Technology news

After unveiling its new Chrome OS business notebooks in May, Acer has finally announced when the laptops will hit the market — and how much they’ll cost. The new Chromebook 13 and Chromebook Spin 13 will be available for commercial customers starting in September. Both models feature an all-aluminum body, a 13.5-inch, 2256 x 1504 IPS display with 3:2 aspect ratio, and a Gorilla Glass touchpad.Prices for the Chromebook 13, a traditional-style notebook, start at $649.99 for an Intel C

An increasing number of enterprises take advantage of bug bounty programs to identify vulnerabilities and structural weaknesses within software. But outside of these formal programs, informing vendors about security issues can be a legal minefield. Some firms welcome the help of the security community, and seek to reward it with bounties, swag, and offers of employment. Others don’t respond well, and respond with legal threats — or worse, they call the cops. A great example of the l

Amazon’s chat-style fiction app, Amazon Rapids, is now free, giving parents and kids unlimited access to the hundreds of stories in its catalog. Previously, the company charged $2.99 monthly for that privilege. Some of these stories will also be available to listen to through Alexa’s Storytime mode, which was launched last summer.
Rapids made its debut in 2016. The then-subscription based service was meant to get children interested in reading, by presenting short stories in the sty

Samsung has published a preorder announcement for the Galaxy Note 9 on its website — but it hasn’t even officially announced the phone yet. The page reads, “Say hello to super power” and invites customers to preorder and be “one of the first to experience it.” The page is still up at the time of writing, as first spotted by VentureBeat’s Evan Blass.The tech giant has a habit of leaking its own product releases early and this time is no different. The pr

Facebook today released a “Digital Literacy Library,” a series of education modules designed to help parents and teachers educate children on best behavior online. But Facebook seems to be leaving out questions about what it could do to protect kids online as well. The lessons, aimed at children between the ages of 11-18, cover such topics as privacy, security, and how to behave respectfully. The lessons were created by Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society

Amazon’s former Alexa smart home boss, Charlie Kindel, is joining home automation specialists Control4. Kindel spent five years at Amazon and was instrumental in creating the Alexa and Echo Smart Home features along with the “Works with Alexa” program. At Control4, Kindel will lead the company’s overall products and services, which span across software and hardware to power home automation.
Control4 is one of the most popular home automation systems, and the company prof

Comcast and Amazon have announced a new partnership to launch Amazon’s Prime Video service on Comcast’s Xfinity X1 set-top box, as reported by TechCrunch. The integration will give Xfinity users access to Amazon original series like Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel as well as movies, shows, documentaries, and over 160 premium Prime Video channels, including HBO, Showtime, Starz, and Cinemax.
This is the first time Prime Video has been added to an MVPD platf

A team of German researchers published a study earlier this week indicating people can be duped into leaving a robot turned on just because it “asks” them to. The problem is called personification and it could cause our species some problems as machines become more integrated into our society. Robots, to hear us in the media tell it, represent the biggest existential threat to humanity since the atom bomb. In the movies they rise up and kill us with bullets and lasers, and in the he

Just a few days after the inaugural season wrapped up, Blizzard has announced two new teams for its fledgling Overwatch League. For season two, clubs in Atlanta and Guangzhou will join the league, bringing the total number of teams to 14.
The Atlanta team is owned by a new company called Atlanta Esports Ventures, backed by Cox Enterprises, a massive conglomerate based in the city. Guangzhou, meanwhile, is owned by Chinese financial and entertainment company Nenking Group, which also operates th

The Trump administration moved to lower nationwide vehicle fuel efficiency rules today by arguing that dirtier cars will be safer. The administration is also trying to take away California’s power to set its own greenhouse gas emissions standards and zero-emission vehicle program, which are initiatives that many other states around the country have followed for years.
It’s a move that fulfills two of President Donald Trump’s common goals: undercutting Barack Obama’s poli

The US-based smart speaker company Sonos went public on Nasdaq today, launching an initial public offering valued at $16 per share. Hours later, its shares jumped over 25 percent for a high of $21, at the time of writing.
“We’re raising our profile a bit and stepping onto the bigger stage. I don’t think it could be better timed,” Sonos CEO Patrick Spence says in a phone call with The Verge. “It’s the next phase of us growing up as a company.”
Going publ

