Technology news

The Aquila drone isn’t the only aerial internet project Facebook abandoned in the last year. The Tether-tenna, a small helicopter drone that could temporarily replace cellular service in emergency situations, was discontinued a few months after being shown off at the F8 developer conference in May of 2017, the company has confirmed to The Verge.
“Tether-tenna was a proof of concept project we were evaluating when we discussed it at F8 in early 2017,” a spokesperson for Faceboo

This afternoon, Russia is launching an otherwise routine cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station — except this vehicle’s trip is meant to be the speediest trip to the ISS ever. Following its launch, the spacecraft, known as Progress, is supposed to rendezvous with the ISS within just a little under four hours. That’s a speedy jaunt compared to other cargo and crew spacecraft, which can take between six hours and two days to reach the ISS after launch.
However, it&r

Online sex market Backpage was seized in April following new regulation intended to stem human trafficking, but the results haven’t been entirely positive. This story of Indianapolis cops reverting to pre-web tactics for catching pimps and others in the sex trade shows how the closure has taken away a valuable tool for keeping tabs on the unsavory but ineradicable industry.
Backpage, where prostitutes would list themselves and attract customers, let the whole business take place rather in

If you visited a Bulletin store, or bought products off its website, COO Ali Kriegsman said you might “pigeonhole” the company as a “feminist apparel brand” — a place to buy T-shirts and accessories with fun, provocative political slogans.
And yes, that is part of what draws consumers. But Kriegsman and her co-founder Alana Branston have also laid out their broader vision for a more flexible, WeWork-style approach to brick-and-mortar retail, one where brands essenti

It can be hard sometimes to grok the scale of the gaming community, but the occasional charity event not only demonstrates the hugeness of the industry but also its diversity and willingness to shell out for a good cause. Today Blizzard announced that an Overwatch charity campaign raised an impressive $12.7 million for breast cancer research in just two weeks.
Overwatch is an extremely popular team-based shooter game that has made an impression not just with its solid gameplay, but its striking

If you’re a fellow Wiki-addict who loves obscure local trivia, there’s now an app that’ll read it to you.Developed by Malte Ubl, the tech lead for Google’s AMP project, the app detects a user’s geolocation and matches it with relevant Wikipedia articles. The app then reads the articles out loud, kind of a smart passenger who happens to know everything about the history of the town you’re driving (or walking) through.For the curious, the program also allows us

A lot of retailers are seizing the opportunity to challenge Amazon and its nonstop hype around Prime Day. They’re likely hoping that if your wallet is already open for a purchase, maybe some of their own deals could sway you away from sticking to Amazon for everything.While you wait for Prime Day, follow along below as we take you through the best of the rest and deals that have caught our eyes from retailers like eBay, Massdrop, GameStop, and more.We’ll be adding to this collection

At long last, Microsoft has come up with a way for Surface Pro and Surface Laptop owners to use USB Type-C power adapters and peripherals with their devices. The Surface Connect to USB-C Adapter (official name) was finally made available for purchase a couple of weeks ago, after more than a year of promises from Microsoft that it was working on such an adapter.
The $79.99 adapter, which is officially for “enterprise and education customers,” but can be purchased by anyone, does inde

Microsoft all but announced as much via the official Surface account. The company tweeted out the leading question “Where will Surface go next?” along with an image of the full lineup — the Pro, Laptop, Book 2 and swiveling all-in-one Studio.The desktops each displaying 6:00 on Tuesday, July 10 is the other key hint here. The big news will probably drop tomorrow, most likely in the A.M. So, what’s on deck for the Surface line? Given that all of the key players are present

Apple today released iOS 11.4.1, and while most of us are already looking ahead to all the new stuff coming in iOS 12, this small update contains an important new security feature: USB Restricted Mode. Apple has added protections against the USB devices being used by law enforcement and private companies that connect over Lightning to crack an iPhone’s passcode and evade Apple’s usual encryption safeguards.If you go to Settings and check under Face ID (or Touch ID) & Passcode, y

The Google Assistant can now control Dish Network’s Hopper DVR devices. The feature will allow users to use the “OK Google” command to turn to a specific TV show or channel, rewind or pause a video, or record a particular programming.The devices will work on a broadband internet connection with Hopper Duo, Wally single-tuner HD, and all generations of Hopper DVR or its Joey client. Spanish language support is planned in the future, but Dish has not released a specific timeline

