Technology news

You're being watched.
No, not on Facebook, but in your car. Or at least you could be, with a new artificial intelligence system that tracks drivers' emotions, energy, and distraction levels.
On Wednesdasy, Affectiva, a MIT Media Lab emotional recognition software startup, launched its emotional AI software — which means that car manufacturers can include its facial- and voice-tracking tech in future cars.
SEE ALSO: Elon Musk confirms Tesla will use its own self-driving AI chips
The company

The year's first Category 5 storm has formed in the Indian Ocean, off the northwest coast of Australia. 
Cyclone Marcus, which blew through the Australian city of Darwin as the equivalent of a strong tropical storm on March 17, intensified to a Category 5 storm with maximum sustained winds of 160 miles per hour on Wednesday. 
SEE ALSO: These storms on Jupiter are way better than any hurricane on Earth
The storm is forecast to gradually turn to the southwest, then south, and then southe

Say it with me: Instagram is bad, too. 
With Facebook in the news for all the wrong reasons this week, it may be tempting to overlook the social media giant's photo-oriented sibling, Instagram. That would be unwise. 
Instagram, which you should absolutely never forget is owned by Facebook, has around 800 million monthly active users — and it exploits their data for ad targeting much like its scandal-prone big brother. This should worry you. 
SEE ALSO: This was the year we tu

Struggling EV startup Faraday Future has started demolition and construction at its Hanford, California factory and is gearing up to start production of its luxury electric SUV, according to a new video being published today.It’s one of the clearest (and only) public signs the company has given in recent months about where it stands as it continues to head toward its goal of rolling the first production versions of its car, the FF91, off the line by the end of this year.The startup carmak

Reddit is cracking down on community marketplaces. 
The forth largest site on the web announced that it would ban transactions for illegal sales, including firearms, drugs, fake ID's, and sex on Wednesday. A post on r/Announcements states that "Reddit is not intended to be used as a marketplace" and reminds users that they are "dealing with strangers on the internet." 
Although the ban targets illegal trades like those facilitated in r/DarkNetMarkets — which kept tabs on items fo

Google is planning to adopt a blockchain-like ledger system, people familiar with the situation told Bloomberg. Google will use the tech, the report states, as a means of differentiating its cloud business from rivals. The company would also supposedly license the ledger system so that other companies could run it on their own servers.
Google was the second most active corporate investor in blockchain tech from the 2012 to 2017 period, according to CBInsights, just trailing after the Japan-base

Twitter’s chief information security officer is leaving the company, sources familiar with the matter have told The Verge. Michael Coates, who joined the company in January 2015, is quitting to start his own company, sources said. Coates announced the move internally about three weeks ago, sources said, but had not announced the move externally.
Twitter declined to comment.
News of Coates’ departure comes on the same day that Michael Zelewski, director of information security engine

Sharp launched the Aquos S3 Mini in China today, a budget smartphone with average specs and an edge-to-edge screen design that looks surprisingly commonplace.
This is essentially the same design Sharp has been using for years. A few months ago, this design stood out for its narrow bezels and a screen that took up almost the entire front face of the device. But Sharp hasn’t changed much about its design in the past couple years. Meanwhile, a parade of new smartphones have adopted this very

Multiple sources tell TechCrunch that Google is acquiring Lytro, an imaging startup that specializes in light-field technology.
According to TechCrunch, one source says the deal is an “asset sale” and the company is being bought for no more than $40 million. Another source says the asking price is $25 million and that it had already been shopped around to other companies, including Facebook.
At stake are Lytro’s 59 patents related to light-field and digital imaging technologie

Ralph Macchio and William Zabka are at it again.
Both stars from The Karate Kid are back in a new trailer for Cobra Kai, the upcoming YouTube Red series that's poised to make "How do I get YouTube Red?" a trending search term.
Much of the trailer focuses on Zabka's Johnny Lawrence, the one-dimensional Karate Kid antagonist who got his face got kicked in by Macchio's Daniel LaRusso at the movie's climax. Johnny fell on some hard times in the years after his teenage showdown, but now he's out to g

If you've been out of the loop of the Facebook/privacy/Cambridge Analytica scandal that has ruled headlines over the past week, there's a small yet incredibly important detail you may have missed. 
SEE ALSO: Facebook's latest scandal knocked $40 billion off its market value
Cambridge Analytica — the data analytics firm that came under fire this weekend for maliciously collecting information on 50 million Facebook users — reportedly used a self-destructing, encrypted email servic

Proofreading is importnat.
The online retailer ASOS, a website I access once per day to look at the same hat, learned that lesson this week after unwittingly printing 17,000 shipping bags that said "onilne" instead of "online." 
Onilne: not a word.
SEE ALSO: There's a typo on State of the Union tickets because America in 2018 is just one big typo
So far, though, ASOS is handling the mishap pretty well. "We're calling [the bags] a limited edition," a spokesperson tweeted jokingly on Wednesda

