Technology news

Here’s just a short PSA for people interested in buying the OnePlus 6T on T-Mobile: the carrier’s $300 trade-in promotion is ending tomorrow. There will no doubt be other trade offers down the line, but the one announced back at the phone’s keynote was particularly generous; T-Mobile will give you $300 for any previous OnePlus handset to put towards the 6T. There’s also a long list of other phones that are eligible for the $300 discount.The $300 is applied over 24 months

Now that Apple’s full fall hardware lineup is officially available, the company has announced a slew of updates for its video creation and productivity apps.First, a new iMovie update will let users connect an external display to an iPad or iPhone, which allows screen mirroring or creating a full-screen preview of what you’re editing. (Full-screen previews require an iPhone 7 or newer, sixth-generation iPad or newer, or a 2017 iPad Pro or newer.) In addition, there’s also supp

Apple has developed a way to replace the new MacBook Air’s battery without swapping out the entire top of the keyboard, MacRumors reports based on Apple’s internal service guide for the device. That’s slightly more environmentally friendly than the situation on other modern MacBooks, which have so much glue inside the frame that the entire thing would have to be replaced in the event that the old battery needed to be changed.
Apple will now give Genius workers and authorized s

Ford is buying dockless electric scooter company Spin for $40 million, according to Axios. The acquisition cost roughly what Spin was valued at after its Series A funding last year.The deal isn’t the first time Ford’s entered the e-scooter market; the company started conducting a test run of scooter rentals at Purdue University under the name “Jelly” last month. Ford has also been exploring new mobility solutions since it acquired San Francisco-based shuttle service Char

Samsung has stood as the major holdout in a year when seemingly every other smartphone maker moved to releasing displays with a notch cutout. But at the company’s developer conference today, Samsung confirmed that it’s soon going to join in on the trend. A slide during the keynote showed several notch designs that are almost certainly coming to Samsung-branded devices in 2019 and beyond.Hassan Anjum, a director of product marketing at Samsung, took the stage to highlight Samsung&rsq

Today at its developer conference, Samsung showcased what it calls One UI and kicked off a new approach to the user experience on Samsung smartphones. One UI contains some new visual flair including more rounded corners, splashes of color across apps, and redesigned icons. But its main purpose is to relieve the repetitive stress our hands endure in today’s world of giant phones.One UI places key interaction areas near the bottom of the screen where they’re within reach of your thumb

Smosh, Smosh Games, and Clevver are some of YouTube’s most popular channels, but their teams are looking for a new studio in the wake of news that their parent company, Defy Media, is closing its doors.“Regretfully, Defy Media has ceased operations today,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday evening. “We are extremely proud of what we accomplished here at Defy and in particular want to thank all the employees who worked here. We deeply regret the impact that this

Samsung has been teasing its foldable smartphone for weeks, and now the company has unveiled it for the first time today. Samsung calls its foldable phone technology the Infinity Flex Display, and the phone itself has a tablet-sized screen that can be folded up to fit into a pocket.Samsung demonstrated a “disguised” device during its developer conference today, and dimmed the lights to protect elements of the design. “There’s a device inside here,” said Justin Deni

At today’s Android Dev Summit, Google announced a new set of features as part of the Android App Bundle tool, including an In-app Updates API that will allow developers to more aggressively nudge users to download the latest version of an app.
To essentially force users into updating, devs now have two new options to hasten app updates. For pressing issues — such as security bug fixes — developers can display a full-screen message the next time a user starts up an app to notif

Samsung is going to start letting app developers plug into Bixby, and hardware companies will be able to build the voice assistant into their products, too.
In the year-and-a-half since Bixby launched, Samsung has already brought the assistant to phones, fridges, TVs, and more, but they’ve all been Samsung’s own devices. With today’s news, other companies will be able to start building it into their own hardware as well, either as an alternative to Amazon’s Alexa and Goo

Industrial Light & Magic, the company that invented modern cinematic visual effects with its work on the original Star Wars trilogy, is embracing television with a new division it is naming ILM TV. According to a press release, the new group’s focus will be on episodic and streaming television series, and it already has two projects lined up: the second season of Syfy’s Krypton, and Jon Favreau’s upcoming live-action Star Wars series The Mandalorian.
“We are seeing a

As candidates across the country scrapped for control of Congress, last night’s midterms were particularly dramatic in Wisconsin. After eight years and a failed recall effort, Governor Scott Walker lost to Democratic candidate Tony Evers, in a closely fought race that remained a dead heat until 1:30AM local time. Evers, the superintendent of the state school system, ultimately pulled ahead by roughly 30,000 votes.
The surprise win could have a significant impact on Wisconsin’s new F

Google is officially announcing support for a category of Android devices it’s decided to call “Foldables.” Speaking today at the Android Developer Summit, VP of engineering Dave Burke said that Google is “enhancing Android to take advantage of this new form factor with as little work as necessary.” But as of right now, those enhancements are mostly just guidance for developers to start using already-existing features that are built into Android.
If you haven&rsquo

The next generation of Wi-Fi is starting to arrive, and Netgear is jumping in with its first two routers: the Nighthawk AX8 and Nighthawk AX12.
These are two very high-end routers, capable of theoretical speeds well beyond what most home internet connections can deliver. But their real standout feature is support for the next major Wi-Fi standard, 802.11ax — or what’s being newly branded as “Wi-Fi 6.”
Wi-Fi 6 doesn’t bring with it many incredible speed leaps or fan

