Technology news

Luca Guadagnino has come a long way from Call Me By Your Name. His newest project, a remake of 1977's witch-horror movie Suspiria, recently premiered at the Venice Film Festival to...somewhat mixed reviews. 
Reviewers say that while the movie is stylish and Guadagnino's directorial eye is strong, the thematic additions he layered onto the original's more straightforward horror plot worked for some people and turned others off. 
SEE ALSO: Seeing a horror movie is the perfect first date

Earlier this year, the Swedish academy announced that it would not issue a prize for literature. The announcement prompted a flurry of handwringing within the literary community, and the creation of an alternative award to ensure that a literary prize would still be issued in 2018. Today, the organization behind the alternative award announced that authors Maryse Condé, Haruki Murakami, Kim Thúy, and Neil Gaiman have been selected as the four finalists for the 2018 New Prize in Li

Video games are often filled with secrets. They just don't usually stay hidden for this long.
Doom series co-creator John Romero took to Twitter on Friday with an exuberant congratulations for Zero Master, the YouTuber who discovered a secret unlock that's confounded Doom II fans for more than two decades. The secret is out now, and Romero is thrilled.
SEE ALSO: All the wild facts we learned about 'Doom Eternal' from the QuakeCon reveal
"CONGRATS, Zero Master! Finally, after 24 years! 'To win th

GoPro’s next camera appears to have leaked via a store display. Imgur user Austin Mittelstadt posted a series of images that show off the company’s Hero 7 camera, which is expected to be announced later this month.
The camera appears to come in three colors: white, silver, and black. The display also shows off some of the usual features that we’ve seen with prior models, like image stabilization and that it’s waterproof up to a depth of 33 feet. A couple of the models ap

Outlander fans: Summer might be over, but your favorite time of year is just beginning.
On Friday, Starz dropped the official poster for Season 4 of the hit show based on the book series of the same name written by Diana Gabaldon. 
SEE ALSO: The best crossover couples that defy the boundaries of fictional universes
In the newly release image, Claire Randall (played by Caitriona Balfe) and her love interest Jamie Fraser (played by Sam Heughan) stand hand-in-hand on the edge of a cliff under

Have you ever been the owner of a faulty iPhone 8? It might have been defective.
An Apple Support post dated Aug. 31, 2018 notes that the company has discovered a manufacturing defect in "a very small percentage" of iPhone 8 smartphones. Now that the issue is known, Apple is offering to fix anyone with an affected phone, free of charge.
SEE ALSO: Apple's new iPhones will be announced on Sept. 12
"Affected devices may experience unexpected restarts, a frozen screen, or won't turn on," the post re

Fox News's Twitter account is being rightfully dragged on Twitter for publishing and tweeting a "news" story about Cosby Show actor Geoffrey Owens having a job at a Trader Joe's in New Jersey.
SEE ALSO: Bill Cosby jokes woman should be 'careful about drinking around me'
Twitter people pointed out that the story, which was aggregated from the Daily Mail and refers to Owens as having been "spotted" working at Trader Joe's like some kind of rare Pokémon, reads like a mean-spirited attempt to

UE Boom’s latest app update removes its compatibility with Amazon Alexa. They put out a joint statement to The Verge explaining they’re focusing on their core product.The new version no longer supports alarms or Amazon Alexa, according to the update notes on Google Play. The company explained that they introduced the update to the app to focus “on enhancing the core functionality of the speakers.” The company noted that Alexa will continue to be available on its Blast an

For years, inmate advocates have argued that the cost of a phone call from a prison or jail is onerously high, and inmates’ families are footing the bill. While the FCC, under the Obama administration, moved to broadly cap rates, the Trump-era agency declined to defend the caps in court, where they were struck down. The result has been a demoralizing setback for those pressing for regulation of the billion-dollar-plus industry.
NYC is making all calls from jails free
August, though, has b

