Technology news

The following review is spoiler-free! Proceed with reckless abandon.
Grab your pitchforks and torches: What We Do In The Shadows just might be better as a series.
It's blasphemy, I know. Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi's 2014 film is the gold standard for vampire comedy and a standout in any spooky streaming collection worth its salt. 
But FX's expansion on the original's darkly hilarious premise takes what was already great and makes it bloody brilliant.
Clement and Waititi serve as exec

Twitch today announced a new feature designed to help creators boost the profile of smaller streamers on the platform and to better collaborate with one another. The feature, called Squad Streams, will let up to four Twitch streamers go live simultaneously in one window, making it easier for viewers to watch the action from four different angles and giving bigger channels the opportunity not just to host smaller creators, but to share their screen with the audience, too.
The Squad Stream builds

On the edge of your seat waiting to see what happens in Stranger Things: Season 3? Looks like the folks behind Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights already know. 
In preparation for the parks' annual spooky event, Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando Resort have announced the creation of all-new Stranger Things themed mazes. The mazes are set to debut at this year's festivities, beginning in September.
Part of a continued partnership with Netflix, Universal's maze creators

In case you haven’t heard, Samsung is working on a bendable phone. Since it first entered the fold (pun intended), we’ve wondered one thing: will folding the device over and over again show on the display? After all, things that fold tend to form creases, and as cool as a bendable display is, no one wants to use one with a giant damaged vertical strip running through the center. Fear not, says Samsung, for it turns out they’ve folded the Galaxy Fold a few times before. Or a lo

Apple is enabling its electrocardiogram (EKG) reading feature for Apple Watch Series 4 owners in Europe and Hong Kong today. The iPhone maker previously launched the EKG feature in the US in December, after making it a big part of the Apple Watch Series 4 that was originally introduced back in September. Apple is delivering the EKG functionality to regions outside of the US with its latest watchOS 5.2 update, including 19 countries in Europe and Hong Kong.
Apple Watch Series 4 owners will be ab

Twitter has channeled its carb-loaded rage into a new meme. 
The "St. Louis style" bagel — apparently, a bagel cut into thin slices like a loaf of bread — infuriated Twitter users on Wednesday. 
SEE ALSO: A tweet depicting bagels sliced like loaves of bread is causing people to freak out
It's a special kind of sad and pathetic. Today I introduced my coworkers to the St Louis secret of ordering bagels bread sliced. It was a hit! pic.twitter.com/XNGbljtpYz
— Alek K

Just when you thought the "steamed hams" meme from The Simpsons had run its course, behold, the above video which is the most '90s thing to hit the web in a long while. 
The original sound clip, mixing dialog from the famous segment of a 1996 Simpsons episode with Green Day's break out 1994 single, first hit YouTube back in August 2018. But then YouTuber Juliana Egg grabbed that song and synced it with the clip from the episode using Adobe Premiere wizardry, and the result is magic. 
T

Lyft,expected to hit public markets in a landmark initial public offering Friday, has increased its share price range. In a new filing published Wednesday afternoon, the company outlined plans to charge between $70 and $72 per share.
In an amended IPO prospectus filed last week, the company said it would sell 30.7 million shares at between $62 and $68 a piece. Following high demand from Wall Street — its IPO was said to be oversubscribed on the second day of its roadshow — Lyft has o

Since Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was elected to Congress, she's brought a refreshing and powerfully passionate energy to Washington, DC.
When she isn't mastering the art of the Twitter takedown, sharing her social media skills with fellow Democrats, or answering interview questions as candidly as possible, the 29-year-old is making insightful speeches that effectively communicate her personal beliefs and challenge the American people to rethink our power structures and national priorities.
Whether

Those tight-lipped Game of Thrones creators are finally ready to spill their secrets.
Announced today by HBO, Game of Thrones: The Last Watch is an upcoming documentary that aims to give fans a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Season 8, produced by the people behind it — and the rest of the monumentally successful series.
Set to air on May 26, a week after Thrones' final episode, The Last Watch will capture in just two hours what it was like for the cast and crew of the series to br

We came away impressed when we reviewed Wyze’s Cam Pan security camera last year. At just $30 a camera, it was almost disconcertingly cheap (and Wyze sells a $20 model too). But my colleague Tristan Greene concluded that “despite a few shortcomings, [it] does everything I want it to do and more.” Today the company announced a new set of products to help secure your home: the Wyze Sense kit. For $20, you get a motion sensor – for, you know, detecting movement &n

