Technology news

Since the news broke that three buckets of uranium ore sat in a Grand Canyon museum for years, alarm has been spreading about the radiation “cover-up.” But it’s tough to figure out exactly how dangerous the uranium truly was to visitors and staff.
The buckets had been sitting next to a taxidermy exhibit at the National Park Service’s Grand Canyon Museum Collection, a location where groups of schoolchildren stopped on tours, according to The Arizona Republic. After a visi

Spotify updated its interface last week, and people are upset. A new update has reorganized the mobile app’s button layout, pushing the “Repeat” and “Go to queue” buttons into a submenu and making sharing a priority instead.
Before, the repeat and play queue were easily accessible on a song’s now playing page, but now, if you want to get to those buttons, you’ve got to dive into the three-dot menu in the upper right-hand corner. What you will find front

Kriti Sharma Contributor Kriti Sharma is the vice president of AI and Ethics at Sage Group, based in the United Kingdom. Kriti was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2017 and the inaugural Recode 100 list of influencers in Technology, Business and Media.More posts by this contributorHow to unmask AI
I spent a recent Saturday morning talking to a group of grade school kids about artificial intelligence. Many of them had never coded before, let alone heard of AI. During the session, one exer

On Tuesday, the FDA issued a warning to anyone who might be inclined to give their old bones a jolt with fresh blood harvested from the young.
The idea is pretty far from mainstream, even in Silicon Valley, where the ultra-wealthy have a keen interest in the cutting edge of life-extension science. Still, there’s apparently enough buzz around the practice that the FDA is warning consumers of “unscrupulous actors” who tout the benefits of infusing patients with plasma extracted f

Orai, a startup building communication coaching tools, is announcing that it has raised $2.3 million in seed funding.
CEO Danish Dhamani said that he co-founded the company with Paritosh Gupta and Aasim Sani to address a need in his own life — the fact that he was “held back personally and professionally” by lackluster “communications skills and public speaking skills.”
Dhamani said he attended Toastmasters International meetings hoping to improve those skills, wher

Last week brought an extraordinary demonstration of the dangers of operating a surveillance state — especially a shabby one, as China’s apparently is. An unsecured database exposed millions of records of Chinese Muslims being tracked via facial recognition — an ugly trifecta of prejudice, bureaucracy and incompetence.
The security lapse was discovered by Victor Gevers at the GDI Foundation, a security organization working in the public’s interest. Using the infamous but u

On the latest episode of The Vergecast, Foursquare CEO Jeff Glueck discusses the ethics of companies that track their users’ movements. The Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel and Glueck talk through Foursquare’s goal of helping its customers become less reliant on mapping companies like Google, and how responsibly managing a user’s data and privacy is not only the right thing to do, but good for business.
You can listen to their discussion about the case for breaking up Amazon

A law firm claims that someone impersonated one of its attorneys in messages to the US Copyright Office, trying to sabotage lawsuits against Fortnite developer Epic Games. Pierce Bainbridge published a fake email supposedly sent under the name of attorney David Hecht, asking the office to reject all its copyright claims for dance moves — and confessing that “what my clients and I have done towards certain gaming companies were very wreckless [sic] and baseless.”
Hecht is the l

When in 2015, Slack raised money at a $1 billion valuation, founder Stewart Butterfield spoke candidly about why it was important to him, and why if Slack wasn’t assigned a valuation north of that number at that point in time, Slack wouldn’t raise anything. Said Butterfield, speaking to Fortune, it “means that we’re a part of that conversation about companies worth $1 billion.”
Fast-forward nearly four years, and things apparently haven’t changed much. Indeed,

Today, President Trump signed his fourth space policy directive, this one aimed at creating the infamous Space Force he has been touting since last summer. However, the scope of the Space Force has been downsized. The new policy directive will make the Space Force a sixth branch within the US Air Force, rather than its own independent department.
Trump first directed the Department of Defense to establish the Space Force in June 2018 in a surprise announcement during a meeting of the National S

Before Oculus kickstarted a lot of the fervor around consumer headsets, the VR headsets that were being built for enterprise rigs were multi-thousands-dollar rigs that still sucked. As Oculus and HTC expanded their platforms, a lot of these enterprise-focused VR companies shriveled up or were forced to significantly retool how they approached fat-wallet customers.
Things are even more complicated now; Oculus has priced pretty much every other manufacturer out of the consumer market, and now a go

