Technology news

Twiliotoday reported a positive quarter that brought it to profitability — on an adjusted basis — ahead of schedule for Wall Street, sending the stock soaring 16 percent in extended hours after the release came out.
While according to traditional accounting principles Twilio still lost money (this usually includes stock-based compensation, a key component of compensation packages), the company is still showing that it has the capability of being profitable. Born as a go-to tool for s

Amazon has confirmed that a new feature is coming to Alexa devices called “Answer Update,” as reported by TechCrunch. If you ask Alexa a question and it doesn’t have the information to respond, this new feature will enable Alexa to notify you at a later time if it learns the answer.
The new feature was first discovered by digital assistant blog Voicebot, when a user asked for more information about a news item and Alexa responded by saying that sometimes it doesn’t have

In an appeal brief filed today, the Justice Department made its case for why the DC Circuit Court of Appeals should overturn a lower court’s decision to let AT&T and Time Warner merge.The department’s argument, in short, says that the district court judge made a series of mistakes by not considering all the facts in his economic analysis approving the merger. The appeal argues that the judge “clearly erred” in his analysis of bargaining leverage Time Warner would gai

As popular as Pokémon GO is, it has always been missing one major feature: pitting your Pokémon directly against another trainer’s. Strange, since that was the entire basis of the franchise to begin with! But the mobile game will at last get this much-requested feature by the end of the year, the company told Polish news site Gram.
After a record-shattering debut and then a long slump as players perceived the game’s shallowness and abandoned it en masse, Pokémon

The FCC has come clean on the fact that a purported hack of its comment system last year never actually took place, after a report from its inspector general found a lack of evidence supporting the idea. Chairman Ajit Pai blamed the former chief information officer and the Obama administration for providing “inaccurate information about this incident to me, my office, Congress, and the American people.”
The semi-apology and finger-pointing are a disappointing conclusion to the year-l

HyperX makes some of the best gaming headsets around, and now, the accessory maker has an officially licensed Sony headset for PlayStation 4 users under its Cloud brand. The HyperX Cloud is the company’s standard headset. It costs $80 for the most recent version, and the licensed PS4 version will maintain that price. For people who play way too much Fortnite, like yours truly, owning a headset like this is pivotal for hearing footsteps and pinpointing an opponent’s location.HyperX a

Fossil’s smartwatches have always eschewed features for simplicity and affordability. They put Google’s Wear OS software on your wrist in a clean design that looks like a traditional watch, and that’s it. Many of them haven’t offered heart-rate tracking, and zero have allowed owners to make mobile payments with their wrist. But that’s changing now. Today, Fossil announced the fourth-generation of its Fossil Q lineup, and the latest models add all of those features

Early Tuesday morning, SpaceX is slated to launch a new communications satellite from the Florida coast, using one of its used Falcon 9 rockets for the job. However, this is the first time that SpaceX will reuse one of its new powerful Block 5 boosters — the final upgrade of the Falcon 9 that is supposed to be able to go to space and back up to 100 times. Previous versions of the vehicle were only able to fly to space twice, meaning this particular vehicle could be the first Falcon 9 to g

Last month, Microsoft announced it would be shutting down the desktop version of Skype 7.0, otherwise known as classic Skype, in September and transitioning users and businesses to the redesigned Skype 8.0. Following what the company describes as “customer feedback,” classic Skype will be sticking around for “some time” to “bring all the features you’ve asked for into Skype 8,” per Windows blog Thurrott. Skype 8 was first unveiled as a mobile redesign l

Zillow, the publicly traded real estate portal and lead generation service, has acquired Mortgage Lenders of America. This is Zillow’s first move into originating mortgages. Until now, the company’s focus in this space was on providing home buyers with quotes from a variety of third-party lenders.
The financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
Mortgage Lenders of America (MLoA) is a privately held online lender based in Kansas. It will continue to operate as u

As of late, Lyfthas been doubling down on its messaging that it wants to reduce the amount of car ownership in the U.S. The company’s most recent example of its anti-car ownership efforts is coming in the form of a partnership with car rental company Avis.
As part of a multi-year deal, Avis will add thousands of cars to Lyft’s Express Drive program, which offers drivers a way to rent cars on a weekly basis from Hertz, Flexdrive and now, Avis.
“Our partnership with Avis&nbs

Googlehopes to add a few digital wellness features to its latest desserted update, Pie (out today) but Apple is already on this health track with its latest update for iOS 12.
Digital wellness allows users to keep track of time spent on and unplug from your digital device when needed. Google announced the new wellness features coming to Androidat I/O in May, including a dashboard for digital wellness, or the ability to track just how much time you spend on your device, an app timer that let

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Apple’s upcoming macOS Mojave release will have an improved data migration tool that will let Windows users transfer app accounts, contacts, documents, emails, and other third-party app data when moving from a PC to a Mac. First spotted by someone on Twitter and later noted by 9to5Mac, the new feature is part of the existing Migration Utility tool, which could already move some data from a Windows PC to a new Mac. Now, however, the tool will let you transfer data from third-party applicat

