Technology news

“Something big is coming to the Pixel universe,” reads a new teaser on the Google Store, offering a strong hint that the Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL phones are set for an announcement at the company’s I/O 2019 keynote on May 7th.Details about both have leaked over the last few months (even on Google’s own website), with Google expected to introduce the pair of devices at a lower price point than the flagship Pixel 3 and 3 XL that were launched last year. The 3a line will re

Hulu might look very different a year from now. AT&T has sold its roughly 10 percent stake in Hulu back to the streaming service today for $1.43 billion dollars, making it that much more likely that Hulu will become a Disney-centric service in the future.
Just last year, Hulu was still divided evenly between Disney, Fox, and Comcast — each owning a 30 percent cut of the company — alongside AT&T’s roughly 10 percent stake. But Disney gained a controlling interest in Hul

The US Federal Bureau of Prisons recently ran a test for jamming contraband cellphones in a South Carolina state correctional facility. “Micro-jamming,” or disrupting phone signals within a very precise area, was tested in a federal prison last year. But this test signaled that state prisons — which generally don’t have the authority to mess with phone signals — could be on their way to using the technology.
The test was held last week at the maximum-security Broad

The final season of Game of Thrones is wrapping up over the next few weeks, but fans of Westworld (HBO’s other star-studded, high-profile genre show) are still in for a bit of a wait, with WarnerMedia Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt and HBO president of programming Casey Bloys confirming to Deadline that the series won’t return until 2020.There’s been speculation for a while that Westworld wouldn’t be back in 2019, but now it’s official. The news also raises

SpaceX successfully landed the center core of its Falcon Heavy rocket on a drone ship last week, but the vehicle accidentally fell into the ocean while in transit to the Florida coast. The company blamed the loss on choppy seas.
“Over the weekend, due to rough sea conditions, SpaceX’s recovery team was unable to secure the center core booster for its return trip to Port Canaveral,” SpaceX said in a statement to The Verge. “As conditions worsened with eight to ten foot sw

Google’s Pixel 3a, the all-but-announced midrange phone that leaked on Google’s own storefront, may be coming to T-Mobile. Sources speaking to 9to5Google and Android Police shared that the carrier has begun testing the Pixel 3a on its network, and that T-Mobile may soon begin selling the upcoming phone in its stores alongside the Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL. This would mark the end of Verizon’s exclusivity deal that made it the only US carrier allowed to sell Google’s

Spoilers ahead for “Winterfell,” episode 1 of Game of Thrones, season 8.
In Game of Thrones’ season 8 premiere, Arya Stark reunites with her crush, Gendry, who’s also a blacksmith, and asks him to make her a mysterious new weapon. We only get a quick look at a design she’s drawn, but there are a few clues from Arya’s past about what the weapon could be.
Arya’s arsenal is fairly full already. In season 7, she got her hands on a new weapon, an unnamed dag

Microsoft just took the wraps off of Forza Street, the finalized title for what was a work-in-progress game dubbed Miami Street. Today, the new racing game is available as a free-to-play title for Windows 10 users, with Android and iOS versions coming “later this year.”
Unlike Forza Horizon and Forza Motorsport, Forza Street throws you into the Miami street-racing life with a complete garage of vehicles at your disposal. You start by picking an event, settling on your lineup, and th

Amazon is reportedly in talks to offer a free, ad-supported tier of its music service, according to a report from Billboard. Although there aren’t details about whether it will be more radio-like or on-demand, Billboard suggests this new free service will emphasize Amazon as a direct competitor to market leader Spotify.
Amazon plans to market the new option through its Echo speakers, and Billboard says that it could be available as soon as this week. The free tier will have a limited cata

Airbnbhas completed its acquisition of the last-minute hotel booking application, HotelTonight,the company announced on Monday. The deal is Airbnb’s largest M&A transaction yet, and will accelerate the home-sharing giant’s growth as it gears up for an initial public offering.
Airbnb reportedly began talks to acquire HotelTonight months ago, and finally confirmed its intent to acquire the business in early March. Reports indicated a price tag of more than $400 million; Airbnb decl

A fire has broken out at the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral today, and, as you’d expect, many news networks are offering live coverage of the breaking situation. What’s a little more unusual is that YouTube seemed to temporarily mix up the unfortunate burning of a historic cathedral with the 9/11 New York City terror attacks.Underneath live streams from CBS and others, viewers saw an explainer for the September 11th, 2001, attacks. These two things are completely unrelated, and there h

Volkswagen unveiled a new electric car concept at the Shanghai Auto Show this week. The quixotically named ID Roomzz is an all-electric SUV with Level 4 autonomous capabilities that is destined for the Chinese market by 2021, the German automaker announced.The ID Roomzz will come with an 82 kWh battery, providing a range of up to 450 km (279 miles) according to the European Union’s WLTP standard, or 475 km (295 miles) per the New European Driving Cycle as well as China’s range stand

