Technology news

Baidu’s self-driving buses could hit the road in Japan by early 2019, Bloomberg reports. And even sooner in a handful of Chinese cities, according to Engadget.The tech company announced at its annual developers conference that it has ramped up manufacturing, Bloomberg reports. It will be rolling the buses out in Japan in partnership with SB Drive, an autonomous public-transportation subsidiary of Softbank.
Baidu, China’s answer to Google, is working with Chinese bus-maker King Long

What is the quintessential American food?
The answer is hard to pin down. This is a vast country made up of astounding array of people and as a nation we have yet to really establish a satisfying answer for what our emblematic meal is. I have a contender I'd like to put forward on this, the birthday of the United of America: The garbage plate.A post shared by With the Locals📍 (@withthelocals) on May 14, 2015 at 9:16am PDTYou may not be familiar with garbage plates but that's OK. Someday

Around the 4th of July, American TV stations fill up with patriotic content. That takes a lot of different forms, which this year range from FX’s Captain America movie marathon to TCM classics like 1776 and Elia Kazan’s America, America. Filmmakers have celebrated the United States through fist-pumping escapist action (Independence Day), grim patriotic drama (Red Dawn), sentimental uplift (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington), and confrontational personal stories (Born on the Fourth of Jul

Draper Esprit, the publicly-listed VC firm based in London, is putting down further roots across Europe in cooperation with German VC Earlybird.
The “strategic partnership” sees Draper invest an initial €18 million in the latest Earlybird Fund VI (which closed this week at €175 million, above its initial target, apparently), with a commitment to invest a further €17 million or so per annum over the next four years.
The tie up will also mean the two VCs will work togeth

French venture capital firm ISAI just raised a new $175 million fund (€150 million) called ISAIExpansion II. This fund is designed for later stage investments.
The firm says that it managed to raise this fund in less than three months. This is a growth fund and the team plans to invest between $6 million and $35 million per deal (between €5 million and €30 million).
ISAI first started with a seed fund back in 2010. The company raised a $41 million fund (€35 million) and inves

"Cheaters never win" and "if it's too good to be true, it probably is" are just a few maxims that come to mind with the news that PC Fortnite players who may have tried to employ a certain cheat may have exposed themselves to some vicious malware.
SEE ALSO: Is 'Fortnite' addiction among young children actually a real problem?
Andrew Sampson, CEO of game-streaming service Rainway, posted on the company's Medium blog (via Engadget) about the discovery of a flood of error reports on the company's s

Now that Amazon has helped kill off Toys R Us, it wants to borrow the retailer’s iconic print holiday toy catalog. The online behemoth is interested in creating its own print catalog to mail out and also be handed out at Whole Foods (which it owns), according to Bloomberg.Toys R Us was plagued with billions in debt when permanently closed last month — in part because of competition from online stores like Amazon. For many kids, its “Big Book” toy catalog was a staple of

We’re still a few weeks away from the August 9th unveiling for Samsung’s Galaxy Note 9, but details have begun to trickle out about one of the biggest changes reportedly coming to the iconic S-Pen stylus: Bluetooth, spotted by Droid Life in the Note 9’s FCC filing.The S-Pen is getting a Bluetooth power-up
The filing just confirms that the new S-Pen will have Bluetooth functionality in some way, but people have speculated on Twitter that Samsung will be using it as a multi-purp

Netflix is reportedly testing out a new “Ultra” subscription tier that would up the monthly price even higher than the company’s current $13.99 “Premium” option, according to a report from TuttoAndroid, which first spotted the new plan (via CNET.)
According to TuttoAndroid, the new plan would cost €16.99 (and presumably, $16.99 in the US, based on how Netflix does its existing pricing). offer up to four simultaneous 4K streams at once time, which eagle-eyed Ne

