Technology news

The UFC and ESPN jointly announced this afternoon that ESPN+ will become the exclusive destination for and distributor of the MMA company’s pay-per-view events. The seven-year deal expands on the partnership between UFC and ESPN’s standalone streaming service, which replaced Fox Sports as the home of UFC Fight Night earlier this year. ESPN+ already streamed preliminary matches for UFC pay-per-views under that deal, but now it’s becoming the central go-to for everything. UFC ha

Catastrophic flooding in Nebraska has wiped out roads, overtopped dams, and left at least a third of the Offutt Air Force Base submerged, highlighting the ongoing threat that extreme weather poses to both people’s lives, and national security.A massive winter storm created a “bomb cyclone” over parts of the country last week, and dumped snow and rain on Nebraska. Rain slicked off frozen ground, snow melted, and ice thawed on rivers — kicking off devastating floods that k

There’s no shortage of social robots that promise to provide companionship, and the Tombot Puppy is the latest therapy robot to offer the kind of unconditional love that only a dog can give, provided the batteries stay charged forever. The golden Labrador retriever barks, wags, and responds to touch, providing emotional support to seniors, people with dementia, and anyone who can’t have a live pet. It’s funding now on Kickstarter and has already reached its $20,000 goal.
Tombo

Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten is hosting another site-wide discount, and you can save 15 percent on select products when you use the offer code SAVE15 at checkout. Promos like these happen fairly regularly, and the offer code typically works on most of the site’s products. Here are a few deals to get you started:
Fitbit Charge 3 is $127.46 with the code applied at checkout (usually $149.95)Xbox One X bundled with 12-month Xbox Live subscription is $349 after the code is applied (usual

Sony is bringing PlayStation Vue’s multi-view feature, which lets users view several channels at once, to the Apple TV today. Until now, multi-view has only worked on the company’s own PlayStation 4 console, so it’s nice to see other devices getting one of Vue’s unique perks. The PS4 can stream three channels simultaneously, but the Apple TV app will now be able to display four live channels at the same time. Sony’s internet TV service starts at $44.99 per month an

Qualcomm’s new VR headset will be one of the first to work as a standalone mobile headset and also connect to PCs wirelessly. The headsets will be demoed at the Game Developers Conference that’s currently going on in San Francisco, and they could arrive in stores in Asia as early as later this year, as spotted by CNET.
Most mobile VR headsets don’t let you plug into your PC for a connection to additional VR gaming libraries, but Qualcomm envisions it to be possible in its new

Homosexuality is illegal in a third of the counties on this planet; in eight countries it is punishable by death. In the febrile atmosphere of today’s politics, hate-crime incidents in the U.S. increased by 17 percent from 2016 to 2017, according to the FBI.
More than 20 of those incidents were crimes against an individual’s sexual orientation — the largest increase since 9/11. Similar hate-crime statistics have increased in the U.K. and several other western countries.
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Following the Christchurch shooting last week, internet service providers in New Zealand are blocking access to websites that do not respond or refuse to comply to requests to remove reuploads of the shooter’s original live stream.
According to Bleeping Computer, sites like 4chan, 8chan, LiveLeak, and the file-sharing site Mega have all been pulled by ISPs like Vodafone, Spark, and Vocus. The ISPs appear to be blocking access at the DNS level to sites that do not respond to the takedown r

Smartphones are spectacular for snapping photos, scanning the news, and sending messages, but they can also be literal lifesavers if you take the time to set them up before the need arises.
Both Android and iOS have easy-to-use systems for sharing your location with a friend, family member, or other trusted contact in an emergency. You can even create connections that’ll allow you to check up on loved ones to see if their phone has detected movement lately and then request an automated lo

Details of America’s next-generation supercomputer were revealed at a ceremony attended by Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and Senator Dick Durbin at Argonne National Laboratory today. The Department of Energy’s new supercomputer will be built by Intel at Argonne, and it will be the first of its kind in the United States.
“We will use exascale computing and AI to accelerate discovery, spur ingenuity, drive innovation, and above all, we will impact all of those areas in ways tha

