Technology news

It’s not secret Slack has dominated workplace communication among tech companies the last few years, but Microsoft began to fight back when it introduced Teams back in 2016. There was just one problem: Teams didn’t have a free option. That changes today. A free tier is pretty much essential for smaller businesses and companies. Slack has one, and it’s an easy way to onboard customers in hopes they’ll upgrade later. In a clear attempt to one-up Slack, Microsoft’s Te

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed to appeal a federal judge’s decision to approve AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner.
Back when he was campaigning for the presidency, Donald Trump said his administration would block the deal, and indeed, the DOJ sued to stop the merger, arguing it would hurt competition.
Last month, however, U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon ruled that the deal could move forward without conditions. He said from the bench, “The court

Over the past two decades, the Mission: Impossible film franchise has become the reliable, comforting home that’s always ready to shelter Tom Cruise. No matter what turns his career takes, there’s always Ethan Hunt: the dogged Impossible Missions Force operative who always gives 110 percent, perpetually putting himself at risk to secure other people’s safety.
In a different era, Hunt would serve as a sort of Platonic action-hero ideal, and there wouldn’t be any need to d

Jarno M. Koponen Contributor Jarno M. Koponen is working on intelligent systems and human-centered personalization. He currently is product lead at Yle, one of the leading media houses in the Nordics. More posts by this contributorAI on your lock screen The next AI is no AI
To put it mildly, news media has been on the sidelines in AI development. As a consequence, in the age of AI-powered personalized interfaces, the news organizations don’t anymore get to define what’s real ne

Robinhood has gone from being a little consumer-facing fintech app to an absolutely giant consumer-facing fintech app.
The company, which launched in 2013, has ballooned to a $5.6 billion valuation on the heels of a $363 million Series D financing round led by DST Global. The app has also grown to 5 million users, as of today, with more than $150 billion in transaction volume.
But the app, which lets people trade stocks and options for free, is also dabbling in the wondrous world of cryptocurren

The Justice Department will appeal a court ruling that allowed the merger between AT&T and Time Warner. In court records released today, the agency said it plans to take the lower court’s decision to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, in another attempt to block the deal.The ruling was a rebuke of antitrust enforcers
Last month’s decision against the Justice Department was a severe rebuke of the Trump administration’s antitrust enforcement team, and it allowed for the creati

The FCC announced today that it’ll bolster the country’s Emergency Alert System to prevent unexpected false alarms, like the one that happened in Hawaii earlier this year. State and local officials will now be able to conduct “live code” tests that’ll use the same alert codes and processes that would be required in an actual emergency. The idea is that officials will better learn the system while the public will get used to responding to alerts and know what to exp

A closed group for women at genetic risk for breast cancer wasn’t as private as its members thought, according to a new report from CNBC.The BRCA Sisterhood group was created as a support network for women with the BRCA gene, a mutation that greatly increases the risk of breast cancer, often resulting in preemptive mastectomy. The group was listed as “private” because of the sensitivity of the issue. But while the content of the group was closed to outsiders, the group’s

The history of Hollywood is littered with film projects that waste away in “development hell” for years, or worse, are abandoned altogether, leaving movie-goers to wonder “what if?” Titles like Alejandro Jodorowsky’s ambitious Dune project or Nicholas Cage’s Superman Lives tease an alternate past in which a very different set of films hit theaters. One notable project that dangled in front of fans was the sequel to James Cameron’s Aliens, Alien 3. Initi

Googleacquired API management service Apigee back in 2016, but it’s been pretty quiet around the service in recent years. Today, however, Apigeeannounced a number of smaller updates that introduce a few new integrations with the Google Cloud platform, as well as a major new partnership with cloud data management and integration firm Informatica that essentially makes Informatica the preferred integration partner for Google Apigee.
Like most partnerships in this space, the deal with Informa

A few folks have reported a new ransomware technique that preys upon corporate inability to keep passwords safe. The notes – which are usually aimed at instilling fear – are simple: the hacker says “I know that your password is X. Give me a bitcoin and I won’t blackmail you.”
Programmer Can Duruk reported getting the email today.
Woah. This is cool. A Bitcoin ransom with using what I think is passwords from a big leak. Pretty neat since people would be legit scared

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the vast majority of the human population do not look their best first thing in the morning. And the iPhone X apparently agrees, as the phone’s signature Face ID feature reportedly struggles to recognize its users in their waking states. An article on Slate tallies up some of the circumstances under which Face ID seems to flounder, and mentions that a common complaint is that Face ID won’t accept the face of a freshly-awoken person is that

