Technology news

Drive.ai, a self-driving startup that was once valued at $200 million, is shutting down, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company filed notice with a state agency this week indicating its intention of closing permanently and laying off 90 employees.The decision to close shop was made after a reported acquisition appeared to fall through. Three weeks ago, Apple was said to be in talks to buy Drive.ai, which was founded in 2015 by machine learning researche

Sputtering electric vehicle startup Faraday Future has fired dozens of employees who have been on unpaid leave for months, including manufacturing workers hired to staff the company’s factory in Hanford, California, The Verge has learned. The workers received benefits during this furlough, which started in late 2018, and it had already been extended once already. But the newly-fired employees will see those benefits expire on June 30th, according to termination paperwork provided by a form

Facebook is making an effort to make its countless eyeball-grabbing elements less distracting with a new test of notification customization. According to app researcher and reverse-engineering expert Jane Manchun Wong, Facebook is currently testing the ability to turn on and off the red notification dots, known as badges, that you get for individual tabs of the company’s mobile app. That way, if you don’t really care much for Watch or groups, you don’t have to stare down yet an

Israeli nonprofit SpaceIL has announced that it will abandon plans for a second moonshot after a crash landing in its original mission earlier this spring. At the time, the company said it would make a second attempt to land on the Moon, but a tweet from its official Twitter account today say that the team will instead continue to build the spacecraft Beresheet 2 for a different objective.This time, we will not go to the moon. Beresheet's journey to the Moon was already received as a successful,

Gritty is so many things, but above all, he's a big hairy piece of joy.
On Tuesday, Gritty, the legendary Philadelphia Flyers mascot, surprised 7-year-old fan Caiden O'Rourke at Shriners Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. Gritty was there to deliver a custom Gritty-themed prosthetic leg to Caiden, who was born with a rare orthopedic condition that requires him to use two prosthetic legs.
Caiden, whose birthday is in a week, seemed thrilled to receive it. Look at his face.SURPRISE: @GrittyNHL

If you’re thinking about buying a game for your Nintendo Switch, PS4, or Xbox One, you’ll save 30 percent on several titles at Target when you opt to pick it up in store. For context, this deal brings Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, a $59.99 game, down to $38.10. Games like The Division 2, Team Sonic Racing, Kingdom Hearts III, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and more are also included in the sale.
It’s worth noting that this discount only works on products that your local Target store has in

According to Recode editor-at-large Kara Swisher, one of Silicon Valley’s biggest problems right now is its lack of competition. That big tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google have become too dominant and have thus stifled competition and creativity.
Here is a lightly edited excerpt of Kara Swisher and Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel discussing the importance of competition and the possibilities of breaking up the tech giants that rule the land.You can hear this and mor

TL;DR: The comfy Corsair Void Pro RGB wireless PC gaming headset is on sale at Amazon for $69.99. PC gamers require the best accessories in order to stay ahead of the curve. If you want any hope for your team surviving when Apex Legends Season 2 kicks off on July 2, start with a special offer on a Corsair Void Pro gaming headset at Amazon. 
This $30 discount makes this the best price yet for the white edition of these particularly comfy headphones. If you prefer black, you have to sett

Airbnb is expanding its rental options today to include some of the priciest and most luxurious accommodations on the planet. The new tier, called Airbnb Luxe, is designed for customers interested in spending more than $1,000 a night on thoughtfully designed, massive private homes with scenic views and top-of-the-line amenities.“Airbnb Luxe is built on the deep expertise in luxury travel Airbnb gained from its acquisition of Luxury Retreats in 2017. This new tier launches with more than 2,

Facebook is ramping up its new tightened restrictions on political advertising. 
About a year after the company first introduced its tools to increase "transparency" around political ads in the U.S., Facebook is expanding those rules worldwide.
According to the new policy, advertisers that buy ads related to elections or other political "issues" need to verify their identity with Facebook and disclose who paid for the ad. These ads, and the identity of their purchasers, are then preserved i

