Technology news

The SmartOmi Q5 truly wireless headphones are priced on the low end, but they pack some pretty decent high notes. They could use a little more “oomph” (read: bass), but otherwise there’s a lot to like. These earbuds, while small, are not innocuous. They look like James Bond’s cuff-links, which I hold as a point in the Q5’s favor. After a decade of seeing people with giant Bluetooth dongles hanging from their heads it’s easy to forgive the boxy design. The fac

Are you interested in taking full advantage of all the technologies that are available to your business? Are you hoping to make some changes for the better in 2018? Are you wondering which technologies deserve most of your time and money? Since no two businesses are the same, the approach you take may not be the same as the next company. Even so, there are some technologies that continue to grow by leaps and bounds with each passing day. While there is no way of knowing for sure if a particular

Razer’s latest mechanical keyboard just might be able to survive spilled drinks. The new BlackWidow Ultimate gaming keyboard is now water and dust resistant with an IP54 rating, the company says.In standard game accessorizing opulence, the backlit green LED keys also have lighting effects like wave, ripple, starlight, and more that gamers can customize. The keyboard is said to have an 80 million keystroke lifespan and uses Razer Green Switches, which have an actuation force of 50 grams for

Nintendo is reportedly in talks with Universal Studios to create an animated film starring everyone’s favorite Italian plumber, Mario. The company will be working with Illumination Entertainment, the Universal-affiliated studio behind the “Despicable Me” and “Minions” films. According to the report by the Wall Street Journal, the studio has been in discussions with the studio for a year, and the movie is in the early stages of production. This is likely an extensio

Eight more hoverboard brands have been issued warnings and recalls by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, reminding us once again that hoverboards have a tendency to explode.
This newest sweep of CPSC warnings and recalls comes after two house fires were started by faulty LayZ hoverboards this year, one of which was fatal. The agency is warning consumers to not use LayZ hoverboards and has issued recalls for hoverboards made by the following brands: Dollar Mania Sonic Smart Wheels, Tech D

Apple is once again on top in the wearable market for the past quarter, according to Canalys. Apple shipped 3.9 million Watches, marking its strongest quarter of 2017 so far. About 800,000 of the shipments were Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE capabilities.
Apple’s competitors, Xiaomi and Fitbit, trailed behind in Q3, shipping 3.6 million and 3.5 million wearables, respectively. Still, their performance was better than average in the sluggish Q3, according to Canalys, where business has histo

Arrivo, the company founded by former SpaceX and Hyperloop One engineer Brogan BamBrogan, announced today that it had formed a partnership with Colorado’s Department of Transportation to build a hyperloop through the city of Denver.It’s like if Hyperloop One and Elon Musk’s Boring Company had a baby
Well, not a hyperloop exactly. First of all, there’s no tube involved, so the idea of traveling through a near-vacuum state at close to supersonic speeds has been replaced wit

Microsoft is now rolling out game gifting to all Xbox One owners in time for the holidays, following a test period earlier this year. Gift purchases can be made through the Microsoft Store, allowing friends to buy games for others regardless of regions. While the purchase of new games is supported, Microsoft still isn’t enabling transferring an existing digital game to a friend.Game gifting was a highly-requested feature by Xbox One fans. A post on Microsoft’s Xbox feedback site amas

Voters in 18 nations were influenced by online trolls, propaganda and disinformation campaigns originating from different sources in the last year, according to a new study. According to research carried out by Freedom House, democratic integrity has only deteriorated in the past seven years, and as of June 2016 the countries most affected were Ukraine, Egypt, and Turkey. The assessment was carried out in 65 countries, which make up 87 percent of the world’s internet usage —&nb

Deezer has just launched a desktop app in beta that offers high-definition lossless audio, making it the second major streaming service to support FLAC on desktop after Tidal. The 16-bit FLAC support is offered to subscribers of Premium+, which costs $9.99 per month, until January 2018. After that, Deezer users will have to subscribe to Deezer HiFi, at $19.99 per month, to stream in loseless. Tidal’s HiFi loseless subscription also costs $19.99 per month.
The desktop app also includes Flow

Have you ever been on public transportation and spotted someone watching a rather sappy and partially nude drama? I have, and my response is to awkwardly flit my eyes back toward the drama while the train gets massively delayed during the morning commute, and then look back at my phone, which has suddenly become a whole lot less interesting than the stranger’s screen.Today, Netflix released its survey of thousands of public bingers, which found that plenty of people notice when others are

Amazon and Google have had a bit of an ongoing feud regarding streaming devices and services, but it seems the company might be starting to bury the hatchet. TechHive spotted Amazon had quietly added Google Cast support to its Music app a couple of weeks ago. I tested it on my own device, and it works great. Hopefully it’s a sign Amazon and Google are willing to work a bit more closely together, and that I’ll finally be able to cast Amazon Prime Video to my Android TV. Until now, Am

