Technology news

GUEST: As we enter 2018, it’s clear the expectations of intelligent assistance providers and enterprise practitioners are more in balance than ever before. It has also become evident that the number of “known knowns” is growing rapidly.
Here are five examples of how we will learn more about the complex workings of conversational commerce  in the coming year.
1. Intelligent assistants (IAs) can do a lot right out of the box
Solution providers have access to a history o

Nearly every web browser now comes with a password manager tool, a lightweight version of the same service offered by plugins like LastPass and 1Password. But according to new research from Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy, those same managers are being exploited as a way to track users from site to site.
The researchers examined two different scripts — AdThink and OnAudience — both of are designed to get identifiable information out of browser-based password man

It’s been a pretty good year for gadgets. While the most popular gadget may have been the fidget spinner, there have been a number of devices released in 2017 that will make a lasting impact for years to come. From the Nintendo Switch, which turned out to be a major hit for the Japanese gaming company, to new smart home devices from companies like Nest and Arlo, to changes in policy around smart luggage that threaten industry leaders in the space, 2017 has been nothing if not exciting for

The Los Angeles Police Department has arrested a 25-year-old man who is suspected of sending a SWAT team to a private residence in Kansas, resulting in the death of a 28-year-old man.NBC News (via Engadget) reports that the LAPD arrested Tyler Barriss on Friday after allegedly providing Andrew Finch’s address to Witchita authorities. The incident was precipitated by an argument with between two Call of Duty over a $1.50 wagered game, one of which provided Finch’s address to Barriss,

OPINION: I’ve written previously about finding ways to have better conversations about Heartland startups in 2018. Now I’d like to make one of my own goals public in the hopes that others will join me: Let’s stop thinking of tech ecosystems as trying to be “the next Silicon Valley.”
Comparing Kansas City or Omaha to Silicon Valley is helpful in understanding how large a gap still exists between these cities, but it does little to shed light on the kind of progress t

Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) offer an attractive, alternative form of fundraising, harnessing cyber currencies instead of approaching banks and VCs. 2017 saw more than 200 ICOs raise a combined total of over $3 billion as early-stage startups, and investors have jumped in with two feet. However, while the prospect of raising money without having to sign your life away to bankers, or enter the VC ‘shark tank’ may make early stage startups’ mouths water, companies raising t

Back when it launched earlier this year, the Nokia 3310 only worked on 2G networks. Then in September, a new version was released that supported 3G networks, allowing it to work in the US on AT&T and T-Mobile. Now it looks like there will be another new version, this time with LTE support.
According to a TENAA listing surfaced by Phone Radar, a new version of the 3310 has gone through China’s version of the FCC and is shown to support TD-LTE and TD-SCDMA, two of the country’s mo

Earlier this week, Apple published a letter to its customers, apologizing for slowing older iPhones as their batteries aged, and said that it would reduce the price of batteries of the affected phones to from $79 to $29. Apple says that that customers can now replace their batteries at the reduced price.Apple initially said that the batteries would be available in late January, but updated its apology post, to say that they are now available. The company told The Verge in a statement that &ldqu

Artificial intelligence boomed this year like few other areas in tech, but despite the scientific breakthroughs, glut of funding, and new products rolling out to consumers, the field has problems that can’t be ignored. Some of these, like company-driven hype and sensationalist headlines, need better communication from the media and experts. Others challenges are more nuanced and will take longer to address, such as bias in algorithms and the growing threat of tech firms becoming AI monopo

A veteran of the Star Wars universe is returning to the franchise for next year’s entry, Solo: A Star Wars Story. Variety says that composer John Williams will write the theme for the upcoming standalone film.The move is unusual: Bourne Identity and How to Train Your Dragon composer John Powell will still score the film, but Williams will be responsible for composing the film’s theme. Williams tells Variety that he’ll write the theme for the film, which he will “offer [.

Everything is becoming smart, so why not our rings as well? Titanium Falcon recently unveiled its smart ring, the Talon, which can sense motion and be used to control a variety of devices in the home, from games to virtual reality experiences.
San Jose, California-based Titanium Falcon has been prepping its product for a while, and it will start taking preorders for the $129 Talon on January 9, 2018, during CES 2018, the big tech trade show in Las Vegas. The Talon is aimed at simplifying device

FEATURE: I loved Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. I’m just not sure what to call it.
Naughty Dog planned for the this PlayStation 4 adventure to be downloadable content for 2016’s Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. But the project’s scale grew, and The Lost Legacy turned into a standalone experience. It’s kind of a sequel, kind of a continuation of Uncharted 4. It’s hard to categorize.
But it’s great. The Lost Legacy features the same thrilling combination of climbi

FEATURE: I loved Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. I’m just not sure what to call it.
Naughty Dog planned for the this PlayStation 4 adventure to be downloadable content for 2016’s Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. But the project’s scale grew, and The Lost Legacy turned into a standalone experience. It’s kind of a sequel, kind of a continuation of Uncharted 4. It’s hard to categorize.
But it’s great. The Lost Legacy features the same thrilling combination of climbi

The end of the year is a few days away, and retailers are ringing in 2018 by offering discounts on some of the essentials for your New Year’s party. You can play “Auld Lang Syne” on a new Sonos Play: One speaker, which is on sale for less than its Black Friday price at Amazon. If you snag a Google Home Mini from Walmart for just $29, you can use the free $25 Walmart credit to order some champagne for your guests. If you want to watch the ball drop, why not do it on a 55-inch 4