Today, Xiaomi announced its new gaming smartphone, the Black Shark 2. We previewed the first model last year; at the time, it seemed like a promising competitor to other gaming phone makers, like Asus and Razer. And Xiaomi is no stranger to designing and releasing high-end smartphones in China and elsewhere, even if they’re still fairly new when it comes to the gaming phone scene.To begin with, the Black Shark 2’s real kicker is its screen: it’s a 6.39-inch OLED display with a

Today, Xiaomi announced its new gaming smartphone, the Black Shark 2. We previewed the first model last year; at the time, it seemed like a promising competitor to other gaming phone makers, like Asus and Razer. And Xiaomi is no stranger to designing and releasing high-end smartphones in China and elsewhere, even if they’re still fairly new when it comes to the gaming phone scene.To begin with, the Black Shark 2’s real kicker is its screen: it’s a 6.39-inch AMOLED display with

Netflix has announced its next big interactive story — a choose-your-adventure TV series called You vs. Wild (emphasis on the “adventure” part, here), starring Bear Grylls, the survival TV personality best known for his Discovery Channel series Man vs. Wild, via Variety.The eight-episode show was announced at Netflix’s press event in Los Angeles and will let viewers follow along with Grylls on adventures around the world as he tries to survive the great outdoors. The twi

For a moment, it seemed like Warner Bros. boss Kevin Tsujihara might have been somewhat in the clear — despite allegations that he’d had an extramarital affair with one of the studio’s actresses, his new corporate overlords at AT&T saw fit to promote him to head up all of the children’s programming at the newly minted WarnerMedia.But now, Tsujihara is out — and both he and WarnerMedia are making it sound like it was his idea.
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Respawn Entertainment’s fast-growing battle royale hit Apex Legends is launching its much-anticipated first season tomorrow, the developer announced this morning. The first season, dubbed Wild Frontier, will come with a Fortnite-style battle pass costing $9.50 for three months alongside the game’s newest character, the legend Octane.Fans of Apex Legends have been anxiously awaiting the battle pass launch since the game first released at the beginning of February. As pioneered first

DJI has finally released a 3.5mm microphone adapter for the Osmo Pocket, its handheld vlogging camera that was released back in December, reports Drone DJI. The $39 adapter plugs into the camera’s USB Type-C port, and it will reportedly work with microphones from Rode, Audio-Technica, and Sennheiser.
The Osmo Pocket’s internal microphone doesn’t sound terrible, but in my time with the camera, it seems to be the weakest part of the device, especially when compared with the vide

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.
1. Apple launches new iPad Air and iPad mini
The company is (finally) updating the iPad mini and adding a new iPad Air. This model sits between the entry-level 9.7-inch iPad and the 11-inch iPad Pro in the lineup.
All new models now support the first-generation ApplePencil — but not the new

A study of tracking cookies running on government and public sector health websites in the European Union has found commercial adtech to be operating pervasively even in what should be core not-for-profit corners of the Internet.
The researchers used searches including queries related to HIV, mental health, pregnancy, alcoholism and cancer to examine how frequently European Internet users are tracked when accessing national health service webpages to look for publicly funded information about se

The past few years have been a bit of a dark age for budding social media startups. Facebook, Instagram,Twitter, Snap and messenger apps took up all the time of their users, leaving little room for yet another social media platform.
But the tide is shifting. Privacy scandals have shaken some users’ faith giants like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and users have grown fatigued by the constant onslaught of #content.
Basement, a YC-backed startup, is looking to give users a new, simpler soc

The search is in full swing for the most innovative, interesting and utterly disruptive early-stage tech startups to compete in Startup Battlefield, our premier pitch competition, at Disrupt San Francisco 2019 on October 2-4. Founders, if you think your startup has the right stuff, then by all means, apply right here, right now.
Not sure whether you should apply? We think it’s a no-brainer, but we’re happy to break it down for you. Buckle up and get ready for five reasons — in

