Technology news

The retro ’80s mash-up short Kung Fury made the improbable leap from kitschy Kickstarter project to the Cannes Film Festival, and now it will be getting a feature-length sequel starring Prometheus and Steve Jobs star Michael Fassbender. Variety reports that the creator and star of the original Kung Fury, David Sandberg, is also set to appear in the movie as the titular hero. David Hasselhoff, who had a role in the short, is also expected to return.Kung Fury is an homage to 1980s martial a

The ZenFone 4 from Asus launched in North America just a few months ago, but the ZenFone 5 sequel is already leaking out. Evan Blass just dropped a few photos and specs of the upcoming ZenFone 5 Lite on Twitter (as spotted by Android Police). Most notably, the phone has a quad-camera setup: two 20MP sensors in the front, and two 16MP sensors in the back.
Dual selfie cameras are crowding into the mid-tier Android phone space. While flagship phones are content with fancy software (Google) and exo

When people speculate about a future in which we all give up on interpersonal relationships to shack up with robots I usually think, “Ah yes, another misanthrope who overestimates the capacity of machines to mimic the depth human feeling.” But today, I read an AI-generated love heart that said, “LOVE 2000 HOGS YEA,” and I’m reconsidering everything I thought I knew about romance.“LOVE 2000 HOGS YEA” is just the start, too. If that doesn’t float yo

The most rewarding YouTube upload notification I ever opted into, without exception, is for the Boston Dynamics channel. With each semi-monthly notification ping comes a video of some new way that the SoftBank-owned company’s robots can either terrify or delight the masses. Today’s upload is a mix of both because the adorable version of the SpotMini — the updated dog-like quadruped unveiled in November — is back, and this time around it’s learned how to open (and h

Google’s Pixel Buds were only available in the US and Canada when they first launched last fall, and now they’re making their way to Australia, Germany, and the United Kingdom, via Android Police.As noted in our review, they’re not the best wireless headphones out there, although the Google Assistant integration is still top notch, even if the open-air design and poor fit options aren’t for everyone.The Pixel Buds are available now from the online Google Store in the thr

President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2019 is once again trying to gut the Environmental Protection Agency, while pouring billions of dollars to combat the opioid epidemic.
The budget proposal would allocate $13 billion to combat an opioid crisis that’s sweeping the US. (It’s a serious crisis; opioids are killing so many people that life expectancy is going down in the US.) But overall, the Department of Health and Human Services is getting a 21 percent cut

Amazon has started designing a custom artificial intelligence chip that would power future Echo devices and improve the quality and response time of its Alexa voice assistant, according to a report today from The Information. The move closely follows rivals Apple and Google, both of which have already developed and deployed custom AI hardware at various scales. AI tasks, because they are so computationally intensive, often need custom-designed chips for the devices themselves and even custom-de

Amazon has started designing a custom artificial intelligence chip that would power future Echo devices and improve the quality and response time of its Alexa voice assistant, according to a report today from The Information. The move closely follows rivals Apple and Google, both of which have already developed and deployed custom AI hardware at various scales. AI tasks, because they are so computationally intensive, often need custom-designed chips for the devices themselves and even custom-de

Consumer goods company Unilever is threatening to pull all advertising from online platforms that allow “toxic” online content, as reported by Reuters. According to a speech that is expected to be made today by Unilever’s chief marketing officer Keith Weed, the move will encompass platforms that “do not make a positive contribution to society.”
Though Weed does not call out specific companies, his terminologies make it clear Unilever is referring to platforms like

Samsung has had a bad rap when it comes to emoji. Aesthetically speaking, they’re pretty fug, and worse, the yellow globs often don’t correspond with emoji on other platforms. So sometimes you’d be sending what you thought was a shocked face, but would really show up as a hungry face instead. It’s a common issue between platforms like Android, iOS, Microsoft, and so on, but the difference is much more distinct with Samsung.
However, that’s set to change now that th

Leica is teaming up with Olympic snowboarder (and photographer) Iouri Podladtchikov to release a special limited edition version of the Leica Q, which swaps out the traditional black body found on the camera for a stylish white color scheme.
Dubbed the Leica Q “Snow,” the camera is decked out in silver anodized aluminum for the top deck, baseplate, and controls. The body of the camera is wrapped in pure white leather that will probably get dirty in the first five seconds after you t

This year’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang is working overtime to showcase Korean robotics technology, featuring robots to clean, guide visitors, drill through a wall to pass on the Olympic torch, and now, compete in ski tournaments.
In a tournament aptly called “Edge of Robot: Ski Robot Challenge,” eight robotics teams from research universities, institutes, and a private company competed for a $10,000 prize to see which robot could ski down the slopes and race to the finish