‘Tis the season for Black Friday deal announcements, and Amazon is finally lifting the curtain for a sneak peek at some of its Black Friday sales. While Amazon will have many, many more deals than what we’ve got here, the company is kicking things off with some details on a few discounts, which will begin on November 17th and run through Black Friday on November 24th.As a note, Amazon’s deals are on a rolling basis — meaning that various deals will go live at different po

One night at the beginning of November, tech reviewer Ben Schmanke published a YouTube video comparing the cameras on the iPhone X, the Samsung S8, and the LG V30. YouTube initially classified the video as suitable for all advertisers, indicated by a green dollar sign icon. When Schmanke woke up the next morning, the classification icon had been changed to a yellow dollar sign, which means the video can only make money from a limited number of advertisers.
“[YouTube] said this shouldn&rsqu

Google Home announced a refreshed app today with a new look and a few updates meant to make it easier to find shows, films, and music.The refresh moves the key navigation buttons to the bottom, as Google attempts to make the app more intuitive. The app now recommends content from your streaming services, and opens up the search functionality so you can now look up content by actor, artist, genre, or category, not just by name.
Those on Android can now use the app to cast movie trailers onto a co

With an ICO frenzy and Bitcoin’s plunging valuation (and Bitcoin Cash’s soaring rates), attention on blockchain technology is growing increasingly fervent. Blockchain ledgers are (seemingly) on the precipice of moving into mainstream territory and facilitating the daily distribution of every type of data file, from financial contracts to individual records. But before blockchain has the opportunity to propel us into a decentralized data revolution, it has to first prove that it is n

Since the iPhone X has hit the market, people have been trying all sorts of ways to trick the phone’s Face ID feature, including this creepy, cobbled-together mask. While Apple has admitted that false positives can happen, it was thought this could only happen with twins, or siblings under the age of 13. However, a new video has popped up showing a 10-year-old unlocking his mother’s iPhone, suggesting that any family members who bear enough resemblance might be able to bypass the sys

Foxconn’s profits fell to $700 million last quarter, a 39 percent year-over-year decline from the $1.09 billion it pulled in during last year’s third quarter. It’s the Taiwanese assembler’s largest drop since the global recession, and it’s all due to the initial iPhone X production problems, as Foxconn relies on Apple for more than half of its business.
As first reported by Bloomberg, Foxconn, the sole assembler of iPhone X devices, was unable to assemble as many iP

Clear your schedules and count up your vacation days, everyone: A massive virtual reality theme park is opening next month in Guiyang, China. The park, called the East Valley of Science and Fantasy, was designed to be a science fiction world. The park site says it will include VR recreation halls, movie theaters, restaurants, and a children’s area. Images of the park leaked online a few weeks ago, showing a 174-foot mecha statue and several buildings that look like alien motherships. Over

Microsoft is creating a unique version of Skype for small business owners and freelancers. The software giant is planning to preview the new version of Skype shortly as a desktop client in the US. Microsoft’s “Skype Professional Account” combines Skype calls, calendar meetings, and payments. This is particularly useful for freelancers that might use Skype to provide tutorials, training, or consulting.
The new Skype version will let small business owners and freelancers book mee

Kratom, a Southeast Asian plant known for its opiate-like effects, may put users at risk of addiction and even death, the US Food and Drug Administration said in a public health advisory today. The drug has been rising in popularity as an opioid alternative.
Kratom, which has been consumed in Southeast Asia for centuries, binds to the same opioid receptor as morphine — so it can treat pain. Some chemists figure it’s a promising starting point for new, less addictive painkillers. But

Since the very first North American screenings of Pokémon: I Choose You!, the latest visual romp in the Pokémon universe, viewers and critics have shared their mutual horror over one specific moment. Pikachu speaks. Not in its usual cute, “pika pika” sort of way, but in a quavering, squeaky human voice.In the scene, an injured Ash asks Pikachu why it won’t return to its pokéball. Cue surreal blur effect, which I can only interpret as Ash having some sort of

If you woke up today feeling like the world wasn’t a very scary place, and for some reason you didn’t want to continue feeling that way, we’ve got the remedy for you. “Slaughterbots” is seven minutes and forty-seven seconds of sheer horror designed to be a fictional warning against a future full of killer robots. The issue at hand is autonomous weapons with the ‘ability’ to kill people without meaningful human direction. It’s a very real concern f

As a scaling startup, bringing on the right core team is core to company growth. It’s important to not only find people who are willing to work hard, but also who share your company’s mission and most importantly, its values. From the outset, we decided that finding the right people meant finding not only those with the best background, but those with the right attitude and core skills to build our company. Four years later, we’re lucky to have a team which is compiled of many

