Technology news

HQ Trivia & Words surprised players yesterday with a different type of prize: in-game points, instead of the usual multi-thousand-dollar prize pool. The change is an experiment and not a sign of financial disaster, the company says, but players could see more points-only games in the future.
Players complained about the lack of a cash reward on Reddit and Twitter, saying they play the game for the cash prizes. The change also revived concerns about the company’s health. HQ’s ran

This might make you just melt into the floor out of sheer secondhand embarrassment. 
Laura MacLean, a 21-year-old student studying management and marketing in the UK, was exceptionally prepared for a job interview with Microsoft. She had an outfit ready, research done, and practice interviews with friends and family completed, according to BuzzFeed. 
SEE ALSO: Lady Gaga's interview is the meme for denying everything from your past
She was so prepared, in fact, that she showed up to the

It hasn't been that long since fans said goodbye to The Office, but it's been long enough to make us wonder where the characters are now (and not-so-secretly hope for a revival). In a new interview with Variety, Office alum Mindy Kaling discussed where she thinks Kelly Kapoor would be now and how she feels about an Office 
SEE ALSO: Only true fans will know 'The Office' and 'Parks and Rec' have this actress in common
“There’s not an insignificant part of me that thinks that Kell

Following the first leak of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S10 a few weeks back, more images have surfaced of the flagship phone’s hole-punch display. The new leak also offers a first look at the Samsung Blockchain KeyStore app. The images were posted by Twitter user Ben Geskin, and first spotted by SamMobile.
The native cryptocurrency wallet app is described on the splash page as a “secure and convenient place for your cryptocurrency,” and will offer users the ability to import

James Baker, also known as rapper BloBoy JB, is the latest person to file a lawsuit against Fortnite developer Epic Games, this time over the use of his “Shoot” dance move in the popular battle royale hit. Known as “Hype” in the Fortnite community, “Shoot” is one of the most popular emotes that millions have people have seen performed. It requires the dancer to swing their arm and leg back and forth in a choreographed motion, as seen in the GIFs below. It was

Dell announced a new monitor today: a massive 75-inch, 4K touchscreen panel specifically meant for education purposes as a sort of blackboard of the future — even though it’s basically just a giant 4K TV.The Dell 75 4K Interactive Touch Monitor (C7520QT), as its officially known, is designed for collaborative work and interactive teaching. The display supports 20-point multi-touch, so that multiple users can work together on a single display, and works with either hands or styluses,

Late on Tuesday, Twitter banned an account that was parodying former House representative and potential presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke’s social media gimmicks and personal blog, according to The Hill. Later this afternoon, the account was restored.
Shortly after O’Rourke failed to secure a Senate seat in Texas last November, he began blogging on Medium. He started infrequently writing about the people he met and places he traveled along the campaign trail in a lyrical, 20t

Polestar, Volvo’s electric performance brand, is teasing what will be the first native version of Android Auto in a new mobile web demo that was released on Wednesday. The app-like experience, viewable on smartphones or tablets, allows people to tap around an early version of the user interface that will launch on Polestar’s second car, the aptly named Polestar 2, later this year.To view it, users need to click this link and choose “Add to Home Screen” from the share she

[The following Slack log has been lighted edited for content]
Chaim Gartenberg: god i have no idea where to put this but https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id1448272668?mt=8
[Ed. note: The app in question lets iOS users easily type in nearly any text field using the alternating case format, made popular by the “Mocking SpongeBob” meme that made its way around the internet a few months ago.]
Micah Singleton: Promoting this app should be a crime
Russell Brandom:pRoMoTiNg tHiS aPp sHoUlD

Facebook has announced changes to how it handles and communicates violations of its policies around the publishing of fake news and misinformation, with the goal of preventing publishers that operate large networks of pages and groups from skirting bans. Starting today, Facebook says it will reserve the right to take down pages and groups that are simply affiliated with those that have violated the company’s community standards, even if those pages or groups haven’t technically brok

A prototype of SpaceX’s next big rocket fell over and sustained damage in south Texas, thanks to high winds in the area. Images from SpaceX’s facility in Boca Chica, Texas show part of the vehicle sideways on the ground and slightly crumpled. The damage from the mishap will take a few weeks to repair, according to CEO Elon Musk.
Since the holidays, SpaceX engineers in south Texas have been building a prototype of the company’s new Starship rocket. Formerly known as the BFR, th

Aurora Flight Sciences, a subsidiary of aerospace giant Boeing, said Wednesday that it recently conducted the first test flight of its all-electric autonomous passenger air vehicle.The unpiloted vehicle took off vertically, hovered for a few seconds, and then landed at the company’s test site in Manassas, Virginia. Boeing said that future flights will test forward, wing-borne flight, as well as the transition phase between vertical and forward-flight modes.The unpiloted vehicle took off v

The European Union’s Copyright Directive has led a tortured life, even by the standards of EU law. This bundle of legislation, intended to comprehensively update copyright for the internet age, was hotly debated in Parliament and public all last year. But as of the beginning of this month, it seemed to be edging its way toward a final vote.That is until last Friday, when six countries switched sides during negotiations, booting the proposed directive back into legislative limbo yet again.

