Technology news

Machines don’t actually have bias. AI doesn’t ‘want’ something to be true or false for reasons that can’t be explained through logic. Unfortunately human bias exists in machine learning from the creation of an algorithm to the interpretation of data – and until now hardly anyone has tried to solve this huge problem. A team of scientists from Czech Republic and Germany recently conducted research to determine the effect human cognitive bias has on interpreting

As part of his hours-long Senate testimony today, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had to assure lawmakers that he didn’t fire Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey for his political views. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) asked Zuckerberg about 2016 reports that the company had removed conservative political news from its trending stories box, and followed up with questions about its moderators’ political views. When Zuckerberg said he didn’t ask employees for their political views, Cruz followed

Google’s original Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones, the beginning of the company’s broader push to unify and streamline its in-house hardware efforts, have been removed from the Play Store, as noted today by AndroidPolice. Google confirmed to The Verge that the devices are no longer available for purchase from the company directly. You can, however, still purchase the original Pixel and Pixel XL devices in a variety of colors and storage sizes from places like Amazon and Best Buy.It m

Google’s original Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones, the beginning of the company’s broader push to unify and streamline its in-house hardware efforts, have been removed from the online Google Store, as noted today by AndroidPolice. Google confirmed to The Verge that the devices are no longer available for purchase from the company directly. You can, however, still purchase the original Pixel and Pixel XL devices in a variety of colors and storage sizes from places like Amazon and Best

A new bill from Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Ed Markey (D-MA) would place significant new constraints on data collection by Facebook and other online services. Dubbed the CONSENT Act (short for Customer Online Notification for Stopping Edge-provider Network Transgressions), the bill requires explicit opt-in consent from users to use, share, or sell any personal information, as well as clear notification any time data is collected, shared, or used. The bill would also add new security and

The first trailer for the Jason Statham giant shark action movie The Meg is out, and... surprise! It turns out it’s a far-future science fiction movie set in a high-tech deep-sea research station that strongly resembles a space station. The tone is grave and serious, like Alien mixed with the better parts of Sphere. There are some shocks, but clearly, this is a tension-packed, grim future-horror movie.
Or wait, no. That’s just the first half of the trailer. The second half reveals i

In Zuckerberg’s testimony before a joint session between the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees today, the Facebook CEO was forced to confront whether his company was now effectively a monopoly. Concerns about Facebook’s monopoly status have surfaced over the last year, with growing calls to break up the company.
“Who’s your biggest competitor?” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) asked Zuckerberg. The CEO struggled to answer the question, naming Google, Apple, Amazon

Like most things on the internet, Facebook has always been free to users, supported by targeted advertising. But as concerns have grown over data collection, many users have expressed interest in a paid, ad-free version of Facebook — and Mark Zuckerberg may not be opposed to the idea.
In a testimony before the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees today, Zuckerberg seemed to leave open the possibility of a paid version of Facebook. The line of questioning came from Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-

Vehicle license plates haven’t changed much in concept since the car itself was invented more than a century ago, but digital license plates have been talked about more in recent years. Now, drivers in Dubai are set to test them out.
Dubai will start testing digital “ smart plates” on some vehicles next month, according to the BBC. The Dubai Roads and Transport Authority’s argument for the trial is that these devices will allow for quicker emergency response if the drive

While scrolling through my Facebook feed this morning, I stumbled upon a video shared by an old high school classmate showing a giant NASA machine that can supposedly produce artificial clouds. The video features former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson talking in front of a large metallic chamber that’s spewing out fluffy white plumes. The video, titled “Artificial Clouds Generation System,” does make it seem like the machine is churning out clouds — but the rocket engines

Welcome to our second ever newsletter takeover. Ela Darling, the queen of VR porn, feminist activist, and avid robot enthusiast, has pulled together her favorite stuff from around the internet. She’s also joining us on TNW Answers tomorrow. Have you asked her your question yet? Make it good, and maybe we’ll feature it here… 👀 Meet Ela Hey TNW! Who the heck am I? Good question. Here’s an article from Rolling Stone that will give

Twitter today pledged to support a proposed Senate bill that would require technology platforms that sell advertising space to disclose the source of and amount of money paid for political ads. Called the Honest Ads Act, the bipartisan bill was first introduced back in October by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). The regulation of online political advertisements is one of the lasting, material effects of Russian interference in the 2016 US election

Last year, director Michael Melamedoff and comedian Hari Kondabolu released The Problem with Apu, a documentary about how South Asian people have dealt with seeing most of their American representation on television come from The Simpsons’ yogi and convenience store owner, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon. Kondabolu discusses his own experience with Apu, who he describes as sounding like “an impression of a white guy making fun of my dad.” He interviews people like Kal Penn and Aziz Ans

