Archive for April 2017

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Accessories (9)

• B&O puts its smallest speaker in your pocket for $169

  What's next for high-end audio company Bang and Olufsen following last year's handheld BeoPlay A1 speaker? Making a smaller model, of course. The Beoplay P2 fits in the palm of your hand and perhaps more closely resembles an earbud case than it does a speaker. But maybe don't fret that sound quality diminished because the speaker's size did. Like the A1, the P2 blasts sound out in 360 degrees and it inherited a tweaked version of the mid-woofer from last year's model. 2016's sound carries forward in another way as well -- the P2 shares its 0.75-inch tweeter with the A1.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Vizio's $250 soundbar hosts Google Assistant and Chromecast

  Vizio may have been knocked by LeEco after its $2 billion buyout deal was cancelled, but the company's not going to fall into a grief-stricken funk. The home theater business has announced a new raft of soundbars that work with Google Assistant and come with Chromecast built in. Leading the pack is the SmartCast 36", which packs 5.1 wireless sound, the promise of crystal-clear dialog and a wireless subwoofer. Vizio had trouble with its soundbars working with Spotify via Chromecast in the past, so hopefully its remedied that issue. This new model is on sale right now, setting you back $250, while smaller options in the same range will cost less, obviously.

  By Daniel Cooper Read More

• Livestream's Mevo camera can broadcast to YouTube Live

  Last year, Livestream's Mevo became the first camera with integrated Facebook Live streaming. Now the video streaming platform is giving its device a few more major upgrades, including support for Android and YouTube Live. The camera can now broadcast to four platforms: its creator's website (Livestream), Facebook Live, Periscope and YouTube Live. Plus, it can do so in 1080p, something it wasn't capable of, since it used to be locked to 720p. So long as you upgrade its software and get the latest version of its iOS app or its new Android app, you can also use it to record 4K videos.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Dell's first HDR display is aimed squarely at video editors

  HDR10 and Dolby Vision are the two main competing standards for high dynamic range displays. Today, Dell lent its support to the former as it announced its first HDR10-compliant display, the Dell UltraSharp 27 4K HDR Monitor. Dell revealed the new device at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show today, along with two other UltraSharp monitors and various PC workstations for high-end image, video and VR production.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Insta360's 'affordable' 8K VR camera is up for pre-orders

  With the recent VR announcements at Facebook's F8 conference, things are certainly getting a lot more interesting in the 360 content space, especially with the new hardware that can shoot in six degrees of freedom for an unprecedented level of immersion. However, the current wave of professional-grade 360 cameras are still cost-prohibitive for many studios, with the Nokia Ozo asking for $40,000 and the original Facebook Surround reference design costing about $30,000 to build. This is where Insta360 comes in with its $3,499 8K VR camera, the Pro, which is now open for pre-orders ahead of tomorrow's NAB Show in Las Vegas.

  By Richard Lai Read More

• Logitech's Pop buttons can control Apple HomeKit devices

  Smart devices give you more control of your home while simultaneously making it more complicated. Logitech launched its Pop Smart Button last year to help simplify things a bit, and now they've made it more useful with Apple HomeKit compatibility. That'll let you control any HomeKit peripheral using the button, including Honeywell Lyric thermostats, Philips Hue Lights, iHome smartplugs and more. There is a catch: You'll need the Pop button bridge, which will be sold exclusively by Apple to start with.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• WD's G-Drive USB-C adds storage and power to your laptop

  Apple's courageous decision to equip the MacBook with just one USB-C port for charging and external storage forced owners to carry a pricey dongle if they wanted to do both at once. If you're in that camp, or would rather not sacrifice a port on your MacBook Pro or other USB-C device, Western Digital has a drive that could make your day. The G-Drive USB-C gives you 4, 8 or 10TB of storage, while simultaneously charging your laptop with up to 45 watts of power.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• Western Digital unveils its first portable SSD

  Western Digital only just started accepting that SSDs are ready for the mainstream, but it's making up for that lost time by launching its first portable SSD just months after unveiling a desktop drive. The simply-named My Passport SSD gives you 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of flash storage in a pocketable and ever-so-slightly fashionable design. While it's not the absolute fastest drive we've seen with a peak 515MB/s sequential read speed (it's a bit faster than Samsung's T3), the new drive is definitely keeping up with the Joneses. It's designed for USB-C (there's a USB-A adapter in the box), touts 256-bit hardware encryption and is tough enough to survive a 6.5ft drop.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• GoPro's $100 accessory puts Karma's gimbal (almost) anywhere

  When GoPro launched Karma at the end of the last year, company CEO Nick Woodman was keen to point out that it's "So much more than a drone." That statement was mostly referring to the bundled handheld grip, which uses the stabilizer from the quadcopter, bringing smooth video to ground-based activities as well. Now, there's a new member of the Karma family, with the self-explanatory name of "Karma Grip Extension Cable." The accessory (pictured on the left, above) brings the gimbal's video-smoothing skills to even more points of view. Albeit at a price.

  By James Trew Read More

AI (13)

• Watch David Hasselhoff in an AI-scripted short film

  Robots are slowly taking more and more jobs -- and soon, they'll come for the writers (gulp). That's the pitch behind director Oscar Sharp and AI researcher Ross Goodwin's short film It's No Game, in which an artificial intelligence swoops in during a Hollywood writer's strike to pen a script for the immortal David Hasselhoff. But the video is something of a meta rabbit hole itself, as all of the Hoff's dialogue was written by an AI called Benjamin, which was built to scribe an experimental short film last year. Whoa.

  By David Lumb Read More

• IBM's Watson looked into my soul and 'drew' my portrait

  Since its introduction to the world in 2009, IBM's Watson supercomputer has been crushing humans in Jeopardy, helping chefs make food with unconventional recipes and even offering tech support. But what happens when the artificial intelligence machine puts its own spin on a photo booth? To find out, I checked out IBM's "Art with Watson: Hidden Portraits," an exhibit that's being displayed in New York City until May 7th. The gallery features portraits of historic personalities like Marie Curie and Nikola Tesla, which Watson helped artists create by feeding them data collected using its natural language and personality insights APIs.

  By Edgar Alvarez Read More

• AI can predict heart attacks more accurately than doctors

  An estimated 20 million people die each year due to cardiovascular disease. Luckily, a team of researchers from the University of Nottingham in the UK have developed a machine-learning algorithm that can predict your likelihood of having a heart attack or stroke as well as any doctor.

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• Famous poker-playing AI takes down scientists and engineers

  Libratus, the poker-playing AI that crushed four world-class pros in January, has put another group of human players to shame. This time, the upgraded variant of the AI known as "Lengpudashi" or "cold poker master" took on World Series veteran Alan Du and a team of engineers, computer scientists and investors. Instead of using pure poker skills to try and defeat Lengpudashi like the first team did, the new players applied what they know about machine learning to their game. Alas, their strategy didn't work, and the AI still won by a landslide after playing 36,000 hands against the team at a resort on China's Hainan island.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• This neural network generates weird and adorable pickup lines

  Training a neural network involves feeding it enough raw data to start recognizing and replicating patterns. It can be a long, tedious process to just approximate complex things -- like writing articles for Engadget, for example. Research scientist Janelle Shane has experimented with her own neural network to create recipes, lists of new Pokemon and weird superhero names with varying results. Now, however, she's turned her training attention to pickup lines. Surprisingly, her neural network has generated some pretty adorable ones.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• VW teams with Mobvoi to make in-car AI less terrible

  As a general rule, in-car voice assistants are... lackluster. Unless you rely on a smartphone tie-in like Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, you're left with stiff voice commands and limited features. Volkswagen wants to do better. It's forming a joint venture with Mobvoi (yes, the smartwatch maker) that will push toward greater use of AI in cars. The two are planning to develop and sell technology that makes use of Mobvoi's voice recognition and search tech to streamline your driving experience. This includes products that are already on the market -- it's as much about reaching a wider audience as it is VW's long-term future.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Google's AI will take on the world's top Go player next month

  It's been a busy year for Google Deepmind. You might remember AlphaGo resoundingly beating Go grandmaster Lee Sedol by four games to one and secretly schooling some of the world's best Go players online, but the team has also found time to help Britain's national health service treat patients and arm its computer with new tricks to help it learn faster and "remember" previous knowledge. AlphaGo can now justifiably be considered one of the world's best Go players, but the Deepmind team can't make a bonafide claim until its AI has beaten the world number one: 19-year-old Chinese player Ke Jie. Deepmind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis has now confirmed that after months of speculation, the match is on.

  By Matt Brian Read More

• Adobe shows how AI can work wonders on your selfie game

  Adobe has been focused on making its mobile apps powerful photo-editing tools for quite some time. At its annual MAX design conference last fall, the company debuted Sensei: a collection of AI and deep learning tools that can analyze an image before applying some pretty hefty edits. To show off just what the system is capable of, Adobe posted a video this week that shows how Sensei can help transform a sub-par selfie into something worthy of Instagram or Snapchat.

  By Billy Steele Read More

• IBM Watson offers tech support that never sleeps

  If your company uses IBM's helpdesk services, don't be surprised if you find yourself talking to Watson next time you contact the IT department. IBM has added a Watson-powered concierge-like service to its helpdesk, and it can quickly solve your IT issues around the clock, wherever you are in the world and whatever device you're using. Unlike automated bots, you can talk to Watson about your issues like you're talking to another person. It can then customize its responses -- for instance, it can use layman's terms if you're not that tech-savvy or use jargons if you are.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• This is what AI sees and hears when it watches 'The Joy of Painting'

  Computers don't dream of electric sheep, they imagine the dulcet tones of legendary public access painter, Bob Ross. Bay Area artist and engineer Alexander Reben has produced an incredible feat of machine learning in honor of the late Ross, creating a mashup video that applies Deep Dream-like algorithms to both the video and audio tracks. The result is an utterly surreal experience that will leave you pinching yourself.

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• AI predicts the layout of human stem cells

  The structures of stem cells can vary wildly, even if they're genetically identical -- and that could be critical to predicting the onset of diseases like cancer. But how do you know what a stem cell will look like until it's already formed? That's where the Allen Institute wants to help: it's launching an online database, the Allen Cell Explorer, where deep learning AI predicts the layout of human stem cells. You only need a pair of identifying structures, like the position of the nucleus, to fill out the rest of the cell's innards.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Use AI to turn your favorite film into a color palette

  If you're seeking color inspiration from a distinctive-looking film like Grand Budapest Hotel, you could just "eyedrop" it in Photoshop or try an app like Adobe Color CC. Thanks to Vancouver-based developer Jack Qiao, though, there's now a slightly easier way. He came up with Colormind, an AI algorithm that uses films, video games, fashion and art to "generate color suggestions that fit the distinct visual style of those mediums," he says.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• 'Reverse Prisma' AI turns Monet paintings into photos

  Impressionist art is more about feelings than realism, but have you ever wondered what Monet actually saw when he created pieces like Low Tide at Varengeville (above)? Thanks to researchers from UC Berkeley, you don't need to go to Normandy and wait for the perfect light. Using "image style transfer" they converted his impressionist paintings into a more realistic photo style, the exact opposite of what apps like Prisma do. The team also used the same AI to transform a drab landscape photo into a pastel-inflected painting that Monet himself may have executed.

  By Steve Dent Read More

Amazon (21)

• Amazon's free Android app program is nearing its end

  Back in 2015, Amazon launched a program called Underground that gave users free access to paid Android apps and in-app purchases. For those who've never heard of it before, you can think of it as a way to find applications you never knew existed or to try fun or useful ones you'd typically ignore. You can still try it out now by downloading the Underground app to an Android device -- it comes pre-installed on Fire tablets -- but as a word of warning, its days are already numbered. The e-retail giant has announced that it's shutting down the service and ending all support in 2019.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Amazon is 'doubling down' on the Echo ecosystem

  Amazon is off to a profitable start in 2017. The company's first-quarter sales jumped 23 percent to $35.7 billion, beating analyst expectations, and top executives pinned part of that spike on the Alexa ecosystem. "We're very encouraged by the customer response to Echo products," one exec said during Amazon's financial call today. "Not only the products, but the ability now to use tablets as Echo devices, since we spread the Alexa technology to many of those devices. We're also happy with the success we've had with developers; there are now more than 12,000 Alexa skills, so we think that's all foundational."