Rumors about a new line of cheaper Surface tablets that could compete with Apple’s lower-cost iPads began to surface in May, and now sources speaking with WinFuture.de have divulged divulged that the cheaper models might run on Intel’s less powerful Pentium chips.
Earlier Bloomberg reports and an FCC filing gave some initial details — the tablet will have 10-inch surface screens (instead of the current 12-inches on the Surface Pro), rounded corners, USB 3 for charging, a weigh

A new study published this week by a collaboration of very serious academic institutions has come up with a finding that’s equal parts trivial and amusing: higher testosterone levels in men have been shown to stimulate a higher preference for luxury or status symbol goods. Authored by researchers at Caltech, the Wharton School, INSEAD, ZRT Laboratory, and the Sorbonne University, the study suggests there’s a measurable causal relationship between the hormone testosterone and a perso

Welcome to Chris-mas in July, a week-long celebration of our four favorite Hollywood Chrises. We'll be analyzing old movies, digging deep into past roles, and exploring everything there is to know about Evans, Hemsworth, Pine and Pratt. We hope this totally made up holiday makes you smile.In this wonderful week of Chris-mas, where we celebrate the best that the name Chris has to offer, it's important to remember that not all Chrises are upstanding people who deserve to star in the biggest action

So you’ve just bought the best Windows laptop, you’ve gritted your teeth through Cortana’s obnoxiously cheery setup narration, and the above screenshot is the Start menu you’re presented with. Exactly how special do you feel as you watch the tiles animating and blinking at you like a slots machine? I’ll tell you how I felt as I was getting to grips with the Huawei MateBook X Pro for the first time: perplexed. Perplexed that this level of bloatware infestation is st

There is literally nothing in this world more romantic than the sight of two penguins holding flippers as they walk along a beach together.
SEE ALSO: Scientists are spying on frisky penguins with these kinda obvious cameras
Just look at these two waddling lovebirds:Almost 45,000 retweets on that video, and it's easy to see why. They're holding on to each other's flippers, for crying out loud.Bruh they’re holding FLIPPERS?!? 😩🧡 https://t.co/pKRFTTI0f2
— KA$$ (@mvkass)

If you want to get a sense of just how caught up in World Cup fever the UK is, you don't need to look far.
A good place to start would be Ian Wright's delirious reaction to the England Vs. Colombia result, or the footage of people across the country celebrating that final penalty.
SEE ALSO: Japan leaves touching thank you note and a spotless locker room after World Cup loss
Another good place would be this image of a random road in London, which on Tuesday night played host to a large crowd of W

AI agents continue to rack up wins in the video game world. Last week, OpenAI’s bots were playing Dota 2; this week, it’s Quake III, with a team of researchers from Google’s DeepMind subsidiary successfully training agents that can beat humans at a game of capture the flag.As we’ve seen with previous examples of AI playing video games, the challenge here is training an agent that can navigate a complex 3D environment with imperfect information. DeepMind’s researche

Is there a word for the scenario where someone tries to explain the meaning of your own book to you?
Well, there is now. J.K. Rowling's just invented it.
SEE ALSO: JK Rowling can't stop laughing after Trump boasts about his writing abilities
It started on Tuesday night, when someone on Twitter attempted to compare Trump to Snape. Rowling wasn't having any of it, though.Yeah, nopic.twitter.com/pQCqTo66YU
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) July 3, 2018Five minutes later, a new word was born.Don&rs

Sometimes, just sometimes, Twitter isn't a terrible wasteland of Very Bad Things™. 
Indeed, sometimes the internet rallies together to help people and reunite them with possessions they've lost. 
SEE ALSO: Team internet reunites a man with an envelope full of money after he left it in the pub
That's certainly what happened when Stewart Law, who lives in Belfast, asked Twitter for a helping hand in getting a letter back to its rightful owner. To his delight, Twitter delivered &mda

Google would like you to know that no one is reading your emails on Gmail without your permission. While that may be true, things aren't that simple.  
After a Wall Street Journal report (published Monday) described how third-party developers might be reading your emails on Gmail, Google on Tuesday responded with a blog post, describing the measures the company takes to ensure your security and privacy within the service. 
SEE ALSO: Everyone's getting new Gmail — and old Gmail wi

