Technology news

The PlayStation Vita is officially done. Sony signaled that it has ended production on the handheld gaming console’s last two models on the Vita’s product page (via Polygon).Launched in 2011, the Vita never quite caught on around the world, a victim of increased competition from smartphone apps, selling only 16.1 million units, a far cry from the PlayStation Portable that preceded it, and from Nintendo’s Switch that followed it.
The writing has been on the wall for the Vita fo

Politico reports that President Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign wants to advocate for governmental control of 5G wireless airwaves, which would in turn lease access to private wireless providers.The campaign says that the plan is designed to “drive down costs and provide access” to rural, “underserved” parts of the country with faster internet access, according to the campaign’s national press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany. On its face, the thinking beh

MIT is back with the latest version of its Cheetah quadrupedal robot, the Mini Cheetah, and it’s got a new trick up its sleeve: it can do backflips.Backflipping robots is nothing new — Boston Dynamics’ much bigger Atlas robot pulled off the trick in November 2017 — but the Mini Cheetah is the first four legged robot to do it, which is almost more impressive. After all, plenty of humans can backflip, but how many dogs do you know that can do the same thing (the answer, ap

This year’s Mobile World Congress — the CES for Android device makers — was awash with 5G handsets.
The world’s No.1 smartphone seller by marketshare, Samsung, got out ahead with a standalone launch event in San Francisco, showing off two 5G devices, just before fast-following Android rivals popped out their own 5G phones at launch events across Barcelona this week.
We’ve rounded up all these 5G handset launches here. Prices range from an eye-popping $2,600 for Huaw

Joanna Glasner Contributor More posts by this contributorVCs aren’t falling in love with dating startups Startup names may have passed peak weirdness
Over the past year, we’ve written a lot about the rise of supergiant venture capital funds. Ever since the rollout of the $100 billion SoftBank Vision Fund, established VCs have been outdoing each other to raise ever-bigger funds.
But let’s not write the epitaph on smaller funds. U.S. venture fundraising data for 2019 r

Editor’s Note: Technology, startups, entrepreneurship, unicorns, S-1s. Silicon Valley has created an economic engine unlike any other in the world over the past few decades. That success has come with incredible influence over our society, politics, and economy, an influence that is increasingly under the microscope. Our industry has gained outsized power, and now it needs to meet that power with outsized responsibility.
In a new series for TechCrunch Extra Crunch, Greg Epstein, the humani

Granted, this news is maybe a bit too late. Samsung’s already sold out of the free Galaxy Buds it was throwing in with S10 pre-orders. That said, the new Bluetooth earbuds are worth the $129 asking price, especially for Galaxy device owners.As with many fellow S10 reviewers, I’ve been using the Buds for about a week now. They happily hitched a ride in my ears from San Francisco to Barcelona and then back home to New York. And I’ve been digging them the whole time.This certainly

If you're a fan of Star Wars and whales, we have the perfect comic book for you.
Straight from the creative mind of actor and television director Jon Cryer's daughter Daisy, we present a Star Wars spin-off comic starring a bunch of narwhals. Yes, really.
Cryer tweeted photographs of "Nar Wars: The Tale of Narth Veader" to his followers on Friday, and the story already has tens of thousands of fans, including Mark Hamill.My daughter wrote her first comic book!!(It’s like Star Wars, but with

During last year’s Paris Motor Show, Daimler unveiled its Smart Forease electric concept car, a cute electric car designed to celebrate the brand’s 20th anniversary. Next week, the company will showcase the Forease+ at the Geneva Motor Show, a cute successor that also happens to comes with a roof.Daimler described last year’s effort as a demonstration that the brand could think “unconventionally,” and that the Smart Forease was a “free spirit.” That mig

Meet TechCrunch’swriters at our annual Crunch By Crunch Fest party in Austin, Texas. RSVP here to join us on Sunday March 10th from 1pm to 4pm at the Swan Dive at 615 Red River St @ E.7th st, just 3 blocks from the convention center. Hang out with TechCrunchers and fellow readers, enjoy free drinks, and check out a live performance by electro-RnB musician Elderbrook. With over 200 million Spotify plays and a sound familiar to fans of Hot Chip and Passion Pit, Elderbrook will make this the

If you haven’t had a chance to look at deals this week, or are just looking for more, we’ve brought the best together below. On the horizon, March Madness is happening soon, and will bring on some major price cuts on 4K TVs and sound equipment. We’ll have you covered with the deals that matter once they land, so stay tuned.
But first, if you preorder the Samsung Galaxy S10 or S10 Plus before March 8th, you can get a $130 gift card that’s redeemable toward any purchase on

You might consider yourself a fan of actor Rami Malek, but did you know he's a fan of a whole bunch of stuff, too?
He's a fan of Freddie Mercury and Queen, of course. But he's also fan of his mom, chamomile tea, handwritten letters, classic movies, and looking sharp "regardless of the occasion," to name a few.
We know all of this because the Bohemian Rhapsody star recorded a slightly bizarre promotional video for Mandarin Oriental hotels, titled "Rami Malek: I'm a fan." In the one-minute video,

