Technology news

DJ Khaled and pro boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. are facing charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission today after they failed to disclose that they were being paid promotional fees to tout fraudulent initial coin offerings.
According to the SEC, this is the first time that individuals have faced charges involving ICOs. The Commission is accusing Mayweather of failing to disclose a $100,000 promotional payment and DJ Khaled with a $50,000 one. Both celebrities received these promotional fe

Pixar Animation Studios may be the most influential animation outfit in the world, but recently, it’s developed a serious reputation problem. Earlier this year, a detailed insider report from a former employee explored the studio’s rigid culture of sexism, which systematically kept women away from advancement or leadership positions while protecting men who harassed or abused them. Meanwhile, chief creative officer John Lasseter was ousted from Disney after it surfaced that he&rsquo

Earlier this afternoon, alt-right Jewish commentator Laura Loomer handcuffed herself to the front doors of Twitter’s New York headquarters, while wearing a Yellow Star and carrying a bullhorn and a number of printed-out tweets. She says she’s demonstrating in protest of the alleged shadowbanning of conservatives on the social media platform, and the “double standard” of allowing figures like anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan to remain on the site.
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Spoilers for the general plot of Nightflyers ahead.
In the first episode of Syfy’s new series Nightflyers, Karl D’Branin (Eoin Macken), head of a scientific expedition meant to intercept an alien spaceship and establish first contact, talks with xenobiologist Rowan (Angus Sampson) about the mission. Karl views the incredible energy given off by the ship as mankind’s salvation, but Rowan expects the aliens haven’t responded to repeated messages from Earth because they don

Back in August, it was revealed that Ikea was planning to release a $10 power outlet in October as part of the Trådfri smart home product line. It looks like the launch ran into some obstacles, as the plugs are now available to purchase in the US and UK a month late and without the Apple HomeKit support they were supposed to launch with, as reported by 9to5Mac.
$10 is pretty affordable for a smart plug that can let you turn on and off household appliances like lamps and coffee makers from

Dell has released a customer update on its website acknowledging that it warded off a possible hack that happened earlier this month on November 9th.
In the update, Dell says it noticed and took action to intervene in “unauthorized activity” on its network. The hackers tried to extract customer names, email addresses, and hashed passwords, although it’s not clear how successful the effort was. (Credit card information was not impacted.) The customer update says it found no pro

Android 9 Pie is arriving to the HTC U11 Life, according to Ubergizmo. It will be the first HTC device to get the latest big operating system update since Pie launched in August.
The HTC U11 was released in the summer of 2017 running Android Nougat out of the box, later receiving the Oreo update soon after it launched. The HTC U11 Life is beating out the company’s 2018 flagship device, the HTC U12+, in getting Pie. It makes sense that the international U11 Life would be the first of HTC&r

Today, NASA announced that it is partnering with nine US aerospace companies to send small robotic landers to the Moon — the first phase in a multi-year plan to put humans on the lunar surface again. The companies are now part of a pool that can compete for NASA money. Whenever NASA wants to put small payloads of scientific instruments on the lunar surface, the agency will choose from these companies to do so.
The winning companies include Lockheed Martin, Astrobotic, Moon Express, Masten

It’s been a week of leaks for the upcoming Moto G7 line, and new details of an unannounced G7 Power variant emerged today through an FCC filing, as first spotted by XDA Developers. The Moto G7 Power joins the Moto G7, G7 Plus, and the recently leaked Moto G7 Play as one of the four Moto G devices that will likely launch next year. The Power’s standout feature will clearly be its battery: in the filing, Motorola discloses that it will have a 5,000mAh capacity. That could also explain

Adult Swim, Crunchyroll, and Alcon Entertainment are partnering to produce a new anime series based on Blade Runner 2049 called Blade Runner — Black Lotus. The 13-episode series is being directed by Shinji Aramaki, who directed the Appleseed films, and Kenji Kamiyama, who directed the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex series. Additionally, Cowboy Bebop director Shinichirō Watanabe is acting as Black Lotus’ creative producer.
The creative companies aren’t yet releasi

YouTube is gearing up to offer its prestige lineup of original series and films for free to all users, turning to its traditional ad-supported system in an attempt to bring in more viewers.The company is looking to pull back on its ad-supported programs by 2020, limiting the number of original series and films it orders, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Series that are ordered, which include a few with Hollywood star talent attached, will be available to all YouTube users for free, regardle

Lyft completed its acquisition of Motivate, the largest bike-share operators in North America, and in celebration, it announced that it will funnel $100 million into a dramatic expansion of Citi Bike in New York City.With 12,000 docked bikes, Citi Bike is the largest bike-share system in the US. Now, thanks to a five-year $100 million investment from Lyft, it is on track to become one of the largest bike-share programs in the world. Citi Bike would grow to 40,000 bikes over that period, doublin

John Perotti’s drone music podcast was never meant for the masses, yet on a Friday in early October, it sat near the top of Apple’s podcast charts. All it took to get it there was a $5 payment to a stranger who’d DMed Perotti days earlier.
As the manager of podcast production at WBUR, Boston’s NPR News station, Perotti receives lots of audio-related messages. But this October, he received an unusual one: a person claiming they could get any show to the top of Apple’

YouTube is expanding its Instagram-like Stories capability to more creators today, giving those with more than 10,000 subscribers the chance to use the tool.There are some major differences between Instagram Stories and YouTube’s iteration of the feature. YouTube Stories last for seven days on the mobile app, they will appear for both subscribers and non-subscribers, and they’ll show up in YouTube’s “Up Next” sidebar beside a video. Creators who use the tool will b

Microsoft-owned SwiftKey is getting web search built into its keyboard on Android. The company is hoping that users will find the feature makes looking up information faster within a conversation.To access the feature, simply open the toolbar on the keyboard through the + symbol and select the Search icon to type in any search terms. Given the Microsoft connection, it makes sense, but is still unfortunate that the search bar is powered by Bing, and there doesn’t seem to be any way to chan

Microsoft is modernizing its Office icons as part of a broader focus on design for its various Office apps. It’s the first time the Office icons have changed in five years, and they’re designed to be more simple and modern to span across multiple devices and platforms. Office now exists on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android, and Microsoft has been building a single core codebase to make rapid monthly improvements to the apps. These icons are designed to reflect how Office has changed re

Google is releasing an Android Auto update in the next few days that’s designed to make its user interface easier and more efficient to navigate in order to cut down on the likelihood that any element of your car’s of infotainment console becomes distracting and risks putting you or your vehicle in danger. The changes are mostly aimed at improving music playback and messaging notifications.Now, while playing music in your car via Android Auto, you can select new artists, albums, and

One month after the sprawling epic Red Dead Redemption 2 launched, developer Rockstar expanded the Western even further with Red Dead Online. A free multiplayer spinoff, Red Dead Online offers a range of competitive modes, including Fortnite-style battle royale, in addition to a brand-new story to play through. It’s a huge and constantly evolving world, and you can keep up with the latest developments right here.Continue reading…

A researcher in China claims to have created the world’s first gene-edited babies, but he didn’t publish the results in an academic journal or provide other scientists with access to the babies. The little data he has revealed suggests that his efforts might not have worked — instead, his work may have put the babies’ health at risk.Scientist He Jian Kui allegedly used the gene-editing tool CRISPR cas-9 to disable the CCR5 gene in 31 embryos with the goal of making child