Technology news

Slowly but surely, Alexa’s becoming a more competent catchall video assistant. Back in January, Amazon launched its Video Skill API designed to offer more control over apps from cable and satellite companies. An update this week brings the ever-important ability to use the smart assistant to start recording.The skill joins a number of functions already available from top providers, including Dish, TiVo, and DIRECTV and Verizon — each of whom will likely be updating their Alexa s

The abuse of Facebook’s platform for political purposes is a problem that doesn’t stop at the U.S border. Governments around the world are continuing to wrestle with the implications of Cambridge Analytica’s acquisition of Facebook user data from the heart of Europe to the capitals of Latin America’s most populous nations. 
In South America, several chapters are still being written into the public record of Facebook’s privacy privations. Some Latin American dem

These kinds of leaks didn’t happen when I started reporting on Facebookeight years ago. It was a tight-knit cult convinced of its mission to connect everyone, but with the discipline of a military unit where everyone knew loose lips sink ships. Motivational posters with bold corporate slogans dotted its offices, rallying the troops. Employees were happy to be evangelists.
But then came the fake news, News Feed addiction, violence on Facebook Live, cyberbullying, abusive ad targeting,

Controversial vlogger Jake Paul, brother to similarly controversial vlogger Logan Paul, is developing a talk show for YouTube Red. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Paul will host and executive produce the show, which is described as having a “late-night variety show feel.” The pilot for the as-of-yet untitled series is expected to start shooting as early as May.
Gavin Purcell will executive produce the pilot. (Purcell produced Late Night with Jimmy Fallon before working as head

A company called Clipisode is today launching a new service that’s essentially a “talk show in a box,” as founder Brian Alvey describes it. Similar to how Anchor now allows anyone to build a professional podcast using simple mobile and web tools, Clipisode does this for video content. With Clipisode, you can record a videothat can be shared across any platform – social media, the web, text messages – and collect video responses that can then be integrated into the &

A fifth of all the world’s plants are in danger of extinction, and Carlos Magdalena is traveling the world to save them. Magdalena, a botanical horticulturist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, is popularly known as the “plant messiah.” He’s gone to countries like Australia, Peru, and Mauritius to find the world’s endangered species and learn how to cultivate them before they go extinct.
Magdalena’s memoir, aptly titled The Plant Messiah: Adventures in Search

Whenever you are doing something online that requires you to present an official ID like a passport or driver’s license to complete the transaction, it presents risk to both parties. Consumers want to know they are secure and brands want to know the person is using valid credentials. That’s where Veriff comes in.
Kaarel Kotkas, CEO and founder of the company, says the goal is to be “the Stripe of identity .” What he means is he wants to provide developers with the ability

Alexa’s ability to control DVRs is going to improve in the near future. Amazon announced today that it’s updated its Video Skill API so that Alexa can now start recordings, launch an app, or carry out playback commands. Multiple set-top box makers already committed to updating or building Alexa skills with these features, including Dish, Verizon, TiVo, and DirecTV. Amazon says some have already been experimenting with these new features.
Users will be able to say things like, &ldquo

In January, Facebookannounced that it would be changing its feed algorithm to promote users’ well-being over time spent browsing content. That’s a relatively new approach for a company whose ethos once centered around “move fast, break things.”
It wasn’t all that long ago (approximately a year and a half before the algorithm change) that Facebook VP Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, published an internal memo called “The Ugly,” which was circulated thro

When you’ve got leverage, don’t be afraid to use it. That’s been Google’smodus operandi in the news and publishing world over the last year or so as it has pushed its AMP platform, funding various news-related ventures that may put it ahead, and nourished its personalized Chrome tabs on mobile. The latter, as Nieman Labs notes, grew 2,100 percent in 2017.
You may have noticed, since Chrome is a popular mobile browser and this setting is on by default, but the “Artic

Originally, it seemed like any film adaptation of Joe Kelly and J.M. Ken Niimura’s 2009 graphic novel I Kill Giants would have to be animated. The book follows a troubled fifth-grader named Barbara who wears animal ears, engages in strange rituals, and dubs herself a giant-hunter. Her strange behavior makes her a pariah at her school, and especially draws the attention of some vicious bullies. But readers can see what the bullies can’t: that Barbara is surrounded by fairies and stra

The 2018 spring anime season is almost here and with it, a new slate of shows (about 53) as well as 11 carrying over from the winter season. Many of these shows are available for viewing outside Japan within a day thanks to streaming services like Crunchyroll, Netflix, and Amazon. With so many new shows to sort through, we tried to highlight some that might be interesting for anime fans and non-fans alike.If you like superhero action and high school drama/comedyMy Hero Academia
In a world where

Samsung is giving owners of its recent smartphones even more personalization options for the Always-On Display. According to Android Police, now you can showcase GIFs on the screen when your phone is asleep. The Always-On Display appears whenever you lock your phone and it shows the time, your notifications, remaining battery percentage, and other critical info. Users can change the colors, clock style, and other aspects of the AOD to make it feel a little more customized to their own liking.Fo

If you’re anything like me, you’re sick of all these slick apps with their “high-resolution images” and “buttons that actually do things.” The terminal has what we crave: ASCII, unadorned URLs, and the complexities of managing a Python environment.
Well, Reddit user ghostreport, who goes by billcccheng on GitHub, finally has the answer: an Instagram news feed for the terminal. It has all that chaos and randomness of the regular Instagram news feed algorithm,

Uber’s exit from Southeast Asia is under scrutiny from regulators in Singapore who believe that Grab’s purchase of the U.S. firm’s business in the region may violate competition laws.
Singapore-based Grab,Uber’s chief rival in the region, announced the acquisition of Uber’s Southeast Asian business on Monday. In return, Uberis taking 27.5 percent of the Grab business, which is valued at over $6 billion, in a move that appears to be a win for both parties.

