Technology news

I am a begrudging fan of algorithmic playlists. I miss putting together my own "new favorite songs" lists and assembling the perfect order of tunes for a burned CD. But damn if Spotify's Discover Weekly and Your Daily Mix playlists aren't convenient, and generally, really good.
Spotify flexed its algorithmic playlist-making muscles again Friday when it released a new tool meant to provide the perfect soundtrack for an upcoming road trip: "Soundtrack your ride." It's a partially human, partially

Heads up, Sam's Club members: The warehouse club's Black Friday 2019 ad just hit the web tipping some great deals on laptops, TVs, gaming gear, DSLR cameras, fitness trackers, and more
Sam's Club will offer Black Friday deals on its website on Thanksgiving, Nov. 28, but the in-store event kicks off 7 a.m. on Black Friday, Nov. 29 and runs through the weekend. Sam's Club will have plenty of TV deals, including the 65-inch Samsung 7 Series 4K HDR curved smart TV for $599 ($130 off) or the 55-inch

Aerial imagery is a common asset in military matters, but 3D maps can be difficult to collect on short notice without specialized equipment. This new photogrammetry technique from the Army Corps of Engineers, however, can make accurate 3D maps from ordinary aerial footage in just minutes.
Photogrammetry is the process of comparing multiple photos of the same location or item to produce a 3D map of it. It’s a well-known method but in some cases is still reliable on human intelligence to det

Disney+ launched to great fanfare and plenty of success on Nov. 12, but the hottest streaming service in town wasn't without its warts. Luckily, it looks like its most unforgivable sin will be fixed in the near-ish future.
In a statement given to The AV Club, Disney confirmed it would let viewers watch old episodes of The Simpsons in their original 4:3 aspect ratio in "early 2020." This followed several days of criticism from fans for Disney's choice to only offer classic episodes of the beloved

It's been 22 years since the world watched Rose survive the Titanic by holing up on a floating door. But our hearts have gone on for Jack, who surely could have lived, too, if Rose had just scooted over.
"Jack could have fit on that door" truthers on the internet still regularly bang the drum that a near-death Rose could have saved her steerage-class lover if she'd just made a little room on her makeshift floatation device, a door.
Now, Céline Dion, the woman who gave voice to the Titanic

The maker of Magic: The Gathering has confirmed that a security lapse exposed the data on hundreds of thousands of game players.
The game’s developer, the Washington-based Wizards of the Coast, left a database backup file in a public Amazon Web Services storage bucket. But there was no password on the storage bucket, allowing anyone to access the files inside.
The bucket is not believed to have been exposed for long — since around early-September — but it was long enough for U.

The two-way race for which white tech man has the most unfathomable amount of money seesawed again on Friday. 
Jeff Bezos has led the pack for most of 2019 as the richest rich guy, with about $110 billion in the bank. Nipping at his sumptuously adorned heels has been Bill Gates, a grandfatherly-seeming nice guy philanthropist who was also known as a "ruthless schemer" in his heyday as Microsoft CEO. Gates' fortunate has hovered around a paltry $107 billion.
But lo, the tables have turned! G

Someone at Ford hit publish a little too early.
Ahead of its planned Sunday reveal, the Ford website briefly allowed clever users to see the full webpage for the electric Mustang Mach-E. This was spotted by the enterprising folks at Mach-E Forums, who posted (alleged) screenshots from the page showing pictures of the car before its full unveiling.
Ford quickly realized its mistake and fixed the site, but the "damage" was already done. The leaks, assuming they're accurate, revealed five models an

It's not even close.
Joker's worldwide box office earnings hit a total of of $999.1 million on Thursday. So if it hasn't happened already, it's going to be official by the end of the weekend: Joker will become the first R-rated movie in Hollywood history with a $1 billion box office.
The movie already made history earlier in 2019 when its box office total climbed past $900 million – another first for the R-rated category. But $1 billion is a much nicer, rounder figure, right?
This was boun

In recent years, a cultural movement has emerged online that takes a positive attitude toward eating disorders. So-called pro-anorexia (or, more commonly, ‘pro-ana’) organizations differ widely. Whereas the majority claim to provide a non-judgmental environment for those diagnosed with anorexia, others go further, denying that eating disorders are mental illnesses and casting them instead as ‘lifestyle choices’ that should be respected by doctors and families. As a resea

After four years of existing on iOS and Android whether you knew it or not, Cortana might not be long for the two dominant mobile platforms. 
Microsoft posted a note to its support website that the virtual assistant, strangely named after a Halo character, would lose support for its Android and iOS app in some regions on Jan. 31. Those would be Canada, Australia and the U.K., per The Verge. It's worth noting that the United States support site didn't get the same note, so Cortana might keep

The San Francisco chapter of the Iron Order Motorcycle Club doesn't usually concern itself much with self-driving cars, but autonomous vehicle company Aurora recently spent the day driving around with the club's bikers.
Aurora, the company co-founded by former Tesla Autopilot head Sterling Anderson, is developing an autonomous driving system it calls Aurora Driver. That system, like all self-driving programs, needs practice on the road, whether that's in autonomous mode logging real-world miles

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the Extra Crunch series that recaps the latest OS news, the applications they support, and the money that flows through it all. What are developers talking about? What do app publishers and marketers need to know? How are politics impacting the App Store and app businesses? And which apps are everyone using?
As mid-November rolls around, we’re looking at a few big stories, including Apple’s decision to ban an entire category of apps due to health co

