Technology news

There was a time when tablets threatened to end up asphones you couldn’t make calls on. But things have changed. Tablets have been reinvented and offer a lot more, whether you use it for work, rest, play or Netflix. As a result, finding the best one for your needs is going to mean putting in some work and doing a bit of research. Or you could just read the stuff below. Spend what you need
Remember when there were only a few tablets to choose from and you had to be JK Rowling to afford

A cancer patient on his way to his last chemotherapy treatment won $200,000 from a scratch-off lottery ticket.  
Ronnie Foster, a retiree in Pink Hill, North Carolina, stopped by a convenience store on his way to the hospital and bought a $1 scratch-off. He won $5. 
Then, he tested his luck again by paying for two $5 scratch-offs. The first didn't have any prizes, but the second scratch-off revealed a $200,000 jackpot. 
"I saw all those zeroes and I froze," Foster told the North C

Tesla thinks its clever solar panel roof tiles are ready for primetime. Now in their third iteration, Tesla announced its new Solar Roof tiles are now available to order and installations will begin in a few weeks. The tiles are a pricey install at approximately $42,500 for a 2,000 sqft, although that price comes can be reduced by $8,550 with federal tax incentives if installed prior to the end of the year. Elon Musk claims that for most people, it’s cheaper than replacing your roof and a

Meet Cinderblock, a very large cat who went viral for channeling all of us in her show of annoyance at having to get on a treadmill. Cinderblock is eight years old and currently resides at Northshore Veterinary Hospital in Bellingham, Wash. where she's been given, literally, a new life. 
CNN reports that Cinderblock's previous owner couldn't care for the cat anymore due to health issues and brought the cat in to be euthanized. 
But Britta Kiffney, a vet at Northshore, said she "co

Emilia Clarke, the Mother of Dragons herself, celebrated her birthday on Saturday by sharing an eyebrow-raising photo with her two Game of Thrones paramours.  
Clark posted a photo of her and her dour nephew/lover Kit Harrington (Jon Snow), with a mighty Jason Momoa (Khal Drogo) sandwiched in between.  View this post on InstagramReunions never looked this hairy.#anyexcuseforamomoasandwich@prideofgypsies #birthdaybonazaparttwo
A post shared by @ emilia_clarke on Oct 26, 2019 at 4:12am P

The PHP programming language underpins much of the Internet. It forms the basis of popular content management systems like WordPress and Drupal, as well as more sophisticated web applications, like Facebook (kinda). Therefore, it’s a huge deal whenever researchers identify a security vulnerability within it. A couple of days ago, Emil ‘Neex’ Lerner, a Russia-based security researcher, disclosed a remote-code execution vulnerability in PHP 7 – the latest iteration of the

Welcome back to TechCrunch’s China roundup, a digest of the latest events that happened at major Chinese tech companies and what they mean to tech founders and executives around the world.
Alibaba’s nemesis
Alibaba’s new rival is shaking up China’s internet landscape.
This week, four-year-old e-commerce upstart Pinduoduodisplaced JD.com to be the fourth-most valuable internet company in the country. Its market capitalization of $47.6 billion on Friday put it just behind e

Witches in Oregon and California's central coast flocked to the water for annual charity paddleboarding events. 
Donning their hats and swapping out broomsticks for oars, coastal witches and warlocks gathered for a "ghoulish morning on the water" on Saturday, according to one event site.
The event has been going on for six years in Morro Bay, California, but its timing was kept secret until 2019. 
Annette Ausseresses, one of the first witch paddlers, told local news station KSBY that s

Apple wants you to know that if you're still using an iPhone 5, you really, really need to hurry up and update your iOS. Otherwise you might lose a lot of features and turn your iPhone into a fancy paperweight. 
Per Engadget, Apple is worried enough that the company has taken to sending out full screen alerts and even posting a big note on its support website to remind iPhone owners that they'll need to upgrade their iOS to at least version 10.3.4 by Nov. 3. 
It all has to do with that

It's easy to forget we live in a modern world where preposterously expensive technology is flying somewhere above our heads at all times. Until one comes crashing down in your backyard, that is.
That's what happened in Michigan on Saturday morning. Local residents Nancy and Dan Mumby-Welke heard a crash outside, and when they went to investigate they discovered a Samsung-branded machine that had seemingly fallen out of the sky, according to Facebook post from the Gratiot County Herald, shared by

Weave, a developer of patient communications software focused on the dental and optometry market, was the first Utah-headquartered company to graduate from Y Combinator in 2014. Now, it’s poised to enter a small but growing class startups in the ‘Silicon Slopes’ to garner ‘unicorn’ status.
The business announced a $70 million Series D last week at a valuation of $970 million. Tiger Global Managementled the round, with participation from existing backers Catalyst Inv