Epic Games’ Fortnite is making boatloads of money on in-app purchases, taking in $126 million in the month of February and surpassing the monthly revenue pull of competitor Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds for the first time, according to game analytics firm Superdata Research. The news should come as no surprise to those who’ve been following the meteoric trajectory of Fortnite and its popular battle royale-style game mode, which puts up to 100 players against one another on a d

A research survey commissioned by Netflix from Northwestern University found that the controversial 13 Reasons Why got teenagers talking about topics like mental health, assault, and bullying.
The results were shared by Netflix on Wednesday at a panel discussion with Northwestern's Dr. Ellen Wartella, Dr. Christine Moutier (Chief Medical Officer, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention), and series executive producer Brian Yorkey.
SEE ALSO: How '13 Reasons Why' is different than other YA adap

The Senate has voted 97–2 to advance the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, a controversial initiative meant to crack down on sex trafficking on the internet.The Senate approved the legislation 97 to 2
The bill would hold websites liable for hosting sex trafficking content by making a change to a key part of the Communications Decency Act. Some free-internet activists — as well as some tech company representatives — have argued that the bill places an unrealistic burden on sma

Remember when Amazon Music Unlimited launched a "three months for 99 cents" deal a few months ago? It's happening again, but better.
From now until March 25, Amazon is offering two months of ad-free, unlimited skip tunes for free to new subscribers. Not for a dollar, not when you make an extra purchase. Literally just free. Bless.
SEE ALSO: Headphones bracelets exist and are a clever solution to tangled earbuds
Amazon Music Unlimited's deal is already beating out competitors at $7.99/month inste

In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook has announced further limits it’ll be placing on apps that gain access to your account. Developers will now receive less information in the first place, they’ll be cut off from access when people stop using their app, and they’ll have to get Facebook’s approval to access more detailed information.
By default, developers using Facebook Login will now receive only a user’s name, profile photo, and email address

After nearly a week of silence, Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg emerged from his underground lair on Wednesday to address the "Cambridge Analytica situation," as Zuck so lovingly described it. 
The lengthy post details how the events unfolded, dating all the way back to 2007, and how Facebook is changing its policies so a similar event does not occur again. While we appreciate the lengthy explanation from Zuckerberg, people were quick to note that his "update" was missing someth

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be interviewed by CNN’s senior tech correspondent Laurie Segall today, with the segment airing during Anderson Cooper 360 at 9PM ET this evening. The news, announced on Twitter by CNN host Brian Stelter, is a pivotal moment for Facebook as it grapples with the severe aftermath of the ongoing Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal, which has embroiled the social networking company in one of its most high-profile and far-reaching controversies in its enti

Hublot is the official timekeeping sponsor of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, so, of course, it has developed a special edition watch for the football tournament.
The Big Bang Referee 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia runs Wear OS (Android Wear got a rebrand, if you didn’t hear), and has the same Intel Atom Z34XX processor that powers 2017’s Tag Heuer Connected Modular 45. (Hublot and Tag Heuer are both owned by the LVMH conglomerate.)
The Big Bang Referee has a 35.4mm watchface, 400 x 400 AMOLED

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has finally responded to the scandal involving data firm Cambridge Analytica, which has been accused of harvesting 50 million Facebook profiles without user consent.
SEE ALSO: Facebook was kicked out of Cambridge Analytica's office while trying to 'secure evidence'
Zuck's answer to the issue: an audit of every app and service that has access to Facebook's huge swath of personal data.
Facebook also will show every user a new tool, conveniently placed at the top of the

Congratulations, everyone! Lesbian and bisexual health problems are officially over.
Or so it would seem, if you believe the Department of Health and Human Services' website. According to the Sunlight Foundation, a government transparency project, HHS removed pages from it's Office on Women's Health site that focused on lesbian and bisexual women's health.
SEE ALSO: What would a 'Queer Eye' led by queer women look like?
HHS told Politico, who first reported the story, that the pages were taken d

The first trailer for Johnny Knoxville's next movie is here and it looks like classic Jackass-style fun but with a script and a particularly dangerous amusement park.
Action Point stars Knoxville as D.C., an entrepreneur of sorts who created and runs his own amusement park called Action Point. The thing about Action Point is it wasn't created with safety in mind, as seen in the number of accidents and injuries its various attractions cause in the trailer.
Action Point comes out in theaters June

What happens when you get dumped by a C.I.A. operative? All kinds of craziness, according to the trailer for Susanna Fogel's The Spy Who Dumped Me, starring Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon. Kunis plays Morgan, who's getting over her ex (Justin Theroux) when she finds out that he was mixed up with some bad people – and now they're after her.
SEE ALSO: Kate McKinnon and Mila Kunis drool their way through a hilarious game of 'Speak Out'
The trailer is full of amazing subversions of spy movie tro

Sick of sharing a house with roommates but worried about getting lonely? 
At 450 W Grixdale Ave in Detroit, you'll never be alone. Called the "Lion Gate Estate," the house comes fully furnished with a grand piano, two vintage cars, and an army of creepy statues. 
SEE ALSO: What is the cast of ‘The Office’ doing now?This house is full of statues. So, so many statues.Image:Photo by Marc-Grégor Photography / Courtesy of Alex Lauer Real Estate One"Unique barley begi

