Technology news

As we all know, candy is an extremely important part of life. Chi-chan, the star of a series of commercials by Japanese gum company Sakeru that has utterly ravaged everything I thought I knew about life, believes this deeply. She and her boyfriend Tooru-san are huge fans of Sakeru Gummy, a line of “rippable” chewing gum that comes in both short and “looong” formats. The practical, down to earth Tooru-san prefers the smaller, more traditional size of gum. Unfortunately fo

This morning, the developers of third-party Twitterclients Tweetbot, Twitterific, Tweetings and Talon banded together to highlight upcoming API changes that could potentially break the way their apps work. As you might expect, their collective user base — a base largely made up of folks who need more out of their Twitter app than the official one offers (or folks who, you know, just want a native Mac app after Twitter killed the official one) — got loud.
In response, Twitter has just

Back in February, we got our first sneak peek of LG’s next flagship phone — the LG G7, the latest in the G series — through leaked photos and specs. Today, more specs and photos of the new phone were leaked to TechRadar. And most notably, TechRadar spotted a button on the side that it points out could be dedicated to LG’s AI feature.
Samsung started the trend of including a dedicated button for its smart assistant Bixby, which has been called structural bloatware. Now th

One of the biggest anime this spring is My Hero Academia, returning for its third season from animation studio Bones (Fullmetal Alchemist, Soul Eater, Space Dandy, Mob Psycho 100). The superhero series is based on a comic by Kohei Horikoshi that started in 2014 in the comic anthology magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. The first volume was the second highest selling super hero graphic novel last year behind only Batman: The Killing Joke, and it’s since gone global with over 13 million copies of

Epic Games’ iOS port of smash hit Fortnite has earned more than $15 million in its first three weeks on the market, says mobile analytics firm Sensor Tower. According to the company’s most recent report, Fortnite on iOS is now out-earning mobile heavyweights like Candy Crush Saga, Clash of Clans, and Pokémon Go on a weekly revenue basis, earning $6.4 million in the last seven days compared to Candy Crush Saga’s $5.8 million. Granted, those games have all been out for ye

Boeing’s first crewed flight to the International Space Station may last a lot longer than originally planned — and the mission may have an extra crew member along for the ride, too. The company’s Starliner vehicle is supposed to take NASA astronauts to the ISS for the first time later this year on a two-week trip, but the space agency is considering extending the voyage to six months. Instead of sending just a two-person crew on the spacecraft, a third astronaut could be adde

The people behind third-party Twitter clients Tweetbot, Twitterrific, Talon, and Tweetings are warning users that their apps could lose important features like push notifications and an auto-refresh timeline in June. The problem is that after June 19th, Twitter will be removing the “streaming services” that have enabled developers to implement these functions in their apps.
Update 4:30PM ET: However, we don’t know exactly when this change will come. In response to the furor on

The United States government has seized Backpage.com, the controversial classifieds website. A notice informing visitors of the seizure was posted on the site, and a Justice Department spokesperson confirmed the notice.According to the notice, the website and its affiliates were seized “as part of an enforcement action” by the FBI, as well as other federal and local agencies. The notice provides little other information, saying the Department of Justice will provide more at 6PM EST

The Clean Power Plan is shaping up to be the latest Obama-era legislation on the Trump administration chopping block. In fact, Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt has been quite open in his intentions to kill the plan focused on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.Apple is among the first — but likely not the last — of companies to voice opposition to the matter. This week, the company filed a statement with the EPA noting concerns over the potential fallout from rolling b

As if there weren’t already cameras enough in this world, researchers created a new type that is both microscopic and self-powered, making it possible to embed just about anywhere and have it work perpetually. It’s undoubtedly cool technology, but it’s probably also going to cause a spike in tinfoil sales.
Engineers have previously investigated the possibility of having a camera sensor power itself with the same light that falls on it. After all, it’s basically just two d