On Wednesday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai met with President Trump to discuss contracts and other ongoing partnerships with the US government.
“I just met with Sundar Pichai, President of Google, who is obviously doing quite well,” President Trump tweeted after the meeting. “He stated strongly that he is totally committed to the U.S. Military, not the Chinese Military. [We] also discussed political fairness and various things that Google can do for our Country. Meeting ended very

Apple has created a monster. Free-to-play games have taken over the iOS App Store almost entirely, creating a marketplace that is dominated by scammy timers and cheap monetization schemes, one that no amount of quality game design, curation, and promotion have been able to fix. But now (after years of profiting off this system), Apple is here with the alleged cure: Apple Arcade.Can Apple really put that free-to-play genie back in the bottle?
Apple Arcade promises dozens of high-quality, premium

There have been many times in my life when I've just wanted to pass out on the floor — whether I've been sober or not sober, at home or at work and in front of my computer.
But actually passing out in front of complete strangers takes bravery. So kudos to this sleeping monk seal, who Twitter user @PAYOLETTER found on the beach while visiting the Hawaiian island of Kauai.SEE ALSO: Labrador Retriever named the best doggo
"We just were lucky enough to see him on the beach, pure happenstance!"

Lucasfilm announced a new Star Wars novel today: Dooku: Jedi Lost, written by Cavan Scott, which will explore the backstory of Sith apprentice Asajj Ventress and Count Dooku. There are plenty of Star Wars novels out there, but this one is different — it’s an audio-only novel.Over the years, Lucasfilm and its publishing partner Del Rey have built up a track record for producing some of the best audiobook experiences out there. They have access to a huge library of sounds and music fr

Earlier this week, Sony celebrated a (somewhat arbitrary) milestone for PSVR: 4.2 million headsets sold. It sure sounds like a lot, but if you put it in comparison to other excessively publicized console accessories, like the Sega CD or the Kinect motion camera for the Xbox 360, it’s a far less impressive achievement, as noted today by Ars Technica.There are two important numbers to look at for the PSVR (or any accessory): how many units it’s sold, and what percentage of total conso

Spoilers ahead for season 1 of Cloak & Dagger.
Most superhero shows falter in their second season. First seasons are driven by origin stories, letting writers introduce the heroes and signature villains, and exploring the pleasures and perils that come from their power. But once evil has been punished and a crisis averted, the question is “What’s next?” Should the showrunners bring back the same threat and escalate it, or introduce a new one? Do the stakes need to be incre

Sony revealed it’s eliminating one of the only ways for gamers to buy games for list price without having to hand over their credit card details — namely, in-store digital codes. So if you wanted to buy a game from an actual retailer, your only options now are physical discs or PlayStation cash cards. Twitter user Wario64 revealed an internal GameStop memo that presages Sony‘s move, saying that the cut-off point is the beginning of April. Sony confirmed the date to GI.biz

Amazon’s Rohit Prasad, head scientist and an instrumental member of the Alexa division, says the company’s personal software assistant would be far smarter if it had a robot body and cameras to move around in the real world. Prasad, speaking at MIT Technology Review’s EmTech Digital AI conference in San Francisco yesterday, said, “The only way to make smart assistants really smart is to give it eyes and let it explore the world.”
Some Alexa-enabled smart devices al

April Fool's Day is a collectively sanctioned excuse to lie to people once every year. Tech companies, in particular, love making goofy announcements on the first day of April to celebrate, but one major industry player will sit out the annual tradition in 2019.
This year, Microsoft has strongly discouraged its employees from doing any April Fool's stunts, at least in front of the public. The order was given by marketing exec Chris Capossela in an internal memo obtained by The Verge.
Mashable co

The March For Our Lives activists have a message so big, you can't miss it. And neither can Congress, we hope.
On March 26, the activists installed a gun violence art exhibit called "One Week in America" on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol. 
In a Twitter thread, Matt Deitsch, the organization's co-founder and chief strategist, explains the thinking behind each component of the installation. A sign reading "Your Complacency Kills Us" is directed to Congress, he explains, and in the exhibit's cen

What lies beneath the murky depths? SolarCity co-founder Peter Rive wants to help you and the scientific community find out. He’s just led a $7 million Series A for Sofar Ocean Technologies, a new startup formed from a merger he orchestrated between underwater drone maker OpenROV and sea sensor developer Spoondrift. Together, they’re teaming up their 1080p Trident drone and solar-powered Spotter sensor to let you collect data above and below the surface. They can help you shoot aweso

