Technology news

UK police have arrested two individuals in connection with flight disruptions at London Gatwick Airport. The pair, a 47-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman were arrested late on Friday, according to the Sussex Police.Air traffic at Gatwick, England’s second largest airport, was disrupted when a drone was spotted flying in the area on Wednesday, prompting the airport to suspend flights through Friday. Flights were diverted to other airports, and authorities ended up bringing in the Britis

A high school wrestler from New Jersey, facing the threat of a forfeit, had his dreadlocks cut at a wrestling meet on Wednesday, sparking outrage across the internet against the white referee that gave him the ultimatum.
A video of 120-pound Beuna Regional High School wrestler Andrew Johnson getting his hair cut was posted to Twitter by SNJ Today News sports director Mike Frankel. Johnson can be seen being consoled by his teammates and appears visibly upset after his overtime victory over his op

Is Bethesda Softworks just getting into the holiday spirit here, or is this an unspoken "make good" apology after Fallout 76's borked launch?
No one can say! And frankly, it doesn't matter. Bethesda has a special holiday offer in place for anyone who's played Fallout 76, which takes the popular apocalypse-centered role-playing game and turns it into an online game. 
SEE ALSO: 'Fallout 76' banning homophobic players exposes a bigger problem
The offer is for more Fallout, and — importan

Microsoft is reportedly planning to release new webcams in 2019 for Windows 10 and Xbox One. Thurrott reports that two new webcams are on the way, with one designed to bring Windows Hello facial recognition to any Windows 10 PC. The other will reportedly work with the Xbox One and bring back the Kinect feature that let users automatically sign in by moving in front of the camera. This should work with multiple accounts and family members.Microsoft’s Surface chief, Panos Panay, hinted earl

In a recent piece, I explained why AI’s complexity shouldn’t be a deterrent for its adoption. In fact, I went as far as stating that artificial intelligence will be just as disruptive as the internet was. This is a view I am doubling down on. As far as artificial intelligence is concerned, one industry most likely to be most disrupted is the healthcare industry. Why will AI have such an impact on the healthcare industry? Facts like the ones below are why: Hospital error —

A Juul is not a cigarette. It’s much easier than that. Through devilishly slick product design I’ll discuss here, the startup has massively lowered the barrier to getting hooked on nicotine. Juul has dismantled every deterrent to taking a puff.The result is both a new $38 billion valuation thanks to a $12.8 billion investment from Marlboro Cigarettes-maker Altria this week, and an explosion in popularity of vaping amongst teenagers and the rest of the population. Game recognize game,

Facebookis fielding so many problems, oversights, scandals, and other miscellaneous ills that it wouldn’t surprise anyone to hear that its fact-checking program, undertaken last year after the network was confronted with its inaction in controlling disinformation, is falling apart. But in this case the reason you haven’t heard much about it isn’t because it’s a failure, but because fact-checking is boring and thankless — and being done quietly and systematically by

Apple has already confirmed that it's fine if some newer iPad Pros don't lie completely flat, but now there's an actual numeric measurement for acceptable iPad bendiness.
Apple's Dan Riccio, VP of hardware engineering at the company, confirmed the detail in an email. Riccio sent the note as a response to a customer who had written to Apple CEO Tim Cook with concerns about the company's suggestion that warped iPads aren't actually the product of a manufacturing defect.
SEE ALSO: iPad Pro (2018) r

Spoiler alert: this post contains some spoilers for the movie Bird Box.Netflix's new horror movie Bird Box has been receiving some decent critical reception since its release on Friday, but despite some of its faults, viewers can't stop talking about the movie.
Specifically, people are enamored with the monster of Bird Box, if you can even call it a monster.
While many horror movies explain what it is that's haunting the protagonists, Bird Box keeps its threat pretty mysterious all the way throu

Days after Apple confirmed to The Verge that some of its new iPad Pro devices might come with a slight bend or curve out of the box, a senior executive has reiterated that the company stands by the tablet and its premium build quality.Dan Riccio, Apple’s VP of hardware engineering, offered the most informative response yet on the matter late Thursday night when he responded to a customer email, saying that the 2018 iPad Pro “meets or exceeds all of Apple’s high quality standar