We came, we saw, and we tried out a ton of new gadgets at IFA 2018.
Europe's largest consumer electronics show, held in Berlin, was quieter than previous years, but there were still a few notable gadget gems to get pumped up for. Just like this year's Mobile World Congress.
SEE ALSO: Best Tech of 2018 (so far)
From 8K TVs, to crazy custom PCs, to phones, to wireless headphones, there was a little bit of everything at IFA. We walked the labyrinthine halls of the Messe Berlin, clocking in well ove

Bingeing TV is a full-time job (we speak from experience here). There's far too many shows, seasons, episodes, platforms – you get it. 
But on a long holiday weekend, we count our bingeable TV blessings. Some people feel guilty spending a long weekend on a couch, but we find a real sense of pride and accomplishment from crawling into work on Tuesday having finished an entire show.
To help with this simple goal, here are some TV gems that only made it to one season – which means

Aretha Franklin's Homegoing/funeral service was packed with famous people, musical performances, and (sometimes interminable) sermons, but one moment in particular caught Twitter's eye — Representative Maxine Waters giving the "Wakanda Forever" salute to the livestream camera. 
SEE ALSO: At least 100 pink Cadillacs showed up for Aretha Franklin's funeral
A few hours into the service, Bishop Charles H. Ellis III noticed Rep. Waters in the crowd and called on her from the pulpit to let

At the funeral ceremony for her Sen. John McCain, his daughter Meghan indirectly skewered President Donald Trump, telling those in attendance: "The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again, because America was always great."
McCain's words were a clear reference to Trump's infamous 2016 campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again," and the subsequent rallying cry for his base. 
SEE ALSO: Touching John McCain tributes flood the internet in the hours after his deathMeghan McCa

Remember how I told you Huawei’s excellent P20 Pro was a phone that would frustrate Americans with its absence from their market? Well, this week at IFA, that device became even more aggravating, as Huawei introduced four new variants: two new color options and two real-leather backs that look and feel lovely.
Firstly, the colors: one of them flips the gradient of the original Twilight P20 Pro, with the darker side now being at the bottom and the radiant blue topping the phone like the gl

I’d wanted to watch The Beatles’ movie Help! for some time after having seen clips of its slapstick and absurdist humor in, I think, a film class years ago. I finally got around to it the other weekend, and the film’s comedy really is quite often surprisingly timeless and fun in its silliness.
But there’s also a lot about the movie that stands out very poorly five decades later: namely, the film’s villains are an odd, offensive mashup of cultures, that seems to con

Although it may not seem like such a daunting task at first, finding the right laptop backpack can be really overwhelming. There are tons of different factors to consider, like what you'll be using it for (work? school? travel?), the size of the laptop sleeve, how functional or comfortable it is, and how much stuff you'll be able to cram inside. And let's not forget about price. Because let's be honest, some of us aren't willing to drop more than $100 on a backpack. 
SEE ALSO: 7 of the best

Although it may not seem like such a daunting task at first, finding the right laptop backpack can be really overwhelming. There are tons of different factors to consider, like what you'll be using it for (work? school? travel?), the size of the laptop sleeve, how functional or comfortable it is, and how much stuff you'll be able to cram inside. And let's not forget about price. Because let's be honest, some of us aren't willing to drop more than $100 on a backpack. SEE ALSO: 7 of the best

We’re going to start doing something a little different with our monthly book list here on The Verge: we’re shifting this column from a monthly schedule to a bi-weekly one. Each list will be a bit shorter and hopefully, a bit less daunting than a longer list.Speaking of shorter and less daunting, I packed two books when I went on a trip out of state recently: The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark and War Cry by Brian McClellan. The two are fantasy novellas from

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap..." into yet another internet blow-up.
First Man, the upcoming Neil Armstrong biopic from La La Land director Damien Chazelle, premiered at Venice Film Festival this week. Critics almost universally adored it, but there's a famous moment missing from the dramatized version of Armstrong's first-ever moonwalk and, as with most things in 2018, the absence has stirred up some controversy around the American flag.
SEE ALSO: The first reviews for Ryan Gos