We’ve already got a handful of new Moto phones this year, including some Amazon exclusives, and today Motorola is adding yet another device to the list: the Moto Z3.So first, the specs. It’s a six-inch device with Super AMOLED display, 4GB of RAM, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, a 12 MP dual rear camera, and 8 MP front camera. It costs $480 retail exclusively at Verizon, and will be available on August 16th. So here’s the difference: the Z3 will have a Snapdragon X50 mode

We’ve already got a handful of new Moto phones this year, including some Amazon exclusives, and today Motorola is adding yet another device to the list: the Moto Z3.So first, the specs. It’s a six-inch device with Super AMOLED display, 4GB of RAM, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, a 12 MP dual rear camera, and 8 MP front camera. It costs $480 retail exclusively at Verizon, and will be available on August 16th. So here’s the difference: the Z3 will be the first Moto Z device

Uproxx Media Group — owner of sites like HitFix, Dime and Uproxx itself — has been acquired.
The Uproxx site focuses on entertainment and pop culture news, and was founded back in 2008. It was bought by Woven Digital in 2014, which eventually rebranded as Uproxx. Like many digital media companies, it includes both a publishing arm and a studio that works with marketers to create videos and other branded content.
Today, Warner Music Group announced that it’s buying the company a

Since announcing her new job with The New York Times, a widespread campaign of harassment has targeted Verge reporter Sarah Jeong for a number of tweets she wrote years ago. Many of those now reacting to these tweets have intentionally taken them out of context, and she has since received an unrelenting stream of abuse from strangers on the internet.
You can read Sarah’s own statement about her tweets here. But as the editors of The Verge, we want to be clear: this abusive backlash is dis

If you’re on Instagram for long enough, you start to notice certain patterns emerge around types of photos: pictures in the same hot locations, framed in the same way, with the same vistas. One farm in Canada was unlucky enough to become a local Instagram obsession recently, and the increase in attention got totally out of control.
As The Globe and Mail reports, Bogle Seeds in Hamilton, Ontario had to close down its fields to all visitors following a viral image that lead to a massive inc

As expected, the first major test flights for Boeing and SpaceX’s new passenger spacecraft have been delayed again. Following an engine test mishap, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner will likely perform two crucial test flights next year, instead of this year as planned. Meanwhile, SpaceX still aims to fly its Crew Dragon for the first time later this year without people on board, followed by its first crewed flight in April 2019.Boeing and SpaceX are both developing spacecraft as part of

Patreon is declining significant numbers of subscriber payments to some creators on the platform, sending many who are reliant on this income scrambling to recoup their losses. Patrons who support creators also report that their contributions are being marked as fraud by their banks.Creators logging on today found that some of their July payments have been affected due to what appears to be a combination of banking issues and changes to internal company operations. While it’s unclear why

The camera lens manufacturers at Venus Optics have just launched their latest creation: a foot-long, skinny camera lens that’s meant to give you a macro view of the tiniest parts of the world.The Laowa 24mm f/14 2x Macro Probe was developed to give photographers and videographers a “new perspective” and remove traditional barriers that come with using macro lenses. Traditional macro lenses aren’t a foot long, meaning that photographers need to get super close to their su

The Darkest Minds is based on a 2012 young adult novel by Alexandra Bracken, but its themes and plot are up to the minute. A story about children who are taken from their parents and warehoused, government camps, and a callous, mendacious authoritarian president couldn’t be much more relevant in the Trump era. The book was pretty standard fare, but the film had an unexpected chance to capitalize on, and speak to, present policies that seem as bleak and cruel as any nightmare apocalypse.Un

Game trailers are often our first impression on a coming title, so color me surprised when I noticed so many of them are dark, gloomy, and disorienting. Early trailers for AAA games can often be poorly lit and held together by jumpy editing. While these trailers aren’t always the most informative, there’s a reason they’re used to hype up an unfinished game. When I saw the trailer for Shadow of the Tomb Raider, I was confused because I couldn’t, for the life of me, t

