Technology news

GUEST: As we prepare to open this new floodgate of information and engage with complex data in the context of the world around us, it’s worth pausing to look at what the potential impact of augmented and virtual reality might be in our everyday lives. While much of this impact is positive, we will have to work to make sure those effects are evenly distributed.
Disconnected versus connected
Screeds about the malignant impact of technology on society are, for the most part, somewhat misguide

Hasbro is one of the largest toy companies in the world (after Lego), and according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, it recently made an offer to take over its chief rival, Mattel.If the deal were to go through, it would bring the two largest toy companies in the US and their vast catalog of brands together. The WSJ’s sources say that the deal was made recently, didn’t disclose terms, and that it might not go anywhere.
But, the deal could be an opportunity for Mattel, which ha

Earlier this week, some Apple users using iOS 11.1 experienced a glitch: if they typed in the letter “I”, it prompted an autocorrect suggestion of “A[?],” prompting a number of jokes around the internet. Apparently, the glitch also impacted Ohio State fans during today’s game against Michigan State.
During a break in the game, the university led the crowd in a card stunt to chant “OHIO,” using a group of people holding giant cards to form the letters. On

UPS is partnering with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to develop new technology to switch its diesel-fueled delivery vehicles to over to electric power.The NYSERDA will provide $500,000 to help develop the technology, with the hope that the company will have a production version ready for spring 2018, and that by 2022, they will have switched over up to 1,500 trucks, or 66 percent of the fleet operating in the city.Unique Electric Solutions is the company that devel

GUEST:Cybersecurity workers are in high demand, and the security industry may face a shortage of close to two million qualified personnel by 2022. That’s concerning giving the increasing number of cyber attacks we’re witnessing. But what’s more concerning is that, according to recent research I conducted, the problem is not only attracting talent to cybersecurity, it’s retaining that talent. A large number of people are leaving the industry and not returning to it due to

Numerous tech companies have voiced their support for a bill currently working its way through Congress, the Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Act (or SESTA), which is designed to make it easier for prosecutors to target websites that enable sex work. Wikimedia, the foundation behind Wikipedia, is concerned that the new bill will overreach, and make it difficult for sites built on user-generated content to continue to operate.Senator Rob Portman of Ohio introduced SESTA in August, which aims to scal

During The Walt Disney Company’s quarterly earnings call on November 9th, CEO Bob Iger casually dropped some news. The tidbit that made the biggest headlines was that the company had just closed a deal with writer-director Rian Johnson to create a new trilogy of movies in the Star Wars universe, giving Lucasfilm the kind of long-term pact with a single director that it’s arguably been missing since George Lucas handed over the keys in 2012.But another comment may end up having a more

This week, Nintendo added a new app to its eStore for the Switch: Hulu. It’s the first major media app to arrive for the device, and it helps to demonstrate the Switch’s potential beyond gaming.When I picked up my Switch earlier this year, I quickly became a fan of how portable the device was: it’s lighter than its predecessor, the Wii U’s GamePad, and moves seamlessly between living room and anywhere else I’ve brought it. My TV habits — like many others &mdas

Call of Duty: WWII is an ode to the heroism of the Second World War, but not all of the heroes are familiar. In the name of showing the diversity of the conflict, Sledgehammer Games highlighted the role of Jewish Americans, African Americans, and female soldiers as well.
In the mission where you play a leader in the French Resistance, you play a role in liberating Paris. Your character is Rousseau, a woman who must first infiltrate a Nazi garrison, meet with a contact, obtain a bomb, deal with a

 Alibaba invented China’s biggest shopping day — 11/11 aka Single’s Day — and it dominates the headlines with record sales year-on-year, but another company just stepped out to remind us that others are busy trying to close the gap. JD.com, the perennial challenger to Alibaba’s e-commerce empire in China, just revealed its 11/11 figures for the first time. While… Read More

I watched the Netflix series Mindhunter over the course of one week, and I think I could’ve watched it in a single sitting if I had no other obligations or basic needs to fulfill. The compelling 10-episode series unfolds like a movie, rather than a collection of distinct episodes, making each episode’s end credits feel like a brief glitch rather than a suggestion to stop watching and save it for next time.
The show, produced and partially directed by David Fincher (The Social Network

There was a time when the startup world looked as easy as throwing a baseball into a swimming pool. Early startups like Facebook and PayPal addressed the simplest of needs to communicate and transact. But now entrepreneurs bullish on the space are challenged in much more specific ways. Gone are the days of tech startups trying to address the most basic human needs. Instead, they’ve focused on hyper specificity. There are apps for dry cleaning, health food delivery, dating and cryptocurren

In an interview in The Hollywood Reporter on Friday, model Scott R. Brunton accused Star Trek actor George Takei of sexual assault, which allegedly took place in the actor’s condo in 1981. In a response on Twitter, Takei says he is “shocked and bewildered” at the accusation, and says the incident “simply did not occur.”
Brunton claims he met Takei at a bar when he was 23, and says they exchanged numbers and spoke from time to time. When Brunton broke up with his boy

I've really been enjoying reading about Taika Waititi and his approach to directing the new Thor movie. We had an interview with him earlier this week, and there's a nice Vanity Fair video where he breaks down his approach to a scene, which includes a lot of Waititi mocking himself.
I saw the movie over the weekend, and it really is pretty fun. In fact, the entire movie is structured around kind of just letting Waititi and the cast mess around — there's a quick setup of a villain at the be