Microsoft has revealed that it’s planning to kill off its Cortana app for iOS and Android in January. The software maker has posted a new support article for Cortana users in the UK, Canada, and Australia that reveals Cortana for iOS and Android is disappearing in at least those markets. “To make your personal digital assistant as helpful as possible, we’re integrating Cortana into your Microsoft 365 productivity apps,” reads a support note in the UK. “As part of th

Did you know that the Finnish telecommunications company Nokia is one of the main players in the global mobile infrastructure market? It produces everything to build 5G networks – from antennas to routers and other equipment – and massively exports its products to the USA, Japan, and China. At first glance, this sounds great – it’s just more proof of Europe‘s ability to build and export high tech products. However, when taking a closer look, Nokia‘s example r

If you're planning on traveling anywhere with children in tow, you best be darn sure to be prepared. As a family, you want your time in transit and sleeping away from home to be a part of the adventure, not a traumatic series of tantrums. 
Along with lots of patience, technology can assist you. We're highlighting 10 excellent gadgets that can help entertain, comfort and even inspire your little ones whether you're traveling by train, plane, or car. 
1. Comfortable kids' headphones
Try

Vivo Nex 3 5G
$810View Product
The Good
Stunning display • Great set of cameras • Innovative
The Bad
No water resistance • No wireless charging • Not cheap
The Bottom Line
The Vivo Nex 3 5G is one of the most beautiful phones out there, with top specs, a beautiful display, and great (but not the best) cameras.
⚡ Mashable Score
4.0😎 Cool Factor
4.5📘Learning Curve
3.0💪Performance
4.0💵Bang for the Buck
4.0
Smartphone makers have been workin

TL;DR: Get the budget-friendly PaMu Slide Bluetooth 5 In-Ear Headphones with wireless charger for $99.99, a 49% savings. Hear that? That's the collective clamoring of Apple fanboys and fangirls desperately trying to get their hands (and ears) on the new AirPods Pro, arguably the company's best earphones yet. 
But you don't have to hop on the trend and part ways with your hard-earned $249 when you can get a similar listening experience with something far cheaper, like the PaMu Slide Blu

TL;DR: Begin your game development career by learning the basics of Unreal Engine — get access to an in-depth online course for just $9.99.Have you ever been playing a video game and thought to yourself, “Hey, I kind of want to make one of these things. This game development stuff looks easy.”
That’s great! You should totally make one. But it’s definitely not easy — you’re going to have to put in a lot of legwork to become a game development whiz. Consid

TL;DR: Sharpen your Excel skills with the Complete Microsoft Excel 2019 MOS Certification Exam Training Bundle for $25, a 98% savings and a surefire way to impress your boss. We're already approaching the end of the year, which signals the time to take stock of the past 365 days and plan for what's to come. This may entail mapping out your action plans, setting goals, putting together new schedules, crunching numbers for your 2020 budget, and so on.
The best tool to centralize all these pla

Reading the words "eco-friendly" and "medicine cabinet" together may conjure up visions of using plants as medicine when you really just need some Dayquil.
But being thoughtful about your bathroom products goes way past switching to organic cough drops: Most relatively-aware people will remember to recycle an empty juice container or soup can. Sure. But while 90% of plastic kitchen packaging is recycled, only 50% of plastics from the bathroom make it to the blue bin. 
The other half of bath

TL;DR: Simba has launched its Black Friday sale with up to 40% off bundles, saving you up to £524 on list price.This is such a sweet time for shoppers, because it seems like every day another Black Friday sale is launched. Simba is the latest retailer to drop its discounts, with up to 40% off bundles.
The great thing about bundle deals from brands like Simba is that they completely kit you out in one go. This means you don't have to keep going back to pick up more supplies, like pillows an

TL;DR: The three-year NordVPN plan is on sale for £2.82 a month and includes three months for free, saving you 70% on list price.We are now dangerously close to Black Friday, and that means the frequency and strength of deals is ramping up every day. Exciting, right?
If you are in the market for a new virtual private network, you're in luck because a number of providers have started to drop early Black Friday deals. It wasn't so long ago that NordVPN offered a month of its service for free

TL;DR: The stylish Beats Studio3 wireless headphones are on sale for £199 on Amazon, saving you 34% on list price.This one might be hard to believe, because it really seems like the sort of deal you would expect to see over the Black Friday weekend, but you can now save over £100 on the Beats Studio3 headphones on Amazon.
We still have plenty of time before Black Friday officially kicks off, but it looks like this deal has slipped through the cracks. The Beats Studio3 headphones are

Prayer beads are a fashion must-have for a certain type of Professional. You know the kind. They don't drink alcohol for reasons relating to "energy," probably worked in private equity at some point, and "practice" meditation and fasting.
They were out in force at Summit LA: an ideas festival-meets-rager that has a reputation for extravagance and exclusivity, although the company says it's trying to become more diverse.
Summit has been putting on events since 2008, but Summit LA is its largest,

The six-hour movie continues, and we like where it's going. 
Having set out its stall with a cinematic first chapter that disregarded the normal structure of TV episodes and ended with a stunning character introduction out of left field, The Mandalorian continued defying convention with a mostly silent, simple and (dare we say) artsy chapter 2, released on Disney+ Friday.
If like me you've been haunted all week by the perfect closing shot of chapter 1 — the Mandalorian, having just sh

With the launch of Disney+ this week, many fans were excited to have easy access to all 30 seasons of The Simpsons — only to find to their chagrin that their original 4:3 aspect ratio had been discarded for a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio, cropping out many visual gags entirely. But now, Disney says that it will be fixing this in “early 2020” by making an additional version of the first 19 seasons in 4:3, the way they were intended to be viewed.
Here’s Disney’s state