Technology news

Apple is giving up on its second attempt to create something of a social network within its music app. The company has informed artists that effective today, they can no longer post content to the Connect section of Apple Music. This page on Apple.com confirms the change, saying that “Connect posts from artists are no longer supported.” Credit to 9to5Mac for reporting the development.When it introduced Apple Music at WWDC 2015, Apple pitched Connect as a unique avenue for linking mu

Vector’s already got the adorable bit down, courtesy of a team staffed by former Pixar and Dreamworks animators. But Anki’s grownup version of Cozmo can use a bit of help when it comes to smarts. Starting next week, the desktop robot will be able to tap into Amazon Alexa’s deep base of answers.The new feature will arrive as a software update on December 17. As evidenced by the below preview video, it’s not a direct integration into Vector’s AI personality. “He

There’s good news for people who can’t be bothered to leave their apartments for their morning coffee, and terrible news for baristas everywhere. Starbucks announced today that it’s expanding its delivery partnership with Uber Eats to 2,000 more US stores, which makes up about a quarter of all Starbucks locations in the country. The service, called Starbucks Delivers, has been operating as a pilot program since September in Miami, Tokyo, and a handful of cities in China. Starb

The company behind the biggest screens in cinema is giving up on bringing VR screens within a few inches of users’ faces. The company announced today in a SEC filing that it will be shutting down its three remaining virtual reality centers including its flagship location in Los Angeles.
Via the filing:
In connection with the Company’s previously-announced strategic review of its virtual reality pilot initiative, the Company has decided to close its remaining VR locations and write-of

Back in November, Apple banned the official Tumblr app from the App Store over child pornography issues, and today — following an announcement from Tumblr two weeks ago that it would be banning all adult content from the website — the app has been restored and is once again available to download, via TechCrunch.
Tumblr is back, right before the ban
Tumblr has been trending toward more aggressive content moderation over the months that it’s been under the stewardship of Verizon

The World of Ice and Fire books are filled with so much that never makes it onto Game of Thrones. But newly released art for the 2020 calendar has renewed hope that we'll see a fan-favorite beast mentioned only once on the show.
Giant. Goddamn. Ice. Spiders.
SEE ALSO: Everything we know about the 'Game of Thrones' prequel series
In Season 1, Old Nan (a true prophet ahead of her time) tells Bran of all the horrors living beyond the Wall. She describes how long ago White Walkers (#BelieveOldNan),

Spammers are sending a wave of threats to businesses, schools, and other locations in English-speaking countries across the world, demanding bitcoin in exchange for not detonating a supposed bomb. There’s no evidence of any actual explosives being placed or detonated, but it’s causing numerous evacuations and law enforcement investigations across the US, Canada, and New Zealand — and potentially elsewhere. Police are both investigating potential threats and asking victims to e

The weeks after Christmas always involve a brutal massacre — of trees.
New York City is already a hideous, odiferous noxious cesspool of waste. The city is magically even more toxic in the days following December 25. All along along our broken streets you'll see the bodies of the Christmas dead: Balsam, Douglas Fir, Frasier Fir.
It doesn't have to be this way. People can make a different choice: they can foster a lil' Christmas tree and help it grow into a beautiful adult tree. 
SEE A

Machine learning models are getting quite good at generating realistic human faces — so good that I may never trust a machine, or human, to be real ever again. The new approach, from researchers at Nvidia, leapfrogs others by separating levels of detail in the faces and allowing them to be tweaked separately. The results are eerily realistic.
The paper, published on preprint repository Arxiv (PDF), describes a new architecture for generating and blending images, particularly human faces, t

A new study from Versus Systems and the MEMES (Management of Enterprise in Media, Entertainment & Sports) Center at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management examines how gaming and advertising are evolving, and how one influences the other.
As Versus Systems CEO Matthew Pierce put it, the goal was to study, “What is the impact on advertising as interactive media grows, and as more people consume interactive media?”
The individual findings — People like rewards! Not everyo

Tumblr is back. Sort of. The social blogging platform reappeared on Apple’s App Store this week, some three weeks after being pulled over child pornography concerns. Ten days ago, the company adopted a scorched earth response to the issue, announcing a blanket ban on adult material as part of a “better, more positive Tumblr.”
The move appears to have paid off on one front, at least. The iOS version has returned to Apple’s hallowed halls with a version history noting that

SoundCloud is now integrated with the newest versions of Serato DJ, allowing DJs to search, play, and mix any song uploaded to SoundCloud natively within Serato. It’s an immensely convenient integration that’ll give DJs access to SoundCloud’s unique library of music, but it also falls flat for one major reason: there’s no offline support, making it a nonstarter for live performances.
Several DJ softwares have had streaming services integrated for some time — djay,

