Technology news

Don't panic, but two of The Youths™ biggest sources of entertainment are down.
Snapchat and YouTube, as well as Gmail, G Suite, Discord, and other services, are down in some eastern regions of the U.S. and Europe. A Google Cloud outage, which powers logins for many non-Google properties, is responsible. That report comes from The Verge, as well as matching comparisons of outages on DownDetector.com.
(Editor's note: All Google services, plus Discord, are working as of 5:22 p.m. ET and never

There are a ton of podcasts out there, but finding the right one can be difficult. In our column Pod Hunters, we cover what we’ve been listening to that we can’t stop thinking about.
When it comes to the history of cinema, there are few origin stories that are as well-trodden as that of the careers of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and John Williams. Their friendship is the subject of a new, six-episode podcast called Blockbuster, which retells their early days as filmmakers in a dr

It looks like Minecraft: Story Mode, the blocky, choice-driven adventure from Telltale Games (R.I.P.), isn't long for this world.
A Friday update posted on Minecraft.net warns players that Story Mode will be disappearing from a number of platform stores at the end of June. And in an uncommon twist, it seems this will be a complete and total removal.
Here's the statement:It's not yet clear what will happen to the Netflix version of Minecraft: Story Mode on June 25. Mashable reached out to the str

YouTube, Snapchat, Gmail, Nest, Discord, and a number of other web services suffered from major from outages in the US today. The root cause was issues with Google’s Cloud service that powers apps other than just Google’s own web services. Google’s issues started at around 3PM ET / 12PM PT, and the company resolved them after more than four hours.
The issues largely affected those on the East Coast of the US, but some YouTube and Gmail users across Europe also reported that th

YouTube, Snapchat, Gmail, Nest, Discord, and a number of other web services are suffering from outages in the US today. The root cause appears to be problems with Google’s Cloud service which powers apps other than just Google’s own web services. Google has issued a status update on its Cloud dashboard, noting that issues began at around 3:25PM ET / 12:25PM PT.The issues appear to be mostly affecting those on the East Coast of the US, but some YouTube and Gmail users across Europe a

A new report from the New York Times details a bureaucratic mess, caused by the overhauling of an A.I. system, that it says is responsible for the two fatal Boeing 737 Max 8 crashes in Oct. 2018 and March 2019. 
Boeing allegedly introduced "aggressive and riskier" changes to an A.I. system built for safety. Those changes, plus siloed departments and a lack of pilot training and regulatory oversight, reportedly led to the deadly Boeing 737 Max crashes.
SEE ALSO: Boeing to fix deadly 737 Max

Samsung apparently plans to release a couple of new headsets in the coming months, according to a company executive, who noted that it plans to release “multiple AR and VR products,” and that it might involve its stagnated Gear product line.
The comments come via Variety, which noted that Farshid Fallah, Samsung’s director of developer relations for XR and gaming, spoke at a panel at the Augmented World Expo in Santa Clara, California last Thursday. Fallah spoke about the comp

The BTS hype doesn't look like it'll be fading any time soon.
One of K-pop's biggest boy bands, BTS, performed their first concert at England's Wembley Stadium on Saturday, becoming the first South Korean group to headline the iconic venue.
The seven-member band reportedly played a set of 24 songs to tens of thousands of fans, and their performance lasted more than two hours. The show was also broadcast live so that fans around the world could tune in, and boy did they.
SEE ALSO: The never-endin

Minecraft developer Mojang has announced that support for Minecraft: Story Mode is ending, and that players will have until June 25th, 2019, to download their episodes. The game’s delisting follows the disappearance of other games created by Telltale Games, which abruptly shut down last year.Mojang says that because of Telltale’s closure, the game will no longer be supported as of June, and that players who purchased it will need to make sure to download it before it’s taken d

The Tesla video game library is set to grow at least one more time before the end of 2019, and it's not some dusty, old arcade game this time.
Cuphead, the infernally challenging side-scoller featuring beautiful hand-drawn art that was released in 2017 for PC and Xbox One, is up next. It should be playable on the dashboard screens in Tesla Model 3, Model S, and Model X cars sometime during summer 2019.
Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk confirmed the plan during an appearance on Ride the Lightni

The first video recording of a solar eclipse is now available to watch on YouTube. The clip, which lasts one minute and eight seconds, covers the totality of the eclipse, starting just before the Moon completely covers the Sun and lasting until just after it starts to move away.This eclipse took place on May 28th, 1900, and it was recorded in North Carolina during an expedition by the British Astronomical Association. Magician Nevil Maskelyne recorded the footage using a telescopic adapter on h