This week, multiple outlets shared a story that played on people’s worst fears: in Russia, 28-year-old Ekaterina Fedyaeva was accidentally “embalmed alive” during an operation. But what does this mean exactly, and how is it possible?Fedyaeva was undergoing a surgery to remove ovarian cysts. But instead of giving her saline, doctors gave her formalin, which is a fluid with a very high proportion of formaldehyde, the chemical used to preserve dead bodies. The details are grisly:

AMC has officially greenlit a series order of the horror drama NOS4A2 (pronounced “Nosferatu”), based on Joe Hill’s 2013 novel of the same name. Hill is set to executive produce alongside Jami O’Brien (Fear the Walking Dead, Hell on Wheels). Hill is the author of the horror novel Heart-Shaped Box, the future dystopia The Fireman, and the supernatural drama Horns, which was adapted into a 2014 movie starring Daniel Radcliffe.He’s also the son of author Stephen King,

The on-again, off-again courtship between telecoms Sprint and T-Mobile is officially back on, with The Wall Street Journal reporting today that the companies have resumed talks of a merger for what is the third time in four years. The companies weren’t able “to find mutually agreeable terms” last fall, when talks ended without an agreement in November. Discussions are at a preliminary phase, the WSJ reports, and so they may still fall apart yet again.Different this time around

If you’ve ever watched a record-setting videogame speedrun, it’s hard not to marvel at the skill involved. Problem is, even the fastest speedruns ask you to commit a hefty chunk of time to watch in their entirety. Case in point: The Super Mario Odyssey record, held by NicroVeda stands at 1 hour, 3 minutes and 19 seconds. Impressive as that is, it still means you’re watching someone else play a videogame for 1 hour, 3 minutes and 19 seconds. It turns out a huge chunk of th

Today Carbon Black filed to go public, publishing its S-1 document with a $100 million IPO figure as a placeholder.
The security-focused firm based in Massachusetts raised more than $190 million during its life as a private company, including a $54.5 million Series F in 2015 and a more modest $14 million Series F extension in 2016.
Today we’ll take a quick peek at the filing, which joins a number of other technology listings in an active IPO cycle. Carbon Black follows

Facebook has started to help users figure out whether or not they’ve been affected by the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and detailed in the company’s notification is the fact that Facebook users may have also had their private messages leaked to Cambridge Analytica.As pointed out by researcher Jonathan Albright, the vulnerability dates back to the first version of Facebook’s Graph API, which allowed apps to request massive amounts of users’ friends info with a single prom

Uber drivers want a lot of things, but most just want to get paid as quickly and easily as possible. With that in mind, Uber announced the latest effort in its never-ending quest to repair its tarnished relations with drivers: a redesigned driver app. The app is noticeably less cluttered with a better method of tracking overall earnings and workarounds that solve for connectivity issues. But it also gives more prominence to features that some consider psychological inducements to influence when

Although 311,127 Australians were affected by the Cambridge Analytica data breach, only 53 of the country’s citizens took the Facebook quiz responsible for improperly obtaining and using personal information, as reported by The Guardian. Similarly, 63,724 people in New Zealand were affected, but only 10 New Zealanders downloaded the quiz.
It’s reasonable to assume many of the people in Australia and New Zealand were impacted via a friend in their own country, but that’s likely

Last week, T-Mobile Austria customers got some terrible security news as a string of unplanned customer service tweets revealed that the company was storing passwords in plain text, which is a major violation of basic cybersecurity practices. Today, the company finally came clean and pledged to immediately implement password-hashing, a crucial protection in the event of a breach.
“Online-passwords will be salted and hashed in the future, as is considered state of the art in security,&rdqu

Last year, headphone company Urbanears announced its first foray into the world of speakers with the Stammen and Baggen, and now it’s introducing a third smaller, cheaper member to the family: the $199 Urbanears Lotsen.
The Lotsen looks almost exactly like the Stammen and Baggen, only smaller. It has the same boxy, fabric-covered design, the same bright color options, and the same two-dial control scheme for volume and switching between Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, aux, and preset Spotify or interne

Instagram added a couple of new features today, with the biggest news being a portrait mode feature called “focus.” The app also has a new way of mentioning other users in stories with a sticker.Focus mode is basically Instagram’s take on the portrait mode that’s been popping up in every new smartphone. The company says focus will be found under the record button next to the superzoom setting. “As soon as there’s someone in the shot, you’ll notice the p

It’s April, that means tax returns for people in the U.S. very soon. Given the breakout year that crypto had in 2017 — despite prices cooling down in recent months — and well-intended individuals might be thinking about whether to file taxes based on gains they enjoyed from bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.
It’s good timing, then, for CoinTracker — a San Francisco-based startup currently tracking $200 million in crypto assets — to pop its head above the

