Technology news

People take control of their smart thermostat from their wrist so infrequently that Google has decided to completely scrap its Nest app for both Apple Watch and the company’s own Wear OS platform. The smartwatch Nest app offered a quick way to adjust the thermostat’s target temperature or operating mode. But now it simply displays a “Nest is no longer supported on Wear OS” message when opened and instructs customers to uninstall it.“We took a look at Nest app users

Nintendo just announced a smaller, cheaper version of the Switch today, but the Switch Lite may not be the only trick up Nintendo’s sleeves — the original Nintendo Switch is also getting a new processor and new flash storage chips, according to filings with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The new chips could mean fewer slowdowns, faster load times, longer battery life, less heat... or perhaps none of these things.
Nintendo submitted what’s called a “Class II

Google has released Beta 5 for Android Q today, and the big change is a confirmation of what we’d already suspected: a tweak to how the back gesture will work. The back gesture will now work differently depending on what app you’re in, and Google has finally landed on what it thinks the gesture should be to invoke the Google Assistant.
Let’s start with the back gesture. Starting with this beta, swiping in from the left side of the screen with apps that use navigation drawers wi

If you’ve been following phone news even a little bit, you know that Samsung’s flagship, stylus-equipped Galaxy Note 10 is coming August 7th. You know it’ll have 5G, and you even have a decent idea what it looks like thanks to these estimated renders from June. But now, we may be getting our best look at the Galaxy Note 10 — the first official photos of the phone have reportedly leaked out.The images come from both the typically reliable Roland Quandt at WinFuture and MyS

In Riley Stearns’ new movie The Art of Self-Defense, a lonely, mild-mannered office drone has an experience that forces him to reevaluate his lowly place in a supposedly civilized society. He joins a group with a charismatic leader who encourages a reclamation of traditional masculinity built around boundary-breaking physical conflict. He meets a similarly minded woman and develops an unconventional, not-quite-romantic relationship with her. Eventually, he comes to suspect that the charism

Google is rolling out a significant update to the camera feature on its Translate app. The new version of the app adds support for 60 new languages; makes the translated text less jumpy on users’ screens; and updates the underlying translation models, in some cases reducing errors in the final translations by as much as 85 percent.It’s great news for regular users of Google Translate, where the camera feature is fantastically useful for translating things like menus and signs. To dat

The Link Bar, JBL’s $400 soundbar / smart speaker / Android TV set-top box hybrid, is finally available to buy, a year after it was originally supposed to release. Android Police reports that the soundbar is listed as “ready to ship” from JBL’s US store, while on the other side of the Atlantic JBL’s UK store says the soundbar should be in stock on July 18th.JBL’s Android-powered soundbar has been a long time coming. It was originally announced back at Google I

The Winklevoss brothers, co-founders of cryptocurrency exchange Gemini and renown for their well-documented legal battle with Facebook, are seemingly willing to ‘get into bed’ with the tech giant in an attempt to spread the adoption of digital currencies. In an interview with CoinDesk, the twins said they were considering joining the Libra Association, the governing body set up by Facebook to oversee its soon to be launched ‘cryptocurrency.’ “We’re defin

This morning, Virgin Orbit — the spinoff company of Richard Branson’s space tourism venture Virgin Galactic — dropped a small test rocket from an airplane over Southern California where it slammed into the ground. The rocket’s plunge to the earth was part of a major flight test for Virgin Orbit that will pave the way for the company’s first launch to space later this summer.
This morning’s event was known as a drop test, and it was meant to see if Virgin Orbit

Lawmakers pressed officials on the federal government’s use of facial recognition today, as activists push for an outright ban on the technology.
The issue came under renewed scrutiny this week after a report on how Immigration and Customers Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are using the technology in investigations. “Americans don’t expect — and certainly don’t consent — to be surveilled just because they get a license or ID card,” Se

The Foxconn factory in Wisconsin will only create 1,500 jobs when it starts production next May, Gov. Tony Evers told CNBC yesterday. That’s the same number Foxconn has been saying since it shifted plans for the factory a few months ago, and far short of the 13,000 jobs that were promised when President Trump broke ground a year ago. Evers has been negotiating with Foxconn since he replaced former Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, and he says he now has “clarity” on Foxconn&rsqu

I understand why Apple doesn’t pay as much attention to its Macbooks as it used to. Its iPhone sales are strong (accounting for 53 percent of the company’s total revenue) and its services arm is on the rise. The big money isn’t in laptops any more. Despite this, the company has made some decent noise in the space recently. Last week, it announced that it’s moving away from the much-despised butterfly keyboards (find out what those are here) — something that really

Ahead of VidCon, Snap announced new Creator Shows that are coming to Snapchat, featuring celebrities like Serena Williams, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Kevin Hart, and creators like Emma Chamberlain, Loren Grey, and Rickey Thompson. The three- to five-minute shows will have eight to 10 episodes per season and will air starting this summer on the Discover page.A selection of Creator Shows rolling out includes Rules of Success with Arnold Schwarzenegger, a show featuring motivational advice from the

