Technology news

It’s looking like the state of California won’t be standing in the way of Elon Musk’s flamethrower anytime soon. A bill introduced earlier this year by California Assemblyman Miguel Santiago is being held in the Assembly’s Appropriations Committee.Santiago, who represents Los Angeles, introduced a bill called “AB-1949 Explosives: flamethrowing devices” earlier this year redefining the state’s permitting requirements — a person presently wishing to

President Donald Trump has officially nominated Geoffrey Starks to the Federal Communications Commission to replace outgoing FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. His appointment will require approval from the US Senate.Clyburn said in April that she would leave the commission. Nominated in 2009 by President Barack Obama, she has been a staunch advocate of net neutrality. Her term officially ended in June 2017, but she has remained on the commission while waiting for a successor to be named. Pending

Dating app Hinge is about to make a major change: it’s dropping its requirement that users to login to with Facebook. Techcrunch reports that the app will still keep the ability for users to log in with the social network, but it’s also adding the ability for users to use a phone number to log in.Launched in 2013, Hinge used user Facebook connections to match potential couples and has positioned itself as a way for people to meet long-term partners. According to Techcrunch, CEO Just

You might scoff at the regular $1,000 price of Google’s excellent Pixelbook. It’s fundamentally just a really nice Chromebook, after all. And paying $1,000 for one of those is a hard mental barrier to break. But would a price drop to $750 be enough to change your mind? For “a limited time,” Google is discounting the laptop by $250. The sale is good at Google’s online store and Best Buy.
That entry-level Pixelbook has a Core i5 processor, 128GB of storage, and 8GB o

Yesterday, Visa experienced a widespread network failure in Europe, leaving many card holders unable to use their credit cards for purchases. Visa now says that it’s resolved the issue.The outage was widespread, but not universal: users could still use their cards, but some major banks, such as Royal Bank of Scotland and the Bank of Ireland were affected. Customers could withdraw money from ATMs, but some retailers resorted to using paper slips to take down customer information. Visa says

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is almost here, and the company is expected to unveil updates for its iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS operating systems. Apple appears to have accidentally leaked one upcoming feature coming to macOS 10.14: a dark mode.Developer Steve Troughton-Smith‏ discovered a 30-second preview video that shows the development software operating in a dark mode, and he tweeted several screenshots of the upcoming Xcode 10 showing off the setting.Ladies and gentl

When Consumer Reports recently found that the braking distance on the Tesla Model 3 was worse than that of a Ford F-150, CEO Elon Musk took the criticism and found a solution. Days later, Tesla shipped an over-the-air update that, according to CR’s testing, improved the braking distance by 19 feet. It’s a wild idea: your car automatically downloads some code, and it’s instantly safer. It also wasn’t possible even a few years ago, and some have held it up as an ideal exam

Recently, headlines have been circulating speculation about what we need to do about the risks of self-driving vehicles. After one of its self-driving vehicles was responsible for a fatal crash, Uber has temporarily paused all autonomous vehicle testing in the state of Arizona. In its wake, Arizona Governor Douglas Ducey has reiterated his position to prioritize public safety as a top priority and has described the Uber accident as an “unquestionable failure” in preserving this prio

Early Sunday morning, three astronauts will depart the International Space Station and make the 3.5-hour descent back to Earth. NASA astronaut Scott Tingle, Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are headed home after spending five and a half months in orbit. The departing crew members are making way for a new trio of astronauts, who will be launching to the ISS on June 6th.
On Friday, Shkaplerov, the previous commander of the IS

Memorial Day may be over, but some of the best tech deals we’ve seen this year are just beginning. If you’re in the market for a new TV, Samsung’s QLED TVs are some of the best available. You can pick up the 49-inch ClassQ6F version at Samsung today for $799.99, a full $500 off MSRP.If you’re looking for something a little more affordable, Walmart is running a sale on mid-priced 4K TVs — both the 43-inch Vizio Class FHD and Hisense’s 49-inch Smart LED TV are

HP’s iPad Pro competitor is finally ready to ship. Best Buy has opened preorders for the HP Chromebook x2, the second tablet to run Chrome OS after Acer’s Tab 10, as spotted by Android Central.
Unlike the Tab 10, the HP Chromebook x2 is designed to appeal to professionals. It has an Intel Core m3 processor, 32GB of storage, 4GB of RAM, a 2400 x 1600 display, two USB-C ports, 13MP rear and 5MP front cameras, stereo speakers, a microSD card slot, and a headphone jack. It will also run

