Technology news

Waymo is still chugging along with plans to offer a truly driverless car service in the Phoenix, Arizona, area by the end of this year — but it's also moving its self-driving sights to Europe. 
At the Automotive News Europe Congress in Turin, Italy, earlier this week, Waymo CEO John Krafcik said, “There is an opportunity for us at Waymo to experiment here in Europe, with different products and maybe even with different go-to-market strategies," as Reuters noted.
SEE ALSO: Here's

HBO announced today that the first Game of Thrones prequel to be picked up to pilot will take place during the Age of Heroes, a period thousands of years before the events of the current show. 
While the Age of Heroes is a very long and mysterious period of Westerosi history, and although HBO hasn't said much more about what the story will be, it's not too early to speculate about which legendary heroes may turn up as characters on the show. 
SEE ALSO: 'Game of Thrones' prequel will ex

Facebook is looking to hire “news credibility specialists” to presumably sift through news stories to determine what’s real and what’s fake. The company posted two job listings yesterday, one for an English speaker and another for a Spanish speaker. Although the roles are now called “News Publisher Specialist,” the hyperlink to the posts calls them a “News Credibility Specialist.” Facebook appears to have made edits to the posts after media outlet

HBO is beginning to plot what comes after Game of Thrones when it concludes next year. The network has been working on succession plans for the show for over a year, with five potential projects in the works, and it just ordered a pilot for one of them: a prequel that takes place thousands of years before the present show, from series author George R.R. Martin and Kick-Ass and Kingsman: The Secret Service writer Jane Goldman. “Only one thing is for sure: from the horrifying secrets of Wes

Anybody who’s ever shared an Uber with a drunken stranger knows that it can be a loud, tiresome, and downright gross experience. Right now, there isn’t much that drivers (and carpoolers) can do to steer clear of these sorts of people, but artificial intelligence could be a solution.According to a patent application spotted by CNN, Uber has drawn up a plan for AI that detects a user’s drunken behavior to accommodate them before they get into the backseat. The system, described

This week the world lost Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade to suicide. 
As the heartbreak over their deaths has turned into wide-ranging conversations about mental health and self-harm, it's critical to remember that such exchanges have the power to reinforce stigma or push people closer to seeking help. 
SEE ALSO: 'You're not alone': Famous men are talking about mental health, and it could save lives
"These two examples [of Bourdain and Spade] are people who are so universally loved tha

An optical illusion popular in the 19th century could make trips on the Hyperloop appear to take place in a transparent tube. Regularly spaced, narrow windows wouldn’t offer much of a view individually, but if dozens of them pass by every second an effect would be created like that of a zoetrope, allowing passengers to effectively see right through the walls.
It’s an official concept from Virgin Hyperloop Oneand design house Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), and in fact was teased back in 2

Game of Thrones prequel news alert! HBO announced that the network has picked up to pilot one of five potential prequel series to their hit show, and going by the description it's going to be a packed with violent Westerosi fun. 
SEE ALSO: What the 'Game of Thrones' leaks tell us about Season 8
The series will take place during the "Age of Heroes," thousands of years before the events of Game of Thrones. HBO stated that the show will reveal "the horrifying secrets of Westeros’s histor

Spoilers ahead for Westworld season 1.
HBO’s Westworld is about robots, power, and the nature of humanity, among other things. In season 2 of the show, Westworld park programming head Bernard Lowe (Jeffrey Wright) is a cornerstone character, the audience’s window into understanding what’s going on in a number of plots. As he pieces together his faulty memories, the viewers are putting together clues to understand the larger story. But as season 1 revealed, Bernard is a host &m

Google’s been delivering a bunch of overdue updates to Gmail over the past few weeks, and one more arrived in the latest update on Android: the ability to customize what happens when you swipe an email to the left or right. The addition was spotted by Android Police.
Previously, swiping an email in your inbox would archive it, no matter what. That was useful, but not nearly as useful as it could be, since swipe gestures can really help you clear out your inbox so long as their actions fit

Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger on Freeform opens in a ballet studio on a shot of an adorable little girl tying the ribbons on her ballet shoes. Later, she falls while attempting her first pirouette but isn’t bothered by it, shaking off the fall with a smile and resolving to simply do better next time. It’s contrasted with an equally adorable little boy who runs into his big brother before a thunderstorm; the boy idolizes his brother and makes a mistake trying to help him out. 

