Technology news

Google's Family Link app lets parents hand down their old Android gadgets to their kids without worrying about what they could end up downloading from the Play Store or finding online. They just have to create a Google account for their kids and download the app, which went public today. Until now, parents had to request an invite and hope that Google followed up.Family Link allows parents to approve or block apps that their kids want to download from the Play Store, monitor their screen time an

Anker – best known for its affordable smartphone accessories – has recently branched out into making projectors under the Nebula brand. Now the company is gearing up to launch its smallest model yet in the Nebula Capsule, which fits an Android 7.0 projector in a device the size of a soda can. The device can project up to a 100-inch image at 480p, so while it’s definitely not ideal for high quality video, it can make for an immersive experience if you don’t mind the image

GUEST: As the automotive industry continues to focus on in-vehicle technology and connectivity, the benefits to drivers expand on a near-daily basis. Since the “connected car” formally debuted in 1996, it has been a staple buzzword in the tech industry. It’s become associated with the likes of cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Fast forward to 2017, and the connected car is now a tangible reality that both drivers and passengers directly interact with on a daily

Netflix today announced its plans to invest at least $400 million in Canadian film and TV productions over the next five years, Variety reports. It’s the first time the streaming service has launched a permanent production presence outside the US.
The plan is part of a deal between Netflix and the Canadian government to support innovation in the digital realm, according to Vancouver’s News 1130. Netflix will reportedly create TV shows and movies in both English and French, as well as

The FAA announced today that it has restricted drone use over several national US landmarks, including the Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore. The FAA says the new restrictions are in place at the request of US security and law enforcement agencies.
Under the new restriction, drones will no longer be able to fly within 400 feet of the following sites:
Statue of Liberty National Monument, New York, NY
Boston National Historical Park (U.S.S. Constitution), Boston, MA
Independence National Histor

Heading into tomorrow’s release of the $79.99 Super NES Classic Edition, the question on the minds of Nintendo fans is what supply will look like. We all remember the impossible odds of procuring an NES Classic last year, and Nintendo has stated numerous times that it has ramped up production and launch-day units this time around.Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has urged consumers not to get suckered into paying exorbitant reseller prices on eBay and Craigslist. If you miss

Going public is a key milestone for a private company and a time-honored way to raise capital. But from the underwriting process to the legalese-filled SEC filings, the road to an initial public offering (IPO) is a long one. Among the many decisions a company has to make before initiating an IPO, choosing which stock exchange to list on should be relatively straightforward. In the U.S., for example, the traditional options are Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Yet, with a new st

When a company screws up and puts the general public at risk the only acceptable course of action is to immediately go transparent. Equifax, through sheer incompetence, exposed the data of 143 million people after a recent hack. Every single one of those individuals remain vulnerable to identity theft. Now, its executives are activating million-dollar retirement plans while the rest of us stand here with our data in the wind. Equifax didn’t rush to aid investigators or offer any solutions

Dystopia has never looked as good as it does in Ruiner, a fast-paced cyberpunk top-down shooter that debuted Tuesday for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. It’s the debut from indie studio Reikon Games. Devolver Digital, who’s no stranger to masked protagonists with a penchant for violence, is the publisher of this Polish project.
At the start, you know nothing about the nameless, faceless main character. He communicates only with his digital mask, which displays neon th

Facing scrutiny from Congress, Twitter today disclosed that more than 200 Russia-linked accounts had been used to spread propaganda and misinformation on the company’s platform.Twitter’s blog post also discussed Russia Today
The news follows similar disclosures from Facebook. Twitter points out that it found 22 accounts corresponding to those Facebook found. Additionally, Twitter found another 179 accounts. All of those accounts, Twitter said, had been or were soon banned, usually fo

Lego’s hometown of Billund, Denmark, is about to see a huge boost in tourism. Set just 10 minutes away from the airport, Lego House is a new 12,000-square-meter playhouse for Lego fans of all ages, including AFOLs (that’s “Adult Fans of Lego,” according to the company’s own lingo). The building, made to look like 21 Lego bricks stacked on top of each other, is topped by a 2x4 Lego block keystone. Seven years in the making anddesigned by Bjarke Ingels Group, the faca

 Boston-based private equity shop Berkshire Partners announced this afternoon that it is acquiring Accela — a nearly 20 year old startup that sells regulatory management solutions to government clients. Accela has gone through a troika of CEOs in the last year. Previously acting CEO Mark Jung replaced Maury Blackman last October who had managed the company for about a decade. We… Read More

