Technology news

Right after Trump took office, BuzzFeed News reporter Charlie Warzel described counter-programming on the right as “a parallel universe that operates as a mirror image of its mainstream counterpart with its own ‘alternative facts,’ audience, and interpretation of truth.” A new website called Verrit is that nightmare coming full circle. While it may not have outlandish conspiracy theories or careless whoppers (though there’s certainly plenty of that on the left, too)

Dragon Con 2017 found the most savage grandma of all time: an 85-year-old woman dressed as The Queen of Thorns a.k.a. Lady Olenna Tyrell of Highgarden from Game of Thrones.We can all go home now; I've found the best #Cosplay at #dragoncon2017
A post shared by Dravyn🦇 (@xdigupherbones) on Sep 2, 2017 at 10:28am PDT
She even rolled around the Atlanta, George convention in a wheelchair-turned Iron Throne with an "It was me" sign. It was a nice wink to the momentous scene where Olenna tells

Daenerys Targaryen wishes her dragons had an iota of the power that my draconic minions show in The Elder Scrolls: Legends. Of course my wyrms are beefy and fiery and soar over the battlefield. But they also make my foes quake in fear, reducing their power or shackling them to the battlefield upon which they stand. They buff my troops, giving them amazing powers. And they even destroy every other soldier in play.
Even mighty Drogon looks weak in comparison.
Dragons came to Bethesda’s

President Donald Trump is expected to announce plans Tuesday to end an Obama Administration program known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) that gives work permits to undocumented immigrants who arrived as children — also known as "Dreamers."
The controversial rollout of Trump's anti-immigration campaign promise is already being marred by public outcries from some of the biggest and most powerful U.S. companies including Apple, Facebook, LinkedIn, Netflix, and Google.
No

Maybe we won’t own cars in the future, but we may still own parts of them. And British automaker Jaguar Land Rover hopes it’s able to keep some hands on steering wheels.
Sayer is meant to be a stylish device that lives in your home
While Daimler's Smart Vision EQ concept gets rid of the steering wheel, Jaguar Land Rover imagines a future where the steering wheel is the only part of a car people own. The company announced a concept for a standalone steering wheel, called Sayer, that w

Welcome to our 2017 fall movie preview. Today, we'll kick things off with our most highly anticipated superhero (and superhero-adjacent) movies. 
Summer is coming to an end, and with it the summer movie season. But fear not – that just means we've got a jam-packed slate of fall movies to look forward to now. 
SEE ALSO: Celebrate your superhero fandom with these 3D lamps
While autumn tends to be associated with Oscar bait-y prestige dramas, the truth is that there's going to be al

The Lily drone is one of the biggest failures in Kickstarter history — and now it's making a comeback in perhaps the saddest possible way.
After raising more than $34 million during its initial crowdfunding campaign in 2015, the company was forced to shut down when it couldn't actually finance production of the drone. 
Now, the Mota Group (who recently bought rights to the name) is announcing a reborn "Lily Next-Gen" drone that looks practically identical to the original version. The

According to TorrentFreak, a proposed final judgment has been reached between audio-ripping site YouTube-MP3.org and a collection of record labels including UMG, Sony Music, and Warner Bros. Although the document has not yet been signed by a judge, it indicates a decision in favor of the labels, with an undisclosed settlement fee and an order to transfer the domain to a party representing the labels.
YouTube-MP3.org allows people to convert YouTube links into downloadable MP3 audio files. The RI

EXCLUSIVE: The Swedish game industry is enjoying a renaissance, as it has seen revenue grow 950 percent since 2010 to 1.3 billion euros, or $1.54 billion, from 124 million euros in 2010, according to a the 2017 edition of the Swedish Game Developer Index report.
Sweden has become a global hot spot for the $108 billion games industry, with a number of home-grown companies and foreign firms setting up shop to take advantage of the talent there. It has game studios from Microsoft, Ubisoft, Bethesda

To honor Queen Bey's 36th birthday on Sept. 4, Beyoncé's famous family and friends — including former First Lady Michelle Obama — decided to literally get in formation, and recreate the musicians's fierce iconic look.
The message on the website read: "Happy Birthday Beyoncé - From you family and friends."
In addition to Obama, 17 others posed for the black-and-white photos donning the famous off-the-shoulder black top, wide-brimmed black hat, heavy silver statement neck

Undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children shared their stories in droves on Twitter after Politico reported Sunday that President Donald Trump is expected to end the Obama-era program keeping them safe from deportation.
In recent days Trump has toyed with a will-he-or-won't-he storyline around the program's future. During the election campaign he promised to shut it down. Trump was expected to make an announcement about DACA last week, but delayed. Now Politico, quoting two uniden

After more than three years, Beats is finally updating its top-tier Studio headphones. The new Studio 3 Wireless headphones, available beginning today from Apple and other retailers, cost $349.95 and improve on the previous model by adding Apple’s W1 chip, more advanced noise cancellation, redesigned internals, and longer battery life.They still very much look like Beats and, at least in terms of apperance, aren’t much changed from the company’s other current products or the St

