Technology news

Game Freak has been adamant that Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee! are not an addition to the mainline, “core” Pokémon series — the one that kicked off with Pokémon Red and Blue (or Green, in Japan) back in 1996. Instead, they’re a soft reboot to the beloved Pokémon Yellow, a revisiting of the original Kanto region and the first 151 pokémon that made the series so popular. It’s an improve

Splatoon 2’s upcoming Octo Expansion wasn’t a focus during Nintendo’s big showcase at E3, but there’s news coming out of the expo anyway: Nintendo has announced that the new single-player DLC will be available as of tomorrow, June 13th.
Eighty new single-player campaign missions
The Octo Expansion is the first paid DLC for Splatoon 2, but it promises to add a lot of content to the game, with 80 new single-player campaign missions that will have playersusing the game&rsqu

To say the gaming community is not known for its friendliness to women and minority groups is something of an understatement. But we’re starting to see developers abandon the usual excuses of tradition, demographics and, the most absurd of all, “realism,” in favor of making gaming more inclusive. Kind of.
This has been an ongoing theme for years, of course. But it feels like this year it was a little less self-congratulatory and a little more self-motivated.
The fun started ear

Today, the US District Court for the District of Columbia cleared the way for the world’s largest telecom to buy the world’s third-largest entertainment company, kicking off a new era in how content gets distributed online.Pending appeal, AT&T will now be able to purchase Time Warner for $85 billion, bringing subsidiaries like CNN, HBO, and Warner Bros. movie studios along for the ride. Before today, AT&T’s holdings were mostly confined to distributing information, eit

This week completely scrambled the video landscape, and its implications are going to take months to fully understand.
First is the district court’s decision to approve the merger of AT&Tand Time Warner announced just moments ago. That will create one of the largest content creation and distribution companies in the world when it closes. It is also expected to encourage Comcast to make a similar bid for 21st Century Fox, further consolidating the market. As Chip Pickering, CEO of pro-c

Embedded in the lava still spewing some 130 feet into the air from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano are green crystals. 
Called olivine, these minerals can turn Hawaiian beaches green, and it appears some of the green gems are raining down upon homes near the eruption or popping up near lava flows.
"Yes, the lava that is erupting now is very crystal-rich and it is quite possible that residents might be finding olivine," Cheryl Gansecki, a geologist at the University of Hawaii-Hilo that studies the

Some people are really out here doing the Lord's work. 
YouTuber and Vine star Drew Gooden took one for the team and actually went to see Jake Paul's live show — which, by the way, costs $1,143 for a "VIP Experience" that includes a selfie with Jake Paul and a chance to end up on his vlog. 
Gooden, along with hundreds of screaming preteens and their parents, attended the live show at the House of Blues near Disney World, and had the perfect snarky commentary accompanying the brea

Nintendodoesn’t come out with a ton of hardware in-between system launches, but the peripherals it does come out with have a history of being pretty quality. That being said, the Poké Ball Plus may be the nicest little game-specific system accessory Nintendo has sold yet.
At Nintendo’s big, honking E3 booth I had a chance to go hands-on with the little golf-ball sized device. Nintendo was not allowing us to take video or pictures of it during use, but rest assured, this i

It seemed like only earlier today that President Donald Trump was in a mellower, more conciliatory tone, having wrapped up his historic summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
SEE ALSO: 10 moments from Trump's summit so bad that your soul will turn to dust
Well, that's all over now because Trump is back to doing what Trump does best: lashing out at celebrities online, particularly those who criticized him.
Specifically, Trump hit back at actor Robert De Niro over his pretty succinct slam

Macy’s has partnered with b8ta,the retail-as-a-service startup that originally started as a way to let people try out new tech products. Macy’s has acquired a minority stake in b8ta and will use the startup to enhance The Market, an experiential-based retail concept at Macy’s. By partnering with b8ta, Macy’s envisions being able to scale its Market concept faster, Macy’s president Hal Lawton said in a statement. For b8ta, this is an additional source of revenue.
&ld

United States District Court Judge Richard J. Leon has ruled in favor of AT&T in the government’s antitrust suit to block AT&T’s proposed merger with Time Warner .
That decision matches word on the street over the past few weeks, and delivers a stern rebuke to the Trump administration, which had opposed the deal from its earliest days. The decision was made following the close of markets in New York, and after-hours trading was muted to the decision.
In light of today’s