After every Avengers movie, there’s always one question left unanswered: what’s it like for the everyday New Yorker who has to navigate annoying alien invasions every few years? It’s not just Michael Keaton’s Damage Control team in Spider-Man: Homecoming who has to worry about New York after every attack.A new ad for Google’s Pixel 3 answers that question. Whether it’s using Google Maps to try to find a route that isn’t blocked by crashing alien ships o

Last year, VLC’s app developers blacklisted Huawei devices due to their aggressive background task management methods that caused instability for the media player app, ultimately forcing it to crash and result in an uptick of negative reviews. While it might seem unjust to punish an entire user base due to the actions taken by a phone manufacturer, all that bad blood comes to an end today because the block has been lifted, as spotted by AndroidPolice.
Huawei recently rolled back its aggre

Today’s best deal is at Best Buy and Amazon, where you can find various Ring products for less than their usual prices. Plus, each includes a free third-gen Echo Dot with purchase. The savings range from $30 to $50, and the models that you’ll find savings on include the Ring Alarm, Ring Video Doorbell 2, Ring Video Doorbell Pro, Ring Spotlight Cam, and Ring Stick Up Cam. However, if you’re more interested in the Echo Dot than a Ring smart home product, check out the deals a li

Facebook Messenger’s dark mode is rolling out to globally today, as announced on Facebook’s product blog. The feature was previously hidden behind an Easter egg activation that made users send a crescent moon emoji in order to activate it. Now, users can enable the mode through a toggle switch in their settings, which can be accessed by tapping their profile photo.
The feature, which switches the chat display from white to black, cuts down on glare for use in low-light situations. G

Researchers at Tel Aviv University today unveiled a world’s first – a 3D print of a heart constructed from harvested human tissue and vessels. This technology, although in its formative stages, could potentially one day provide relief for patients whose lives are determined by the fickle whims of organ transplant lists. The organ produced in Tel Aviv isn’t viable for donation. According to the AFP, it’s roughly the size of a rabbit’s heart. It’s tiny, looking

Sometimes it feels like, no matter where you look, PC gaming equipment is festooned with RGB lighting. If you use Razer gear, however, there’s an easy way to control it.
If you’re not a fan of gaming’s fascination with multicolor lighting, then I’m going to show you how to shut off all of the LEDs on your Razer hardware. If you are a fan of RGB lights like I am, I’m going to show you how to control any new Razer peripheral that’s compatible with Chroma, Razer

Microsoft is said to be developing a Surface-branded pair of wireless earbuds. According to Thurrott, the earbuds will likely include Cortana integration and noise cancellation, and it’s possible (but “not guaranteed”) that they’ll come out by the end of the year.
The Surface-branded earbuds would be meant to take on Apple’s AirPods in the growing wireless earbuds space. So far, Apple is the only company to have struck the right balance between size, price, sound,

Jack Dorsey is a polarizing figure. Usually, the criticism is centered on how he runs Twitter. Last week, however, was different. Attention shifted from the usual fare – the ever-pervasive issues of the alt-right and harassment — to a completely different matter: Dorsey’s unusual diet. According to a piece in CNBC, Dorsey follows a highly calorie-restricted regime during the weekdays, limiting himself to just one meal — dinner. Dorsey’s sole meal is consumed betwee

With only 24 days left to go until TNW Conference, our tech festival in Amsterdam, we’re announcing updates every day. In case you don’t follow us on Twitter to hear the latest news, I’ve rounded up the biggest highlights of the past week! What’s the 411? We announced Guy Kawasaki, Apple’s original marketer in the ’80s, as the opening keynote for TNW2019! Check out the schedule to learn more Looking for your dream job? The House of Talent is your chance to ge

Amazon has discounted several SanDisk-branded storage products today, and B&H Photo is matching those prices. Today’s sale is a good opportunity to expand the storage in your DSLR camera, smartphone, GoPro, and other devices. It’s particularly good for people who are looking to save on fast storage for a Nintendo Switch.
Prices for microSD cards have been falling steadily in the past year. A handful of months ago, you were lucky to find a 400GB microSD card for less than $100, b

Phones have improved in pretty much every way over the past 20 years. Well, apart from in one area: battery life. Yep, the days when you could expect your phone to last you a week without a full charge are long gone. Now, you’re lucky if you get a full 24 hours out of one. There are phones (like this Energizer unit) that have huge batteries, but these normally come at a high price. Here at TNW, we’re not about that. So, to help you out, we’ve done some detective work and found

