Technology news

EXCLUSIVE: One challenge Instagram faces in its efforts to expand its userbase is how to reach folks who are in parts of the world without great internet access. That’s why the Facebook-owned company has turned to a New York-based team of engineers to help streamline and optimize its app for better performance in network environments with spotty or slow connections.
A key issue when building systems that improve performance is that it can be hard for software engineering teams to see when

After a bombshell debut that captured the attention of millions, the popular Serial podcast turned to a new topic for its second season: the case of Private First Class Bowe Bergdahl, who famously walked off an outpost in Afghanistan and spent five years in Taliban custody. Over the course of the season, which stretched from December 2015 to March 2016, Serial took a closer look into Bergdahl’s motivations, and how the case became so polarizing in the United States.Today, Bergdahl’s

GUEST: Not long ago, reaching audiences through technologies like email was considered breakthrough. Fast forward to today, a hyper-accelerated existence in which the average human checks their smartphone over 150 times daily.
This phone-fiddling translates into the average enterprise dealing with somewhere between 200 and 300 million digital signals per day, yet most can barely handle about 2 percent of that data. This implies companies attempt to make sense of around 4 million signals every si

On November 4th, an activist group called Refuse Fascism says it will hold rallies in 20 cities, aiming to remove Donald Trump and Mike Pence from office through persistent mass protest. Refuse Fascism compares its project to last year’s South Korean protests against President Park Geun-hye, which ended with Park’s impeachment in March. It’s aiming to start with “at least several thousand people” in the rallies, and continue with semi-permanent encampments.
Alternat

Today, a Google office in Seattle served its employees something called an "Android burger." The key difference between this burger and any other is that the slice of cheese is placed beneath the beef patty and atop the lower bun. It looks exactly like Android's burger emoji, which sparked heated controversy earlier this week over the correct ingredient order of America’s beloved staple.
Lunch at Google today: an "Android Burger" pic.twitter.com/I4dwOUPASg— Brad Fitzpatrick (@bradfit

Remember those introduction videos that Apple made to help people familiarize themselves with the original iPhone? In 2007, the company’s goal was to get users comfortable with interacting with a big (at the time) touchscreen and showing them slide to unlock. It’s been a long time since Apple has had any need to teach consumers how to use the iPhone again, but the removal of the home button and debut of Face ID are definitely big enough changes to warrant some new lessons.Today Apple

Baseball is math. It’s all about counting hits, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, and everything else a team needs to score more runs than their opponents. The numbers-based nature of the MLB has made it an ideal fit for the Out of the Park management sim, which debuted almost two decades ago. The OOTP Developments has grown its game’s appeal over the years by refining the simulation to the point that statisticians on MLB Network and FiveThirtyEight regularly use it

Prominent Apple supplier and component maker Broadcom is considering an acquisition of fellow chipmaker Qualcomm for more than $100 billion, in what would be the largest-ever acquisition in the chip business. The news, reported by Bloomberg today, would value Qualcomm shares at around $70, and investors immediately responded enthusiastically by sending Qualcomm stock up nearly 14 percent in what Bloomberg says is the largest stock movement for the company in nearly a decade.Why are stockholders

GUEST: Technology has changed our lives in countless ways — there are more smartphones and other mobile devices in use in the United States and its territories than the entire population of the country, and we are just on the cusp of seeing driverless cars on our roads and highways. As the field of artificial intelligence continues to grow and improve, it too is poised to make radical changes in nearly every industry and sector of business — especially in investing.
Insurance firms a

 Stranger Things 2 (as Netflix and the Duffer Brothers are calling the second season of their hit show) has been out for a full week, so some serious fans have already watched all nine episodes.
That includes TechCrunch’s Darrell Etherington and Anthony Ha, who have been bingeing the show all week. On the latest episode of the Original Content podcast, we discuss our feelings about the… Read More

Networking chip design company Aquantia went public on Friday and raised $61 million in its initial public offering.
The stock is trading up for the San Jose, California-based maker of network interface cards (NICs) that can transfer data on home and enterprise networks at multiple gigabits per second. The company looks to remove bottlenecks for hyperscale data centers that help companies deal with the tsunami of data generated by computers, smartphones, and the Internet of Things.
The

A number of iPhone X owners on Twitter have reported having issues activating their new phones. The issue seems to be affecting some AT&T and Verizon users in the last few hours as they try to get service on Apple’s $1,000 phone. When users try to activate the device, a message pops up saying, “The activation server is temporarily unavailable.”
Hey @Apple not sure if you heard, but the #iPhoneX came out today. Maybe fix the activation server? Now, please. pic.twitter.com/nh