Alcatel showed off a phone called the Idol 5 earlier this month at IFA. Now it's bringing that device to the US with slight spec boosts. It’s only available through Cricket Wireless. It comes out on October 27th alongside a new VR headset call the Uni360.
The Idol 5 isn't all that exciting, other than the fact that it only costs $199. That price gets you: Android Nougat (with no public plans on an Oreo update), a 5.2-inch Full HD display, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, 12-megapixel rear-faci

EXCLUSIVE: For the first time since Samsung and AT&T teamed up to offer a rugged Galaxy S variant in the form of 2013’s Galaxy S4 Active, the U.S.-only annual handset will lose its single-carrier exclusivity. T-Mobile is poised to stock the well-received Samsung Galaxy S8 Active. (Sprint did in fact carry an S5 Active doppelganger in 2014, but it was branded S5 Sport.)
According to marketing material reviewed by VentureBeat, T-Mobile’s S8 Active will, unsurprisingly, go by model

GoPro CEO Nick Woodman today announced the release of the GoPro Hero6. Although the newest model might look nearly identical to Hero5, the improvements are major, and found within. Why should you consider an upgrade? To begin with, slow-mo frames have improved — in fact, they’ve doubled. Now, you can shoot 4K at 60 Frames per Second (FPS), 2.7K at 120FPS and even 1080p at 240FPS. The Hero6 also adds faster WiFi speeds for file transfer, and better image stabilization. There’s

With its next release, renowned game studio Thatgamecompany is expanding to new platforms by debuting Sky on Apple hardware. And to help drum up some excitement, the developer is releasing one its most beloved games, Flower, on both iPhone and iPad today.
First released on the PlayStation 3 in 2009, Flower is a game where you play as the wind, guiding flower petals through painterly landscapes, solving environmental puzzles along the way. The original version utilized the PS3 controller’s

The European Union is once again asking Facebook, Google, Twitter, and other web companies to crack down on hate speech and speech inciting violence and terrorism — but this time, it’s taking things a step further. The European Commission has issued guidelines for web companies to follow, and it’s warning the companies that, if they don’t comply, the Commission may pass legislation. And that legislation, of course, could lead to some huge fines.
There are a handful of gui

REVIEW: The SNES Classic Edition is a cute device, and it’s great because it has so many wonderful games. Its 21 retro hits, include platformers, fighters, role-playing games, racers, and more. They all range from great to fantastic. Some of them are among the best games ever made.
GamesBeat went ahead and gave each of the 21 games a mini-review below. This means we’ve just written a paragraph or two or three about what makes each game special. Instead of our traditional 1 to 100 sco

GUEST: Brands have long sought the ability to understand, relate to, and motivate target consumers. The entire advertising-technology industry tirelessly innovates to find new signals that provide even the smallest bit of added insight into their target audiences. Brands are spending billions of dollars each year in hopes that consumer insights will allow them to produce more strategic marketing plans. Their struggle, however, has always been with the availability of quality data. Historically,

Viki, a streaming site that lets you watch Asian dramas, now has a translation tool called “Learn Mode” to help you learn Chinese and Korean. It’s not effortless, as learning languages never is, but it’s probably one of the more pleasant ways I’ve attempted to learn a new language. I took Chinese classes in college, and the professor’s MO was recitation and pop quizzes, so given the choice, I prefer the $4.99 a month standard Viki pass.When you activate Learn

Voice apps from Amazon’s AI assistant Alexa are now able to proactively share notifications in the form of an audio alert or blinking LED atop a device. Notifications related to shopping in the Amazon marketplace will also be made available.
Notifications will initially only be available for a few Alexa skills from Washington Post (owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos), AccuWeather, and Life360.
“Notifications for Alexa Skill Kit (ASK) will be available to all skill builders soon in a

VB EVENT: Amid all of the hype around artificial intelligence, there was a moment last year where something real and transformational happened, and that foreshadowed how powerful AI will one day become.
Google released a new version of Google Translate in September 2016, based on neural network technology. Several observers instantly recognized the update as a shocking step-function advancement in natural language translation abilities.
The project was led by Jeff Dean, one of Google’s ear

ZTE is apparently working on a new flagship smartphone called the Axon M, with the unique headline feature of dual screens that can unfold into a combined 6.8-inch display, according to Android Authority.The new phone was rumored early in September by Evan Blass over at VentureBeat, who provided the additional details that the new device would feature a Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, a 3,120mAh battery, and a single 20-megapixel camera. Photo: Android AuthorityBut the big

