Technology news

HTC showcased a phone that’s rumored to be its next flagship, the U12, during a 5G event in Taiwan last week. While little is known about this mystery phone, the details seem to line up: HTC tends to release its flagships in the spring, so the timing is right, and it has a large, 18:9 screen with thin bezels, like the recent U11 Plus, suggesting it’s a higher-end device.
While the HTC phone was shown off at a 5G event, it isn’t strictly using 5G technology. Instead, it’s

Porsche may be known for sports cars — and sporty SUVs, lately — but it wants to be known for performance-oriented electric cars in the near future.
The German automaker announced Monday it would double its investment in plug-in hybrids and pure EVs by 2022 to more than 6 billion euros ($7.43 billion). Along with the already pledged Mission E pure electric due next year, the company promises to develop other vehicles on that platform. Porsche will further invest in what it’s c

Android 7.0 Nougat has finally become the most-used version of the mobile operating system, running on 28.5 percent of devices (across both versions 7.0 and 7.1), according to an update on Google’s developer portal today (via 9to5Google).That number narrowly edges out the second most-used version of Android, 6.0 Marshmallow (released in 2015), which still stands at 28.1 percent. As for Google’s latest 8.0 Oreo update released last fall? Adoption comes in at just 1.1 percent of Andro

Samsung is expected to announce the Galaxy S9 in a few weeks at Mobile World Congress on February 25th, and the latest leak from Evan Blass on Twitter is giving us our best look at the phone yet. Along with a first glimpse at a new Lilac Purple color, the images give us a good look at the redesigned fingerprint reader that places it below the camera sensor, one of the major flaws of the S8.
Also seen in the new picture is the two-camera module that the larger S9 Plus will have, which looks to b

About 100 million years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, four, tiny spider-like creatures became trapped in amber. Today, scientists announced they belong to an entirely new species. But experts disagree about how these fossils relate to modern-day spiders, because there’s something strange about their crumpled corpses: all four of them have tails.The fossils, described today in two different studies in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, look like spiders. But no living spid

Of all the things Super Mario Odyssey will be remembered for, its most outlandish legacy is undoubtedly the debut of Mario’s nipples. After the initial screenshots of the bare-chested, mustachioed hero sparked a meme frenzy and a speed-running competition, more questions soon emerged: why does Mario have nipples, but no belly button?
In a new Q&A from Nintendo, this is the very first question posed to producer Yoshiaki Koizumi, who side-eyes before replying, “So we’re jump

Two years ago, Chinese drone maker Ehang came to CES in Las Vegas and promised to build a completely autonomous, passenger-carrying quadcopter that would revolutionize mobility. Many of us in the tech community chortled under our breath, wondering if such a thing was even possible, let alone advisable. Today, the company released footage of its first piloted test flights in China — and color us impressed: this thing is no joke.over 1,000 test flights with human passengers
Ehang’s en

The iPhone X knockoffs keep coming. Chinese company Oukitel has unveiled the U18, which features a similar silhouette to Apple’s newest phone, complete with a notch. The back of the device looks nothing like Apple’s phone, although it does have dual, vertically-stacked cameras. It also includes gesture controls (so congrats to Dan), and face unlocking.The phone ships with a large 4,000mAh battery, which is Oukitel’s signature spec, as you might remember from last year’s

The Federal Trade Commission has extended the claim filing deadline for its $586 million settlement with Western Union. Consumers who’ve previously lost money to a scammer that took payment through Western Union now have until May 31st to file a claim and recoup those funds.The settlement covers a wide range of potential victims; anyone who got scammed between January 1st, 2004 and January 19th, 2017 is eligible to submit a claim. You’re not necessarily guaranteed to get all of your

Sony today announced a new Gold Wireless Headset for its PlayStation 4 consoles. The main new feature seems to be a slightly updated design, and a giant “NEW” on the front of the box, lest you forget for a few minutes that this was in fact an item fresh off the production line.
Despite the name, the new Gold Wireless Headset is not actually gold colored. Nor should it be confused with the old Gold Wireless Headset Sony released back in 2014, or the Platinum Wireless headset from 201