A group of automakers has created a new company to build a network of 400 fast chargers across Europe ahead of the wave of new electric cars they’ve promised in the next few years, as countries push EVs as a way to meet emissions goals.Ionity, announced Friday by BMW Group, Daimler AG, Ford Motor Company and the Volkswagen Group, will install a network of 400 high-power EV chargers across Europe by 2020. There are already 20 chargers under the Ionity network that are being installed this y

Last night, a rogue Twitter employee celebrated their last day with the company by deactivating President Donald Trump’s account. In response, Twitter said it has “implemented safeguards to prevent this from happening again.” But the company declined to offer any explanation for how it would restrict access to tools that have been accessible to a range of Twitter employees, including contractors. Former employees say the company has known about the risks of rogue employees for

Blizzard debuted World of Warcraft‘s next expansion during BlizzCon’s opening ceremonies today in Anaheim, California today. It is Battle for Azeroth. The battle between the Horde and the Alliance is once again front and center.
World of Warcraft launched for PC in 2004 and quickly became a sensation. Subscriptions, which cost $15 per month, peaked in 2010 at 12 million before falling to 5.5 million after the Warlords of Draenor expansion in 2015. After that, Blizzard stopp

Perfect World is shutting down Runic Games and laying off employees at Motiga Games. Runic made the torchlight dungeon-crawling role-playing adventures before releasing the Hob action game in September. Motiga is working on the Gigantic multiplayer online battle arena.
The publisher isn’t shutting down Gigantic, but it is only keeping support staff to keep it up and running. Runic, however, is closing down. Hob is a solo experience, and Perfect World explained that it wants to move away fr

Blizzard announced during BlizzCon that it is developing a classic server option for World of Warcraft, its hits massively multiplayer online role-playing game. World of Warcraft will bring back the game experience as it was before any of its expansions launched.
Blizzard noted that it is working on this feature and noted that it will take some time. Blizzard came under criticism from players when it closed down player-created legacy servers.
World of Warcraft launched for PC in 2004 and quickly

At BlizzCon today, Blizzard unveiled two big new updates coming to its hero shooter Overwatch. To start, the game will be getting a new character: a mad scientist-type support hero called Moira. There’s no word yet on when she’ll be available to players in the game, but she joins an ever-growing cast that most recently added Doomfist in the summer. You can find out more details about Moira on the Overwatch site.In addition to that, Overwatch is also getting an exciting new map called

Blizzard revealed Overwatch‘s next map and hero during the opening ceremonies for BlizzCon 2017 in Anaheim, California today. The map is a theme park full of references to Blizzard franchises such as Warcraft, Hearthstone, and Diablo.
Overwatch has been a blockbuster success since it launched in May 2016. It has attracted over 35 million players. The team-based shooter is a premium game, though it does sell loot boxes that give away random cosmetic items. Blizzard adds new characters, maps

Forget about Dungeons & Dragons — welcome to Kobolds & Catacombs. Blizzard revealed Hearthstone‘s next expansion during the opening ceremonies for its BlizzCon fan convention in Anaheim, California today. The new set will add 135 new cards and come out in December.
The expansion includes new Legendary weapons, one for each of the nine classes. This is the first time Blizzard is introducing weapons of Legendary rarity to Hearthstone, although some Legendary minions (like

StarCraft II is going free-to-play starting on November 14th, Blizzard announced during its annual BlizzCon conference.
The new free version of the game will offer access to the Wings of Liberty single-player campaign, along with every co-op commander up through level five. Blizzard is also making the game’s online ranked competitive multiplayer available for free with access to units from all three StarCraft II releases — although players will have to unlock that mode first by achie

Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime opened the BlizzCon 2017 fan event today with a message of friendship and inclusivity.
He delivered this amid the storms of social media bickering that have surrounded games and politics in the past few years. Morhaime made it clear that such enmity should have no place at BlizzCon or the game industry.
“BlizzCon isn’t only about the games and announcements,” he said to a crowd of thousands in the Anaheim convention center. “It’s also abou

Blizzard unveiled today that Overwatch’s Hanzo and World of Warcraft’s Alexstrasza are joining its multiplayer online battle arena Heroes of the Storm at the opening ceremony of its annual fan event BlizzCon in Anaheim, California. In addition to the two new heroes, Heroes of the Storm will also be getting a 2018 update that will include a new map and improvements to gameplay such as stealth and laneing.
Hanzo hails from Blizzard’s hit team shooter Overwatch, which now boasts o