Pokémon Quest is not a role-playing game in the series’s traditional sense. There’s creature collecting, but it’s more through luck and patience instead of grinding. There are battles, but they don’t need your help to proceed. Exploration is out of your hands. It’s a free-to-play Switch game that isn’t meant to be settled into for a long haul, but sampled at your leisure. Or, if you’re like me, obsess over on a daily basis.
Set on Tumblecube Isla

Over the years, psychologists and marketers alike have conducted extensive research to figure out what it is that makes us tick. Why do we do what we do? What influences our decisions? What causes us to change? After all, by understanding the motivations behind a purchaser’s decision, it becomes that much easier to adapt your messaging so that you can get better results in the future. By mastering these sales secrets with definite psychological roots, you’ll be able to gain a profou

As the saying goes, it's always better to be safe than sorry.
And if you're fixated on keeping your family, valuables, and yourself out of harm's way, there are plenty of precautions you can take.
In 2018, having your own security camera is a no-brainer for people who want to keep tabs on their home — but it'll cost you. Most models cost a couple hundred dollars, so unless you have money to blow, you'll be left to your own devices. 
iPM World's HD 360 Degree 1080p Wireless IP Camera i

Video games used to be made by small teams of gamers who wrote their own rules. (Case in point: the original Super Mario Bros. – widely considered to be one of the best and most successful games of all time – was made by a team of only 8 people.) But nowadays, most video games are giant productions with 100+ person teams. It can be hard for independent game designers to compete with these corporate behemoths. Learn how to make your own independent video game with the Hardcore Game De

Next year is going to be horrible for tech if we take movies like Blade Runner and The Island seriously. In 2019 we’ll have dedicated islands to clone organdonors and androids will run amok, doing god (or singularity?) knows what. But for Margrethe Vestager, EU commissioner for competition, these dystopian movies have a fundamentally flawed vision of the future. “They forget that technology is our future, it’s not our fate,” said Vestager during her talk at Brain Bar in

Google recently announced that the first demonstration of quantum supremacy could be just a few months away. I think they are entirely wrong. It is not just more than a few months away, it is forever away. I explain why below, but first I would like to take exception to their use of the word “supremacy” because what they are promising should not be called “quantum supremacy,” but one very narrow and specially constructed case in which quantum computing is better than tra

With WWDC a couple of days out, we’re coming up on one year since Applefirst showed off its glitzy answer to the Amazon Echo and Google Home smart speakers. It took more than 8 months from then for the HomePod to finally hit shelves, and it took up until a couple of days ago for all the promised functionality to arrive.
Four months since launch, it’s clear Apple delivered some awesome hardware, but there are plenty of features I want to see the HomePod pick up when Apple comes to the

The President has officially named Geoffrey Starks as his pick to fill the FCC Commissioner role left open by Mignon Clyburn’s departure. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai confirmed the news, rumored over the past few weeks, in a statement.
“I congratulate Geoffrey Starks on his forthcoming nomination to serve as a Commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission,” said Pai. “He has a distinguished record of public service, including in the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau, and I

Trump's doing that thing again.
A North Korean delegation visited the White House on Friday to hand deliver a letter to President Trump. During a press appearance, Trump said it was a "very nice" and "very interesting" letter.   
SEE ALSO: We've become normalized to Trump's tweets. Not this one.
"Oh, would you like to see what was in that letter," Trump told reporters, then pointing at the crowd and asking, "How much? How much?" 
"It was a very interesting letter," Trump said.&nbs

Googlehas quietly crept out of the tablet business, removing the “tablets” heading from its Android page. Perhaps it hoped no one would notice on a Friday and by Monday it would be old news, but Android Police caught them in the act. It was there yesterday, but it’s gone today.
We (well, Romain) called tablets dead in 2016, which was probably a little premature, since over 160 million of them shipped last year — but even so, it’s not much of a life they’re liv

Cosplaying is an art.
Cosplaying involves more than just putting on a costume — dedicated artists often spend hours designing custom outfits and creating handmade pieces. They can put together stunning looks like this:
Or if you're Julianna Maznevski, you might put together nightmarish creations like this hyperrealistic mashup of Nigel Thornberry and Sailor Moon, which she made for Anime North.A post shared by Maz Made Creations (@maz.made) on Jun 1, 2018 at 8:37am PDT"I love the ridiculou

Apple has finally approved an updated version of the Telegram iOS app, after the secure messaging company’s chief executive complained yesterday that the iPhone maker was blocking updates worldwide due to a Telegram ban in Russia. The news was announced on Twitter by Telegram CEO Pavel Durov.The Russian government first ordered a ban on Telegram back in mid-April, citing Telegram’s refusal in an ongoing court battle to hand over encryption keys that would allow the country’s F