Technology news

If you’re looking for a good jacket or bag, you have your choice of materials: leather, heavy nylon, waterproof synthetic weaves like Gore-Tex… but for my money (and not a little of it either) the king of them all is waxed canvas. Pliant yet protective, wind and water-resistant but breathable, handsome to start but grows a character of its own, waxed canvas strikes, for me, the perfect balance of attributes. I drape myself in it, and in the case of bags, drape it from myself.
The ma

While applications like Google Maps and Yelp seem to provide an inexhaustible source of information about local restaurants, stores and other points of interest, they also can come up short — moments when you arrive somewhere only to discover that the hours you had were wrong, or the store is closed for a holiday, or it’s just shut down altogether.
The team at StreetCred is trying to build a better system for gathering and selling that data. And it’s raised $1 million in seed f

In a (perhaps not so shocking) turn of events, the Walt Disney Company has reentered its tug-of-war with Comcastover the acquisition of Fox’s film and TV divisions with a new $71.3 billion bid today. This bid is not only $18.9 billion higher than its original bid in December but it has also changed its terms, which had originally offered only stock, to offer a 50/50 split between a cash and stock payout. Importantly, this also is $6.3 billion more than Comcast’s all-cash of

Match Group, a massive online dating conglomerate, acquired Hinge today in a deal that gives the company a 51 percent stake in the app. Hinge initially marketed itself as a more welcoming version of Tinder in which users could only see potential matches who shared a mutual Facebook friend. The company then redesigned its app to get rid of all swiping features and in its place let users build out full profile pages. Hinge users can answer three questions about themselves, connect their accounts

One year after launching Snap Maps, Snap is giving its geolocation feature a lot more visual flair with two updates coming soon. The first big update, World Effects, adds snazzy animations and color schemes to the maps. It will send you and your friends a blast of confetti on your birthdays, and themed maps will also be rolled out for particular holidays and “cultural events.”
Maps that are opened around Valentine’s Day will turn landmasses pink and fluffy, for example, while

If you’re on the hunt for a powerful Mac laptop, B&H Photo is offering a sizable deal on the MacBook Pro from late 2016.This particular model is going for a special price of $2,299 for the remainder of today, down from its original $3,499 asking price.
2016 was a long time ago in the world of technology, but much of this computer’s specs are still plenty capable, whether you’re immersed in production, gaming, or if you just want a fast Apple laptop without spending too muc

After a couple years of development and early prototype testing through an Indiegogo campaign, Bose is commercially releasing its noise-masking Sleepbuds. They go on sale tomorrow, June 21st, for $250 from Amazon, Best Buy, Bose, and other retailers. The Sleepbuds are truly wireless earbuds designed to stay in your ears overnight. As you go to sleep, they play audio tracks that drown out typical evening disturbances like street noise, loud neighbors, or a snoring partner.
They don't play music

A Democratic state lawmaker from California attempted to gut the nation’s toughest net neutrality bill by railroading through standard procedure and forcing a vote on a set of amendments removing the stricter regulations.On Monday, two California lawmakers struck a deal to combine two competing net neutrality bills in the hopes that it would speed through the committee process and provide the state with a stable net neutrality regulatory framework. The bills, SB 822 and SB 460, from Senat

French startup Tiller has raised a $13.9 million Series B round (€12 million) from Ring Capital. Omnes Capital and existing investors 360 Capital Partners also participated in today’s funding round. The company has been working on a cash register that works better than your clunky touchscreen from ten years ago.
Tilleris working on a software solution for restaurants. It works with a good old iPad and connects with multiple payment solutions.
You can customize the menu and restaurant

With child separations emerging as a growing crisis at the US border, government contracting has become more controversial than ever. All week, Microsoft has struggled with questions about its contracts with ICE, particularly a January agreement that CEO Satya Nadella defended as a standard IT support contract. On Tuesday, more than 100 employees signed a letter calling on Microsoft to cancel the contract, writing simply “we refuse to be complicit.”Although Microsoft has captured th

Facebook will now let group administrators start charging $4.99 to $29.99 a month for exclusive membership in certain groups, the company announced today in a blog post. Parenting, cooking, and home cleaning groups will be the first ones to get the new feature as part of an early test.As it stands now, free groups will remain intact, but they will soon have the option to launch premium sub-groups. For instance, lifestyle blogger Sarah Mueller’s Declutter My Home group is starting an Organ