  By Jessica Conditt Read More

• Amazon taught Alexa to whisper sweet nothings in your ear

  Soon enough, Amazon's Alexa will shout out your grocery list. That's assuming developers take advantage of the new language framework that Amazon has added to its digital assistant. The idea is that the Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) will hopefully give Alexa more natural speaking patterns. Specifically, now Alexa is capable of whispering, bleeping out swear words and adding emphasis to a phrase in addition to changing volume, speed and pitch of its voice.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Why Amazon wants to replace your mirror with a camera

  Years ago, if someone told you they were buying a camera for their bedroom, you'd imagine they were planning something naughty. But times have changed, and Amazon believes you'll spend $200 on a camera that's both an extension of your smart home and the ultimate fashion accessory. The Echo Look is designed to help you look your best every morning, guiding and improving your style every time it's used. But what it represents, and what Amazon gets out of it, could be a much bigger deal for the future of fashion.

  By Daniel Cooper Read More

• Amazon Echo Look is a voice-controlled camera for fashion tips

  Amazon's Echo smart speakers just went in an unusual (but potentially very helpful) new direction. Meet Echo Look, an Alexa-powered camera designed around taking your own fashion photos and videos. If you want to show off your daily wardrobe, you just have to ask the Look to take a snapshot -- you don't have to take a selfie in front of a mirror to get a full-length picture. And since it includes a depth-sensing camera, it can blur the background to make shots pop. The real party tricks come when you're not sure about your outfit, however.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Amazon's latest Dash button orders you fresh undies

  Living in an apartment without an in-unit washer and dryer means that occasionally you go to great lengths to avoid carrying all your dirty clothes to the basement's laundry room. Every now and then that entails saving time ahead of a date or trip (but not necessarily money) by buying new underwear instead of washing what you already have. Amazon is making that slovenly life a little more stylish and easier by offering a slew of new Dash buttons, including one for Calvin Klein undies. That's right: One press is all it takes to get a fresh pack of Calvins delivered straight to your door.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Amazon is trying to be your one-stop subscription shop

  Amazon's subscription offerings go beyond Kindle Unlimited, Prime and its various add-ons. The retailer has offered magazine subscriptions for awhile too, and now the company has set up Subscribe with Amazon. It's a hub that gives "subscription providers the ability to offer customers flexible pricing including introductory, monthly and annual pricing options, as well as the opportunity to explore offering Prime exclusive deals," Amazon said in a press release.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Amazon is interested in self-driving vehicles, too

  Apple and Alphabet aren't the only tech heavyweights branching out into self-driving vehicle technology. Amazon wants in on the action, too. Wall Street Journal sources hear that Amazon formed a small (roughly 12 people) team about a year ago to explore the possibilities of autonomous vehicles. This doesn't guarantee you'll see Amazon-made driverless vans roaming the streets, to be clear. Rather, the group is an "in-house think tank" looking at ways to take advantage of self-driving tech for the company's online shopping business. With that said, smarter delivery vehicles are a real possibility.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Amazon's Echo can manage your Google calendar for work

  The Echo has been out on the market for much longer than Google Home, but we're still surprised about the latest trick that Amazon's voice-controlled speaker just picked up. As of today, you can integrate your professional G Suite calendar with the Echo. Once you set up your G Suite account in the Echo app, you can ask Alexa to add events to your calendar or read your agenda. Alexa also already works with Gmail, Outlook and Office 365 calendars as well.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• Amazon opens up the voice control technology behind Alexa

  Software and app developers can now use the technology that powers Amazon's Alexa assistant to add voice control to their creations. Amazon has opened up the service called "Lex" in what Reuters describes as a move to become the top player in voice-controlled computing. According to Werner Vogels, the e-commerce titan's CTO, Lex could lead to assistants and chatbots that sound friendlier and more human than their predecessors.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Amazon offers its voice-recognition smarts to other companies

  Amazon's Alexa has become the flag-bearer for AI assistants. Not only does she possess an exhaustive list of useful skills, but she's also started finding new homes in everything from phones to cars, watches, little robots and even refrigerators. There's a reason Amazon's Echo and Echo Dot speakers are particularly suited for ordering Alexa around at home, though. They both feature a fancy far-field, seven-microphone setup and audio processing smarts that help Alexa understand your muffled commands shouted from the downstairs bathroom. Today, Amazon's announced it's releasing this mixture of hardware and software in a new development kit, so other companies can build Alexa prisons that recognize you want to add mixed spices to your shopping list, and not listen to a Spice Girls mix (liar).

  By Jamie Rigg Read More

• Amazon FreeTime cheat sheets educate parents on kids TV

  Nobody will judge you for not watching Dora or the 43rd Frozen short on Amazon FreeTime with your kids. Problem is, you won't be able to talk about their shows, books or games with them if you have no idea what they're about. Thankfully, Amazon has launched a new Parent Dashboard that shows how much time your kids spend on their media, along with a list of the books they've read, shows they've watched, apps they've used and games they've played. Now, that last bit is key to having a fruitful discussion: that list gives you access to Discussion Cards, which contain a summary of what each show, book, game or app is about.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Walmart.com uses discounts for in-store pickups to fight Amazon

  Walmart has made a few moves already to make shopping there more appealing vs. Amazon, but the latest one leverages its existing stores and distribution network. With a new program called "Pickup Discount," it will lower the price for many items that are only available online, as long as buyers have them shipped to a nearby store for pickup. Walmart says that by relying on its existing fleet of delivering trucks and skipping the last mile, it can save money and pass that savings on to customers.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Alexa can finally set specific smart bulb colors

  Alexa has been able to control Philips Hue, TP-Link and other smart lights for a while, but control was limited to on/off and dimming, not color -- a bummer, since the bulbs also emit up to 16 million hues. However, Amazon has now added the ability to change colors to Philips, TP-Link Kasa and LiFi Labs LIFX bulbs, giving you full voice control of your lighting at last.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• Hydrogen-powered forklifts could speed up your Amazon deliveries

  Amazon will replace its forklifts' batteries in 11 warehouses with an alternative power source: hydrogen fuel cells (HFC). The e-retail giant is investing millions in the technology, acquiring the right to buy up to 23 percent of hydrogen fuel cell maker Plug Power. In a press release, Plug Power has revealed that the tech titan will spend $70 million this year on hydrogen fueling infrastructure, the fuel itself and fuel cells for forklifts and for backup power.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Jeff Bezos pumps his personal fortune into Blue Origin

  Every year, the US government grants NASA a budget of tens of billions to fund its terrestrial and extraterrestrial research. Just last month, President Trump signed an order confirming it would get $19.1 billion in 2018 in what he called a "national commitment" to "human space exploration." Space is expensive, and it's the main reason why the agency has stepped back from its own rocket launches. However, a number of private companies have stepped up in its place, all of which are financed, in part, by billionaire businessmen. Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, for example, has revealed that he is selling about $1 billion in Amazon stock each year just to fund his personal race to space.

  By Matt Brian Read More

• Amazon's Fire TV Stick with Alexa remote hits the UK for £40

  At long last, Amazon is selling its new Fire TV Stick in the UK. The cheap media streamer, which comes with an Alexa-enabled voice remote, first debuted in the US last October. As you would expect, the hardware lets you search for movies and TV shows, launch apps and control playback. Like the Echo, however, Alexa can also be used for a number of "skills," such as asking for the weather or dimming your smart lights. The stick itself has also been upgraded with a new processor, making it 30 percent faster than the previous model, and supports the speedy 802.11ac WiFi protocol.

  By Nick Summers Read More

• Your kid's 'accidental' Amazon app spending will be refunded soon

  It's finally time to put a bow on Amazon's case with the Federal Trade Commission. In 2014, the online shopping juggernaut cam under fire for not fully warning parents that free apps could still contain in-app purchases. Last year a federal judge ruled that Amazon didn't do enough to inform folks of such (or offer safeguards/speed bumps ahead of finalizing a purchase). That changes today as the FTC has ruled to end the lawsuit. This move means that the refund process for some $70 million in eligible purchases made between November 2011 and May 2016 can begin. Said refunds will be via method of purchase, not gift cards.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Amazon Prime will replace Twitter to stream Thursday NFL games

  Last year Twitter made Thursday Night NFL games a centerpiece of its video streaming/group chat efforts. This year, the NFL is taking its 10-game simulcast package to Amazon Prime, according to reports by Recode, the Wall Street Journal and Variety. While Twitter made the games available for free (alongside the broadcasts on CBS or NFL Network), on Amazon they will be a part of its Prime subscription, just like two-day-shipping, movies, music and other things it offers.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Amazon wants social media influencers to sell you products

  Amazon's always kicked a few cents the way of its unpaid salespeople if they convince family and friends to purchase something. Now, however, the company is making a big play for people and companies with large social media followings. The retailer has launched an "influencer program" that enables folks that are big on the internet to set up their own branded stores.

  By Daniel Cooper Read More

• With Amazon Cash, you can shop online without a bank card

  Internet shopping is great, but most of it is off-limits if you don't have a credit or debit card. Unless you thrive on gift cards, you'll have to settle for whatever is in physical shops. Today, though, Amazon is removing that barrier. It's launching an Amazon Cash service that lets you apply cash toward your online account. It's a bit convoluted -- you have to visit a participating store, show a barcode (either on your phone or on paper) and fork over your money. There are no fees, however, and you can contribute between $15 to $500 at a time.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

Apple (23)

• Apple adds one more year of warranty to first-gen Watches

  Apple will still repair your first-gen Apple Watch if it breaks due to battery issues even if it's already older than two years. The tech titan has extended its wearable's repair coverage related to battery woes to last two years instead of one, according to a note Apple sent to authorized repair centers that 9to5mac got its hands on. If you include its first year with limited warranty, the device's owners can enjoy three years of coverage, and it's all thanks to a several reports complaining of batteries ballooning inside their timepieces.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Merriam-Webster's idea of 'sheeple' are Apple fanboys

  I'll admit it: I'm an unabashed Apple fanboy. I spent far too much on a Macbook Pro with specs that would cost half as much in the Windows world, I love my pair of ridiculous-looking and easily misplaced AirPods and I may or may not have a box full of old Newtons and Mac 512K parts. There's a term for folks like me, and Merriam-Webster just made it official: "Sheeple." The dictionary's editors just added the term, calling out its sick burn to Apple fans in a tweet.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Apple and Qualcomm's license dispute is getting nasty

  Qualcomm's ongoing legal dispute with Apple today took a new turn after the chipmaker accused its device-making partner of further withholding patent royalties. According to a statement, Apple recently stopped paying licensing revenue to manufacturers of the iPhone because it believes it's been overpaying for important 3G and 4G patents.