Nestled hundreds of pages into the proposed bill to fund the Department of Defense sits a small, unassuming section. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 is the engine that powers the Pentagon, turning legislative will into tangible cash for whatever Congress can fit inside. Thanks to an amendment introduced by Sen. Mike Rounds of (R-SD) and co-sponsored by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), this year the NDAA could institute a big change: should the bill pass in its present fo

Blasting aerosols into the atmosphere to fight climate change could have the unfortunate side effect of creating drought and more hurricanes, according to new research.
Some scientists believe that sending a plane to spray sulfate aerosols into the sky will help cool down the Earth. But drastic moves might lead to unintended consequences, according to scientists who ran a model to see how spraying the sulfate would affect our climate. The model simulates how an annual spray of aerosols in both h

In 2015, Max Schrems, an Austrian privacy activist and lawyer, famously filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of 25,000 Facebook users. He was seeking a ‘token level’ reward of €500 per plaintiff for violations of privacy — for a total of €12.5 million. Schrems’ main concern with the lawsuit is that the data Facebook has on EU citizens is subject to the US government’s questionable mass digital surveillance. Until now, that concern has been bounced

Update November 14th, 11:06AM ET: This article was updated to include a statement fromAmazon denying the claims.
Amazon is reportedly working on a free, ad-supported version of its Prime video streaming service, according to sources that spoke with AdAge. Currently, Prime members pay $99 to access a variety of video streaming content, which is usually ad-free.
This alternate version described by AdAge would be available to non-Prime members and would be supported by the advertisers. AdAge says A

Toshiba signed a deal today selling its television subsidiary to China’s Hisense, according to the Nikkei Asian Review. The Japanese company will sell a 95 percent stake in Toshiba Visual Solutions to Hisense Electric for $113.6 million. Toshiba will keep a 5 percent stake.Toshiba is struggling hard after its US nuclear department filed for bankruptcy in March. It has sold other parts of its business to stay afloat, including its dishwasher and washing machine appliance branch to China&rsq

Amazon’s Alexa has been around for three years, but you can count on one hand the number of cars that have integrated the voice-controlled technology. The 2017 Ford Fusion Energi is the only car on the market right now with Alexa, although BMW says some of its models, including select Minis, will feature the voice assistant starting in mid-2018. Nissan is working on bringing Alexa into its cars as well. But until then, we’ll have to make do with the third-party gadgets to talk to Ale

Ticketmaster is rolling out a new integration with YouTube that will allow you to purchase tickets for concerts underneath music videos. Ticketmaster has worked with the video platform to add tour dates below official music videos for major artists, with the closest date to your location listed first.With music videos racking up billions of views on YouTube, Ticketmaster is likely gaining its biggest audience ever with this integration. The company says it will only show US tour dates to start,

Amazon Music’s Android app has been updated with Chromecast support, as first spotted by TechHive. This is a surprising move given that the app has been available for years without Chromecast support, and — more importantly — Amazon and Google seem to hate each other.
Last month, Google pulled YouTube from the Echo Show, and before that, Amazon pulled Chromecasts from its store to “avoid confusion,” so it’s safe to say they haven’t had the greatest relat

Shaving is expensive. Razors can also often cost more for women compared to similar products geared toward men. A new startup called Billie plans to capitalize on the demand for cheaper razors with a subscription service that’s basically the Dollar Shave Club, but for women.
“We’ve sort of seen women as being an afterthought in the shaving category,” Billie co-founder Georgina Gooley told The Verge’s sister site Racked. “If you look at the big brands that star

Firefox today released its newest browser Firefox Quantum out of beta. The company claims it’s twice as fast as the original Firefox from six months ago.Firefox Quantum has a sleek UI with the option to customize the toolbar. It also exceeds the performance of Google Chrome in a browser speed test battle. The new browser also includes Pocket recommendations of what sites to browse on every new tab. Night Mode and other features are available as Firefox free add-ons.
The biggest selling poi

Motorola is back in the tablet business with the Moto Tab, an AT&T exclusive. Spotted by 9to5Google, the Moto Tab isn’t anything special. It runs Android 7.1 with a Snapdragon 625 processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and a 7,000mAh battery underneath a 10.1-inch 1080p display.It also features a fingerprint sensor and a USB-C port. But the main reason it exists is for DirecTV. The Moto Tab has a “TV Mode” that allows you to watch your recorded shows and live channels from

It’s that time again! We’ve back at it on our Circuit Breaker Live Twitter show at circuitbreaker.twitter.com at 4PM ET today. You can watch it live and ask us questions with #CircuitBreakerLive to have us answer them on-air.
Nilay will be talking at length about the best TV streaming options; I’ll be on the show to bring out my headless robotic son; and Chaim will be revealing the wonderful world of e-paper.As always, if you can’t watch it live, be sure to come back to t