Technology news

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Earlier this month, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the creation of a French space force that would be responsible for defending its satellites. It looks like they’re serious about that: France’s Minister of Defense announced a program that would develop nano satellites equipped with guns and lasers, according to Le Point (via Task & Purpose).Minister Florence Parly announced that the country would be reallocating €700 mill

Fans who tuned in to watch the Fortnite World Cup finals on Sunday received an added bonus: a tease of the game’s upcoming 10th season. We still don’t know much about season 10, but the teaser image suggests the return of Dusty Depot, which was destroyed in season 4.
Developer Epic made the reveal during the solo tournament of the World Cup finals in New York, which pit the 100 best players in the game against each other for the chance to win a $3 million top prize. American Kyle &ld

A powerful image of an elderly woman trying to stop the Hong Kong protests has gone viral after photographer Laurel Chor posted her picture on Twitter. 
Chor posted the picture in response to reporter Joshua Long's video of the same woman asking riot police not to shoot the young protesters. Her image only added to the growing mythos of the woman in the blue shirt who really, really wanted the cops to behave themselves.Elderly citizen standing in front of the police line to defense #YuenLon

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge As networks begin to roll out 5G networks around the world, phone manufacturers are beginning to roll out phones that will be able to access them. Apple has been widely expected to roll out a 5G-compatible phone in 2020, and now, a new report suggests that all three of the company’s phones will support 5G.Last month, noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that next year’s 5.4-inch and 6.7-inch iPhone models would support 5G, while a thi

Who among us hasn't wished for a personal, private air conditioner during our climate change-addled world's increasingly brutal summers? Well, Sony's apparently been listening.
The company introduced a product called the Reon Pocket through its only-in-Japan First Flight crowdfunding program. It's a unique kind of portable air conditioner; instead of blowing processed air with the aim of cooling an entire space, it's a body-mounted device that works by lowering you internal body temperature.
As

UltraViolet stock 640 UltraViolet, Hollywood’s original attempt at a cross-platform digital movie locker service, is shutting down this week on July 31st. If you’ve redeemed your fair share of codes that came with Blu-rays or DVDs through the years, you’ll definitely want to make sure you’ve linked your UltraViolet collection to another retailer so you can continue accessing and streaming those titles after the service goes offline.Walmart-backed Vudu is the best bet for

Despite their reputation as the happiest places on earth, Disney theme parks have recently become a lightning rod for profoundly unhappy people airing their opinions on what millennials can and cannot do. 
First came the viral Facebook post from an unhinged mom who railed against childless millennials taking up space at Disney World, in which she accused complete strangers of being pretzel-buying sluts (her words, no joke) who should cede their attendance at the park to parents with childre

Appleanalyst Ming-Chi Kuo — sometimes described as “the most accurate Apple analyst in the world” — has written a new note to investors saying that the three iPhones expected to launch in 2020 will feature support for 5G. In previous Kuo reports, it’s said the 2020 iPhones could be available in new sizes: a 5.4 and 6.7-inch high-end iPhones with OLED displays, along with a 6.1-inch model with an OLED display.
Previously, he predicted that only two of the three new i

Amazon is stepping up its rom-com gameModern Love is an anthology series based on a running New York Times column that the paper describes as "weekly essays that explore the joys and tribulations of love." Isn't that nice?
The Amazon series presents a hefty ensemble of famous faces, with this new trailer hyping appearances from the likes of Anne Hathaway, Julia Garner, Dev Patel, Catherine Keener, Tina Fey, Andy Garcia, and John Slattery.
Modern Love will run for eight episodes and it's set to p

Watching TV while you drive is a terrible idea, but can your fully stopped car double as a self-contained entertainment center? That's what Elon Musk and Tesla are betting on.
Netflix streaming and YouTube streaming are both coming to Tesla vehicles "soon," according to a Saturday tweet from Musk. The feature will only work while the car is stopped, though Musk noted in a follow-up tweet that the safeguard won't be in place forever.
Once regulators approve full self-driving, he said, video while

Image: PledgeMusic PledgeMusic, a crowdfunding site designed to allow fans to back projects from artists, has gone offline, according to Variety. The company closed down its operations earlier this year as it went into bankruptcy proceedings, and the site’s closure means that artists won’t be able to retrieve information on their profiles and fans.In place of the site, the company’s board left a message, saying that it “continues to work with outside counsel on the most

Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call The populist wing of the Republican party introduced yet another bill to remove the tech industry’s largest liability shield last week.The Stop the Censorship Act, sponsored by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), would strike language in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act that allows platforms to moderate content they deem as “objectionable.” Gosar argues that this language makes it easy for platforms like Facebook and Twitter to remove conten

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Epix has greenlit a six-episode adaptation of Slate’s hit podcast Slow Burn, a series that explored the Watergate scandal and how it eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Podcast host Leon Neyfakh will be an executive producer and narrator for the series.During this year’s Television Critics Association press tour in July, Epix announced that the six-episode series would premiere on November 24th, 2019.Slate launche

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Epix has greenlit a six-episode adaptation of Slate’s hit podcast Slow Burn, a series that explored the Watergate scandal and how it eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Podcast host Leon Neyfakh will be an executive producer and narrator for the series.During this year’s Television Critics Association press tour in July, Epix announced that the six-episode series would premiere on November 24th, 2019.Slate launche

Photo credit should read LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP/Getty Images Fortnite is two years old this weekend, and has been the most popular game in the world for at least the last year of its existence. My friends and I began playing it last summer as it exploded in popularity; we saw the game go from its roots as a goofy add on to Epic’s player-versus-environment shooter to its current status as a cross-cultural social space that just so happens to have a battle royale mode. And while I’ve

Do you go for the free money or the free service? And what does the fine print say?
The Federal Trade Commission confirmed on July 22 that Equifax will pay as much as $700 million — and no less than $575 million — for the 2017 data breach that affected the personal information of roughly 147 million people. And in the days that followed, a question sprang up: how do you get your own piece of that action?
It's pretty straightforward on the face of things. You can get up to 10 years of

Image: Oats Studios In February, Neill Blomkamp’s Oats Studios released a short, live-action teaser film for BioWare’s open-world shooter, Anthem. That film tells a short story that highlights some of the world’s larger story elements, and features some great, live-action visuals that brought it to life. Now, Oats has released a lengthy behind-the-scenes documentary that showed off how it created the short film.The 28 minute documentary shows off the incredible effort that wen

TL;DR: Get the powerful Microsoft Surface Book 2 2-in-1 laptop on sale for $1,399. It’s usually priced at $1,999, so you’ll be saving 30%. A lot of 2-in-1 products get a bad rap but let’s face it, a shampoo just shouldn’t be able to double as a body wash and that’s that. But in the wild world of multi-purpose items, the 2-in-1 laptop stands out as a special exception that really does perform. Especially in the case of the Microsoft Surface Book 2, 13.5-inch 2-i

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Just when everyone had pretty much given up hope of getting lawmakers in our hyper-polarized nation’s capital to agree on a new set of rules for self-driving cars, Congress appears to be ready to try again.
Stakeholders in the autonomous vehicle industry had mostly given up hope of getting anything done this year, after the failure of legislation last year and the lack of action in the months that followed. But a bipartisan contingent in both the Senate a

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge It looks as though Apple’s iPad lineup will get a bit bigger. The company already has five different models of the tablet, but according to new regulatory filings spotted by AppleInsider, there could be two new tablets on the way.Presently, Apple’s iPad lineup includes the iPad Mini, iPad, iPad Air, the 11 inch iPad pro, and the 12.9 inch iPad pro. The site reported earlier this month that the company had filed five models with the Eurasian Economic

It’s been barely more than a year since the “Queer Eye” revival premiered on Netflix, but the series is already back for its fourth season.
This time around, the Fab Five finds new makeover subjects in Kansas City (with a detour to Quincy, Illinois, where hairstylist Jonathan Van Ness grew up), offering their custom mix of lifestyle tips and intense emotional conversations. In many ways, the new season serves as a reminder that “Queer Eye” remains one of the most co

Here in America we are now in the longest economic expansion in history. That doesn’t mean it’s about to end. But it does raise the question: what happens when it does? When the economic cycle finally inverts into recession, perhaps unexpectedly and with no obvious cause, perhaps because of some geopolitical crisis? We know what happens to the overall economy — but what happens to the tech sector?
Last time around, the answer was: “surprisingly little.” Late 2008 sa

