Technology news

GUEST: The race to roll out reliable self-driving cars in the mainstream market continues apace. The U.S. Senate has signified its approval of a deal that enables automakers to put self-driving cars on public roadways. The only stipulation is the driverless technology must save lives, improve mobility (particularly for people with disabilities), and create new jobs. If those stipulations are met, driverless cars could be ready to go full throttle in the years ahead.
Do you have an AI s

The PC market has now been in decline for 12 quarters in a row, according to research firm Gartner. For Q3 2017, both Gartner and IDC found PC shipments were down globally year-over-year.
Gartner estimates worldwide PC shipments fell 3.6 percent to 67 million units in Q3 2017. In Q3, the top six vendors were HP, Lenovo, Dell, Asus, Apple, and Acer. As you can see in the chart below, Gartner found that in the top six, only HP experienced an increase in PC shipments. Lenovo and Dell saw the smalle

Porsche will start a “subscription service” for customers that could give them access to a number of their sports cars and SUVs, from $2,000 per month.Porsche Passport will start in November in Atlanta, the German company’s North American affiliate announced Tuesday. The automaker calls it a “white-glove” service intended to give users app-driven access to a different Porsche on a flexible schedule.The pilot program being rolled out in metro Atlanta first is made po

Are automakers in denial? That’s the claim AAA is making after its scathing report picked 12 vehicles that make “very high demands” on drivers last week. It’s a sign that the tech in cars is overwhelming users.
In another surprise, some of the automakers, including Ford Motor Company, told a AAA representative that they didn’t realize the navigation system continued to work when the car is moving.
In all cases, the cars with high user demand allow you to use th

You might not know this, but Bill Gates — the famed cofounder of Microsoft — recently admitted that he uses an Android phone. And a high-ranking official at Microsoft admitted that the Windows Mobile phone is pretty much dead. Nokia, the company Microsoft once owned, is slipping off into the dark night of the soul. What’s happening here? Will an Apple employee switch to Windows? Could IBM start preferring the Mac? Is there any hope for mankind?
The truth is a little less dramat

GUEST: Artificial intelligence, the major plot device in countless sci-fi films, is making it big in the entertainment industry. Recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and machine learning are helping Hollywood get even smarter about how it captures an audience, and the implications for your entertainment are staggering. In the brave new world of big data, neural networks, and human-computer interaction, there’s always something good on TV.
Do you have an AI strategy — or ho

Twitter’s latest attempt to help users find more relevant and popular tweets across its platform is a new set of lists specific to ongoing sports matches. Now, when scrolling through the home tab of the Twitter mobile, you’ll have the option of seeing a carousel at the top of the screen with current games. Tapping into any one will show you a list of tweets relevant to the game that are algorithmically organized. The new feature, called Happening Now, is available starting today on i

The evil White House in the upcoming Metal Gear Solid parody game Never Stop Sneakin’ includes Health and Human Services secretary Dr. Acula (who is probably a vampire) and Vice President Helicopter (who is a helicopter), and that nearly kills host and PC gaming editor Jeffrey Grubb on this week’s GamesBeat Decides podcast.
Never Stop Sneakin’ is a new stealth action game from Dust: An Elysian Tail developer Humble Hearts, and Jeff and co-host Mike Minotti talk about it on this

Circuit Breaker Live is back today at 4PM ET / 1PM PT, when it’ll be streaming live at circuitbreaker.twitter.com.
On today’s show, we’re going to be flying some drones with Ben Popper, diving deep into #podlife with Ashley Carman, and testing out some of the best Bluetooth speakers with Chaim Gartenberg. Our passion for pods comes second only to our passion for headphone jacks, so expect this to be a lively episode.
If you want to chat with us, tweet with the hashtag #CircuitB

Ana was Overwatch‘s first post-release hero. The healer/sniper came out on July 19, 2016, just about a month after the team-based shooter launched on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Since then, Blizzard had not given her a new Legendary skin. Until now.
Skins change a character’s appearance. They come in different rarities, with Legendary being tops and most dramatically altering a hero’s look. Blizzard typically adds new skins in seasonal events, which happen every couple of