China’s recent crackdown on the import of plastic waste will result in millions of tons of displaced plastic trash, according to new research. The ban will force countries like the US to find new ways to deal with their own trash.
On December 31st, 2017, China put a halt to a lot of the plastic waste that foreign countries like the US sent to its shores for disposal. To calculate the impact of that ban, researchers at the University of Georgia looked at how much plastic waste China import

Instagram announced at an in-office event today that it now has 1 billion users worldwide. It had 800 million users in September of last year, which was 200 million more than that same time the year before. The app just keeps steadily adding 200 million users a year, it seems.
“It’s incredible, and it’s something Mike and I never thought would happen,” co-founder Kevin Systrom said.
It’s unclear where most of these new users came from. Last year, most of the growth

Instagram today announced IGTV, a standalone app for watching long-form vertical video that will also have a tab inside the flagship app. When you log in to IGTV, it will automatically begin playing vertical videos from people you follow, along with personalized recommendations from elsewhere in Instagram. The app will be available on Android and iOS within the next day and within the flagship Instagram app sooner, the company said.Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom said the app was designed to make i

Email marketing startup Stensul is announcing that it has raised $7 million.
Stensulspun out of founder and CEO Noah Dinkin’s previous company FanBridge. Dinkin explained via email that the startup isn’t competing with the big email service providers — in fact, it integrates with ESPs including Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Oracle Marketing Cloud, Adobe Marketing Cloud and Marketo.
Dinkin said that while ESPs include email creation tools, most companies ignore them. Instead, the

Platinum-selling performer and philanthropist Akon wants to build his own city in Senegal and launch his own cryptocurrency as the central form of exchange. Speaking on Monday, June 18th, at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, on a panel titled “Branding Africa: Blockchain, Entrepreneurship and Empowering the Future,” the Grammy-nominated singer of “Don’t Matter” and “I Wanna Love You” discussed his plans for AKoin, a branded form of

Tesla filed a lawsuit on Wednesday alleging that a former employee hacked the company’s system and transferred “gigabytes” of data to unnamed third parties. The lawsuit may align with Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s recent claim of “sabotage” by an ex-worker.Tesla’s lawsuit names Martin Tripp, a former process technician at the company’s Gigafactory in Nevada, as the defendant. Tesla claims that Tripp “unlawfully hacked the company’s confidentia

Beamery, a London-based startup that offers self-styled “talent CRM”– aka ‘candidate relationship management’ — and recruitment marketing software targeted at fast-growing companies, has closed a $28M Series B funding round, led by EQT Ventures.
Also participating in the round are M12, Microsoft’s venture fund, and existing investors Index Ventures,Edenred Capital Partners and Angelpad Fund. Beamery lastraised a $5M Series A, in April 2017, led

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court officially picked up the long-running antitrust case Apple v. Pepper. The court will decide whether iPhone users can sue Apple for locking down the iOS ecosystem, something the suit’s plaintiffs say is creating an anti-competitive monopoly.
Apple v. Pepper could theoretically affect how tech companies can build walled gardens around their products. The Supreme Court isn’t going to make a call on that specific issue, but its decision could affect

Samsung is bringing its gold Galaxy S9 to the United States on June 24th, which marks the first time a new color will be available Stateside for the flagship phone since it was released.The golden-hued variant — officially dubbed “sunrise gold” — was available earlier in June in Australia, Chile, Germany, Hong Kong, Mexico, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam. But now, US customers will be able to pick one up as well, alongside the e

Bloodborne’s “Tomb Prospectors” have spent years navigating the game’s enigmatic dungeons, hoping to find something new. They’ve conquered and categorized hundreds of dungeons, with every creature, trap, and territory seemingly known and accounted for. They’ve played Bloodborne enough that the player-led group might know the hardcore action game better than the creators, From Software. And the club says they’ve found a huge Bloodborne glitch that preven

Amazon’s clothing try-on service, Prime Wardrobe, is opening up to all Prime subscribers today. Prime Wardrobe had a soft launch last June as an invite-only beta and has been rolling out to more consumers over the past year.
Prime Wardrobe resembles personalized online shopping services like Stitch Fix, Tog + Porter, and Trunk Club. These services employ in-house stylists who pull together personalized outfits after consumers take a quiz to help identify their sizes and style. With Amazon

I’ve written a few times now about the lengths I’ve gone to tweak how I interact with my computers. I’ve set up and configured Alfred with a bunch of little custom-built utilities for searching the web. I’ve spent way too many hours trying out different menu bar utilities that provide helpful functions that aren’t built in the OS. I’ve ranted on The Vergecast about how the iPad doesn’t quite work as my main computer because I always seem to want just on

The largest theater chain in America has announced that it will now offer a subscription service that allows patrons to watch up to three movies a week for $19.95 a month. Called AMC Stubs A-List, the subscription will function as an extension of AMC’s existing loyalty program, and it will roll out starting on June 26th.
According to the AMC press release, the online and smartphone-based subscription will allow members to watch multiple movies a day and let you see movies more than once.