A 70-year-old man in Taiwan has gone viral for playing Pokémon Go with 11 phones attached to his bicycle. Chen San-yuan has made headlines internationally for the strange setup. Chen also keeps external batteries and charging cables on him so he can enjoy up to 20 hours of battery life per phone.Since first getting caught on social media and going viral in August, Chen has upgraded to a waist mount, so he can travel with his 11 phones on foot. His neighbor also commented on how Chen&rsqu

The PS4 Pro can be loud, especially when running intense games. But these noise issues appear to have finally been fixed with Sony’s latest revision of the console, according to an analysis by Digital Foundry.From the outside, the new CUH-7200 looks almost identical to the previous models of the PS4 Pro — of which, for those keeping track, there have been two. However, the back the bulky three-prong PC-style power connector has been quietly swapped for the same slim, standard figure

California voters approved a measure allowing the state to make daylight saving time (DST) year-round, instead of only from early March to early November. In order for this to actually be put in place, California legislature has to now approve it by a two-thirds vote, and then Congress would have to allow the deviation. The majority of Arizona is on permanent standard time, and year-round DST is followed by Hawaii and the territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Minor Outlying Islands, the Nort

The first time I put on a tie, I loaded up a YouTube video. Any time I want to do something new in a program like Ableton, Premiere, or Photoshop, I run a search on YouTube. I’ve learned how to cook a few things from YouTube videos, too. These are just the sorts of educational searches I’m willing to admit; there way too many embarrassing ones that will go with me to my grave. But I’m not alone in using YouTube as a digital school of sorts.
A new Pew research study that survey

DevOps platform CircleCI today announced a new partner program that will open up its platform and allow third-party tools to integrate with it. In addition, the company is launching Orbs, which it describes as “the world’s first package manager designed specifically for configuration of software delivery automation.”
Fresh off its $31 million funding round earlier this year, CircleCI is clearly on a mission to firmly plant its stake in the increasingly competitive continuous in

TwelveSouth is one of the most innovative Mac accessory companies out there. From its PlugBug adapter to the AirFly bluetooth headphone receiver, the company makes clever, well-produced products. But the PowerPic — I dunno, man.
I’m sure the build quality is there, as with its other offerings. New Zealand pine sounds nice. At its heart, though, the product is really a wood box around a wireless charging stand. “Wireless charging is awesome, but adding yet another charging gadge

Instacart just announced that its new grocery pickup service will launch in cities across the United States. The new pickup option works alongside Instacart’s delivery service, which supports many of the same supermarkets.Any viable grocery delivery / pickup service needs a wide variety of retailers to source from. Instacart has different buying options that include both pickup and delivery to keep customers interested and to stay competitive against the likes of Amazon’s grocery st

One. More. Day. That’s how long you have until the region’s very best early-stage startup founders compete head-to-head in the first Startup Battlefield Latin America 2018. Those founders have been honing their pitches to perfection, and they’re ready to launch their dream to the world — tomorrow, 8 November — at the Tomie Ohtake Institute in São Paulo, Brazil.
If you haven’t secured your free spectator ticket, apply for it right now. Don’t miss o

Tinderhas never really shaken its reputation among consumers as a “hook up” app, instead of one designed for more serious dating. Now, it seems Tinder is planning to embrace its status as the default app for younger users who aren’t ready to settle down. According to Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg, speaking to investors on its Q3 earnings call this morning, Tinder is preparing to launch its first-ever brand marketing campaign that will promote the “single lifestyle&r

Facebook says that the 30 Facebook accounts and 85 Instagram accounts it blocked yesterday for “inauthentic behavior” appear to originate from Russia. A site that claims to be associated with the Russia-based Internet Research Agency (IRA) later posted a list of fake Instagram accounts it made before the US midterm elections, which included many that were removed by Facebook yesterday and others that the company has now blocked.The IRA was previously linked to interfering with the 2

A man who helped orchestrate attacks on several gaming platforms, then abruptly disappeared in 2014, pleaded guilty in a California court yesterday. Utah resident Austin Thompson admitted to being a member of the hacking group DerpTrolling, which carried out a series of high-profile denial-of-service attacks in late 2013 as part of a campaign against Twitch streamer James “Phantoml0rd” Varga. Thompson was charged with causing “damage to a protected computer,” which carri

Chris Hays and Mark Jeffrey wanted to create a way for everyone to be able to tell their loved ones if they were in trouble. Their first product, Guardian Circle, did just that, netting a mention a few years ago. Now the same team is truly decentralizing alerts with a new token called, obviously, Guardium.
The plan is to create an ad hoc network of helpers and first responders. “Guardium and Guardian Circletogether open the emergency response grid to vetted citizens, private response

The UK’s privacy watchdog has asked Facebook’s lead EU regulator to look into ongoing data protection concerns about its ad platform — including how its platform is being used to target and spread fake adverts to try to manipulate voters.
Facebook’s international HQ is in Ireland so the regulator in play here is the Irish Data Protection Commission.
The ICO noted the action in a 113-page report to parliament yesterday giving an update on its long-running investigatio

Last night, Democrats claimed the majority in the House of Representatives, and Republicans were able to keep a stronghold over the Senate, making some minor gains. The new Congress is still taking shape, with leadership elections to be held next week and a few more months before the next congressional term truly begins.All bills introduced this past Congress will be killed once January rolls around, so the new Congress will be starting from a blank slate. With power divided in Congress, lawmak