As spotted by SamMobile, Netflix has added the Galaxy Note 8 to its list of HDR-supported devices, which should make the format relevant to a much bigger audience when the phone is released on September 15th. The Note 8 will be the fourth phone to support Netflix HDR video playback, joining the LG V30, and Sony’s Xperia XZ1 and XZ Premium. Only Netflix subscribers with the top-tier 4k streaming plan will be able to watch HDR video on their phones.
HDR offers better contrast ratios and colo

Did your husband have a huge concert crowd serenade you for your birthday? No? Well, Beyoncé's did.
To mark Queen Bey's royal 36th birthday, Jay-Z led Budweiser Made in America festival attendees in Philadelphia in singing a "happy birthday" song for his ultra-famous wife during his set on Sunday night.#PressPlay: The crowd helps #JayZ sing happy birthday to #Beyonce at the #MadeInAmericaFestival #IssaHoliday via: @jxcyre
A post shared by The Shade Room (@theshaderoom) on Sep 3, 2017 at 8

Fall is my favorite time of the year. I love the crisp weather and the beautiful colors. I thought I would celebrate autumn’s coming by writing about my favorite games that reminded me of the season … but I couldn’t really think of any.
I asked my coworkers for help, and my editor, Jason Wilson, asked if I meant fall as in the season. Well, duh, I thought. It’s not like I’m trying to write about games that about the act of falling.
And then I realized that would be

Hillary Clinton just can't catch a break.
The former Democratic presidential candidate endorsed a relatively unknown startup called Verrit this weekend — and in the process, inadvertently made them a target for cybercriminals.
The strange turn of events started on Sunday evening with a simple tweet from the former Secretary of State, offering her personal support for a startup called Verrit.I'm excited to sign up for @Verrit, a media platform for the 65.8 million! Will you join me and sign

Is this the best Google Doodle ever?
If you like trolling people, you'll probably think so. Russian singer Eduard Khil has been immortalized today, on what would have been his 83rd birthday, in a brand new Google Doodle.
The Soviet-era singer enjoyed a successful career in his native Russia for most of his life, but in 2009, he became something much greater: an important part of of internet culture history.
SEE ALSO: Journalist brilliantly trolls email scammer with Jason Bourne's passport
For r

It seems that even when underground on public transport we're not safe from unsolicited dick pics, thanks to a horrifying new form of "cyber-flashing." 
SEE ALSO: OkCupid launches anti-dick pic pledge to cut down on harassment. But, is it enough?
People are receiving unsought sexually explicit photos via AirDrop on their iPhones while travelling on public transport and hanging out in public spaces. Yep, that means people don't even need your phone number or email address to be able to send

The largest wildfire in Los Angeles County history had consumed 7,000 acres by Sunday evening, prompting California Gov. Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency earlier that day.
SEE ALSO: Powerful Hurricane Irma is a growing threat to the East Coast, but details still unclear
More than 700 residents from the Burbank, Glendale, and Sunland-Tujunga neighborhood in Los Angeles had been evacuated, but by Sunday evening the evacuation orders had been lifted, according to the Los Angeles Fire Dep

A new ride-sharing app is ready to give Uber a headache, at least in London.
SEE ALSO: Team of rivals: The startups Uber competes against around the world
Estonian company Taxify, backed by China's Didi Chuxing, is launching in the UK capital with the outright aim of snatching thousands of drivers and passengers away from Uber. 
Operating in 19 countries across Europe, Central America, and Africa, Taxify has 3,000 potential UK drivers who have signed up ahead of Tuesday, Sept. 5, when it wi

ANALYSIS: Anyone who’s watched promising enough brand-name startups go public and promptly flounder in public waters this year — Hello, Snap. Hello, Blue Apron — would have reason to think that Roku, the next IPO candidate with a familiar name in the world of consumer tech, will suffer a similar fate.
Of course, Roku, whose connected devices provide access to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Starz, and other channels, may just do that. The company that wants to be “t

For creatives looking to do a little good, a new collection of stock photos featuring rescue animals lets licensees donate to a Los Angeles-based animal shelter with each download.
The project is a collaboration between Saatchi & Saatchi LA, Getty Images, and the Amanda Foundation, a Beverly Hills animal hospital and nonprofit rescue organization that saves animals from kill shelters throughout the city and puts them up for adoption. The collection includes 60 images starring some of the fou

In 2015, drone startup Lily grabbed attention by promising a handheld unit you could simply throw into the air to activate. It was an ambitious project that collected more than $34 million in preorders, but ended in disaster when its creators couldn’t finance production and had to give everyone refunds. But a company named Mota Group bought the brand name and customer list back in January, and it’s now selling a “next-gen” Lily drone for $499.
The new drone has the same c

As the waters around Antarctica warm up over the next century, almost 80 percent of invertebrate species living on the seafloor will see their habitats shrink. Coupled with other threats such as pollution and loss of ice, that could eventually result in some of these species to go extinct.
Researchers at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge looked at 963 invertebrate species — including sea spiders, clams, and a variety of corals — inhabiting the Southern Ocean, the expanse of w