Facebook is testing a radically redesigned interface for its app, which sees the News Feed and Stories feature combined into a single feed that you tap through like an Instagram or Snapchat Stories. The interface was first discovered by app researcher Jane Manchun Wong who found the interface in the Android version of the Facebook app.Currently, Facebook Stories and the News Feed exist alongside one another as distinct interfaces in the core Facebook app. You can scroll down to see the News Fee

Binance has announced it will delist controversial cryptocurrency Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BitcoinSV). The confirmation came via a blog post, in which it detailed its processes for ensuring projects meet its “high level of standards”. “Based on our most recent reviews, we have decided to delist and cease trading on all trading pairs for the following coin on 2019/04/22 at 10:00 AM UTC,” wrote Binance, before naming BitcoinSV as the only project to be delisted. Binanc

Over the weekend at Star Wars Celebration in Chicago, Lucasfilm unveiled a new trailer for The Clone Wars, showing off the resurrected show (although there’s still no firm release date).The trailer shows off what to expect from the upcoming 12-episode season, including the return Ahsoka Tano (who is now living in the darker lower levels of Coruscant) and her long-awaited reunion with her mentor Anakin Skywalker, an appearance from Darth Maul (who is still hunting Obi-Wan), and, of course,

NASA would like you to take a picture of a tree, please. The space agency’s ICESat-2 satellite estimates the height of trees from space, and NASA has created a new tool for citizen scientists that can help check those measurements from the ground. All it takes is a smartphone, the app, an optional tape measure, and a tree.Launched in September 2018, the ICESat-2 satellite carries an instrument called ATLAS that shoots 60,000 pulses of light at the Earth’s surface every second it orb

Apple’s next major iOS update, iOS 13, will feature a system-wide dark mode and numerous enhancements to productivity on the iPad, according to a new report from 9to5Mac. The dark mode will span across Apple’s built-in iOS apps and make for less eye strain at night or when people are using their iPhones in dark conditions.iPad users will undoubtedly be more excited about new multiwindow support for apps, which could be a major boost to the multitasking capabilities of Apple’s

Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL has officially decided to build a second lunar lander after its first lunar lander crashed into the surface of the Moon last week. Morris Kahn, the Israeli entrepreneur who backed much of SpaceIL’s first mission, announced the decision on Twitter this weekend. However, the nonprofit has not provided many details about when and how the second mission will take place.
“In the light of all the support that I’ve got, from all over the world, and the wonde

My first portable console wasn’t a Game Boy. It was a Game Gear, Sega’s giant black brick of a gaming platform. Technically, I had the superior device. The Game Gear featured a display that felt incredibly bleeding edge, with colorful graphics and a bright backlit screen that let you admire the visuals from anywhere, even the dark. I used to show off just how cool Sonic and Virtua Fighter looked on Game Gear to my friends whenever I had the chance.
In reality, though, I was jealous

French dronemaker Parrot has created a new version of its folding Anafi quadcopter that has an onboard thermal camera. The company is pitching the drone to businesses and professionals in fields like security, search and rescue, construction, and agriculture. It’s also raising the price: the Anafi Thermal will retail for $1,900, a $1,200 increase over the cost of the regular $700 Anafi, which was released last summer. It will come with two spare batteries, a multibattery charger, a contro

Lyft, which operates bike-share systems across the US, said it would temporarily pull its fleet of pedal-assist electric bikes in three US cities due to problems with the braking systems. The affected systems include Citi Bike in New York City, Ford GoBike in San Francisco, and Capital Bikeshare in Washington, DC.Motivate, the bike share operator owned by Lyft, made the decision out of an “abundance of caution” after receiving “a small number of reports from riders who experie

Hackers have defaced the Twitter account of Sweden’s governing party with hate speech and declared they would replace the Swedish krona with Bitcoin. The strange tweets began early this morning, when the “Socialdemokraterna” account reportedly changed its name to “Bitcoindemokraterna,” and promised its leader’s would resign, confirmed Expressen. It even added a tiny Bitcoin logo to its display picture. “During the night, our Twitter account was hijacked

This video is part of our series on Lille’s Maker Faire. To stay up-to-date on releases (and to find out more), check out our master post here. Despite science’s continual advances, there are mysteries we’ve still never solved. You know, things like what went on at the Dyatlov Pass? What’s the deal with the Great Attractor? And, most pressingly, why does R2D2 builders association exist? On our trip to Lille, we tried to solve one of these questions. Specif

There’s an insane amount of news every day about social networks screwing up and compromising user data. So, it’s advisable that you keep your privacy settings in check to avoid giving away any information unintentionally. Thankfully, this new iPhone app, Jumbo, will help you out with this. The app offers plenty of privacy-related functionality for Twitter, Facebook, Amazon Alexa, and Google searches. For Twitter, it can delete your older tweets, and save them to your phone or