Technology news

There are two major reasons I can think of to hack a game console. The first one is obvious: so you can play cracked copies of games. That’s why modern consoles are so difficult to hack, because millions of dollars are on the line.
But some people just want to run any software they choose on the hardware they own. And for those people, Linux on the Switch is a huge achievement.
A couple of weeks ago, the fail0verflow hacking collective showed a still image on Twitter of a Nintendo Switch

In terms of critical response and opening weekend box office, Marvel’s Black Panther has been an unmitigated, record-breaking success. Anticipation has been high from the beginning, with the film outstripping all other Marvel movies in first-day ticket sales volume, and becoming the most-discussed movie on Twitter.But all the positive coverage and fan enthusiasm clearly angered a small minority of trolls, who organized to sabotage the movie’s ratings on sites like Rotten Tomatoes an

A game called Super Seducer just oozed onto the Steam market. It’s a game in which a self-proclaimed “seduction guru” shows men the way to a woman’s heart through the use of a Mass Effect dialog wheel and a whole fuckton (no pun intended) of mumble-y acting. Said guru, Richard La Ruina, sets up a series of scenarios in which the player will have to talk to women, from playing wingman in the bar to bothering a stranger on the sidewalk. I hope you like looki

 The team behind WyzeCam is full of surprises. First they introduced a $20 plug and play security camera in October of last year, and now they’re already back with the sequel. The simply titled WyzeCam v2 is here, less than half a year later, bringing with it some pretty welcome updates. The first version of the camera actually scored some pretty decent reviews for all it was able to… Read More

During an earnings call in late January, Mark Zuckerberg surprised everyone by saying people spending less time on Facebook is a good thing. Moreover, time spent on Facebook will likely continue to decrease as the company implements further changes to the platform over the next year. It was a startling remark by the CEO of a company that makes money almost exclusively from advertising, but his message was simple: quality over quantity. The tech media’s response was predictable. Zuckerberg

Apple has released iOS 11.2.6 today, which includes a bug fix for the Indian language (Telugu) character that crashes an iPhone and makes apps like Messages, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp inaccessible. The bug was discovered last week, allowing anyone to send a simple character to an iPhone to crash the device and lock out access to certain messaging apps. The bug also affects Safari and the built-in Messages app on macOS and the Apple Watch. Apple released updates for watchOS, tvOS, and mac

 Robotic Modeling Assistant (RoMA) is a joint project out of MIT and Cornell that brings together a variety of different emerging technologies in an attempt to build a better prototyping machine. Using an augmented reality headset and two controllers, the designer builds a 3D model using a CAD (computer-aided design) program. A robotic arm then goes to work constructing a skeletal model using… Read More

I’ve never owned a security camera, so don’t quote me as an expert, but I’ve been reading some WyzeCam reviews this afternoon and they’re a little astonishing: a good, functional, easy-to-use, and feature-rich streaming security camera for $20.
Well, now there’s a sequel.
The WyzeCam v2 still costs $20, but now it has a better camera sensor for improved day and night vision, better audio quality (WyzeCam supports two-way audio), and motion-tagging tech to detect an

 Avro, a life sciences startup in Y Combinator’s current batch, is banking on a method to deliver medications to populations unable to swallow or chew — it will administer them through the skin. Starting with allergy medications, the startup is developing skin patches that release drugs commonly used in seasonal allergies for children. The patches can deliver a variety of drugs. Read More

Mario may finally be getting his own English-language encyclopedia on October 23rd, a tome that tracks the three decades of his existence in Nintendo games, as spotted by Kotaku.
The original book came out in Japan in 2015, and an English translation was reportedly set to be released on June 15th last year, according to Amazon preorders, but those listings were taken down without an explanation. Nintendo and the publisher, Dark Horse Comics, kept silent. But now the Super Mario Encyclopedia has

Google’s latest consumer version of Chrome, version number 64, just started cleaning up messy referral links for you. Now, when you go to share an item, you’ll no longer see a long tracking string after a link, just the primary link itself, as spotted by Android Police.
This feature now happens automatically when sharing links in Chrome, either by the Share menu or by copying the link and pasting it elsewhere. Even though it slices off the extra bit of the URL, this doesn’t af

Sony is apparently going to introduce something at Mobile World Congress next week, going off the fact that its Xperia account tweeted a teaser video for the annual phone event this morning. The video shows a hand and a bunch of ripples cascading down onto it from above. It also says whatever this video is hinting at will be announced on February 26th.
You can see the tweet below:
Join us. 26.02.2018 #SonyMWC pic.twitter.com/n6IQ82XRVZ— Sony Xperia (@sonyxperia) February 19, 2018I don&rsq

We’re only a few days away from Samsung’s official announcement of the Galaxy S9 on February 25th, but as has been the case for the past few years, it seems like most of the information about the upcoming flagship device has made its way online a little earlier than Samsung would have liked.So, if you can’t wait for the actual event on February 25th, here’s everything we think we know about the Galaxy S9 so far:
What it looks like:
As is practically tradition at this poi