  By Matt Brian Read More

• Take a look at Apple's self-driving test vehicle

  Photos obtained by Bloomberg are giving us our first look at what appears to be a testbed for Apple's self-driving car technology. An observer caught the Lexus SUV (looking similar to the demo vehicle above) rolling out of an Apple facility in Silicon Valley, rocking an extensive kit including Velodyne LiDAR units and radar sensors, which help the car observe the world around it. Apple picked up a permit to test its autonomous technology on California streets a couple of weeks ago, and it apparently isn't waiting to get started.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• It looks like Apple is resurrecting its Venmo competitor

  Apple began considering its own peer-to-peer payment system back in 2015. Since then, however, nothing seems to have come of it. Today, however, Recode reports that Apple is again in negotiations to launch its own money-transfer system to rival competing services like PayPal's wildly popular Venmo. Apple's new service, likely a feature for Apple Pay, could enable you to send money to a friend's iPhone from your own.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Apple sees its redesigned retail stores as community spaces

  Apple's retail stores have long had a social side. You might not visit just to hang out, but the combination of free workshops and an abundance of connected devices gives you a reason to stay besides gawking at the latest products... if just to check up on Facebook. And now, Apple is banking on that social aspect as a selling point. The company is both redesigning its 100 largest stores and launching new "Today at Apple" workshops to turn its stores into community spaces of sorts. The shops are still very much geared toward sales, but you'll have more reasons to swing by on a frequent basis.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Apple has NASA minds working on its AR glasses

  Apple has hired former NASA JPL augmented reality expert Jeff Norris to help shape its AR projects, according to Bloomberg. Based on previous reports, Cupertino has been working on a pair of AR glasses and related features for future iPhones since 2016. Now we have a better idea of what's going on behind the scenes. Norris apparently joined the AR team as senior manager under former Dolby Labs executive Mike Rockwell earlier this year, though none of the parties involved confirmed Bloomberg's story. Taking what he did while he was with NASA into account, Apple might conjure up some very interesting products and services.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Apple's iPhone 8 might not ship in September

  Apple has practically settled into a routine with its flagship iPhone launches: it announces the new model in early September and ships it later that month. You can practically set your clock by it. Well, you might not want to bank on that schedule this year. KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a mostly solid track record when outlining Apple's plans, believes that the long-rumored OLED iPhone won't enter production until October or November. Reportedly, the new model's "significant hardware upgrades" (such as the OLED screen and depth-sensing front camera) are pushing back the release. There could be shortages until Apple refines its manufacturing, too.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Apple threatened to drop Uber's app over iPhone tagging (updated)

  Uber is no stranger to trouble, but it may have landed in some especially hot water two years ago. New York Times sources claim that Apple CEO Tim Cook held a face-to-face meeting in early 2015 to call out Uber's Travis Kalanick (and threaten to remove his app from the App Store) after learning that Uber was not only violating iOS app privacy guidelines, but was trying to cover it up. Reportedly, the ridesharing outfit had been "fingerprinting" iPhones with permanent identities so that it could prevent drivers from cheating by creating fake accounts and accepting rides from these bogus customers. The IDs would last even after the app was deleted or the entire phone was wiped. While this helped keep drivers honest, it was clearly a privacy violation -- and it was made worse by Uber's bid to hide the tracking from App Store reviewers.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Now Apple's Live Photos can work on any website

  Apple first introduced Live Photos in the iPhone 6S series back in 2015, but the odd photo/video-clip hybrid has taken its time coming to the internet. While Tumblr was the first to integrate Live Photos into its site last September, Apple is finally introducing an official JavaScript API to get its odd photo/video hybrid format out onto the web at large.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Apple is on a mission to only use recycled materials

  With the release of its new environmental report, Apple is looking to push the envelope of what it can do for the good of the planet. Last year, it boasted about how much cash its recycling efforts had saved it, including $40 million worth of gold re-used from old devices. This year, it's talking about "closing the loop" on its use of raw materials, potentially redefining how gadgets are made altogether.

  By Daniel Cooper Read More

• Apple Maps now lists UK EV chargers and public bikes

  As Apple turns to laser-mounted minivans and even drones to improve the accuracy of its Maps app, the company also regularly introduces useful points of interest for iOS users. As Bloomberg reports, the iPhone maker has added new data points that will help UK electric vehicle owners find nearby charging stations and hook Londoners up with a bike.

  By Matt Brian Read More

• Apple's iWork, GarageBand and iMovie are now free

  If you've bought an iOS or Mac device in the past few years, Apple's suite of creativity and productivity apps was effectively free for you. Sure, you had to pay for that expensive tablet or laptop, but the apps themselves were included in the purchase, even if you didn't download them until later. Starting today, however, Apple is simplifying things and making Keynote, Numbers, Pages, iMovie and GarageBand all free in the App Store for anyone in their ecosystem.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• Apple will replace your busted iPad 4 with the iPad Air 2

  If you bought Apple's first iPad with the now-ubiquitous Lightning connector (released way back in late 2012) and need to get it repaired, you might end up with a pleasant upgrade. According to a memo obtained by 9to5Mac, Apple has basically run out of that old iPad and is now replacing it with the iPad Air 2, which was released in October of 2014. Apple recently discontinued that device as well, but it was manufactured for a good two and a half years, so the company should have plenty of stock left to offer customers for a while.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• Swatch's provocative 'Tick different' slogan has Apple riled

  We don't know when exactly Apple and Swatch first had a falling out, but trademark disputes seem to be the stage both have chosen to publicly acknowledge their strained relationship. In the latest example of this, Apple is challenging Swatch's "Tick different" trademark, which features in marketing campaigns for its Bellamy range of simple, analog watches that include NFC for contactless payments. Apple is arguing the phrase is too similar to its now-retired "Think different" slogan, thus causing confusion among consumers.

  By Jamie Rigg Read More

• Qualcomm countersues Apple over iPhone and iPad royalties

  For years, Apple and Qualcomm have worked together on technology that' goes inside your iPhone and iPad. Qualcomm specifically handles a lot of the modem chips that connect devices to cellular or WiFi networks, and are crucial to any mobile hardware. Since Apple needed a lot of chips, Qualcomm supplied them, and everything seemed good -- until January when Apple filed a $1 billion lawsuit claiming Qualcomm charged royalties on tech it had nothing to do with, and then followed up with two antitrust lawsuits in China. Tonight, Qualcomm has responded with a lawsuit of its own (you can grab the 139 page PDF here), claiming that Apple is in the wrong, and has breached its contract with the company.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Please don't buy a Mac Pro right now

  This week, Apple finally admitted, after too damn long, that it had overdesigned the "trash can" Mac Pro into a corner. Its triangular thermal design was innovative but impossible to upgrade, and failed to anticipate shifts in computing following its launch. After several years of silence, the company finally apologized, admitting that a redesigned model will arrive at some point next year. Apple has now heavily discounted the 2013 model as an act of contrition, but is that enough for Pro users to bite? Dan Cooper is tempted to make the splash, but Aaron Souppouris is desperate to stop him.

  By Engadget Read More

• Australian regulator sues Apple over phone-bricking 'Error 53'

  When iPhone owners hoping for a cheap screen repair started getting the notorious, phone-bricking Error 53 message last year, the company claimed it was a security measure meant to protect customers from potentially malicious third-party Touch ID sensors. An iOS patch eventually alleviated bricking issues, but some consumer rights advocates still aren't pleased with Apple's lack of transparency. This week, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission announced it will be taking legal action against Apple for allegedly making "false, misleading, or deceptive representations about consumers' rights" under Australian law.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• Apple could make a MagSafe to USB-C adapter if it wanted to

  Dongles are a sad part of life for new MacBook Pro owners: The 2016 laptops infamously replaced all of its ports with USB-C, except for the headphone jack. So, it's going to take a lot of adapters to make your existing peripherals compatible with your new machine. This means the MagSafe breakaway charging cable has been phased out, but Apple may be working on a solution to keep it alive. As The Verge notes, the company filed a patent for a MagSafe to USB-C adapter last year, and it was just published a few days ago.

  By Derrick Rossignol Read More

• Apple is making an iMac with pros in mind

  When you think "pro desktop," you probably don't think of the iMac. You can get one with a pro-quality display and a high-end (consumer) processor that will do the job for many tasks, but you likely wouldn't buy one for massive 3D modeling or video projects. However, Apple might have you changing your mind before long. As part of a roundtable on the future of Mac desktops, the company's Phil Schiller has promised that there will be iMac configurations made "specifically with the pro customer in mind" later in 2017. And before you ask: no, this doesn't mean a touchscreen-centric design akin to Microsoft's Surface Studio.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Apple is sorry about the Mac Pro, vows to relaunch it in 2018

  The last new Mac Pro was announced back in 2013, and not much has changed much since. The iconic shiny objet proved a difficult fit for its pro users, and as a consequence Apple is apparently fundamentally rethinking its top-end computer series and everything that comes with it. According to a roundtable the company held with reporters earlier this week, Phil Schiller, Apple's SVP of worldwide marketing added that since its new Pro will be a far more modular system, you can also expect a new Pro display to land alongside it. However, it told Buzzfeed that "You won't see any of these products this year." That's because Apple's engineering team is apparently still working to design a system that can easily and efficiently be upgraded -- the biggest issue many had with the current Mac Pro.

  By Mat Smith Read More

• Apple is building its own GPU for the iPhone and iPad

  Imagination Technologies is famous for one thing: it's the company that provides the graphics for the iPhone. But today, Imagination announced that its longstanding relationship with Apple is coming to an abrupt end. In a statement, the outfit has conceded that Apple will replace the PowerVR GPU at the heart of its iOS devices with a graphics chip of its own design.

  By Daniel Cooper Read More

• Apple hopes to sell premium TV channels in a bundle

  Apple's attempts to offer its own TV service haven't panned out. However, it appears to have a Plan B: offer a bundle that includes just a handful of channels you can already watch on its devices. Recode sources understand that Apple is pitching a deal that would offer HBO, Showtime and Starz for one price. It's not certain whether or not you'd get a discount over the $35 per month it costs to subscribe to each network individually, but the focus would be on convenience. There's even talk of Apple potentially selling the bundle as a stand-alone product -- presumably, as more than just a collection of existing apps.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

Apps (38)

• There's a slackbot for people who like to shit where they eat

  Online dating and work chat apps have been separate entities for entirely logical, productive and HR-compliant reasons. But a dating app-maker has decided that the line dividing office life and love life should be blurred with the help of a chatbot for the reigning king of productivity services, Slack. If you think company-sanctioned flirting through work messaging is a good idea, you should probably talk to your human resources department. Because this is playing with fire in a way that gets people fired.

  By David Lumb Read More

• 'Pictionary' comes to phones five years after 'Draw Something'

  It has taken its sweet time, but Pictionary (with all the appropriate copyright branding), has landed on iPhones, Android devices and, oh, even Amazon's app store. The game has two modes. For one, you're given plenty of time time to draw overelaborate masterpieces in a turn-based game, while in the other you're playing in a real-time, two-vs-two challenge, which is obviously why you downloaded the app, right? Categories cover people, places, animals, objects, actions and a spicy "Difficult" category, while you can pick and choose from pencils, crayons, paintbrushes and more to communicate that this is obviously an olive tree, why can't you see that? Stares and stern pen-tapping noises are currently are not supported.

  By Mat Smith Read More

• Show off your 3D art in Tilt Brush's new online gallery

  Google's VR paint experience Tilt Brush just got a hefty update with a slew of new features that let users tweak the environment for more dynamic lighting and color options. But even more exciting: The community is getting its own Social Website where they can upload their art for others to download and remix themselves.

  By David Lumb Read More

• McDonald's will satisfy your Big Mac craving with UberEats delivery

  McDonald's already tried delivering Quarter Pounder combo meals via Uber in Florida and now the fast-food restaurant it ready to expand the option. Crain's Chicago Business reports that McDonald's will launch its delivery option in more cities before the end of June. And yes, it's still powered by UberEats.