Battle royale game Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds is releasing its new, smaller Sanhok map on Friday, and with it will come a new type of subscription service that will feel awfully familiar to fans of Epic Games’ Fortnite. The Event Pass, as developer PUBG Corporation is calling it, will be a four-week, limited-time add-on you can purchase with real money in the vein of Fortnite’s Battle Pass.The goal is to encourage players to log in every day, complete challenges on a daily

One of the immigrants who is being detained at a federal prison in California has come down with chickenpox, according to a letter obtained by LAist. Detention facilities are usually unsanitary areas with poor health care, and it is unclear how many people have been exposed to the very contagious chickenpox virus, which spreads through the air and can take up to 21 days to develop into the rash.Earlier this month, the Trump administration moved 1,000 immigrant detainees to California’s Vi

As the White House barrels toward $250 billion in tariffs on Chinese imports, US gadget makers are bracing for impact. The White House detailed the first $35 billion in restricted goods on Friday, including new restrictions on batteries, capacitors, and touchscreens, with an additional $15 billion still to be approved. On Monday, President Trump began laying the groundwork for an additional $200 billion in tariffs, issued in response to Chinese counter-tariffs.
That looming trade war has partic

Microsoft is launching rebranded Microsoft News apps for both iOS and Android today, alongside using its news engine to power news across a variety of Microsoft products. While the MSN name is going away on Android and iOS, the site itself will remain branded as MSN.com, a portal for news that the software maker launched back in 1995.
“Microsoft News is the new name for our news engine that powers familiar sites like MSN.com, and our newly redesigned Microsoft News app for iOS and Android

Disney has officially upped its offer for the purchase of 21st Century Fox. It’s now offering to purchase the entertainment giant’s film and TV assets at a price of $38 per share, or roughly $71.3 billion, which is a drastic increase from the company’s original $52.4 billion deal that valued Fox at $28 per share.
It’s a direct counter to Comcast, which tried to swoop in earlier this month with a $65 billion, all-cash offer to top Disney’s original bid by offering $

Nginx, the commercial company behind the open source web server, announced a $43 million Series C investment today led by Goldman Sachs Growth Equity.
NEA, which has been on board as an early investor is also participating. As part of the deal, David Campbell, managing director at Goldman Sachs’ Merchant Banking Division will join the Nginxboard. Today’s investment brings the total raised to $103 million, according to the company.
The company was not willing to discuss valuation for

Five years ago, Nintendo made an internal change that may not have seemed important at the time, but has since become a major part of the company’s dramatic turnaround. In 2013, Nintendo merged its two game development divisions, which were previously separated by platform. One focused on home consoles like the Wii U, while the other created games for handheld devices like the 3DS. Combining the two was meant to speed up development, and allow Nintendo’s creative teams to better sha

Porsche and Rimac both made electric car news at the Geneva Motor Show this year, showing off the Mission E Cross Turismo and Concept Two, respectively. Now, the two companies are preparing to enter into what’s described as a close collaboration on the heels of Porsche’s announcement that it’s purchased 10 percent of Rimac Automobili.
In reporting the news, Car Magazine points to Rimac’s impressive track record outside of its own concept vehicles, which includes providin

The European Union has taken the first step in passing new copyright legislation that critics say will tear the internet apart.This morning, the EU’s Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) voted in favor of the legislation, called the Copyright Directive. Although most of the directive simply updates technical language for copyright law in the age of the internet, it includes two highly controversial provisions. These are Article 11, a “link tax,” which would force online platforms li

On Monday, President Donald Trump directed the Pentagon to create a sixth branch of the Armed Forces: a Space Force. But the process of creating a new military service is more complicated than simply telling the Pentagon to make it so.Trump’s announcement came during a meeting with the National Space Council, shortly before he signed Space Policy Directive-3. The directive aims to keep satellite, space stations, and debris from careening into each other as they orbit the Earth at tens of