Last year, renowned VC Steve Jurvetsonparted ways with his longtime firm, DFJ, in what appeared a painful split. Six months later, he’s back with a new firm, Future Ventures, Jurvetson tells us via email. (Recode was first to take notice of its new site.)
Says Jurvetson: “I am incredibly excited about the future — the future of entrepreneurship, disruptive technologies, and my [“future ventures”] to come. I strongly believe that mission-driven founders forge th

Apple is pushing back against the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to repeal the Clean Power Plan. The company filed a public comment with the EPA today arguing that scrapping the policy, which calls for cutting power plant pollution, would dull the United States’ competitive edge in the clean energy economy.Apple’s comment on the repeal proposal is the first one from a company, according to Reuters. In a copy of the filing that Apple shared with The Verge, Apple cal

After facing a barrage of criticism over the toxicity of its community, Twitter announced last month that it will attempt to more actively measure and combat bad behavior, with input from outside researchers. We’re now seeing an early, straightforward idea: make its rules of conduct more visible.
CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted that the company has partnered with an outside team, led by researchers Susan Benesch and J. Nathan Matias, to run a test, starting today. “Research has shown that w

Postmates,the startup that offers on-demand delivery for anything in your city, now lets people order ahead for pickup. This comes about one year after Square’s Caviar expanded into pickups, following the acquisition of OrderAhead’s pickup business.
Postmates started testing Pickup in San Francisco earlier this week, and plans to officially launch it in the next couple of weeks, a Postmates spokesperson told TechCrunch. Currently, there are over 200 merchants participating in Pi

For many streamers, authenticity isn’t just a preference; it’s a must. Many viewers want influencers they can relate to on a personal level. This connection can mean the difference between a single view and a dedicated channel subscription. While it can forge a bond between a streamer and their audience, however, that balance can also tip in the other direction, opening both parties up to a dangerously intimate relationship that takes a toll.That’s where Take This wants to com

The second season of Westworld premieres on April 22nd, and to promote the show, HBO has been leaning into its puzzle-box sensibilities by burying clues, Easter eggs, and sneak peeks in an avalanche of viral marketing. Over the last couple of months, the network has released trailers that point to secret websites, websites that introduce new characters, Twitter posts that lead to a secret poster which leads to another secret trailer… the marketing for season 2 has been a labyrinth of inf

Earlier today, Spotify announced it would be sharing news at an April 24th event. It’s unclear whether the company is planning to unveil hardware later this month in New York City, but evidence suggests that Spotify has been working on an in-car controller — or even a standalone player — for the streaming service that would allow drivers to control music playback with their voice.Back in February, several Spotify customers reported that they received an offer inside the app fo

This column is part of a series called "Voices of Women in Tech," created in collaboration with AnitaB.org, a global enterprise that supports women in technical fields, as well as the organizations that employ them and the academic institutions training the next generation.
I could always pinpoint the exact moment of disappointment in the middle of a job interview, when the interviewer would discover the gap in my resume. "Oh," they would say, "how are you going to get back up to speed?” T

As part of Twitter’s efforts to rid its platform of abuse and hate, the company is teaming up with researchers Susan Benesch, a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and J. Nathan Matias, a post-doc research associate at Princeton University, to study online abuse. Today, Twitteris going to start testing an idea that if it shows people its rules, behavior will improve.
Via TechCrunch. This appeared at the top of one user’s Not

There’s always been a glaring issue with voice computing: Talking to a voice assistant with other people around makes you feel like a bit of a weirdo. It’s a big part of the reason we’ve been seeing the technology start to take off in the home, where people feel a little less self-conscious talking to their machines.The advent of some sort of nonverbal device that gets the job done in a similar way, but without the talking, is a kind of inevitability. A team at MIT has been wor

Facebookis looking to self-police by implementing parts of the proposed Honest Ads Act before the government tries to regulate it. To fight fake news and election interference, Facebook will require the admins of popular Facebook Pages and advertisers buying political or “issue” ads on “debated topics of national legislative importance” like education or abortion to verify their identity and location. Those that refuse, are found to be fraudulent or are trying to influenc

Facebook advertisers who want to promote their views on key political issues — like abortion and Second Amendment rights — will now have to verify their identity and location, the company announced today. These “issue ads” will also be labeled as “political ads” on the platform, along with information about who’s paying for their existence. The company says artificial intelligence and actual humans will comb through advertisers to identify those that ne

