Technology news

Someone please tell Costco that good things really don't have to come to an end, because they seem to think otherwise. 
As reported by the Seattle Times, the wholesale giant will be retiring the Polish dog from their food court menus across the country and replaced with healthier options — and people are livid. 
SEE ALSO: Costco food court items, ranked
Thankfully, you'll still be able to enjoy the cheap delicacies of an all-beef hot dog or chicken bake while you wait in line or

Small satellite launch company Rocket Lab says it’s looking to expand its spaceflight operations by creating a new launch pad in the United States. This new site will be the second one for the US-based startup, which already launches its rockets from a private pad in New Zealand.
Rocket Lab hasn’t picked a location for the second launch site yet, but has narrowed it down to four places, all at government-run launch facilities. These include the US’s two most prolific spaceport

Since President Donald Trump took office, net neutrality – the principle that internet service providers should treat all content equally and keep it accessible to all – has been under constant attack. 
Brett Kavanaugh is the president's latest blow to a future with a free and open internet. And we know this because Kavanaugh, a DC Circuit Court of Appeals judge whom Trump has picked to replace a retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, has tackled the issue before. 
In his dissen

Drugs can be bad. But data? That's some good shit.
The most ingenious of consumers, the illicit substance user, has finally found what they claim to be a practical (albeit potentially dangerous) use for Fitbit health trackers — and it's just as sketchy as you might expect. 
Apparently, people are doing lots of cocaine and then checking their fitness tracker to make sure their heart isn't about to explode. 
SEE ALSO: Your fitness tracker knows too much about you
So reports CNBC, w

An engineer who worked on Apple’s secretive autonomous car project allegedly stole trade secrets for a Chinese car startup backed by Alibaba, according to new charges filed by the FBI.Xiaolang Zhang, who worked for Apple from December 2015 until May 2018, has been charged in federal court with stealing trade secrets, and faces 10 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. Zhang was arrested trying to leave the country this past weekend. The news was first reported by The Mercury News.“

Pokémon kinda did a little bit of a blackface thing in a recent episode and Disney is not having it.
The 64th episode of the latest Pokémon Sun and Moon television series is not airing in the West, probably because the main character, Ash Ketchum, got his face painted black so he could blend in with a group of Pokémon whose faces are blackPolygon reported Tuesday that the episode already aired in Japan, but is not scheduled to air on its western network Disney XD.
SEE ALSO:

The world continues to celebrate the triumphant rescue of a soccer team trapped inside a cave. 
A photo of the four Thai Navy SEALs who stayed with the soccer team in the cave has gone viral after being shared on the SEALs' Facebook page. The photo has been shared over 89,000 times at the time of writing, and has racked up a whopping 509,000 likes. 
"All 4 Thai Navy SEALs came out safely," said the Thai Navy SEALs caption. 
SEE ALSO: You can bid on a war hero's century-old chocola

The Google Home is one of the top home assistants on the market right now with a few different models to choose from. Whether you need news and weather updates or hands-free calls, Google Home can take care of many needs.
SEE ALSO: Google Home review: Google Assistant runs circles around Alexa
With three versions available, there's no bad decision to make, especially since they can be linked together. And if you run to Walmart.com through July 17, you can load up thanks to sales on all three sma

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

World Cup fans can't get enough of Umtiti's smooth moves. 
Samuel Umtiti, French World Cup player and now, pitch dance master, had the most adorable victory strut after scoring a winning goal for France. 
SEE ALSO: Little French boy waves baguette at World Cup, help help, I'm dying
After advancing France to the finals on Tuesday, Umtiti jogged off the field with sassy hip-swinging triumph before saluting to the audience stands. Umtiti puts #FRA on the board, nails the post-goal da

Nothing comes in between Kristen Bell and a Sunday dip in the pool — not even her hatred of those weird, pruney fingers we all get when our hands are exposed to water for too long. 
Heat wave be damned, the actress was caught on Instagram with something that is normally reserved for blizzards not pool days: gloves. 
SEE ALSO: 14 awesome movies that are full of groups of ladies being incredible
"My bride wears gloves in the pool because she hates the feeling of pruney finger tips