Snapchat is working on turning its camera into a visual search engine that will link users to Amazon listings. The unreleased feature was spotted in the code of Snapchat’s Android app by an app researcher who tipped off TechCrunch. It would identify objects, songs, and barcodes from users’ cameras by sending the data to Amazon, Shazam, and other companies.To use the feature, you’d snap a photo of an object, and then the app would pull up sellers of a product and reviews. You w

Instacart, the grocery delivery platform valued at $4.2 billion, has today announced that it has hired its first chief communications officer in Dani Dudeck.
Dudeck has been in the communications world for the past 15 years, serving as VP of Global Communications at MySpace for four years and moving to Zynga as CCO in 2010. At Zynga, Dudeck oversaw corporate and consumer reputation of the brand before and after its IPO, helping the company through both tremendous periods of growth and a rapidly

AT&T’s top media executive walked into HBO recently and told the highly respected entertainment company’s staff that they needed to work harder and make more money, and that they were lucky to have been purchased by AT&T, according to The New York Times, which listened to a leaked recording of the internal meeting.
The executive, John Stankey, who now oversees AT&T’s media businesses, also said that HBO would have to become a network that was “broad enough&rd

Uber is adding electric scooters to its stable of transportation options. According to Bloomberg, the ride-hail giant is investing in Lime in a new $335 million round of financing led by Alphabet’s venture arm, GV, that values the electric scooter company at $1.1 billion. Under the deal, Lime’s e-scooters will become available to rent on Uber’s app.A spokesperson for Uber confirmed the deal, and Lime published a blog post announcing some details about the investment. Uber also

TechCrunch just announced our first-ever Startup Battlefield MENA taking place in Beirut, Lebanon in October. We’re hitting the road to meet with regional early-stage startups, investors and entrepreneurs in July. Sign up below.
Startups and investors can meet the TechCrunch team and learn more about TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield program. Founders will learn how to apply for Startup Battlefield with a solid application, and investors will learn how to refer early-st

The fourth annual Amazon Prime Day doesn’t officially begin until Monday, July 16th at 3PM ET / 12PM PT, but the company is trickling out some worthwhile Prime-exclusive deals in the lead-up to the big event — particularly if you’ve been on the hunt for a discounted robot vacuum cleaner. Amazon is offering 30-day free trials of Prime here in case you somehow haven't signed up yet or if you let a previous subscription lapse over higher prices.A few of today’s best deals i

Pitching a dollar-pegged token that offers cryptocurrency speculators a way to move their investments across volatile exchanges, TrustToken (the first public investment from a16z crypto) is now looking for public investments from accredited investors on CoinList.
The company’s first token is TrueUSD, a stablecoin that is redeemable one-to-one for U.S. dollars. In its first four months of trading, the speculative investors that are looking for some sort of island of security have boosted th

Microsoft appears to be teasing a new Surface device announcement for tomorrow. “Where will Surface go next?” asks the official Twitter account for Surface, with a cryptic image attached. The image shows the current Surface lineup with a date of July 10th displayed on each screen, alongside a time of 6AM. Microsoft has previously used this image before, but the displays never included dates or times.
Microsoft is rumored to be launching new $400 Surface tablets to better compete wit

Snapchat is building a visual product search feature, codenamed “Eagle,” that delivers users to Amazon’slistings. Buried inside the code of Snapchat’s Android app is an unreleased “Visual Search” feature where you “Press and hold to identify an object, song, barcode, and more! This works by sending data to Amazon, Shazam, and other partners.” Once an object or barcode has been scanned you can “See all results at Amazon.”
Visual product

Topbox helps businesses understand how their customers experience their products and where they run into issues by analyzing voice and text chats to surveys, social media posts and online reviews. Today, the company announced it has raised a $5 million funding round led by Telescope Partners, with participation from Cascade Angels, Flyover Capital and the Maryland Venture Fund.
Topbox CEO Chris Tranquill told me he first experienced the problem he’s trying to solve when he was running call

The gaming world is evolving at a rapid clip. No longer is the idea of the lonely gamer a reality. Twitch and Discord have brought gamers together and given everyone the opportunity to see just how talented some of these young players are. Meanwhile, publishers and esports organizations have built out an infrastructure.
But there is plenty left to do, and PlayVS founder and CEO Delane Parnell is well aware of this.
We’re amped to announce that Parnell is joining us at TC Disrupt SF in Sept

“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a robot clapping over a human face, forever,” wrote George Orwell, and his dire prediction has finally come to pass. This product – a year old device that I have never seen before but now love – is called BigClapper and it is basically an orb with a funny face and big white hands. When you set it up in a location it will yell and clap endlessly, a sort of robotic tummler that can pick up your spirits while it drains your will