Earlier this week, Microsoftannounced the second phase of Project Natick, a research experiment that aims to understand the benefits and challenges of deploying large-scale data centers under water. In this second phase, the team sank a tank the size of a shipping container with numerous server racks off the coast of the Orkney islands and plans to keep it there for a few years to see if this is a viable way of deploying data centers in the future.
Computers and water famously don’t mix, a

Though millions of people experience anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions on a daily basis, a strong stigma still associated with mental illness often keeps people silent and discourages them from seeking help.
If you or someone in your life is struggling with mental health issues, know you're not alone, and that help, support, and treatment methods are available.
SEE ALSO: Don't know how to open up about your mental health? Lady Gaga's mom has some advice.
Here's a list of or

Last year, Porsche unveiled the production version of the Mission E — an all-electric four-door that looked like a worthy rival to Tesla’s Model S. But rather than stick with that alluring and mysterious moniker, the Volkswagen-owned performance automaker opted for a new name: the Taycan.The name, which was announced at an event celebrating the automaker’s 70th anniversary, roughly translates to “lively young horse” in German, a reference to the leaping horse at th

Verizon has announced that Hans Vestberg, currently the company’s chief technology officer and VP of global networks, will become its next CEO and succeed current chief executive Lowell McAdam on August 1st. McAdam has led Verizon Communications — the parent company of Verizon Wireless, Verizon Fios, and other telecommunications subsidiaries — since 2011.He began his tenure as CEO just after the company launched its 4G LTE network, which has since grown to offer robust nationw

Dads can handle a lot. That especially goes for new dads who get beat up on a daily basis due to kicking toddlers. Temper tantrums. Head butts. Objects being hurled across the room. Literally being jumped on. With Father's Day coming up, there's gotta be a way to give dads everywhere (and their family jewels) a little break.
SEE ALSO: If robot vacuums aren't your thing, just use someone's baby instead
If you need a refresher as to how much of a contact sport parenting is, there's this: Watch&nbs

Vampyr is the rare game that encouraged me not to kill its virtual denizens. It’s not that it isn’t tempting at times, but their deaths mean I’ll miss out on some amazing stories.
The game puts you in the role of a World War I-era surgeon named Jonathan Reid, back home in London after serving in France, only to discover that he has become a vampire. He happens upon this discovery in the most unfortunate fashion: his thirst for blood causes him to attack the first person he see

The release of the Mister Rogers documentary, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” calls to mind the essential message of Rogers’ long-running children’s program, “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” Fred McFeely Rogers, who died in 2003, was also an ordained Presbyterian minister. Over the course of three decades on public broadcasting, he brought to millions of children what his faith’s General Assembly referred to as “unconditional love.”
In

If all grads were half as cute as 5-year-old Aubrey Toby, graduation ceremonies would be 1,000 percent more bearable.
Dressed in a purple cap and gown, the North Carolina pre-k grad danced her way across the ceremony stage with the sweetest confidence. 
SEE ALSO: Florida student scores 124 free pairs of Crocs for a very comfy graduation ceremony
A clip shared to Instagram by her godfather Merle Murrain II shows Aubrey dancing to Justin Timberlake's "Can't Stop The Feeling" for all to enjoy.

The Earth is 70 percent water, but almost all of that liquid is seawater us humans can’t drink. Already, California is besieged by drought, while citizens in South Africa’s Cape Town try to push back Day Zero, the day the city runs out of water. As our population grows and temperatures rise, the global water crisis worsens, spurring scientists to develop better ways of harvesting water.Around the world, people living on coasts collect water by harvesting the fog. “Fog is a clo

A new law in Japan that requires Airbnb hosts to register their listing and display a license number on their listing page has forced the company to cancel existing bookings that are not currently in compliance.
Japan legalized home sharing last year, and this new law is part of an amendment to 1947’s Japanese Hotels and Inns Act. Per the law, hosts have to register their listing by June 15th in order to maintain an active status on Airbnb. On June 1st, the Japanese government issued an a