On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission will be voting to ensure they won’t have to read your complaints anymore— and Democratic House members are not happy about it.
Two high-ranking Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee sent a letter addressed to the Commission’s chairman Ajit Pai earlier today to voice their disapproval of a proposed rule that, if approved, would send informal consumer complaints directly through to the company in question. “At a t

As surely as the leaves will turn color, Apple will announce new iPhones this fall. Based on the flood of rumors and purported leaks hitting the internet daily, we're expecting three new iPhones.
The 5.8-inch iPhone X will probably get a refresh of the internals with faster performance. And all signs suggest Apple will introduce a larger version, the "iPhone X Plus," with a 6.5-inch OLED screen.
But the breakout hit might not be either of these premium devices, but a new entry-level iPhone with

A looming trade war with China hasn't slowed down Elon Musk or his beloved brainchild Tesla.
Right after the car company was forced to raise the prices of its cars by at least $20,000 each due to China's increased import tariffs on American-made cars, Tesla announced it would open its first international factory in Shanghai.
This will ultimately allow the car manufacturer to circumvent the newly imposed taxes once completed.
Musk was in Shanghai on Tuesday attending a government event — al

UPDATE: Jul. 10, 9:04 p.m. EST Lot18 and MGM have decided not to move forward with their line of Handmaid's Tale-inspired wines, as reported by Entertainment Weekly. Original story follows.
While The Handmaid's Tale is closing out Season 2, the real world is starting to look like it's in the prequel stages. Luckily, Lot18 is ready for the decline of civilization with Handmaid's Tale-inspired wines.
Wines. They're character themed, so there's a June, an Emily, and a Serena Joy.
Wines.
SEE AL

While The Handmaid's Tale is closing out Season 2, the real world is starting to look like it's in the prequel stages. Luckily, Lot18 is ready for the decline of civilization with Handmaid's Tale-inspired wines.
Wines. They're character themed, so there's a June, an Emily, and a Serena Joy.
Wines.
SEE ALSO: Everyone is comparing Trump's border policy to 'Handmaid's Tale,' even the creatorImage:lot18First of all, let's clarify one thing: The wines are named for their characters, and the June and

At this point, Netflix may officially be producing original content faster than even the most devoted fans can watch it, but that hasn’t slowed the streaming service down. Today, via the Twitter account @SeeWhatsNext (billed as “News about Netflix by Netflix from inside Netflix”), the company announced its plans for a new animated series, written by Futurama and Avatar: The Last Airbender screenwriter Aaron Ehasz. The show will be called The Dragon Prince, and will involve two

On Monday evening in southern Arizona, cars and trucks disappeared from the usually well-trafficked Interstate 8 highway.
A massive dust storm, known as a haboob, smothered the road and surrounding region in a thick cloud of desert dustStorm chaser Mike Olbinski had a "good inkling" thunderstorms in the area might produce such a storm, and rushed east, from California.
SEE ALSO: Bear cam cub gets killed by a powerful male bear. Why?
But he wasn't expecting a towering, apocalyptic wall of dust.
"

Amazon Echo 2
$99.99View Product
The Good
Smaller speaker packs a bigger punch than original • Design you actually won't mind looking at • Unmatched mics
The Bad
Volume buttons are kind of clunky • Alexa app still requires a lot of setup to get your settings just right
The Bottom Line
Amazon's second-generation Echo packs better sound and smarter mics into a smaller and better-sounding speaker than the original.Mashable Score4.0Cool Factor3.5Learning Curve4.0Performance4.0Bang fo

Parks and Rec dynamic duo, Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman, are promoting their new competition show in a manner that is... punbelievable. 
Perched in Adirondack chairs amid a beautiful The Great British Bake Off-esque backdrop, the two face off in a craft centric pun challenge. With gems like "Y'all thready for this?" and "Oh, I felt that one," their charming quips preview the delightful banter we can expect from NBC's new reality series Making It. 
Poehler and Offerman host and judge t

