Technology news

eBay and Airbnb will both allow sexual harassment victims to take their cases to court, rather than requiring private arbitration, the companies told BuzzFeed. They’re the latest companies to drop forced arbitration clauses for sexual misconduct, following Facebook and Google — which promised changes after a massive employee protest. Several other companies told BuzzFeed that they did not have such clauses, and two others — Slack and Tesla — declined to comment.
Airbnb i

Stan Lee is the godfather of modern comics, and his death at age 95, although extremely sad, is a chance to celebrate exactly how much he gave to the world of pop culture. Today, the internet has been flooded with eulogies of his work, life, and his immense impact on comics and film. Many fans fondly recalled the cameos that Lee regularly made in Marvel films over the years, including the pre-Disney Marvel movies, the new Sony Spider-Man Universe, and, of course, the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

An industry group wants antitrust regulators to investigate whether Comcast-NBCUniversal is abusing its power to hurt smaller television and internet service providers. The American Cable Association (ACA), which represents over 700 small and medium-sized cable operators, has asked US Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim to “immediately” open an investigation into Comcast’s practices. Comcast denied that the claims have merit, and the Justice Department hasn’t publi

Sony’s PlayStation controllers have largely gone unchanged in the 20-plus years that the console family has been around — after all, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But a recently published update to Sony’s PlayStation controller patent hints at an interesting potential addition that would replace the DualShock 4’s touch-sensitive control pad with a full-fledged touchscreen, via DualShockers.
Sony has flirted with interactive controllers before — the c

This year, eBay is back at it again trying to outdo traditional retailers like Target and Macy’s with its “Better than Black Friday” deals. The deals, which last through the week and end on Sunday, include Apple and Samsung products as well as jewelry and toys.eBay has selected dozens of items offered by rival retailers including Costco, BJ’s Wholesale, Kohl’s, and listed them on its site at slight discounts, often around $20 off. eBay is offering free shipping on

Earlier today, French president Emmanuel Macron announced that regulators from France will be allowed to study Facebook and its attempts to moderate hate speech on its platform, which will give French officials significant access into how the company vets offensive content.
In 2019, French regulators will be given access to Facebook’s content policies and how the company removes posts that may discriminate against or target minority groups or others based on gender, sexuality, or religion

As unprecedented wildfires have torn across California over the past week — devastating hundreds of thousands of acres, displacing hundreds of thousands of residents, and killing at least 31 people — plenty of celebrities, including those who have been evacuated, have been tweeting links and encouraging their followers to donate to relief efforts. But in an unexpected turn, the celeb doing perhaps the most online legwork for victims of the three fires has been conservative actor Jam

Netflix today released an update for its iOS app that adds full support for Apple’s latest iPad Pro tablets. The devices went on sale last Wednesday, and early buyers quickly discovered something that flew under the radar in a lot of press reviews: you can expect to see many apps with black bars surrounding them, which detracts from the new “all-screen” (but definitely not edge-to-edge) design of these iPads.The issue is more pronounced on the 11-inch iPad Pro because it featu

Newegg’s Black Friday ad is out, and it has a pretty robust selection of deals on TVs like LG’s OLED, smart home products including the Nest Thermostat and Indoor Camera, and PC gaming components like motherboards, GPUs, and Intel i7 processors.Most of Newegg’s deals begin on November 19th at 12PM ET, more deals will kick in on November 22nd (Thanksgiving), and a few select deals will only be available on November 23rd (Black Friday). You won’t have to stand in line for

Google is now using AI to suggest relevant GIFs, emoji, and stickers you can put in your conversation if you’re using Gboard. As you’re typing, a GIF icon might appear on the top left corner of Gboard. By tapping on it, you’ll be able to pull up Google’s suggestions for you.
It’s not as clever as it sounds, though. Google claims Gboard is using AI to scour thousands of emoji and stickers for the right ones, but it’s mainly going off of the keywords you use. S

Some more comments from readers on the changing culture around startups filing their Form Ds with the SEC, and then a short update on SoftBankand a bunch more article reviews.
We are experimenting with new content forms at TechCrunch. This is a rough draft of something new – provide your feedback directly to the authors: Danny at [email protected] or Arman at [email protected] if you like or hate something here.
Lawyers are pretty uniform that disclosure is no longer ideal