Cambridge, U.K.-based startup Spectral Edge has closed a $5.3M Series A funding round from existing investors Parkwalk Advisors and IQ Capital.
The team, which in 2014 spun the business out of academic research at the University of East Anglia,has developed a mathematical technique for improving photographic imagery in real-time, also using machine learning technology. 
As we’ve reported previously, their technology — which can be embedded in software or in s

In the wake of the 2016 US presidential election, Facebook has come under increasing scrutiny for the ways its platform can be misused. That scrutiny intensified greatly last month amid reports that a London-based data mining firm named Cambridge Analytica had improperly obtained user data from as many as 87 million people — and that Facebook had failed to confirm that the company deleted the data as promised.
The Federal Trade Commission is now investigating, and Congress is holding hear

Hey there. Today’s Tuesday. Can you believe? Another week, another Tuesday, another Circuit Breaker Live. Today, we’re here for you, emotionally. That’s right. Paul Miller, Nilay Patel, and I will host another Emotional Tech Support during which you can call us, and we’ll try to support you emotionally. I personally have a lot of feelings today, so who knows, maybe we can cry together. Mark Zuckerberg will testify in front of Congress today, too. Maybe you have some feel

As Zuckerberg prepares to testify before Congress, Facebook is quietly fighting a crucial privacy measure in the Illinois Statehouse. Starting tomorrow, state legislators will consider a new amendment to the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) that could neuter one of the strongest privacy laws in the US, giving Facebook free rein to run facial recognition scans without users’ consent.
For years, Facebook has been battling a lawsuit based on BIPA, which required explicit consent befo

LG hasn’t exactly done a good job of keeping its next flagship phone a secret, with leaks revealing plenty of details about G7 ThinQ over the past couple months. Today, we’re getting what’s easily the cleanest, most straightforward look at the phone yet: a marketing image, leaked by AndroidHeadlines, that’s meant to show the G7’s front and back in all available colors.
The phone will apparently come in five colors: red, black, gray, and two blue options, one of whi

In 1999, Danish toy company Lego made a huge announcement: it had signed a license with Lucasfilm Ltd. to produce a series of toys based on the Star Wars films, the first time in the company’s history that it made such a deal. The move wasn’t without major qualms within the company; for decades, it had eschewed such deals, but competition from other toy brands loomed, and company officials worried about being overtaken. The decision would ultimately propel Lego to become one of the

Yesterday, Westworld creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy gave the show’s fans an intriguing offer: in order to fight endless theorizing and spoilers for the upcoming second season of the HBO show, they’d publish a video revealing the entire plot of the new season if a post on Reddit got 1,000 upvotes. The post hit the magic number a few hours later, and shortly afterward, Nolan commented with a link to a 25-minute video titled “Westworld Season 2 -- A Primer.”The video

Kaitlyn and I love food; take that above photo of us as proof. We’re often conflicted about leaving reviews for restaurants, however. Kaitlyn has never written a Yelp review, whereas I’ve written only one. We worry about reviews as a whole. Should everyone be a reviewer? Are people good? Do they want to intentionally ruin each others’ livelihoods?For this week’s episode of Why’d You Push That Button, we look into restaurant reviews and why people leave them. We tal

Today, VanMoof, the Amsterdam-based maker of stylish smart bicycles, is announcing the VanMoof+ subscription service for a handful of global cities. VanMoof Plus is built around a one-time “key fee” and a monthly subscription rate that significantly lower the entry-price for anyone that’s been longing to commute on an electric bicycle but was put off by their exorbitant prices.VanMoof Plus is a twist on big-city bike-sharing programs: instead of sharing a fleet of bikes with a

Alongside its whole new 2018 TV lineup, Vizio just announced three new sound bars with Dolby Atmos and Chromecast audio support.
Dolby Atmos, if you’re not familiar, goes beyond traditional surround sound mixing by adding sound “objects” that are positioned in the 3D space of your home theater according to a director’s whims.
Of course, you need Atmos-mastered content to enjoy this level of immersion — thankfully there’s a lot more of that lately. Also you ne

Vizio announced new revisions of its entire consumer 4K TV lineup today, with the latest waves of the P-Series, M-Series, D-Series, and E-Series set to arrive in stores over the next several weeks. And if you visit the company’s website today, you’ll notice that Vizio is again referring to these devices as TVs — not just “displays” — because they all once again have TV tuners and coax inputs built-in.
At the top of the 2018 family is an entirely new flagship,

Didn't get the notification that Facebook promised to send out informing you whether your data was harvested by Cambridge Analytica? Yeah, neither did we. 
But, a new tool launched by Facebook will give you an instant answer to the question at the forefront of your mind.
SEE ALSO: Thread about how much data Facebook and Google have on you will freak you the hell out
Per The Next Web's Matt Navarra, Facebook's tool, which can be accessed by clicking here, is now live, and ready and waiting t