If you've been keeping up with Khloé Kardashian you'll know she just had quite the night out... at a high school prom.
The 34-year-old model and star of Keeping Up With the Kardashians recently escorted one of her biggest superfans to his prom at Hoover High School in Glendale, California.
The Kardashian stan, named Narbeh, revealed his special prom date on social media by sharing a photo booth strip from the event. "Took my baby @khloekardashian to prom with me! Feeling over the moo

Tesla is apparently bringing another game to its in-car displayers: Cuphead. Speaking on the latest episode of IGN reporter Ryan McCaffrey’s Ride the Lightning podcast, CEO Elon Musk said that they’ve gotten the game working in the display, and could release it sometime this summer.Tesla has brought in a handful of games for its in-car displays recently, adding some classic Atari games as an Easter egg back in October. Last month, Musk noted that the company was working to port Unit

Over the past two weeks, Huawei has lost nearly every partner it has thanks to a US trade ban, including high-profile splits with Google, Corning, and ARM that have plunged the Chinese phone maker into an unprecedented crisis. But some of its major partners are staying quiet — most notably Microsoft, which still hasn’t put out an official statement on the ban. Microsoft did quietly pull Huawei laptops from its site, suggesting some kind of withdrawal of services, but we’re sti

We don't know who needs to hear this, but do not interrupt Kamala Harris while she is speaking.
When the 2020 presidential candidate spoke at MoveOn's Big Ideas Forum in San Fransisco on Saturday, a man and animal-rights protester by the name of Aidan Cook stormed the stage and snatched the mic from her while she was discussing the gender pay gap. Why? In attempt to turn people's attention to "a much bigger idea."
There are so many problems with that scenario, where do we even begin?At the #BigI

Amazon will reportedly fall under the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission following an agreement between the FTC and the Department of Justice, reports The Washington Post. The move could bring increased scrutiny for the retail giant, just after the DOJ is reportedly preparing its own case against Google.The Post says that it’s not immediately clear what plans the FTC has for Amazon, but notes that this “kind of arrangement brokered between the Justice Department and the FT

Is iTunes about to go away? Probably. Apple hasn't confirmed the unsupported claim, but it's definitely acting like a company that's about the let the sun set on an 18-year-old brand.
The Facebook and Instagram pages for iTunes have gone through some noticeable changes in recent days, as an ever-watchful Reddit noticed on Saturday (h/t MacRumors). Content has been removed and social footprints have been migrated to other accounts.
On Facebook, the official iTunes page is now an empty shell of it

I used to love the fingerprint sensor on the back of my Google Pixel 3. It felt simple. I just placed a finger on it, waited a moment, and after my phone vibrated the tiniest amount to confirm everything’s okay, I was let into my device. Now, though, after spending a week with the side-mounted fingerprint sensor on the Honor 20 Pro, I’m not so sure it’s the simplest or most convenient place for a fingerprint sensor after all.Back in the bulky bezel days, there was one obvious

Many people in the UK believe Donald Trump is baby, so in honor of his upcoming state visit Londoners are bringing back the beloved Trump Baby Blimp.
When Trump visited the UK back in July 2018, a man named Leo Murray first flew the giant, helium-filled 19.7-foot tall blimp of a baby Donald Trump wearing a diaper and holding a cell phone in his hand. The action was allowed after 10,000 people backed a petition that asked London's mayor Sadiq Khan to permit the blimp to take flight.
Now, in June

Marvel Entertainment has partnered with audiobook and digital content producer Dreamscape Media to adapt a number of Marvel’s comic stories as “read-to-me style audiobooks,” reports Variety. The titles will be available starting in September.Variety says that Dreamscape will adapt “around two dozen” iconic stories, includingsuch titles as The Ultimate Spider-Man, The Ultimate X-Men, X-Men: Codename Wolverine, and Daredevil: The Man Without Fear. The audiobooks will

In her debut novel Trail of Lightning, Rebecca Roanhorse introduced readers to a compelling future in which climate change and wars have wrecked North America, resulting in some fantastical transformations to the country. Native American gods walk alongside mortal humans, some of whom have developed fantastical clan powers, and magical walls have grown around the traditional Navajo homeland Dinétah. In her next adventure, Storm of Locusts, Roanhorse ups the stakes for her characters and

At its I/O developer’s conference in May, Google announced that it was bringing a neat feature to its search results: augmented reality models, which allows users to take a look as a 3D image of a search result. The company just rolled out the feature to users with an ARCore or ARKit-ready Android phone or iPhone, as spotted by Cnet.
The feature only has a couple of animals that you can check out right now, such as a tiger, a lion, a giant panda, a rottweiler, a wolf, and a bunch of other

