Technology news

Over 3.1 million Google Home speakers were sold during the first quarter of 2018, beating Amazon’s 2.5 million Echo devices for first time since the two companies began competing in the smart speaker market.It’s worth remembering Amazon has outsold Google in the smart speaker market every quarter, since at least the beginning 2017, according to Canalys. Amazon remains the overall market leader, though Google is quickly catching up.Looking at the bigger picture of Google, Amazon, and

Nicki Minaj and Eminem are dating, apparently.
Nicki posted a video on Instagram rapping to her verse in YG's single "Big Bank," captioning it with "Told'em I met Slim Shady. Bagged a EM!!!" The song also features Big Sean and 2 Chainz.
SEE ALSO: Of course Elon Musk and Grimes spawned a beautiful new meme#BIGBANK OUT NOW!!!!!! @yg @2chainz @bigsean 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 Told’em I met Slim Shady. Bagged a EM!!! 🤑💵💸🤫
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The reveal of the new WWII first person shooting game Battlefield V prompted a strong reaction from some fans, but not exactly in the way its developer, DICE, might have intended. Online, a contingent of disgruntled players has been pushing back against the “inaccuracies” of the game, specifically the developer’s decision to include female soldiers on the frontlines. But DICE has a message for these angry voices: their female characters aren’t going anywhere.On Twitter,

The National Hurricane Center has named the first storm of the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season, precisely one week before the season is expected to begin on June 1.
Currently spinning off of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, forecasters named the subtropical storm "Alberto," which is the first of 21 names the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has on its list of possible storm names for the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season.
On Friday, Alberto met the minimum requirements for earning a

Apple issued one of its bi-annual transparency reports today, and apart from the usual numbers on account takedown requests, the company issued a statement saying that it’ll soon start reporting government requests to take down apps from the App Store. These requests will relate to alleged legal and / or policy provision violations, Apple says.These numbers will tell us just how often governments are trying to block access to certain apps, and how many of those orders are actually obeyed.

From the ground, lava pouring from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano can look terrifying. 
Over the past few weeks, newly cracked fissures in the ground have allowed fountains and pools of molten rocket to well up to the surface, destroying homes and other structures in the area surrounding the active volcano. 
SEE ALSO: An astronaut saw Hawaii's Kilauea volcano erupting from space. And he took a picture.
But from space, those fissures and lava flows take on a new look. #Kilauea lava chann

Echo Dot Kids Edition
$79.99View Product
The Good
Alexa tells great jokes (for kids) • Voice-driven kids games are entertaining • Works just like a regular Echo Dot
The Bad
Teaching manners not effective for Echo veterans • Value of bundle is questionable
The Bottom Line
Alexa is quite good at catering to an underage audience in the Echo Dot Kids Edition, but since you can enable FreeTime for Alexa on any Echo Dot, there's not much reason to buy this bundle.Mashable Score3.25Cool

In a just world, Season 8 of Game of Thrones would be airing right now, but because large scale television productions "take time to create" especially when the expectations are "earth-shatteringly high," it's not. Boo. 
However, just because Season 8 isn't coming out this year doesn't mean that fans aren't hungry for sweet, sweet speculation when it comes to the hit show's anticipated ending. To serve that need, here's how some of Game of Thrones's minor characters might impact the final s

Mashable's readers (and writers) are known for being OBSESSIVE about the things we love. You may say we kind of geek out about things. Okay, fine, we *are* geeks. Whatever, geeks are awesome.
But sometimes, awesome can use a bit of assistance in the dating department. Not because there aren't enough geeks out there — how do you think Avengers: Endgame became the highest-grossing film of all time? (Thanks to geeks, that's how.) Dating as a geek requires combing through normies and too

Mashable's readers (and writers) are known for being OBSESSIVE about the things we love, like comic books and movies, gadgets and tech, or the latest Space X launch. You may say we kind of geek out about things. Okay, fine, we *are* geeks. And geeks are awesome.
SEE ALSO: Which dating app is right for you? Use this guide to figure it out.
But sometimes, awesome can use a bit of assistance in the dating department. Not because there's no one out there (nerds are totally in these days), but becaus

The bacteria, molecules, and chemicals in our bodies hold important clues about our health, and scientists are creating sensors that can tap into this information in the easiest way possible. These are sensors that can be swallowed to warn of gut trouble, implanted to monitor how well an injury is recovering, or just sit on teeth to track the state of your mouth.The gut sensor is about the size of a pen cap, and it’s filled with bacteria that scientists genetically engineered to detect a