  By Billy Steele Read More

• Gboard on Android makes it easier to type and tweak your text

  Google has made a few seemingly minor tweaks that could make Gboard on Android much easier to use. The keyboard now comes with a new text editing mode with arrow keys that you can use to quickly go to the part of your text that you want to edit or delete. You'll also find huge select, cut, copy and paste buttons right next to those keys, so you won't have to long press on the text box and to drag the text pointer around. You can access all these by pressing the G button and tapping the new text edit icon that looks like a "I" in between two pointers.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Chrome casting tweak streams all videos directly to your TV

  As a general rule, you send an entire Chrome browser tab to your Chromecast (or other Cast-ready devices) as a last resort. The quality is lousy enough that you only really want to use it when a service doesn't have native casting support, like Amazon Prime Video. Google may soon give you a good reason to use this option more often, though. The latest developer version of Chrome includes rough support for a feature that preserves the quality and performance of video when you cast a tab. If you choose to take a video full screen while casting, the software now sends the video's raw bitstream to your TV. You shouldn't get muddy, stuttering video as your PC struggles to deliver content you don't need to see.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Google Maps can remember where you parked on Android and iOS

  Google Maps already lets you know when parking at your destination might be difficult, but the app's latest navigation feature aims to make things even easier after you've arrived. The helpful parking location features we saw last month just became official, meaning Google Maps on Android and iOS will now remember where you parked the car once you reach your destination -- and it's literally a no-brainer to use on iOS.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• YouTube Kids brings cartoons and bright colors to your smart TV

  YouTube Kids' mobile app is fine if your young ones are content to watch videos on a tablet, but what if you just want to plunk them down on the couch to watch on the big screen? You can after today. YouTube is trotting out a version of the Kids app for many LG, Samsung and Sony smart TVs (more details below) in all 26 countries where the child-ready viewer is available. The interface isn't exactly a radical departure, but that's the point, isn't it? Ideally, this lets little tykes watch videos with minimal help from their parents.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Spotify took its sweet time getting Behind the Lyrics on Android

  Over a year ago, Spotify rolled out a slick new Behind the Lyrics integration on iOS that connected the song you were currently listening to with annotated lyrics from Genius. Like a cross between VH1's Pop Up Video and a karaoke machine, Behind the Lyrics draws on Genius's extensive database of music trivia to give you a bit of the track's backstory. Unfortunately, it took Spotify a solid 18 months to bring those features to everyone on Android.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• Google Photos for iOS beams images to your TV with AirPlay

  Google has been improving its Photos app for a while now, adding features like automatic white balance, compensation for wobbly video, social photo editing tools and even improving Apple's own Live Photos. The one thing it's been missing, however, is the ability to send your photos and videos to an Apple TV right from the app using AirPlay. That's been remedied, though, with a new update that's available to download right now from the App Store.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Duolingo has a premium subscription, but lessons are still free

  The idea that learning another language should be free is the core idea behind Duolingo. Over the past few years, the app has strived to make learning a new tongue convenient, portable and fun. Now the company's trying to turn its free language learning tools into a profitable business by introducing a premium service. Don't worry, though -- Duolingo Plus doesn't take away your free language course, it just gets rid of its ads.

  By Sean Buckley Read More

• The next version of uTorrent will run in your browser

  uTorrent is the most popular Bittorrent client in the world, but it's clearly getting a bit long in the tooth. You can expect some big changes soon, though. TorrentFreak reports that the app will eventually run in your web browser, based on comments from BitTorrent creator Bram Cohen in an interview with the Steal This Show podcast.

  By Devindra Hardawar Read More

• Arsenal FC delivers match day updates with Alexa

  Amazon's virtual assistant can tell you all sorts of info on a range of topics. Sure, Alexa can already give you sports details, but one English Premier League club is going a step further. With a hand from digital agency AKQA, Arsenal Football Club says its the first team in the league with its own Alexa Skill. The Echo add-on will serve up match day info like pre-game coverage, lineups, live commentary, score updates and post-match analysis. Of course, if you're truly a fan, why would you need this? Let me explain.

  By Billy Steele Read More

• Stream from your Android device to an Apple TV with an $8 app

  Non-Apple-device Airplay streaming to Apple TV effectively died when Apple pushed tvOS 10.2 into the world. But the folks who enabled it in the first place, doubleTwist, have returned to fix that. "We went ahead and added support for Apple's new pairing process in the latest doubleTwist Pro release because we believe the era of walled gardens is long gone," a post on the developer's blog says. Meaning, if you didn't already have the premium app, all it'll cost to get FLAC files from your Android device to your Apple TV is a spare $8/£8. Handy!

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Android's new filters will help you purge unused apps

  Use a smartphone for long enough and you'll likely accrue a bunch of apps you don't really use -- think dead social networks or games you only ever tried once. How do you do that spring cleaning without sifting page by page through your app list? On Android, you now have some help. After some earlier experimentation, Google has started the broader rollout of a Play Store update that gives you more control over your "My apps & games" section. Installed apps and updates are now separate, and the installed section now lets you sort by alphabetical, last updated, size... and most importantly, last used. If you have a slew of apps you haven't touched in ages, you can get rid of them all in short order.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Android Pay can soon dip into your PayPal account

  Now that Android Pay is gaining steam around the world two years after its debut, it's become a convenient way to check out without reaching for your credit or debit card. For people who don't have plastic, however, making use of Android Pay just got a bit easier. That is, if you're a PayPal user in the US. Thanks to an update announced today, you'll soon be able to activate your PayPal account in Android Pay and use it online, in apps and in physical stores.

  By Cherlynn Low Read More

• Tumblr's Cabana app lets friends watch video along with you

  Tumblr has released a new standalone app called Cabana, where you can hang out with your friends through video chat and force them to watch cute animal videos. It's far from a being a new concept: Google already did it with YouTube party mode for Hangouts and Uptime. A simple search for "watch videos together" will bring up a lengthy list of choices, as well -- there's even an in-app option for Apple's iMessage. Still, the company says the prototype was a hit among teens aged 13 to 18 during their tests. If you're partial to Tumblr and you're looking for a virtual party app anyway, Cabana might be worth a shot.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• MIT's app only needs a second to teach you a new language

  You know the seconds and minutes you waste waiting for the elevator to arrive, for a friend to reply to an IM or for a website to load? A team of MIT CSAIL researchers believe you can put them to good use, so they created a series of apps called the WaitSuite that makes the most of those idle moments by helping you learn a new language. The tools can test your vocabulary without whisking you away to another app. For instance, if you're chatting with a friend, a flash card asking you about a word in the language you're learning will pop up within the IM itself. If you're waiting for a website to load, the card will appear within the browser.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Go back to 1984 with Internet Archive's Macintosh collection

  Not content to sit on the sidelines, the Internet Archive recently resurrected something, too. This time, it's a swath of apps, games and software from the original Macintosh circa 1984. That means stuff like Lode Runner, MacOS System 7.0.1, Microsoft BASIC 2.0 and Space Invaders are on offer in their pixelated, black-and-white glory. Just like the old days. Except, you know, these run in a browser window. The Archive says this collection of stuff from 1984 to 1989 is just the first set of emulations from the machine, so it might not be too long before more apps are available.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• 'Tinder for BFFs' app makes more sense than you'd think

  For most of my adult life, I've had trouble making friends. As a shy, introverted person, I don't go out often, and when I do, it's hard for me to talk to people. What do I say? How do I jump into conversations? After many failed attempts, I became increasingly self-conscious, developing deep-seated social anxiety and a fear of rejection. As a result, most of my friendships are cultivated through the internet, where the usual social barriers don't apply. Over the years, I've gotten better at relating to people in real life, but I still struggle occasionally. So when I heard about a friendship app, I was intrigued. Could this be the solution to my woes?

  By Nicole Lee Read More

• Google Photos will make your shaky videos watchable

  Google's Photos app has long been compensating for wobbly Live Photos taken with an iPhone. Now it can do same for any video in your device. The tech titan has begun rolling out Photos' long-awaited video stabilizer, according to Android Police, which has already tested it out. To use it, simply click the pen icon while viewing a video within the app and tap the new feature's button right next to "Rotate."

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Skype's 'all-new' Windows 10 app makes the trip to Xbox One

  Although Microsoft isn't promoting its Xbox One camera add-on nearly as much these days (and using one on new systems requires an adapter just to plug it in), it has acknowledged the Kinect with a new version of Skype for the console. This "all new" edition is based on the Universal Windows version available on other platforms but redesigned to work in the living room. While Snap picture-in-picture chatting is no longer available, it has a new look, controller shortcuts and now features manual zoom control to go along with its automatic zoom capability. Despite a number of attempts, living room video calling has yet to take off, but if you're properly equipped then the new version should be available on your Xbox One now.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Dropbox document scanning comes to Android devices

  Android Dropbox users now have the same ability as their iOS-using brethren: scanning documents right to their account with a mobile app. The company's Paper app -- a collaborative document workspace for Dropbox Business users -- also gets an offline mode for both iOS and Android.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Slack adds status messages, a feature it should have had on day one

  After its meteoric rise to popularity, Slack has been slowly adding useful features to help keep fast-moving chatrooms from getting bogged down. Earlier this year, the company introduced much-needed threaded conversations and now Slack users can finally set an away message or status update so friends and coworkers no longer have to sit and wonder why it's taking so long to reply.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• Firefox 'performance' tab will curb its RAM hunger

  Despite their popularity, both Firefox and Chrome have reputations as resource hogs that chew up big chunks of your RAM. In the case of Firefox, some of this is unfair -- parent Mozilla says part of the problem is that many users are running older machines without a lot of memory in the first place. To help those folks, the developers are working on a new feature called "performance" that will let you fine-tune the browser if you're running a PC that's less than state-of-the-art.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• Android Pay now works with your mobile banking app

  You no longer have to use Google's official app if you want to get started with Android Pay's tap-to-buy features. The internet giant has forged partnerships with several financial institutions (currently including Bank of America, BNZ, Discover, mBank and USAA) that let you add cards and use Android Pay from within their mobile banking apps. The tap-to-pay experience should remain familiar, right down to getting notifications whenever you make a purchase.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Spotify finally gets serious about an Apple Watch app

  If you're an Apple Watch owner, you might be wondering why there's no Spotify app for your favorite wrist computer. Developer Andrew Chang aimed to remedy that oversight with his own app, Snowy. Back in February, though, Chang was contacted by Spotify, who thought that the app, then called Spotty, was too much like Spotify in its name and interface. However, the company must've been impressed with Chang's work. Now it's hired him to work on an official app.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Evernote for Mac puts shortcuts on the Touch Bar

  When we reviewed the latest MacBook Pro after it came out last November, we found its brand-new Touch Bar feature to be useful, if unasked-for. But even as a peripheral appeared to give users the full touchscreen they really wanted, software mainstays like Office and Chrome have added support for the capacitative strip in the last few months. Evernote is the latest to integrate the Touch Bar into its MacBook edition, adding a handful of controls that mimic those found in its smartphone app.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Yuneec adds livestreaming to its remote control drone app

  Yuneec diverted from its earlier higher-end drones to release a more affordable model last fall, the Breeze. For bundling a 4K camera and several flight modes into a $500 package, we guessed it would make it an ideal elaborate selfie machine. But now it's getting an update that lets users stream footage live on Facebook, YouTube and other services.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Algoriddim's djay Pro finally makes the move to Windows

  After a short few months in beta, Algoriddim's djay Pro has finally arrived as a native Windows 10 app. Prior to this, the Apple-centric software added Android to its roster of mobile devices, including the iPad Pro, but otherwise hasn't been available on bigger touchscreens. The extensive line of Windows hybrids seem well-suited to hands-on digital DJing, but when you consider the Surface Studio, you have a monster of an interface and a match made in heaven.

  By Jon Turi Read More

• Runtastic's video recipe app feeds your fitness regime

  It makes sense that the folks behind a running app would launch a new video recipe app. Cooking clips from Tasty and Delish seem to be taking over everyone's Facebook feed lately, so now is the time to hop onboard. Runtastic has already filled its YouTube channel with the top-down videos, so including them in its new mobile app, Runtasty , isn't too much of a stretch for the fitness company.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Apple's Clips app hits iOS today to make video creation a cinch

  Remember that time Apple launched an iOS app called Clips so people could go forth and pepper their social networks with cleverly edited videos? Well, you probably don't, because it hasn't happened yet. Soon, though! If everything goes according to plan, you'll be able to grab it from the App Store at around 1 PM (Eastern) this afternoon. In the meantime, we've spent a little more time with Apple's new video-editing app. Despite its dead-simple interface, Clips is capable of some pretty impressive feats.