Congress is less than 50 votes from passing a measure that would restore net neutrality rules to the internet. The motion, which passed the Senate on May 16th, would use the Congressional Review Act (or CRA) to undo Ajit Pai’s December order, effectively restoring the net neutrality protections passed in 2015.
In May, Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA) filed a discharge petition that would force the House to vote on the CRA motion, and has been steadily collecting signatures ever since. Under current

Interest in the final frontier isn’t going anywhere.
Earlier this year, the Pew Research Center surveyed more than 2,500 American adults, revealing that 70 percent of Americans believe it's essential for the United States to be at the forefront of space exploration.
However, when put up against some of NASA’s other initiatives, like keeping track of our changing climate, Americans believe that human space exploration should be taking a back seat.
SEE ALSO: Trump is sending us back to

Uberand Lyfthave officially put their respective names into the electric scooter competition. Uber and Lyft are among the 11 companies that applied to operate an electric scooter-sharing service within San Francisco city limits. The city, however, will only offer up to five companies permits to operate as part of a one-year test program.
Uber declined to comment, but confirmed that it has applied for a permit via JUMP, the bike-share startup Uber acquired for about $200 million in April. Once Ub

Samsung announced its midrange Galaxy A6 and A6 Plus smartphones about a month ago, but there hasn’t been any word since about a US release for the handset. Now, SamMobile has confirmed that Sprint will be launching the Galaxy A6 in the US.
The phone has a tall 5.6-inch display with a 1480 x 720 resolution, a 16-megapixel f/1.7 camera on the back with a fingerprint sensor below, and a 16-megapixel camera with adjustable LED flash on the front. Inside, there’s a 3,000mAh battery and

Sheryl Sandberg hopes future business leaders can learn from Facebook's recent failures.
Speaking at MIT's commencement ceremony Friday, the Facebook COO spoke about the company's recent struggles and encouraged graduates not to make the same "painful" mistakes.
SEE ALSO: Apple just threw some serious shade at Facebook
Though she didn't explicitly mention any of the issues Facebook's grappled with, like privacy and the spread of fake news, she alluded to the social network's role in sowing disco

In 2015, Anthony Bourdain went to Waffle House for the first time.
Like many people who go to Waffle House, he and chef Sean Brock paid a late-night visit, slipping under the yellow awning into a world Bourdain aptly described as "marvelous — an irony-free zone where everything is beautiful and nothing hurts."
SEE ALSO: President Obama joins other big names in posting touching tributes to Anthony Bourdain
In the Parts Unknown clip, which people shared fondly on Twitter Friday in the wake o

Jim Carrey often uses personal illustrations to chime in on Trump administration politics. On Thursday, the actor and comedian shared a new drawing, this time targeting the "zero tolerance" immigration policy touted by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. 
Carrey's illustration shows Sessions dressed in red, white, and blue and standing before a fence while holding a blanket and baby bottle. Behind Sessions is a room full of children — a reference to immigrant children who've been held in

Big deal alert: Bose headphones and speakers are on sale at Amazon.
Amazon constantly hides deals like this for some reason, and either refuses to put them in the daily deals section or buries them super deep — because why make things easy? But just like Facebook stalking and finding out everything you need to know about your ex's new person, we're clutch at hunting down hidden Amazon gems.
And we hit the jackpot today: Bose's crazy popular over-the-ear headphones, earbuds, Bluetooth

There are so many streaming options available these days, and so many conflicting recommendations, that it’s hard to see through all the crap you could be watching. Each Friday, The Verge’s Cut the Crap column simplifies the choice by sorting through the overwhelming multitude of movies and TV shows on subscription services and recommending a single perfect thing to watch this weekend.
What to watch
Before I Wake, a 2016 supernatural thriller from writer-director Mike Flanagan. The

Spoilers for Queer Eye Season 2 ahead.
Queer Eye Season 2 features the show's first-ever makeover for a trans person.
It’s the most emotional television you’ll watch for an age. Seriously, don't watch it at work. Naturally, we had to blubber madly at talk to them about it, so we sat down with the Fab Five — Antoni Porowski, Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Jonathan Van Ness, and Tan France — on their press tour in Sydney to unpack episode 5.
SEE ALSO: 9 meaningful ways to become