Like in the past, we all expected to be blown away by Apple’s recent annual announcement of its product updates. Apple’s history is so spectacular that its event draws fan excitement like the launch of a new superhero movie. This year was different, however, because fans focused on Apple’s perceived lack of innovation. For many customers, Apple’s history of relying on its internal team to “think different” was no longer enough. The comments from Apple’s

.Sunday's Google Doodle paid homage to renowned poet Sylvia Plath on what would have been her 87th birthday. 
Born Oct. 27, 1932 in Boston, Plath is most remembered for how her writing dealt with her mental illness. It's a theme that echoes through her most celebrated works, like her novel The Bell Jar and Ariel, a posthumously published collection of poems that included "Lady Lazarus," which is among her most well-known poems. Google's Sylvia Plath DoodleImage:Sophie Diao / GooglePlat

Alexander von Humboldt sought to see and understand everything. By the time he drew his self-portrait at age 45, Humboldt had tutored himself in every branch of science, spent more than five years on a 6,000-mile scientific trek through South America, pioneered new methods for the graphical display of information, set a world mountain climbing record that stood for 30 years and established himself as one of the world’s most famous scientists, having helped to define many of today’s

Gwen Frey It can be difficult to find time to finish a video game, especially if you only have a few hours a week to play. In our biweekly column Short Play, we suggest video games that can be started and finished in a weekend.
A certain amount of frustration in a video game, especially a puzzle game, can be a good thing. Depending on how it’s utilized, it can help to create much more exhilarating moments of success when things finally click together and you understand the solution to the

With the rain pouring over Columbus, Ohio on Saturday, fans at the Ohio State vs Wisconsin college football game probably felt like they were wading through Bikini Bottom. So the Ohio State Marching Band's SpongeBob SquarePants-themed halftime show was perfectly timed. 
Of course SpongeBob, Patrick, and Gary made an appearance to the delight of everyone involved. Here's a clip (and the full show is embedded at the bottom of the story).Are ya ready, kids? Here's part of our @SpongeBob halfti

This could've gone like any other Saturday Night Live sketch. But then Jason Momoa showed up wearing a leopard print "fur" coat and really large nipple piercings.
The premise is a daytime courtroom TV show, "Judge Barry," led by SNL guest host Chance the Rapper. Due process doesn't mean a whole lot to Judge Barry. All he needs is 10 seconds to hand down a snap judgment.
Fun premise, but the real highlight is Momoa's unexpected appearance, and watching both Chance and the Aquaman star try so hard

Proving that some of Saturday Night Live's best work is still in commercial parodies, "Tasty Toaster Tarts" puts a killer Halloween-appropriate twist on your classic after-school snack commercials.
Come on a journey as Chance the Rapper's "Jason" gives his friends and viewers a tour through a fully stocked snack cabinet, and watch as those friends slowly realize something may be amiss about the situation.
As the horror creeps up among Jason's friends, so too does the comedy, thanks in part to a

Esports may be a popular pasttime that brings in piles of money for the top players, but for people who aren't hip to that scene it's a confusing mess of arcane terminology, indecipherable highlight clips, and pros who aren't your traditional perfect physical specimen.
That's the premise of this clip plunging Chance the Rapper's MSG Network correspondent for Knicks games into the final stages of a League of Legends tournament. Fun stuff. Read more...
More about Saturday Night Live, Chance The Ra

Hey everyone. Thank you for welcoming me into you inbox yet again.
Last week, I talked about Zuckerberg’s quest to tell us that Facebook has governing principles when he’s really just building the stairs one step at a time.
If you’re reading this on the TechCrunch site, you can get this in your inbox here, and follow my tweets here.The big story
Plenty of ink has been spilled on WeWork and SoftBankand WeWork’s Adam Neumann, and yet it still feels like not nearly enough pe

Saturday Night Live took a week off before its Oct. 26 episode, so the latest Weekend Update was packed with one-liners. About impeachment, weird Trump tweets, Rudy Giuliani's chronic inability to stop himself from confessing to crimes (aka the butt-dial), and all the other incredibly fun (read: horrifying) twists and turns in two weeks of political news under Trump.
Can this be over soon, please? Read more...
More about Donald Trump, Saturday Night Live, Weekend Update, Entertainment, and Movie

Alec Baldwin returned with his Donald Trump impression on the latest Saturday Night Live, and the theme of the day was, what else? Impeachment.
The latest cold open features Baldwin's Trump at a campaign rally, whipping a crowd of adherents into a frenzy with a parade of guests that included everyday Americans (Cecily Strong, Aidy Bryant, Mikey Day), a newly freed member of the Islamic State (Pete Davidson), Senator Lindsay Graham (Kate McKinnon), Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (Fre

In cloud computing, that means more power and better efficiency and productivity, all centered in a smaller footprint which ultimately costs you less. It’s the very definition of doing more with less. If that thought peaks your interest, you can learn all about it and what it can do for your operations with the training in The Ultimate VMware Mastery Bundle. It’s on sale now for only $19.99 (over 90 percent off) from TNW Deals.