  By Chris Velazco Read More

• Pacemaker+ makes your mixes better and easier to share

  In news that'll please budding mix-meisters (you're not actually a DJ, sorry), popular iOS mixing app Pacemaker has just received a hefty paid update. Pacemaker+ doubles down on its existing social features, allowing users to seamlessly create and share their mixtapes using their Spotify Premium library. With over 30 million tracks at their fingertips, owners of the premium in-app upgrade will also have access to new mixing tools courtesy of Pacemaker+'s Studio features.

  By Tom Regan Read More

• Send Starbucks lattes to your lover with iMessage

  Saying "I love you" with a Grande Soy Latte just got a little easier. Starbucks updated its iOS app with its first iMessages offering which allows you to send anyone you chat with a Starbucks gift card without interrupting the flow of your conversation. The Starbucks app update also includes enhanced push notifications, a new mobile ordering interface and new filtering options for locating a nearby location.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Apple Music for Android gets an overdue makeover

  The Android version of Apple Music was very close to the iOS app when it first arrived, but it's clear that the software has lagged in recent months. While iOS and desktop users got a (frankly needed) overhaul last year, Android users were stuck with the old interface. No more: Apple has released a new version of the app that brings it up to par. That means a redesigned For You section with many more recommendations, stronger support for your own music library and a revamped player with quick access to your queue and lyrics.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• ESPN's new Apple TV app behaves like your cable box

  As great as the streaming TV era may be, it frequently lacks the immediacy of conventional broadcasts. You can't always flip to your favorite network and start watching right away like you can with cable or satellite. ESPN, however, wants to recreate some of that experience. It just released a revamped Apple TV app whose centerpiece is automatic live streaming. If you've authenticated with a TV provider, the app will start playing a channel as soon as you hop in. This won't help much if it's playing the wrong channel, of course, but it could make the difference between catching a big play live and having to visit the on-demand video. Thankfully, that last part should also be easier.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Offline Netflix belatedly hits Windows 10 PCs

  Android and iOS users have been able to download content from Netflix since late last year, but the service's Windows apps conspicuously lacked the feature. Well, that's starting to change. Windows Central reports that the Netflix app for Windows 10 PCs now has the ability to download certain titles for offline watching — just hit up the Windows Store and get that update going.

  By Chris Velazco Read More

• HTC launches a monthly subscription for Vive VR apps

  Virtual reality is still in its infancy, so it's no surprise that most apps for the HTC Vive are smaller, experimental and ultimately expendable experiences. If you're a new headset owner, it can be hard to know which games are worth buying, or to get a good sense of what the medium has to offer without spending hundreds of dollars. To help, HTC is launching the Viveport Subscription, a scheme that offers five VR apps for $6.99 per month. You choose from a pool of 50 and can rotate your selection every four weeks, keeping your library and knowledge of the platform fresh.

  By Nick Summers Read More

Big Tech (20)

• Tesla ends SolarCity's door-to-door sales pitches

  Tesla is used to selling cars online, but that's not how the recently acquired SolarCity liked to roll -- it preferred door-to-door sales pitches to get panels on your roof. Thankfully, you won't have anyone interrupting dinner going forward. Tesla has revealed that its solar energy division will stop those door-to-door sales in favor of internet and retail operations. It's what "most of our prospective customers prefer," the company says, and the other sales channels should more than make up for the loss. That will shake up jobs, but the roughly 1,000 people affected will either be moved to other sales methods or get a chance to interview for other positions at Tesla.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Airbnb makes it easier for road warriors to find a room

  Airbnb is becoming a more popular option for business travelers. Employees from more than 250,000 companies around the world have signed up to use it for work, the company says. So, Airbnb caters to these road warriors with a new search tool that shows only listings suited for business travel.

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

• Uber puts you in control of your user data

  Uber is making removing the hurdles to deleting your account entirely. Like so many other services, simply uninstalling the app from your phone doesn't wipe your data on the company's servers. Not any more, according to The Verge. Rather than having to contact Uber support to eliminate your personal information, a forthcoming update adds the feature to the app itself. From the privacy settings you'll apparently be able to start a 30-day countdown, and after the clock hits zero your customer data will go the way of the dodo.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Google and Facebook named as victims in $100 million scam

  The tech companies that fell victim to a $100 million email scam reported in March are no inexperienced newbies fresh off their first funding round. According to Fortune, they're none other than Google and Facebook. When the incident was first exposed, feds revealed that they arrested a Lithuanian man named Evaldas Rimasauskas for perpetrating the phishing scheme. However, they chose to keep the companies' identities a secret. It became pretty easy to find the victims once Taiwanese parts supplier Quanta Computer admitted that the scammer used its company's name.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• DJI grounded its drones in Iraq and Syria to lock out extremists

  The most recognizable name in drones has reportedly stepped in to help the United States in its ongoing war on terror. As The Register reports today, Shenzhen-based DJI -- makers of the ever-popular Phantom and Inspire series quadcopters -- quietly created software-based no-fly zones over large parts of Iraq and Syria where ISIS fighters have been known to strap improvised bombs to commercial drones.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• Uber's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad 2017

  Uber is believed to be the world's most valuable startup, with estimates pegging the company as being worth around $70 billion. Its business, and its CEO, have always garnered controversy, but to date, Uber has been able to survive whatever slings and arrows were thrown its way. 2017, however, may be the year that the company faces its reckoning as crisis upon crisis washes over it. Here's a timeline of some of the major events that have hit the service in the past four months.

  By Daniel Cooper Read More

• Xiaomi still isn't ready to sell phones in America

  Whenever I write about a new Xiaomi product these days, the response is usually sour comments along the lines of, "Why bother telling us when these won't be coming to our side of the world?" I, too, get frustrated (as if the poor data connection in Beijing wasn't enough to wind me up), because it has indeed been a long wait since I attended Xiaomi's first product launch almost six years ago. That bitterness has only gotten worse as the company's smartphones have become increasingly more appealing. Case in point: There are no plans for its new Mi 6 to enter the US or Europe. Meanwhile, Shenzhen-based OnePlus -- a much smaller and younger competitor, mind you -- has been able to form impressive lines in the US, UK and other places Xiaomi doesn't dare go.

  By Richard Lai Read More

• Steve Ballmer's US data trove isn't the first, but may be the best

  Steve Ballmer spent years at Microsoft chasing money for the tech giant to add to its bottom line, but now he's devoted to following the money the US government spends. After his retirement and conversations with his wife about what to do next, Ballmer earmarked part of his personal fortune to launch USAFacts.org. Its goal? To figure out what happens to money as it flows from our wallets into government coffers and beyond. For a man who helmed one of the greatest companies of all time and then decided he wanted to own the L.A. Clippers, stepping into the role of unbiased government watchdog sure seems strange. And yet, the end result is a strong step in the right direction.

  By Chris Velazco Read More

• Apple fills new hardware team with ex-Google satellite execs

  Apple has hired two people with intriguing backgrounds in the field of satellite technology: John Fenwick, the former head of Google's spacecraft business, and Michael Trela, the ex-lead of Google's satellite engineering group. Bloomberg reports the hires, citing people familiar with the matter.

  By Jessica Conditt Read More

• Samsung and Amazon counter Dolby Vision HDR with HDR10+

  Samsung and Amazon have unveiled HDR10+, an improvement of its current HDR10 open standard that brings it more up to par with rival Dolby Vision. The partnership makes sense as Amazon will create and stream HDR content, while Samsung will include HDR10+ in all its 2017 4K TVs, and offer updates for last year's models. The tech will help them counter some, but not all, of Dolby Vision's advantages, while still letting Samsung and other manufacturers avoid paying Dolby licensing royalties.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• Intel cancels developer events as it moves beyond PCs

  We hope you weren't looking forward to the next Intel Developer Forum... or any Intel Developer Forum, for that matter. After 20 years, Intel has cancelled the Developer Forum program in light of an "evolved" event mix. According to a spokesperson speaking to AnandTech, this is really an acknowledgment that the company isn't as PC-centric as it used to be. Monolithic events are no longer the best way of spreading info, Intel says. Instead, it'll run narrowly focused events that cater to specific audiences, such as a particular region or device category.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Uber is kicking restaurants off its UberRush service

  When Uber launched UberRush in 2015, the company promised to deliver just about anything in minutes to clients in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. In addition to connecting regular users with couriers for small errands, the logistics platform also became the backend for a number of restaurants and retailers delivering everything from dry cleaning to flowers. According to a new report from Quartz, however, Uber is now scaling back UberRush and consolidating its portfolio of services as the company continues to bleed cash despite its rapid growth.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• Italian court halts Uber injunction as Taiwan lifts ban

  Uber doesn't have to pack its bags and leave Italy just yet. Another court in Rome has decided to suspend a lower court's rule banning the ride-hailing service from operating in the country completely. The judge has allowed it to continue its operations in Italy, at least until it's done appealing its total ban. An Uber spokesperson told Engadget that "drivers and riders... can now continue using the Uber app until the court's appeal ruling." Uber promises to "continue fighting this judgement in the hope that Italians will be able to enjoy the benefits of modern technology that provides reliable transportation at the push of a button."

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Uber saw rapid growth in 2016, but it still bled cash

  Uber has revealed part of its financials for the first time, perhaps in effort to distract you from all the controversies it's involved with. The privately held ride-hailing company, which isn't required to publicize its earnings, has told Bloomberg that its sales growth is outpacing losses. Its gross bookings (or how much it collects from drivers) in 2016 apparently amounted to $20 billion, which is double the total from the year before. The company took home around $6.5 billion from that amount after adjustments.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• BlackBerry made more cash from royalties than phones

  Between antitrust fines and lawsuits, Qualcomm's patent strategy is already running into trouble... and things just got much worse. The wireless chipset maker has been given a preliminary order to pay BlackBerry $814.9 million in a dispute over royalty payments. The two went into arbitration in 2016 after BlackBerry claimed that it was overpaying royalties -- it argued that a Qualcomm cap on royalties applied to a licensing deal for device sales between 2010 and 2015. The final order won't be available until May 30th, but BlackBerry chief John Chen is quick to stress that he still sees Qualcomm as a partner.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Yahoo misused millions meant for humanitarian aid, lawsuit claims

  Yahoo executives allowed the head of the company's Human Rights Trust to use $13 million -- the bulk of the organization's funding -- for personal gain, according to a federal lawsuit filed today in DC. These allegations aren't new and the trust itself was dissolved in 2015 after years of suspicious activity, but today's lawsuit puts Yahoo on the hook for $17.3 million, at least.

  By Jessica Conditt Read More

• Tesla's sleek solar panels are easier to install on your roof

  Tesla's home energy efforts might be centered around its solar roofs, but it knows that not everyone can (or wants to) rip up their roof just to bring renewable energy to their home. To that end, the company is offering a first glimpse at Panasonic-made solar panels that would go on top of your existing roof. Unlike many aftermarket options, this would be relatively slick and unintrusive -- the panels have "integrated front skirts and no visible mounting hardware." While it'll be patently obvious that you have solar energy on your roof, it shouldn't be the eyesore you sometimes get with conventional designs.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Europe clears 21st Century Fox's purchase of Sky

  21st Century Fox's £11.7 billion acquisition of Sky has edged a little closer to being a done deal today, as the European Commission approved the merger. The commission was assessing any potential competition concerns that might arise from the marriage of huge media company and pay-TV provider. It concluded that as the two firms "are mainly active at different levels of the market," the acquisition wouldn't have any significant impact on competition. It wouldn't be good business for Fox to withhold its films from Sky's competitors, for example, or for Sky to worsen its platform by carrying Fox's content exclusively -- not to mention regulations and existing contracts in countries where Sky operates prevent that kind of thing from happening anyway.

  By Jamie Rigg Read More

• Seattle court strikes blow to Uber driver unionization efforts

  A landmark decision by Seattle's city council, which would allow drivers for ride-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft to unionize despite being classified as independent contractors, has hit a snag according to a report from the Associated Press.