The Department of Transportation’s inspector general is probing the Federal Aviation Administration’s approval of Boeing’s 737 Max 8 aircraft after new reports raised questions about the FAA’s reliance on the aircraft manufacturer during its certification process. Meanwhile, federal prosecutors are also looking into Boeing. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that a subpoena has been issued to at least one person involved in the Max 8’s development.The DOT’s

Were you in a band with a Myspace page between 2003 and 2015? If you were, then any music you uploaded to the social media network is now gone. In an email sent to Redditor u/austinjckson, the company’s data privacy officer confirmed that “due to a server migration files were corrupted and unable to be transferred over to our updated site” (via BoingBoing).
News that the files may have been lost first surfaced a year ago when the company said that it was experiencing an issue

The WhatsApp team at Facebook is continuing to build features to help thwart fake news. WABetaInfo reports that a new beta version of WhatsApp includes an in-app web browser and the ability to reverse image search an image that’s sent in a chat so that you can try to figure out where the image really came from.
The in-app browser on its own likely won’t do much to combat fake news, although it’s at least a helpful feature that’s been missing for some time. WaBetaInfo not

When a company, in this case, Apple, replaces one simply named product like the Apple Pencil with an identically titled successor, you’d usually be forgiven for assuming that the old product is about to be discontinued. Otherwise, advertising things like “Apple Pencil support” would become super confusing for people who are shopping for a new iPad. You’d think so, but Apple apparently has no such qualms. Today, it introduced an updated iPad mini and a new iPad Air. Both

Netflix’s animated series The Dragon Prince, co-created by Avatar: The Last Airbender head writer Aaron Ehasz and Uncharted series game developer and director Justin Richmond, just dropped its second season, and it’s a powerful step forward for the fantasy series. I recently spoke at length to Ehasz and Richmond about the stylistic changes and narrative leaps forward the show took in season 2.
In part one of this interview, Ehasz and Richmond discussed some of the major story beats

Phones are more expensive than ever. Flagship devices from Apple, Samsung, Google, and other top manufacturers can now cost hundreds of dollars more than they did just a couple of years ago. Now, with the arrival of foldable phones, which are being priced at $2,000 and above, it looks like the upper limit for phone prices is going to keep growing.
There are a few different reasons why phone prices have been skyrocketing over the past several years. The first is simple: it’s just sticker s

Factory software tools are often out of reach of small manufacturers, forcing them to operate with inefficient manual systems. WorkClout, a member of the Y Combinator Winter 2019 class, wants to change that by offering a more affordable SaaS alternative to traditional manufacturing software solutions.
Company co-founder and CEO Arjun Patel grew up helping out in his Dad’s factory and saw first-hand how difficult it is for small factory owners to automate. He says that traditional floor-man

Album exclusives are nothing new in the age of Tidal, of course. But Moby’s latest is taking a kind of circuitous route to the world’s mobile devices. The electronic artist has released his latest, Long Ambients 2, as an exclusive through the Calm meditation app.
The album dropped over the weekend in celebration of World Sleep Day — which we fittingly appeared to have slept on. It’s a sequel to 2016’s fittingly titled Long Ambients 1: Calm . Sleep. This time out, th

YouTube dealt with an “unprecedented volume” of videos after last week’s mass shooting in New Zealand, as the platform struggled to remove videos with the footage, YouTube’s chief product officer told The Washington Post.Friday’s killings at two mosques in Christchurch were recorded and posted to social media channels around the world as part of a plan that was seemingly designed to spread the footage online. As the footage made its way around the internet, it was

Latin America continues to remain a focus for investors that are eyeing up its large population and growth potential. In the latest development, America Movil, the Latin American carrier that is part of the Carlos Slim empire, today announced that it would acquire Nextel in Brazil, owned by NII (formerly Nextel International), for $905 million. NII in turn said that once the deal is closed, it has received approval “to dissolve and wind up NII.”
This is a move to scale up an exi

It’s not as if the internet needed another cautionary tale about backing up data, but for many artists, this news is heartbreaking nonetheless. Myspace has issued a tersely worded message noting that a huge amount of user-uploaded music has been lost during a server migration.
The once-dominant social network posted a note on its site reading, “As a result of a server migration project, any photos, videos, and audio files you uploaded more than three years ago may no longer be availa

