Technology news

The Toronto International Film Festival announced more of its 2017 lineup today, and high on the list is a film directed by comedian Louis C.K. I Love You, Daddy, which was made entirely in secret and shot on 35mm film, marks his return to feature film directing, 16 years after his film Pootie Tang. That movie crashed and burned upon release, though in the years since, it has gained some kind of reputation as a cult movie.Historically, TIFF has tended to be one of the most Oscar-friendly film fe

Facebook’s Marketplace may soon expand outside of peer-to-peer sales. Today, Marketplace has begun showing a new Daily Deals tab on the mobile app for select users, sourcing deals from eBay. The new partnership allows users to browse eBay deals inside the Facebook app, but they must go to eBay’s site to check out. The Daily Deals feature is rolling out to select users for now.“We're conducting a test to determine if people are interested in shopping for discounted products when

Logitech’s UE Boom 2 and Megaboom speakers are some of the best Bluetooth speakers around, and now they’re getting even better with a new software update that adds support for Amazon’s Alexa assistant.
The Alexa support — which is available as an over-the-air update in the UE Boom and Megaboom apps — only works with Android devices for now, and is similar to the existing Siri and Google Assistant support built into the devices. It’s the full Alexa experience,

If you missed Undertale when it was released on PC in 2015, now is a great time to fix that. The critically acclaimed game is out today on PlayStation 4 and Vita for $14.99.
The fanfare around Undertale reached an undeniable frenzy after its release, and for good reason: it’s a role-playing adventure in the vein of Earthbound and the Mario & Luigi series, and it has a quirky, offbeat humor to it along with a catchy soundtrack. In Undertale’s world, humans once coexisted peacefull

Facebook is rolling out a slight redesign to the News Feed today, which overhauls the main interface of the site for a cleaner look. What that actually translates to in practical terms is getting rid of the blue accents and headers across most of the interface, which the company claims will make navigating easier and more consistent.The other big change is that comment threads on posts are getting a new design to make them look more like message conversations — specifically, Facebook Messe

Spoilers ahead for Orphan Black’s series finale.
Orphan Black's fifth and final season just wrapped up, and while the show faded from the limelight over the past few years, the finale managed to draw its many threads together. At its heart, Orphan Black has always been two shows: one is a science fiction conspiracy thriller packed with secret organizations (The Dyad Institute, Neolution, the Proletheans, Topside, and Project Castor, just to name a few), bizarre biology, and cadres of clone

A perk of connected devices, or at least what gadget manufacturers will tell you, is they can receive over-the-air updates to keep your device current. Those updates don't always go as planned, however. In fact, they can go horribly wrong. Take a company called Lockstate, for example, which attempted to issue new software to its LS6i smart locks last week and ended up bricking devices. That isn't great.In a statement to The Verge this weekend, the company said a "small subset" of customers' lock

This morning, the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer dropped off the internet, the result of sustained campaigning by the Southern Poverty Law Center and other groups. In the wake of a killing and widespread violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, web services company GoDaddy announced it was dropping the Daily Stormer as a client, leaving the site without a registrar. After a brief stay at Google, the site dropped off the web entirely. As of press time, requests to daily

Facebook is rolling out a few camera features it began testing earlier this summer, and the most exciting one is the ability to create GIFs.
Now, if you swipe over to the camera inside of Facebook’s main app, you’ll have the ability to record two-second GIFs and post them to the News Feed, your story, or in a message to a friend. It’s a nice addition for Facebook, which resisted GIFs for the longest time before finally adding a way to embed them in 2015. You can see our impress

Faraday Future has gone through a lot lately. The electric car startup has struggled to get its factory project off the ground, lost executives, and seen its main investor — Chinese conglomerate LeEco — nosedive.Now, the next victim of FF’s financial woes could be its participation in Formula E. Multiple sources with knowledge of the situation, who spoke with The Verge on condition of anonymity, say that Faraday Future’s involvement with the fledgling, all-electric racing

Instagram comments will now be organized into threads, just as they are on parent company Facebook. Starting today, replying to a comment on Instagram will begin a new thread, which should make conversations easy to follow. The feature will roll out globally on Android and iOS “in the coming weeks,” Instagram said.
There’s not much more to the announcement than that, so let’s look at a nice picture of comment threads. Here you go:Modest improvements to comments has been s