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• Yahoo and AOL are part of Verizon's new 'Oath' brand (updated)

  Somewhere along the way, Verizon's planned purchase of Yahoo got real complicated. Thanks to security breachs of gargantuan proportions, Yahoo has lost a ton of value -- and the company was struggling even when Verizon announced its intentions to buy the former internet juggernaut. Part of the value lost is in the Yahoo brand, which Verizon apparently considers toxic at this point. To that end, Verizon is changing the name of the combined Yahoo and AOL company. Business Insider first reported that "Oath" will be the new name of the company (which would be the parent company of Engadget). Minutes after we published this story, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong confirmed the change in a tweet.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

Buying Guides (4)

• Where to buy LG's G6 in the UK

  The launch of LG's latest smartphone, the G6, has been somewhat staggered. First there were pre-orders, and then a prerelease specifically for those eager customers. But over the last few days, the G6 has gone on general sale pretty much everywhere. After last year's ambitious but tepidly received, modular G5, LG has gone back to basics -- if you can call ample power, a big and beautiful display and two primary cameras "basics," that is. Intrigued? Well, here are all the carriers and retailers in the UK that'd be more than happy to sell you one.

  By Jamie Rigg Read More

• Where to buy Samsung's Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus in the UK

  It's that time of the year again -- one of the most important dates in the smartphone launch calendar. Today, the UK gets its hands on Samsung's new Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus, and whichever size you're eyeing up, you won't be disappointed. They are easily two of the best handsets on the market right now, with the lack of bezel around their gorgeous "Infinity" displays a particularly striking feature. Though Samsung's Bixby assistant still needs some training, they are both blazing fast with batteries big enough to get you through two days of normal use. And if you didn't pre-order one right away, these are all the places you can pick one up from today.

  By Jamie Rigg Read More

• The best commands for Amazon Echo and Alexa

  Researched and written by Libby Plummer Powered by Alexa, the Amazon Echo and smaller Echo Dot speakers can carry out scores of tasks from setting alarms and giving weather reports to checking sports scores and ordering an Uber. But there's plenty more on offer, including a wide range of fun easter eggs. Here are some tips and tricks for Alexa that you might not know about.

  By Engadget Read More

• New in our buyer's guide: Dell's XPS 13 2-in-1 and much more!

  With spring here -- and an erratic winter quickly fading from memory -- we've finally refreshed our buyer's guide with a healthy heaping of gear. This year, slim and flexible is still the norm for laptops, with Dell's XPS 13 2-in-1 and Lenovo's Yoga 910 offering great overall quality for their respective prices. If you're a gamer ready to invest, Razer's updated Blade Pro offers high-end features and processing, as long as you bring a power cord. Our guide also includes the latest consoles from Sony and Microsoft, along with a slew of audio gear. Sony's MDR 1000x takes the lead in the sound-cancelling wireless headphone category, while Bragi's Headphones top the truly wireless earbud set. Rounding out the list, Roland and Korg each have some great additions for your home studio. Check out our buyer's guide for the full rundown, and stay tuned for new additions throughout the season.

  By Engadget Read More

Computing (16)

• Windows 10's biannual update schedule starts in September

  Now that the Windows 10 Creators update has officially arrived, Microsoft is looking forward to the next major updates in its release schedule. Although we already new Microsoft would bring another major release in September of this year, Redmond is also committing to a new twice-per-year feature release schedule for 2018 and beyond.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• Windows 10 will throttle apps to improve battery life

  If there's anything that will kill your laptop's battery quickly, it's running background apps. They'll often chew up a lot of processor power regardless of what they're doing. Microsoft wants to do something about that on Windows PCs. It just released an Insider preview build of Windows 10 whose Power Throttling feature should keep the amount of CPU work to a minimum. If you have a portable PC with at least a 6th-generation Intel Core processor inside (wider support is coming), Windows can switch the chip to a more energy-efficient state when background apps are active. Those background apps will still get their work done -- they just won't be as demanding as they would be if they were front and center.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• HTC realizes most people don't have a VR-ready PC

  HTC is making it easier for you to buy a Vive. The company just rolled out three new bundles for the virtual reality headset that include PCs and graphics cards for the first time. If you already have a decent rig but need a new graphics card, you can now get the Vive and the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Founders Edition for $999.99. That's $200 cheaper than the suggested retail price, HTC says. You can also finance the bundle for as low as $49 per month for 24 months (estimated shipping plus tax), but these are temporary offers that run through April 24th.

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

• AMD's mid-range Radeon 500-series video cards are here

  With last year's Radeon RX 480, AMD wowed us with a $200 video card that could tackle VR and 1,440p gaming. But with its 500-series cards, it's aiming to make an even bigger leap. How does 1,440p gaming beyond 60 frames per second sound? That's what AMD is promising with the RX 580, the most powerful option in this new mid-range lineup. At the same time, the company is also unveiling cheaper cards, the RX 570, 560 and 550, which cater to gamers who might want to save a few more bucks, or want something that could fit into a tiny case.

  By Devindra Hardawar Read More

• Internet and computing pioneer Robert Taylor dies

  The technology world just lost one of its most prominent innovators. Robert Taylor, best known as the mastermind of ARPAnet (the internet's precursor), has died at 85. As the director of the US military's Advanced Research Projects Agency from 1965 until 1970, he helped pioneer the concept behind shared networks -- he was frustrated with constantly switching terminals and wanted to access multiple networks from one system. While a lot of the credit goes to his team for implementing ARPAnet, he both pushed hard for the project and wrote a legendary 1968 essay that foretold the internet's future: a vast, decentralized grid of connected devices that would reshape communication at just about every level.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• The PC's 5-year slump might be coming to an end

  For the past several years, the PC market has largely told the same dismal story: shipments are down, mobile is taking over the world, and there's no relief in sight. However, there's a glimmer of hope... depending on who you ask, anyway. IDC estimates that PC shipments increased by 0.6 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2017, marking the first such growth in 5 years. Reportedly, that's due to both better-than-expected shipments in multiple regions as well as strong commercial Chromebook sales in the US (think schools and businesses). It's cheerful news for the industry if accurate -- with that said, Gartner's researchers might just temper your enthusiasm.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• NVIDIA posts Mac drivers for its latest graphics cards

  NVIDIA is quickly making good on its promise to support its latest graphics cards on Macs. The GPU giant has quietly posted beta macOS drivers (direct download) that should support any GeForce 10-series card, whether it's a simple GTX 1050 or an all-out beast like the Titan Xp. It's a big step forward for Mac users who've had to settle for 9-series cards at best. However, the big challenge will be making the most of the cards given the current Mac lineup -- this is as much an investment in the future as anything.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• AMD's mid-range Ryzen 5 processors start rolling out

  AMD wants to break back into desktop CPUs in a big way. After debuting its high-end Ryzen 7 chips last month, which go toe-to-toe with Intel's Core i7 lineup, the company is today releasing its mid-range Ryzen 5 CPUs. As you can imagine, they're a direct competitor to Intel's mainstream Core i5 processors. AMD's big selling point? The Ryzen 5 chips offer a lot more bang for your buck.

  By Devindra Hardawar Read More

• The Windows 10 Creators Update is now live

  After much beta testing and new feature additions, Microsoft's Windows 10 Creators Update is finally rolling out today. You can read more about all the new stuff in our preview, but if you want to get it as soon as possible, you have two options. You can either wait for it to hit your machine, which could take months, or use the Update Assistant and get it now. Just beware that with the latter option, you'll want to pay rapt attention to the privacy screen -- otherwise, it will reset your carefully chosen settings to the default ones.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• AMD is spending money to 'solve' the wireless VR problem

  AMD is a company best-known for its computer processors and graphics cards. Now, it wants to help build the next generation of virtual reality headsets. Today, it announced it's acquired intellectual property and key engineering talent from Austin-based startup Nitero, a company that builds 60GHz wireless chips for VR and AR.

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

• Windows 10 can set up a PC using your voice

  Windows installations have come a long way over a few decades. It used to be that you had to hand-hold the system, but it's increasingly automatic -- you can even nuke an existing install with relative ease. And now, you don't even need to touch the keyboard for certain manually-guided steps. As The Verge has noticed, the Windows 10 Creators Update brings Microsoft's Cortana assistant into the setup process. You can tell Windows to connect to your WiFi network, choose keyboard options and sign into your Microsoft Account with little to no typing.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• NVIDIA's Titan Xp is the new king of graphics cards

  Much to the consternation of last-gen Titan X owners, NVIDIA recently unveiled the GTX 1080 Ti, a GPU that offers more performance for nearly half the price. Luckily, rich gamers can regain bragging rights by dropping another $1,200 on the Titan Xp, NVIDIA's new top-of-the-line consumer GPU. It's based on the Pascal GP102 chip, which also powers NVIDIA's $5,000-plus Quadro P6000, so you can look at the Titan Xp as a relative bargain.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• Early adopters can grab the Windows 10 Creators Update now

  We've already explained a lot of the new features coming in the Windows 10 Creators update, but maybe you don't want to wait until April 11th. Starting today, the new Game Mode, Paint 3D and friendlier auto-update scheduling are easily obtainable before it's released through Windows Update. Just download Microsoft's Update Assistant located here, and it will begin the process of downloading and installing Windows 10's newest major addition.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Intel's 360 replay tech is coming to more NFL stadiums

  The National Football League just announced that it's moving its Thursday Night Football streaming coverage from Twitter to Amazon, but there's more news to share this week. Through its on-going partnership with Intel, the NFL plans to install the company's 360 replay tech in more stadiums before the 2017 season kicks off. Right now, the setup is only available in Baltimore, Houston and San Francisco, but it will be in place for more teams this fall.

  By Billy Steele Read More

• Sony's SSDs can withstand the torture of capturing 4K

  Aspiring 4K filmmakers who want the best quality can buy pro-level RAW video cameras on the cheap, or use a DSLR with an external 4K recorder like the Atomos Ninja 2. However, the SSDs on such devices often record and dump out high bit-rate 4K video multiple times a week, so they need to be much faster and more durable than the one on your laptop. That's where Sony comes in with its latest G Series Professional SSDs, which can write up to 2,400 terabytes without failing and use tech that prevents disastrous frame dropping.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• Web pioneer Tim Berners-Lee wins computing's highest award

  World Wide Web pioneer Tim Berners-Lee just chalked up another accolade, and it's one of his greatest yet. The Association for Computing Machinery has given him the 2016 Turing Award, frequently considered the Nobel Prize of the computing industry. He's receiving the award not just for inventing the basics of the web, but designing them in an elegant way. His concepts for links (URLs and URIs) were simple and easy to implement, while making HTML the heart of the web helped anyone publish info in a practical format.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

Cybersecurity (52)

• 'Major scale' malware targets your Mac through email scams

  Mac users are increasingly being targeted by malware after years of being relatively safe, and that means they're facing attacks that other users have unfortunately come to expect for a while. Check Point researchers have discovered Dok, the first "major scale" trojan that targets macOS through an email phishing campaign. The bogus messages (usually aimed at European users) are meant to trick you into downloading a ZIP file that, if you launch it, gives the malware control over your system and lets attackers intercept your internet traffic to spy on your activity or impersonate websites. It'll even delete itself when the intruders are done.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• 'Orange is the New Black' hackers may have stolen 36 other shows

  When the hackers who swiped Netflix's unreleased Orange is the New Black season warned that they had shows from other TV networks, they might not have been kidding around. TheDarkOverlord has reportedly provided DataBreaches.net with a "preview" of the shows it obtained from Larson Studios, and it looks like there could be 36 more titles in the mix -- many of which you've likely heard about. The mix includes recent and yet-to-air episodes of Fox's New Girl, FX's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, IFC's Portlandia and CBS' NCIS: Los Angeles, among others. There are also singular titles like the Vin Diesel movie XXX: Return of Xander Cage as well as Netflix's Bill Nye Saves the World and a YouTube Red original.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Hackers stole a copy of 'Orange is the New Black' season five (updated)

  The next season of Orange is the New Black isn't supposed to premiere until June 9th, but the first episode has already leaked. That's because a hacker or group of hackers going by the name 'TheDarkOverlord stole the content from a third party, and they're demanding Netflix pay a ransom in order to keep the rest of the season private. Late Friday night, TheDarkOverlord tweeted about content belonging to ABC, FOX, IFC and National Geographic, saying "We're not playing any games anymore."