Timehop, an app that resurfaces social media posts of the past, suffered a data breach on July 4th, the company revealed on Sunday. The data of 21 million users was stolen, including names, email addresses, and some phone numbers.
The hacker entered Timehop’s cloud computing account (which wasn’t protected by multifactor authentication), transferred data, and attacked Timehop’s production database. The company said that it noticed the breach two hours after it started and was

Timehop, an app that resurfaces social media posts of the past, suffered a data breach on July 4th, the company revealed on Sunday. The data of 21 million users was stolen, including names, email addresses, and some phone numbers.
The hacker entered Timehop’s cloud computing account, which wasn’t protected by multi-factor authentication, transferred data, and attacked Timehop’s production database. The company said that it noticed the breach two hours after it started and was

Amazon’s Prime Day starts a week from today, and sellers are starting to feel the heat. Amazon is upping its fees to participate in what could be considered one of the biggest annual shopping holidays of the year, making it more difficult for smaller sellers to get their products in front of customers, according to CNBC.Amazon has bumped up the registration fees for sellers to run Prime Day Lightning Deals again, after not charging them at all for the first two years of the shopping event

Amazon Prime Day isn’t here yet, but other retailers aren’t waiting around to begin offering discounts on tech.Today’s standout deals come from eBay, which just so happens to be gearing up for its own special day of sales on July 10th. It will be hosting deals all week, but right now you can get an Xbox One S 1TB Starter Bundle at 20 percent off its usual price.
Some other eBay deals happening today all cost $119 (which is the same price as a year of Amazon Prime) and include

At first, it seemed like a charming reprieve from Twitter’s perpetual parade of horribles: a cute, deftly narrated romance story that blossomed on a transcontinental flight. It all started here.
Last night on a flight home, my boyfriend and I asked a woman to switch seats with me so we could sit together. We made a joke that maybe her new seat partner would be the love of her life and well, now I present you with this thread.— Rosey Blair (@roseybeeme) July 3, 2018Actress Rosey Blai

The pitch for Big Clapper, a $4,500 robot that’s currently raising funds on Kickstarter, is simple. Do you feel underappreciated in life? Would you like a little more support? How about some applause for all that amazing work you do? Fantastic. You should definitely buy this tomato-faced robot to clap and cheer you on for the rest of your life.Okay, so that’s not the only use for Big Clapper, but it is one option. This robot seems primarily designed for retail stores and businesses

When Peyton Reed stepped in to direct 2015’s Marvel Cinematic Universe movie Ant-Man, he was joining a project that was already in motion. Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz writer-director Edgar Wright had spent years developing the project and co-writing a script with Joe Cornish before leaving in 2014 over the oft-cited “creative differences.” Like Wright, Reed had a career making comedies, including the Jim Carrey vehicle Yes Man, teen comedy Bring It On, and episodes of Mr. S

The price of a Tesla has gone up in China following the country’s first round of retaliatory tariffs in the burgeoning trade war with the United States. Tesla Models S and X now cost as much as 150,000 yuan to 250,000 yuan more (or about $22,600 to about $37,600) after the 40 percent import tax hike, according to Electrek and The Wall Street Journal.
The whiplash price bumps come just a few months after China actually lowered import taxes on cars from foreign automakers from 25 percent to

Last year, Shinola released its first pair of bookshelf speakers, which were built completely in-house. For its follow-up, the company partnered with Barefoot Sound, an American manufacturer of studio monitors and loudspeakers, to create the second-generation Shinola Bookshelf Speakers, which are available today.
I’ve been testing the Bookshelf Speakers — which cost $1,500 and are available in black or a natural oak finish — for the past few weeks, and they are quite exception

China is producing some fantastic phones at the moment, but they don’t often go on sale outside the country’s borders. Case in point is the Vivo Nex, which launched last month with ultra-slim bezels, an in-display fingerprint scanner, and an eye-catching pop-up selfie camera. Well, it’s finally going to hit a few markets outside of China, with Vivo announcing that it’ll be on sale in India, Russia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan later this month.
When exactly? Vivo does

Samsung Electronics is cutting the ribbon today, with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and South Korean president Moon Jae-in, on what is claimed to be the world’s biggest mobile phone manufacturing plant. It’s situated in Noida, a satellite city of the Indian capital Delhi, and is said to be capable of churning out up to 120 million smartphones a year. According to Bloomberg, Samsung says it’ll use the plant to make entry-level phones that sell for less than $100, as well