Technology news

The age-old debate: Should you punch a Nazi? 
Here's a new one: Should you hug one? Probably not, but a protester outside white supremacist Richard Spencer's failed speech in Gainesville, Florida this week tried the tactic. 
SEE ALSO: A handful of racists snuck back to Charlottesville under the cover of night for another 'protest'
High school football coach Aaron Courtney approached Randy Furniss, who was wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with swastikas and had been punched earlier. A

GUEST: We’re living in an era of extraordinary technological change. From smartphones to drones, the evidence is in our pockets, in the sky, at the office, and in the streets. The pace of technological evolution, though, can be even harder to keep up with than the Kardashians.
When asked to think about cutting-edge tech, I’ll be the first to admit that vending machines aren’t the first innovation to come to mind. However, the technology behind today’s most advanced vendin

Now in its 27th year, the annual Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade in New York City continued its reign as October's cutest event on Saturday, bringing together New York's fluffiest pets and their ever-creative owners. 
This year's crop of dog models – dressed in costumes that ranged from the Pope to the Devil to Kellyanne Conway – put on a delightful show for spectators. 
SEE ALSO: Dennis Quaid and dogs: a delightful combination
We've collected the resulting photos for

Around the time Edward Snowden began working for as a computer specialist for the intelligence community in 2006, I decided to leave my job as a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union to go inside America’s growing surveillance state. Congress had created a new office: an office of privacy and civil liberties to advise the head of the intelligence community on how to improve oversight of intelligence programs. Much to my surprise, senior intelligence officials took a chance on hiri

Saturday marks Carrie Fisher's first birthday since her death last December. The Star Wars star would have turned 61 on Oct. 21. 
It's a sad day, but Fisher's family, friends, and fans are making the milestone a little less bittersweet with tributes to the actor and author. 
SEE ALSO: Carrie Fisher once sent a cow tongue to a sexually inappropriate Hollywood producer
"You can be sure that Billie and I will have a moment in reflection on Carrie's day," Fisher's brother, Todd Fisher, tol

In June 2016, the Dawn spacecraft reached the end of its primary mission over Ceres. Since then, the spacecraft has remained in orbit around the dwarf planet, where it has continued to monitor and study its surface. This week, NASA has announced a second mission extension for the probe, one that will take its closest look yet at the solar system’s largest dwarf planet.When Dawn arrived in orbit around Ceres in 2015, it provided scientists with an unprecedented look at at the asteroid belt&

For those feeling particularly world weary this week, consider this palate cleanser: the animal residents of Brookfield Zoo in Illinois devouring pumpkins ahead of Halloween. This clip from the Associated Press shows some of the zoo's cutest residents chomping down on enormous helpings of squash. 
May the delightful image of a python making its home inside a jack-o'-lantern carry you through whatever comes next week. Read more...
More about Animals, Culture, Culture, Web Culture, and Anima

The VR industry is slowly inching closer to six degrees of freedom (6DOF) tracking on mobile-based headsets. But while Google toils away on standalone headsets with positional tracking, another studio has used its ARCore tech to implement positional tracking on Gear VR.
FusedVR recently posted a video using Android’s new AR platform enables 6DOF movement on what’s long been a 3DOF headset. You can see the headset, which has a Galaxy S8 smartphone fitted inside, moving through the vir

Kit Harington has clarified comments he made in 2016 about his experience with "sexism" as a male actor, in a new interview with The Guardian 
The Game of Thrones star said he "was wrong" to conflate his experiences as a man with that of the very real sexism women face in the film industry. 
SEE ALSO: Rose Leslie forced Kit Harington to wear a spectacularly embarrassing Halloween costume
As Harington told The Sunday Times in May of last year:Harington's comments drew criticism for fram

We hear a lot of promises about the future. But what’s truly on its way, and what’s going to remain a pipe dream for a few decades yet?That’s the question that Zach and Kelly Weinersmith set out to answer in Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That’ll Improve and/or Ruin Everything, which came out this week from Penguin Random House. Zach is the artist behind the wonderfully nerdy Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal comics and Kelly is a scientist focusing on parasites. Thei

