Technology news

Disney announced today that it is developing a second live-action Star Wars show for its upcoming, newly named streaming video platform, Disney+, with actor Diego Luna reprising the role of Rebel Alliance spy Cassian Andor.Andor was a pivotal character in the 2016 standalone Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. He played one of the Rebel Alliance spies who helped transmit the plans for the Death Star to his compatriots before perishing on the planet Scarif, setting up the events of A New Hope. In the

Disney has announced the name for its upcoming streaming service: Disney+, scheduled to launch in the US in “late 2019.”
Along with the new branding, the company has also announced two more major shows that will be hitting the service. A second Star Wars spin-off will see Diego Luna reprise his role as Cassian Andor, set before Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and Disney confirmed the previously rumored Loki series that will see fan-favorite Tom Hiddleston star once again as the iconic

"The real driving force behind Crimes of Grindelwald seems to be a burning desire to set up a sequel. If only it had gone to the trouble of making me want to see one."
Early reviews of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald reveal critics, like Mashable's Angie Han, are less than spellbound by the second part of the planned five film franchise. 
The Harry Potter spinoff marks the tenth cinematic visit to J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World; and while trips to Hogwarts are always welcome, th

Diablo Immortal is just the tip of the iceberg for Blizzard Entertainment's new ventures in mobile.
After the reveal of Diablo Immortal at BlizzCon Friday, I had a chance to talk to Blizzard founder Allen Adham, who is currently the executive producer of incubation, about its newly announced mobile game and the possibility of other Blizzard franchises getting the mobile treatment.
SEE ALSO: 'World of Warcraft Classic' is kind of agonizing
No other new mobile games were confirmed by Adham, but he

The cheapest of the major internet TV streaming services, Sling TV isn’t drawing new subscribers quite like it used to. Yesterday, parent company Dish said Sling TV picked up only 26,000 new subscribers in the third quarter of 2018 and acknowledged that the service had drawn “fewer” customers compared to its performance over the few quarters prior. (Sling TV reported 41,000 new subscribers in Q2 and 91,000 in Q1.) In the year-ago quarter, subscriber gains were 240,000.One poss

Disney has announced a new live-action Star Wars series about the adventures of Rogue One's Cassian Andor, with Diego Luna reprising his role.
Described as a "rousing spy thriller," the series will follow Andor's daring work against the Empire before his fortuitous meeting with Jyn Erso and the mission that led to A New Hope.
SEE ALSO: The never-announced Boba Fett spin-off movie isn't happening, it seems
“Going back to the Star Wars universe is very special for me,” Luna s

Another review week! Hosts of The Vergecast Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn reviewed Apple’s new iPad Pro and MacBook Air, and discuss their take on this week’s show. In addition, we call up our friend and former Verge executive editor Walt Mossberg — who has been a big proponent of the last iteration of the MacBook — to give us his first impressions of the new laptop.There’s a whole lot more talk in between all of that — like Paul’s segment he does every w

After toying with the idea for the better part of four years, Harley-Davidson this week showed off its first electric motorcycle at the Milan Motorcycle Show. The electric bike drops in 2019, but the company is holding back on to all the important specs about speed, range, and charging for now.
The bike will carry the same “LiveWire” name used when it was still a prototype, but it otherwise looks like a much more complete design and, frankly, a refreshing new vision for what a Harle

We’ve known for a long time that dark mode / night mode apps can prolong battery life on smartphones with OLED screens. It’s true on Android, and it’s true with the iPhone. This is because the individual pixels have to do less work on dark areas of the screen, and they use practically no juice at all when displaying true black. As SlashGear picked up on, Google reiterated this during its Android Dev Summit this week, showing several slides that compare the power draw of severa

Best Buy is launching some of its best Black Friday discounts today, while many more will begin at 5PM ET on Thanksgiving day. Today’s deals include a discounted Surface Pro 6 with a Type Cover included, a Ring Video Doorbell 2 with a free Amazon Echo Dot (third-gen) and several TV deals. If you want to brave the rush of shoppers, the retailer is hosting a few doorbuster sales that start at 8AM ET on Black Friday (November 23rd) though the brunt of its deals will be available on or before

Wireless chargers are super convenient. Sure, they might not be as fast as a wired option, but there’s nothing easier than just dropping your phone on a pad to charge. While the chargers may be useful, they’re kind of ugly: even the nicest-looking pads kind of look like you accidentally left a hockey puck on your end table. That that’s where Twelve South’s PowerPic comes in. It hides a wireless charger inside of a regular 5x7 picture frame, allowing you to put the pad in

1More is offering a 25 percent discount on its entire catalog of headphones exclusively for readers of The Verge. If you’re unfamiliar with the brand, 1More makes headphones that, according to Vlad Savov’s positive experience with the Triple Driver in-ear headphones, you really ought to hear for yourself. Until November 21st, use the offer code VERGE25 at checkout to take 25 percent off of your purchase, which stacks atop of 1More’s current promotion for even more savings.
The

Warning: spoilers ahead for the 2016 film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
Even in their earliest, most child-friendly days, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books were never particularly simplistic. From the beginning, they introduced a crowded cast and a busy, messy world. And while her characters often fell into basic stereotypes or seemed more like story pegs and protagonist accessories than like people, there were certainly a lot of them. It was an early hint that as she kept expa

