Technology news

Snap has laid off two dozen employees today, including some from the company’s content division, according to a report from Cheddar. That group focused on working with publishing partners like BuzzFeed to produce original content for the Discover section of the app.
The news comes after Snap’s redesign of Snapchat last fall, which was meant to separate out the brand-filled Discover section of the app, while also putting some of the spotlight back on communication with friends. (Face

In many ways, Ford Motor Company’s future is defined by its past. Bill Ford, the chairman of the company, and the great-grandson of its founder, announced plans to invest $11 billion in electrified cars at the North American International Auto Show. I spoke to Ford at the show, who expressed his enthusiasm over the company’s shift in direction to a broader vision for transportation than the cars, SUVs, and trucks it currently sells.I love the idea of the social justice component of

Italy’s antitrust organization has launched two separate investigations against Apple and Samsung over accusations of planned obsolescence.The Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato, or AGCM, is trying to determine whether the two popular smartphone manufacturers are using software updates to slow down devices in order to influence customers to upgrade their phones. According to the group, Apple and Samsung may not offer enough information to customers as to the effects o

This evening, an Atlas V rocket will launch another satellite for the US military — one aimed at giving advanced warning of missile launches from space. The probe going up is called SBIRS GEO-4, for Space Based Infrared System, and it’s the fourth satellite of its kind to go into a high orbit around Earth. As its name implies, the satellite is designed to use infrared to spot the heat coming from potential missiles launched on Earth, giving the US an early heads-up on strikes.
The A

On Friday, an Atlas V rocket will launch another satellite for the US military — one aimed at giving advanced warning of missile launches from space. The probe going up is called SBIRS GEO-4, for Space Based Infrared System, and it’s the fourth satellite of its kind to go into a high orbit around Earth. As its name implies, the satellite is designed to use infrared to spot the heat coming from potential missiles launched on Earth, giving the US an early heads-up on strikes.
The Atla

For the better part of the last decade, we’ve been told that virtual reality, and to a lesser extent augmented reality, will transform how we communicate, use computers, and play games and enjoy other forms of interactive entertainment. In 2018, it feels like the situation has reversed: AR is the more promising technology on the horizon. As a result, we’re starting to see the industry shift its resources and the built-in momentum of a hyped-up new product category toward heads-up di

The disastrous false alarm issued by Hawaii over the weekend has raised concerns about what safeguards the state had in place. The state-wide alert, which told people a ballistic missile was about to hit, terrified residents and visitors, as the state scrambled for 38 minutes to issue a correction.
Officials soon released a timeline of events, saying the state’s software contained a menu option that allowed a live alert to be sent in place of a test, a problem that several people quickly

Honda is offering a simple augmented reality demo at the Detroit Auto Show using Microsoft’s HoloLens. It involves strapping on one of the headsets, walking around, and getting into the car, which takes between five to 10 minutes total. And it’s probably the most useful augmented reality demo I’ve had yet.
The demo is really just a fancy new way to show off the specs and features of one of Honda’s new cars. HoloLens isn’t exactly comfortable. I also didn’t ha

Researchers have created an algorithm that they claim can find the best location to resettle a refugee in any given country, improving an individual’s chances of getting a job by as much as 70 percent.The algorithm, which has yet to be tested in the real world, is trained on historical data of resettlements. It was created by analyzing biographical information about refugees, including their age, gender, language skills, and country of origin, as well as where they were resettled and whet

Former members of Oculus Story Studio, the cinematic virtual reality team that closed last year, are founding a new studio known as Fable. Fable’s inaugural project is a VR adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean’s children’s book The Wolves in the Walls. The piece started at Story Studio, and the first of its three episodes will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this week. Fable is working on four future projects that will explore different elements of VR storytelling,

Facebook has appointed Kenneth Chenault to its board of directors. Chenault has been the CEO of American Express since 2001 and will cap off that 16-year run when he retires as chairman and chief executive at the credit card company on February 1st. He’ll officially join the board a few days later on February 5th. Chenault will become the first non-white member of the social network’s board of directors. The Wall Street Journal has described him as “one of the country’s

Last year was either the second- or the third-warmest year on record, depending on whether you ask NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.2017 was the second-hottest year, behind only 2016, according to NASA, which pegs the world’s average temperatures at 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit (0.90 degrees Celsius) warmer than the 1951 to 1980 mean. But according to NOAA, 2017 was the third warmest on record, behind 2016 and 2015. The two go

