Technology news

In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the anthropomorphic tree-man Groot is no longer the towering, full-sized version voiced by Vin Diesel in the first film, but rather a pint-sized pipsqueak known as Baby Groot. This is because [clears throat for spoilers] according to writer and director James Gunn, the Groot we knew is dead. At the end of the first Guardians of the Galaxy, Groot wraps his tree-limbs into a sturdy wooden bubble to protect his pals as their ship falls from the sky. When it crash

UPDATE: Feb. 28, 2020: The U.S. Department of Transportation proposed in January a set of rule changes for emotional support animals on passenger planes. Under the new guidelines, only service animals like guide dogs would be allowed to fly. Other support animals would be banned from the main cabin. It's not official yet, but if the rules change almost all support animals now allowed would only be allowed to travel in cargo areas. 
This story was originally published in 2018, but has been u

Sonos One with Amazon Alexa integration is now available in Canada, as reported by 9to5Mac. The push comes just after the launch of Apple’s HomePod, which is available in the United States, UK, and Australia, but not Canada.
The Sonos One originally launched globally last year, but at the time, it only had Amazon Alexa support for the US, UK, and Germany. The integration allows for smart home controls, Alexa skills, and audio controls for streaming services (although with Apple Music, voi

Amazon has reportedly agreed to acquire smart home company Ring for more than $1 billion, according to Reuters. Ring is best known for selling its connected doorbells, security cameras, and floodlights, while Amazon introduced its own line of smart home solutions last fall with the Amazon Cloud Cam and Amazon Key.
“Ring is committed to our mission to reduce crime in neighborhoods by providing effective yet affordable home security tools to our neighbors that make a positive impact on our

For all its problems, I still believe in USB-C as a standard, and it’s devices like the Mu One — a super thin, modular USB-C charger (first spotted by Engadget) that checks all the spec boxes and looks great — that keeps that faith alive.
The Mu One is an updated version of Mu’s original charger, the Mu Classic, which was designed to solve a problem from across the pond by shrinking down the almost comically large (albeit well-intentioned) UK plug into a smaller, more po

Nomad has crafted a beautiful wireless travel stand for smartphones. Wrapped in Horween leather with a built-in aluminum kickstand that can be stored when not in use, the $59 Nomad Wireless Travel Stand can fast-charge your phone thanks to its 7.5W output.
There is just one issue — it’s powered by a standard US wall plug, instead of a micro-USB or USB-C, which you probably already own. Which means yet another cord for you to carry around, and if you’re like me, you get the joy

Sony’s live-streaming TV service PlayStation Vue has just introduced several new updates, including the ability to sign up for the service online without needing a TV, according to Engadget.
Previously, you needed a connected TV or streaming device in order to sign up for PlayStation Vue, but now all that’s required is a laptop or mobile device. Dwayne Benefield, the head of Playstation Vue, told Engadget the move was needed as the cord cutting trend continues. Also, it gives the co

Filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan will executive produce a new psychological thriller series for Apple. Variety reports that Shyamalan will also direct the first episode of the series, which is being written by Tony Basgallop of 24: Live Another Day and 24: Legacy fame.Shyamalan most recently worked on the film Split and TV series Wayward Pines; his company, Blinding Edge Pictures, will produce the series. The show has a 10-episode order, with each episode lasting half an hour.The news is just the l

Ahead of today’s Zenfone 5 launch at Mobile World Congress 2018, Asus hosted a media briefing to tell us about its new phone and directly address the very familiar notch at the top of the device. “Some people will say it’s copying Apple,” said Marcel Campos, Asus’ global head of marketing, “but we cannot get away from what users want. You have to follow the trends.” So that’s settled: the iPhone-esque notch is now trendy and we’re all going

Wacom announced the Cintiq Pro 24- and 32-inch displays last summer, and now the company is introducing a new PC module that integrates into the back of the display to turn it into a Windows 10 workstation. The Cintiq Pro Engine memory and SSD are exchangeable as well as upgradable, so you can swap it out and move your work between the Cintiq 24-inch and 32-inch displays.
Wacom is releasing two versions of the Pro Engine which are both powered by the NVIDIA Quadro P3200 graphics card; one with

The digital currency exchange and wallet service Coinbase, founded in 2012 and backed by Silicon Valley investors, recently told shareholders that it booked $1 billion in revenue in 2017. A new independent analysis says about 43 percent of that came in December when the price of bitcoin was surging, and the company’s revenue has plummeted since then.“By no stretch of the imagination are they continuing that same trajectory,” says Jonathan Meiri, CEO of Superfly Insights, which

With the latest redesign of the MacBook Pro, Apple introduced the Touch Bar, a small OLED display that replaced the function keys at the top of the keyboard. But the company might be looking to take that concept much further, with a new patent for a full OLED display keyboard, via Apple Insider.In other words, Apple’s patent answers the unasked question, “What if the Touch Bar was the entire keyboard?”
Apple, 2019: “We’d like to introduce the MacBook Pro 2. We&rsqu