It may seem like some of your favorite films came out just yesterday, but I regret to inform you that many of them will be turning 20 this coming year.
From the hit teen comedies Never Been Kissed and 10 Things I Hate About You, to intense dramas like Eyes Wide Shut and Boys Don't Cry, there are a bunch of films you probably didn't realize came out in 1999.
SEE ALSO: The 10 best movie comedy performances in 2018
For anyone curious about revisiting the films of their youth, or someone who fancies

Anirudh Pandit Contributor Anirudh Pandit is head of Solution Engineering, NA-West, office of the CTO, MuleSoft.Technology has been the cornerstone of economic growth around the world for hundreds of years. It has underpinned the last three industrial revolutions and is now the driving factor in today’s Fourth Industrial Revolution — marked by emerging technologies in a variety of fields.
Unsurprisingly, artificial intelligence is one of the key technologies driving this new revolut

Future acoustic prodigies, I regrettably must inform you... your services will not be needed. The peak of mankind's musical ability has already been reached. 
There are a lot of reasons to see Aquaman, not the least of which is the absurd banger that is Pitbull's contribution to its soundtrack, titled "Ocean to Ocean." An aquatic and very Pitbull take on Toto's "Africa," this soon-to-be chart-topper features original verses alongside Rhea covering the original's iconic "I bless the rains" l

It’s not often you can put nuclear weapons, terrorism and climate change on the same list as quantum computing, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, but the U.S. government believes all pose an “emerging threat” to its national security.
Several key agencies in the U.S. intelligence community were asked what they saw as long-term threats faced by the country in the next decade and beyond, and the future of “dual-use technologies” took center stag

It’s not often you can put nuclear weapons, terrorism and climate change on the same list as quantum computing, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, but the U.S. government believes all pose an “emerging threat” to its national security.
Several key agencies in the U.S. intelligence community were asked what they saw as long-term threats faced by the country in the next decade and beyond, and the future of “dual-use technologies” took center stag

For 15 years, the massively multiplayer game MapleStory has foretold of a great evil at the heart of its story. Everything was great until the Black Mage arrived in town, tainting everything with his dark magic.
During that time, players have never actually been able to fight the guy. For years, MapleStory fans have leveled up their characters through long, complex quest lines, coming to the rescue of non-playable characters, fetching them important quest items, all without ever actually coming

A new scam is making the rounds that promises to disrupt countless offices and schools. The scam is simple: the scammers send an email threatening to detonate a bomb if they don’t get a certain amount of Bitcoinwithin a specified time frame. Because there is little upside to ignoring a bomb threat at this point in history, entire offices are now being evacuated as this scam spreads.
The scammers usually send something like this:
My man carried a bomb (Hexogen) into the building where your

What does consent as a valid legal basis for processing personal data look like under Europe’s updated privacy rules? It may sound like an abstract concern but for online services that rely on things being done with user data in order to monetize free-to-access content this is a key question now the region’s General Data Protection Regulation is firmly fixed in place.
The GDPR is actually clear about consent. But if you haven’t bothered to read the text of the regulat

When Lily Eftetahi arrived in Greece three years ago as a refugee from Iran, she spoke neither Greek nor English. She had countless questions about how to start a new life as a refugee, but wasn't sure who to ask for accurate answers. 
That changed when she discovered Refugee.Info, a set of digital resources for refugees and asylum seekers in Greece, Italy, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Hungary who want to know how they can work, which documents they need, whether they can receive cash assistance,

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If you frequently straighten, curl, or style your hair, the Dyson Airwrap's quickness, versatility, and heat protection could be worth the obscene price

PornHub, a popular site that features people in various stages of undress, saw 33.5 billion visits in 2018. There are currently 7.53 billion people on Earth.
Y’all have been busy.
The company, which owns most of the major porn sites online, produces a yearly report that aggregates user behavior on the site. Of particular interest, aside from the fact that all of us are horndogs, is that the U.S., Germany and India are in the top spots for porn browsing and that the company transferred 4,00

Grocery delivery company Instacart announced today that its partnership with Amazon-owned Whole Foods is coming to an end. Instacart was in the midst of a five-year deal signed in 2016 that established the company as Whole Foods’ exclusive delivery carrier, but the deal became complicated when Amazon acquired Whole Foods in 2017. The details of how the contract was ended are unclear, but it makes sense that Amazon would now want to deliver its own groceries through its own Prime Now and A

Spammers have sent a wave of threats to businesses, schools, and other locations, demanding bitcoin in exchange for not detonating a supposed bomb. There’s no evidence of any actual explosives being placed or detonated, but it’s still caused numerous evacuations and law enforcement investigations, and police are investigating potential threats, asking victims to exercise caution.
Several examples of the email threat have been posted online. A typical example, printed by the Cedar Ra

Google has partnered with Lime to show nearby bikes and scooters in 13 cities worldwide. If there’s a Lime vehicle available nearby, Google Maps will show you how long it will take to get to the vehicle, the estimated price of the ride and total journey time.
Similar to the Uber integration in Google Maps, tapping on Lime will open the Lime app. If you don’t have it installed, you’ll be directed to the Apple App or Google Play store.This is now live in Auckland, New Zealand, Au

