Technology news

File this one under deeply ironic — yet sadly necessary.
On Wednesday, the elusive street artist Banksy claimed responsibility on Instagram for a new mural that appeared on the wall of a garage in the south Wales town of Port Talbot. 
SEE ALSO: The 747 that went to Burning Man: What really happened
Then, days after the work appeared, the town erected a transparent plastic sheet wall to protect the latest work from the artist who made a name for himself by vandalizing public property.&

A long-running lawsuit between the state of New York and Sprint has come to a close. According to New York Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood (via Engadget), the wireless carrier will pay the state $330 million to settle claims that it failed to collect more than $100 million in taxes from customers for nearly a decade.The state sued the telecommunications company in 2012, alleging that the company deliberately failed to collect $100 million in sales taxes on flat-rate access charges for wir

Target is picking up where Walmart, Verizon, B&H Photo and Google left off, continuing the aggressive deal that might be all many people need to outfit their house or apartment with Google Assistant this holiday season. When you buy a Home Hub smart display, two Home Mini smart speakers will be included for free, at a total price of $100. The Hub ordinarily retails for $149, with the speakers going for $49 each. This deal will end once Sunday, December 23rd expires.
Obviously both products

The Wall Street Journal reports that Facebook had begun working on a feature that would encourage users of opposing political beliefs to interact in a more positive way. But the project — known as “Common Ground” — was reportedly halted after Facebook’s global head of policy raised concerns that it could lead to accusations that the site was biased against conservatives.Sources told the WSJ that the Common Ground project would have brought together several differen

There's trouble in iOS paradise.
Apple's 12.1.2 iOS update, rolled out Tuesday, appears to be causing more problems than the fix was intended to solve.
SEE ALSO: The best apps of 2018
Multiple users on Twitter are complaining that the iOS update is bricking their phones by cutting off cellular data. First reported by Forbes, there are now multiple user complaints on Twitter about their iPhones' inability to connect to cellular data after updating to the latest version of iOS.Thanks @Apple @Apple

There was no earth-shaking warning before a wall of water rushed ashore under the cover of darkness in Indonesia on Saturday, killing more than 220 people, and injuring hundreds more. Unlike many large tsunamis, this one was not caused by an earthquake. Instead, experts think that a nearby volcanic eruption triggered an underwater landslide, which pushed the wall of water towards the shore.
The tsunami hit around 9:30PM local time, when many residents and visitors were relaxing near the beach o

The banned Slack accounts are coming back.
On Friday evening, Slack issued a mea culpa for what some were calling "discriminatory" account bans, made in an effort to comply with U.S. economic sanctions.
SEE ALSO: Slack is banning users who have visited U.S.-sanctioned countries while using its app
"We acknowledge that we made several mistakes here," Slack wrote in a blog post. "Our attempts to comply with these regulations were not well-implemented. In our communications, we did not treat our cu

Most Star Wars fans know John Boyega as Finn, hero of the Resistance. But among First Order Stormtroopers, he'll always be the traitorous FN-2187.
Boyega got a sharp reminder of his status among the rank-and-file of the First Order during a recent visit to Disneyland. The actor was just wandering around, minding his own business, when he was accosted — and eventually arrested! — by the white-armored troops.
SEE ALSO: Andy Serkis brings out Gollum to make a hilarious point about his m

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

Call it the Christmas Spirit: 2018 Edition.
Writer Candice Marie Benbow chose to handle what could have been a sticky situation with a neighbor with kindness, and, also, cake.
SEE ALSO: Happy Holidays, internet: Here are 5 hilarious seasonal cards to send your loved ones
On Dec. 15, Benbow shared an unusual (and hilarious) letter she wrote to her downstairs neighbor on Twitter. The neighbor had an unfortunate habit of blasting music at 3:00 a.m. This was something Benbow had somewhat resigned he

In 2011, Louis CK, Ricky Gervais, and Chris Rock all sat together in a room and tossed around the N-word while a visibly uncomfortable Jerry Seinfeld watched.
It was a moment from HBO's unscripted comedy special, Talking Funny, in which the four comics sat together and pondered their work in stand-up. It's not a new video. But it's newly resurfaced, and its rediscovered existence has raised quite a ruckus.
SEE ALSO: Former Facebook employee releases internal memo accusing the company of failing

