Technology news

GUEST: I’ve spent a number of years studying artificial intelligence, and, until recently, I believed emotional intelligence would remain one of the core advantages left to humans after AI takes over most tasks requiring memorization and logic.
The more I have looked into this area, however, the more convinced I have become that people may no longer be ahead of AI in terms of emotional intelligence.
Do you have an AI strategy — or hoping to get one? Check out VB Summit on October 23-

Russia’s Playrix has become a big mobile game player in the past couple of years. It has scored three big hits, and now, it has launched another major match-3 mobile game with Homescapes.
In its first week, Homescapes had more than 7 million downloads on iOS and Android, said Igor Bukhman, cofounder of Playrix, in an interview with GamesBeat. Hits like this have enabled Playrix to become one of the top 10 mobile game companies in the world. And it’s a reminder that big mobile game hi

Recently, a security researcher discovered that Chinese smartphone manufacturer OnePlus was collecting detailed information from its users, prompting widespread concerns about user privacy. Now, the company has responded to concerns, and says that it will scale back its collection efforts.
While many device makers routinely collect some information on how users are using their devices, one security researcher was alarmed at the amount that OnePlus devices were gathering up. He found that the pho

GUEST: Like everyone else, I caught the new trailer for the next Star Wars movie on Monday and “saw raw, untamed power … and beyond that, something truly special.” I’m now spotting Lucasfilm metaphors everywhere. Since IoT is my personal and professional obsession, botnet foes like Persirai and Mirai and LinuxProxyM naturally equate to the dark side of the Force — the evil empire spreading its influence insidiously through thousands upon thousands of weak devices.

Earlier this year, Kate McKinnon lampooned Kellyanne Conway’s efforts to spin the news while being interviewed on talk shows in a couple of sketches on Saturday Night Live. During last night’s episode, McKinnon reprised her role as President Donald Trump’s counselor with a bit of help from Pennywise the dancing clown from this summer’s blockbuster horror film, It.
The sketch opens with Anderson Cooper (played by Alex Moffat), commenting on a statement from Conway, and whe

Last month, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk made a presentation before the International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia, a followup to his2016 talk where he unveiled SpaceX’s Interplanetary Transport System and his ambitions to colonize Mars. This year’s presentation showcased some updates and design changes to his plans and the rocket itself — he wants to put all of SpaceX’s resources into the BFR, and use it to provide long-distance travel around planet Earth.On Sat

GUEST: The current chronology Silicon Valley hardware startups typically follow is slow and disordered. But that could change with a new incubation model emerging from an unlikely group: China’s global hardware manufacturers (OEMs).
Usually, when launching a hardware business, startups make prototypes, then raise capital so they can fund production. They then often turn to China, where they begin the arduous process of identifying and trying out multiple suppliers, manufacturers, and logis

GUEST: The blockchain space has been innovating at an incredible pace over the past year. The total number of initial coin offerings (ICOs) was probably less than 10. If someone had told you that insurance company AIG was conducting a multi-country smart contract test, you’d have thought they were crazy. Certainly, the idea of putting an Arkansas chicken farm on a blockchain would have seemed ludicrous. The question of when blockchains would hit the mainstream was a legitimate one.
Ethereu

Moviegoing etiquette dictates that any cellphone use in a theater is bad form, but the film Late Shift challenges that dynamic. Viewers aren’t just encouraged to use their phones, they’re almost required to if they want to see the story progress.Late Shift, which has been making the rounds in select screenings since 2016, is an interactive film. The movie follows Matt (Joe Sowerbutts), a student coerced into joining an auction-house heist in London. Unlike a regular theatergoing expe

Museums around the world need to use technology to hold the attention of increasingly tech-savvy children. And that’s doubly true for the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California.
The museum in the heart of Silicon Valley is opening a 5,000-square-feet exhibit on October 15 that uses groundbreaking augmented reality technology to bring it all to live. The Body Worlds Decoded installation is a permanent exhibit of “plastinated human bodies,” or a spin off of the popular