Netflix’s new science fiction TV series Altered Carbon ticks all the boxes for a modern-day cyberpunk series. Based on a 2002 novel by Richard K. Morgan, it’s about a hardboiled investigator named Takeshi Kovacs who lives in a world where human consciousness can be stored on a chip called a “stack,” and transferred between bodies (now known as “sleeves.”) The rich have effectively become immortal, sequestering themselves far above the gritty streets of futuri

Essential, Android co-founder Andy Rubin’s new smartphone venture, had a rough go of it last year trying to get off the ground with a brand-new flagship handset. Not only did the device face some serious launch delays, but industry research firm IDC is now reporting that Essential sold fewer than 90,000 units in its first six months on the market.
Francisco Jeronimo, IDC’s research director, tweeted out the stat this morning, writing that the device is “still a long way from b

In an effort to combat drowsy driving, Uber announced today that it would require its most frequent drivers to take six-hour breaks after driving for 12 hours straight. Uber is updating the driver version of the app so that it logs off after counting 12 hours of driving, and drivers will not be able to log on until after the app registers six hours offline.UberThe update is expected to roll out nationally over a two-week period. Drivers will also receive a warning after 10 hours of driving to l

Police in the UK are trialling a new “stop and scan” power, which lets them check the fingerprints of unknown individuals against national criminal and immigration databases.Officers will be able to stop anyone when an offense is suspected and scan their fingerprints using a mobile device if the individual cannot otherwise identify themselves. The scanners will check fingerprints against 12 million biometric records held in two databases: IDENT1, which contains the fingerprints of p

 While a part of the fintech world remains abuzz with crypo-talk, a startup that’s built a business around the more traditional world of payments has raised a significant round of funding as it vies to take on the likes of PayPal, Stripe, Adyen and Dwolla. YapStone, which provides payment services to marketplace-style businesses — customers vary from the likes of HomeAway to… Read More

Over the years, author John Scalzi has made a name for himself with his military science fiction Old Man’s War series, but when he kicked off a decade-long, multimillion-dollar contract with his publisher, he decided to start with a space opera novel set in a brand-new world.In The Collapsing Empire, humanity has spread across the galaxy, connected by an extra-dimensional phenomenon called the Flow. Ships can enter at various points and jet to another planet. A vast empire called the Inte

Over the years, author John Scalzi has made a name for himself with his military science fiction Old Man’s War series, but when he kicked off a decade-long, multimillion-dollar contract with his publisher, he decided to start with a space opera novel set in a brand-new world.In The Collapsing Empire, humanity has spread across the galaxy, connected by an extra-dimensional phenomenon called the Flow. Ships can enter at various points and jet to another planet. A vast empire called the Inte

The Trump administration wants NASA to move away from doing business in low orbit around the Earth and instead focus on sending astronauts back to the Moon. That’s according to President Donald Trump’s new budget request, out today, which details how the White House wants to fund NASA in fiscal year 2019.The request instructs NASA to end direct funding for the International Space Station by 2025, while pursuing a coordinated campaign to put humans on the Moon by the mid-2020s, accor

YouTube and its community are having a rough 2018. After vlogger Logan Paul posted a viral video of a recent suicide victim, widespread backlash forced the company to reconsider its policies. YouTube tightened its rules around which channels can be monetized in response and promised stricter punishments for creators whose actions harm the overall community. In a video released today, YouTuber and online personality Casey Neistat sat down with YouTube chief business officer Robert Kyncl to discu

Apple’s “smart speaker” HomePod was released last Friday, and if you’re considering buying one, you’ve probably already read our earlier coverage — and perhaps visited an Apple Store to hear one for yourself. Assuming you have the $349 to spend, my advice last week was to bring one home, audition it in your room of choice, and decide whether it fits into your life.
Today, you might be able to skip that visit, as this full review may answer your questions witho

Capcom’s Monster Hunter World features incredibly realistic fantastical beasts, as the developers were able to take advantage of new, more powerful technologies compared to past games. One of those technologies was motion capture — but in place of actual monsters to capture, humans had to play pretend.
You can see a brief snippet of this process in action in a new making-of video from Monster Hunter’s YouTube channel (as spotted by Naughty Dog animator Jonathan Cooper). From t

Google’s Cloud Tensor Processing Units are now available in public beta for anyone to try, providing customers of the tech titan’s cloud platform with specialized hardware that massively accelerates the training and execution of AI models.
The Cloud TPUs, which Google first announced last year, work by providing customers with specialized circuits solely for the purpose of accelerating AI computation. Google tested using 64 of them to train ResNet-50 (a neural network for identifying

Let It Die has reached the 4 million downloads milestone, according to developer Grasshopper Manufacture and publisher GungHo Entertainment.
Let It Die is a free-to-play hack-and-slash action game for the PlayStation 4 that supports itself with microtransactions. These include items that let players continue the game after dying. It came out on December 2, 2016. In January 2017, Let It Die hit the 1 million downloads mark. This new milestone shows that the game has been able to continue att