TL;DR: Save on the entry-level, 65-inch Samsung NU6900 smart 4K TV for just $597.99 at Walmart. You don't still watch all of your shows on your laptop or tiny tablet screen, do you? The only way to enjoy The Handmaid's Tale is on a big, beautiful screen — a 4K screen to be exact. And don't try the whole "they're too expensive" excuse when it's easier than ever to find affordable TV options. When you need that upgrade, a good place to start is Walmart (yes Walmart!) where you can snag

You're searching for an Uber or Lyft on the respective ride-hailing app and you see a car icon crawling nearby ... but even though it's temptingly close, that doesn't mean you'll be matched with that car.
Uber uses "batch matching" to connect riders with drivers. That means Uber doesn't just find the closest ride to you; instead, the ride-hailing company takes into account the most optimized ride for everyone around you. 
OK, but what does that mean? If you've ever requested the shared carp

Steam’s annual summer sale has begun, and it’s a great time to save on several popular (or not-so-new) PC games — if you can get the store to load. As far as the new-ish releases that are looped into the sale, Soulcalibur VI for $19.79 is the best price yet for that game, according to SteamDB’s pricing data.
Devil May Cry 5 is a good deal, too, costing $39.59 instead of $59.99. Other stellar discounts include Assassin’s Creed Odyssey for $29.99, and Astroneer for $2

Airbnb just launched a new service called Airbnb Luxe that's offering a week on a French Polynesian "private atoll," complete with a 21-bedroom mansion and 50 staff, for $1 million. 
Not only will Airbnb rent you an extraordinarily fancy property, it'll also set you up with a "dedicated trip designer" who will coordinate everything, including excursions and activities, to really help you pick up on the authentic local flavor. 
Basically, Airbnb is bringing back travel agents for people

David’s Bridal once owned 50% of the $36 billion wedding gown market before it filed for bankruptcy last year. Brides were growing sick of the lack of styles and sizes plus high prices at expensive brick & mortar shops. The industry was destined for disruption by software that would replace overhead costs and inflexibility with direct-to-consumer personalization.
That’s why I profiled a new custom wedding dress startup back in 2016 called Anomalie despite little funding or tracti

TL;DR: The new Kindle Oasis is the most advanced Kindle yet, and pre-ordering it gets you six months of Kindle Unlimited for free (a savings of $59.94).Summer days by the pool or nights on the porch are just begging for a book. But for bookworms with minimal free time, a summer reading list usually maxes out at Twitter news and coffee.
Kindles make it easy to take your current read wherever you go, and the new Kindle Oasis is about to start a whole new breed of e-readers. It's not coming out unt

So you watched all 26 episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion and the End of Evangelion movies on Netflix, but now you aren’t sure what to watch next. The good news is that in the more than 20 years since Evangelion originally aired, it’s become a seminal work of anime, and it inspired a lot of different animators, writers, and directors. They’ve built off what the series did, finding different ways to explore similar ideas in their own works.
One of Evangelion’s strongest th

TL;DR: This futuristic-looking Bluetooth speaker can fill every inch of a room with sound, and Amazon's got it on sale for just $118.99 — an $81 markdown.When you think of design-forward electronics, you probably think of Apple — and rightfully so. (I mean, the iPhone is practically iconic by now.) But relative newcomer Anker is also doing its part to cater to the aesthetically minded, at least in the case of its audio brand Soundcore.
SEE ALSO: Best Bluetooth speakers 2019
Soundcore

The world of Daniel O’Malley’s 2012 novel The Rook is a weird place. The Checquy — a secret wing of British intelligence comprised of elite bureaucrats, people with supernatural powers, and at least one vampire — protects the UK from harpy attacks, excavates buried dragon eggs, and deals with neighbors complaining about loud chanting happening next door. Most of the book is dedicated to the organization’s fight against a group of Belgian mad scientists who previousl

Desmond Amofah, a popular YouTube personality known as Etika who created Nintendo-centric videos, was found dead, the New York Police Department said today. The NYPD had been searching for Amofah since he went missing last week after posting a video discussing suicidal thoughts.
The NYPD first confirmed Amofah’s disappearance as a missing person’s case on June 20th, approximately 36 hours after Amofah uploaded an eight-minute video to his secondary YouTube channel, TR1Iceman, voicing