GDPR stands for the “General Data Protection Regulation.” It’s the most important data privacy law thus far, the convoluted product of a four-year deliberative process, a “staggeringly complex” law that “no one understands,” an 88-page monster translated into 26 different languages.GDPR is 56,000 words, which is about the length of William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying. It should not be funny. But it is. It’s hilarious, and I don’t know wh

Sometimes faceswaps go a little too far. 
Voice actor Joe Gaudet face swapped his daughter's face with John C. Reilly's and the results are terrifying. Gaudet even did an impression in Reilly's voice, turning his poor baby into a mini Dr. Steve Brule in a onesie. 
"Wait, wait a second Dad," the unfortunate mashup says, "You don't happen to know where my, my baba is do you?"
This is pure nightmare fuel.  Read more...
More about Viral Videos, Face Swap, Culture, and Web Culture

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt today threw some shade at Elon Musk during a speech about AI, saying the Space X CEO didn’t “understand the benefits that this technology will provide.” Here we go again. His statements, of course, worked like a bucket of chum tossed into shark-filled waters. Stories almost immediately began popping up telling the tale of two high-powered technology executives who disagree on one of the fundamental fixations of our day: whether or not robots will

Sometimes you get so into your work that you accidentally fall into a lake. It happens! 
But if you're a cameraman named Chris, you might just be skilled enough to recover and capture the whole incident for live television. That's what happened during this Las Vegas broadcast.
Chris was capturing footage of his colleague reporting from a kayak, he appeared to accidentally fall into the lake.
"Are you alright, Chris?" the reporter yelled. "Yeah, I'm good," he said.
Though the reporter claims

Star Wars has some great ships, but it also has some great ships, and Solo is no exception. You know the ships I mean – ships that make you want to take straight to space, don a cape, and punch it right into hyperdrive. 
Friendships. Relationships. Situationships. Star Wars has is it all, from the day Luke kissed his sister to the time Anakin went blind with love, or something. Let's dive into the ships of Solo and wonder how anyone had time to make the Kessel Run when there was so mu

Verizon wants to give you two pairs of Apple Airpods for $270. That's $50 off.
Y'all.
This is the only way we know of to get Airpods with this big of a discount right now, and Verizon is the only carrier in on the action. It's only happened once before, and it probably won't happen again any time soon. This is like, the Halley's Comet of Apple deals.
SEE ALSO: The best cases for the iPhone 8 Plus, according to customer reviews
For reference as to how huge this deal is, just know that the best de

Apple has just kicked off a surprise sale across it's Beats lineup of over-ear and in-ear headphones. This is not the first time a sale like this has occurred, but they usually don't last for long.
The high-performance Beats Studio3 get a $70 discount down to $279.95 from $349.95. Pure Adaptive Noise Cancelling is a key feature and provides real time blocking of background noise. Studio3 comes in white, matte black, blue, red, porcelain rose, and shadow grayYou can see the Beats Studio3 on Apple

George Takei tweeted on Friday about the sexual misconduct allegations against him, which a recent  Observer piece dissected and found to be unreliable.
Takei thanked his husband and fans for standing by him after accusations of inappropriate behavior from Scott Brunton, whose story altered slightly with each retelling. He referred to it as sexual assault, as groping, and finally said he would dismiss the thing as a misunderstanding.
"Despite what he has put us through, I do not bear Mr. Br

Welp, it looks like the App Store won't be getting Steam's newest app after all.
Apple has rejected Steam Link, an app that lets you play Steam games on your iPhone or iPad, even though the company initially approved the app for its App Store.
SEE ALSO: 7 new 'Battlefield V' features that promise to change the way you play
According to a statement from Valve, Apple "revoked its approval" of Steam Link on May 10, one day after it was officially announced. The app had been initially been approved

Facebook introduced new disclosure rules for political advertisements this week designed to block bad actors from meddling in elections. But in the meantime, the rules are blocking legitimate candidates from buying Facebook ads — and at least one congressional candidate in Mississippi says it could tip the election toward his opponent.The rules that Facebook implemented in the United States this week require anyone wishing to buy a political ad to verify their identity. To do so, Facebook