Entrepreneur First (EF), the London-headquartered “talent investor” that recruits and backs individuals pre-team and pre-idea to enable them to found startups, has raised a new fund of its own to continue scaling globally.
The $115 million first close was led by a number of leading (mostly unnamed) institutional investors across the U.S., Europe and Asia, including new anchor LP Trusted Insight. A number of well-known European entrepreneurs also invested. They include Taavet Hinrikus

iOS 12, Apple’slatest mobile software for iPhone and iPad, is out. The new software packs in a bunch of new security and privacy features you’ve probably already heard about. Here’s what you need to do to take advantage of the new settings and lock down your device.
1. Turn on USB Restricted Mode to make hacking more difficultThis difficult-to-find new feature prevents any accessories from connecting to your device — like USB cables and headphones — when your iPhone

With all the nonsense about AT&T’s fake 5G Evolution network out there, it’s possible to forget that AT&T is actually building a real, standards-based 5G network, too. Fortunately, the cellular company has taken it upon itself to remind everyone about that in a new fact sheet that curiously forgets to mention its 5G Evolution network at all — almost like it isn’t a real 5G network!
The fact sheet itself is a decent (if slightly AT&T-biased) look at the carrie

Netflix today revealed that Arrested Development, Mitchell Hurwitz’s sitcom about an extended family of comically terrible people, will continue on March 15th. It’s the first announcement confirming the release date for the second half of the show’s fifth season. Episodes 1–8 of season 5 were released simultaneously on the service on May 29th, 2018, so it’s been a long wait for the show to continue. Overall reactions to Netflix’s revival of the show have been

The US Food and Drug Administration is officially warning consumers that buying young blood infusions to improve their health is not a good idea. It is, in fact, a very bad idea because there is no clinical evidence that the infusions do anything, and the procedure could be dangerous.“Simply put, we’re concerned that some patients are being preyed upon by unscrupulous actors touting treatments of plasma from young donors as cures and remedies,” write FDA Commissioner Scott Got

Most Presidents’ Day sales are over, but there are still plenty of noteworthy deals happening right now. TCL’s 65-inch 6-series 4K HDR Roku TV is cheaper than ever. Amazon has discounted several Ring smart home products, as well as all of its Fire TV set-top boxes. Oh, and it’s apparently Anime Month, so there are discounts on beloved anime series on Blu-ray and DVD. Here are a few of the best deals that we’ve seen thus far today.
TCL’s 6-series 4K HDR Roku TVs com

YouTube is facing a new wave of criticism over the alarming number of predatory comments and videos targeting young children.The latest concerns started with a Reddit post, submitted to r/Drama, and a YouTube video, exposing a “wormhole into a soft-core pedophilia ring on YouTube,” according to Matt Watson. Watson, a former YouTube creator who returned with a single video and live stream about the topic, demonstrated how a search for something like “bikini haul,” a subge

Leviton has announced a new version of its Load Center breaker box for homes, and it’s adding an integrated Wi-Fi or Ethernet hub that will let you manage your home electrical setup directly from your phone. That’s right: smart circuit breakers are here.
Smart circuit breakers are here
There have been after-market products that can monitor energy use in your home before, like Sense, but Leviton’s system goes a step further by integrating smart technology directly into the brea

Lawmakers are looking to question Facebook about its privacy practices after allegations that the service revealed sensitive health information in groups.
In a Federal Trade Commission complaint, filed last month and publicly released yesterday, a security researcher and health advocates said the company was failing to keep sensitive data secure. The complaint stemmed from an incident last year, when members of a group for women with a gene mutation called BRCA learned that information like nam

It’s that time again in the console generation. Your games look better than ever, but you’re starting to notice stutters and glitches a little more frequently, and you’re wondering when the console that’s sat under your TV for the past five years might benefit from an upgrade. When can we expect a new PlayStation or Xbox, and what will they be like?
Microsoft is strongly rumored to be preparing a next-generation Xbox platform to encompass both cloud gaming and a more pow