For all of you time-strapped startup founders hoping to apply to TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield Latin America, we have good news! We’re extending your deadline!
You now have an extra week to submit your application to our premier pitch competition taking place in Latin America for the first time ever on November 8, 2018, in São Paulo, Brazil. The deadline to apply is Monday, August 13 at 5 p.m. PST, so submit that application today.
Recently, the TechCrunch team traveled thr

The removal of conspiracy enthusiast content by InfoWars brings us to an interesting and important point in the history of online discourse. The current form of Internet content distribution has made it a broadcast medium akin to television or radio. Apps distribute our cat pics, our workouts, and our YouTube rants to specific audiences of followers, audiences that were nearly impossible to monetize in the early days of the Internet but, thanks to gullible marketing managers, can be sold as

Can a mobile app help to address the opioid crisis in the U.S.? That’s the goal behind FEND, an app that’s taking advantage of technology solutions like machine learning and gamification to increase young people’s understanding of opioids and to change their behaviors. It’s the first large-scale attempt at running a public health campaign in the U.S. on a mobile device in this manner. And it’s already seeing some early success thanks to its sponsorship of Vans&rsquo

Blizzard Entertainment is teaming up with the toy experts at Nerf to fulfill our dreams of being an Overwatch-style gunslinger.Blizzard first announced the collaboration at last month’s San Diego Comic-Con, saying that Nerf would be launching a sleek and chrome-covered blaster gun modeled after the Hellfire Shotgun that Reaper, one playable character, uses in-game. Now, Blizzard has announced a second plastic blaster modeled after a weapon in Overwatch’s lore: the bubblegum-colored

If you have an old Kindle e-reader lying about then you’d best dig it up. This cool hack can turn your dead e-reader into a living clock that scours hundreds of books for exact times and displays the current time in a quote. It updates once a minute.
The project, available on Instrucables, requires a jailbroken Kindle and little else. The app uses quotes collected by the Guardian for an art project and includes writing from Charles Bukowski to Shakespeare.
Creator Jaap Meijers writes:
My g

Android Pie could be one of the most consequential Android updates in years. Not only is Google changing the way Android is navigated, but it’s also changing the way we interact with our phones — and how our phones interact with us. The update’s overarching goals are to make our phones less distracting and less stressful and to give people control over how much of their attention they suck up. It’s all about taking on notification and app overload.
Pie is now available f

Googlehas acquired GraphicsFuzz, a company that builds a framework for testing the security and reliability of Android graphics drivers. The news, which was first spotted by XDA Developers, comes on the same day Google announced the release of Android 9 Pie.
A Google spokesperson confirmed the news to us but declined to provide any further information. The companies also declined to provide any details about the price of the acquisition.
The GraphicsFuzz team, which consists of co-founders&

Netflix is releasing a new limited series starring Emma Stone and Jonah Hill. Maniac, a 10-episode drama, follows two participants in a drug trial (Stone and Hill) through a series of bizarre, fever dream-like experiences.Cary Joji Fukunaga — who also worked as an executive producer on True Detective — is directing the series, which premieres September 21st. The trailer itself is a glitchy whirlwind of weird, from Stone traipsing around a fantasy landscape in elf ears to Hill crawli

Clear, the biometrics company you’ve probably seen at airports and at a few other prominent queues, is rolling out the capability to simultaneously verify your ID and pay for an alcoholic drink with your fingerprint. It’s only at Seattle’s CenturyLink and Safeco Fields (and only a handful of concessions stands at those), but if it’s successful you can bet we’ll be seeing more of it.
That makes it the first time in the U.S. that biometrics are used for both age check

Facebook is asking large banks in the US to share their customers’ card transactions, shopping habits, and checking account balances to offer new financial services, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.In an emailed response to the report, Facebook denies that it’s “actively asking financial services companies for financial transaction data.” It says that it’s simply looking to partner with banks and credit card companies to offer customer service through a chat

Home security cameras aren’t always an affordable endeavor, but Netgear’s Arlo Pro 2 is a little cheaper today on Amazon. When it launched in early 2017, $479 got you the cheapest kit, which included a base station and two of the weatherproof cameras. Today’s deal on Amazon for $449 includes all of that, plus an extra camera. For reference, each additional camera costs around $200, so this is quite the discount if you have more areas, either inside or outside, that you want to

The Essential Phone is getting Android 9.0 Pie on day one — just like Google’s own Pixel smartphones. Essential is rolling out the major OS update today. The company has routinely been releasing the last few Android 9 betas just hours after Google made them available, and now its one and only smartphone is getting Pie’s features months before you’ll find them on devices from Samsung, LG, Motorola, and the rest. This is a thing that just doesn’t happen nowadays. The

Android P — now officially known as Android 9 Pie — was always going to be the easy one.
From Popsicle to Peppermint to Pastry to Popcorn to Pop-Tarts to Praline to Peanut Brittle to Pop Rocks to Pancake to Panna Cotta to Pez to Peeps to Pudding to Parfait to Pocky to Pound Cake to Punschkrapfen to Profiterole to Patbingsu, there was a plethora of possibilities for P’s pseudonym. (And that’s not even counting fruits like Pear, Passionfruit, Pumpkin, Plum, Peach, or Pampl