Facebook Messenger users on iOS appear to be encountering a new bug that prevents them from typing more than a few words at a time, according to a report from TechCrunch.Various people have complained on Twitter about the issue. User @brians_books offered the best view of the problem with a screen recording. As seen in the tweet, Brian is only able to type a few words into the message field before the keyboard completely freezes up, preventing him from typing anything else.
@messenger your app

Korg has announced the prologue, its new flagship analog synthesizer that comes with a full-sized keyboard and will be available in two models: the 16-voice 61-key prologue-16, and the eight-voice 49-key prologue-8.
There have been whispers about Korg’s forthcoming synth ever since the company’s VPsaid on a podcast last October that a new product was coming that “starts with P and contains eight letters.” The prologue is sort of a follow-up to Korg’s Minilogue and

Beta tests and updates are coming to Instagram Stories faster than you can say “Hey, this is becoming a really bloated app!” Instagram looks to be forming a partnership with Giphy, as users have been spotting a GIF library popping up in their Stories. The feature allows users to search for GIFs from the Giphy database and overlay them onto their Instagram Stories.First spotted by The Next Web last November, it looks like the new GIF library feature — among a number of other ne

Comcast is starting to make it easier and cheaper to sign up for Xfinity Mobile, its new mobile phone service, by allowing people to bring their existing phones to the network instead of requiring them to buy new ones. At first, this only applies to iPhones, but Comcast says it expects to add phones from other companies later this year.
Unfortunately, there are still a lot of limitations. You’ll have to have a somewhat recent iPhone — support runs from the iPhone 5 up through the iP

The Senate has voted to reauthorize a controversial legal authority that enables vast government surveillance programs, including spying operations used by the NSA.Passed 65 to 34
The bill was passed 65 to 34, and now moves to President Trump’s desk. He is expected to sign it into law. Earlier this week, a group of senators threatened to filibuster the bill, but lawmakers cleared a 60-vote hurdle earlier this week that allowed them to block the attempt.
The bill allows for continued spyin

Instagram is continuing to build out its messaging section with a new feature that’s already found in popular apps like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. From the direct messages screen, people you follow or have previously chatted with can now see when you were last using Instagram.
The new “Show Activity Status” option is enabled by default inside of Instagram’s settings. You can choose to toggle it off if you don’t think anyone really needs to be that up-to-date

Spotify announced today that it’s expanding its audio slate to include “visual podcasts” about news, politics, and entertainment. These shows, available in playlist form, will feature a multimedia component that includes text, video, and photos as part of a new format that Spotify is calling “Spotlight.”
The format doesn’t change much about Spotify’s interface as it currently exists, but rather supplements the listening experience. When you listen to a

The Detroit Auto Show is considered by many to be the biggest car event of the year. And while we got a handful of interesting new reveals this year, like the Mercedes G-Class and a trio of new trucks from the Big Three, the show was less about the new models on display, and more about what the automakers were (and were not) saying.
If you looked past all the gleaming new trucks and SUVs, you would hear GM announcing its plan to release a self-driving concept car without a steering wheel or ped

By growing wings on the abdomens of beetles, scientists have come a little closer to solving the mystery of how insects developed their wings in the first place.The origin of insect wings remains a mystery, in large part because we don’t have any fossils that can tell us about the ancestors of today’s creatures (unlike with many mammals that leave behind bones). “The field of evolutionary development is basically an alternative approach to paleontology,” says Yoshinori T

When the Apollo astronauts journeyed to the Moon, they had a hard time sticking to schedule. Virtually all of their excursions fell behind their pre-set timelines, new research finds, and that could have big implications for how NASA handles human missions to Mars in the future.
The astronauts’ tardiness was uncovered by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, who analyzed all of the Apollo Moon walks in a new study presented to NASA. Specifically, they pored over the logs of

There’s a string of spyware campaigns operating out of a government building in Lebanon, according to new research from Lookout Security and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Dubbed “Dark Caracal,” the new group is linked to attacks on thousands of victims in more than 21 different countries, a range of targets so broad that researchers believe the campaign may represent a new kind of spyware for hire.
Dark Caracal’s basic tactics are similar to previous government-lin