Technology news

Look, nevermind that Amazon’s reviews are getting less and less trustworthy; I still often find myself scanning a thing’s barcode or just pulling up its Amazon listing when I’m at a store to get a sense of whether it’s a decent buy. With its latest store, Amazon isn’t leaving that question up in the air anymore. The first-ever Amazon 4-star opens in New York City’s Soho neighborhood tomorrow. And as the name implies, everything on its shelves has earned at le

If the sudden resignation of Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger wasn’t enough to make it a tense and taxing week at Facebook headquarters, a new Forbes interview with WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton isn’t going to help matters much. In the interview, Acton was critical of Facebook’s monetization strategy for the app he and Jan Koum sold to the company for $16 billion. He also seemed to voice a sense of self-guilt for ever being part of the deal that made him

Console players everywhere are rejoicing with the news that after months of bullish denials, Sony capitulated and will soon allow PS4 players to link up with people on Xbox, Switch, and mobile platforms — at least for select third-party games. While the cross-play beta for Fortnite gets most of the spotlight here, it’s worth remembering that this functionality has huge implications for how people purchase and think about consoles, potentially even eroding some of the distinctions we

Your search for a good set-top box under $100 just got easier, as Amazon has discounted its Fire TV Cube to $79.99, down from its regular $119.99 price. Like the $69.99 Fire TV, which is currently $39.99 for Prime subscribers, the Cube can handle broadcasting 4K HDR content through a variety of apps. But as for what to expect after paying an admittedly small premium on Amazon’s Fire TV Cube, its integrated far-field microphones let you issue voice commands without a remote (though a remot

A man kayaking off the coast of New Zealand’s South Island was clobbered in the face with an octopus that had been clutched in a seal’s mouth, Yahoo7 News reports. But here’s the best part: the entire inter-species aquatic slap fight was caught on camera, so you can watch it as many times as you need to get through the day.The video shows the seal rearing up out of the water with the octopus in its mouth, and whipping it at kayaker Kyle Mulinder. Mulinder’s Instagram bio

Last week, Amazon introduced the Fire TV Recast, a box with two TV tuners and a hard drive. When plugged into an antenna, the Recast can stream (and record) live over-the-air channels — usually ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, and a slew of random stuff depending on your location — and lets you watch that content on your Fire TV, Echo Show, or your smartphone.It’s a nerdy, niche device squarely aimed at cord cutters, and I can’t wait to try it.Dish has offered something somewhat simi

Back in 2016, Industrial Light & Magic’s xLab team announced that it was working with writer David S. Goyer to create a VR experience starring Darth Vader. And at this year’s Oculus Connect conference, the company showed off the first trailer for the finished product, now a three-part series called Star Wars: Vader Immortal, the first episode of which is set to launch in 2019.While neither Oculus nor ILM is offering too many details on what Vader Immortal will entail — we

YouTube will soon launch an app on Oculus’ mobile VR headset, the Oculus Go, bringing YouTube to Oculus’ entire mobile ecosystem. Oculus announced the news today at its Connect developer conference, along with other news about Oculus Go’s video offerings — although it didn’t provide a launch date beyond “coming soon.”
This means there’s an official YouTube VR app for all Oculus mobile headsets, since Oculus came to the Samsung Gear VR over the sum

Just days after it was reported that Toyota would finally add Android Auto support in its cars, Jaguar Land Rover has announced similar plans to add CarPlay and Android Auto to its vehicles, as reported by MacRumors. A spokesperson confirmed that CarPlay and Android Auto will be available in all 2019 Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles equipped with InControl Touch Pro or Touch Pro Duo infotainment systems, as well as on older models through retroactive updates.CarPlay and Android Auto will be avail

Oculus VR is moving closer to realistic representations of human beings in virtual reality, and the company today announced a new milestone in that quest: so-called Expressive Avatars. These new avatars will be even more lifelike, using “simulated eye and mouth movement and micro-expressions,” says product manager Lucy Chen, that will help make it look and feel like you’re interacting with a human being in the real world. The news was announced at the Oculus Connect developer

Two years ago, Nintendo announced its arrival in the world of mobile gaming in a big way. Super Mario Run was revealed for the iPhone onstage at an Apple event, with none other than game design legend Shigeru Miyamoto on hand to show off the latest incarnation of his iconic character. Expectations were high. “Super Mario Run is going to introduce millions of more people to the fun of Mario, and it’ll become the entry point for them,” Miyamoto told me just ahead of the game&rsq

Robocalls have become a scourge in recent years, and they’ve only grown worse since callers figured out how to fake consumers’ phone numbers, making a call appear to come from somewhere near you. No one’s had much luck stopping them, but the FCC is finally close to issuing a fine against someone using this tactic.
The commission announced today that it’s proposing a $37.5 million fine against a company based in Arizona that allegedly made 2.3 million telemarking calls un

Facebook released updated daily active user counts for Stories on Facebook and Messenger today, and the news isn’t great for Snapchat. The company said at an event in New York City today that it now has a combined 300 million daily users across the two services. Liz Keneski, user experience research manager at Facebook, tells The Verge this combined number doesn’t account for double dipping, so a user who posts the same thing on Messenger and Facebook Stories is only counted as one

The Federal Communications Commission will soon require cities to quickly approve or deny wireless carriers’ requests to deploy 5G cell installations. While the goal of rapidly deploying 5G is widely shared, the FCC’s approach here has come under criticism, particularly from cities. The measure constrains the time cities have to review deployment requests, while also limiting them from taking into account issues like whether the installation will take place at a historical landmark.

The summer’s Fox / Comcast / Disney drama came to a close last week when Comcast finally managed to outbid 21st Century Fox for a controlling stake in European TV and broadband provider Sky for $38.8 billion. And now, having lost that battle, Fox is ceding the remainder of its existing 39 percent ownership to Comcast in a $15 billion deal that would see Comcast gain full control of the UK telecom company, as reported by Variety.Fox had long been attempting to gain full control of Sky &mda

Analog film lovers rejoice: Kodak’s long-awaited revival of its Ektachrome slide film is finally here (via Digital Trends). The camera company is beginning its rollout with the 35mm version of the film, while Super 8 (8mm) and 16mm formats will be released later in the year.The color reversal film, which was previously mainly used in projectors and professional print work, has been off store shelves for over six years after a lack of demand and complex manufacturing issues led the company