Amazon Prime Day 2019, the two-day shopping extravaganza held exclusively for Amazon Prime subscribers, starts Monday, July 15th at 12AM PT / 3AM ET, and ends on July 16th at 11:59PM PT / 2:59AM ET. There will be thousands of deals to check out across every product category on Amazon’s massive online storefront, and some of these discounts will be the best you’ll see until Black Friday.Part of Prime Day’s fun comes from buying things that you didn’t expect to buy and mayb

Frank Azor, the co-founder and public face of Alienware as well as the longtime overseer of Dell’s gaming and XPS divisions, has revealed that he’s departing his current position on July 3rd. Having been with Alienware from its inception 21 years ago, Azor announced he is taking on a new challenge with a message of thanks on the Alienware community board.
Wccftech has caught wind of Azor’s likely destination, with its source indicating that he is about to become AMD’s fir

Twelve South is cutting the cord with the HiRise Wireless, a new version of the company’s HiRise iPhone stands that (as the name implies) adds wireless Qi charging to the mix.A convertible wireless charger
But what makes the HiRise Wireless stand out is a clever trick Twelve South is adding, allowing the main wireless charging pad to pop out of the stand, letting you also use it as a flat wireless charger (for things like AirPods, or simply for those who just prefer that form factor) or ev

When YouTube wanted to punish political pundit Steven Crowder amid widespread outcry over his homophobic comments, its first move was to disable Crowder’s ability to run ads on his videos. The punishment was meant to revoke a key source of income, presenting a strong incentive for Crowder to change his behavior. But Crowder didn’t care, “This really isn’t that big of a ding for us,” he said.
Crowder sells T-shirts, hats, stickers, and subscriptions for more videos t

TL;DR: The powerful and portable Microsoft Surface Go is the perfect device for those who are constantly on the move — and you can get one for just $339 at Walmart.When it comes to having a versatile device to aid you in completing your various daily tasks, sometimes a laptop can just be a little too intense for your needs, but a tablet might not be enough — meaning you need something that’s in between. While there are a lot of options out there for a two-in-one laptop, the Mic

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Benjamin Franklin once said, “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn,” centuries before it would make a pithy social media post.  But it’s never been truer: in a world where new technologies eclipse the old, it means your once highly marketable job skills ca

Just in time for Avengers: Endgame's return to theaters, you can now experience the film's exciting final battle in wonderful 16-bit action. 
The recreation comes from Mr Sunday Movies and shows us how that epic final battle between just about every damn Marvel hero and Thanos would have played out on your Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis. 
The video also includes some terrific behind-the-scenes footage of how the characters and music were recreated in 16-bit to make the awesome clip pos

Microsoft is adding a new secured storage area to OneDrive where users can store more sensitive files. The new OneDrive Personal Vault feature will be protected by an additional step of identity verification, such as a PIN, fingerprint / facial authentication, or a two-factor authentication (2FA) code. If you store files in the new Personal Vault area, you’ll be prompted for an additional code each time you access them via the web, PC, or mobile devices. This secured area is designed for f

Apple considered putting a camera in the Apple Watch’s band, according to a new patent spotted by AppleInsider. The design places an “optical sensor” at the end of the flexible Watch strap, allowing you to twist and turn it to get the photograph you need without having to contort your wrist.For example, you can pull the strap upward to photograph what’s in front of you or fold it back on itself to take a selfie. One of the diagrams in the patent shows how the camera could

We've found her — the goodest good girl in the world. 
Frida, a 10-year-old Labrador retriever, has dedicated her life to aiding in survivor rescue missions as a sniffer with the Mexican Navy's canine unit. In her illustrious career which spanned nine years, she was deployed to help in natural disasters across the globe. But according to a press release from the Mexican government, Frida officially retired during a ceremony held in her honor by the Mexican Navy on Monday. 
She st

For years, Instagram users have been wondering if the app uses your phone's microphone to listen to private conversations. After all, just about everyone who regularly uses Instagram has a story about a targeted ad showing up for something they spoke openly about not long before.
Facebook has long denied that it listens to its users, while investigations from people outside the company have failed to indisputably prove it. Still, Instagram head Adam Mosseri was asked about it in a rare TV interv