Technology news

In January, there was much excitement around comic book writer Sina Grace, his Iceman series for Marvel Comics, and his latest creation: Shade, Marvel's first drag queen superhero.
Much has changed since thenIceman is apparently done after five issues, Shade is now called Darkveil, and, with his Marvel work seemingly concluded, Grace has quite a bit to say about how the comics publisher operates behind the scenes, specifically with regard to a creative product that caters to audiences outside th

Joe Biden has an SEO problem. 
The former vice president and current Democratic primary competitor hoping to become the party nominee has an official campaign website where he asks for donations and touts his various legislative accomplishments. There's just one problem: that website has, for some time now, been eclipsed by a troll website lightly masquerading as a pro-Biden page. 
So reports the New York Times, which notes that "the most popular Joseph R. Biden Jr. website" over the c

Researchers have come up with a mobile-sensing system that can track and rate the performance of workers by combining a smartphone, fitness bracelets and a custom app.
The mobile-sensing system, as the researchers call it, is able to classify high and low performers. The team used the system to track 750 U.S. workers for one year. The system was able to tell the difference between high performers and low performers with 80% accuracy.
The aim, the researchers say, is to give employees insight int

The Justice Department announced this week that former Equifax CIO Jun Ying has been sentenced to four months in prison for insider trading. He pled guilty earlier this year for for selling his stock in the company prior to the announcement that it had been hit with a massive data breach in 2017.The Security and Exchanges Commission charged Ying with insider trading last year. The Department of Justice says that in August 2017, after learning about the breach, he began researching the impact tha

Startups depend on the angel lifecycle. A few flush post-exit individuals put the first cash into a fresh venture. With some skill and plenty of luck, the early team grows the company into a big success. It sells or goes public and those team members earn a fortune. They then pay it forward by investing in the next generation of startups.
If they hoard their spoils they starve the early-stage ecosystem or leave founders stuck with dumb money from non-strategic financiers. If they redistribute th

Reminder: Extra Crunch discount on Sessions: Enterprise tickets
Come and watch TechCrunchinterview enterprise titans and rising founders at the premier of TechCrunch Sessions: Enterprise in San Francisco on September 5th. Join 1000+ enterprise enthusiasts for a day of talks, demos, startups, and networking.
Book your $249 Early Bird tickets today and save an extra 20% as an Extra Crunch annual subscriber. Just contact [email protected] to snag your discounted tickets.Startups at the spe

It's not the White House, but that's exactly the point. 
Less than a week after President Trump attempted to pick a fight with U.S. women's national soccer team star Megan Rapinoe after she mentioned that, under no circumstance, will she go "to the fucking White House," Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proffered a more, shall we say, enticing offer. 
"It may not be the White House," tweeted Ocasio-Cortez on Friday, "but we’d be happy to welcome @mPinoe & the entire #US

MONET Technologies, a joint venture launched by Softbank and Toyota to provide on-demand mobility services eventually with an autonomous module bus, has five new partners.
Five Japanese automakers including Isuzu Motors, Suzuki Motor Corp., Subaru,Daihatsuand Mazda will each invest 2% in the venture. Softbank and Toyota each own 35% of the company. Honda and Toyota’s truck-making unit Hino each have 10% ownership.
The venture launched in September aims to launch an on-demand mobility servi

It’s a good time to be an indie developer making games for the Nintendo Switch, and the most recent title to prove that point is My Friend Pedro.
From developer DeadToast Entertainment, the formal entity by sole designer Victor Agren,and renowned indie publisher Devolver Digital, My Friend Pedro is an evolution of Agren’s Flash experience fans of Adult Swim web games might have played a half decade ago. Now as a full-fledged console title, it’s easily one of the most stylish an

Well that didn't take long. 
President Donald Trump announced Saturday that Chinese manufacturer Huawei will be able to once again purchase goods from U.S. technology companies. This is a sharp reversal from his stance in May 2019, when Reuters reported that the U.S. Commerce Department said the company would first need U.S. approval to purchase goods from American manufacturers. 
According to The Washington Post, Trump made the announcement following a meeting with Chinese President X