To understand the intense reaction to Detective Pikachu’s first trailer, you have to understand where the Pokémon fandom stands in 2018. As a franchise, Pokémon taps into a yearning for adventure: it’s just you, your pet pals, and the open road. Defeat the gyms and you’ll get actual emblems for your success. No parents, no responsibilities. The possibilities seem endless. For a while, that fantasy is enough for Pokémon fans — and then they grow up.
F

Stan Lee, the former editor-in-chief, publisher, and chairman of Marvel Comics, died this morning in Los Angeles at age 95. Lee was best known for co-creating much of Marvel’s pantheon of beloved superheroes: Spider-Man, The X-Men, The Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, Daredevil, Black Panther, and Doctor Strange, among others.Lee’s comics career began in 1939, when the 17-year-old took an assistant job at Timely Comics, the predecessor to Marvel. Born Stanley Martin Lieber,

Apple’s annual October hardware event wrapped late last month with the announcements of a new MacBook Air and a revamped Mac mini. Both computers, like the newest MacBook Pro and last year’s iMac Pro, come equipped with Apple’s security-focused T2 chip. The T2 chip, which acts as a co-processor, is the secret to many of Apple’s newest and most advanced features. However, its introduction into more computers and the likelihood that it becomes commonplace in every Mac goin

Warning: Spoilers for The Walking Dead season 9, episode 6 below.
Last week, The Walking Dead was too clever for its own good. After head-faking for months that Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes would be killed off the show, the series aired a finale that seemed to do exactly that — before revealing in the final moments that Rick was actually just whisked away via helicopter, injured but alive. Adding insult to injury, AMC then pulled another rabbit out of its crumpled hat: not only was

YouTube is launching its virtual reality app on the Oculus Go mobile VR headset today, after announcing its plans in September. The app will be available in the Oculus Store, joining similar apps for Samsung Gear VR, Sony PlayStation VR, Google Daydream VR, and desktop VR headsets. It’s a helpful addition to the Oculus Go, which is aimed at VR video fans and other non-gaming users.
YouTube’s VR app supports 360-degree video and standard video in a VR theater. It also includes social

The first live-action Pokémon movie is coming next year, whether you want it or not. Legendary Pictures and The Pokémon Company released the first trailer for Detective Pikachu, starring Ryan Reynolds as a very furry version of the franchise’s best-known character.
Detective Pikachu follows a young man named Tim (Justice Smith), whose father has gone mysteriously missing. Tim pairs up with Pikachu, his dad’s former partner, who also... talks. The movie was inspired by

2019 is shaping up to be a big year for 5G, and Intel — one of tech’s biggest mobile players — has finally announced its plans for the next-generation network in the form of its new XMM 8160 5G modem. The XMM 8160 modem is set to be released to manufacturers sometime in the second half of 2019, with the first devices using the chip coming in early 2020.
Intel has big ambitions for the XMM 8160 5G. It envisions using it across phones, PCs, and broadband hubs, with peak speeds o

Sleep matters, just ask anyone who has just had a bad night's sleep.
If you wake up feeling refreshed, your day should be just fine. On the other hand, if you spend most of the night tossing and turning, then the whole day can feel like an uphill struggle. You’ll be fatigued, irritable, and reaching for a coffee, time and time again.
According to the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, sleep deprivation can even lead to serious health problems,

At the moment it feels like there is new VPN news every other day. There is increasing interest in VPNs, or Virtual Private Networks, and hence a lot of development and a lot of competition to stand out from the crowd.
The latest provider to bring something new to the industry is CyberGhost VPN. The team over at CyberGhost has launched a new Windows app (version 7.0), complete with 'Best Location', 'One-click Connect' and 'Smart Rules'. What are those flashy sounding features? We'll get to that,

The kitchen is easily one of the most expensive rooms to stock: With appliances, plus dinnerware, plus cookware, and then, you know, actual groceries on top of that, you might find yourself resorting to sticky hand-me-down pots and pans from yard sales with questionable crust dried on them. 
Wannabe foodies, get psyched: Macy's has slashed the price of this well-reviewed 13-piece set by 75% — taking it from $119.99 to an unbelievable $29.99. Dude.
This set by Tools of the Trade includ

The world’s two fastest supercomputers are now American, according to the rankings that are released biannually. The two computers, Summit and Sierra, both use IBM technology.Summit was crowned the world’s fastest computer back in June when it performed the mathematical test LINPACK at 122.3 petaflops per second. (Each petaflop is one quintillion math operations.) Since then, it’s received more upgrades, and it can now perform the test at 143.5 petaflops per second, giving it