Mashable bites into a creamy, nutty, gooey, and sometimes stinky world during our first-ever Cheese Week.Black people don’t mess around when it comes to macaroni and cheese. The great African-American culinary tradition demands excellence in all aspects of its existence. Bad macaroni — dry, crunchy, lacking smoothness and squelch — is an abomination, a stain on the institution of soul food. Good macaroni is a point of pride. Many mac and cheese recipes, like the one in my famil

When millennials head home, a lot of them are greeted with a pile of newspaper clippings. 
Others receive highlighted articles sent in the mail, usually from grandparents or old-school parents.  The more "with it" parents snap a photo of articles and email or text that over. And yes, some parents have figured out how to email or text over a link to a news story.
With so many options to share a news story (using the share buttons on a website, copying and pasting links into texts, email

Astronaut Frank Borman, mission commander, is shown during intravehicular activity (IVA) on the Apollo 8 lunar orbit mission. This still print was made from movie film exposed by an onboard 16mm motion picture camera. | Image: NASA Premium TV network Epix announced during its Television Critics Association panel that it was developing a six-episode miniseries about the Apollo 8 mission called Rocket Men, according to Deadline.Epix didn’t unveil any other details, such as a projected relea

Hello, weekenders. This is Week-in-Review, where I give a heavy amount of analysis and/or rambling thoughts on one story while scouring the rest of the hundreds of stories that emerged on TechCrunch this week to surface my favorites for your reading pleasure.
Last week, I talked about how services like Instagramhad moved beyond letting their algorithms take over the curation process as they tested minimizing key user metrics such as “like” counts on the platform.John Taggart/Bloomber

With school starting up again soon, being prepared is vital, and having a laptop that's on its last leg isn't a good start. Lucky for you, there are a lot of laptop deals around on the internet, and if you're working on a budget, then this Lenovo IdeaPad S340 laptop is for you. Packed with an 8th generation Intel i3 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB solid-state drive for $289.00, saving you $90 off the listed price.
Already invested in the Apple ecosystem? Well, why not upgrade your current MacBo

TL;DR: Get the compact Nomad 1.5M battery lightning cable on sale for $19.99. It's normally $49.99, so you'll save $30. As the Spice Girls once sang, "When two become one....It's the only way to be." 
And while they may have not been singing about this Nomad 1.5M battery lightning cable, it certainly fits. 
With the Nomad Cable, you can officially say goodbye to lugging around a separate charging cable and backup battery to charge your devices on the go. The durable MFi-certified

What would it take for you to reach peak productivity? Is it a comfortable office chair? A standing desk? A napping pod? Or how about a shiny new computer?
If your answer is the latter, we have a treat for you: refurbished iMacs, Apple keyboards, and an Apple Magic Mouse are all on sale this weekend in the Mashable Shop. Check out the deals below:
27-inch iMac computer (with accessories)
Did the complete Apple setup always feel a little too indulgent? This refurbished option says you deserve it

TL;DR: Get the comprehensive "Improve Your Writing Skills" master class bundle for $19.99 — a savings of 98% off its usual price. Okay, so maybe you're not planning to write the next City of Girls or even open your long-lost journal, but writing skills may just be the important career weapon you're missing. 
Whether you're a software engineer, a digital marketer, a barista, or an MLB baseball player, we'd be willing to bet you'll be required to write something, somewhere. Wouldn'

TL;DR: Secure the impressive ExpressVPN for just £5.36 a month with three months free, and save 46% on list price.Isn't it wonderful when brands or services try and compete with each other to offer the best deal? It's great, because the winner in this situation is always the consumer. 
There is kind of a battle going on right now between the many VPN providers, with each company trying to offer the best deal. Some providers have slashed prices, whilst others have focused on offering m

Rats, rodents, maggots, crime. These words have literal meanings, but when they're used to describe specific places or groups, they take on something more.
It's something CNN anchor Victor Blackwell pointed out in a moving segment about Trump's racist use of the word "infested" in tweets — and also something that Twitter explicitly prohibits in its rules against "dehumanizing language." 
It's no secret that Trump walks all over Twitter's rules against racist verbal attacks &mdash