Technology news

Ticketmaster’sdominance has led to big service fees, scalpers galore and exclusive contracts that some people argue exploit venues and artists. The approval of venue operator and artist management giant Live Nation’s merger with Ticketmaster in 2010 produced an anti-competitive juggernaut. The Department of Justice is reviewing allegations brought by Ticketmaster’s biggest competitor AEG that it pressures venues to sign ticketing contracts. Given its ubiquity, it’s become

Perhaps you have heard that The RealReal, an online consignment shop for luxury goods, has filed for an initial public offering under the ticker “REAL.” Ok, fine, so far so what? Well, the company’s founder and CEO is Julie Wainwright.
For those of you who did not immediately emit an ultrasonic shriek, Wainwright was the CEO of Pets.com, which went bust less than a year after its IPO in 2000. Pets.com’s infamous failure is still used as a synecdoche for the collapse of t

AT&T’s WarnerMedia will launch its streaming video service in beta later this year, bundling HBO, Cinemax, and a library of Warner Bros. movies and TV. The package will cost “between $16 and $17 a month,” a strange pricing strategy, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.Currently, HBO Go costs $14.99 a month — so AT&T’s service is basically that, with the addition of Cinemax and likely a bunch of DC Movies for up to a couple more bucks a month. W

I’m not going to tell you to buy a curved TV. There are reasons.
But if you’re in the market for a giant curved Samsung screen, today is an awfully good day to buy one — seeing how both 65-inch and 55-inch models of Samsung’s 2019 and 2018 7-series 4K screens are currently up to hundreds of dollars off.
Walmart has Samsung’s 65-inch 2018 NU7300 curved 4K TV for $700Samsung, Best Buy, and BuyDig have the newer 65-inch model (RU7300) for $750Samsung, Best Buy and B&a

Amazon is holding its first ever re:MARS conference in Las Vegas, dedicated to high tech themes like AI and robotics. But company founder and CEO Jeff Bezos was interrupted during a talk on stage by a protestor with more basic concerns: the welfare of chickens.
Bezos was being interviewed during a keynote talk when the protestor walked quickly on stage, wearing what looked like a conference lanyard and holding a single white rose. The protestor said she had been inside “Amazon’s chi

NASA’s Mars Helicopter — which is exactly what you think it would be — has recently finished another round of important tests and is expected to be integrated with the rover for the Mars 2020 launch this summer. Getting a heavier-than-air craft to fly on Mars is tough because Martian air is much thinner than Earth’s.Earlier this year, JPL conducted tests of the helicopter in “a simulated Martian environment” that put the helicopter through temperatures as low

It’s hard to top Steve Jobs introducing the iPhone in 2007, which felt even at the time like we were watching something world-changing. But the folks at Palm certainly tried.Even two years after the iPhone was released, its competitors were still far behind, and some brazenly rejected Apple’s threat. Sure, Android was growing alongside iOS at that point, but lacked hardware that came close to the iPhone’s polish. Meanwhile, BlackBerry CEO Jim Balsille said the iPhone was &ldqu

What's a pride parade without the rainbows, the public displays of LGBTQ love and community, and a history of resisting oppression spanning decades? A straight parade.
Straight pride is neither real nor necessary. But every year during Pride month, like clockwork, there are always a few huffy clowns that come out of the woodwork to ask, "What about me? Where's my parade?" It's like a kid at someone else's birthday party who cries when the birthday child opens gifts, but they don't get one too.
S

Chinese state media outlet The Global Times published a story headlined “Tesla’s new discount policy in Beijing draws concerns over legality on Chinese social media.” The concerns are about license plates.
“On the edge of the law”
Tesla posted on Weibo that customers would get zero percent financing and a license plate rental service if they live in Beijing. There’s just one hitch: license plate rental services are “technically illegal,” the found

Game studio Bungie has decided to get ahead of the E3 news cycle with the announcement of the second major Destiny 2 expansion, and its first ever without publishing partner Activision. The expansion is called Shadowkeep, in line with a data mined leak revealed on Tuesday, and will bring players back to the Moon, a popular and narratively important destination from the original Destiny. The character, Eris Morn, is also heavily hinted as a major force in the new expansion, with Bungie referring

Community is what makes Destiny 2 exciting and always has been.
There aren't many action games that feel as smooth or as satisfying as developer Bungie's popular sci-fi guns & space magic series. That's why people keep playing. But the raids, the PvP competitions, the secrets and puzzles — those are why no one who plays can stop talking about it.
In September, Bungie is going to deliver its first big Destiny 2 expansion since parting ways with former publishing partner Activision earli

Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have signed a multiyear deal to produce podcasts exclusively for Spotify, through their media company Higher Ground Productions. The announcement is light on details, but heavy on aphorisms, saying the move continues the Obamas’ mission to “create compelling content that entertains and inspires viewers.”
The announcement comes just a few months after Spotify acquired podcast producer Gimlet and podcast tool-maker Anchor, continuing the Swedish s

Though initially released in 2012, Diablo III remains to be an incredibly addictive and satisfying game. Why? Because it does what it does perfectly. We break down why the dungeon-crawling RPG still holds up after all these years and why it's a game to play before you die.  Read more...More about Mashable Video, Diablo 3, Diablo 3 Reaper Of Souls, Games To Play Before You Die, and Games To Play