The bishop who presided over Aretha Franklin's funeral on Friday has since apologized via a statement to the Associated Press for inappropriately touching singer Ariana Grande after her performance at the ceremony. 
Grande sang Franklin's 1967 hit "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" at the late musician's funeral in Detroit, Michigan, and afterwards Bishop H. Ellis III pulled her into an embrace, placing his hand on the side of her right breast and holding it there.
SEE ALSO: Ariana G

Last year’s FCC decision to repeal net neutrality was arguably the most unpopular tech policy decision in the history of the modern internet. The repeal not only resulted in an unprecedented public backlash, but prompted numerous states to immediately begin exploring new state-level alternatives in the wake of the FCC’s retreat. Now, instead of one fight on the federal level, telecom giants like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast face countless state-level efforts to keep their monopoly

Over the years, the sector of YouTube dedicated to children’s entertainment has become notorious for its deep well of barely filtered trash. The lack of sufficient algorithmic moderation has been shown to be actually harmful in recent years: in 2017, The New York Times published a lengthy piece exploring the dark side of children’s YouTube, one that shed light on a growing trove of graphic videos that had been slipping past YouTube’s Kids app filter.
Unbeknownst to some parent

This post contains spoilers for the ending of HereditaryHereditary was declared not only one of the scariest movies of the decade, but a film that could actually traumatize its viewers.
With its glut of unparalleled performances, masterful cinematography, cryptic messages, and unflinching storytelling, the movie continues to haunt critics and audiences alike. 
SEE ALSO: The traumatic family horror of 'Hereditary' scarred me for life
But the young actors who so evocatively brought Peter (Ale

Last week, Twitter user @CostcoRiceBag revealed that for the last four months, her tweets contained a hidden message. The University of Minnesota senior (real name Madie) carefully strung together tweets that — when looked at as a combination of only the first words in each — re-created Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
Madie’s goof is the latest of several similar schemes to go viral. Clever and very dedicated, users have dunked on their followers with everything

More bugs, more problems. 
A new study published in the journal Science suggests that as the world warms due to human-caused climate change, more and more bugs will populate the globe. 
And while that seems like nothing more than a disgusting inconvenience, a world with more bugs could mean bad things for human food supplies around the world. 
SEE ALSO: Engineering Earth's climate might quell global warming, but it could come with a cost
A team of scientists led by Curtis Deutsche

If you’re interested in a career in coding and developing web projects, you’re going to need more than "a season of watching Silicon Valley" on your résumé. A solid foundation in technical skills is required as a minimum. But paying for several semesters of schooling is simply not feasible for a lot of people. 
SEE ALSO: 'Silicon Valley' devoted an entire episode to this in-demand coding tool
Luckily, there are several interactive web-based online courses that

These days, it’s easy to believe arguments that artificial intelligence has become as smart as the human mind—if not smarter. Google released a speaking AI that dupes its conversational partners that it’s human. DeepMind, a Google subsidiary, created an AI that defeated the world champion at the most complicated board game. More recently, AI proved it can be as accurate as trained doctors in diagnosing eye diseases. And there are any number of stories

This is One Good Thing, a weekly column where we tell you about one of the few nice things that happened this week.
Love trumps hate — and so does a good layer of paint. 
Lisa Licata and Sherry Lau are a same-sex couple living in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania. For years, they've claimed that their homophobic neighbors, Ron Makay and Iolanda Wieczorkowski, have taunted them with hateful slurs, even going so far as to shoot their dog with an air rifleThe neighbor denies the latter allegation

One of the main reasons why many new products fail is because marketers fall prey to the concept of “one-size-fits-all.” It simply doesn’t work in marketing. 65 to 75 percent of new products have failed to generate the anticipated revenue or profit due to a one-size-fits-all approach. If you want to improve your marketing results, customer segmentation is the solution. Segmentation plays a vital role in marketing. Each customer is different, with individual needs and preferenc