In Baby Driver, Ansel Elgort stars as a getaway car driver with an arsenal of good playlists. What it does not feature is the Snapchat hot dog. Luckily, one wonderful and talented human has fixed this for everyone’s benefit.YouTuber BigVanElecMan recut the entire Baby Driver trailer with the beat-bumping meat tube. The video, spotted by Mashable, simply replaces Elgort with this smiling goof. It adds far more character to the love-story-slash-car-chase-thriller, including why Debora (Lily

GoFundMe says it’s banning fundraising efforts on behalf of the man who allegedly drove his car into protesters at the recent Charlottesville white supremacist rally. GoFundMe communications director Bobby Whithorne tells Reuters that the platform has removed several fundraising campaigns for James Fields, who is accused of killing anti-racist protester Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others. “Those campaigns did not raise any money and they were immediately removed,” he says. Wh

A new report from Liftoff, a Silicon Valley-based mobile app marketing and retargeting firm, says that subscription-based apps may do better if developers charge a higher price for services, rather than setting prices too low to lure users in initially.The Liftoff report, which analyzed data gathered between June 2016 and June 2017, categorized app subscriptions into low-cost monthly subs ($0.99 to $7), medium ($7 to $20), and high-cost subs ($20 to $50), while also factoring the cost of acquisi

EXCLUSIVE: Media intelligence company Meltwater announced today that it has acquired Cosmify, a San Francisco-based data analysis startup. The price of the acquisition has not been disclosed, but Meltwater told VentureBeat that it has bought the startup’s intellectual property (IP) and is bringing the Cosmify team onboard.
This is Meltwater’s fourth acquisition in nine months. The company has already acquired Hong Kong-based big data solution Klarity, Oxford University spinout Wrapid

Sling TV is today rolling out desktop streaming of its live TV service. Subscribers can now watch using Google’s Chrome browser on Windows and macOS without any extra plugins, extensions, or add-ons. The Chrome version of Sling TV offers live programming for all the channels in your monthly package and also on-demand content.Cloud DVR support isn’t yet included, but the company says that customers can eventually expect to see both that and the new, simpler grid guide added to the des

Beginning today, Google’s Allo can now be used on web browsers, but you can only install it by scanning a QR code on your Android phone. iPhone users are left out for now.Google first hinted at Allo coming to desktop soon back in February when VP of communications Nick Fox tweeted a sneak peek photo. Users were expecting it to launch sometime near Google I/O back in May, but didn’t receive a clear update on when it would be arriving.
Allo is Google’s smart messaging app with pl

PRESS RELEASE:MoviePass Launches New $9.95 No-Contract Monthly Movie Theater Subscription Program With Plans to Disrupt the Entertainment Industry
MIAMI & NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–August 15, 2017– Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc. (Nasdaq: HMNY) announced today that is has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a majority stake of movie subscription technology company MoviePass Inc. HMNY’s innovative growth strategy through the expansion into industries with

In what schools of the future may look like, UPS will begin training student delivery drivers using virtual reality headsets starting in September at nine of its teaching facilities. Those in training will wear headsets like the HTC Vive that will show a simulation of the road and hazards. The simulations were created in-house and the training modules will test students in identifying pedestrians, parked cars, and oncoming traffic.
The VR experience students will use are realistic streetscapes a

Uber has agreed to implement a “comprehensive privacy program” as part of a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission over a complaint regarding data-handling problems at the embattled ride-hailing company. The program must “address privacy risks related to new and existing products and services for consumers,” as well as “protect the privacy and confidentiality of personal information,” the FTC’s order reads.The FTC alleged that the San Francisco-

Prominent neo-Nazi news site the Daily Stormer has apparently moved to the dark web after being denied domain registration from Google and GoDaddy. The site’s status page tweeted a link to the new site, which can only be accessed through the anonymizing service Tor. (Neo-Nazi troll Andrew “weev” Auernheimer, who is banned from Twitter, also posted the link on Gab.ai.) As Motherboard noted this morning, this means that it no longer has to rely on a major domain registrar, protec

In a legal brief filed last night, a group of several high-profile technology companies asked the Supreme Court to consider the privacy implications of warrantless law enforcement access to cellphone location data.Case could have major privacy implications
The court recently agreed to hear the case Carpenter v. United States, which centers on whether law enforcement can obtain electronic location information without a warrant, if that information is held by a third party. The case will be closel

I just finished reviewing Razer's high-end Lancehead wireless mouse, which is based on proprietary "Adaptive Frequency Technology" to keep a strong, consistent wireless connection. But if the Lancehead's $138 pricetag is too much for you, or if you're looking for something more portable, AFT is now available in Razer's new $49.99 laptop mouse, the Atheris.Razer claims the mouse has the world's longest battery life "among mobile productivity mice with gaming-grade features." That's a pretty speci

