Technology news

Back in 2015, just days after Aziah “Zola” Wells went viral with a now-deleted 148-tweet saga about a trip with a fellow stripper to Tampa, Florida, TMZ reported that Hollywood players had approached her about developing the tale as a movie. By early 2016, James Franco had reportedly signed on to produce, direct, and star in a film optioned from the Rolling Stone story based on the tweetstorm. Since then, it looks like plans for the film have shifted, per The Hollywood Reporter: Jan

Amid all the excitement of the news from the Pixel event today, Google has quietly put up the product page for a Mickey Mouse stand for the Google Home Mini. Made in partnership with Disney and OtterBox, the Mini mount is the first product from OtterBox’s Den Series of Google Home accessories. Hopefully this means that more are on the way, especially a Minnie Mouse stand, which would delight pun-aficionados everywhere.Google’s partnered with Disney before for various interactive gam

Microsoft is re-releasing its Windows 10 October 2018 Update today, following the company pulling it offline due to data deletion issues over the weekend. The software giant says there were only a few reports of data loss, at a rate of one one-hundredth of one percent. “We have fully investigated all reports of data loss, identified and fixed all known issues in the update, and conducted internal validation,” says Microsoft’s John Cable, director of program management for Wind

Set on Earth in 11945 AD, the 2017 video game Nier: Automata takes places thousands of years after humanity was forced to escape to the Moon after an alien invasion. Its story follows 2B and 9S, two highly advanced androids sent to Earth by humans to investigate and fight the aliens’ non-sentient combat machines, which have started to exhibit human-like behaviors.
The game’s new novelization, Nier: Automata: Long Story Short, isn’t a substitute for the original game, though it

For months, Google has been trying to stay out of the way of the growing tech backlash, but yesterday, the dam finally broke with news of a bug in the rarely used Google+ network that exposed private information for as many as 500,000 users. Google found and fixed the bug back in March, around the same time the Cambridge Analytica story was heating up in earnest. But with the news breaking now, the damage is already spreading. The consumer version of Google+ is shutting down, German privacy reg

Google announced the Home Hub today, a Google Assistant-powered Echo Show competitor that, among its various features, also acts as a visual dashboard for all your smart home devices. In designing the Home View dashboard, Google also went ahead and updated its Google Home app for Android and iOS.The new Home App now does more than just recommend what movies to play through your Chromecast, or act as a vehicle to set up your Home Mini. The app has been revamped to make it easier to control multi

Stardew Valley is coming to the small screen. Today, Eric Barone, the farming game’s developer, revealed a surprise mobile port that’s launching later this month.
Currently Stardew Valley only has a release date on iOS — Barone says that he expects to have details about an Android release “soon” — but it does come with a number of welcome features. Notably, the game will be $7.99 and include no additional in-app purchases, and those who played the game on PC

Tesla was sued by the state of Nevada earlier this week for its failure to pay nearly $655,000 to the state’s Unemployment Compensation Fund, according to Bloomberg.According to the liability statement, Tesla is indebted to the Employment Security Division of the state of Nevada. The carmaker didn’t pay enough for the first and second quarters of 2018 when Tesla had $68 million and $55 million in taxable wages, respectively.Tesla’s giant Gigafactory is located outside of Las V

Today, SoundCloud announced that it is opening up its direct monetization program to the public, finally giving most artists the ability to make money off of the platform. The program, called SoundCloud Premier, was created four years ago but has been limited to an invite-only beta until now. SoundCloud’s self-monetization move follows Spotify’s recent announcement that it would begin letting indie artists make money off of songs that are self-uploaded to its platform.
In order to q

James Gunn — the director of the first two Guardians of the Galaxy movies — is moving across the comic store aisle to Marvel’s biggest cinematic superhero rival, DC, to write the script for “the next installment in the Suicide Squad franchise,” according to a report from Polygon.
The news comes after Disney fired Gunn ahead of the production launch for his planned movie, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, in a controversial series of events that saw a number of offens

Sonos has finally updated its desktop controller app to make the look and feel of it in line with its mobile software, the company announced in its app release notes published today. The desktop controller is now a lot easier to use and understand, and it looks quite similar to what you’ll find on Sonos’ iOS and Android apps.As part of the update, which is version number 9.2, users are also getting the ability to set maximum volume limits for certain Sonos devices and the rooms in w

On Tuesday, Google filed an appeal of the European Commission’s nearly $5 billion fine after a regulatory body decided that the Alphabet Inc. company was knowingly violating antitrust laws, the company confirmed to The Verge.
In its initial suit, the European Commission alleged that Google was abusing its market dominance over its Android operating system by bundling together products like Google search and Chrome apps, and paying other mobile manufacturers to include Google search as a d