Have you ever considered that your dog, um, doesn't have the same taste in music as you? You may prefer to hear the same Ariana Grande song for literal hours on end, but your dog may wish you were taking requests. 
Here's why: Canine anxiety is a real thing. Yes, you love your fur baby to death, but there are times when you wish he or she would just chill TF out. While a dog might be barking what seems like 24/7 and at nothing, it doesn't always mean that he or she never learned how to beha

Microsoftis hoping to capitalize on the popularity of podcasts and videos to make Skypemore appealing to content creators. The company is now testing a new “Skype for Content Creators”mode for its desktop app that will allow creators to place and record calls using Skype software, which can either be streamed live or imported into other apps for further editing before posting.
The feature is currently in “preview” – Microsoft’s term for software that’s b

You want to be the 13th person to explore the moon, you say? Here's what you should do: convince NASA to revive the now-defunct Constellation program, crowdfund billions of dollars, assemble a group of super-geniuses to build a moon-landing vehicle, and complete years of astronaut training.
Doing all that doesn't seem plausible, does it? Good thing there's another way to explore the moon, and you don't need to embark on a rigorous NASA training program, or even purchase a telescope to do it.
SEE

Far Cry 5 is a game crippled by its potential for social relevance. Ubisoft’s open-world shooter series usually involves fictional conflicts in nonexistent countries, far away from America’s shores. But the latest installment, released last week, is set in rural Montana. Players are fighting an enemy that’s much closer to home: a gun-hoarding cult whose imagery evokes separatist militias and fundamentalist Christianity.
The general consensus since the game’s release is t

The Trump administration's rollbacks of crucial climate change policies, from the intended pullout from the Paris Agreement to the scuttled Clean Power Plan, have earned most of the media attention and scorn from environmentalists. 
However, the ignorant climate science statements espoused by top federal officials, from the president to the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to the secretary of Energy, and many others is having a corrosive effect on Americans' unders

At the U.S. box office, Star Wars: The Last Jedi was far and away the biggest film of 2017, followed by Beauty and the Beast and Wonder Woman.
At home, though, it was a whole different story.
SEE ALSO: These actors love playing superheroes
According to the MPAA (via THR and /Film), the top digital rental of 2017 was The Accountant – you know, the 2016 thriller starring Ben Affleck as an autistic accountant who works for the mob.
The film made just $86 million domestically during its theatr

Even in these futuristic modern times, phone cables still get lost, especially in the dark. Anyone who’s ever fumbled around trying to plug in their phone before bed, or tried to charge up in the back of their friend’s car, knows that. And that’s just half of what makes the Electron Flow MFi-Certified Charging Cable so special.
SEE ALSO: 15 products that will make running in winter more comfortable and safe
Not only does this five-foot cable glow a bright neon color when plugge

The people behind third-party Twitter clients Tweetbot, Twitterrific, Talon, and Tweetings are warning users that their apps could lose important features like push notifications and an auto-refresh timeline in June. The problem is that after June 19th, Twitter will be removing the “streaming services” that have enabled developers to implement these functions in their apps.
Those services will be replaced with an Account Activity API, but so far Twitter hasn’t allowed outside

Across the country, police brutality and the series of fatal shootings of mostly black men have soured many on the role that police officers play in the community. To combat those negative assessments, police forces are turning to an array of new technologies, such as body cameras, new communications technologies and social media monitoring services to (ostensibly) become more accountable to and engaged with the citizens they’re policing.
With the new wave of spending comes more venture ca

TL;DR review: Snapchat's new iPhone X-only face lenses are fun and show offs the power of the power of Apple's advanced face mapping technology, but only if you already have an iPhone X.
Cool Factor: 😎😎😎 (3 out of 5)
Ease of Use: 📘📘📘📘📘 (5 out of 5)
Performance: 💪💪💪 (3 out of 5)
Bang for the Buck: 💸💸 (2 out of 5)
Mashable Score
⚡⚡⚡ (3.25 out of 5)It only took six months, but S