Warning: spoilers ahead for season 1 of Star Trek: Discovery, and for the season 2 premiere episode, “Brother.”
When Star Trek: Discovery returned for its second season last week, it came with an insurance plan and a risk.First, the premiere episode, “Brother,” welcomed Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), the captain who helmed the original series’ USS Enterprise in its rejected initial 1965 pilot, before Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was asked to create a new pilot wi

Despite public warnings about the dangers of climate change, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft all supported a conference that promoted climate change denialism, according to a new report from Mother Jones.The three companies were all sponsors of LibertyCon, a convention aimed at a libertarian audience that took place this month. The convention included a speaker from a group called the CO2 Coalition, who reportedly argued that the impact of climate change on the environment has been exaggerated.

British financial journalist Martin Lewis is dropping a lawsuit against Facebook after reaching a settlement with the company. Last year, Lewis alleged that Facebook defamed him by serving numerous ads that used his face and name to market sketchy financial products like cryptocurrency get-rich-quick schemes. Today, he announced that he settled the lawsuit in exchange for two commitments from Facebook: a £3 million (around $3.9 million) donation to the Citizens Advice charity organization

Amazon is entering the robot delivery game with an electric hamper on wheels it’s calling the Amazon Scout. The e-commerce giant is the latest company to try its hand at this sort of automated, last-mile delivery solution, following a crop of startups, as well as experiments by larger firms like Domino’s Pizza and PepsiCo.
Details about the Scout are thin on the ground, but the design looks similar to existing robots. In fact, the Scout looks almost identical to devices from Starshi

Over the past year, people have been posting claims that only 7 percent of Instagram followers see a user’s posts. The viral claim has made it as far as Pinterest and Facebook, where users, often advocating for small businesses on Instagram, ask people to like and comment “Yes” in order to improve a user’s “ranking” and gain more views.View this post on InstagramAbsolutely despise the latest algorithm updates..(not that I enjoyed the last lot) This people, is

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued an urgent call for government agencies to secure their web infrastructure in the midst of a partial government shutdown, as first reported by Cyberscoop. The department sent out an emergency directive on Tuesday afternoon, alerting government agencies to the threat and recommending agencies immediately secure their DNS records with two-factor authentication. But with much of the government still subject to the ongoing shutdown, it’s unc

Hulu just announced that it will lower the price of its base, ad-supported subscription plan to $5.99 per month — down from the current $7.99 — beginning on February 26th. Hulu has offered its service at $5.99 previously on a promotional basis, and it clearly makes enough of a difference at pulling in subscribers to justify a price drop for the standard rate. In case you were concerned, customers will not see an increase in ad volume because of the reduced pricing. The $11.99-per-mo

Black Friday is the annual opportunity to pick up nearly everything on your wishlist at a deep discount. But if you’re looking for a TV and home audio equipment upgrade, the best deals of the year can be had just before the Super Bowl every February.The biggest retailers are slashing prices on TVs from brands like LG, TCL, Samsung, and more, and you’ll also be able to save on audio equipment from Vizio, Sonos, Samsung, and others. At least speaking to the TVs that are seeing the ste

Update January 23rd, 10:30AM ET: Blue Origin’s launch was a success. After reaching a height of 66 miles, both the capsule and booster landed safely in the Texas desert. During the live stream, Ariane Cornell mentioned that the company is hoping to do its first crewed flights before the end of this year.
Original Story: This morning, Jeff Bezos’ private spaceflight venture Blue Origin is set to conduct another test flight of its New Shepard rocket — a vehicle designed to take

NBCUniversal is gearing up to launch its own standalone streaming service in 2020, and one of the biggest questions is whether NBC originals, like The Office and 30 Rock, will leave Netflix and Hulu when that happens.According to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, it’s not likely. Roberts, joined by NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke, addressed questions about content on the streaming service during its quarterly investors meeting. While shows owned by NBCUniversal, which include The Office, 30 Rock, a

The internet is an inherently strange place. I mean, the fact we call it a place at all shows how we lack the vocabulary to really express what it is. And in this space (here we are again), strange things happen. Like when you type two-strings of random four letter words into an image search and Google shows you a bizarre collection of connected art. You know, like this: This bizarre occurrence was spotted by Reddit user Yanekke and shared on the social networking site. If you’re dub