It's no secret that iPhones aren't exactly at optimal performance after a year of use. Apple thinks they're slick by unveiling a new iPhone just when yours breaks, but...nah. We don't have a spare $549 laying around to replace our iPhone 7, let alone almost a grand for the iPhone 8 or X.
If you're desperately in need of a new iPhone, you probably think that the only affordable options are buying someone's old iPhone 5 on Facebook Marketplace, or this: 
via GIPHYBut you'd be wrong. Because w

French startup Riminder recently raised a $2.3 million funding round from various business angels, such as Xavier Niel, Jean-Baptiste Rudelle, Romain Niccoli, Franck Le Ouay, Dominique Vidal, Thibaud Elzière and Fred Potter. The company has been building a deep learning-powered tool to sort applications and resumes so you don’t have to. Riminderparticipated in TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield.
Riminder won’t replace your HR department altogether, but it can help you save

"Are dating apps to blame for the rise in STDs?"
It's a line that seems tailor-made for morning news shows, designed to be read in that formal, faux-inquisitive tone newscasters use before cutting to commercial break.
It's true that STD rates have risen in the U.S. over the last 10 years, with an especially steep rise in the last four years. Alongside straight coverage of this rise, reports drawing the line between STDs and dating apps have also proliferated on local news, digital outlets, and c

Following the success of the live mobile game show HQ Trivia, a team of serial entrepreneurs have begun testing the market to see if another game show concept can work, too. Their new game show-inspired app, Gravy, is meant to be a riff on the “Price is Right” combined with a QVC-style shopping experience. That is, the “contestants” compete for discounts of 30 to 70 percent off the products advertised, with a portion of the proceeds going to charity. In addition, through

Confederate cannon balls plunged into the brick walls of Fort Sumter at the outset of the Civil War, forcing Union troops to surrender. A century and a half later, surging storm waters are now the modern threat to the South Carolina national monument. Storm-swollen seas can flood the coastal garrison, at times forcing the National Park Service to shut it down.  
More than 100 National Park Service sites are located either on or near the coast. With global sea levels rising at an acceleratin

You can learn a lot from a zombie Nintendo console if you pay close enough attention.
The "Neon Advance," sort of a reanimated corpse of an old handheld gaming system, made the rounds on video game blogs like Kotaku and Nintendo Life earlier this week. Most of the coverage has centered on how cool the device looks (and reader, it does), but look a bit closer and you'll see the device stands for something. It shows us how one era of consumer tech could be remixed or enhanced by people — an

With every photo, there's always more than meets the eye. 
Thankfully, there are good folks like Russian-based artist Igor Lipchanskiy who are here to help us expand what we think we know — at least when it comes to album covers. 
Lipchanskiy takes the album art of artists like Prince or will.i.am and adds his own interpretation of what exactly might be happening beyond the perimeters of the square image. 
SEE ALSO: This artist paints super realistic portraits while us simpl

Facebook’s internal policies on Pepe the Frog — now considered an anti-Semitic hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League — offer a little leeway for what is allowed on its platform. Documents obtained by Motherboard show that the platform doesn’t outright ban Pepe images, but rather, it only deletes them if shown “in the context of hate, endorsed by hate groups to convey hateful messages.”
While Pepe began his life as a cute, relatable meme, bad actors have s

Forget the ball pits, games, and life-size mouse mascot. Everyone knows the best thing about Chuck E. Cheese is the pizza.
Unfortunately, unless you're a child who can go to Chuck E. Cheese whenever you want, or a parent who can accompany a child there, you likely don't get to enjoy that cheesy pizza very often. 
Well long gone are the days of waiting to be invited to a niece or nephew's birthday party, people, because Chuck E. Cheese just announced it will start delivering pizza nationwide

Are you driving somewhere for the holiday weekend? Here at The Verge, we’d like to encourage you to use a car that’s wholly, or at least primarily, powered by dirty fossil fuels. On this week’s episode of The Vergecast, Nilay, Natt, Casey, and Paul discuss how we’re financially beholden to Big Car and what to do about it now that Elon Musk has called us out on our bias.
We also got a chance to discuss Nilay’s bonkers theory about Apple’s dongle suppression ca

On Thursday, Amazon confirmed a report from local Seattle CBS affiliate KIRO-7 about an Oregon family's Amazon Echo sending a private audio conversation to a random person on their contact list.
Naturally, people are panickingAlexa is spying on us! 
But did Alexa really f*ck up? My first instinct is yes, but on second thought maybe not.
SEE ALSO: Amazon is under fire for selling facial recognition tools to cops
To recap: A couple was talking about hardwood floors and the conversation someho