Apple makes just enough changes to each iPhone every year to make the upgrade seem compelling. This year, it’s all about wireless charging. But iPhone fans have another tough decision to make: The much improved iPhone X with a more colorful screen debuts in November, so reviewing the iPhone 8 (and iPhone 8 Plus (this is a dual review) is harder than ever. We don’t know whether the iPhone X will offer enough incentives to wait.
That’s why it really comes down to deciding wh

There aren’t that many Linux hardware manufacturers around. Of the few that exist, System 76 is amongst the most well-known. It offers a slew of laptops and desktops, all shipping with the popular Ubuntu distro pre-installed, saving customers hours of wasted time dealing with driver hell. But it recently announced it’s changing gears and creating its own Linux distro, which will replace Ubuntu on its systems, called POP!_OS. Unlike other Linux distributions, which are increasingly g

The Nintendo Switch is the hot gaming device right now, and publishers are finding that the hybrid home/handheld console’s owners are hungry for software. Electronic Arts may capitalize on this with the release of FIFA 18 tomorrow, which brings a full version of the soccer sim to both televisions and the Switch’s portable screen.
FIFA 18 on Switch has most of the features, teams, and players as its PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One counterparts, but it is running on older tech. EA Spor

Six months after debuting its Family Link app on an invitation-only basis, Google is today officially launching the service for any parent in the U.S.
By way of a quick recap, Family Link enables parents to remotely control and monitor their kids’ device usage, allowing them to see what apps are being used most often through regular reports.
Above: App Control
Parents can “lock” the device down when it’s time for something more productive, while they can also block access

Are you in the process of starting a company? Are you looking to relocate your startup to a new state? If you answered yes to either of these questions, it goes without saying that you have a lot on your mind. For example, starting a business takes a lot of time (and sometimes a lot of money). And if you decide that your company needs to set up shop in another state, making a final decision is never as easy as it sounds. While California is one of the top states to start or grow a business, it&

My issues with Evernote are well documented. I broke up with the platform over a year ago, and to this day I still haven’t found the perfect solution. I like Bear for notes, and Milanote for Evernote-like bookmarking and organization, but I don’t like using two services and neither, on their own, is ideal for my workflow. As much as I hate to say it, Evernote might have been the best option. I’m stubborn, though, and after such a public breakup I just couldn’t go back. S

More automakers are partnering in preparation for an electric car future. Mazda and Toyota are next, joining with Denso Corporation to form a new company that will develop electric vehicle technologies.
The deal, announced today, comes about a month after Toyota said it would take a 5 percent stake in Mazda and that the two would pursue electric vehicles and necessary research and development, along with other automotive strategies together. The new company is called EV Common Architecture Spiri

I bet your PC’s audio setup is wack. Maybe you have a USB headset, a cheap speaker set, or a nice pair of headphones plugged into a motherboard. All of those devices work, but you can and should do a lot better. I know that because I’ve used the Sennheiser GSX 1000 audio amplifier, and it is like upgrading from SD to HD but for your headphones.
The Sennheiser GSX 1000 is an external USB amplifier designed specifically for gaming. It features a 7.1 virtual-surround algorithm built to

Because GamesBeat still believes the internet has a sense of humor, we’ve got another Cuphead video for you. The platformer from StudioMDHR and Microsoft debuts on the Xbox One and Windows on Friday. And I’m here to report that I’ve taken another run-‘n’-gun at this challenging game.
If you recall, I messed up on my first attempt to play Cuphead, and everybody laughed at me. I laughed at myself, calling the video “my 26 minutes of shame with an old-t

Katy Perry is releasing a full-length special on YouTube Red about the time she live-streamed her life on YouTube for four days this summer. The documentary, Will You Be My Witness?, will premiere on YouTube’s subscription service on October 4th, Billboard reports.
Will You Be My Witness? is apparently going to give viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the June live stream event, during which Perry talked to fans, performed songs from her most recent album, Witness, and talked to celebrity

According to several YouTube creators, the site is no longer allowing them to add external links in the cards at the end of their videos, unless they enable their channel for monetization through YouTube’s Partner Program. While channels don’t have to actually enable monetization on individual videos, the channel must join the program for external link cards to work. The sudden change left some creators confused about why they suddenly couldn’t link to their Patreon accounts.