Not only is your Google Home device listening to you, a new report suggests there might be a Google contractor who’s listening as well. Even if you didn’t ask your device any questions, it’s still sending what you say to the company, who allow an actual person to collect data from it. A new report from Belgian broadcaster VRT News describes the process by which Google Home recordings end up being listened to by contractors — and the scary part is that it apparently doesn

A few short months after Samsung released the Galaxy Tab S5E, leaked images suggest that it’s preparing to launch a successor, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6. According to SamMobile, the tablet will include a new S Pen that can wirelessly charge from the tablet while it’s magnetically attached to it. However, unlike the iPad Pro, which uses a similar trick to charge a side-mounted Apple Pencil, it looks like the S Pen will attach to the rear of Samsung’s tablet.
91Mobiles claims tha

Car shoppers now have several new options to avoid long-term debt and commitments. Automakers and startups alike are increasingly offering services that give buyers new opportunities and greater flexibility around owning and using vehicles.
Cars-as-a-Service
In the first part of this feature, we explored the different startups attempting to change car buying. But not everyone wants to buy a car. After all, a vehicle traditionally loses its value at a dramatic rate.
Some startups are attempting t

Jeff Peters ContributorShare on Twitter Jeff Peters, PhD is a principal at Autotech Ventures, investing in transportation startups. He has published academic and media articles on transportation, optimization, autonomous driving and AI.More posts by this contributorWill self-driving cars kill parking? The AI in your non-autonomous car
Fully self-driving passenger cars are not “just around the corner.” While the well-capitalized leaders — funded by corporations, multibilli

Facebook has reportedly signed an exclusive deal to put Splinter Cell and Assassin’s Creed games on its Oculus virtual reality headsets. The Information reported the news this morning, although it didn’t offer much detail about what those games would look like. The titles are apparently part of a larger push to acquire studios and back exclusive games, something Oculus has been doing on a smaller scale for some time.
Splinter Cell and Assassin’s Creed owner Ubisoft has publishe

In a terrifying incident on Monday, a Delta airplane was forced to make an emergency landing after one of its engines malfunctioned mid-flight. The crew was able to safely land the plane with its 148 passengers, all of whom made it home without a scratch. Now all that’s left is a gnarly video of the faulty engine. The footage, shared on Twitter by a passenger by the name of Logan Webb, shows the plane’s spinner bouncing around the shaft of the engine. Deeper inside the turbine, you

Autonomous delivery company Udelv has signed yet another partner to launch a new pilot of its self-driving goods delivery service: Texas-based supermarket chain HEB Group. The pilot will provide service to customers in Olmos Park, just outside of downtown San Antonio where the grocery retailer is based.
California-based Udelv will provide HEB with one of its Newton second-generation autonomous delivery vehicles, which are already in service in trials in the Bay Area, Arizona and Houstonproviding

Mobvoi’s TicWatch Pro 4G/LTE is now available in the US, with the LTE network on Verizon set to be enabled a month from now. The company had been prepping to launch the $299 Wear OS smartwatch today, but “due to new compliance matters”, the LTE network activation has been delayed until August 10th. Mobvoi is discounting the watch to $279 during this one month duration, in hopes that people will buy the watch and use it with a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connection until the LTE network

A newly discovered piece of Android malware that replaces portions of apps with its own code has infected more than 25 million devices, according to security firm Check Point. Check Point’s researchers named the malware “Agent Smith” because of the methods it uses to attack a device and avoid detection.
The malware doesn’t steal data from a user. Instead, it hacks apps and forces them to display more ads or takes credit for the ads they already display so that the malware

Snapchat just announced that it’s making shows with big names like Serena Williams, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Kevin Hart, as well as online stars like Emma Chamberlain, Loren Gray, Rickey Thompson, Baby Ariel and FaZe Banks.
Snapchat launched its original content efforts two years ago, and today it’s unveiling a new program called Creator Shows. As  initially announced in the Hollywood Reporter, these will be first-person shows designed around individual creators.
For example, S

France plans to put an “ecotax” on nearly all air travel starting in 2020, the government announced on Tuesday. The new tax could bring in approximately $200 million that could be used to support less polluting modes of transportation, like trains.French transport minister Elisabeth Borne said the new tax was in response to a sense of crisis in the environment. “With the eco-contribution, air transport will play its part in financing the daily transport of all our citizens,&rdq

India’s growing number of startups now have one additional VC fund that will listen to their business ideas. A91 Partners, a new VC fund founded by former partners at Sequoia Capital India, has closed their maiden fund at $351 million.
A91 Partners will focus on high growth startups in consumer, technology, financial services, and healthcare sectors in India, Abhay Pandey, a partner at A91 told TechCrunch in an interview.
A91, whose maiden fund is one of the largest for any VC funds i