It's been a momentous Saturday for SpaceX, and for the future of crewed voyages into space.
At 2:49 a.m. ET, the American aerospace company founded by Elon Musk staged its first launch of Crew Dragon. It's big news because this is the first time a commercial interest has launched a spacecraft that was built to carry humans.LIFTOFF! The next big leap in a new chapter of U.S. human spaceflightsystems has left the pad@SpaceX’s #CrewDragon demo flight will be the 1stcommercially-built & op

A couple of years ago, The Folio Society, a publisher of what it describes as “carefully crafted” books, released its own, beautiful edition of Neil Gaiman’s fantasy novel American Gods, just before Starz released its own adaptation. Now, with the show’s second season coming this spring, the publisher has released a new edition of the novel’s companion, Anansi Boys.The book isn’t really a sequel to American Gods — Gaiman has said that he’s plannin

For half the country, it’s still “curl up on the couch and hibernate” weather, which makes it convenient that Netflix is serving up so much more original content in March. Queer Eye is returning for season 3, and this time it’s based in Kansas, which is a pretty big departure from Georgia, where previous seasons took place. There’s also a promising-looking eight-episode French science fiction series called Osmosis, about an app that can decode love for people &mdas

SpaceXcaught itself a “W” early this morning with a successful launch of the Falcon 9 rocket with Crew Dragon capsule. Crew Dragon represents SpaceX’s first spacecraft meant to transfer humans to and from the International Space Station. This flight is the final test check for the spacecraft, and will include launch, docking with the ISS, and reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere for recovery.
Thus far, SpaceX has completed a successful launch of the Crew Dragon, complete w

Startups reporters everywhere rejoiced Friday morning when the first unicorn S-1 of 2019 emerged from under lock and key for us all to unpack, analyze and enjoy. The TechCrunch office, at least Megan Rose Dickey’s and my corner, was buzzing with excitement, and Crunchbase News editor-in-chief, (my Equity co-host), apparently had to make himself a cup of Earl Grey tea to calm down post-S-1 deep dive.
I’ve already said a lot about the filing on Equity’s latest episode, available

This is One Good Thing, a weekly column where we tell you about one of the few nice things that happened this week.Pierce Brosnan is not a celebrity who you'd expect to have an excellent Instagram. Luckily, this ruined world still has a few surprises up its sleeve.
In a moment that really turned being online around for me this week, the former James Bond Instagrammed a video of himself drinking a latte of his own face. It was taken by Brosnan's The Misfits co-star Jamie Chung. (That's who's crac

In an era when there's so much information — so much content — that we can never, ever be bored, I've come to a breaking point: I'm giving up podcasts.
My brain is melted from an onslaught of news and takes. I've come to realize that I'm overwhelmed and the only way to catch my breath is to cut something out. So I've cracked open my podcast app for the last time for the foreseeable future.
SEE ALSO: Spotify bets big on podcasts with acquisition of Gimlet and Anchor
That's not to say

The colossal failure that was the Fyre Festival is a cautionary tale about what NOT to do when planning, well, anything.
Just because it sounds good in your head and looks good on Instagram, doesn't mean that it's guaranteed to go as planned. Two documentaries and a spate of defeated tweets later, we can all be pretty sure of that.
To make sure that your business doesn't suffer the same fate, you need a carefully constructed plan to make all stakeholders and customers happy. Bizplan is an app th

Editor's note: PCMag and Mashable are both owned by Ziff Davis.
Is your old living room TV just not cutting it anymore? Are you embarrassed to have anyone over for a movie because your picture quality is subpar? Sounds like you need an upgrade. 
We are happy to report that you don't need to drop a ton of money in order to get yourself a great TV. 
Through March 4, the PCMag Shop is offering big savings on Sony HDTVs, with many sale prices that are cheaper than Amazon. Check out the ful

Cords are *so* 1882. No, literally — that's the year Thomas Edison invented the first known power distribution system. (The more you know.) 
With recent developments in Qi technology, which uses electromagnetic induction to transfer energy, supported smartphones can now be charged wirelessly. No longer must our precious devices be tethered down by cords; these days, you can just place your phone on a wireless charging mat or pad to give it a thorough juicing-up. (Of course, you do hav

Ever look at your Nintendo Switch and think to yourself “I wonder how I could turn this technological marvel into a devastating avatar of techno-superiority”? If so, we’ve got your back. 
Pro tip: If you decide to buy anything featured here, include the code SEMIANNUAL at checkout for an additional 15% off.
Nintendo Switch Bluetooth Audio Adapter
This Bluetooth adapter connects your Bluetooth headphones to your Switch in portable mode, solving every Switch user's biggest i

Early Saturday morning, SpaceX successfully launched its new Crew Dragon capsule from Cape Canaveral, Florida — the start of a milestone test needed to certify the vehicle for carrying passengers.Mounted on top of one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets, the Crew Dragon soared into space at 2:49AM ET and deployed into orbit just 11 minutes later. Following takeoff, SpaceX then landed its Falcon 9 on one of the company’s drone ships in the Atlantic — the company’s 35th suc

TikTok’s sudden popularity might’ve taken many by surprise as the app burst out on the social media scene seemingly out of nowhere. But TikTok’s origin is clear, it’s based on its one year-older predecessor, Douyin 抖音 which has over 500 million monthly active users. New TikTok features often make their debut on Douyin, bringing Chinese successes to the rest of Asia and Western markets. So by examining the Chinese predecessor, we can get a hint at what TikTo