If you’ve ever wondered what space smells like, think about sparklers on the Fourth of July. “Slightly burned, slightly metallic” is how former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly describes it in his new book Endurance, about his year in space.
Between 2015 and 2016, Kelly spent 340 days on the International Space Station (ISS) — the longest any American has ever spent in free fall around our planet. The purpose of the mission was to study how long periods in zero gravity affect t

Bury me, my Love is a game about a journey that millions of people have made simply so they can survive. It’s from developers The Pixel Hunt and Figs along with the Franco-German TV channel ARTE, and it’s based on the true stories of Syrian refugees who fled their homes because of a brutal civil war. It will debut October 26 on iOS and Android.
It plays out as text conversations between a married couple, Nour and Majd. He stays in their home in the Syrian city of Homs because he has

Onstage at Oculus Connect this week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that his goal is to get one billion people into virtual reality. Many of them will come to VR for an escape, the chance to step into fantasy realms or explore far-off places they can’t travel to in real life. Games are at the heart of the current Oculus experience.But Facebook also imagines that much of the social interaction which currently takes place in phone calls, video chats, text messages, and wall posts will som

Like many of their design choices, Apple’s recent decision to swap out their much-used Touch ID feature in the new iPhone X in favor of facial recognition software — what they’re calling Face ID — has caused a lot of chatter and debate. There are many questions around what a future that relies on “selfie security” will look like — but one issue that is certain to get a lot more play is that of racial bias in the Face ID software. The issue of racial bia

My sweat is kryptonite to earbuds that claim to be water-resistant and designed for fitness. In the past few months, I’ve gone through a review unit pair of PowerBeats 3 (sorry Apple) and a set of Jaybird Freedom 2s that I purchased myself — and quickly returned after they malfunctioned within two gym visits.I know this preference is a bit unusual, but if given the choice, I like wearing full-size headphones at the gym and on the treadmill more than I do earbuds. If my good friend Th

Of all the many platforming heroes we’d love to bring to VR, we have to admit Sonic the Hedgehog wasn’t one we’d previously considered. As we all know, Sega’s Blue Bullet has gotta go fast, a little too fast for VR comfort levels. That hasn’t stopped a fan from making an unofficial version of the game for the Oculus Rift, though.
Indie developer Nimso Ny has converted the iconic Green Hill Zone Act 1, the first level of the original Sonic game, into a VR experience

Cryptocurrencies present a compelling solution for more democratization in the investment space. While the financial services industry plays an essential role in the funding and creation of new ventures, these firms are monoliths and the barriers to entry for new players are too costly. Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) are going to change all of that. But first, regulation of ICOs is needed, because even without government oversight, the core blockchain technology will eventually completely transf

Nate Mitchell is one of the Oculus co-founders and continues to be a key leader at Facebook defining the product strategy for VR going forward. While he works closely with the Rift team, he’s also keenly aware of VR’s evolution over the last five years as he’s part of a small group of Oculus executives who helped create an enormous rush of interest in VR when they sold their startup to Facebook in 2014 for roughly $3 billion.
This acquisition set off a wave of investment i

Being a young entrepreneur is probably a better idea than flipping burgers when it comes to your long term career. It can help you to learn valuable entrepreneurial skills that you can build on for years to come, putting you light years ahead of your peers when college graduation rolls around. But there are some obstacles you will have to overcome in order to build your own business from a young age. Ultimately you will have to decide if you are up to the challenge of becoming a young entrepren

GUEST: Autonomous vehicles are just around the bend. As car companies continue to partner with tech and ride-hailing firms in order to innovate more quickly and effectively, questions are arising about the future of privacy in the age of driverless cars.
The biggest players in the automotive industry seem to have downplayed the fact that innovation and convenience will come at a price. In this case, the price will almost certainly entail a loss of consumer privacy. While key representa

What does it take to succeed online? Shouldn’t real-world influence transfer into the digital world? The introduction of computers and smartphones has changed the business world and yet many still do not understand how new digital platforms fit into the business realm. These platforms are a new tool in a businessperson’s toolbox. They have different functionality, but when used properly in conjunction with other tools, they can lead to business success. Lukas Kurzmann, CEO and co-fo