In Cadwell Turnbull’s story, “Monsters Come Howling in Their Season,” a journalist travels to St. Thomas in the aftermath of a massive hurricane and sees firsthand how the island’s residents are coping with the help of a community-based AI system called Common.Turnbull is a rising star in the science fiction and fantasy world. He has published stories in Lightspeed Magazine, Nightmare Magazine, Asimov’s Science Fiction, and for Grassroots Economic Organizing. His d

When you think of competitive gaming and e-sports, your mind probably drifts toward massively popular online games like Fortnite or Overwatch. But there are plenty of less-heralded games making their way in the space, including games about farming. Today, developer Giants Software announced a new Farming Simulator League, which is exactly what it sounds like: a competitive tournament for the enduringly popular PC series Farming Simulator.
It will consist of 10 tournaments across Europe, includi

Phones have been shedding ports and buttons for a while now. Headphone jacks are going extinct on most devices, and home and back buttons have been replaced on nearly every iOS and Android phone with software UIs. The new Meizu Zero is the first to take that trend to its natural endpoint: it has no ports, buttons, or holes that mar the exterior of the device.
According to Meizu, the Zero has “no buttons, no speakers holes, no SIM card slot, [and] no charging port.” Most of the exter

LG is teasing the launch of a new gesture-controlled device in a 13-second video with the tagline “goodbye touch.” The video shows a hand waving messages in and out of existence, and its description suggests that the company is planning to launch a device called the LG Premiere just ahead of Mobile World Congress next month.
This isn’t the first time LG has allowed gesture controls on one of its devices. Back in 2013, the company experimented with letting users control their L

YouTube TV is finally nearing nationwide availability. The streaming TV service was announced in February 2017, and it has been gradually rolling out to additional markets since its official launch. YouTube says the top 100 US markets already have access to YouTube TV. But today, the company is announcing another significant expansion: 95 more markets are being added effective immediately, which is enough to cover “98 percent of US households” when combined with areas where the serv

I’m not allowed to tell you exactly how Anchorage keeps rich institutions from being robbed of their cryptocurrency, but the off-the-record demo was damn impressive. Judging by the $17 million Series A this security startup raised last year led by Andreessen Horowitz and joined by Khosla Ventures, #Angels, Max Levchin, Elad Gil, Mark McCombe of Blackrock and AngelList’s Naval Ravikant, I’m not the only one who thinks so. In fact, crypto funds like Andreessen’s a16z crypto

A top 100 YouTube channel has sold for millions of dollars for the second time in a matter of months, and it’s the start of what YouTubers and behind-the-camera management believe is a coming wave of mergers and acquisitions. The trend is led by individual creators who worry that YouTube won’t deal with them unless they are (or look like) a formal corporation.
Enchufe.tv, one of the biggest YouTube channels in the Spanish-speaking world, announced last week that it had been sold in

Boris is the wise ol’ CEO of TNW who writes a weekly column on everything about being an entrepreneur — from managing stress to embracing awkwardness. You can also get his musings straight to your inbox by signing up for his newsletter! I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ve been using an iPad Pro as my daily work machine since November. I also own a MacBook Pro, but I keep it at home and only use it once a week or so when I’m really stuck. I feel like I’m out he

HMD has earned a great reputation for getting the latest Android updates onto its Nokia-branded handsets quickly, even when they’re mid-range or budget devices. The company has just revealed its roadmap for when its Nokia devices will receive the latest Android Pie update, and it shows that every device should have it by early Q2 2019.Of the 15 handsets listed, five of them (the Nokia 7 Plus, 6.1, 6.1 Plus, 7.1 and 5.1 Plus) have already received the update. Two updates (for the 8 Sirocco

Planting bee-friendly plants seems to be the new fad in many cities around the globe. In the UK, amateur gardeners regularly try to attract such insects, while in France, farmers have offered land to help beekeepers . In other countries, such as Canada, cities adopt pollinators. Some companies even undertake wildflower planting efforts. But not all plants can satisfy the nutritional requirements of bees and some may be more useful than others in balancing bee diets. From early spring to autumn,

This morning, Jeff Bezos’ private spaceflight venture Blue Origin is set to conduct another test flight of its New Shepard rocket — a vehicle designed to take passengers to the edge of space and back. It’ll be the first launch of the year for the company, and the tenth overall for the New Shepard system. With each new test, Blue Origin gets one step closer to putting people on the rocket, a milestone the company hopes to achieve this year.
The New Shepard is a fully reusable r