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• The war for the soul of the password

  Obviously, whoever invented the password system was a jerk. And whoever started adding all those little rules for password creation is a sadist. Not the kind of sex-positive sadist with a flag for their kink and a set of consensual negotiation rules that ensure password creation is hot for everyone involved. No, we're talking about the kind of sadist that simply likes watching people suffer as they're told to add special characters, but not dollar signs or exclamation points because... reasons.

  By Violet Blue Read More

• NSA will stop illegally collecting American emails

  The National Security Agency has enjoyed relatively broad authority to monitor communications among suspected terrorists and their associates, even when those people happen to be American citizens and even without a warrant. However, The New York Times reports the NSA is stopping one of its most controversial practices: the collection of Americans' international emails and text messages that mention a foreigner under surveillance.

  By Jessica Conditt Read More

• Chrome warns you when typing anything into non-secure sites

  As part of Google's quest to compel all websites to use the more secure HTTPS protocol, Chrome 62 will flash more warnings when you visit HTTP sites. A few months ago, Chrome 56 (rightly) started labeling unencrypted sites as "not secure" right next to their URLs in the address line if they're asking for passwords and credit card details. As the Chrome Security Team's blog post said, though, passwords and credit card numbers aren't the only types of data worth protecting. That's why when Chrome 62 rolls out in October, you'll see the warning pop up whenever you type anything in an HTTP website.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Home Depot left customers' unprotected personal data online

  It's been awhile since hackers broke into Home Depot's servers and stole 56 million customers' credit card information back in 2014. But recently, a tipster pointed business watchdog site Consumerist to a web address under the HomeDepot.com domain. The unprotected page stored photos of various home improvement projects...and 13 Excel spreadsheets filled with customer data. All told, it had names, phone numbers, and physical and email addresses for up to 8,000 people. And all those files sat there unprotected, unencrypted and discoverable by search engines for an unknown period of time.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Cyberbullying nets '13 Reasons Why' mature rating in New Zealand

  New Zealand has come out hard in its opposition to Netflix's series 13 Reasons Why. The high-school-focused show centering on a girl's suicide and its aftermath already has content warnings ahead of certain episodes, but a recent edict by New Zealand's Office of Film & Literature Classification rules that Netflix "will now be required to display a clear warning in respect to the series, as well as in respect to each episode." This comes after the country's 2015 ruling that makes cyberbullying a punishable offense. Furthermore, the series has received the region's first-ever RP18 rating, which means unless viewers are 18 or older, they should watch the show with an adult.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Inmates used smartphones to swap child porn in prison

  Prosecutors have charged a group of inmates at a federal prison in New Jersey for downloading child porn from the dark web to their smuggled phones, according to NBC News. They even stored videos and photos that show kids, including babies and toddlers, being sexually abused in a cloud account they all shared. While the prosecutors announced charging five people to the public -- and all five were imprisoned for child pornography -- one of them secretly collaborated with the investigation.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Two men admit involvement in the TalkTalk 2015 hack

  Two men involved in 2015's TalkTalk hack have pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey court in London. Matthew Hanley, a 22-year-old from Tamworth, Staffordshire, admitted to three offences under the Computer Misuse Act, including the TalkTalk hack itself and obtaining and supplying files that would "enable the hacking of websites to others." He also confessed to supplying a spreadsheet, containing TalkTalk customer details, so that others could commit fraud. Conner Douglas Allsop, also from Tamworth, pleaded guilty on March 30th to assisting fraud and sharing a file that could help other hackers. Both men will be sentenced on May 31st.

  By Nick Summers Read More

• Air Force enlists hackers to hunt bugs in its site

  Bug bounties have been a staple among startups and online businesses since the days of Netscape Navigator but the federal government has been slow to adopt the beneficial code hunts. However, a year after the DoD's first such program, Hack The Pentagon, the Air Force announced on Wednesday that it will be hosting one of its own next month.

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• Police will scan every fan's face at the Champions League final

  If you're headed to the UEFA Champions League final in Cardiff on June 3rd, you might just be part of a massive experiment in security -- and a privacy uproar. South Wales Police are conducting a face recognition trial that could scan every one of the 170,000 visitors expected to show up in the city for the match, whether or not they're heading to the stadium. Cameras around both the stadium and Cardiff's main train station will compare faces against a police database of 500,000 people of interest. If there's a match, police will get a heads-up that could help them stop a terrorist or frequent hooligan.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• 'White Collar' crime tracker mocks police profiling bias

  As Police forces edge ever closer to realizing the plot of Minority Report, a new art-slash-research project aims to point out inequality in our society. With White Collar Crime Risk Zones, three artists come researchers are reworking predictive policing tech to highlight police bias. Instead of utilizing heat maps to predict where street crime could occur, this software flags potential financial crime hotspots. Using an algorithm based on historical white collar offences committed since 1964, it assesses the risk of financial crime in any given area, even predicting the most likely offense.

  By Tom Regan Read More

• EU court rules selling pre-loaded pirate boxes is illegal

  The European Court of Justice (CJEU) has today handed down a judgement that could drastically affect how multimedia streaming boxes are sold across the continent. In a case involving Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN and local online store Filmspeler.nl (Movie Player), it agreed with concerns regarding the sale of hardware that comes pre-loaded with addons that deliver protected sports and movie streams, ruling that it constitutes copyright infringement .

  By Matt Brian Read More

• Nastier version of IoT botnet could brick your smart toaster

  Two new versions of a nasty botnet called BrickerBot were spotted in the wild by researcher Pascal Geenens, who reported the latest attack for security firm Radware. Permanent denial-of-service botnets like these can infect poorly-protected IoT devices like smart toasters and web-enabled vibrators to bring down various connected web servers. These new BrickerBot iterations use scripts with even more commands and almost four times as many actual attacks as previous iterations to completely overwhelm their targets.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Vizio's XLED TVs might make you forget its tracking software

  Vizio's pushed a wider range of affordable HDR screens with its recent E-series, which follows the trend of high-resolution 4K televisions getting cheaper and cheaper. So follows the company's SmartCast P- and M-series lines for this year, which offer upper and mid-level TVs at reasonable cost.

  By David Lumb Read More

• HipChat resets all passwords after hackers break in

  Today, Hipchat alerted its users that someone broke into one of its servers through a vulnerability in a third-party library. The chat service saw no evidence that other Atlassian systems or products like Jira or Trello were affected, but they're forcing every user to reset their HipChat-connected account password as a precaution.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Unroll.me is sorry-not-sorry it sold email data to Uber

  When the New York Times revealed that Apple had threatened to drop Uber's app over privacy guideline violations, there was a juicy tidbit tucked inside: Unroll.me's email management service had anonymized Lyft receipts and sold them to Uber to help it gauge the health of its ridesharing rival. Unsurprisingly, Lyft customers weren't happy -- and Unroll.me is apologizing... sort of. Company chief Jojo Hedaya has posted a statement saying it was "heartbreaking" to learn that people were upset after discovering that Unroll.me sells data to make its service free. He believes the company wasn't "explicit enough" in telling users what it does, and that there will be clearer messaging in apps and the web.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Turns out, pacemaker security is terrifying

  The hacker who uses her wizard powers to get rich by manipulating stocks is a tired Hollywood trope. But that doesn't mean some hackers don't dream about making the fantasy come true, or that the ridiculous vulnerabilities necessary to facilitate such a thing don't exist. Some hackers do indeed have that dream. And reductive Hollywood-style vulns in critical financial (and other) systems are as real as they are plentiful in our world of crap security.

  By Violet Blue Read More

• Reports: US is preparing charges against Wikileaks' Assange

  United States authorities have prepared charges for the arrest of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, CNN reports. Assange has been hiding out in the Embassy of Ecuador in London since 2012, fleeing allegations of rape in Sweden and espionage charges in the US. This makes him difficult to reach, regardless of a formal charge -- unless Ecuador plans to kick him out of its embassy after a five-year stay.

  By Jessica Conditt Read More

• Over 1,000 Intercontinental hotels hit by a data breach

  The Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) thought only a handful of Holiday Inns were affected by a data breach that happened last year, but it turned out to be a much bigger deal. In a statement posted on its website, IHG has admitted that it found signs of malware designed to access credit card data used at front desks in a lot more locations. It didn't mention a specific number, but it linked to a tool where you can look up which Holiday Inns, Intercontinentals and Crowne Plazas were affected. A Krebs on Security reader did some digging, though, and found 1,175 properties in IHG's tool. That's a sizeable chunk of the 5,000 hotels it has worldwide.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Bose accused of secretly sharing your listening habits

  The podcasts and music you listen to can reveal a lot about your personal and political leanings. That's the basis of a class-action lawsuit filed against Bose, whose wireless headphone and speaker companion app tracks the listening habits of its users. The complaint claims that Bose not only collects, but transmits and discloses its customers' private music and audio history to third parties and a data-mining company.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Google is fixing a Chrome flaw that makes phishing easy

  As we've seen in the past, a strong password doesn't automatically make people safe online. Often, a specially-crafted email is all that it takes for someone to hand over their digital life to a malicious third party. Although email services are doing more to filter phishing emails before they reach your inbox, a decades-old unicode technique is making it hard for users to determine whether a destination is legitimate. Fortunately, Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer and Safari are immune and Google is just days away from patching the flaw.

  By Matt Brian Read More

• Potentially 'undefeatable' ad blocker looks at content, not code

  Facebook may have just lost its war on ad blockers. That is, if a new method developed by Princeton and Stanford researchers is implemented into a widely available blocker. Computer scientist Arvind Narayanan and his colleagues detailed unveiled a tool that detects ads the same way humans would, by looking at things like container sizes, icon graphics and words like "Sponsored." It's called Perceptual Ad Blocker, and is already available as a Chrome extension for you to test out yourself. But in an attempt to avoid getting into the ethics around ad-blocking, the system only covers detected ads with words like "This is an ad," instead of removing them altogether.

  By Cherlynn Low Read More

• Airbnb fights off account hijackers with new security tools

  If you get hacked on Airbnb, you won't only have to worry about criminals getting ahold of your credit card details. You'll also have to fret about internet scammers knowing exactly where you're staying on a particular date or the addresses of the properties you own. In a blog post, the company has announced that it has added new security measures to protect your account from hijackers. Starting today, you'll have to authenticate every new phone, tablet or computer you log into by typing in the unique code Airbnb sends you via text or email. It's no two-factor authentication, but it can at least lessen the chances of a rando getting into your account.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Microsoft says it already patched 'Shadow Brokers' NSA leaks

  Yesterday, the mysterious "Shadow Brokers" posted some hacking tools for Windows that were allegedly stolen from the NSA. All of them were at least a few years old, but exploited flaws in several versions of the operating system to move across networks and infect systems. early Saturday morning, Microsoft has responded with a blog post, saying it has evaluated all of the exploits listed. Its response to the release is surprisingly simple: most of them have already been fixed.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Shadow Brokers release also suggests NSA spied on bank transactions

  Besides a cache of potentially damaging zero-day exploits against many versions of Windows, another element of today's Shadow Brokers release is a folder titled SWIFT. Inside, it has documents listing the internal structure at EastNets, a Dubai-based bank and anti-money laundering organization. Banks use the SWIFT messaging system to transfer trillions of dollars every day, and if the documents released are accurate, it appears the NSA wanted access to monitor transfers between banks in the Middle East.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• GOP rep. on ISP privacy rules: 'Nobody's got to use the internet'

  The internet is a ubiquitous part of our daily lives. It's where many of us turn when we need to file our taxes, apply for jobs or search for housing. But one Republican lawmaker who voted to roll back FCC privacy regulations last month said, "Nobody's got to use the internet" when asked about his decision at a town hall meeting, displaying a staggering amount of ignorance about how the internet affects the modern world.