A decade ago, November 11th was a tongue-in-cheek cultural “celebration” of single people in China. In 2009, retailer Alibaba turned the day into the country’s version of Black Friday — and eight years later, sales from the Chinese e-commerce event has more than doubled those from Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the US combined.
Alibaba hit a record $18 billion in just 13 hours
Alibaba reported that sales from Singles’ Day amounted to $25.3 billion, a 40 percent ju

 Alibaba has set another Single’s Day record after the e-commerce giant sold over $25 billion of product on the Chinese biggest online shopping date. The full number comes in at 163.8 billion RMB, that’s roughly $25.3 billion, in GMV — that’s “gross merchandise volume” which is used to measure a dollar value for all sales on a platform. In Alibaba’s… Read More

Zynga hit its peak in stock price and revenues a while ago. But the San Francisco company is still a force in mobile and social gaming. Under the leadership of Frank Gibeau, a former Electronic Arts executive, Zynga has begun to turn the corner.
This week, the company reported its second consecutive quarter of net income, the first time it has done so since going public in 2011. That’s no easy task for a company that has more than 1,500 employees. Zynga also used part of its big cash cushi

As mentioned in last week’s Good Deals post, Black Friday deals have begun early and you can already score major discounts on tech. This week, we’re featuring our favorite deals on home entertainment (including several big TV discounts), headphones, computing, DJI drones, and more.
Best Buy launched a ton of deals earlier this week with Black Friday pricing, including Beats by Dr. Dre Studio2 Wireless Over-the-Ear Headphones, which are down to $160. HP also released its Black Friday

Google’s very first pair of headphones for $159 began to reach customers who placed pre-orders this week, and we got a pair to test out their ability to translate 40 languages, play music, ping notifications in your ear, and power Google Assistant commands like ordering a pizza, getting directions, and searching Google.
All tests of the device took place with a Pixel 2 smartphone. Pixel Buds can be used with Android or iOS smartphones, but the Google Assistant features are only available f

One night in 2013, artist Stephan Crawford was sitting in his studio in San Francisco, thinking of a way of expressing Earth’s carbon cycle through a moving sculpture. He had a metal rod in his hand, and he started tapping it against his workbench. And that’s when the eureka moment struck. “That tapping made me think of a rhythm,” Crawford says. “And then it went straight to the idea of music.”Four years later, Crawford runs The ClimateMusic Project, a group o

Getting a flu shot is like voting: most people know it’s a thing they’re supposed to do, and yet millions of Americans skip it. In both cases, there’s a lot of apathy involved, and more than a little skepticism: does my vote actually count? Does this flu shot actually do anything?
Well, yes and yes, but let’s focus on flu vaccines.The path to your shot starts months before you ever see a needle. Twice a year, experts evaluate all the flu strains spreading across the Earth

The Xbox One X is out, and I don’t know if you should upgrade quite yet. Microsoft has to do a lot more to justify the updated console, and that’s going to take some time. But if you already bought the system or are getting it soon, you will still find some games that take advantage of the console.
Right now, I have 35 Xbox One X enhanced games. Some are way better than others, and I wanted to give you a handful of surefire hits to enable you enjoy the system to its fullest.
I think

It feels like Halloween just happened (note: that’s because it did), and we’re already in the full swing of the Thanksgiving-to-Black Friday rush and naturally, Target is one of the first places to get in on the craze. According to their Black Friday ad, both Sony’s PlayStation VR (PSVR) and PlayStation 4 (PS4) will be receiving a full $100 discount for the sale period.
The standard issue PSVR headset without the required PS Camera or the optional, but recommended, PS Move

Today’s Stories
China’s Toutiao is buying Musical.ly in a deal worth $800M-$1B
Uber loses UK tribunal appeal over driver employment rights
Uber ‘Express POOL’ offers the cheapest fare if you’ll walk a little
Facebook relaunches Events app as Facebook Local, adds bars and foodCredits
Written by: MRD
Hosted by: MRD
Filmed by: Chris Gates
Edited by: Chris Gates Read More

The scientific term for crunching hard-shelled creatures to death in your teeth before swallowing them is called “oral-crushing durophagy” — and a massive, extinct otter called Siamogale melilutra may have been a champion at it.The giant otter was the size of a small human, weighing in at more than 110 pounds when it roamed southwest China six million years ago, National Geographic reports. But don’t imagine that this was a cuddly fuzzball: this ancient otter’s bite

Hours after it was made public that struggling electric car startup Faraday Future was losing three top executives, the company is coming out swinging against the one who was most deeply involved in trying to keep the lights on. In a post on the company’s website, Faraday Future is accusing now-former CFO Stefan Krause of “malfeasance and dereliction of duty,” as well as a “possible violation of law.”Faraday Future also claims that it terminated the executive when h

GUEST: The impact of artificial intelligence on creativity and design is top of mind for creative professionals. AI will undoubtedly accelerate the rapid pace of digital transformation and change the way we work, live, and play at a scale the world has never experienced before.
Naturally, we should expect profound changes across many industries and employment categories. But we shouldn’t fear them. For all the disruption caused by technological change, we gain innovation and productivity,

GUEST: Virtual reality has begun to radically transform architecture, giving rise to “virtual property inspections” that provide a clear view of a property before construction crews even break ground. Contrary to what people see on their favorite real estate reality shows, which showcase a seamless process of building out and decorating a gorgeous home in the span of 30 minutes (including commercials), turning a high-cost real estate dream into reality is no easy feat.
As many archit