And that’s a wrap on 2017. We’ve played some amazing games in VR this year but, as always, we’re wondering what’s next. It’s a bit of a tradition here now to round up all the big releases we’re looking forward to in the coming year, so that’s exactly what we’ve done. This year’s list is the biggest one yet, and that’s without including scores of promising titles already in Early Access. With VR headsets now cheaper than they’ve ev

I wouldn’t blame you for tuning out VR news in 2017. There was no string of huge hardware releases, like last year’s Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR. The medium’s limits became clearer. For some people, VR reached a trough of irrelevance — stories about it were no longer conceptually fresh and fascinating, but they weren’t relevant to daily life yet, either.
Despite this, 2017 laid exciting groundwork for VR’s future. The biggest advance was arguabl

A couple of years ago, District 9 director Neill Blomkamp posted a number of images tohis Instagram feed of an Alien film that he had been secretly working on. The images sparked a deal with 20th Century Fox to develop the film, but after Ridley Scott began work on his Prometheus sequel, Alien: Covenant, Blomkamp told The Verge that he thought that the film was “totally dead.”
In a Tweet, Blomkamp noted that he had recently been going through some of the artwork that he had put toge

Some of my fondest memories from my childhood are of endless battles and co-operative crusades in a range of 8-bit video games with my older brother and our neighbors. In the small apartment complex we lived in in Bangalore, India, there was a buzz across the halls when the kids learned that someone had got hold of a new game. You’d have to beg and plead for a chance to borrow the cartridge so you could play it at home, or ask to be invited over so you could get a chance to try it at thei

In 2014, as bitcoin rose in value to be worth several hundred dollars, many developers launched their own alternative cryptocurrencies, and ones that came with interesting backstories often grabbed media attention. Some of these coins were for the porn industry, others were for hip hop lovers, and some were actually serious contenders against Bitcoin that have become quite lucrative for investors.Today, there are now more than 1,000 cryptocurrencies out there and given how volatile this market

Digital photography as we know it is about to change. It’s already changing, really, judging by some of the cameras released in 2017. Where last year was a solid, occasionally exciting one for the camera industry, the past 12 months held even more signs that the basics of photography are evolving. And a lot that has to do with advancements in software and computational photography.
That sounds boring! But hear me out.
Let’s start with consumer 360-degree cameras, which until this ye

The year 2017 will likely be remembered for many things across the technology spectrum, from major breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) and milestone moments in autonomous vehicles to Amazon conceding that a major offline presence in groceries was needed to compete in retail.
But buried within the big headline-grabbing stories of the year were microtrends that sprang up almost by surprise. And one of those relates to the humble podcast.
Podcast push
Though the podcas

One of the best things about Android is how flexible its interface is: customizing your home screen to suit your usage habits and preferences only takes a few taps, and the possibilities are endless. Here are just a few choice examples of custom home screens from the Android theming community on Reddit: How are these setups created? It’s usually a combination of carefully paired elements, and most of them are easily available from Google Play. Let’s look at all the things you can do

Throughout the final week of 2017, culture writers from across Vox Media will be chatting about the best works of the year. In this installment, Vox’s Todd VanDerWerff and Caroline Framke, the Verge’s Laura Hudson, and Polygon’s Julia Alexander talk about TV in 2017.
Todd VanDerWerff: In 2017, everything about TV felt condensed and supercharged. Game of Thrones aired only seven episodes, but those seven episodes were all crammed full of stuff (arguably too much stuff, given th

The logo design industry is changing at a lightning-fast speed. What was trendy five years ago may not even ring a bell today. As methods of attracting customers become more effective, logo design must keep up the pace. New ideas develop so fast, designers have a hard time following them. Fortunately, experts are committed to studying short-lived trends and forecasting where the logo design industry is heading. With the help of my team, I’ve put together a list of 10 trends that will domi

So 2017 was … well, the games were great. We spent 2.5 hours last week determining our top 10, and that list has some all-time greats on them.
This is the culmination of our GamesBeat Rewind 2017 coverage. We’ve looked at some of the biggest trends, the best strategy games, and more. For our top 10, we don’t vote. Voting has gotten us into some messes in 2017, we came to a consensus through yelling and gritted teeth. You can hear that discussion by clicking play on the video a

Sharing emotion-driven narratives that resonate with other people is something humans are quite good at. We’ve been sitting around campfires telling stories for tens of thousands of years, and we still do it. One reason why is because it’s an effective way to communicate: We remember stories. But what makes for good storytelling? Mark Magellan, a writer and designer at IDEO U, puts it this way: “To tell a story that someone will remember, it helps to understand

(Reuters) – President Donald Trump called on the U.S. Postal Service on Friday to charge “much more” to ship packages for Amazon, picking another fight with an online retail giant he has criticized in the past.
“Why is the United States Post Office, which is losing many billions of dollars a year, while charging Amazon and others so little to deliver their packages, making Amazon richer and the Post Office dumber and poorer? Should be charging MUCH MORE!” Trump wrot

Drop Software Inc. wants to change the way people access information in virtual reality. Its flagship VR title, Drop, provides a 360-degree environment that folks can use to browse the internet. It raised a seed round of an undisclosed amount in August, drawing investments from HTC as well as firms such as Macro Ventures, Autochrome Ventures, and Backstage Capital. Drop is available on the HTC Vive headset.
“If I told you to open your MacBook right now the first thing you’d do is ope