 Stash, the micro-investing app that’s been a hit with first-time investors, announced today it has raised an additional $37.5 million in Series D funding in a round led by Union Square Ventures. Existing investors Breyer Capital, Coatue Management, Entree Capital, Goodwater Capital and Valar Ventures also participated. The company competes with a range of new investment apps –… Read More

Verizon has historically been one of the best carriers when it comes to selling unlocked phones — every major smartphone it offers comes unlocked out of the box — but that generous policy is changing, according to a report from CNET. Verizon is now set to revert to selling carrier-locked phones in what it claims is an attempt to combat theft.The new policy will roll out in steps. First, Verizon will lock phones initially, unlocking them once customers finish the activation process,

Stern, the leading authority on pinball machines, has partnered with Supreme, the brand responsible for the group of people you least want to encounter at a Yeezy pop-up shop, to bring you a gadget that marries both interests.
Supreme announced the collaboration through a promo video on its Instagram last night, which shows a sleek, glossy playfield, the illuminated Supreme box logo everywhere, and an LED point screen flashing things regular people say, like “Multiball is lit.” Spri

Snap’s second major push to make its content available outside of its app comes today in the form of Snap Maps. These location-based stories can now be embedded online, like I did below with the current story of Times Square in New York. Good morning!Snap Maps debuted over the summer as a way to track your friends. The app version populates with your friends’ Bitmoji, along with public stories from around the world. It initially was seen as a potential privacy risk when people didn&

The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) has promoted Jen MacLean as its permanent executive director for the world’s largest organization serving game creators. MacLean was previously interim executive director, replacing previous head Kate Edwards.
In addition, Kongregate CEO Emily Greer and Big Huge Games lead producer Zoe Bell have joined the IGDA board of directors. Vesa Raudasoja, who was elected to the board in 2016, will become vice chair.
With barriers to entry into ga

Florence is a gentle narrative-driven game about modern romance and daily life. Its mobile-first design enables you to tap, touch, and drag your way through two characters’ conversations and interactions as they get to know each other and fall in love. It’s the debut game from Australia-based indie studio Mountains, and Annapurna Interactive will publish it on February 14 for iOS devices.
When I played the Florence demo, it felt sort of like interacting with a video game version

The HomePod is Apple’s very cute, very chic smart speaker, but how easy is it to fix? Not very, according to the latest iFixit teardown, which involves 19 involved steps to dismantle the hefty speaker. The iFixit team gives the speaker a repairability score of 1 out of 10. Apple’s repair cost for the HomePod is pricey, too: an out-of-warranty repair from Apple will cost $279 in the US, which is 80 percent of the price for a brand-new HomePod. Now we know why. (Thankfully, replacing

For drones trying to navigate a busy environment like a warehouse or a forest at high speed, the ability to know exactly where they are at all times would seem pretty essential. Not so, say researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), who have a devised a new, efficient way to guide drones around obstacles. The key ingredient? Uncertainty.With most drones — and, indeed, most self-driving vehicles — navigation starts with a map. To dra

EXCLUSIVE: Quarterback has launched a platform that brings professional esports players and their fans together, helping the player monetize and engage with their fans better.
Market researcher Newzoo estimates that esports will become a $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion business by 2020. To get there, fans have to start spending as much on their favorite esports teams as they do with traditional sports such as the NBA.
Los Angeles-based Quarterback opens up new monetization channels f

Google still has some serious work to do to get its most recent Android version to users — only 1.1 percent of Android users are using Oreo — but the company is already hard at work on Android P, which we’re starting to hear the first rumors about in a new report from Bloomberg.One of the main goals of Android P is reportedly ”improving the look of the software” to better appeal to existing iPhone users in hopes that they’ll make the switch over to Google&rsq

In-Q-Tel, an investment firm that connects tech companies with the U.S. Intelligence community, has taken an undisclosed stake in SigOpt, a San Francisco-based AI startup. The move will provide the startup with additional capital and help it reach an audience of secretive AI practitioners at spy agencies.
As part of the deal, In-Q-Tel will sell SigOpt’s technology to U.S. intelligence agencies. SigOpt’s software lets customers automatically optimize the hyperparameters in a machine l

The annual Toy Fair is coming up this weekend in New York City, but Hasbro has an early announcement today: its new Marvel Avengers: Infinity War Hero Vision Iron Man AR Experience. Yes, that’s the full name of the toy. Yes, it’s very long.The Iron Man likeness comes from the toy’s included mask and gauntlet (the hand piece). The “AR experience” is provided by a phone and companion Android / iOS app. Kids are basically wearing a VR headset on their faces with a pho

It’s taken a few years, but the sequel to the beloved iPhone game Alto’s Adventure is coming very soon. After a few delays, Alto’s Odyssey is launching on iOS devices on February 22nd, and you can preorder the game today. (There’s no word yet on an Android version.) For the team at development studio Snowman, it’s been a long process of building an experience that can live up to the lofty expectations created by the original Alto. When it first debuted, the artsy s