Technology news

Twitterwill now put live streams and broadcasts started by accounts you follow at the top of your timeline, making it easier to see what they’re doing in realtime.
In a tweet, Twitter said that that the new feature will include breaking news, personalities and sports.
The social networking giant included the new feature in its iOS and Androidapps, updated this week. Among the updates, Twitter said it’s now also supporting audio-only live broadcasts, as well as through its s

A security researcher has found a new way to crash and restart any iPhone — with just a few lines of code.
Sabri Haddouche tweeted a proof-of-concept webpage with just 15 lines of code which, if visited, will crash and restart an iPhone or iPad. Those on macOS may also see Safari freeze.
The code exploits a weakness in iOS’ web rendering engine WebKit, which Applemandates all apps and browsers use, Haddouche told TechCrunch. He explained that nesting a ton of elements — s

“Insatiable,” the Netflixcomedy about an overweight high school girl who suddenly becomes slim and beautiful thanks to having her jaw wired shut for a summer, has been drawing controversy ever since its first trailer went online.
The reviews for the show were almost uniformly negative, yet they didn’t quite prepare me for the terribleness of the initial episodes, which alternate between feeble attempts to mine humor from hot-button issues like sexual assault and suicide, a

Without functioning ecosystems, “everybody’s poop would be everywhere,” says Rachel Ignotofsky, the author and artist behind the new book The Wondrous Workings of Planet Earth. “The world doesn’t work if stuff doesn’t decompose,” she says.It’s one of the many benefits humans get from our environment that Ignotofsky’s art-covered pages explore. The book hopscotches through ecosystems across the globe, shrinking complex food webs down to the s

Makula Dunbar Contributor Makula Dunbar is a writer with Wirecutter.More posts by this contributorWireless headphones and earbuds to fit your budget Back-to-college tech for minimalists and the over-prepared
Editor’s note: This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter’s independently chosen editorial picks, Wirecutter and TechCrunch may earn affiliate commissions.
If you only have one smart home device, it’s likely something simple an

In 2015, Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem (translated into English by Ken Liu), earned science fiction’s highest honor: the Hugo Award for Best Novel. The award was the first for a Chinese author, and put Liu in the global spotlight. Sequels to that novel, The Dark Forest and Death’s End, also received widespread acclaim, and now, Liu has a new book out in English: Ball Lightning, translated by Joel Martinsen. Like The Three-Body Problem, it’s a gripping tale of techno

Jason Rowley Contributor Jason Rowley is a venture capital and technology reporter for Crunchbase News.More posts by this contributorSupergiant VC rounds aren’t just raised in China July sets a record for number of $100M+ venture capital rounds
In venture capital, a variant on the Glengarry Glen Ross mandate is most fund managers’ modus operandi: Always. Be. Raising.
And it seems like VCs have picked up on that. In the last few months, even casual readers of the tech press would not

The most exciting announcement from Apple’s annual iPhone event on Tuesday was not a set of three new smartphones, but a smartwatch. The Apple Watch Series 4 — with its rounded corners, larger display, and built-in EKG scanner — became undoubtedly the most sought-after gadget in the aftermath of Apple’s fall hardware refresh. While many people have bemoaned having to choose between the iPhone XS and XR, or are simply forgoing a mobile upgrade entirely, the Series 4 stood

People, process, technology. It’s the reigning mantra in high tech, swiping “move fast and break things” and “data is the new oil” right off the menu of things to say when you aren’t paying attention. Attend any conference and you will hear people talk about how new strategic initiatives are stuck because employees don’t want to learn new skills, or because they feel that new processes or technology are being implemented as a way to take their job.

On September 20th, FEMA will conduct a test of its Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS), which brings together two existing alert systems, the Emergency Alert System and the Wireless Emergency Alerts system. This system will also mark the first time that a “Presidential Alert” will be sent out to a majority of cell phone owners, who won’t be able to opt out.TechCrunch notes that these types of alerts were established in 2006 under President George W. Bush, so tha

On September 20th, FEMA will conduct a test of its Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS), which brings together two existing alert systems, the Emergency Alert System and the Wireless Emergency Alerts system, which will allow the government and president to send out an update to the public in the event of an emergency.FEMA says that it’s testing the system to “assess the readiness” for a national emergency message, and to “determine whether improvements are

The new iPhone XS and XS Max and the Apple Watch Series 4 have found their way into lots of headlines this week. That’s because they’re all available now for preorder. A few retailers and carriers are offering some special deals associated with the preorder of a new Apple phone, but otherwise, this week’s best deals are a smattering of tech and home products that are discounted enough to be worth you checking them out.
Sam’s Club is offering a $100 gift card to members w

HBO recently aired its adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s short novel Sharp Objects, and while I haven’t caught up on the entire thing yet, the first couple of episodes prompted me to dig my copy out to give it a read. I’ve been meaning to pick it up for years after a colleague of mine recommended it, and it seemed as good a time as any.It’s a grim, modern gothic story, one that delves into the horrors of life on a claustrophobic small town, and the damage that people and fam