A week after the fitness app Strava came under fire for exposing sensitive military locations through heat maps, some Strava users are complaining that one of the app’s popular features has been temporarily disabled.
The app’s Segments feature, a popular tool that lets outdoor fitness enthusiasts create public segments of their workouts that others can search for and compete against, appears to be working intermittently.According to some users on Reddit, trying to create a new worko

Roughly 24 hours before SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy is supposed to blast off for the first time ever, CEO Elon Musk just shared an animated video of what it will look like when the new giant rocket releases a Tesla Roadster into space.The animation is a sort of updated version of the computer-generated Falcon Heavy video that the company released a few years ago. But this new version shows roughly where the all-electric sports car will sit within the rocket’s payload fairing, and includes

Huawei’s new flagship phone, the Mate 10 Pro, is available for preorder starting today in the US, but its launch is already off to a rough start. The Chinese company took a hit in January when AT&T and Verizon pulled out of deals to carry the Mate 10 Pro in their stores, reportedly due to US government pressure. Major retailers and a crowd-shopping site are offering discounts on the flagship already.
The Mate 10 Pro has a 6-inch display with a 2160 x 1080 OLED screen and an 18:9 aspec

Last week, Apple mysteriously removed secure messaging app Telegram and its more efficient counterpart, Telegram X, from the App Store for “inappropriate content,” a move that many users found curious as it came without any concrete explanation. Now, thanks to confirmation of the authenticity of an email exchange between a Telegram user and Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller courtesy of 9to5Mac, we know the “inappropriate content” was in fact child pornography being dis

You told us, and we listened: we’re taking Circuit Breaker Live, everyone’s favorite live gadget show, to YouTube. It’ll be live on Tuesdays at 4PM ET, starting tomorrow. This week, we’ll be playing with the DJI Mavic Air, the Polaroid POP camera, and... something else. I can’t tell you yet, but it’ll be cool. I promise.
Click right here to open the show page on YouTube, and hit that reminder button so you won’t miss it.What is Circuit Breaker Live, you

Engineer Ari Vaniderstine tweeted a link to a Glitch project called Nelson this morning, which is a browser application that lets Spotify users fiddle with various inputs in the recommendation API and make their own algorithmically generated playlists.
If you have a Spotify premium account, you can select a mix of genres from a long list that includes, for some reason, “pop-movie” but not rap, and then dictate the other parameters of the playlist with the sliders provided for nine o

Google’s Pixel Visual Core, the hidden image-processing chip inside the Pixel 2 family of phones, is getting an update today that lets it work its machine learning magic in third-party apps. Already enabled via Android 8.1 for the Pixel 2’s main camera app, the Visual Core is now going to be operational within any other camera app that employs the relevant Google APIs. That means your Instagram photography and Snapchat Stories will get the benefit of the same improvements in process

You might think the biggest challenges that stand in the way of setting a record like “greatest distance vehicle drift in eight hours” are the obvious ones: What if you get bored, or lose your concentration? What happens when you have to pee? And when the record-setting attempt involves the crazy idea of refueling the car mid-drift, multiple times, others abound. What if there’s a fire? What if someone gets hurt? Is this even possible?
According to the man behind the wheel, BM

Lyft announced today that it would expand its commuter benefits program to all US cities where it operates its carpool service. Now, people who use Lyft Line to commute to and from work every day can save up to 40 percent by using pre-tax dollars through their employee benefits programs, the company says.Lyft debuted its commuter benefits program a year ago in just four cities: New York City, Boston, Seattle, and Miami. Now those benefits will be available to residents who live in all 18 cities

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, and what better way to show your undying affection for your significant other than with a midrange Android smartphone? That’s what Motorola thinks, at any rate: it’s holding a “Hello Love” Valentine’s Day sale, which discounts the Moto Z2 Play by $150 to $349.99 from now until February 17th, via SlashGear.
The Z2 Play is a pretty good option if you’re looking for a cheap, unlocked smartphone, with excellent battery l

