson said. “The testing sho

Razer is interested in building a smartphone for gamers, according to a report from Bloomberg. The company is planning an IPO in Hong Kong later this year that could value its business at $5 billion. It will reportedly use some of the funds to build its smartphone.
The news isn’t that surprising, given that Razer acquired the smartphone company Nextbit earlier this year. Razer said Nextbit would operate as an independent company at the time of the acquisition, but hasn’t said much pu

On February 3rd, The Fault in Our Stars’ romantic lead Ansel Elgort released his debut music video. It was for a song he wrote and produced, called “Thief.” In the video, he wears a leather duster and no shirt as he sings to his real-life girlfriend, Violetta Komyshan, “Call me a thief / There’s been a robbery / I left with her heart.”
This song and neon-tinged video was a viral hit the day it came out — and that day only. It was the rare example of bad

When Andy Weir first began publishing The Martian on his website, he had little inkling that it would become one of the year’s best-known, most celebrated science fiction novels, or a best-seller later adapted into a popular, Oscar-nominated thriller starring Matt Damon. Later this year, Weir will publish his long-awaited second novel, Artemis, a crime thriller set on the Moon.
Weir is a guest at San Diego Comic-Con this week, and I spoke with him about tackling the sky-high expectations o

A heat wave may be pummeling the East Coast right now, but we should really be taking pity on Shanghai, which had its hottest day in at least 145 years.Temperatures hit a record 105.62 degrees Fahrenheit today in the Southern Chinese city, which is the highest temperature recorded at the Xujiahui weather station since it was established in 1873. The previous high was a mere 105.44 degrees Fahrenheit, back in 2013.That said, overall, 105 is not that impressive when it comes to temperature records

Hello, and welcome to another GamesBeat weekly roundup! This time, Atari revealed its new system, the PlayStation 4 won June, and we mourned the slow death of the Vita.
Enjoy, and have a great weekend!
Pieces of flair and opinion
The DeanBeat: Roblox’s kid developers make enough ‘robucks’ to pay for college
The story behind the haunting What Remains of Edith Finch
Overwatch League announcement brings hype and skepticism alike
Esports entrepreneurs will take the stage at GamesBe

 Netflix may have its first blockbuster movie on its hands. The new, full-length trailer for the upcoming Will Smith movie, “Bright,” from “Suicide Squad” director David Ayer, dropped during San Diego’s Comic-Con yesterday. The trailer gives viewers a longer look into the upcoming film, which takes place in a futuristic world where magical creatures like orcs and… Read More

Every week, a slew of new music videos hits the web. Watching them at your desk is not time theft because you deserve it; think of it as a nice reward for surviving another work week. But what if you don’t have time to watch every video — maybe you have a deadline, a hungry pet, or other grown-up concerns. In consideration of your schedule, Lizzie and Kaitlyn bring you a series called One Video. Each week we’ll tell you “one video” you need to watch, why, and for ho