 Big screens apparently mean big money. Virtual reality remote desktop app Bigscreen has added $11 million in Series A funding to its pocketbooks as it looks to weather some waning investor interest in VR and build up its technologies while the VR headset market builds itself up. The round was led by True Ventures with previous investor Andreessen Horowitz participating as well. WSJ first… Read More

It’s been clear that Apple has been looking to expand into the world of original content, and now The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the company has struck a deal to revive the Steven Spielberg anthology series Amazing Stories. The filmmaker’s Amblin Entertainment production company will be producing 10 episodes of the new series with NBCUniversal’s television production unit, with a budget of $5 million earmarked per episode. No details about Spielberg’s specific

Ahead of the Assassin’s Creed: Origins launch later this month, Ubisoft has unveiled the downloadable content that will be available for free and for folks who purchase a season pass. Origins will be out on October 27 for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4, as well as on Xbox One X on November 7.
The season pass is available for $40, and it’s also packaged as a part of Assassin’s Creed: Origins Gold Edition, which is available for $110. Some exclusive DLC for season pass owners wi

 After raising upwards of $100,000 via a Kickstarter campaign earlier this year, the team at Iconfactory has brought back one of the more popular third-party Twitter clients, Twitterrific for Mac. Effectively abandoned years ago when Iconfactory shifted its focus to mobile, the Kickstarter was meant to establish demand for a Mac app ahead of devoting developer resources to building it.
Today… Read More

You ever been mid-sentence while speaking with Siri or Google Assistant and you get cut off? Just like when you’re speaking to a human, sometimes when you’re in the middle of a conversation with an AI assistant, you get interrupted by another person talking, or by an important push notification on your phone, or you just forget what you wanted to ask and your phone goes to sleep.
This happens all the time.
When it happens and you’re using an app or web browser on a smartphone,

A “save for later” option is coming to Twitter at an unannounced date, as spotted by BuzzFeed. Keith Coleman, the company’s head of product, announced the upcoming change in a tweet last night.
Coleman says a way for people to bookmark tweets has been a top request, and that the feature will allow people to return to tweets and stories later without having to use the “like” button as a workaround. Although it might seem odd, I’ve found myself wanting to use so

CNBC reports today that Amazon is trying to figure out ways to ensure deliveries make it to their destinations. The company is reportedly in talks to partner with Phrame, a maker of “smart” license plate frames that serve as a secure box for car key storage. CNBC notes that people could remotely unlock the box and give delivery drivers access to their car's trunk so a package can be securely left behind. Phrame notes on its website that users can give "secured one-time and time-limit

If you missed out on the first batch of SNES Classics, then good news: GameStop will have another batch of the miniature retro consoles this week. The bad news? The company isn’t really giving exact details as to where or when you’ll be able to pick one up, so it’s still a bit of a crapshoot as to whether or not you’ll get one.Here’s what we do know, though:
In-stores: GameStop (and ThinkGeek, which GameStop owns) stores will have individual SNES Classic units avail

What do you most need to hear today? Is it the vaguely male voice of a robot, informing you that you are good at basic tasks?If so, I have some good news. Today, while browsing Spotify for songs about Facebook for reasons that are personal to me, I accidentally stumbled across a new spoken-word album called Self Actualization and Life Changing Affirmations for Millennials. It’s by an artist — actually, a robot voice with an anonymous artist behind it — called Your Future Self,

Twitterrific 5 has launched on the Mac App Store following a successful crowdfunding campaign to resurrect the Twitter app earlier this year, as noted by 9to5Mac.
The original Twitterrific for Mac was first released roughly 10 years ago, but developer Iconfactory ceased work on the Mac version following changes to Twitter’s rules for third-party apps. Instead, it focused on the more popular (and more lucrative) iOS version instead. Twitterrific 5 is a new app entirely. (If you were an owne

Were you unable to get an SNES Classic Edition when the retro console launched on September 29? You might want to head to a GameStop.
The retailer announced that it is getting more of the mini system. Stores in the U.S. are receiving shipments today, while the SNES Classic Edition will be available online starting tomorrow, October 11. The same goes for Think Geek, which GameStop owns.
GameStop also notes that it should be receiving weekly shipments of the console. It’s confident it will b