There is one frustrating truth about our modern, digital age: Wires are annoying. 
As more of us are trying to end cable clutter, may we suggest you go the wireless route for your headphones too? It's an approach being taken in every aspect of consumer tech, from computer setups to home theater systems. Headphones are proving to be no different.
SEE ALSO: 7 of the best on-ear headphones, according to online reviews
More and more companies are releasing headphones that don't require any auxi

The family of a murdered teenager honored his memory by displaying his body as he lived: playing video games and surrounded by snacks. 
Renard Matthews was tragically shot two weeks ago in New Orleans. His mother, Temeka Matthews, told WGNO that Matthews was a bit of a "homebody," and that he only recently started venturing out for walks after she got him a dog. 
SEE ALSO: 'Dead' woman wakes up in a morgue. Why does this keep happening?
The 18-year-old was an avid gamer, so his mother

More than 46 malls in California appear to be feeding data back to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents through a license plate reader network, according to a new report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).The report focuses on Irvine Company Retail Properties, which operates a string of open-air malls in southeastern Los Angeles. According to a disclosure on the company’s website, Irvine Company has been an active client of Vigilant Solutions since at least 2016 by

Apple has combined its various artificial intelligence divisions into a new structure led by recent hire John Giannandrea, formerly Google’s head of search and AI. TechCrunch first reported the restructuring earlier today, and Apple confirmed the change with an update to its executive leadership page. Giannandrea will now be in charge of Apple’s machine learning division, its Siri team, and the Core ML team. Core ML is the machine learning API Apple launched last year to help native

It may soon be a little easier for some people to get that coveted blue checkmark on Instagram.
The Facebook-owned service is beginning to to test a new verification process with an official request form, publicly accessible within the app for the first time.
SEE ALSO: Instagram reveals the secret sauce powering its algorithm
For now, the new form is only available in Instagram's iPhone app in Australia and a few other unspecified countries, but the company says it'll be available to Android use

On a short making-of documentary included on the Blu-ray release of the 2013 film The Purge, writer-director James DeMonaco says, “If it sparks any kind of discourse about violence in society, I think that’s a good thing. If people just enjoy it, great. But if they want to talk about violence, guns in our society, that’s great, too.” That kind of half-commitment to the film’s political elements defined the series until now, with the audacious 2018 prequel The First

WhatsApp is now labeling its forwarded messages, in a move that the company hopes will curb some of the app’s viral misinformation problems.
In a blog post published earlier today, WhatsApp announced the new label, which will indicate when a message has been forwarded to someone from another user. The label will apply to text, image, video and audio messages, according to Poynter.“This extra context will help make one-on-one and group chats easier to follow,” the blog reads. &

At times the summer months seem to drag on with their sweltering temperatures and seemingly limitless supply of eye- and skin-damaging sunshine.
But there's a less oppressive light at the end of this very bright tunnel, and it's made out of thousands of tiny pixels. Yes, I'm talking about screens, an important part of the most enjoyable summer experience: staying inside and watching shit.
SEE ALSO: The 10 best films of 2018 (so far)
Lucky for us, there are still so many summer releases to look f

The internet's cutest bird couple has produced some equally cute bird offspring.
Perhaps you recall Kiwi and Siouxsie, the not-goth and goth (respectively) lovebirds that started dating last September. Well, friends, an update on that front: they are married now. In fact, their eggs hatched about a month ago!
SEE ALSO: The most heartwarming tale of amateur squirrel dentistry you'll read today
🌈Remember Kiwi & his goth gf? Well now she's his goth wife and they have 4 beautiful half go

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the iOS App Store, which has a lot of us here at The Verge thinking about what the first apps that we ever went and installed on our iPhones and iPod Touches were.Fortunately, Apple makes this easy — the App Store has a “Purchased” section designed to let you easily re-download apps, which also serves as a convenient ledger of (almost) all theapps you’ve ever bought or installed on your devices. (Despite the name, the section includes