After reviewing the excellent OnePlus Type-C Bullets, I’ve struggled to think of a good reason for other USB-C buds to even exist. You can’t get much cheaper than their $20 asking price, and you can’t get more comfortable. But there’s always room for sonic and hardware improvements, and that’s where Denmark’s Aiaiai comes in with its Pipe 2.0 USB-C earphones. At $40, they’re double the price of a pair of USB-C Bullets, and they justify their premium wit

This was a bad year for the smartphone. For the first time, its seemingly unstoppable growth began to slow.
Things started off on a bad note in February, when Gartner recorded its first year-over-year decline since it began tracking the category. Not even the mighty Applewas immune from the trend. Last week, stocks took a hit as influential analyst Ming-Chi Kuo downgraded sales expectations for 2019.
People simply aren’t upgrading as fast as they used to. This is due in part to the fact th

Twitter’s newest feature is reigniting the flame war between iOS and Android owners.
The U.S. social media company’s latest addition is a subtle piece of information that shows the client that each tweet is sent from. In doing so, the company now displays whether a user tweets from the web or mobile and, if they are on a phone, whether they used Twitter’s iOS or Android apps, or a third-party service.
The feature — which was quietly enabled on Twitter&

If you haven’t finished your holiday shopping, you’ve either been slightly preoccupied with other things, or you’re a shopping pro who knows that some of the best deals come right before the storm. We’re not here to make assumptions, but no matter which position you’re in, we’ve pulled together a few resources for inspiration.Happy holidays to you and yours. We’ll see you in 2019.The Verge staff hand-picked their favorite gadgets of the year. These may

Earlier this week, The New York Times reported that a group of “Democratic tech experts” used Russian-style disinformation tactics during Alabama’s 2017 special election in an attempt to splinter support for Republican candidate Roy Moore. Now, The Washington Post reports that Facebook has suspended accounts used by five people involved in the project.The Times report lays out what occurred in Alabama last year: the project’s participants started a Facebook page where th

Uranus has always been a bit of an oddball in our solar system and a new simulation presented by a group of researchers might explain why.
Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun, is a peculiar ice giant that is tilted at a 98-degree angle — while every other planet spins on a vertical axis in relation to its orbit, Uranus spins on a horizontal axisResearchers suggest that this may have been caused by a massive collision.
SEE ALSO: Moody photo from Mars shows a giant crater loaded with ice

Aquaman commands more than just the denizens of Earth's oceans. He's also got a vise-like hold on the box office, at least outside the United States.
The latest entry in the DC Extended Universe opened in U.S. theaters on Friday with an impressive $332.1 million already banked. That's after almost three weeks in theaters in a number of overseas markets — including the historically Hollywood-friendly China.
SEE ALSO: Mixed reviews reveal critics can't quite agree on 'Aquaman'
That's where A

In our monthly Rise and Fall column we look back at crowdfunded gadgets that reached their funding goal. Months or year later, how are they doing? If they’ve shipped to backers, are they still supporting the gadget? If they haven’t shipped, why haven’t they met their shipping deadline? We hope this column will give us all a place to understand.
On its quest to make a “better keyboard,” Keyboardio raised more than $650,000 — then found itself scammed out of $1

When a false missile alert was sent to residents in Hawaii in January, it caused a massive panic. In the immediate aftermath, the message — which warned of an incoming missile attack — drove a news cycle, led to serious criticism of state officials, and raised questions about safeguards in place to prevent similar mishaps in the future. As the one-year anniversary of the alert approaches, there have been some reforms to the system, but others are still only being handled now.
Soon a

This is One Good Thing, a weekly column where we tell you about one of the few nice things that happened this week.Good news everyone, real love does exist. 
This compilation of a little girl greeting her sister after school will probably make you cry because it's that freaking precious. 
Every time Shenica Bernal picked up her younger sister, the adorable elementary schooler welcomed her by shouting "ate!" — Tagalog for older sister — and running straight to her with a hug

A grab bag of 2018 TV spoilers lies ahead. You have been warned.
We're not mad. Just disappointed. 
The past twelve months of TV gave us killer comedy specials, incredible new series, and a whole lot of (positive) NOPE. Unfortunately, in the words of renowned television critic Isaac Newton, what goes up must come down. Hard.
SEE ALSO: Half Christmas trees hope to stop your pets and kids from messing with the tree
From Pete Davidson mocking a veteran on SNL to the hellscape that was the Seas