3rd Eye Studios announced today that it has closed a $1 million round of funding. The company will use the investment on its toolset, 3rd Eye Core, which is a cross-platform suite for PC, mobile, and virtual reality game development.
3rd Eye Core is testing in China and Finland. It will have an official launch some time in 2018. 3rd Eye Studios — which is based in Helsinki, Finland — is also working on its VR game, the sci-fi thriller Downward Spiral: Horus Station. Pa

During its Windows Developer Day event today, Microsoft launched the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update software development kit (SDK). Developers can download the new SDK now from developer.microsoft.com/windows. At the same time, Microsoft has confirmed that the Windows Store has been rebranded as the Microsoft Store.
Windows 10 is a service, meaning it was built in a very different way from its predecessors so it can be regularly updated with not just fixes, but new features, too. Microsoft has

Microsoft’s support for Windows 10 November Update (version 1511) ends today. The company’s support for Office 2007 ends today as well.
The fact both of these software releases are no longer being supported on the same day isn’t a coincidence. Microsoft releases regular patches on Patch Tuesday, the second Tuesday of every month, and we’ve reached that time of the month again.
Microsoft supports its products for a predetermined amount of time (usually years), depending on

The worldwide consumer credit industry is primarily controlled by a few organizations that profit from the process of lending and — according to many — are responsible for the state of consumer and student debt.
In fact, in the U.S., $1.1 trillion — one-half of all the consumer credit issued — is currently controlled by six of the largest banks.
Today Celsius — an Ethereum-based lending platform — has announced its plans to disrupt this industry by enabling pe

Look out, artificial intelligence startups: Microsoft Ventures has a new $3.5 million contest that opens today to try to find the best of you. Today, the tech giant’s venture arm announced Innovate.AI, a new competition that’s designed to provide a bundle of funding to some of the top companies using AI around the globe.
The competition is open to firms from North America, Europe, and Israel. Each region will have its own pitch-off, where 10 finalists will pitch their businesses to j

After a decade of silence, the classic camera company Yashica has returned with a new product — one that resembles its analog heritage, even if it doesn’t remotely begin to speak to it. The new product is a digital camera called the Y35 that looks just like Yashica’s old Electro 35 film camera. Except the Y35 has a distinctly modern twist: instead of using film, it uses “digiFilm,” which are essentially physical plugins that add different photo filters to the camera

When it comes to peace of mind for the home, a San Francisco startup thinks a new set of locks could do the trick. August recently released a pair of new smart locks, and VentureBeat got a chance to test them out and see if they deliver on their promise.
At the end of the day, August is selling two things with its smart locks: security and convenience. Security comes in the form of smart alerts that can tell users information like when the door has been opened or if it has been left ajar for too

 Wells Fargo’s ATMs are getting an upgrade. The bank announced today that more than 40 percent – or over 5,000 of its ATMs – will now allow customers to perform transactions without having to pull out their bank card. Instead, users can take advantage of NFC – aka the “tap and pay” technology that powers mobile wallet systems like Apple Pay, Android Pay,… Read More

Shortly after 9:30AM ET today, the Dow Jones apparently fell victim to a “technical error” and began to publish fake headlines about Google acquiring Apple through its newswire, according to reports on Twitter and as first spotted by 9to5Mac.
$GOOG $AAPL by Dow Jones... I guess you guys have some explaining to do pic.twitter.com/402KaCcQJz— Trader 53 (@trader_53) October 10, 2017The newswire sent out a number of alerts about Google buying Apple for $9 billion (which, no) with a

Snapchat is today rolling out a new feature that will display context-specific data on top of users’ snaps.
The aptly named context cards serve as an information overlay that varies depending on the content of a Snapchat post. For example, someone may send you a picture of a plate of food they’re currently devouring and add a geofilter to the image detailing where exactly they are.
Now the recipient will be able to swipe up on any such snap to look at detailed information such a