TL;DR: This lightweight, immersive Samsung mixed reality headset is on sale for just $299 on Amazon, and it comes with two wireless controllers.Want to win Father's Day without making your bank account sad? We've got you covered.
If you head over to Amazon right now, you can get a new Samsung HMD Odyssey+ Windows Mixed Reality headset for your dad on sale for less than $300. (The original Samsung Odyssey is also on sale FWIW, though the sale price isn't as good.)
This is the Odyssey+'s lowest pr

Extra Crunch offers members the opportunity to tune into conference calls led and moderated by the TechCrunch writers you read every day. This week, TechCrunch’s Connie Loizos sat down with Scott Kupor, managing director at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz to dig into his new book Secrets of Sand Hill Road, discuss his advice for new founders dealing with VCs and to pick his brain on the opportunities that excite him most today.
Scott gained inspiration for Secrets of Sand Hil

A decade ago, I was sitting in a folding camping chair outside a Sprint store somewhere in Central Florida. I was all alone up until an hour or so before the store opened, and the line never grew to more than a handful of people.It was launch day for the Palm Pre, and I knew right away that the showing at my little strip mall Sprint store was a metaphor for what was to come.
Compared to the madness and hype of the iPhone launch two years earlier, the people who lined up for the Pre were few, mo

Facebook will announce a new cryptocurrency this month, according to a report by The Information. Facebook employees who work on the project, called Libra, can choose to be paid in the cryptocurrency token instead of hard cash, the report says. Previous reports have suggested that a global launch would happen next year.Besides Facebook employees, the target market for the cryptocurrency is “developing nations where government-backed currencies are more volatile,”The Information repo

When I bought my very first Mac, the decision ultimately came down to choosing between a 13-inch plastic MacBook or a 15-inch aluminum MacBook Pro.
The Apple Store employee walked me through the differences between the two laptops: the MacBook was for regular consumers and the MacBook Pro was for professionals. I ended up buying a MacBook because I was a student and didn't need the MacBook Pro's power and couldn't afford to pay extra for it.
In the many years since I bought that MacBook in 2007,

It may have started as a perk that came along with Amazon Prime, but with the help of some award-winning content, Amazon's streaming video service has become a true Netflix competitor.
Amazon Video is not exactly like other video streaming services. While it's available as a standalone service for $8.99 per month, most people likely interact with it as a benefit of Amazon Prime, which runs $119 per year. Also unlike its streaming competition, there's pay content mixed in with the gratis stuff. I

Google unveiled its Stadia launch date and pricing today. The cloud gaming service is arriving in November, priced at $9.99 per month for access to the premium tier of service. While you’ll be able to use Google’s powerful cloud servers for that subscription, you will need to purchase the majority of games separately.
Google hasn’t confirmed exact game pricing and availability just yet, but it is releasing a list of launch titles that will be available on the service. The big

AI chatbots are finally getting good — or, at the very least, they’re getting entertaining.Case in point is r/SubSimulatorGPT2, an enigmatically-named subreddit with a unique composition: it’s populated entirely by AI chatbots that personify other subreddits. (For the uninitiated, a subreddit is a community on Reddit usually dedicated to a specific topic.)How does it work? Well, in order to create a chatbot you start by feeding it training data. Usually this data is scraped fr

Bungie is bringing cross-progression to Destiny 2 as part of a new Shadowkeep year three update. The change comes just months after the game studio, known for titles like Halo and Destiny, parted ways with its longtime publishing partner Activision. Destiny 2 players will now be able to share their characters across Xbox One, PC, and Google’s new Stadia game streaming service.
You’ll notice that PlayStation 4 is the big missing part of this cross-save feature, but there’s clea

Coming soon to a Chrome browser near you: Google Stadia, out Nov. 2019.
Folks eager to check out Google's first entry into the world of mainstream gaming finally got some answers on Thursday as Stadia's creators announced tons of launch details — including pricing, locations, confirmed initial games, a surprise subscription bundle with Destiny 2, and bandwidth requirements. Stadia "Founder's Edition" (details below) was also officially made available for pre-order.
The news comes as part o

TL;DR: This immersive Samsung 65-inch curved 4K TV is on sale for $699.99, saving you $500.What's the only better way to give your living space a glow up than to get a new 4K TV?
Get a new curved 4K TV, that's what. This 65-inch 4K beauty with HDR is $500 off at Walmart, basically giving you a personal home theatre for $699.99. Walmart's original price is a little inflated (it regularly goes for $1,199.99, not $1,399.99) but saving $500 on a curved TV is still huge, especially at this size.
Look

TL;DR: The bumping Bose SoundLink Revolve portable Bluetooth speaker is on sale, saving you $20.Summer parties are nothing without a good source of tunes. To make sure your summer playlist plays loud and clear, you need a good Bluetooth speaker. The Bose SoundLink Revolve made our list of the 11 best Bluetooth speakers, and right now you can snag it on sale for $179, a price drop of $20.
This portable Bluetooth speaker delivers true 360-degree sound for consistent, uniform coverage. It sounds gr