South Korea’s telecom authority is fining Facebook 396 million won (approximately $369,705) for slowing down user internet connections in 2016 and 2017.The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) began investigating Facebook last May and found that the company had illegally limited user access, as reported by ABC News. Local South Korean laws prohibit internet services from rerouting users’ connections to networks in Hong Kong and US instead of local ISPs without notifying those users

For most people, a snow day calls to mind visions of blowing snow, hot chocolate, and a day off from school, but weather nerds tend to look at things a little differently. 
Satellite loops, showing off what a storm's moisture, atmospheric pressure, and winds look like from space are where it's at for the weather geeks among us.
SEE ALSO: Historic snowstorm slams East Coast, as winter stages hostile takeover of spring
The most recent nor'easter hitting the East Coast on Wednesday is particul

Nashville kindergartner Carden Corts (he already has a perfect anchorman name) produced what might be the best Kindergarten-level project in existence. 
The assignment was to make a weather forecast video for school, and his father, who works in video production, helped him out. Seriously though, the only assignments I had in Kindergarten were coloring books.
Carden starts strong, working hard to accurately pronounce "meteorologist," but then gets sidetracked by the network's sponsor, Pok&e

Google Maps for iOS has introduced a new feature in version 4.47 that shows the average waiting time for over a million restaurants at different parts of the day, as reported by Engadget.
When looking up a restaurant, Google Maps will now show by hour how busy a restaurant usually is, and the average wait time to get seated. This could be helpful in instances where restaurants don’t take reservations, or if you’re looking to make spur-of-the-moment plans.
In addition, the new update

YouTube is going to start serving heavy music listeners more ads in the hopes of annoying them into becoming paid subscribers to the company’s upcoming new music service, according to YouTube’s global head of music Lyor Cohen in an interview at SXSW, via Bloomberg.While that no doubt will be frustrating to users who treat the site like a free streaming alternative, it’s a move that makes a lot of sense for YouTube. After all, Spotify has more or less been using the same busine

It looks like a fish, moves like a fish, but it’s definitely a robot. It’s name is SoFi (short for soft robotic fish), and according to its creators at MIT’s computer science and AI lab CSAIL, it’s the most versatile bot of its kind. And with its built-in cameras, scientists should be able to use SoFi to get close to the ocean’s inhabitants without spooking them — hopefully giving us greater insight into the lives of under-observed sea creatures.
SoFi is not

Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine is expected to leave his role at Apple in August, and now The Wall Street Journal reports that he’ll transition into a “consulting role” after that, dropping the daily responsibilities of overseeing the company’s streaming music service. Iovine initially denied that he would be leaving the company in August.
Iovine was one of several high-profile executives Apple brought on when it bought Beats back in 2014. Of them, Iovine was among the mos

Tesla’s shareholders have voted to approve a new 10-year compensation plan for CEO Elon Musk valued at around $2.6 billion in stock options, according to multiple outlets.Musk won’t get the full value in one lump sum, and he might not even get all of it. The compensation is dependent on the company hitting certain milestones in the coming years, including whether or not Musk can usher Tesla to an astronomical market valuation of $650 billion in the next 10 years — an amount th

Epic Games today announced that it’s developed a new replay editor for its Unreal Engine so that game developers can create more streamlined highlight-making tools for players. The news, announced as part of Epic’s annual “State of Unreal” show at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, means that it will be easier than ever to take recordings of game footage and edit them into professional-looking clips for YouTube. Epic even flew out British YouTube personalit

YouTube has updated its policy on content featuring firearms, expanding the list of accessories that cannot be featured in videos that sell them or instruct users how to manufacture or install the accessories, reports Motherboard.
Under the new restrictions, accessories that cannot be featured in videos that intend “to sell firearms or certain firearms accessories through direct sales” or “links to sites that sell these items” include those that enable a firearm to simul

Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey apparently has big visions for bitcoin, commenting in a recent interview with The Times that he believes that the cryptocurrency will become the world’s single currency within 10 years.According to Dorsey, “The world ultimately will have a single currency, the internet will have a single currency. I personally believe that it will be bitcoin.” Dorsey went on to say that the transition would happen “probably over ten years, but it could

Not many of you know about it — at least, not enough of you — but we have a platform called TNW Answers. Right now you’re probably thinking, “Wow! What is TNW Answers? How can I be a part of this life-changing experience?” It does sound exciting, doesn’t it? I’m dying here… what IS IT? Every week, we invite a guest to host a TNW Answers session and take questions from our beloved readers. But we don’t just invite ANY host… we invite

Aren’t the mobile wars great? Sure, Apple and Samsung may slug it out month to month over who’s ready to unleash the coolest new phone. But with all that innovation flying at us constantly, we’re the real winners! Case in point — the new Samsung Galaxy S9+, which hit the streets March 16, represents the latest leap forward in smartphone technology. So of course, TNW Deals wants to put that hot piece of tech into your hands for free with this Samsung Galaxy S9+ Giveaway.