Google’s new Home Hub is the latest smart display to hit the market, but it’s not quite like the rest. One of the key differences with Google’s product is that it lacks a camera, removing any possibility of engaging in a video call with friends or family. (I think I just heard Lenovo and JBL collectively sigh in relief that Google isn’t about to totally eat their lunch.)Putting aside the Home Hub’s lack of a camera, its closest competitor is the Amazon Echo Show. P

With a price of $799, Google’s Pixel 3 is $150 more expensive than the Pixel 2 was at launch. The 3 XL, at $899, is $50 pricier than last year’s bigger model. These aren’t the most expensive smartphones out there — Apple and Samsung go way higher — but it’s a price bump that many people are disappointed by, particularly when some Android phone makers like OnePlus are offering several pieces of the Pixel 3’s core hardware in products that cost significan

After quietly working on the product for months, Instagram has officially rolled out support for third-party authentication apps like Google’s Authenticator or Duo Mobile on Android. (The feature first landed on iOS in a few weeks ago, with Android coming at a later date.) These authenticator apps can be used instead of an SMS text for two-factor authentication.To turn it on — which you should because SMS is notoriously vulnerable now — go to the hamburger menu on your profile

Now that the October Pixel event has wrapped up, we’ve seen all the new flagship phones coming out from Google, Apple, and Samsung this year. The much-leaked Google Pixel 3 still had some surprises, like Google spam call screening transcription and improved AI photo capabilities on top of an already great camera. Some of the new features Google introduced today are completely exclusive to the Pixel line, while others are features we’ve seen before on other phones.Take for example, T

Is Jake Paul a sociopath? That question is asked almost immediately in the first episode of Shane Dawson’s new documentary series. For the past 50 years, psychology’s best practices have suggested that we’re all better off without such speculation, let alone from a prominent YouTube creator. That has in no way deterred Dawson, who devoted an eight-part series to the question.Dawson attempts to reassure his audience through disclaimers and by responding to critics. But on a pla

A major US telecommunications company discovered a foreign implant in a server back in August, according to a new report by Bloomberg. It’s the first time a source has decided to go on the record to corroborate the claims made in a report by the publication last week, alleging that Chinese spies were able to compromise servers belonging to 30 of the US’s top tech companies through the use of hardware manipulations.The implant was reportedly built into a server’s Ethernet port,

Google is facing scrutiny from German data regulators, the latest fallout from an undisclosed security flaw in Google+, according to Bloomberg.
German data watchdog investigating
The outlet reports that Johannes Caspar, the Hamburg-based commissioner acting as the country’s data watchdog, said his office was investigating the matter, although he does not currently have any information from Google on the issue. (Caspar’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment fro

Months of leaks were finally confirmed at the Pixel 3 event today in New York City where Google just unveiled its newest flagship Android phone and a few new devices, including the Pixel Slate and Google Home Hub. Unlike a typical Google event, the company announced its new lineup at the top of the hour and made the products immediately available for preorder before the event even concluded. Here’s all the biggest news that was announced today.
The Pixel 3 is exactly as leaked
The Pixel 3

Lime pledged on Tuesday to make its entire fleet of electric bikes and scooters completely “carbon free.” The San Francisco-based company said it will purchase renewable energy credits from new and existing projects to ensure all of its dock-free bikes and scooters are carbon neutral. It is part of a new sustainability effort the company is calling “Lime Green.”While bikes and scooters are certainly greener alternatives to cars, there is growing attention being paid to t

It seems to be smart display season: Amazon just updated the Echo Show, Facebook showed off its new Portal system yesterday, and now Google has just announced that it’s getting in on the game with the Google Assistant-powered Home Hub.
I just spent some time with the Home Hub, and it’s much smaller than you would expect from the 7-inch display size. It looks like nothing more than a tiny floating tablet on a cloth-covered stand. That display has something called Ambient EQ, which au

Google announced a rebranding of its augmented reality stickers feature today, with the name changing officially to Playground as part of the Pixel 3 hardware event that just wrapped in New York City. Playground will now exist as a special mode within the Pixel camera, and it will algorithmically suggest new AR animations to fit the scene you’re in, regardless of whether you’re using the front- or rear-facing lenses. In addition to the rebranding, Google is launching four new packs

It could happen to anyone: one minute, your mom is spamming her Facebook friends with sparkly Garfield TGIF JPEGs she found via Google Image Search, and the next, she’s tweeted a photo of you insinuating that you believe women regularly lie about sexual assault.Unfortunately for Navy veteran Pieter Hanson, 32, his card was pulled on Monday night. He unwittingly went viral, courtesy of a tweet from his mother (former handle: @MarlaReynoldsC3). She posted a photo of him in his dress uniform

Google’s third-generation of Pixel phones, the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, are now available for preorder. The span of time between preorder and shipment date is short and sweet, with Google aiming to get the new gear into hands shortly after October 17th when preorders ship.The thing is, whether it can stick to that date is anyone’s guess — especially considering the Pixel 2’s dismal stock situation in 2017. Just three hours following their announcement in 2017, much of the