Since its debut on the TechCrunch Disrupt stage in September 2016, demand for a service like productboard, which gives companies a holistic view of product development and encourages input from across an organization, has only gotten more acute, according to company chief executive Hubert Palan.
Now, with an $8 million commitment from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, with participation from Index Ventures, Credo Ventures, Reflex Capital and Rockaway Capital, alongside a host of an

Once your startup has taken off in your local market, expanding geographically is a natural next step. Asia is likely to be on your target list given its promising consumer market that comprises a burgeoning middle-class with a high spending power, as well as increasing mobile and internet connectivity. I’ve seen startups going down this path but risks that emerge in Asia can prove to be a deal-breaker if not managed from the onset. Cultural risk Asia comprises over four billion people. I

It might feel like summer just started, but Apple’s Back to School promotion is now live, starting today through September 25th, once again offering students who buy new Macs and iPad Pros some free Beats headphones.As has been been the case in years past, the deal is mostly meant for college students (although college faculty and faculty at K-12 schools are also eligible). Buying a Mac — whether that be an iMac, iMac Pro, Mac Pro, MacBook, MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air — will g

In the wake of Broadcom failing to complete its takeover of Qualcomm, Intelis buying another chip company as it works on adjusting its own its business to fit the next generation of computing. Today, the company is announcing that it is acquiring eASIC, a fabless semiconductor company that makes customisable eASICchips for use in wireless and cloud environments.
Financial terms of the deal are not being disclosed, as the price paid will not be material to Intel. eASIC has 120 employees, was foun

Smart home security startup Canary has introduced a “safety button” for their iOS app. The feature, powered by Noonlight, offers a distressed user the ability to get the help they need quickly, and with no talking required.The safety button — which looks like a miniature shield — is reached through the Canary app’s home screen. Upon opening the feature, users can press and hold the icon down, and after releasing it, they can enter their PIN to disable the distress

It’s Emmy Nomination Day in America, which means it’s time to obsess over potential winners, losers, and first-timers — and, of course, to tally the snubs, line up the grudges, and consider what the nominees say about what the television industry values right now. The Emmy Awards ceremony will be held on September 17th.
The biggest news: Netflix continues to cement its domination of the television landscape, racking up an eye-popping 117 nominations this year, and breaking HBO

The Federal Communications Commission voted 3–1 today to change how it handles consumer complaints, but questions over what those changes mean turned into a heated exchange among the agency’s commissioners.
Earlier this week, House Democrats said in a letter to the agency that a proposed change could lead consumers filing free informal complaints with the agency to file formal ones instead — a process that costs $225.The Republican leadership at the agency disputed the letter,

The Federal Communications Commission voted 3–1 today to change how it handles consumer complaints, but questions over what those changes mean turned into a heated exchange among the agency’s commissioners.
Earlier this week, House Democrats said in a letter to the agency that a proposed change could lead consumers filing free informal complaints with the agency into filing formal ones instead — a process that costs $225.The Republican leadership at the agency disputed the let

Microsoft is launching its collaborative Whiteboard app on Windows 10 today, and promising versions for iOS and the web soon. The app has been in preview for Windows 10 for the past seven months, and it’s now being made widely available on PCs alongside a new version for the web and iOS devices. Whiteboard lets users make notes on a virtual whiteboard that can be shared and edited with others in real time across devices.
Anyone can access the app, but to collaborate with multiple people a

Microsoft is introducing a free version of Microsoft Teams today, the company’s Slack competitor. Microsoft Teams originally launched back in November 2016 with no free or freemium tiers for businesses to upgrade from. While 200,000 businesses now use Microsoft Teams, a lack of a free version made it difficult for small businesses and freelancers to use Microsoft Teams as it was limited to an Office 365 subscription. That’s all changing today with the launch of a free version of Mic

Facebook’s annual diversity report is out, and if you’ve been following these for the past few years, you already know what to expect: small improvements that, while welcome, are still an indication that bigger change in employee diversity at the company may demand a different approach to what Facebook has been doing so far.It’s not that Facebook isn’t getting better at hiring more women and minorities — once again, the company has improved in overall diversity by

E-cigarette startup Juul Labs plans to start releasing e-liquid options with 40 percent less nicotine this August, the company announced today. The lower-dose pods could give vapers a way to start cutting the amount of nicotine they inhale without having to take fewer puffs. But the new lower-dose pods are probably still a long way from being non-addictive — at least, if you’re going by cigarette research.
Juul Labs’ patented system delivers nicotine a lot like a cigarette &md