How do you do, fellow kids? 
WTOL, a local news station in Toledo, Ohio,  wished the city's public school students good luck during its standardized testing week by speaking the language of the Youths. Like a mediocre Soundcloud rapper dropping tracks nobody asked for, the anchors dropped more hip slang than any Gen Z mad lib could call for. 
The segment opened with a pained "YEEET."
"Stay woke, beyond fleek, and get that Gucci breakfast," the anchor continued before another hopp

Uber's head of driver product is proud of his 96 rides (and no tickets ... so far). 
Daniel Danker knows they're nothing compared to the thousands of rides some drivers have under their belts. But every rider he drops off helps him understand the Uber service — and provides more insight than anything he'd get from a feedback survey or second-hand notes. 
SEE ALSO: Meet the inventive Uber driver that gives his passengers a menu of different ride types
So a few times a month, he op

Facebook is reversing course and banning white nationalism and white separatism from its platform.
Motherboard reported on Wednesday that Facebook is shifting its policy on white nationalism and white separatism and made the decision to ban them from the platform one day prior. Shortly after Motherboard’s report, Facebook posted a statement, titled “Standing Against Hate,” on its website confirming the policy update.
As part of the policy update, Facebook will also direct users

When I flew out to San Francisco for the RSA Convention (RSAC) in early March, I planned to attend all the election security talks I could fit into my schedule. It's an obvious choice. While the 2018 midterms concluded without much controversy, we're still fighting over the 2016 presidential election, and we're halfway to the next one. That's in addition to the US system of casting and counting votes being, at best, a barely functional shambles.
(Editors' Note: This is the first in a series of w

During his presentation on Monday, Apple CEO Tim Cook introduced the company’s news subscription service by talking about the joy of standing in front of a newsstand. “I love the feeling of being at the newsstand,” he said. “With all those beautiful and thought-provoking magazines covering so many topics.” The goal of the new Apple News Plus service, Cook said, would be to bring that feeling into the Apple ecosystem.
But if Apple News is supposed to be the digital

Tagomi Trading LLC, a cryptocurrency venture backed by Paradigm and Pantera Capital, has become the 18th firm to receive a coveted BitLicense. The crypto brokerage firm received approval for a virtual currency license and a money transmission license. As a result, Tagomi is now authorized to offer trading for “non-securities virtual currencies“, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether, and Litecoin. The controversial BitLicense was first established in 2015 in a bid to regulate

In a dramatic shift in policy, Facebook announced today that it is banning white nationalism and separatism on its platform. The decision, which was first reported by Motherboard, comes just under two weeks since a white supremacist killed 50 people in Christchurch, New Zealand.In a blog post, Facebook said that any “praise, support, and representation of white nationalism and separatism” would be banned when the new policy goes into effect next week. “It’s clear that th

You know how kings used to have trumpeters heralding their arrival wherever they went? Proxy wants to do that with Bluetooth. The startup lets you instantly unlock office doors and reserve meeting rooms using Bluetooth Low Energy signal. You never even have to pull out your phone or open an app. But Proxyis gearing up to build an entire Bluetooth identity layer for the world that could invisibly hover around its users. That could allow devices around the workplace and beyond to instantly recogni

In the weeks ramping up to Game of Thrones’ eighth and final season premiere, HBO has secretly hidden six replicas of the Iron Throne around the world for fans to find. It’s another spin on “a game of thrones” — a scavenger hunt and worldwide race to find hidden objects based on only the vaguest hints.
So far, fans have located five of the six replicas. The only clues HBO gave were one-hour live streams of each of the thrones at different times in the day, and some

At the Netflix Labs press event earlier in March, Netflix confirmed its ongoing commitment to interactive entertainment in several ways. Journalists at the event got advance peeks at a few more children’s shows that would let viewers pick their protagonist, or unlock areas on a map during viewing. One breakout session was devoted to the process behind the creation of Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, Charlie Brooker’s movie-length interactive Black Mirror episode. And during the event, Ne

Marvel didn’t invent the post-credits stinger, but from the moment Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury showed up at the end of Iron Man a decade ago, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has absorbed post-credit sequences as a signature calling card. Batman v. Superman director Zack Snyder even said he didn’t include one at the end of his film “because Marvel does that.” Sure, Iron Man was wildly successful, but the massive, interconnected universe that’s barreling toward

Samsung has been pretty closed off about letting anyone actually try out the Galaxy Fold in real life, but apparently, those rules don’t apply to robots — specifically, Samsung’s specialized stress testing machines, which the company showcased in a new video highlighting the Galaxy Fold’s bending abilities.The video is pretty mesmerizing on its own — there’s something almost soothing about watching all the phones fold open and shut in perfect synchronization,