I love industrial design and have for as long as I can remember. As a child, I broke my dad’s Braun electric razor playing with the dial that raised and lowered the blades because the action was so cool and “clicky.” At school, I dreamed of being either a product designer or an architect.Those dreams were dashed when I flunked technical drawing (I was off by over 4cm and the tolerance of the test was less than 0.5cm) and failed my physics and maths exams, both of which are some

Ken Kao ContributorShare on Twitter Ken is an engineering manager at Airbnb building products that enable entrepreneurs to provide hospitality on the platform. Outside of work he enjoys Muay Thai, Pekiti Tirsia Kali (Filipino sticks & knives fighting), cooking, and writing.A wave of unease immediately swept through my body. Constant puffing and growling echoed around me as heavily-tattooed fighters threw forceful punches into the heavy bags. This was the scene I encountered when I stepped i

A sketch on Netflix’s“I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson” doesn’t just settle for one funny idea. As soon as you start to get comfortable and assume that you know where things are going, there’s usually a wild left turn, and sometimes a third and fourth for good measure.
We review the new comedy series on the latest episode of the Original Content podcast, highlighting our favorite sketches and the ones that didn’t work for us — sometimes things

Every so often, a ray of light shines through to illuminate our dark world. This is one of those times.
Twitter's @boybehindbricks (display name Whit as of this writing), a graphic designer and self-described "cat mom," is a big Lady Gaga fan. So is her grandpa. They're both very aware that the pop star is in the midst of a long-term Las Vegas residency.
Whit is turning 21 in September and she was hoping to get the family out for one of Gaga's Vegas shows. But it wasn't to be; the tickets have b

As autonomous cars and robots loom over the landscapes of cities and jobs alike, the technologies that empower them are forming sub-industries of their own. One of those is lidar, which has become an indispensable tool to autonomy, spawning dozens of companies and attracting hundreds of millions in venture funding.
But like all industries built on top of fast-moving technologies, lidar and the sensing business is by definition built somewhat upon a foundation of shifting sands. New research appe

BMW unveiled some of its plans for electric vehicles earlier this week, saying that it would debut 25 electric vehicles by 2023, as some nifty concepts, like its Motorrad Vision DC Roadster motorcycle and the sleek BMW Vision M NEXT concept sports car. The company decided tolaunch a website (via TechCrunch) to have some fun with its futuristic-looking EV, which included getting Blade Runner 2049 composer Hans Zimmer to develop a science fiction-like sound for it.The car does look like something

For four months in 2018, authorities in Texas collected more than 9.2 million messages under a single court-authorized wiretap order, newly released figures show.
The wiretap, granted by a federal judge in the Southern District of Texas, was granted as part of a narcotics investigation and became the federal wiretap with the most intercepts in 2018, according to the government’s annual wiretap report.
Little is known about the case, except that 149 individuals involved in the case were tar

Prices tend to drop around each major US holiday, and with July 4th around the corner, we’re seeing that start to happen. And then there’s Amazon Prime Day 2019, a shopping holiday that will begin on July 15th, though we expect to see a few early bird sales before then.
We’ll be keeping you in the know about any good deals coming up, but these are the best deals that we’ve seen this week.
Phones
Sony’s Xperia 1 is now available for preorder. The price is $949.99, wh

The G20 Summit wrapped up today in Japan, during which US President Donald Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Following their meeting, Trump announced that the two countries would resume trade talks and that the US would hold off on implementing new tariffs indefinitely. He also indicated that US companies would be permitted to resume sales to Huawei, although it’s unclear when or how that will happen. In May, Trump signed an executive order that allowed the US government to bloc

The U.K. grime star Stormzy staged an epic Glastonbury Festival set on Friday night, but the real star of the night was out in the crowd.
Tara Asher is a British Sign Language interpreter, and — according to the BBC's Colin Paterson — is also one of only four who specializes in signing grime. On Friday, Asher brought her talents to Stormzy's Glastonbury set, where she translated his entire set into BSL.
(For anyone who might not know, "grime" is a musical genre born in the U.K. that'