Apple has quietly tightened its App Store rules to better protect users from developers who want to harvest their data or sell it to third parties. Previously, developers would ask for users’ phone contacts and sometimes then sold that data without the explicit consent of the users or their contacts, according to Bloomberg, which spotted the change.
The changes to the rules, which were made last week, explicitly state that developers are banned from turning address books into a database o

Disney XD, the kid-focused cable channel owned by Disney, partnered up with gaming news website IGN to broadcast the E3 Electronic Gaming Expo this year, but the broadcast ran into some issues. Viewers noticed that the stream occasionally tuned out or blurred scenes at odd times, at one point even omitting part of one of the most-talked about moments at the show — an intimate moment between two women in the new trailer for The Last of Us Part II.
Controversy broke out on social media afte

In what could be one of the most consequential antitrust decisions in recent memory, a judge has ruled that AT&T and Time Warner can merge, despite a lawsuit from the Justice Department arguing that the deal would be anti-competitive.Pending a possible appeal, the decision means the public will soon see a new telecom behemoth looming over the landscape, combining AT&T’s paid-TV subscribers with Time Warner’s content, which includes HBO, CNN, and Warner Bros. The federal judg

As the world continues to reel from the tragic death of Anthony Bourdain, many fans have been revisiting his great work, from books to television. Now Netflix has announced it'll still be easy for fans to do so on its streaming service. 
SEE ALSO: President Obama joins other big names in posting touching tributes to Anthony Bourdain
The run of the chef's CNN series, Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, was to leave the streaming service on Saturday, June 16. But Netflix announced on Tuesday aft

In a talk at E3 on Tuesday afternoon, Westworld creators Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan discussed the influence of video games on the popular HBO series — including the Grand Theft Auto series, Portal, Perfect Dark, and Bioshock Infinite — and the dangers that loom as artificial intelligence grows more sophisticated.
Nolan, who grew up playing video games, says that although the original Westworld 1973 movie written by Michael Crichton preceded the modern video game industry — Po

In the spring of 2016, journalist Fred Pearce spent an afternoon drinking what he suspected was radioactive vodka, flavored with herbs grown near the site of Chernobyl’s 1986 nuclear disaster. He was visiting a settler who had returned to live in his home within the 18-mile radius around Chernobyl that’s so heavily contaminated children still aren’t allowed to live there.
“I trusted that probably a couple drinks would be all right, but he’d been drinking this stuff

LOLA, a subscription service delivering tampons and pads, and now other products, including condoms, lubricant, and feminine cleansing wipes, has closed on $24 million in Series B funding. While the startup touts its products’ “100% organic” nature, it’s also well-received because of the customization offered and its direct-to-consumer nature.
The new round of financing was led by private equity firm Alliance Consumer Growth (ACG), with support from existing investors Spa

In 2014, it seemed like pretty much anyone with a pulse and pitch deck was capable of raising huge amounts of capital from prestigious venture capital firms at sky-high valuations. Here we are four years later and times have changed. VCs inked a little more than 3,100 deals in the last quarter of 2017, according to Crunchbase — about 500 fewer than the previous quarter.
For aspiring startup founders, it’s a “confusing time in the so-called Unicorn story,” as Eri

With the arrival of Fortnite on the Nintendo Switch Tuesday, it's become abundantly clear that Sony is holding back the video game industry.
Why? Because Switch users can play Fortnite with players on every platform — Xbox One, PC, Mac, and mobile — except for PlayStation 4. In fact, if you have an Epic Games account for Fortnite on PS4, you can't use that same account on Switch or use any of the cosmetics you've paid money for.
This is bad, pointless, and does nothing but hold back

MTV is reviving its beloved, dystopian short-form show Aeon Flux with a live-action remake.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, MTV has hired Teen Wolf creator and showrunner Jeff Davis to write the script and co-produce the show alongside The Walking Dead’s Gale Anne Hurd. Hurd also produced the 2005 live-action film adaptation of the television series.
Originally created by animator Peter Chung, Aeon Flux first aired in 1991 as a series of animated shorts on MTV’s Liquid Televisi