Facebook has been trying really, really hard to convince its users that the social network cares about our privacy and is becoming a more (buzzword alert) "transparent" platform.
This makes the recent revelation that Facebook secretly deleted Mark Zuckerberg's messages in Messenger without notifying the recipients uncomfortable, to say the very least.
On Friday, TechCrunch revealed that Facebook has been scrubbing private messages Zuckerberg sent before 2014 from the platform. People who'd commu

Google Chrome added a new shortcut today to make adding emoji on desktop easier. It’s currently on the testing channel Chrome Canary, and users can enable it now by going to chrome://flags and searching “emoji,” as spotted by 9to5Google.
What Google Chrome is proposing is adding an emoji option on the menu that appears when you right-click any text field. Users can then right-click to get to the emoji option and pull up the emoji options for Mac, Windows, Linux, or Chrome OS,

The collective Twitch community isn't going to be taking any speedrunning world records anytime soon.
SEE ALSO: Twitch streamer gives a young gamer the most heartwarming pep talk after losing
Inspired by Twitch Plays Pokémon, a Twitch account allowed viewers to play Super Metroid by inputting commands into the chat and it only took the community 536 hours and 14 minutes to beat the game. There were *cough* a few game overs and quite a lot of staring at maps and standing still, but the gan

Via Verde is a project in Mexico City that strives to turn 1,000 highway pillars into vertical gardens. Different kinds of plants are planted inside the "pockets" of felt to make the city greener and its air cleaner. The hydroponic system collects rainwater to cover its needs and each garden is equipped with sensors to allow its remote monitoring. Read more...More about Mashable Video, Environment, Mexico, Air Pollution, and Highway

Sheryl Sandberg has been on a big media tour ahead of her boss's first-time appearance in Congress next week. She's interviewed with digital media outlets, television networks, and radio shows, and she's spoken many words.
SEE ALSO: Facebook's latest scandal knocked $40 billion off its market value
But in typical Sandberg fashion, we haven't really learned that much more about the scandal involving data firm Cambridge Analytica and what comes next for Facebook. For the last 10 years, Sandberg ha

After TechCrunch reported that Facebook has been quietly deleting messages CEO Mark Zuckerberg has sent via Messenger, the company is now saying that the ability to retract messages will soon be available to all Messenger users. According to TechCrunch, an “unsend” feature is coming in the next few months, though it provided no further details on how this new function works. Messenger currently offers a Secret Conversation mode where users can set a timer on when messages will self-

Welcome to Cheat Sheet, our brief breakdown-style reviews of festival films, VR previews, and other special-event releases. This review originally ran after the film’s debut at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival. It has been republished to coincide with the film’s theatrical release.
Back in 2012, the Tribeca Film Festival hosted the world premiere of a tiny indie horror film called Resolution, directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead and written by Benson. The film’s desatura

You may think you're Stephen King's Number One Fan, but the truth is that position is a hotly contested one.
There are a lot of constant readers out there, after all.
SEE ALSO: 13 of the best Stephen King short stories you've never read
More importantly, there are also a whole lot of books. Even if you've read the bulk of the horror master's work (including his 60 or so novels and 200+ short stories), you'd be hard-pushed to remember all of them.
No harm in putting that knowledge to the test, th

There is a battle afoot, one you might not have heard about yet, but it involves a high-stakes winner-take-all contract for the Department of Defense’s cloud contract. It could involve billions of dollars and when a humongous sum of money meets a set of powerful tech companies, intrigue can’t be far behind.
The story even has a Star Wars reference with the Pentagon dubbing the project the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (or JEDI for short). Who says the Pentagon is staid

Drone flying is all the rage these days, so jump on the hype train with this 1080p camera drone on Amazon today.
SEE ALSO: Which gaming accessories to get, broken down by console
This drone already comes equipped with a detachable 1080p action camera so you can take some awesome trick shots. You can also attach a GoPro Hero camera to it if those cameras are more your speed. Control it from up to 500 meters away. 
According to the product page, it's also easy to control for drone flyers of a