There was a time when each new entry in the Harry Potter canon was a treat to be savored, each new detail a gift to be admired, each new character a friend to be loved. 
But if Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the 2016 spinoff, raised the question of how much Wizarding World lore was too much Wizarding World lore, the new Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald definitively answers it: This. This is too much.
SEE ALSO: We need to talk about that 'Fantastic Beasts 2' Nagini revea

If you're one of the many people who miss the looping video app Vine, we have some good news for you.
Vine co-founder Dom Hofmann has just confirmed his plans to bring the popular app back are coming to fruition. On Wednesday, he tweeted out that the new looping video app will simply be called byte (with a lower-case "b").our new looping video app is called byte. launching spring 2019 pic.twitter.com/C3FMvkcIwc
— dom hofmann (@dhof) November 8, 2018Hofmann has been teasing a Vine revival u

Ford is entering the electric scooter business.
The American carmaker announced Wednesday it has acquired the popular San Francisco-based scooter-share company Spin.
The scooter startup secured $8 million in funding last year, and it was one of the first scooter companies to bring the electric vehicles to San Francisco this year along with Bird and Lime. 
SEE ALSO: Scooting while drunk is a dangerous, lame way to get a DUI
Pitchbook reported in May that Spin was valued at $43.2 million and

"Positivity guru" and occasional DJ Emile Ratelband is 69 years old, but he believes he's only 49. 
Describing himself as a "young god," Ratelband asked the Dutch courts to legally change his age on Monday to improve his quality of life. He insists that he's discriminated against by jobs and dating apps because on paper, he's too old.
SEE ALSO: Facebook Dating wants to be the anti-Tinder
Here's his argument, translated by the Guardian:As the Cut points out, "luxurious" might be a euphemism

HTC will start selling its standalone Vive Focus virtual reality headset worldwide today, after an initial launch in China earlier this year. The headset, which will cost $599 in the US, is aimed at business customers in 37 countries. It’s part of a larger attempt to make HTC VR headsets appealing to companies, including a newly announced collaboration app called Vive Sync, which lets employees in different offices meet and work together in VR.
The Vive Focus is a self-contained mobile he

Vine lives, according to co-creator Dom Hofmann. The entrepreneur, who’s been working on and off on a spiritual successor to the now-defunct short-form video app, says the proper sequel will be called Byte, and it’s coming in spring 2019.Twitter initially purchased Vine in 2012, before its official launch, and shut it down roughly four years later. Despite its short-lived existence, Vine became a hugely popular platform for video creators, many of whom have since moved on to Instagr

Sarah Huckabee Sanders yesterday accused CNN’s Jim Acosta of “inappropriate behavior” towards a White House intern, citing this as the reason his press pass was revoked. The Press Secretary did this in a 194-word screed posted from an official White House account on Twitter. She then punctuated her point by sharing a video of the incident edited by Infowars’ Paul Joseph Watson. The incident in question occurred yesterday during President Donald Trump’s press confer

Welp, another day and another way for thieves to violate your privacy and commit credit card fraud. 
Scammers have figured out how to view your mail before it even arrives at your house, and have used this advantage to open credit card accounts in victims' names and then time the theft of new cards from mailboxes pretty much the moment they arrive. And the tool giving crooks this edge comes courtesy of the United States Postal Service.
So notes Krebs on Security, which reports on a Secret S

You know those Black Friday videos of customers running into the store and trampling each other for a TV like the IRL version of the wildebeest stampede in The Lion King?Yeah, let's not do that. Instead, snag a new TV, high-end laptop, KitchenAid mixer, and more with a few clicks from the comfort of your cozy couch — all thanks to Best Buy. The retailer finally released their 2018 Black Friday ad scan and as you could expect, it is 100% teched out.
Don't get us wrong, the previous 201

Virgin Hyperloop One has found a new CEO, and it’s someone who knows a thing or two about running both big and small transportation systems. Jay Walder, who recently left his position as CEO of bike-share operator Motivate, will become the new chief executive of the futuristic transportation company. Walder will replace Rob Lloyd, who served as CEO for three years.The company also selected a new chairperson to replace Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson, who stepped down last month. Sultan A

In a flourishing Reddit community each post begins by asking one simple question: Am I the asshole?
Am I the Asshole is resolute about giving every person who makes a post a succinct answer as to whether or not they have behaved like an asshole in a recent situation. But don't let the subreddit's goofy name fool you, at its core it's a place for people to reckon with social norms and mores, and get vital third party opinions.
SEE ALSO: RoastMe is a troll's paradise, where people ask to be insult

After AT&T and Verizon both lowered their prepaid unlimited data plan prices, T-Mobile is following in the footsteps of its competitors by offering a discount on its prepaid unlimited data plan. For a limited time, customers can sign up for a $50 per month prepaid plan with unlimited talk, text, and 4G LTE data.
That puts T-Mobile’s plan at a much cheaper price than Verizon’s $65 prepaid plan, which doesn’t include mobile hotspots. That said, T-Mobile’s plan limits m