The Google app is now rolling out a built-in screenshot editor with beta version 7.21, starting last Friday, which will give users better sharing and editing tools, as spotted by 9to5Google. The screenshot editor also works in Chrome custom tabs. You can enroll in the beta through the Google Play Store.
The editor can be toggled on by heading into the Google app settings, under Accounts & Privacy and finding the “Edit and share screenshots” toggle at the bottom of the list. Then

You probably know there’s a new Jurassic World coming out this year, and there’s lots of branded merchandise coming along with it. At the Toy Fair this weekend, Mattel introduced a bunch of Jurassic products, including the “Pterano-Drone,” a quadcopter with a dinosaur on top.It works just like any other drone with a hand-held remote control, although it includes additional kid-friendly features like self-landing and auto-circling. It also automatically shuts off if kids

Over the weekend, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s latest installment, Black Panther, opened to record box office. It’s something new for Marvel: a movie with a largely black cast, helmed by a black director, and set in a fictional African country, where the vivid art, costume, and makeup designs were all inspired by real-world African tribal traditions. Critical and fan response has been almost universally positive and enthusiastic.
The film is part of a necessary retrenching for Ma

On Saturday, NASA’s Opportunity rover celebrated a monumental anniversary all by itself on the surface of the Red Planet: surviving 5,000 Martian days. It’s an incredibly significant milestone for the little-wheeled robot, given the fact that it was only expected to last just 90 days. Opportunity is just one of two rovers currently functioning on the Red Planet, along with NASA’s Curiosity rover.
Opportunity launched on top of a Delta II on July 7th, 2003, along with a twin ro

Researchers from the University of Tokyo announced last week a new advancement in wearable technology: A highly flexible electronic skin display that shows your health information, allowing you to monitor vitals at a glance. Made from nanomesh, the display is flexible, breathable, and stretchable — it can stretch up to 45 percent of its original size. It contains a display of microLEDs which read out health information such as heart rate, temperature, or blood pressure. The information up

Microsoft recently developed a haptic controller for VR with an unusual target audience in mind: the visually impaired. Developers from Microsoft’s research lab created the “canetroller,” a peripheral device designed to work with the HTC Vive headset and tracker. The team’s goal was to create a device that would successfully enable the visually impaired to form an accurate mental map of a virtual space. The canetroller translates the traditional experience of using a whi

Maybe robot dinosaurs will encourage your kids to code. Mattel showed off a Jurassic World coding toy this weekend, the newest entry in its Kamigami line of educational robots, at the New York City Toy Fair. The robots are essentially the same as the original Kamigami, except the plastic covers you put over the robotic core builds out a dinosaur instead of a bug. You’ve likely seen similar concepts before.
The dinosaurs pair over Bluetooth to a new Jurassic World companion iOS / Android a

Scientists from Google and its health-tech subsidiary Verily have discovered a new way to assess a person’s risk of heart disease using machine learning. By analyzing scans of the back of a patient’s eye, the company’s software is able to accurately deduce data, including an individual’s age, blood pressure, and whether or not they smoke. This can then be used to predict their risk of suffering a major cardiac event — such as a heart attack — with roughly the

Volkswagen is adding a fourth car to its futuristic I.D. lineup of concepts, and it will show it off in full at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show. Called the I.D. Vizzion, it’s a long, low sedan with no steering wheel or pedals, and it’s meant to exhibit how the company is thinking of a future where we all routinely step into a fully electric autonomous car that does the work for us.It’s also part of Volkswagen Group’s — VW’s parent company — pledge to add

Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther is expected to gross around $201.7 million in North America this weekend, out-earning 2016’s Deadpool to make it the biggest February debut of all time, according to Box Office Mojo. It’s also expected to have the fifth-highest-grossing opening weekend of all time, and the second largest Marvel debut, behind 2012’s The Avengers. Global opening weekend sales are expected to climb to around $387 million,The New York Times reports.
Directed by R

Elon Musk’s tunnel-boring project has received more vague government approval for its equally vague plans to build an underground hyperloop between New York and Washington, DC. Last week, Washington, DC’s Department of Transportation issued a preliminary permit to Musk’s Boring Company to start digging at an abandoned lot in the northeast section of the city, according to The Washington Post.Exactly how much digging — how deep and how long — is still unclear. A spo

Microsoft is ending support for mobile push notifications on its Windows Phone 7 and 8 software by February 20th. Devices on Windows Phone 7.5 and 8.0 will no longer receive notifications. They will also lose the useful live tile updates that displayed information at a glance, and users will no longer be able to locate devices with the “find my phone” feature. Those phones were initially released to the public in 2011 and 2012, respectively.
It’s yet another nail in the coffin

The UK government and the Church of England have formed a partnership to use the Church’s buildings and other properties to “improve broadband, mobile, and Wi-Fi connectivity for local communities.” According to a statement from the government, this would involve placing wireless transmitters in church spires and towers as well as installing aerials, satellite dishes, and fiber cables in church buildings. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport says that there ar

Samsung’s latest patent is for a drone with an integrated display that’s able to detect the face and pupils of a person as well as their hand gestures and position. The patent shows a unit that features a display at the center with four propellers on each corner. It was first spotted by LetsGoDigital.
The patent describes a drone that can include a camera and observation system to transmit information to the main control unit. The system can track the users’ eyes, head, hands,