The various Digital Wellbeing features that Google revealed last spring — a dashboard to show your smartphone usage habits, app limit timers, and a “wind down” mode to help you focus on going to sleep — are not included in today’s release of Android 9 Pie. But if you have a Pixel device and you’ve already installed the latest OS update on it, you’ll be able to try out those software tools ahead of their official launch sometime this fall. The beta start

Details on Disney’s forthcoming streaming platform are thin. We know it’ll have Star Wars and Marvel films and shows (although it appears that the original films won’t be exclusive to the service), it’s expected to launch in 2019, and it’ll be “substantially cheaper” than Netflix. A New York Times profile of the executive in charge of the platform sheds a bit more light, hinting that the company will put some incredible resources into its productions.Fo

Google has announced that the final, shipping version of the newest Android update is available for all Pixel phones today. And, as usual, it has announced a name to go along with the over-the-air update: “Android 9 Pie.”
Android 9 Pie’s headline features are the same ones that we revealed back in May: a “Digital Wellbeing” dashboard, a new gesture-based navigation system, and other AI-enhanced improvements to the UI. It also received many subtle improvements to th

Following Apple’s removal of Alex Jones’ podcasts from the iTunes Store, both Facebook and YouTube made the decision to remove the conspiracy theorist and popular alt-right figure, along with his Infowars network, from their respective platforms on August 6th. While Facebook cited hate speech violations for its removal of four InfoWars-related pages, YouTube said Jones circumvented a prior 90-day live-streaming ban by using other channel owners’ accounts, leading to its perman

YouTube moved on Monday to delete the Alex Jones Channel for violating its community guidelines, the latest in a string of moves from tech giants that could dramatically limit the reach of the Infowars host and conspiracy theorist. The move was the latest in a cascade of platform moves against Jones, following related bans from Apple, Spotify, and Facebook.
Platforms have been under pressure to take action against Jones, who has millions of followers across their networks, after he repeatedly p

It’s a weird time to be a Castlevania fan. While Netflix has reinvigorated interest in the series with a gloriously violent animated show, the games themselves have dried up since the departure of long-time director Koji Igarashi. The most recent official Castlevania title was a pachinko game released in Japan last year. But, as is so often the case, indie developers have stepped up to fill in the gaps. There’s an entire subgenre of 2D action games dubbed “Metroidvanias”

US spaceflight startup Rocket Lab is rescheduling its first commercial rocket launch once again. The company tried to get this flight off the ground twice this year, but weird behavior on Rocket Lab’s launch vehicle forced the company to stand down from both launch attempts. Now, changes have been made to the rocket to avoid this problem, and the company says it’s ready to try again later this November.
In fact, the company hopes to do two back-to-back missions just weeks apart befo

Whether you love them or you think they’re an abomination manifested on this earth in a blatant cash grab to capitalize on nostalgia and pop culture, Funko Pops are here to stay. The latest collectible line to hit the shelves is “Pokémon Pop,” starting with none other than Pikachu. The Pokémon Funko Pops are a Target exclusive, and the Pikachu figures, which retail for $8.99, have already sold out and are being resold online for up to $60.
Maybe Funko Pops are th

T-Mobile announced today that it’s launching a new mobile plan for people who only use their smartphones for the bare necessities. The plan is called T-Mobile Essentials, and it covers talk, text, and data for cheap — but there’s a catch.
This unlimited talk, text, and data plan will cost $30 per line for a family of four ($10 less than T-Mobile’s other basic plan T-Mobile ONE), but the discount comes at a cost of quality. Streaming quality is what will suffer the most.

MoviePass has announced that users will soon be limited to seeing just three movies a month. It’s a major change from the current policy that allows users to see a movie once a day with their subscriptions, via The Wall Street Journal. It’s the latest change to the unlimited moviegoing service as the company desperately tries to stay afloat in the wake of problems like entirely running out of money at the end of July.The new plan undoes some of the changes that MoviePass announced l

Today, Facebook announced a series of visual changes and feature tweaks to the layout of business pages on the mobile version of its social network to make them easier to interact with. For instance, if you’re looking at the page of a restaurant or hair salon, you can now easily book a reservation or appointment through Facebook from the page. The redesign, which will be different for each category of page, is starting with pages for restaurants, local services, and TV shows. Facebook pla

Home, it’s where the heart is. There’s no place like it. And you can never go back there again.
This is how we’ve understood the word for decades. It’s a place full of nostalgia that’s located in the past.
So what is the home of the future?
By definition, it’s not the home of days gone by. That home, romanticized by post-war newsreels, is epitomized by 2.5 dogs and a kid, usually staring at a giant piece of furniture called a TV. It’s suburban and carpe

Another acquisition for French carpooling platform BlaBlaCar: It’s picked up Russian Internet giant Mail.Ru’s relatively recent rival offering, BeepCar, in what’s being billed as both an acquisition and a partnership.
BlaBlaCarsays the move is aimed at consolidating its international growth.
“Through this acquisition, we are doubling down our commitment to develop carpooling in Russia, and to address growing Russian demand for a convenient and reliable long-distance mobil