GUEST: Building the right team is hard. What’s more challenging is hiring for several roles at once and trying to determine how all the pieces will come together in the end. You’re trying to assess individual performance, how the team will gel, and where the gaps will be. It’s like drafting a full basketball team all at once and hoping you have the right balance of scoring, rebounding, and defense. And when it’s a single hire, it often feels that much more critical.
When

The hyperloop is moving ahead. 
Elon Musk got permission from Maryland officials for his Boring Company to build a 10-mile tunnel in the state, the Baltimore Sun reported. The tunnel would be the first part of Musk's envisioned hyperloop to transport people underground between New York and Washington, D.C. 
“This thing is real. It’s exciting to see,” Maryland Transportation Secretary Pete Rahn told the Sun. “The word ‘transformational’ may be overuse

Preorders for the iPhone X begin on October 27th, and supplies are expected to be limited. If you’re a member of the iPhone Upgrade Program, you might have a chance to streamline the ordering process when preorders begin.Apple announced that members of the program can get a head start on the ordering process on Monday, October 23rd. The banner points members to the Apple Store app so that they “can speed through checkout on 10.27.”This doesn’t mean that IUP members are ju

Actor Brent Briscoe – known best for his role as JJ of JJ's Diner fame on Parks and Recreation – died at 56 on Wednesday. Per Variety, the cause of death is internal bleeding and heart complications sustained after "a serious fall" that put him in the hospital. 
SEE ALSO: Ben Wyatt and Jean-Ralphio respond to 'Parks and Rec' fan theories
Mashable has reached out to a represenative for confirmation.
On Friday, Parks and Recreation creator Michael Schur shared a sweet stateme

I've really been enjoying the selection of offbeat, smaller films that Amazon picks up for Prime. One of those is Paterson, the Jim Jarmusch movie that has Adam Driver playing a bus driver named Paterson in the city of Paterson. It's slow and odd, and it's hard to imagine a movie like that finding a space where it can really be given its due.
There's a lot of stress and strangeness and pleasant day-to-day oddities to enjoy in Paterson, but one thing that really stands out is how well it manages

What better way to get into the Halloween spirit than by getting freaky?
There’s already a glut of sexy halloween costumes —  have you seen Sexy Jon Snow and Sexy Fake News? But if that's not kinky enough for you, here are a few seasonally appropriate sex toys that will help you bring the spooky times between the sheets. 
Dracula FleshlightImage:fleshlightHave you always wanted to plunge your most delicate body part into the darkness? Then the Fleshlight Freaks series is fo

Eight months ago, engineer Susan Fowler published a blog post describing a culture of sexism and sexual harassment throughout Uber. 
Her words set off a firestorm at Uber that led to the ouster of founder Travis Kalanick as CEO, predated widespread allegations of sexual harassment against venture capitalists in Silicon Valley this summer, and even seems to draw a trail through this month's Harvey Weinstein news. 
SEE ALSO: Uber is in trouble after yet another sexist promo
Throughout it

 If you have not yet had the pleasure of being introduced to Nathan for You, you’re in for a treat! The man behind the show, Nathan Fielder, is so wonderfully awkward in his delivery he might just make you pee your pants from laughing so hard.
Last week’s episode “Andy vs. Uber” almost made me do just that.
Warning: lots of spoilers in this post so stop reading if you… Read More

Stranger Things actor Finn Wolfhard has fired his agent after allegations of sexual assault surfaced, Entertainment Weekly reported. 
Tyler Grasham, who was also fired from his job as a talent agent at APA, was accused of sexual assault by a former teen actor. 
SEE ALSO: Jennifer Lawrence, Reese Witherspoon speak out about sexual harassment in Hollywood
Blaise Godbe Lipman, who appeared on the shows Weeds and Hawaii Five-O, wrote a Facebook post describing "a prominent talent agent fro

GUEST: The Nintendo Switch might have outsold the PlayStation 4 in September, but it’s Sony video game console that’s ruling the TV screen, leading in ad impressions month after month.
GamesBeat has partnered with iSpot.tv, the real-time TV ad measurement company with attention and conversion analytics from more than seven million smart TVs, to bring you a monthly report on the TV ad impressions generated by the gaming industry’s biggest campaigns. These are the ads, and by ext