Slackhas apologized after it shut down the accounts of users who have visited Iran following a poorly executed effort at complying with U.S. sanctions against the country.
The company, which has eight million users of its productivity tool, has scrapped that first go at the policy. But it did confirm it will now block all activity in Iran and other sanctioned countries, although user accounts won’t be closed.
As one of the world’s largest community services, that botched first i

Essentials Week spotlights unexpected items that make our daily lives just a little bit better.My name is Rachel, and I am a cheater.
No, not that kind of cheater. I cheat at gamesUno, mostly, on family vacations. There was a very sticky incident with a game of Mille Bornes once. And getting caught in the act during a round of Hi-Ho Cherry-O when I was a young kid still shamefully burns in my memory.
Lately, I've been engaging in a different sort of cheating. And while I know that my typical ill

Face it: Those boots you bought this past Black Friday have already begun to smell something fierce thanks to an unholy union of sweat and bacteria. Happens to the best of us, you know.
Fortunately, there's a simple remedy to your odor woes in the form of some specially designed shoe inserts called Zorpads. Designed with NASA-tested technology, each pad absorbs the pungent scent of stinky feet to keep your shoes fresh for up to 60 wears. 
Their sticky bases make them easy to apply, and thei

In 2019, we're resolving to break our expensive Seamless habit.
Making meals at home is the best thing you could do for yourself and your wallet. You get to step up your cooking game, and you get to pad up your savings account that's looking a little anemic thanks to the holidays.
But before you purchase Chrissy Teigen's latest cookbook in preparation for meal prepping, you first have to make sure that you own the right kitchenware. And a kitchen is nothing without high-quality knives.
If you do

Ugh, the Gregorian calendar is so boring. That’s why we’re disrupting monthly series with a lunar cycle-based series about the best patents of the last synodic month, picked by the PatentYogi team. Get ready when that moon gets gibbous, y’all. This December-ish roundup lands on the awe-inspiring Cold Moon! Since my last post, the US patent office issued over 24,547 patents and published over 29,894 patent applications. Each patent asset adds a little something new to the

This holiday period, Plugged is running a very special advent calendar. Over the course of 12 days, we’ll be sharing a selection of sweet, sweet deals. You can thank us later. Need the deals from day 10? Go over here. On the eleventh day of TNW’s advent, the lovely team gave to me… A “buy one, gift one” all-access pass to MasterClass Isn’t learning stuff amazing? There are few better feelings in the world than developing a skill. This is why MasterClass is s

2018 has been a year with some awesome games, and some not-so-awesome things happening in the gaming industry. Here are the biggest stories we saw in gaming this year. The Jacksonville shooting We can’t bring up this year’s events in the gaming industry without bringing up the tragedy in Jacksonville, Florida. Two gamers lost their lives and several others were wounded during a Madden tournament when a competitor entered the venue with a gun and opened fire. Several viewers, watchin

Amazon has been a good performer in 2018, and is up nearly 40 percent in the year. In September, the share price for it hit $2,000. The Seattle-based American electronic commerce company, whose CEO and founder is Jeff Bezos — America’s richest as noted by Forbes —was created in 1994. Back in 1997, when it issued its initial public offering of stock, shares were trading at $18. At the time of writing, Amazon shares are now worth $1,658, according to Yahoo! Financ

Black Friday has been and gone and you missed out on the opportunity to grab a VPN at a knock-down price. We get it, it's hard to stomach. But it's time to crawl out from your cave and emerge after a month of regret, because PureVPN's Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers are back for Christmas.
If you missed out on what you thought was a once in a year deal, you have a second chancePureVPN has officially launched it's Christmas sale with prices falling right back to Black Friday levels.
The pric

We all have that app on our phone we’ve been meaning to delete. You might be wasting too much time on it, its creators might be morally corrupt, or it simply hogs up too much space on your phone. It’s a difficult process to take the final step and let it go, but anything’s possible with a little emotional support. That’s why our writers have gathered a list of the apps they’ve stopped using in 2018 — if we can do it, then you can too. Google Chrome Már