Among the many normal new features of the iPhone X is the addition of Animoji — all your favorite emoji, but synced up to reenact facial movements like a Snapchat filter on steroids. It’s hard for me to fathom why anyone would want to use these terrifying things. Or, it was until FastCompany tech editor Harry McCracken introduced my Twitter timeline to “Animoji Karaoke.”
It’s pretty simple: you record yourself lip-syncing with your favorite emoji to your song of cho

Blizzard revealed that StarCraft II is going to become a free-to-play game at its BlizzCon event in Anaheim, California. StarCraft II goes free on November 14.
StarCraft II launched for PC in 2010. Blizzard has continued to support the real-time strategy game with standalone expansions and downloadable mission packs. Now that the title is over seven years old, support from Blizzard has slowed down. But the studio hasn’t abandoned StarCraft II.
The free version of StarCraft II will come wit

Welcome to Cheat Sheet, our brief breakdown-style reviews of festival films, VR previews, and other special event releases. This review comes from Cinepocalypse, which runs from November 2nd to November 9th at Chicago’s Music Box Theater.
Fans of 2010’s science fiction indie thriller Skyline may remember that it ends in a thoroughly insane place. Directors Colin and Greg Strause set most of their high-tech adventure in a fancy high-rise condo, where a group of friends celebrating a b

Every week, a slew of new music videos hits the web. Watching them at your desk is not time theft because you deserve it; think of it as a nice reward for surviving another work week. But what if you don’t have time to watch every video — maybe you have a deadline, a hungry pet, or other grown-up concerns. In consideration of your schedule, Lizzie and Kaitlyn bring you a series called One Video. Each week we’ll tell you “one video” you need to watch, why, and for ho

Pokémon Go creator Niantic Labs has acquired a startup called Evertoon, which is exploring ways to add “social mechanics to digital products.”
CEO Niantic John Hanke said in a blog post that the company will tap Evertoon’s experience in social systems that will benefit Niantic’s entire community.
“The Niantic family is growing, and we couldn’t be more pleased to welcome a great group of people who will help evolve, challenge and grow our company in new

Facebook today announced that sponsored messages are being rolled out to more businesses. The Messenger ads were initially made available to a small number of businesses but will become available to all businesses in the coming months, the company said in a blog post.
Unlike other Messenger ads, sponsored messages that pop up on your Messenger home screen will not be marked as such. In fact, they look like all other conversations on Facebook Messenger.As previously defined rules for adverti

 Niantic, the company behind the hit mobile game Pokémon Go and its predecessor, Ingress, announced today it has acquired the team from the startup Evertoon to help it further build out its mobile products. Deal terms were not disclosed, but from how it’s described, the move seems to be more of an acqui-hire focused on gaining access to talent, rather than Evertoon’s IP. Launched… Read More

Death is inevitable in Call of Duty multiplayer. But you can always find ways to survive longer in a multiplayer round, and we caught up with the creators of Call of Duty: WWII to glean those tips for this year’s return to boots-on-the-ground combat.
The gameplay this year is far different from last year’s Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, where you could double-jump into the air and shoot down on unsuspecting noobs (new players). You move at a more deliberate pace through terrain with

OPINION: Trump’s Twitter troll timed those 11 minutes terribly, at least for me. I was about to head out to a Cirque de Soleil show with my parents and girlfriend. I had made a final headline suggestion to a colleague, scheduled my last story for the day, and was grabbing the car keys when that same colleague pointed out Trump’s Twitter account had disappeared.
Poof.
A few reactions hit me in quick succession. First, I was shocked — there’s no way Twitter had taken the ad

 Twitter today published a new version of its rules, in an effort to further clarify its policies about abuse, spam, self-harm and other topics, as well as to better explain how it determines the appropriate action – like suspending an abuser’s account, for example. The company says the updated documentation doesn’t represent changes to the “fundamentals” of its… Read More

Michael Condrey, studio head and cofounder of Sledgehammer Games, has just completed a three-year march to take Call of Duty back to the Second World War. Condrey and his co-studio head Glen Schofield led a team of 300 developers at Sledgehammer and another 200 elsewhere at Activision to complete Call of Duty: WWII, the reboot of the first-person shooter series that returns the game to infantry combat.
Getting the reboot right is important. The franchise has sold more than 250 million units and