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will this week test a new “presidential alert” system that will allow the president to send a message to every phone in the US.
The alert is the first nationwide test of the presidential alert test, FEMA said in an advisory, which allows the president to address the nation in the event of a national emergency.
Using the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system, anyone with cell service should receive the message to their phone.
“THIS IS

By now you’ve probably heard of the Defense Department’s massive winner-take-all $10 billion cloud contract dubbed the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (or JEDI for short).Star Wars references aside, this contract is huge, even by government standards.The Pentagon would like a single cloud vendor to build out its enterprise cloud, believing rightly or wrongly that this is the best approach to maintain focus and control of their cloud strategy.
Department of Defense (DOD) spoke

This year, Apple reached the end of its iPhone X (read: ten) names. Next year remains a mystery. Apple has gone through all the numbers from one through ten, skipping two and nine for its own reasons. Now, for better or worse, next year, it’ll likely need to figure out a new naming scheme.
Apple hastened its way toward a dead end last year when it decided to switch to Roman numerals rather than continuing with numbers as it had done in the past. A report from Bloomberg at the end of Augus

It may sound like science fiction, but brain-machine interfaces (BMI) will eventually come to our devices. It’s just a matter of time. The technology has been actively researched since 1969, before consumer computers even existed, when a researcher showed that monkeys could amplify their brain signals to control a needle on a dial. Today, researchers are making strides to bring brain-machine interfaces closer to reality. Stanford researchers successfully created an interface for

Reality has had a tough year. When the president of the United States is denying that thousands of Americans died in a hurricane, journalists face an uphill battle. That battle has been particularly fraught on social networks, where malicious actors have spent the past several years peddling hoaxes and sowing division.
But today I bring you at least one reason for optimism. “Trends in the Diffusion of Misinformation on Social Media,” a new study from authors at Stanford University a

Picking a new laptop and choosing a new car are pretty similar experiences: They're two of the most important decisions you'll make in your precious lifetime.
Okay, laptops are significantly cheaper than that and your life and safety or whatever doesn't exactly depend on it — but your job and other important life things (like Netflix) are made so much better by the addition of a reliable laptop.
Our point: Laptops are not one-size-fits-all, and this isn't a choice that can be made jus

We’re always online, always connected. We sleep with our phones under our pillows, check our email countless times a day, and keep tabs on our friends, families, celebrities, and social media “influencers.” For many users, though, the experiences designed by social media companies do not bring a sense of connection or relationship, but rather one of FOMO and a diminishing sense of self. Outside of the proliferation of fake news, the interference of foreign actors in politics,

Grin is the mobility startup that has Mexico City’s dwellers scooting about the city with an easier, quicker, and more sustainable travel option. Latam.tech spoke to the team behind Grin to find out more. Tired of Mexico City’s endless traffic and overcrowded public transport, Grin’s co-founder Sergio Romo discovered the wonder of using an electric scooter as his chosen form of travel around the city. After arranging to have one shipped over to Mexico from China

Fake social media profiles are useful for more than just sowing political discord among foreign adversaries, as it turns out. A group linked to the North Korean government has been able to duck existing sanctions on the country by concealing its true identity and developing software for clients abroad.
This week, the US Treasury issued sanctions against two tech companies accused of running cash-generating front operations for North Korea: Yanbian Silverstar Network Technology or “China Si

When Hurricane Florence struck the U.S. East Coast at 7:15AM ET this morning, it popped a squat near Wilmington, North Carolina. The hurricane — now downgraded to a tropical storm — is hovering over the area, unleashing torrential rainfall, and creeping towards the west at a glacial three miles per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center. That means the rain will continue to pound the same waterlogged ground — which, combined with storm surge, is leading to deadly flo

Venture capital is known for being an opaque industry, so it’s no surprise most of us have no idea what the average VC earns in a year.
I got a closer look at the survey results of J. Thelander Consulting‘s annual venture firm compensation survey and, unsurprisingly, VCs make a lot of money.
Just how much? Well, of the 204 VCs surveyed (172 male and 32 female), the average general partner expects to make roughly $634,000 this year, including a bonus for 2017 performance.
Th

Update: ICESat-2 launch nominal and signal has been picked up! That’s 100 in a row for the Delta II.
This weekend, NASAis launching a new high-tech satellite to monitor the planet’s glacier and sea ice levels — with space lasers, naturally. ICESat-2 will be a huge boon for climatologists, and it’s also a bittersweet occasion: it will be the final launch aboard the trusty Delta II rocket, which has been putting birds in the air for nearly 30 years.
Takeoff is set for 5:46

Satellite imaging and analytics company Planet is taking the wraps off its new manufacturing space in San Francisco. Founded by ex-NASA employees, Planet is leveraging some of the $183 million in funding it’s amassed to expand. In the basement of a nondescript office building in the middle of Harrison Street in San Francisco, Planet is hard at work building low-orbit satellites that take images of our changing planet, and now the aerospace imaging company has more room to do so, claiming t

Square Enix today released Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the latest entry in the venerable action-adventure game series. We return to Lara Croft’s mission to save the world, in which she must confront her own tragic past and avert the Mayan apocalypse. I’ve been playing it off and on for the last couple of days, and I’ve spotted something I think needs addressing — a major problem in the characterization of gaming’s most iconic heroine that really brings the whol