Sometimes the world needs a moment that is so gloriously pure that nothing can ruin it. Thankfully, we have that moment thanks to Cookie Monster.
On Thursday afternoon, the famed Sesame Street character joined the list of legends to sing baseball classic "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh inning stretch of a Cubs game at Wrigley Field. It was as amazing as you'd imagine. 
The Cubs have hosted a rotating cast of celebrities to lead the crowd in song since the 1998 death of lege

A year ago, Google blew the world away with Duplex, an AI assistant that can make phone calls for you. The demo went viral and raised a lot of ethical and philosophical questions. Last month, Google announced an update for Duplex: it can now use websites for you. This announcement might not have been as controversial as last year’s, but I believe it is a transformative step towards the future of user interfaces. To understand why, let’s have a quick look back at the history of human

For just over a month, Twitch has been trying to track down a group of anonymous trolls who spammed the platform with violent footage of the Christchurch shooting in the wake of the attack. That hunt kicked off in earnest when Twitch filed suit against the trolls earlier in June, but new filings show the company has more clues to the perpetrators’ identity than anyone suspected, including specific email addresses for at least three people and Discord logs where the attack was organized.
Th

BMW Vision M NEXT, the electric vehicle concept that had its world debut June 25, won’t be in showrooms anytime soon, if ever. But let’s hope the sound of the vehicle, which was created by famous film score composer Hans Zimmer and Renzo Vitale, an acoustic engineer and sound designer at the BMW Group, makes into the automaker’s next line of vehicles.
Sure, electric vehicles are silent. They don’t need to sound like a vehicle with an internal combustion engine. And this c

Carlos Gutierrez ContributorShare on Twitter Carlos Gutierrez is deputy director and general counsel at LGBT Tech.It seems consumers today are granted ever-dwindling opportunities to consider the safety and civil liberties implications of a new technology before it becomes widely adopted. Facial recognition technology is no exception. The well-documented potential for abuse and misuse of these tools built by giant and influential companies as well as government and law enforcemen

When was the last time you downloaded a new app? Like, actually new, not that 5-year-old note-taking app you only just got around to checking out. Chances are, it's been awhile. 
But that doesn't have to be the case. We're halfway through 2019, and there are already a crop of inventive new apps that are well worth your time. 
So kick back, relax, and refresh your home screen. These are the app's we've enjoyed the most in 2019... so far.
Harry Potter: Wizards UniteThe long awaited game

Every day of Pride Month, Mashable will be sharing illuminating conversations with members of the LGBTQ community who are making history right now.Julia Weldon is the non-binary artist we need in today's world. 
For all those who are struggling with love, loss, and life, regardless of identity, this singer/songwriter's work emphasizes that we can't make it through life alone.
Before breaking into music, Weldon was a child actor at 13 (when their "boyishness" was an asset, they told Mashable

Despite some new improvements to user privacy, Google’s popular Chrome browser has recently been lambasted in some quarters as problematical when it comes to privacy issues. These same articles suggest that if you’re concerned about the security of your data, you should try an alternative browser, such as Firefox, Safari, or Brave.
Of course, anyone who has used a browser for any length of time will have built up a considerable library of bookmarks, preferences, and saved passwords.