A cheap, origami-like strip of paper accurately detected malaria in 98 percent of cases in a test group of schoolchildren in Uganda. Though paper sensors are nothing new — the most famous examples include some home pregnancy tests — the results from this trial show that such sensors can be promising for helping diagnose disease in rural areas.Malaria is one of the most dangerous infectious diseases in the world, and after decades of progress, the number of cases is rising again, acc

Last night, former Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone posted an image on Instagram of the federal judge presiding over his case that displayed a crosshairs logo in the background near her head. Now, that same judge is calling for Stone to explain the posts in court this week.
The original post with the crosshairs near US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s head was deleted soon after Stone published it. After the post was perceived as a direct threat to Jackson by many social media users, S

SoundCloud announced today that it is adding distribution to its self-monetization Premier program. Those who are eligible in the open beta will now be able to self-upload, monetize, and publish their songs to other streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora for no additional cost — all from within SoundCloud. Notably, SoundCloud says those who use its distribution service will keep “100 percent of their distribution royalties from third-party services.”
To

Most virtual reality headset screens are still sort of blurry, but Finnish company Varjo has an unusual approach to changing that. Its industrial VR-1 headset, which is shipping today, combines a super high-resolution center panel with an ordinary screen for peripheral vision. It’s supposed to deliver images that look almost real, albeit with some compromises and a price tag that’s for professionals only.
The VR-1 calls its center panel a “Bionic Display.” It’s a 1

The Litho looks like a set of miniature sci-fi brass knuckles, but it’s actually a motion controller that’s going on sale today for developers, with the goal of launching for everyone by the end of the year. Developed by a three-person team in the UK, the Litho fits around the first two fingers of your hand. It combines motion-control capabilities and haptic feedback with a small underside trackpad, so you can use it with a combination of pointing, swiping, and tapping. Now, develop

On Thursday evening, SpaceX is scheduled to launch another Falcon 9 rocket from Florida, but this time, the vehicle will be carrying a payload it’s never transported before: a spacecraft bound for the Moon. One of the three payloads on the rocket is an Israeli-made lander that will travel through space over the next two months and then try to land on the lunar surface. If the touchdown is a success, it’ll be the first time that a vehicle made with mostly private money has ever lande

It’s been nearly four years since Leica released the original Leica Q, and now it looks like its successor, the Leica Q2, has leaked out ahead of a rumored March 6th announcement, via Nokishita.
Assuming the leaked pictures are accurate, the Q2 will retain largely the same design as the original Q, with a few cosmetic changes like a new Q2 logo. The pictures do seem to confirm one major new feature: weatherproofing of some sort, if the water-soaked camera in the leaks is anything to go by

Ring has discounted several of its smart home and home security products. Whether you’re after a smart doorbell, a set of lights for your porch, or Ring’s new Pathlight to light your driveway or sidewalk, you can save some money for the next few days.
A few of the deals even include a third-gen Echo Dot for $10 more. A straight discount is a good enough deal to recommend, but adding in a smart speaker for $10 (usually $49.99) makes it even better. (However, the Echo Dot is backorder

Palo Alto Networks announced today that it intends to acquire security startup Demisto for $560 million.
The company sees a tool that can help enhance the Palo Alto security portfolio by adding a higher level of automation. “The addition of Demisto’s orchestration and automation technologies will accelerate Palo Alto NetworksApplication Framework strategy and serve as a critical step forward in the company’s aim to deliver immediate threat prevention and response for secur

Google is planning to hold a mysterious gaming-related event at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) next month. Google has started emailing invites to members of the media today, inviting them to “gather around” for a Google keynote that simply promises “all will be revealed” on March 19th at 10AM PT / 1PM ET. Google’s cryptic invite includes an animated GIF with an explosion of light in a hallway.
Google typically participates at GDC with developer-focused events

Researchers at the University of Washington recently unveiled a remarkable software tool known as DeepSqueak. The program can automatically identify, process, and sort rat and mouse squeaks. It might seem whimsical, but knowing what rodents are squeaking about could be extremely valuable to animal researchers.Mice and rats are foundational to modern medical science. By one tally, mouse and rat studies have earned around 75 Nobel Prizes in health and physiology. Rats, in particular, are smart an