Facebook is currently testing a new feature for Messenger that would identify suspicious accounts sending unwarranted direct messages, letting users know the account’s country of origin by phone number and whether it was recently created. The new feature was first disclosed by Motherboard, which received a screenshot of the test from multimedia artist Erin Gallagher. Facebook confirmed to Motherboard that it is indeed testing the feature, but spokesperson Dalya Browne said it was a &ldquo

Facebook is currently testing a new feature for Messenger that would identify suspicious accounts sending unwarranted direct messages, letting users know the account’s country of origin by phone number and whether it was recently created. The new feature was first disclosed by Motherboard, which received a screenshot of the test from multimedia artist Erin Gallagher. Facebook confirmed to Motherboard that it is indeed testing the feature, but spokesperson Dalya Browne said it was a &ldquo

In a heart-wrenching post, a Microsoft software engineer opened up about her personal immigration story.
Sri Ponnada shared on Facebook that she must leave the United States in six months because of the nation's current immigration issues that have forced her and her family to wait years for green cards, despite proper documentation. Her post is starting conversations about how the system is also impacting children who came to this country, and those who are now adults still navigating a complex

For weeks, a subreddit dedicated to the villain of Avengers: Infinity War has been obsessed with obliterating half its community. This random, historic Reddit ban, executed yesterday, successfully slammed the door on more than 300,000 accounts. In the words of r/ThanosDidNothingWrong, balance has been achieved.In the days leading up to the ban — which many users are assuming will be a one-time Reddit event — hundreds of thousands of people have subscribed to the subreddit for the ch

Dell has halved the cost of its 27-inch S2716DG G-Sync monitor from $700 down to $399. On top of that, the company is offering a $100 gift card with purchase of the monitor. You’ll want to act fast, though, as there is a limited supply of these monitors going at this rate.
It’s not hard to find a G-Sync monitor at this price point, though this Dell monitor outperforms much of what you’ll find if this is your budget cap (in more ways than just its size.) This model offers QHD r

Oh, cats.
Please don't come after me for saying this, but cats are terrible pets. They're mischievous monsters that will completely ignore the perfectly good toys you buy in favor of shredding every piece of furniture in your home. They'll have no interest in being pet at a reasonable hour, but will wake you up in the middle of the night for a chin scratch. They'll leave the worst gifts for you as a token of their affection — dead mice, pieces of centipedes, and socks you thought you lost

Welcome to 2018, Google Pay.
The payment platform announced today that people can finally pay friends with the app (lol), save concert tickets and boarding passes (yay!), and manage their payment information in one spot (wow).
These updates were announced earlier this year during the Google Pay (formerly Android Pay and Google Wallet) rebranding, but the features rolled out today have long been functions in competitor payment platforms like Venmo and Apple Pay.
SEE ALSO: Google pays tribute to s

You’ll soon be able to try on sunglasses and buy them without ever leaving your Facebook app.
SEE ALSO: Facebook 'split memes' are driving everyone crazy
The social media company announced Tuesday that it's beginning to test augmented reality advertisements in the News Feed. 
For the uninitiated, augmented reality (AR) is a technology that overlays digital images onto real world objects. For example, when people play Pokemon Go on their smartphone, the technology that visually superim

For a communication app that has become a such crucial part of so many workplaces, Slack sure does have some really poor internal search tools. Fortunately, it looks like the company is finally changing that, with revamped in-app searching that looks like it might finally fix — or at the very least, improve on — the feature.
Slack’s new search looks a lot like Alfred at first glance. Now when you search, a big, pop-up search bar will appear over your window, and intelligently

Postmates will begin service in 100 more US cities as part of its largest expansion yet. New shops and restaurants have been added as well, per the company’s announcement in a blog post.
The cities include: Albuquerque, Allen, Ann Arbor, Arlington, Auburn, Bakersfield, Baton Rouge, Birmingham, Blaine, Bloomington, Blue Springs, Boise, Brooklyn Park, Burnsville, Charleston, Cicero, Cincinnati, Clearwater, Cleveland, Clovis, Colorado Springs, Dearborn, Denton, Des Plaines, Detroit, East Ora