As Silicon Valley enters its sixth and final season, it's hard not to notice how much has changed — and how little.
The series still feels like the one we started watching in 2014. It remains laugh-out-loud funny and occasionally prescient; the new season opens with Richard Hendricks (Thomas Middleditch) looking downright Zuckerbergian at a Senate hearing. The showrunners were not to know that the real Mark Zuckerberg would be lambasted before Congress a few days before the show returned.

Our robot colleague Satoshi Nakaboto writes about Bitcoin every fucking day. Welcome to another edition of Bitcoin Today, where I, Satoshi Nakaboto, tell you what’s been going on with Bitcoin in the past 24 hours. As Baudriallard used to say: There’s only one way to go from here! Bitcoin Price We closed the day, October 26 2019, at a price of $9,244. That’s a decent 6.66 percent increase in 24 hours, or $577. It was the highest closing price in thirty-two days. We’re sti

TL;DR: The portable and versatile Microsoft Surface Pro 6 with included type cover is on sale for $899.99 — $429 off its list price.The new Microsoft Surface Pro 7 was released Oct. 22, which means older models are now cheaper. That's great news for all of you who prefer saving some money to having the latest edition of tech.
The sixth generation of the Surface Pro is still a great tool, and right now you can get the device with a type cover on sale for $899.99 in the PCMag Shop (which is

Amazon has become an increasingly ubiquitous part of our lives, as more and more people receive weekly — and even daily — packages from the company. But as these packages pile up on doorsteps all over the world, a glaring issue has emerged: How do you recycle all those damn boxes, bubble envelopes, and Prime Now paper bags? 
Given the huge variety in packaging, the answer isn't so clear. 
Amazon does provide guidelines around the topic and customers in the U.S. whose orders

In Mashable’s series Wasted, we dig into the myriad ways we’re trashing our planet. Because it’s time to sober up.Amazon has become an increasingly ubiquitous part of our lives, as more and more people receive weekly — and even daily — packages from the company. But as these packages pile up on doorsteps all over the world, a glaring issue has emerged: How do you recycle all those damn mailers?
Given the huge variety in packaging, the answer isn't so clear. 
Am

TL;DR: The Ultimate Electrical Engineering Master Class Bundle will teach you useful skills you can actually use, and it's on sale for $25 (down from $1,000).We've all had those moments when a fuse blows in our house and our first instinct is to call someone else to fix it. But if you've always had that nagging feeling in the back of your head that you wish you were more handy around the house, the simple answer is that you can be — with the right training of course.  
Right now the U

It's that time of year again, folks. The iPhone 11 has arrived and somehow all your friends already have it. Meanwhile, you're still paying off your iPhone 8. We get it and feel your pain. That's why we're offering you the chance to win one (in any color you want) for exactly zero dollars.
Yes, you read that right. A brand-new, 256GB iPhone 11, in whatever color you choose, is waiting for you. Oh, and we'll throw in a pair of AirPods and a Belkin BOOST UP Special Edition Wireless Charging Pad to

What does the term crocodylian bring to mind? A big reptile with a chomping jaw? Crocodylians are the 27 species of crocodiles, alligators, caimans and gharials that live all over Earth today, except for in Europe and Antarctica. There are some smaller species, but these top predators are usually big, at least 2 meters long. They also share a general shape and look – for instance, how easily can you tell an alligator and a crocodile apart? The fossil record of crocodylians is much richer,

You're only as good as the gaming accessories you're using. That's something someone said once, right? Well, it's true. 
Whether you're a PC or console gamer, you'll find something in this roundup of gaming desks, chairs, mice, and much more on sale. Ready to take your skills to the next level? Check out these 9 great deals ahead of Black Friday:
Offex Overlord 45-inch Wide PC Gamer Computer Desk
MSRP: $316
Sale Price: $239.99 (24% off)
They don't call this giant desk the Overlord for nothi

When the whiskey company Glenlivet announced its now infamous edible whiskey capsules, swiftly dubbed “Whiskey Tide Pods,” it was mercilessly mocked on late-night talk shows and Twitter. Not all of the ridicule was deserved. 
While we don’t need a new way to more directly inject alcohol into our bloodstream, nor do we need any more confusion about the edibility of Tide Pods, we do desperately need many solutions to our mounting, persistent plastic waste crisis. Wrapped in