SPONSORED: Presented by GoDaddy
Web developers and designers have always been the bedrock of company internet strategy, and their services are more essential than ever, as web technology hits another innovation sprint. A new study commissioned by GoDaddy says this Golden Age of web development and design, signaling new small business growth and an economic boost, shows no sign of slowing down. It’s fueled largely by continued growth in the retail and travel industries — and prof

As CEO of The Void, Cliff Plumer has to think big. Virtual reality fans are dishing out money for PC-based and mobile-based VR systems. But The Void is making location-based VR experiences must create a much bigger impression, since consumers will be paying for that experience in places such as theme parks.
The Void created the Ghostbusters: Dimension VR experience at the Madame Tussaud’s wax museum in New York. Tickets cost $53, and for that price, consumers get tetherless VR, 3D audio, m

PRESS RELEASE:Experienced Professionals from Lindsay Goldberg, Credit Suisse, and Jefferies Expand Deal Origination and Execution Capabilities
LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–August 15, 2017– Angeles Equity Partners, LLC (AEP), a private investment firm focused on value creation through operational transformation, today announced three new professionals have joined the firm. Maxwell Schechter joins the firm as Vice President of Business Development focusing on deal origination and

Microsoft today announced it has acquired cloud orchestration startup Cycle Computing. The company said it plans to integrate the startup’s high-performance computing (HPC) technology into Azure. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
Cycle Computing simplifies the process of deploying high performance computing on internal grids, virtualized environments, and in the cloud by helping clients quantify, manage, and improve utilization. Founder and CEO Jason Stowe noted that his co

Join us and senior business leaders to learn how to expand to the heartland, to lower costs and boost profits — and help America too. Come to BLUEPRINT in Reno on Sept 11-13, and get your 40%-off Early Bird ticket by August 25!A little after noon on Thursday, August 3, a micro-rocket — a 40-foot tiny satellite designed to carry very small loads into low orbit — quietly blasted off from a county on the coast of Georgia. The launch was a first for Arizona-based spa

The AIAS Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS), has awarded five scholarships to students who are dedicating themselves to the advancement of the video game industry. The scholarships are an attempt to make the game industry more diverse.
The winners will each receive $2,500, participate in a year-long mentorship program and are eligible to receive a free pass to the 2018 D.I.C.E. Summit and 21st D.I.C.E. Awards show in the spring.
I

PRESS RELEASE:New Loop Medical Messaging App Enables Healthcare Staff to Provide Timely Communications to Patients’ Support Network Safely and EfficientlyAUSTIN, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–August 15, 2017– Kony, Inc., the leading enterprise mobility and digital applications company, today announced that it has helped Loop Med, Inc. (Loop) quickly develop and deliver a new medical messaging application, built using Kony AppVantage, that connects healthcare providers to surgery

Smartphone app Natural Cycles, the first app certified as a form of contraception in Europe, is setting its sights on the US next.Though plenty of cycle-tracking apps exist, most of them don’t get the fertility window right. Natural Cycles uses a specially developed algorithm and other factors, including temperature, to determine which days a woman might be fertile. The certification is a “huge milestone,” says Natural Cycles co-founder Raoul Scherwitzl in an email.The mobile h

More than half of America’s industrial robot population is concentrated in just 10 states in the Midwest and South. This is according to a new report, published by the Brookings Institute, which maps the distribution of these machines in the US. The report defines industrial robots as “automatically controlled, reprogrammable machines,” and estimate that the US is home to 233,305 of them — engaged in tasks from welding cars to processing poultry.The report uses data from

CellSavers, a company specializing in on-demand repairs for mobile devices, has announced a name change and a fresh $25 million in funding as it looks to expand into all manner of domestic digital repair services.
Founded out of San Francisco in 2015, CellSavers has so far offered direct-to-home (or office) repairs for smartphones and tablets, claiming more than 100,000 customers over the past couple of years. In the process, the company has raised around $18 million in funding from such no

Cloudgine has created a demo game, They Came From Space, to show off the quality of its cloud-gaming engine, which was designed from the ground up to take advantage of cloud computing and produce massive physics-based simulations.
The game and technology are the latest creation from Dave Jones, the president of Cloudgine and the original developer of Grand Theft Auto. After a long career in design, he started Cloudgine in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 2012 to develop cloud computing technology for mak