Humans are fascinated by visual illusions, which occur when there is a mismatch between the pattern of light that falls on the retina, and what we perceive. Before books, films, and the internet allowed illusions to be shared widely, people were captivated by illusions in nature. Indeed, it is here that the long history of the study of illusions begins. Both Aristotle and Lucretius described motion illusions following observation of flowing water. Aristotle observed pebbles beneath flowing wate

This is Ode To..., a weekly column where we share the stuff we're really into in hopes that you'll be really into it, too.Echoing with the sounds of nature, the calls of birds and soft keys,  “A I R (Air In Resort)” suddenly popped up while I was listening to music on YouTube, something I tend to just leave on like the radio while working these days.
The album, which I'm now obsessed with, was produced by Japanese ambient musician Hiroshi Yoshimura. Designed to complement a frag

Welcome to CHEAP, our series about things that are good, but most of all, cheap. CHEAP! Damn, now this is a deal. Yep, you can currently get $100 off an unlocked Samsung Galaxy S10e, S10, or S10+. Or, if you’re happy to sign up to a mobile network with your purchase, you can get up to $200 off the price of the Galaxy S10 range. On top of this discount, you also get a full year of YouTube premium thrown into the mix, something that’s worth $11.99 a month — or a w

According to The Vision Council, "65 percent of Americans experience digital eye strain symptoms — such as dry, irritated eyes, blurred vision, eye fatigue, and headaches — when using a computer, smartphone, and other digital devices." (Source)
If you work long hours at the office, why not upgrade your monitor to this Dell UltraSharp 32-inch 4K IPS monitor. Saving you 25 percent off the listed price and it comes with a $100 Dell gift card.
What makes this monitor so great is that it

When I fly from New York City to Denver for the Fourth of July, I will be able to spend my time at cruising altitude reflecting on the fact that I'll be helping melt nearly 14,000 pounds of glacier ice, courtesy of the 430 kilograms of carbon dioxide my trip will emit. 
Other than feel guilty or stay home, what's a prospective traveler to do?
Clearly staying home isn't good advice: In 2018, the tourism industry grew by 3.9 percent, and the sector is also responsible for 8 percent of gl

Avengers: Endgame made headlines earlier this year with the introduction of the first gay character in the franchise's 11-year history. But according to Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, the moment wasn't intended as a major milestone. 
"It was just meant as a small step, to say and attest, to not have to be made a big deal about it, to have Steve Rogers, this noble hero, not even blink an eye at it, when he’s dealing with this grieving man and this grieving support group," he exp

TL;DR: This thorough online bootcamp will help you build strong foundational knowledge of data science, and you can enroll today for just $9.99.Since data science programs only recently began catching on in higher education, we'd forgive you for going your entire college career without writing a single line of programming code. Probably.
But just know that the professional world may not always take so kindly to data ineptitude: According to a recent survey of companies spanning different geograp

TL;DR: A lifetime subscription to Qlearly, a chrome extension that organizes your bookmarks and tabs, is 88% off for a price of $19.99.If you're like us, you’re well aware that clutter gives you anxiety — especially digital clutter. But that doesn’t stop you from bookmarking yet another “must-read” link to your already overflowing bookmarks bar or keeping 100+ tabs open at the same time. If your browser is such a mess that it’s zapping your productivity and fo

The Gravity Blanket wasn't some newfangled invention when it debuted on Kickstarter two years ago; weighted blankets, also known as anxiety blankets, have been used as a form of therapy for people with autism and other mental health conditions since the late '90s. 
But when Gravity's campaign on the fundraising site took off — as in, "surpassed its original goal by more than $4.7 million" — it catapulted weighted blankets into mainstream popularity as a self-care and sleep aid.

Aside from maybe a drink or two, what better way is there to *officially* kick off the summer than with a really great sale? Whether you're looking for gear for your upcoming vacation, trying to upgrade your home setup for a staycation, or need new ways to pass the time to avoid FOMO, grab your wallet. 
Everything listed below is on sale in the Mashable Shop:
Rock Space Wi-Fi Range Extender 
If your idea of a perfect summer includes binge-watching and video games, but your internet con

Sometimes, nice guys finish first — even in the corridors of the world's wealthiest company. 
Apple's design guru Sir Jony Ive is departing the company he helped shoot into the stratosphere on the best possible terms. He gets to found his own company, called LoveFrom, and design for other clients; Apple maintains its longstanding link by being first among those clients. The world gets more streamlined Ive designs in its daily life. It's a rare win-win-win. 
Whatever he builds nex