SpaceX just ended 2018 with a bang. 
Elon Musk's private spaceflight company performed its 21st launch of the year on Sunday, Dec. 23, lofting a GPS satellite to orbit for the U.S. Air Force. 
SEE ALSO: NASA spacecraft finds signs of water on Bennu asteroid
The company didn't bring its Falcon 9 rocket booster back in for a landing due to the Air Force's mission requirements. Instead, this brand new rocket was used the old fashioned way and discarded after it performed its duties admira

It can be difficult to find time to finish a video game, especially if you only have a few hours a week to play. In our biweekly column Short Play we suggest video games that can be started and finished in a weekend.
The Haunted Island: a Frog Detective Game is a first person adventure set in a strange world of penguin supervisors, ghost scientists, the importance of daily dental care, and improvised explosives made from pasta. Suffice it to say this game is completely ridiculous. It has an aes

Roku Premiere and Premiere+
$39.99 or $49.99View Product
The Good
Plenty of apps (aka channels) to choose from • Slim design • Prime Video and YouTube apps included
The Bad
Base IR remote on the Premiere • Limited voice controls • No Dolby Vision support
The Bottom Line
The Roku Premiere+ is a solid media-streaming box, but it's outshined by the robust voice-assistant controls built into its competitors.
Mashable Score3.75Cool Factor3.0Learning Curve4.0Performance4.0Bang for

When someone asks you to picture a fantasy world, what often springs to mind is something like the works of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings or George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, with all the trappings of a pastoral England or medieval Europe. But recently, a number of authors have begun imagining fantasy with new perspectives, where their character’s motivations and story are rooted in more modern concerns. One such recent novel is Robert Jackson Bennett&rs

Alright, kiddos: it's time to right some wrongs. 
This year was a lot. From tons of big moods to moments that made us say NOPE, 2018 was a twelve-month avalanche of super intense content. With so much excellence to choose from, it's no wonder that a number of great projects failed to gain the audiences they deserved. So, let's fix that.
Whether you're looking for an adorable mobile game to play on that drive to Grandma's or a fiery series about a body-positive terrorist group to binge with

There was plenty of important science this year, from ever-dire warnings of climate change to the launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy. And then, there was the time everyone argued over a few seconds of a clip that said either “yanny” or “laurel.” With that in mind, here (in no particular order) are 10 of the best of weird science stories of 2018 — the disgusting, horrifying, and the viral.1. “How a beach umbrella fatally impaled a woman with 800 pounds of f

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. Want those sweet, good, lovely deals from day number 11? We’ve got you. On the twelfth day of TNW’s advent, the lovely team gave to me… $100 off a Chromebook when you buy a Dell Latitude laptop Let me ask you this: what’s better than giving a gift? Yep, you got it – a present that work

Earlier in the year I wrote about how much I loved the iPod. And you know what? My feelings haven’t changed – it’s still the best gadget ever released. Herein lies the problem. Apple, if you’re reading this, please listen carefully. I need a new iPod. Notice how I said “need.” Wanting is a childish emotion. An amateur can want. But needing? Needing is deep and complex. Needing is adult. So get me a new goddamn iPod. Please. But maybe there’s a reason Ap

NEO is the cryptocurrency backing the namesake blockchain platform that supports the digitization of physical assets and their self-management through smart contracts. The project was launched in 2014 in China as AntShares, but didn’t garner significant attention until its rebranding as NEO in 2017. By the time NEO gained any traction, the decentralized application (DApps) market was already dominated by Ethereum. With its growing popularity in East Asia, the project was dubbed to be &ldq

Kickstarter is always a mixed bag. On the one hand, there are some of the most innovative products on Earth, all in one place. But on the other, we’ve got gadgets for taking better dog selfies, Nike-like trainers for horses, and this odd brush that makes it more fun to lick your cat. But if you can get past the oddball items, some of which are, presumably, genuinely useful, there are real gems to be found. We just hope they actually deliver, unlike the Coolest Cooler, which we’re st

When in doubt, blame the robots. As Facebook has fallen from grace and struggled to reconcile its role in spreading propaganda and stoking political anger, the company has proposed a familiar solution: If the algorithm has failed, let’s just build a better algorithm. It’s a noble goal for the next hackathon. As a mechanism for real change, however, the focus on software misses the point. Facebook’s problems can’t be solved with more data or better code. They’re sim

Since my last trip to Ukraine in 2017, the country’s intoxication with the startup bug has grown, driven by local success stories such as Grammarly and GitLab. I returned to IT Arena in Lviv this year (on the Polish border), where last year conversations typically turned to Ukrainian entrepreneur’s inadequacies. This year was different, with more international attendees, speakers, and exhibitors, the conversation had moved beyond being just “great engineers” to vastly im