Every day of Pride Month, Mashable will be sharing illuminating conversations with members of the LGBTQ community who are making history right now.Ryan Karnoski is a 24-year-old married social worker from Seattle who dreams of joining the military. His grandfathers and cousins have served, and he hopes to be part of that family legacy. Karnoski also happens to be transgender. 
Just a few years ago, during the Obama administration, Karnoski could've served openly as a transgender man. But wh

Lyft updated its app to allow both drivers and passengers to select from a list of pronouns they want during the ride. The company framed the decision as part of a broader push for inclusivity, particularly for the LGBTQ+ community.Previously Lyft only offered two choices of pronouns, male and female. With the update, riders and drivers can select from a list of pronouns that include:
They/Them/Theirs
She/Her/Hers
He/Him/His
My pronoun isn’t listedPrefer not to sayDrivers will be able to

It’s looking more and more likely that iTunes’ days are numbered. MacRumors and Redditors noticed that Apple has cleared out its Instagram and Facebook pages for the program, removing all of its pictures, posts, and videos.MacRumors notes that Apple appears to have migrated its iTunes accounts over to their Apple TV counterparts on Facebook and Instagram. Its Twitter account remains untouched for now.The writing has been on the wall for the end of iTunes for a little while now. Repo

With mountains of product leaks and an underwhelming amount of innovation, the moments of sincere, unmanufactured awe that Apple events used to be known for are few and far between these days. But at Apple's 2018 event, when COO Jeff Williams unveiled the Apple Watch Series 4's ability to take an honest-to-God Electrocardiogram (ECG) — a feat unconquered by any other consumer tech company — it felt like a true breakthrough. 
With emotionally compelling advertising campaigns, App

Love them or hate them, presentations are a necessary evil. No matter what field you're in these days, you can't expect to succeed if you're not willing to explain a bunch of slides in front of complete strangers.
Whether you're convincing investors to bet their money on your idea or making the case as to why The Last Watch had a better ending than the actual Game of Thrones finale, your presentation must be compelling enough to get your audience to take action.
Granted, it's not easy to put tog

There's nothing worse than a dead or dying battery when you're miles away from the nearest power outlet. (Well, almost nothing.)
At best, it's a minor inconvenience, but at worst, a zapped battery can put you in danger. That's where a portable charger or wireless battery pack can come in handy. Lucky for you, the following three models are currently on sale for 25% off:
TYLT portable 7x smart charger
TYLT's 7x Smart Charger does double duty as both a compact, portable battery pack and a wall cha

We love a good TV deal here, so it’s always exciting when we find a really great one. 
If you’re a fan of smart TVs, check this out: The LG OLED C8 series 4K HDTV is on sale in two sizes. Save $1,100 on the 55-inch and $1,400 on the 65-inch when you purchase from the PCMag Shop. 
This TV has some amazing aesthetics and great output quality. It has a sleek design that complements any room, and the OLED display produces perfect black and intense colors for the best visuals.
T

Despite the proliferation of task management apps, the analog method of jotting down your goals is proven to help you remember. And while there is no shortage of options for journals and planners meant to help you self-actualize — it's kind of a trend — there is one that's on sale right now.
The Perfect Notebook, which just dropped down to $29.99 in the Mashable Shop, is a customizable journal that doubles as a task manager, plus it helps you set and achieve your goals and maintain a

The online world is a weird and wonderful place. It can also be a dangerous place, if you're not protected. Thankfully, there are a wide range of services out there that can help you to surf, bank, and shop more safely online.
Norton Security has a number of services that protect your digital life by keeping all of your data safe. Norton achieves this by installing smart firewalls to defend your personal information from unauthorised access, updating your devices with the latest features and per

Welcome back the latest transcribed edition of Equity, the TechCrunch podcast that takes a closer look at the startup headlines from the week.
Kate Clark and Alex Wilhelm kick this week off by discussing comments on Twitter made by Y Combinator co-founder Paul Grahamabout the tech press. They then took a look at Uber’sfirst-quarter numbers, Brex raising, SoFi raising (and entering talks to buy the naming rights for the upcoming Los Angeles Rams stadium) and a lot more.
Here’s a sampl

Is that a panda in your living room?
Yes, yes it is. Google mobile search for different animals on smartphones now brings up the option to view them as augmented reality images that you can place into your surroundings, whether that's your backyard, on the couch next to your brother watching TV, or in the middle of the kitchen.
According to 9to5Google, as of this week, searches for lions, tigers, bears, alpine goats, timberwolves, European hedgehogs, angler fish, emperor penguins, and giant pand