With each passing day, Pinterest and Instagram are looking more and more alike.
Shortly after going public, Pinterest has incorporated new features to make it easier for creators and brands to upload videos directly to the visual search engine. The company says they’ve observed a 31% increase in searches for “inspirational videos” since 2018 and that “Pinners are 54% more likely to say they’re inspired to action by videos on Pinterest compared to videos on other med

Over a dozen right-leaning groups wrote to Congress on Wednesday asking leaders to reject any changes to the law that provides social media platforms with their largest legal shield, even as members on both sides of the aisle are now calling for major changes to the law.
Over the past few months, members of Congress and the White House have ramped up attacks on social media platforms. Democrats have often targeted them for poor data privacy practices, and Republicans have focused more on content

Since December, a sophisticated set of satellites has beamed the entire Bitcoin blockchain to Earth to enable use of the network without an internet connection — but cryptocurrency fans are now harnessing its power to viciously troll each other. can your shitcoin do this? https://t.co/Hl9HBipPYL — Blockstream Satellite Transmission Feed (@satnode) July 8, 2019 I can do this all day. I have more sats than your entire country https://t.co/MaAxOxrvEc — Blockstream

Brooklinen, the direct-to-consumer bed sheet brand backed by investors including FirstMark, is entering the apparel space with its first line of loungewear. The company says its designs, including tops, pants, shorts and a dress, are inspired by vintage athletic clothing and made from cotton and modal blended with spandex. Prices range from $28 for a t-shirt to $75 for jogger pants.The startup, whose investors also include NYU Innovation Venture Fund and Dorm Room Fund, has built its reputation

Nintendorevealed a new Switch Lite version of its current-generation console today, which attaches the controllers permanently, shrinks the hardware a bit, and adds a touch more battery life – but it also takes away the ‘Switch’ part of the equation, because you can only use it handheld, instead of attached to a TV or as a unique tabletop gaming experience.
The changes mostly seem in service of brining the price down, since it will retail for $199 when it goes on sale in Septem

Kaitlyn Tiffany and I avoided talking about email as long as we could, but it’s the fourth season of our podcast, so it’s time. This week on Why’d You Push That Button?, we ask: why are people so worked up over Gmail’s Smart Reply feature? Smart replies are suggestions that Google makes through artificial intelligence when someone begins replying to an email. It’s similar to Smart Compose, which makes suggestions as you type. People have strong feelings about both o

At the beginning of 2019 TechstarsMobility turned into Techstars Detroit. At the time of the announcement, Managing Director Ted Serbinski penned “the word mobility was becoming too limiting. We knew we needed to reach a broader audience of entrepreneurs who may not label themselves as mobility but are great candidates for the program.”
I always called it Techstars Detroit anyway.
With Techstars Detroit, the program is looking for startups transforming the intersection of the physica

TechCrunch took a field trip to GM’s Orion Assembly plant in Michigan to get an up close view of how this factory has evolved since the 1980s.
What we found at the plant that employs 1,100 people is an unusual sight: a batch of Cruiseautonomous vehicles produced on the same line — and sandwiched in between — the Bolt electric vehicle and an internal combustion engine compact sedan, the Chevrolet Sonic.
This inside look at how autonomous vehicles are built is just one of the top

If you’re attracted by the goodies being offered during the Prime Day sales, but you haven’t signed up for Amazon Prime, don’t worry — Amazon makes it very easy. (As you’d expect, it’s the sorry vendor who makes it difficult for people to become new customers.)
Prime Day is, of course, a once-a-year event. Amazon has come up with a bunch of features to entice people to sign up to its Prime service. These include: access to Prime Video, the streaming video serv

Amazon Game Studios has announced its latest project: a Lord of the Rings massively multiplayer online game that Amazon is developing in partnership with Leyou. It’s planned as a free-to-play title for both PC and consoles.The title was actually announced last year by Leyou-owned Athlon Games. At the time, Athlon was said to be working with an unnamed “partner developer,” which was revealed today to be Amazon Game Studios.Set “at a time long before the events of The Lord

Researchers from cybersecurity vendor Check Point have discovered a new kind of mobile malware targeting Android devices. Called “Agent Smith,” the malware has been found to exploit known vulnerabilities in Android to replace legitimate installed apps on the device with malicious versions without requiring users’ intervention. Based on their research, Agent Smith has been found to leverage its broad access privileges to display fraudulent ads. Primarily targeting devices in In

On the heels of its recent restructuring, Amazon Game Studios is partnering with the Los Angeles-based Athlon Games to bring the company’s free-to-play “Lord of the Rings” based multiplayer online game to market.
First announced last year by Athlon Game Studios’ Chinese parent company, Leyou Technologies, the game is set around the time of the events of the Lord of the Rings trilogy using intellectual property licensed from Middle-earth Entertainment.
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