It’s been four years now since Slack arrived to kill email — and yet, email persists. While the group chat app has plenty of ardent fans and continues to grow quickly, it also draws criticism for its distracting, always-on nature. At many workplaces, if you’re at work, you’re also expected to be available on Slack. For some people, that means the thing that “replaced” email is something much more demanding.
Mathilde Collin says the workplaces of the future ou

Trying to sleep during a heat wave is nearly impossible without an air conditioner.
But while taking full advantage of your AC may be the most comfortable way to get through the summer, it's by no means efficient. Not only is your excessive AC use bad for the environment, but it's also expensive.
SEE ALSO: Amazon Prime Day 2018: The best deals and sales will be right here
That's where Sensibo's Smart AC Controller comes in. This little gadget is designed to make your air conditioner as efficient

Do you love getting stuff done? Do you treat your list of daily goals as absolute gospel? Does efficiency make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside? If so, you were born to be a project manager. 
If you want to live up to your potential, you’ll need more than a well-manicured monthly planner. You need to learn the science behind project management.
That’s where Six Sigma and Lean come into play. These leading project management methodologies have the same goal but differ in their

You might not know this, but apparently it's coming home. The World Cup, that is. 
After a decidedly tense match, which had the entire nation teetering on the edge of its seat, England knocked Colombia out of the World Cup. 
SEE ALSO: With fake beards and viral Instagram videos, female football fans are making history in Iran
First of all, England has a terrible track record with penalties at the World Cup — they've never won any of their previous penalty shootouts in the competi

It's fair to say this year's World Cup has produced some nail-bitingly tense games. 
Tuesday night's knockout match between England and Colombia has to be one of the most nerve-shredding so far, though.
SEE ALSO: Japan leaves touching thank you note and a spotless locker room after World Cup loss
Nobody summed up the sweet, sweet feeling of relief when England finally won on penalties better than pundit (and former England striker) Ian Wright.
Here he is in the studio, reacting to England's

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that an electorate in possession of a terrible president, must be in want of a celebrity savior.
Such is the case of the United States in the year 2018, a few months ahead of the midterms elections that precede the jockeying for position in the 2020 presidential race. And people are looking to the stars.
SEE ALSO: Donald Trump isn't even trying to lie convincingly anymore
We've already elected a reality TV star to the White House, so that door feels wide o

Going outside on the 4th of July is super fun because there are barbecues and fireworks and...sunburn...and bugs? Yeah, nobody can blame you if you want to stay inside. 
Luckily, many TV channels have anticipated people spending their free day off indoors, with the AC blasting, eating an ice pop, and watching hours and hours of television, so here are the best marathons airing on the holiday. 
SEE ALSO: The 10 best new shows of 2018 (so far)
1Jaws on AMC, 11:30 AM ET
Celebrate the choi

Sometimes people don't realise that hating on a fictional character can have repercussions, particularly on the real human being playing the part.
Reminding us of this is actor Ahmed Best, who played Jar Jar Binks in the Star Wars franchise, and who opened up about his experience with intense backlash on Tuesday.
SEE ALSO: How to bring hope and compassion to conversations about suicide
Binks, the friendly Gungan, made his debut in 1999's Episode 1, The Phantom Menace, with a smaller role in Atta

Guy Pearce has spoken about his time working with Kevin Spacey, saying the actor was "handsy" on the set of L.A. Confidential.
The Australian actor vaguely spoke to his experience with his co-star, who has been accused of multiple instances of sexual misconduct and abuse, on Andrew Denton's Interview on Tuesday. 
SEE ALSO: The 'Arrested Development' actors prove men in Hollywood learned nothing
Pearce worked with Spacey on the Curtis Hanson-directed 1997 crime noir L.A. Confidential. W