Technology news

You would think that making new Star Wars games in the era of annual film releases from Disney is a can’t-lose scenario, but you weren’t counting on publisher Electronic Arts. But while your Star Wars: Battlefront II release didn’t go as planned, EA, you won’t come away from 2017 empty handed thanks to our GamesBeat Rewind year-end event.
The ‘How Do You Screw That Up?’ Award winner is …
Electronic Arts
Listen to us discuss this category in th

Last Friday, SpaceX launched its 18th and final mission of 2017, sending a Falcon 9 rocket out of Vandenberg Air Force Base and into the California sky. The white tail of the rocket was an unusual sight, leaving many in Southern California who did not know a rocket launch was occurring confused, with some even speculating it was a UFO. Now, a spectacular 40-second time-lapse of the Falcon 9 has been posted by photographer Jesse Watson.
Watson lives in Yuma, Arizona, and according to PetaPixel ha

Sequels tend to dominate gaming. I’ve never had a problem with that because, unlike films, game sequels often feature fundamental changes compared to their predecessors. But that means a game of the year list doesn’t always have a ton of room for something truly new, which is why we have the Freshest Gaming Universe award category as part of our GamesBeat Rewind year-end event.
The Freshest Gaming Universe of 2017 is …
Horizon: Zero Dawn
Other finalists: Gorogoa, Torment: Tide

Uber announced it was shutting down its auto-leasing business Xchange Leasing in September, and now it’s being bought by startup auto leasing company Fair.com, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The report says that Fair.com, which offers alternative leases where you can keep a car as long as you like, will buy Xchange Leasing for an undisclosed amount. Uber is not selling the company outright, though. It will take a stake in Fair and offer access to Fair’s website through th

The Library of Congress just announced some changes to its long-running plan to archive all of Twitter. On December 31st, 2017, it will stop archiving all tweets and instead choose certain tweets to archive on a “very selective basis,” Gizmodo reports. The decision was announced in a recently published white paper that reads “the tweets collected and archived will be thematic and event-based, including events such as elections, or themes of ongoing national interest, e.g. publi

How can you live the life you want to, avoiding the distractions and manipulations of others? To do so, you need to know how you work. “Know thyself”, the Ancients urged. Sadly, we are often bad at this. But by contrast, others know us increasingly well. Our intelligence, sexual orientation – and much more – can be computed from our Facebook likes. Machines, using data from our digital footprint, are better judges of our personality than our friends and family. Soon, art

Let’s start with the good news: no Samsung phones caught fire or exploded this year.
Samsung entered 2017 on its heels, coming off the embarrassing debacle of the Galaxy Note 7, a phone that was recalled not just once but twice in 2016, for having a propensity to spontaneously catch fire. And so, Samsung started off the year by apologizing for what happened and vowing that it would do things better in the future.
The mea culpa and apology certainly helped Samsung repair its reputation, but

If you’re reading this, you probably know that finding a co-founder can be tricky business. Some entrepreneurs are lucky enough to start their company with somebody they knew beforehand. It’s great having a friend by your side, but the most important thing is to have someone who complements your skill set and shares your vision and is willing to take the leap with you. So what can you do if nobody you currently know matches that description? Where do you go? Who do you ask for help?

Once again, the year is winding down, and everybody under the sun is looking back at the past year’s news and culture as if the world began on January 1st, 2017. But while the hype cycle operates in tidy annual waves, our lives don’t. As part of our usual look back at our favorite things of the year, we’re acknowledging the things we loved in 2017 that didn’t come out in 2017, and talking about how those new-to-us discoveries and late-arrival favorites got us through anot

The world was kind of a crappy place in 2017, especially online. Google, as a company, needs to do a better job dealing with that.
Google is doing so much that it can be a little difficult for any one thing to break through as the primary narrative for the company, something to move it beyond just search. Apple and Samsung make mostly hardware, but Google seems to be trying to do everything. Google CEO Sundar Pichai has decided what he'd like that primary to be — the expansion of AI and Ma