Next month, the UK is scheduled to introduce its so-called “porn block,” a controversial piece of legislation that aims to block access to online pornography for those under the age of 18. But new research suggests that most UK citizens don’t even know the law is on its way.According to a survey from YouGov, 76 percent of Britons are unaware that the porn block is scheduled to take effect in April. Unsurprisingly, those who said they “never” watched porn were most

Studios that are working on content for Apple’s forthcoming streaming service are reportedly experiencing a culture clash in their dealings with the Cupertino-based company, according to The New York Times. Apple is said to be too controlling when it comes to the portrayal of Apple products such as iPhones and MacBooks in the shows while being uncommunicative when it comes to basic details like release dates and marketing plans.This lack of communication is proving frustrating for product

Applehas refreshed its iPad lineup. The company is (finally) updating the iPad mini and adding a new iPad Air. This model sits between the entry-level 9.7-inch iPad and the 11-inch iPad Pro in the lineup.
All new models now support the Apple Pencil, but you might want to double-check your iPad model before buying one. The new iPad models released today work with the first-gen Apple Pencil, not the new Apple Pencil that supports magnetic charging and pairing.
So let’s look at those new iPad

Apple is bringing back the iPad Air today with a bigger model. Alongside a new iPad mini, Apple is launching a 10.5-inch version of the iPad Air with support for the original Apple Pencil (not the modern second-generation Apple Pencil). This new model will be powered by Apple’s A12 Bionic chip, and it will slot into the iPad lineup between the larger iPad and iPad Pro models. Apple is making the iPad Air available starting at $499 for the Wi-Fi model and $629 for the Wi-Fi and cellular ve

Apple has updated the iPad mini for the first time in three and a half years, refreshing the tablet with a new processor and support for the Apple Pencil stylus. The iPad mini now has last year’s A12 Bionic processor, instead of the A8 from 2014. Its storage is decreasing to 64GB, but its price remains the same at $399. Alongside the iPad mini, Apple also announced a new 10.5-inch iPad Air for $499.
The overall shape and design of the iPad mini remain the same as ever, so there are still

Slack announced today that it is launching Enterprise Key Management (EKM) for Slack,a new tool that enables customers to control their encryption keys in the enterprise version of the communications app. The keys are managed in the AWS KMS key management tool.
Geoff Belknap, chief security officer (CSO) at Slack, says the new tool should appeal to customers in regulated industries who might need tighter control over security. “Markets like financial services, healthcare and government are

Henrik Fisker, the man behind the ill-fated Tesla-challenging Karma hybrid sports car and current CEO of Fisker Inc., has announced a new electric SUV with “close to 300 miles” of range that will start “below $40,000.” The car, which is the second that Fisker Inc. has announced, is due in the back half of 2021. It will also be the first of three mass-market electric vehicles, according to the company, though Fisker Inc. didn’t mention specific production or sales t

Leonard Kleinrock ContributorShare on Twitter Leonard Kleinrock is the Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering.When my team of graduate students and I sent the first message over the internet on a warm Los Angeles evening in October, 1969, little did we suspect that we were at the start of a worldwide revolution. After we typed the first two letters from our computer room at UCLA, namely, “Lo” for “Login,” the networ

Ridesharing startup Lyft, as expected, announced this morning that it is kicking off the roadshow for its IPO — setting the clock ticking for its IPO likely in the next two weeks. Around that, it also filled in some more details. The stock will trade as “LYFT” on Nasdaq, and the IPO range is currently set for between $62 and $68 per share to sell 30,770,000 shares of Class A common stock, the company said, raising up to $2.1 billion at the higher end of that rang

US president Donald Trump, a man habituated to being driven everywhere he goes, is reportedly not a fan of self-driving car technology. Citing four sources who’ve seen and heard Trump commenting on autonomous vehicles, Axios says the president’s attitude in private is one of express antipathy: “Yeah that’s cool but I would never get in a self-driving car. ... I don’t trust some computer to drive me around,” Trump is reported to have said to an enthusiastic ne