Marvel has released a behind-the-scenes featurette for Thor: Ragnarok, in which director Taika Waititi discusses how he approached the film and how he hopes to inject some new fun into the character.In the clip, Chris Hemsworth, who plays Thor in the movie, says he and Watiti both agreed that the character needed an injection of fun. “I want to take people on a ride and inject some comedy into it,” Waititi says, “an adventure that keeps people laughing along the way, but also h

Spinoffs. Remasters. Side-games. These exist outside the realm of core games. It’s the difference between a Final Fantasy VII and Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon. But for a series as vast and old as Mario, it can be difficult to figure out exactly which games earn that core distinction.
This whole thing started as a debate on Twitter that we carried over to our podcast. You’d think that saying only 2D and 3D platformers that star Mario and were made by Nintendo should count would wor

Faithful fans of the ill-fated GoPro Karma drone who were holding out hope for a sequel this year are going to be disappointed. While GoPro did mention the Karma during its big Hero 6 Black event today, it only did so in the capacity of a new software update. And even there, those updates are meager.The highlight is that GoPro is adding two new shooting modes called “Follow” and “Watch.” But while those names might evoke something along the lines of the computer vision-dr

The consumer 360-degree camera that GoPro’s been talking about since CES 2016 is finally coming to market. Today, the company took the Fusion camera out of its summer-long pilot program and, later this month, it will put it on store shelves. As CEO Nick Woodman teased onstage at the company’s event in San Francisco, there’s potentially much more than meets the eye to Fusion.
First of all, we knew some of Fusion’s specs coming into today’s event; GoPro hasn’t e

EXCLUSIVE: Augmented reality is set to become more mainstream thanks to Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore development platforms, marking the birth of a new marketing channel. And as with all shiny new objects, marketers are keen to start leveraging AR.
Today IronSource — the mobile monetization and marketing company —  announced the launch of what the company says is the world’s first AR ads for games.
The ads are designed and produced entirely in-house by

GoPro CEO Nick Woodman today announced the company’s new flagship action camera, the GoPro Hero6 Black. The camera can shoot 4K resolution video at 60 frames per second, and it can do 1080p high-definition video at 240 frames per second.
Woodman said the new camera also comes with advanced video stabilization so your videos don’t look shaky. It will be interesting to see if shareholders and consumers welcome the new product, as GoPro has had a bumpy ride since becoming a publicly tra

GoPro just officially unveiled the Hero 6 Black at an event in San Francisco, and it will be on store shelves this afternoon around North America. It carries the same exterior design over from the Hero 5, waterproofing included, with the highlight features being increased frame rates, better overall image quality and speed, thanks to a new and custom processor. That improvement will come at a steep price: the company’s newest flagship camera will retail for $499, a hundred bucks more than

A year after cutting back on expansion plans, Google Fiber has slowly regained its footing by focusing on expansion in existing markets. Google announced today that Fiber is now available in over 3,000 apartments and condominiums.
Five years after launch, Google Fiber is available in 10 cities across the U.S. Last year, the company announced it would be halting plans to bring Google Fiber to a number of cities, including Dallas, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, and Portland. Additionally, Google Fiber

It’s getting a bit cheaper to turn your dumb house into a smart one. Price has been the biggest hindrance to the expansion of the smart home, and it still is, to a certain extent. But recently, some of the biggest players in the smart home industry, along with some new entrants, have helped lower prices to more acceptable levels for the masses.
Nest (thermostats), August (door locks), and Ikea (light bulbs) have led the way in providing cheaper products in their respective smart home categ

Mozilla today launched Firefox 56 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. The new version includes a screenshot feature, the ability to send tabs between desktop and mobile, a form autofill option, and the end of support of Flash on Android.
Firefox 56 for the desktop is available for download now on Firefox.com, and all existing users should be able to upgrade to it automatically. As always, the Android version is trickling out slowly on Google Play.
Mozilla doesn’t break out the exact numb

EXCLUSIVE: Plarium specializes in massively multiplayer online games such as Soldiers Inc. and Throne: Kingdom at War, which mainly focus on strategic gameplay. The mobile and social games publisher announced today that it’s acquired Rumble Entertainment (also known as Rumble Games), a studio that focuses on fantasy role-playing games such as Alliance: Heroes of the Spire and KingsRoad.
“In many ways this acquisition was a natural extension for us, because our focus has been on creat

China announced today that carmakers who want to produce fossil fuel-powered cars must first obtain a new energy vehicle score by producing zero-emission and low-emission cars, as first reported by Bloomberg. The new rule applies to automakers who make or import over 30,000 fossil fuel cars a year.Carmakers need to meet the following quotas: by 2019, at least 10 percent of the cars they make must be electric, and by 2020, at least 12 percent must be electrical. If a carmaker doesn’t have e