What does 2018 hold for developers? What trends will change the way they work? TNW spoke to developers across a number of segments, and asked what they thought next year would bring. Here’s what they said. All about the containers Containerization is a great idea. When you put a bit of code into a container, you’re essentially packaging it in a certain way. It contains pretty much everything you need to run the software — like libraries, tools, settings — and binds it in

Christmas is a time to show our nearest and dearest just how much we love them. But some people really know how to go the distance. 
SEE ALSO: Let the annual 'Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?' debate begin
Case in point Taylor Burkhalter's mum and dad.
Baurkhalter paid tribute to his folks on Christmas eve with a tweet captioned: "I’ve learned more about love from watching my dad reluctantly rearrange the living room so my mom can make snow angel boomerangs for her 29 Instagram follower

The BBC announced back in July that Jodie Whittaker would be flying the TARDIS as the next incarnation of Doctor Who’s titular character. And as has become tradition in recent years, the long-running series’ annual Christmas special saw Whittaker make her first appearance in the role, taking over from Peter Capaldi, who has played the twelfth incarnation of the character since 2014.While the series won’t return until sometime late next year, the BBC has released the final scene

Another year has passed; the newest iPhone’s been released; and TNW’s writers have been replaced by robots. It’s time to look back on 2017 as we settle into the holidays, snug and warm in our beds, with visions of cryptocurrency bubbles popping in our heads. Here, we’ve gathered several breakthroughs we had the privilege of reporting on in 2017, that we hope will inspire you to do great things 2018. Quantum computers are real A practical quantum computer is no longer the

No, we know – 2017 isn't even officially over yet. 
But like a kid peeking at presents before Christmas, we just can't help getting excited about the goodies to come. 
SEE ALSO: The 10 best films of 2017
A look at the release calendar teases heists, horrors, hijinks – and, yet again, more superheroes than you can shake a stick at. There are extravagant blockbusters and shoestring indies, oddball discoveries and cozy comforts, and we are here for all of it. 
Well &ndash

Facebook entered 2017 stronger than it ever had, but with its reputation smeared. During the US presidential election, Facebook had been manipulated by profiteers and Russian agents, who flooded it with fake news and posts meant to inflame partisan divides. Beset by public-relations crises, Facebook spent this year trying to win back the public’s trust, with uneven results.
2017 was Facebook’s apology tour
Facebook’s most consistent public release this year may have been the ap

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You love the sleek, minimalist design of your brand new MacBook Pro. But how annoying is it that you can't plug in all of your devices because of its inconvenient lack of ports? What the hell, Apple. Thankfully, there's a simple add-on that can drastically expand your MacBook Pro's port capabilities back to

Heads up: All products featured here are selected by Mashable's commerce team and meet our rigorous standards for awesomeness. If you buy something, Mashable may earn an affiliate commission.
So you got a drone as gift over the holidays, or maybe you purchased one on sale during Cyber Monday. Now what? If you can't seem to figure out how to fly the thing, let alone take selfies with it, maybe you need some training wheels. Thankfully, there's a course called Drones: Learn Aerial Photography

Tis the season for an increase in holiday shopping and competition for those dollars. I’ve found that the key to capturing an unfair share of these dollars online is giving your site visitors the gift of a site that loads faster than a New York minute. Customers are looking to buy what they want as quickly as possible especially if they are using a mobile device and shopping online. According to Kissmetrics, a one-second delay in page load time can result in a seven percent reduction in c

Ebenezer Scrooge isn't the only person to receive a visit from ghosts of Christmas past during the festive period. Turns out one in 10 of us are haunted by former flames over the holidays—a dating trend that's been dubbed "Marleying."
SEE ALSO: The chilling reason everyone's sharing that 'New Yorker' story about dating
Named after Jacob Marley, the ghost of Scrooge's former business partner in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Marleying is basically when an ex gets back in touch over Chr

Our GamesBeat Rewind 2017 podcast week continues.
Today, we have two categories for you: Best Game Company and Freshest Gaming Universe. It’s a heated conversation, but one I think you’ll enjoy!
Listen to the audio version right here:
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, or Stitcher
Listen on Cast
GB Decides on Facebook
Watch live on Twitch
Watch on YouTube
Subscribe to the RSS
Follow us:
GamesBeat on Twitter
GamesBeat Decides on Twi