Comcast’s Xfinity Mobile has created a seven-day challenge called “The Phone Cleanse,” that’s meant to make you more aware of how you use your phone... and then try to sell you on a switch to its network.
The website gives straightforward pieces of advice that should be familiar to anyone who has tried to streamline their phone’s contents and how it’s used. Some of the suggestions include deleting apps you haven’t used in a while, turning your screen to

Welcome to TNW’s beginner’s guide to AI. This (currently) four part feature should provide you with a very basic understanding of what AI is, what it can do, and how it works. The guide contains articles on (in order published) neural networks, computer vision, natural language processing, and algorithms. It’s not necessary to read them all, but doing so may better help your understanding of the topics covered.  The word algorithm used to be something only calculus s

The worldwide tablet market has been declining year after year for what feels like… forever. In fact, it’s been spiraling downward for 15 straight quarters, and the second quarter of 2018 didn’t show any improvement to that trend. Unlike many other tablet makers, however, Apple and Huawei have been able to hold out some growth, albeit minimal, according to IDC’s latest industry report.The amount of tablets shipped worldwide was 33 million this past quarter, decreasing b

Samsung is holding an event next week to announce the Galaxy Note 9 and some accessories to go along with it. But last night, Amazon seems to have put one of those accessories on display for everyone to see — not on its website, but at a physical location in New York where the company was holding a holiday preview event for the media.
Gizmodo spotted Samsung’s unannounced but heavily rumored dual wireless charger on display at the event. The device has two charging spots, one proppe

Musical.ly users opened their phones to a surprise today as they found the app replaced with a new logo and name: TikTok. The app was acquired by Chinese company ByteDance in November 2017, which absorbed Musical.ly into its own TikTok app this morning. Existing Musical.ly users have been migrated over to their new TikTok accounts, which have been updated with a new interface but still retains the core feature of both apps: short-form videos up to 15 seconds.
Teen karaoke app Musical.ly, which

California’s recent temperatures have crushed decades-long records, reaching 120 degrees Fahrenheit in Chino and 111 degrees in LA last month alone.
While the temperatures may have stunned residents, there’s one group that isn’t surprised: climate scientists predicted everything from the blistering heat and blazing fires to the state’s massive power outages more than a decade ago. In recent years, they say, we’ve seen a climate that’s a harbinger of what&rsqu

Robots designed to interact socially with humans are slowly becoming more and more common. They’re appearing as receptionists, tour guides, security guards, and porters. But how good are we at treating these robots as robots? A growing body of evidence suggests not good at all. Studies have repeatedly shown we’re extremely susceptible to social cues coming from machines, and a recent experiment by German researchers demonstrates that people will even refuse to turn a robot off &mdas

Before there was a Surface Book, Surface Studio, or Surface Pro, there was just the Surface. It’s been over three years since Microsoft last updated its smallest and cheapest series of devices, but it was worth the wait. Armed with a budget price and solid performance, the Surface Go, now on sale, feels like the computer Microsoft has been trying to make since the original. It’s about time. Though the OG Surface basically invented the modern 2-in-1 PC, it was crippled by Windows RT

If you’re a regular at a coffee shop or some other small business that uses Square’s checkout system, you’ve seen the same gray-and-white screens — tip, signature, receipt — over and over and over. But today, Square is opening up the ability for developers to create brand-new interfaces for Square’s payment system to be attached to so that businesses don’t all have to use the exact same app.
That means, eventually, your local coffee shop could end up wi

MoviePass may not be dead — at least not yet — but the service is now a far cry from its original “all-you-can-watch” moviegoing pitch. Following a massive outage last week and an emergency loan to keep the service up and running, MoviePass announced on Monday that it would have to significantly curtail the benefits it provides its users, including the ability to see new first-run movies, to keep the service from going under.The move has prompted some customers to cancel

For people who use Google Maps to get directions or conveniently share their location with friends and family, a new feature is starting to roll out to the app. First discovered by Android Police, your friend’s battery level will be included in the set of information you receive when they share their location with you. It’s a helpful addition for keeping tabs on your friends and ensuring they’re safe.
When you share your location with someone in the Google Maps app, it will sh