YouTube is on a massive sweep of spam accounts, and the company is alerting creators that they may see a “noticeable decrease” in their subscriber counts as the cleanup is conducted.An official post on YouTube’s product forum states these sweeps are part of routine maintenance the company performs. Removing spam accounts helps to keep YouTube “a fair playing field” for creators, since they can artificially increase a channel’s subscriber count. It’s unc

Facebook is pushing back on claims that its work with third-party fact-checkers amounts to little more than "crisis PR."
That's how one former employee of Snopes, one of the fact-checking websites that works directly with Facebook to debunk misinformation in News Feed, described her previous work with the company.
SEE ALSO: Facebook's Privacy Disaster
In a report published in The Guardian, the former Snopes employee says Facebook "essentially used us for crisis PR," and that "they are more inter

More than a decade after the end of “Alias,” J.J. Abramsand Jennifer Garner are teaming up on a new limited series for Apple.
The show, titled “My Glory Was I Had Such Friends,” will be based on the Amy Silverstein memoir of the same name, about how Silverstein’s friends supported her as she waited for her second heart transplant.
As reported in Variety and elsewhere, the series will be produced by Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros.

Lyftis turning its app into a one-stop multimodal transportation app in a few U.S. cities, the latest illustration of its transformation from ridesharing startup to a company that wants to own, or at least be a part of, every way people move from Point A to Point B, whether it’s cars, bikes, scooters or even public transit.
This new version of Lyft’s app, which allows users to request a shared car, find a scooter or bike, as well as see nearby public transit options, is only availabl

Earlier this year, we told you about a now 18-month-old, Hoboken, N.J.-based cryptocurrency startup working on a “stable coin” whose elastic supply would ostensibly expand and contract to keep its value at about a dollar instead of all over the map. The company’s big idea: to develop a new token that people would actually use, instead of use to speculate.
Investors — a lot of them — fell in love with the concept. In fact, eight months ago, Basis landed $133 million

Batteries. Clothing. Household goods. Supplements. Diapers. Furniture. Toys? Yes, toys. It seems Amazon’s private label business is preparing to enter the toy market next. The retailer’s initial toy listings include an indoor play set for toddlers, along with other toys for climbing and playing on, as well as a toy storage system.
The listings were first spotted by TJI Research this week, but the items themselves are not available for sale. (The listings have also been pulled down, f

The best part of Nintendo’s Switch Online subscription service is the included classic games. Since launch, Nintendo has steadily added more NES titles, including some enhanced additions; just this week came a version of Metroid that starts you out with a huge array of powers just ahead of the big battle with Ridley. But what’s the best way to play these 8-bit classics? The Switch Joy-Con and Pro Controller are both passable, and there are also a few solid aftermarket controllers as

Did we all just watch a kid teleport on the BBC?
During an interview about Theresa May's leadership earlier this week, a small child appeared to materialize out of thin air behind the interview subject, and people are confused. SEE ALSO: These viral Instagram workout videos have gone too far
Some joked that it was a glitch in the matrix, or part of a larger conspiracy. I am confident (and afraid) we were *not* meant to see that.
— (((Duffy Bloom ن (@duffybloom) December 12,

CBS has released a new trailer for its upcoming second season of Star Trek: Discovery, highlighting the peril that will face the crews of the USS Discovery and USS Enterprise when the show returns in January.After the show teased his appearance in two earlier trailers, Ethan Peck’s bearded Spock is front and center, telling his half-sister, disgraced Starfleet officer Michael Burnham, that they’re facing a major challenge — one that could be a “defining moment for multip

Twitter released its biannual Transparency Report on Thursday outlining current trends in government information requests, content removal requests, and other privacy matters regarding the network.
This year's report marks the thirteenth time in the company's history that Twitter has expounded on its privacy practices in such tremendous detail. The new report also expands on the type of data Twitter is making publicly available.
In a blog post published in tandem with the Transparency Report, Tw

When the former CTOs of YouTube,Facebook and Dropbox seed fund a database startup, you know there’s something special going on under the hood. Jiten Vaidya and Sugu Sougoumarane saved YouTube from a scalability nightmare by inventing and open-sourcing Vitess, a brilliant relational data storage system. But in the decade since working there, the pair have been inundated with requests from tech companies desperate for help building the operational scaffolding needed to actually integrat

Earlier this year, Apple Music launched some of its top charts as playlist series. Today, YouTube is doing something similar. The company announced it’s making its YouTube Charts available as playlists in YouTubeMusic to users across the 29 markets where the music service is live. Each market will receive five of these “charts playlists” — three specific to their country, and two global lists, the company says.
The Top 100 Songs and the Top 100 Music Videos will be o