First and foremost, let me say that what’s happening in this country right now is simply tragic. Families have lost loved ones, and this nation mourns with them. 
But it is both premature and reprehensible to inject politics into this sudden, aggressive infestation of roving gangs of giant, six-foot-tall spiders, the likes of which have never been witnessed by mankind in all of existence, until the formal investigation of this horrific nightmare is complete and while families are stil

As mentioned in last week’s roundup, most retailers are holding out on any major promotions until November, but there are a couple deals we recommend taking a look at. This week we’ve got two exclusive deals for our readers — both the Anker PowerCore 2 portable charger and Portal wifi router are 20 percent off on Amazon with the Verge promo codes listed below.
There’s also a couple entertainment and smart home sales, including this 55-inch Samsung 4K smart TV that’s

When director Joseph Kosinski made his 2010 feature debut with Tron: Legacy, he was almost instantly heralded as an impressive visual stylist with impeccable attention to detail. He solidified that reputation with his follow-up, Oblivion, another science fiction tale — this time starring Tom Cruise — with impressive visual aspirations, even if it didn’t quite land from a narrative perspective. Along with other newcomers like Neill Blomkamp, Kosinski appeared to represent a new

GUEST: Almost nine years after Bitcoin launched, trading cryptocurrency with fiat currencies remains difficult and expensive, with the space dominated by centralized exchanges charging high transaction fees and not always delivering the user experience and level of service you expect.
Exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken (and many more like them) force you to go through time-consuming anti-money laundering and know-your-customer (KYC) processes before they allow you to trade any significant amount

June 26, 1886Jamie Swan jumps off a short stone wall at Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn.Image: Wallace G. Levison/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesWallace G. Levison was a chemist, inventor, and lecturer who founded the Departments of Mineralogy and Astronomy at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences in the latter half of the 19th century.He was also an avid photographer, using the new technology both as a scientific tool and a recreational activity.As the dawn of the 20th century appro

Facebook recently announced the launch of a revamped video streaming service aptly called “Watch.” Despite the hype, we should be careful jumping to the conclusion Mark Zuckerberg and his Facebook behemoth have their sights set on Hollywood. The real story here is that the service promises users a more streamlined viewing experience and the ability to engage with their community of friends around the content. Ultimately, the Watch viewing experience is what’s gr

Georgia State University (GSU) has received a $300,000 Digital Economy Initiative grant from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the largest community foundation in the world, in collaboration with Cisco Corporate Social Responsibility, to propel students, especially those underrepresented in the tech scene, to pursue a technology career.
“One of the biggest challenges facing technology organizations is finding talent to successfully navigate the next digital revolution

The Blade Runner film series has always been about authenticating what is true and what is fake. Reality takes on a new meaning when you are surrounded by Replicants, or human clones who are built for our pleasure and service. Uncovering what is true and what is not is the theme of a new Oculus Rift virtual reality experience, Blade Runner 2049: Memory Lab.
The small game is one of a series of VR experiences being created in the Blade Runner universe by Magnopus, a Los Angeles studio that built

One of our biggest stories of 2016 was the reveal of TPCast’s wireless adapter for the HTC Vive and for good reason; cutting the chord on PC-based headsets could do wonders for immersion in VR. But Oculus Rift owners won’t be missing out on the fun.
TPCast this month announced that it is also working on a wireless adapter for the Oculus Rift, which it intends to release in Q4 of this year. It’s not entirely clear if this is a separate product to the wireless Vive kit or additio

Just as video killed the radio star, so too will AI demolish writers, journalists, and editors. Legions of wordsmiths — from Fiverr freelancers to The New York Times reporters — may soon find themselves out of work. However, they will be defeated not by competitors overseas, but by algorithms. To understand the future of writing and how AI writers might look like, we first need to look at the types of jobs that are already on the chopping block. Writing jobs aren’t easily

(Reuters) — Bitcoin surged to a record high of more than $6,000 on Friday, pushing its market capitalization to $100 billion at one point, as investors continued to bet on an asset that has a limited supply and has paved the way for a whole slew of crypto-currencies.
The original virtual currency has gained over 500 percent this year, more than any other tradable asset class. Bitcoin though is very volatile – posting gains and losses as high as 26 percent and 16 percent respectively