The first full trailer for Solo: A Star Wars Story is finally here, and it’s a long-overdue look at the next Star Wars film. We’ve been a bit worried about this one. The film lost its directing pair midway through shooting, and we’ve been wary of the premise. Do we really need a story about the origins of Han Solo?This first teaser does give us something to look forward to, and we’re going to take a close look at what we saw.After a brief show of flipping some switches i

I don’t care much for sports or superb owls, but in between men running into each other while fighting for a ball last night, advertisers put extra effort into pummeling their products into our brains. It’s the one time a year when people actually care about watching commercials (or so I’m told).In between trailers for Solo: A Star Wars Story and teasers for the next Avengers movie are brands like PAM and P. F. Chang’s taking their best shots at being funny. Now, please

The first teaser trailer for Dwayne Johnson’s China-set disaster movie Skyscraper aired during the Super Bowl tonight.Update: The full trailer debuted during The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon after the game.
Skyscraper stars Johnson as Will Ford, a former FBI agent who works in skyscraper security. Neve Campbell (House of Cards, The Craft), Chin Han (Contagion, The Dark Knight), and Noah Taylor (Game of Thrones, Peaky Blinders) co-star. There was little information about the plot of

I’m one of those people who falls asleep a little easier if there’s quiet, steady noise around me. Cracking a window open isn’t really an option in February here in New York, so typically I just turn on a small fan in my room to get that fix of white noise. But a couple weeks ago, I learned that Google Home speakers can play white noise audio on demand. And I was pleasantly surprised by how good it sounds — even on my tiny Google Home Mini, which has slightly improved ba

As much as I love smartphones, I wouldn’t consider gifting one to be the most romantic gesture ever, though that isn’t stopping phone companies from pumping out special red editions for this year’s Valentine’s Day. After Huawei revealed a lush red Honor 7X earlier today, OnePlus is now unveiling a Lava Red OnePlus 5T. This is the same device that made its debut in China and India late last year, but now it’s coming to Europe and North America while supplies last.
I

A biohacker known for live experiments injected himself with a DIY herpes treatment in front of an audience at Body Hacking Con in Austin last night.
Live experiment: Aaron Traywick performs first ever attempt at DIY herpes vaccine and cure in front of a live audience.Livestream by Ford Fischer. Part of our coverage for Transhuman: Biohackers and ImmortalistsSupport News2Share and our film: Patreon.com/fordfischerPosted by News2Share on Sunday, February 4, 2018Aaron Traywick, 28, who leads biot

The South Australian government will build what it says is the world’s largest virtual power plant by rolling out solar panels and Tesla batteries to at least 50,000 homes. Installation is planned over the next four years, and those households will combine to create the 250MW virtual power plant. Energy generated from the solar panels will be stored in the Tesla batteries, and any excess energy will be fed back to the grid, which will be centrally controlled and provide energy to the rest

During last night’s Super Bowl, Lucasfilm released a brief teaser for Solo: A Star Wars Story, saying that a full trailer was coming today. The teaser showed off a new-looking Millennium Falcon, Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian, Chewbacca, and Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo. This morning, ABC’s Good Morning America dropped the promised full trailer.This full trailer shows off the origins of one of Star Wars’ most iconic heroes: Han Solo. In it, Ehrenreich’s Solo says that

One of the biggest complaints with smartwatches is the need to recharge them as often as a smartphone. The best smartwatches you can get typically don’t last longer than two days, and most require daily charging. The new Amazfit Bip, which is available in the US starting today, provides up to a promised 45 days of battery life, putting even the venerable Pebble (RIP) to shame.
The Bip is not a hybrid watch or a stripped down device, either: it has a 1.28-inch touchscreen display, an optic

 Ampere, a new chip company run by former Intel president Renee James, came of stealth today with a brand-new highly efficient Arm-based server chip targeted at hyperscale data centers. The company’s first chip is a custom core Armv8-A 64-bit server operating at up to 3.3 GHz with 1TB of memory at a power envelope of 125 watts. Although James was not ready to share pricing, she promised… Read More