Sony is blocking Fortnite cross-play and progression between the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, and Fortnite fans are furious. Hundreds of Fortnite fans are reacting angrily on the Resetera forums and Reddit after learning that you can’t use a Fortnite account that’s been used on the PS4 with the Nintendo Switch. This means that any progress, skins, and purchases can’t be shared between PS4 and Nintendo Switch, so the dream of playing Fortnite at home on a PS4 and then usi

Last month, when Netflix announced which movies and shows would be leaving the service in June, the CNN series Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown was scheduled to depart on June 16th. Today, the service has announced that it has extended its licensing agreement for the show, and that fans will be able to watch the series on Netflix for “months to come.”
Bourdain, 61, was found dead by suicide on June 12th in Paris, prompting significant fan and media interest in the shows he created du

With E3 2018 currently underway in Los Angeles, you can count on plenty of sales popping up to celebrate the biggest week in gamingOne great sale comes thanks to Walmart on Xbox Live Gold, a necessity for any Xbox owner.
SEE ALSO: Heads up: The SNES Classic is back in stock
The reason this is a must get is so you can play online. Without it, you can't hop on PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds or Grand Theft Auto to play with family, friends, or randos online and totally wreck their faces. A subscript

The best way to beat your biggest competitor is to straight-up copy them. 
That may go against everything they teach you in business school, but that's the lesson we can draw from the past two years Instagram has spent relentlessly copying Snapchat.
SEE ALSO: Instagram reveals the secret sauce powering its algorithm
It's been almost two years since Facebook gave up building its own Snapchat clones and instead announced Instagram had simply created its own version of Snapchat's signature fea

Tesla has laid off about 9 percent of its employees as part of a “company-wide restructuring,” according to an email sent to staff by CEO Elon Musk this morning. The cuts, which account for more than 3,000 jobs, will not affect the company’s continued effort to ramp up production of the Model 3 sedan, Musk said.“We made these decisions by evaluating the criticality of each position, whether certain jobs could be done more efficiently and productively, and by assessing th

With E3 2018 this week, it seems like every hour there's another great sale just for gamers. 
Amazon is currently offering a deal for six months of Xbox Game Pass on sale for $29.99. That's a big discount on the service, which normally runs $59.99 for six months of games.
For anyone who is unfamiliar, Xbox Game Pass is a digital streaming service that gives subscribers access to more than 100 Xbox One and 360 games. Between the games already available and more constantly being added, that's

It wasn't flamethrowers, candy, or even a tunnel. 
No, today Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced a different kind of product: Pink slips. In a leaked email to staff, the self-stylized media critic told those at his electric car company that he would be letting some of them go. Like, nine percent of them. 
SEE ALSO: Analyst fires back after Elon Musk shut him down in Tesla earnings call
The letter, published in full by CNBC before Musk just decided to go ahead and tweet the thing, says that t

Google launched a new feature today that’ll let users view all the information they might want about a college directly in Search. Prospective students typically have to scour a college’s website to figure out student body demographics, tuition costs, and aid possibilities. Now, Google pulls all that data to provide stats on the average cost of schooling after student aid is applied, including how that breaks down by income, as well as graduation rates and students’ typical an

Take one quick scroll on Instagram, and you'll immediately be bombarded with sponsored posts crafted with flashy graphics and animation. Graphics so compelling that you can't help but click on them to check out whatever it is they're selling. And chances are, you've already bought at least one product based on a snazzy advertisement alone. Yep, we've all been there.
SEE ALSO: 6 of the best security software solutions for 2018
If you want to try your hand at designing creative imagery, whether fo

Teslahas laid off about nine percent of its employees, Electrek first reported. This is part of the reorganization Musk talked about in May on the company’s quarterly earnings call. The layoffs reportedly started on Monday and will be made official at some point today.
Tesla, which also operates SolarCity, is only laying off salaried employees. Tesla isn’t letting go any production associates, as the company is trying to ramp up Model 3 production.
“We made these decisions

With Father's Day coming up and Mother's Day just happening a month ago, the shopping focus has been on parenting for a while now. And while new vacuums, tools, and all that other gift-y stuff is nice, one of the things a parent wants most in life (other than a drink and a nap) is knowledge that their kid is safe. 
No, we're not suggesting putting a tracker on your kid like that crazy mom in Black Mirror — but we are suggesting grabbing an well-reviewed Arlo Baby Monitor to keep