Amazon announced this morning that Transparent creator Jill Soloway will be editor-at-large for its newest imprint. TOPPLE Books, according to a press release, will primarily publish narrative non-fiction and fiction from writers who identify as women of color, gender non-conforming, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or queer.
TOPPLE is also the name of Soloway’s production company, and the release frames the publishing imprint as an extension of that project. “We live in a complicate

A company called rOcean wants to save the ocean with reusable water pods. Its new device, the rOcean One, launched on Indiegogo today and is designed to eliminate the need for all sorts of bottled water, like bottled seltzer, bottled flavored water, and bottled mineral water. You can think of the device as a connected SodaStream with water filtration the hooks straight up to a user’s tap.
rOcean’s whole mission is to save the ocean, or at least that’s how they’re spinnin

Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus at Mobile World Congress on Sunday evening. Both devices look a lot like the S8 and S8 Plus — and for good reason, as those were some of the best smartphones released last year. But the new models also boast a number of upgrades, including a nicer camera, better fingerprint scanner placement, more color options... and some creepy AR Emoji nobody has defended yet.
Maybe you’ve been eyeing these new phones since the first leak, or perhaps you

Facebook users have been noticing a strange new notification in their News Feeds, letting them know about the platform’s increasingly comprehensive facial recognition features. Users with further questions are directed to a privacy page with more information and more detailed instructions for opting out of the system.
Four different Verge staffers saw the notification in the past 24 hours, including one currently visiting Barcelona for Mobile World Congress.
Facebook has used some form of

The greatest athlete of all time, Serena Williams, is returning to play her first tournament after giving birth in September. The last time she played was at the 2017 Australian Open, which she won while she was eight weeks pregnant with her baby. To surprise his wife while she’s on her way to the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, next week, Alexis Ohanian set up four billboards along the Palm Springs highway with adorable images of their daughter, Alexis Jr., which say, &ldqu

Two weeks ago, YouTube decided to temporarily suspend ads on Logan Paul’s channel, claiming he exhibited a “pattern of behavior” that could be detrimental to advertisers and other creators. As of yesterday, YouTube restored ads to Paul’s channel, Polygon reports, but the service is putting him on probation for 90 days.During the probation period, Paul will be able to monetize his videos, but they won’t show up in YouTube’s Trending section, and non-subscriber

President Trump plans to name Brad Parscale, the digital director of his 2016 campaign, to run his re-election bid, according to the Drudge Report. The Associated Press has since corroborated the report.“Facebook and Twitter were the reason we won this thing.”
Parscale, who started off the campaign by building its website, became known for commanding an ambitious data project, as laid out in a Businessweek profile from the time. He was also known for his use of social media during t

Some very resilient Earth microbes might be able to thrive in the hidden ocean of Enceladus — the icy moon of Saturn that has become a prime candidate in the search for extraterrestrial life. Scientists have successfully cultivated a few of these tiny organisms in the lab under the same conditions that are thought to exist on the distant moon, opening up the possibility that life might be lurking under the world’s surface.
Enceladus is one of the most intriguing places in the Solar

Sprint is still planning to launch a 5G network in 2019, and the carrier is moving toward building a next-generation network by announcing the first six cities where it plans to roll out Massive MIMO antenna technology: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC.
Now, Massive MIMO isn’t necessarily 5G in and of itself, but it’s an important step toward reaching higher speeds, especially at lower areas of the cellular spectrum. Current MIMO (Multiple Input Mul

Samsung’s Galaxy S9 launch event here at Mobile World Congress 2018 was a weird one. The company went through familiar motions, but the usual buzz and excitement for its new flagship phone weren’t really there. Thanks to the toxic mixture of incremental upgrades relative to the existing Galaxy S8 and the usual pre-announcement cycle of leaks and revelations, there just wasn’t much to get hyped about. Unless you liked those creepy AR Emoji.
The one source of solace for hardware

Google has received over 2.4 million requests to remove URLs from its search engine under Europe’s “right to be forgotten” laws since they were introduced in May 2014. The new data comes from Google’s move to expand its transparency reports, and starting today, it will also add new data dating back to January 2016 (when Google’s reviewers started manually annotating URL submissions).In addition, the new data will also show: a breakdown of private individuals and no

Windows 10 users have been able to stream Xbox One games to their computers since 2015, but Mac owners have been sadly left out of the fun unless they go through extensive workarounds with apps like Parallels or install a Windows partition on Boot Camp. Now, a new app called OneCast claims to solve that issue and enable Mac users to stream games from their Xbox One just like their Windows 10 counterparts, via 9to5Mac.I briefly tried out OneCast, and it works like it says on the box. I have no i