Toy Story 4 is the continuation of one of Pixar’s most beloved franchises, and the first teaser for the film introduces a new character who’s caught some advance attention.Forky is an adorable, demented little spork outfitted with pipe-cleaner arms and a cute, squiggly face. It’s the type of toy that could only be loved by a child who spent 20 whole minutes making it, and it’s obvious from the teaser that he doesn’t belong with the rest of Andy and Bonnie’s p

Amazon announced today that it’s making more than 1,000 kid-friendly audiobooks available through its FreeTime Unlimited program. Parents can also add additional audiobooks through Audible to their kids’ device through the Parent Dashboard. The update should start rolling out later today. Parents can also add any Audible title from their own library to their child’s.
FreeTime Unlimited allows parents to pay a set price per month to give their kids access to age-appropriate, Am

Mars is hard. Hard to get to, hard to make habitable for humans, hard to tell a story about on the screen and leave the viewer with any lasting impression. 
With a few shining exceptions — looking at you, The Martian — all Mars movies have bombed. From Mission to Mars with Tim Robbins in 2000 to The Last Days on Mars with Liev Schreiber in 2012, even supernatural thrillers have failed to locate deposits of decent drama on the Red Planet. And the TV version hasn't fared much bett

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We hate to kick off this in such a negative fashion, but we feel obligated to alert all you Android users that your smart phones are vulnerable. While Android’s customization is great, the fact that they have an open platform makes them easier to hack and attack. And this can result in anything from lost photos and contacts to

We hate to kick off this in such a negative fashion, but we feel obligated to alert all you Android users that your smart phones are vulnerable. While Android’s customization is great, the fact that they have an open platform makes them easier to hack and attack. And this can result in anything from lost photos and contacts to stolen credit card numbers and malware that bricks your phone, rendering it unusable and unrepairable. Fortunately, you can protect your Android by downloading an an

Firefox is letting users test a new extension that will track prices for certain items and generate browser notifications when the price drops (via VentureBeat). The Price Wise extension is available from Mozilla’s Test Pilot program, and it currently supports five retailers — Amazon, Best Buy, Home Depot, eBay, and Walmart — although more are planned for the future.
Price-tracking services are nothing new. CamelCamelCamel, a service that tracks prices across Amazon is probabl

Black Friday may still be 10 days away, but shopping season started early in the enterprise this year. We have seen acquisitions totaling almost $50 billion in the last couple of months alone, topped by the mega $34 billion IBM-Red Hat deal two weeks ago. What exactly is going on here?
While not every deal has been for that kind of money, we are seeing an unusually large number of mega deals this year, something that some folks were predicting would happen when the big tech companies were a

Lyft announced a new loyalty program on Monday, in which riders accumulate points that can be exchanged for trip upgrades or access to more experienced drivers. The rewards program, which launches next month, is further evidence of Lyft’s effort to introduce new products ahead of a planned IPO in 2019.Details about Lyft’s rewards program were scant (a spokesperson said further information would be released at launch in December), but based on the company’s blog post, the rewar

On the twelfth night of bingeing, my Netflix gave to me... new movies and more TV!
Stoking your holiday spirit embers into a full-blown Christmas blaze, Netflix has just announced a cheery streaming lineup to get you through Thanksgiving and into the start of 2019. 
From a Great British Baking Show holiday special to Kurt Russell's highly-anticipated jaunt as Santa in The Christmas Chronicles, most everything Netflix is teeing up looks delightful. The new arrivals join tons of already strea

Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and you know what that means: Black Friday is almost here. But before those sweet discounts hit the internet, there are actually plenty of deals this week on laptops or tablets courtesy of Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy, and the Dell Store.
If you need a versatile tablet, the Microsoft Surface Go is $789.99 right now. The Go is like Microsoft's answer to the iPad Pro, offering similar features, like an external keyboard. But if you're an Apple diehard, the iPa

We didn't expect this!
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said at a fireside chat in New Delhi on Monday that the number of followers a person has on Twitter is basically meaningless, according to a Slashdot report.
He said that founders Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams didn't consider "all the dynamics that could ensue afterwards" when they built Twitter to show a follower count in 2006.
SEE ALSO: Learn how to use social media to grow your business by taking this super cheap online course
"So when