A remarkable 2017 for Bitcoin turned into stomach-churning terror for investors just before the holiday weekend when the cryptocurrency had its worst week of trading in four years.
While exact values can vary by exchanges, the value of Bitcoin has exploded from around $1,000 at the start of the year to about $20,000 in mid-December. Suddenly, everyone from serious investors to casual hobbyists who had bought Bitcoin as a novelty had a windfall on their digital ledgers.
Then last week arrived. Th

 The founder of beleaguered tech conglomerate LeEco is facing yet another huge headache. Jia Yueting has been ordered by the China Securities Regulatory Commission’s Beijing branch to return to the country by the end of this month and deal with the company’s debts. In an unusual public letter posted Monday, the CSRC said Jia’s failure to repay debts is “a serious… Read More

Whether you’re an occasional traveler or constantly on the road, there’s one thing that’s certain: traveling can be expensive. After transportation, accommodations, meals, and incidental expenses away from home, the cash you set aside for your trip can disappear overnight. It doesn’t have to be like this, though. There are plenty of ways to manage our expenditures in novel ways during a trip. If you’re going abroad or just visiting the next town over, here are ways

New year, new beginnings. But a large part of getting off to a good start is about finding the right opportunity – and perhaps the right place. This is precisely what Relocate.me can help you out with. Launched anew with a gorgeous design revamp and an updated relocation advice section, Relocate.me is a handy careers platform which specializes in helping people find working opportunities abroad – and completing the move without a hiccup. The site currently has over 250 job opportuni

Another year, another flurry of Twitter-based badassery from everyone's favourite wizard Queen.
SEE ALSO: 14 times J.K. Rowling absolutely annihilated Donald Trump on Twitter
J.K. Rowling doesn't normally take any nonsense from anyone on social media. In the past she's hit out at the Daily Mail, Rupert Murdoch, and the Westboro Baptist Church, to name just a few.
This year, though, her wand has predominately been aimed at one source in particular: Donald Trump. Also Donald Trump's political alli

FEATURE: A number of major deals went down in acquisition town this year, from Amazon’s $13.7 billion Whole Foods acquisition to Intel’s $15.3 billion deal to acquire Mobileye.
And — as with 2016 and previous years — the big U.S. tech companies headed to Europe in search of technology and talent. Here, we take a look back at 15 of those deals and what they meant for the acquiring company.
Apple
Apple made four known acquisitions in Europe this year, compare

“Bitcoin ought to be outlawed.” Those were the ominous words of economist Joseph Stiglitz in an interview with Bloomberg last week. He’s not the first to say it and he certainly won’t be the last. In its short lifetime, Bitcoin managed to survive against all odds It kept grinding through the collapse of Mt Gox. It outlasted critics and doubters who declared it dead again and again and again. It outwitted an exchange and ICO ban fro

The end of the year is just around the corner, and you know what that means: It’s time to think about New Year’s resolutions. A few years ago, a friend of mine told me about how she started writing every day and how much it helped her. Intrigued, I dug up some research about the benefits of writing and doing it regularly. After coming up with a wealth of evidence, it was clear that the advantages my friend saw weren’t just all in her head. That’s why I’ve decided t

OPINION: My parents have not heard of Alexa or Google Assistant, and probably have no idea Cortana exists on their Windows 10 computers. They may have approved of their son studying Computer Science, but they’re not particularly tech-savvy themselves. My father hates the burden of smartphones (he turns his off or leaves it at home at every opportunity) and my mother doesn’t even have a phone. I figured the original Google Home would be as decent a starting point as any.
My family is

Jason Barnes has used robotic prosthetics before, but this is the first time he has been able to move each finger independently and even play the piano again. 
Researchers at Georgia Tech’s Center for Music Technology developed the unique robotic arm using ultrasound sensors that allow amputees to control each prosthetic finger using muscles in their residual limbs. Read more...More about Music, Piano, Star Wars, Research, and Real Time Video