Ari Aster’s debut feature Hereditary is one of the scariest movies in recent memory. That’s due in large part to Aster’s meticulous direction and Toni Collette’s unrestrained lead performance. But another crucial element is Colin Stetson’s unnerving score. An avant-garde saxophonist who’s worked with everyone from Arcade Fire to Tom Waits, Stetson is also known for his innovative solo records, which caught Aster’s attention before he’d even writte

Dogs really are our best friend.
When Kaylyn Marie was locked out of her house, she thought she'd be stuck outside for hours. But her good pup Sam had her back. 
To unlock the sliding glass door, someone had to remove a wooden rod blocking the door's tracks.
"It freakin' slipped back in," Kaylyn lamented. 
Kaylyn got Sam to paw away the rod until he was able to pick it up with his mouth and unlock the door for her. 
"You're such a good boy," she said. "You saved me!" 
Then S

HMD Global’s updated version of the Nokia 3 — the Nokia 3.1 — is making its way to the US. Preorders are available now for the Android One smartphone at the relatively low price of $169, via Android Central.Of course, a $169 smartphone won’t give you the same firepower as a pricier flagship, but the updated version doesn’t seem to be a terrible phone for what you’re paying: the updated Nokia 3.1 update offers a 5.2-inch HD display, a 1.5GHz MediaTek octa-core

Google has rolled out offline downloads for its AI-powered translator. So if you don’t have unlimited data or you have a plan that doesn’t work internationally, you can now download neural machine translation from Google’s Android and iOS apps.Previously, you could download Google Translate’s offline dictionary on the go. But whether you were figuring your way through a foreign menu or deciphering cool storefronts, you may have discovered that the dictionary’s quit

Google already announced this at I/O 2018, but the new Multiple Actions feature has just started rolling out to Google Home users across the United States. Now, you can stack commands — like asking about your commute, the weather, and telling Assistant to start playing music — by only saying “OK Google” or “Hey Google” once.It’s great news for frequent users of Assistant on Home speakers or on smartphones. Queries are natural, so instead of asking, &ldq

Battlefield V’s decision to prominently feature women in combat as part of its World War II setting may have angered some gamers online — who responded to the inclusion of female soldiers with the #NotMyBattlefield hashtag — but developers at Electronic Arts and DICE remain unmoved by the reaction.In an interview with Gamasutra, EA chief creative officer Patrick Söderlund says that the developer is uninterested in taking flak for diversifying the gaming space. “We s

There is something so beautifully fitting about From Software entering the pantheon of Japanese artists who have tackled the legacy and violence of the samurai legend.
The acclaimed creators of Dark Souls and Bloodborne elevated calculating, highly technical video game violence to new heights, creating a new sub-genre in the process. One cannot overstate the influence of From's uniquely ruthless and macabre rules around in-game death, in which you have to return to your corpse to hang on to prog

Few memories of childhood remain as uncomplicated and joyful as the first time I played Spyro. I was nine years old. Me and my friends stayed up until 4am, huddled around the tiny CRT television and whisper-screaming expletives at the screen.
We got caught, because at one point I could not hold back a shriek of anger at a particularly vexing flying level.
SEE ALSO: Nintendo's E3 2018 showcase was filled with revealing trailers, and here they are
Like most gaming nostalgia, those memories are for

8bitdo’s retro-styled wireless Bluetooth controllers have already emerged as a natural fit for the Switch. (They’ll work with Windows, Android, and Macs, too.) This year at E3, the company unveiled a whole new lineup of controllers, and the coolest one is the Zero 2, a miniature Bluetooth controller that’s so small it can fit on a keychain.The Zero 2 features all the buttons you’d need to play full console games in its diminutive size, along with motion controls, making

The North Korean summit this week with US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had an extra visitor hyping up a marijuana-focused cryptocurrency. Retired pro basketball player Dennis Rodman arrived in Singapore on June 11th, wearing a T-shirt to rep the virtual currency potcoin.So what is potcoin exactly? Potcoin was released through GitHub in 2014 by three entrepreneurs in Montreal, including Joel Yaffe and Nick Iversen, at appropriately 4:20PM. Its website describes the