Apple’s new, cheaper iPad is now in stock at Apple retail locations and Best Buy stores, as spotted by 9to5Mac. Announced earlier this week at an education initiative in Chicago, the sixth-generation iPad has Pencil support, with the base model starting at $329.
This is the first non-pro iPad with Pencil support, and it also comes with Touch ID, an HD FaceTime camera, 10 hours of battery life, an 8-megapixel rear camera, LTE option, and Apple’s A10 Fusion chip. As far as colors, it&

China customs officials have taken down smugglers who used drones to carry iPhones from Hong Kong into Shenzhen. They managed to transport 500 million yuan ($79.8 million) worth of refurbished iPhones before the operation was busted, according to Reuters.Under the cover of dark, the group of 26 used the unspecified drones to “fly two 200-meter (660-feet) cables between Hong Kong and the mainland.” From there, they loaded around 10 iPhones into small bags and sent each across the cab

Last June, Apple announced that it would add support for external GPUs to macOS. And now, just under a year later, official support has arrived. With the latest update to macOS High Sierra, you’ll be able to connect a number of different graphics cards to the Mac through a Thunderbolt 3 port and use that additional power to speed up demanding processes, including games and video editing. Apple has specifically highlighted its use for VR.
This probably shouldn’t surprise anyone since

Update March 30th, 12:05PM ET: After a successful takeoff, SpaceX confirmed that all 10 Iridium satellites had deployed into orbit. However, no one got to watch the deployment since SpaceX cut off its live stream mid-way through the flight, citing restrictions from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Apparently, NOAA said recently that the cameras on the upper portion of the Falcon 9 qualified as a “remote sensing space system,” and required an additional license fo

Because George Lucas modeled the original 1977 Star Wars on classic movie serials like 1936’s Flash Gordon, the films that followed in the series have followed the pattern, and relied on similarly chapter-based quest plots. Big missions, like the attempt to blow up the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi, get broken down into smaller sub-missions, each of which keeps teetering on the brink of failure, necessitating yet another risky scheme. It’s a hooky way to tell a story &mdas

We’ve got a bunch of tech luminaries on The Vergecast this week to help us understand the week in tech news.
Nilay, Dieter, and Paul welcome Lauren Goode back to the show for her last week at The Verge to discuss the new iPads that Apple released this past Tuesday. Lauren and Dieter went to Chicago for the event, so they share their experience and insight on the new products and their relationship with the education field.After that, the crew bring in senior reporter Russell Brandom to he

In an email to CNET, the CEO of Huawei’s consumer business group, Richard Yu, has said that the company isn’t pulling out of the US market, despite every major carrier refusing to sell its phones, and retailers like Best Buy recently dropping the brand.
“We are committed to the US market and to earning the trust of US consumers by staying focused on delivering world-class products and innovation,” Yu told CNET in an email. “We would never compromise that trust.&rdq

One of the most special things in television universes are the ridiculously fake apps and websites that characters use. 
Generally, there are two types of these fake internet-ings. The first are the type that are just stand-ins for real-world sites and apps that would've cost the production company licensing fees otherwise. The second are the type that exist solely within the fictional universe and serve their unique storyline purposes.
SEE ALSO: These actors love playing superheroes
Scouri

This week, Apple held its education event to introduce a new iPad with stylus support aimed at teachers and students, hoping to take on the popularity of Chromebooks in classrooms over the past few years. As of 2017, Apple is third behind Google and Microsoft in terms of laptops, tablets, and other mobile devices shipped to schools, with sales to schools steadily declining since 2013.
To combat this drop, Apple showed off an “affordable” iPad this week at an event held at Lane Tech

ZTE is the first company to bring a smartphone running Android Go to the US. As spotted by Android Police, ZTE’s Tempo Go is now available to buy online for $79.99.
The phone is not much to look at. It has a 5-inch screen with a low, 480 x 854 resolution, big bezels, only 1GB of RAM, and a tiny 8GB of storage. But that’s all to be expected: Android Go is designed for phones with this kind of limited hardware. It takes up less space, and it runs better than normal Android would on ph

No 4K? No problem. But you might want to upgrade your PlayStation.
The upcoming God of War, perhaps the most anticipated PS4 game this spring, if not the whole year, will have a "performance mode" that "makes the game run so so smooth," according to the title's creative director Cory Barlog. But there's a catch: The mode is specifically geared toward PS4 Pro owners.
SEE ALSO: The new 'God of War' redefines what epic means
During a Q&A on Twitter Thursday, a God of War fan asked if it was nec

Bungie’s latest and most significant attempt to address vocal player complaints surrounding Destiny 2 landed on Tuesday, a little more than six months after the game’s initial launch. And yet inevitably, the vociferous community has regressed in a mere few days to its previous state of near-perpetual outrage. The update, nicknamed the “Go Fast” update for how it was designed to address complaints about speed and competitive intensity, made a number of big changes to how

There are only three things you need to know about Apple's new 9.7-inch iPad:
It's still the cheapest iPad at $329.
It works with Apple Pencil.
It's noticeably more powerful than the previous iPad.
Of the three, Apple Pencil support is the most noteworthy, and it's not hard to see whyPreviously, if you wanted to draw or handwrite digital notes with the precision of Apple Pencil, you needed to fork over at least $650 for the 10.5-inch iPad Pro and shell out another $100 for the stylus.Now, $430 g