For most drivers, flying through a series of green lights one after the other is the closest thing to nirvana in the otherwise miserable experience of driving. Now, Audi is updating its embedded traffic light-reading technology to help you catch those mythical “green waves” with more precision.Audi calls the new feature Green Light Optimized Speed Advisory, or GLOSA, which tells drivers how to moderate their speed to minimize red light stops. If you recall, some 2017 and 2018 Audi m

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many emails can you replace with a video? As offices fragment into remote teams, work becomes more visual and social media makes us more comfortable on camera, it’s time for collaboration to go beyond text. That’s the idea behind Loom, a fast-rising startup that equips enterprises with instant video messaging tools. In a click, you can film yourself or narrate a screenshare to get an idea across in a more vivid, personal way. Instead of sch

YouTube is overhauling its community guidelines with a new system for warning channels that break the rules. The new system is meant to be clearer and more consistent. It’s also the first time in nearly a decade that YouTube has updated the strike rules.
The biggest change is a new warning strike that YouTube will start issuing on February 25th. After a channel’s first rule violation, YouTube will issue a “one-time warning” with no penalty, except for removing the offend

The snow may be subsiding, but Fortnite finally has its snowboard. After a delay late last year, developer Epic has finally introduced the “driftboard” to the game, the latest in a growing list of vehicles, which includes planes and quadcrashers. The board was originally expected back in December along with the debut of Fortnite season 7, but Epic explained that “we’ve decided to hold the release of this new vehicle to make some final quality of life changes and other po

By now you’ve probably seen those top-down graphical images of a self-driving car as it navigates through a neon-hued world made up of yellow and purple boxes representing other cars and pedestrians. These images are used to translate the raw data produced by a self-driving vehicle’s hardware and software stack into something more visually appealing for operators, and helps them better understand how their cars “see” and interact with the world around them.
free for anyo

Believe it or not, Samsung has done something many of us didn’t think was possible: it has made great software. Tomorrow, it will unveil a pile of new phones — the thoroughly leaked Galaxy S10 lineup — and all them should be running the new “One UI” software, which is built on top of Android 9 Pie.I’ve been testing One UI on a Galaxy S9 for the past week or so and thus far I really like it. In some ways, I like it better than what Google itself is shipping on

The torrent of Samsung leaks these past few weeks has mostly been about the company’s smartphones, but now we have a revelation about the still-mysterious foldable Samsung phone as well: it’ll be announced under the title of Galaxy Fold. Word about this comes from prolific leaker Evan Blass, a thorn in Samsung’s side, who began 2019 by revealing every last detail about the Galaxy S10 family of devices ahead of tomorrow’s launch. He’s had some help along the way, mi

Some interesting M&A is afoot in the world of hardware and software that’s aiming to improve the quality of audio and video communications over digital networks.
GN Group— the Danish company that broke new ground in mobile when it inked deals first with Apple and then Google to stream audio from their phones directly to smart, connected hearing aids — is expanding from audio to video, and from Europe to Silicon Valley.
Today, the company announced that it would acquire Alti

Sphero, the Colorado-based connected toy company, has had a successful, conventional run making sphere-shaped, smartphone-controlled robots. But for its next launch, Sphero is taking a different path to retail: a Kickstarter campaign.
Adam Wilson, co-founder and chief creative officer, tells The Verge his company opted to crowdfund its new bot, called RVR, in order to “get feedback and make sure we’re building the thing that people want.” RVR is designed for kids and adults. U

Redis Labs, a startup that offers commercial services around the Redis in-memory data store (and which counts Redis creator and lead developer Salvatore Sanfilippo among its employees), today announced that it has raised a $60 million Series E funding round led by private equity firm Francisco Partners.
The firm didn’t participate in any of Redis Labs’previous rounds, but existing investors Goldman Sachs Private Capital Investing, Bain Capital Ventures, Viola Ventures and Dell Techno

The French Fencing Federation has recognized lightsaber dueling as an official sport, reports the Associated Press. The federation has made the move in an attempt to make the sport more appealing to a younger generation, and it has designed its rules to make sporting matches every bit as visually appealing as their big-screen counterparts.Obviously, that means participants are required to use an illuminated weapon, although they’ll have to settle for a “blade” made of polycarb