After spending 288 days on her latest mission, record-breaking astronaut Peggy Whitson has finally returned to Earth, closing the book on a chapter of space history that will provide inspiration for many for years to come. 
Whitson, 57, has been on three different missions and it all accumulates to 665 days – nearly two years – longer than any American has ever cruised outside of Earth ever.
Welcome home, Peggy!  Read more...More about Space, Nasa, International Space Stati

It's now way easier to pay for a bucket of fried chicken in China.
A KFC restaurant in Hangzhou, China is testing a new facial recognition payment system that lets you pay for your meal by simply smiling at a camera.
The new payment method called "Smile to Pay" was launched in partnership with Alipay, the popular mobile and online payment platform created by Chinese conglomerate Alibaba.
The company says the facial recognition technology only takes about two seconds to scan someone's face using

The hype around ICOs or initial coin offerings has reached fever pitch in the US, with celebs like Paris Hilton endorsing new digital currencies and mainstream outlets such as CNBC offering viewers advice on how to build their own “cryptocurrency portfolio.” In China, though, the authorities have had enough, and today the Chinese government took the bold move of banning ICOs all together.The ruling comes from China’s central bank, which issued a statement criticizing ICOs for &

We’ve had a flurry of Star Wars toy unveilings this past week thanks to a Disney promotion ahead of The Last Jedi, and today marks a new day and another Star Wars release: stamps. The UK’s national postal service Royal Mail has announced eight new stamps in celebration of the upcoming film. They feature Maz Kanata, Chewbacca, Supreme Leader Snoke, the newly introduced adorable Porgs, and the droids BB-8, R2-D2, C-3PO, and Rogue One’s K-2SO. They’ve been illustrated by UK

Zayn Malik is sporting a new hairdo yet again, but this time, it doesn't involve any hair at all. He's gone ahead and shaved his head COMPLETELY bald.
Yes, really.
The 24-year-old British singer's mom, Trisha Malik posted a photo on Instagram posing with a VERY bald Zayn and his girlfriend, Gigi Hadid. They were celebrating Eid-al Adha, a Muslim holy festival that's celebrated around the world, along with Hadid's mom, Yolanda Hadid. And by the looks of it, Gigi approves.❤️❤&

American McGee is best known for his American McGee’s Alice video game, a nightmare version of Alice in Wonderland published in 2000. And now he is testing the demand for a third game based on the Alice franchise.
In a blog post, McGee said he will start work on a proposal for the next chapter in Alice’s adventures, tentatively titled Alice: Asylum. He said the proposal would include art work, design outline, and the financial plan and business model.
“When this proposal is fin

If there's one thing that never fails to win the internet's heart, it's a simple misunderstanding.
SEE ALSO: Festival-goer's 'Uptown Funk' dance routine is probably better than yours
The following message exchange, which took place between Justine Stafford and her friend Jim after he arrived at the Electric Picnic music festival, is the perfect example of this.Told my friend to watch out for tent thieves at #EP2017 and he just asked what stage they're playingpic.twitter.com/xn4Eg8AUSx
— Ju

 Hospital logistics aren’t sexy, but they’re necessary to keep the place humming along during emergencies and to reduce errors and other costly issues. Qventus, a startup with a predictive intelligence software platform, is joining up with one of the largest hospital systems in the U.S., Sutter Health, to see if it can expedite Sutter’s pharmacy operations and hopefully save… Read More

Ever wondered if there would ever be another world war, and what will cause it? 
Worry no more, as CEO of everything Elon Musk has the answer: artificial intelligence. 
More precisely, "competition for AI superiority at national level most likely cause of WW3," he tweeted Monday. 
SEE ALSO: Elon Musk's self-taught AI bot destroyed an esports pro in 'Dota 2'China, Russia, soon all countries w strong computer science. Competition for AI superiority at national level most likely caus

They say time is circular and the same things keep happening all over again. They're right.
SEE ALSO: Meet the Disloyal Man, star of the internet's new favorite meme
Take the "Disloyal Man" (or "Guy Looking Back") meme. 
You'd say it's just a hilariously corny stock-picture-turned-viral-meme featuring a bizarre love triangle. pic.twitter.com/AAwMIs9mgz
— n1m (@n1m161) August 19, 2017When the meme took internet by storm in late August, the photographer, Barcelona-based Antonio Gui

It's that time of year again. The summer holidays have drawn to a close, and one million children up and down the country will be getting ready to go back to school this week. But, over half of those children will be affected by bullying, according to an anti-bullying campaign launched today. 
SEE ALSO: Facebook is no longer the worst social network for online bullying
As part of the Diana Award #Back2School campaign people are sharing their old school photos along with advice for going bac

Mercedes-Benz announced today that it has created a joint venture with U.S.-based Via to launch a new ride-sharing shuttle service in Europe that will debut in London later this year.
The Daimler-owned German automotive maker’s Vans division will invest $50 million in Via, which offers a carpooling service in several U.S. cities. In addition, Mercedes’ Mobility division will become a strategic investor for an undisclosed sum.
Via has developed a ride-sharing service that offers low-c