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

• 'Shadow Brokers' dump of NSA tools includes new Windows exploits (updated)

  Earlier this year "The Shadow Brokers" -- an entity claiming to have stolen hacking tools from the NSA then offering them for sale -- seemed to pack up shop, but the group has continued on. Today, it made a new post that contained a number of working exploits for Windows machines running everything from XP up to at least Windows 8. As far as Windows 10, it appears that the stolen data is from 2013 and predates the latest OS. As such, it isn't immediately apparent if it's vulnerable, but early results indicate at least some of the tools aren't working on it. Update (4/15): Microsoft responded early Saturday morning, saying that for the seven flaws leaked that affect supported systems -- they've all already been patched. Of course, the story gets a bit more interesting from there, since it appears that four of them were only patched just last month, suggesting someone informed the company about the security issues before TSB could leak them.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Dallas siren hack: Coming to a city near you

  At 11:42 PM last Friday night in Dallas, suddenly and for no apparent reason, what locals call the 'tornado sirens' went off. All of them. It was a clear, calm night; no foul weather presaged the blare of an emergency system so loud it's meant to wake sleepers inside their houses. When the 156 sirens continued to go off in repeating 90-second cycles, seemingly without end, people started to worry about being bombed.

  By Violet Blue Read More

• The new CIA head hates WikiLeaks (when convenient)

  The new director of the CIA has come out swinging against WikiLeaks, calling the organization a "hostile intelligence service." In his first public speech, Mike Pompeo called Julian Assange a "narcissist who has created nothing of value," adding that he "relied upon the dirty work of others to make himself famous."

  By Daniel Cooper Read More

• Russia blocks protest app for refusing to share data

  Back in 2013 when messaging apps seemed to be cropping up every day, Zello's walkie-talkie audio dispatches seemed a novel addition to a crowded niche. We didn't anticipate that the app would become a hit with protesters in Ukraine, Turkey, Hong Kong, Venezuela, and elsewhere. But after the simultaneous demonstrations around Russia in the last couple weeks, it seems the government is hitting the perpetrators where they coordinate: Yesterday, they banned the use of Zello in the country.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Luxury AGA ovens aren't safe from hackers

  In the kitchen, nothing screams "I have money" like an AGA. The expensive British-made cast-iron stoves (or cookers, depending on where you're from) have barely changed in terms of looks much over the last century, but they have got smarter. Thanks to the company's iTotal Control technology, owners of certain models -- costing $10,000 and upwards -- have been able to switch their oven on and off via an app or by sending it a simple text message. It's no doubt helped them remotely prepare dinner, but a security flaw in the system has also left them open to mischievous third parties.

  By Matt Brian Read More

• Crafty prisoners hid DIY computers, committed identity theft

  In what sounds like a plot line from Orange is the New Black, a pair of Ohio prison inmates took decommissioned computers, used them for nefarious purposes and hid them from guards by stashing the machines in a ceiling. According to regional news site Cleveland the two inmates, Adam Johnston and Scott Spriggs, pilfered computers that were supposed to be torn down and recycled and instead used them to connect to Ohio's Department of Rehabilitation and Correction network. They then created access cards for restricted areas.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Your phone's motion sensors can give away PINs and passwords

  You could be the most careful mobile user ever, but hackers can still steal your PINs and passwords simply by spying on your phone's motion sensors. A team of cyber researchers from the UK's Newcastle University have demonstrated how easy it is to steal a four-digit PIN by analyzing the way your phone tilts and moves as you type. You might think your phone's movements are random, but they apparently create distinct patterns. During their tests, they were able to crack four-digit PINs on the first guess 70 percent of the time and 100 percent of the PINs they used by the fifth guess.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Roku TVs will eavesdrop on your shows to serve up ads

  Roku fans have another treat this week aside from getting Sling TV's Cloud DVR functionality. Assuming you opt in, the latest software version (7.6) will use Automatic Content Recognition to listen to what broadcast programming you're watching and suggest other stuff to watch based on that, as a way to "enhance" your couch potato session. "Additional viewing options may include the ability to watch from the beginning, watch more episodes of the same show and/or view suggestions for similar entertainment available to stream," the section about Roku TVs reads.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Justice Department attacks global spam botnet after arrest

  The Kelihos botnet is a global network of infected Windows machines that is used for all manner of nefarious cybercrime. That's enough reason for the Justice Department to want to wipe the network off the face of the Earth and prosecute its creator to the full extent of the law. Which is what the department believes it is doing, after releasing a statement confirming that it was behind the arrest of Peter Yuryevich Levashov.

  By Daniel Cooper Read More

• San Francisco airport can now record all visitors' license plates

  When you drive to the airport, you expect a certain amount of tracking, if just from security cameras. However, San Francisco International Airport might be taking things a step too far. The travel hub recently received approval from the Airport Commission to collect the license plate info for everyone who uses its roads and garages, storing that data for over 4 years. It's ostensibly meant for collecting revenue from parking and commercial drivers like taxis, but SFO has permission to release that info to both local law enforcement and the FBI.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Spain arrests Russian citizen for connections to US election hack (updated)

  The evidence that Russia hacked the US to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election continues to grow. The latest comes from AFP, which says that that a Russian "computer expert" was arrested in Spain today at the Barcelona airport on suspicions of hacking the US presidential election campaigns. Furthermore, the US has already put in an extradition request so that the subject Piotr Levashov would have to stand trial here for his alleged crimes.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• Hack sets off all of Dallas' emergency sirens

  Some hacks are clearly worse than others, but Dallas can at least lay claim to facing one of the loudest hacks to date. The city reports that attackers managed to set off all 156 of its emergency sirens for roughly an hour and a half between late Friday and early Saturday -- no mean feat when siren hacks usually trigger just one or two devices. Workers had to disable the sirens entirely to stop the incessant noise, and they only expect the emergency system to return to normal later on April 9th.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• GameStop looks into a potentially serious credit card breach

  Did you shop at GameStop's online store for the holidays, or take advantage of its post-holiday clearance sales? You might want to check your credit card statement. GameStop has confirmed to security guru Brian Krebs that it's looking into a possible data breach that compromised credit card info between September 2016 and February 2017. Krebs' financial industry sources claim that the intruders not only took card numbers, expiration dates and cardholder addresses, but the three-digit security number that's ordinarily hard to get (as it's not usually stored online). This suggests the attackers planted malware on the site to harvest the info before it was transmitted -- this was clearly not a run-of-the-mill breach if so.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• 'Shadow Brokers' give away more NSA hacking tools

  The elusive Shadow Brokers didn't have much luck selling the NSA's hacking tools, so they're giving more of the software away -- to everyone. In a Medium post, the mysterious team supplied the password for an encrypted file containing many of the Equation Group surveillance tools swiped back in 2016. Supposedly, the group posted the content in "protest" at President Trump turning his back on the people who voted for him. The leaked data appears to check out, according to researchers, but some of it is a couple of decades old and focused on platforms like Linux.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Gag ransomware forces you to play an anime shooter game

  A typical ransomware takes your files hostage in exchange for money, but "Rensenware" asks for something else. It forces you to play an anime-type shooter game called Touhou Seirensen (Undefined Fantastic Object) and score 0.2 billion points in Lunatic mode. Based on what we've seen of the gameplay, some of you might wish your computers were infected with ransomware that ask for a reasonable amount of cash instead. Rensenware, which was first spotted by the Malware Hunter Team, was created as a joke.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• WikiLeaks latest CIA dump focuses on malware for Windows

  As WikiLeaks continues to extend the mileage from its "Vault 7 cache" of CIA information, its latest release focuses on tools it says the agency uses for hacking Windows computers. While its release didn't include any source code, manuals described a "Grasshopper" tool used to create custom malware setups depending on the target intended. As CSO Magazine explains, it used some elements from the Carberp financial malware that leaked onto the internet in 2013. The CIA's Advanced Engineering Division and Remote Development Branch allegedly modified that malware, while the Grasshopper setup allows them to customize its ability to persist on the victim's computer, reinstall itself and evade antivirus scans.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• IRS says thousands of taxpayers affected by financial aid breach

  Tax day is rapidly approaching in the US, but according to the IRS, there could be additional headaches for up to 100,000 people this year. Hackers posing as students applying for financial aid possibly swiped taxpayer details through the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) online tool. According to The New York Times, the breach has the potential of being the most extensive since the 2015 tax return incident when info on over 300,000 taxpayers was used to file false claims. The IRS later increased that estimate to potentially affect 700,000 people.

  By Billy Steele Read More

• Democrats aren't backing down on internet data privacy

  It's only been a few days since President Trump signed the bill rolling back rules that kept consumer data private from internet service providers, but it looks like Democrats aren't letting this one go yet. A few days ago, Congresswoman Jacky Rosen (D-NV) introduced a bill that would essentially roll back the one signed this week and reinstate all the consumer protections that were set to go into effect. Of course, both the Senate and House of Representatives just voted to do away with those protections, so this bill is likely going to serve more as a symbolic gesture rather than a piece of legislation that'll actually make a difference to US citizens.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• Bipartisan bill aims to curb warrantless phone searches at the border

  The Trump administration revealed its "extreme vetting" procedures on Tuesday and hoo boy, are they draconian. They'll require foreign visitors -- even close allies like France and Germany -- to potentially reveal passwords, phone contacts and even financial records in order to enter the country. Americans are being searched as well, with Border Patrol forces increasingly demanding the same information from US citizens as they cross the border, but a newly introduced bicameral bill could help safeguard their privacy.

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• Samsung's in-house OS is a security nightmare

  Samsung's Tizen platform might give the company the technological independence it wouldn't have if it stuck to outside software like Android, but it's apparently a security disaster. Researcher Amihai Neiderman tells Motherboard he has discovered 40 unpatched vulnerabilities in Samsung's operating system, exposing many of its smartphones, smartwatches and TVs to remote attacks. Reportedly, it's the "worst code" the expert has "ever seen" -- it was designed by a team that had no real understanding of security concepts, and makes mistakes that virtually anyone else would avoid.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Invasive, self-destructing iOS hack is even worse on Android

  Security researchers from Google and Lookout are warning Android users about "one of the most sophisticated and targeted mobile attacks we've seen in the wild." Called Chrysaor, it's the sibling of Pegasus, a zero-day iOS exploit that was used to spy on a United Arab Emirates human rights activist. Once installed, attackers are able to spy on calls, texts, and emails, microphone, camera, keylogging, GPS and other user data.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• This connected vibrator's camera is disturbingly easy to hack

  While your microwave definitely isn't spying on you, it's always important to make informed choices about which connected devices you bring into your home. Case in point: the $249 Svakom Siime Eye, Wi-Fi-enabled vibrator -- which comes with a built-in camera for livestreaming and, according to security researchers at Pen Test Partners, an interface that can be easily hacked by anyone within WiFi range.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• New York Post's mobile news alerts fall victim to a hack

  If you're a hacker looking to grab attention by attacking a news outlet, what do you do? Deface their website? Take control of their social media accounts? Those are old hat -- apparently, you compromise the company's mobile app. An unknown party hijacked the New York Post app's push notification system on the night of April 1st, sending a flurry of alerts that were clearly meant as a protest against President Trump. The perpetrator left precious few clues as to their identity, but they're cultured -- they signed off with the ancient word "selah" (used in the Bible to encourage pause and reflection), and even borrowed lyrics from Nirvana's song "Come As You Are."

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Exploit attacks your smart TV through over-the-air signals

  Worries that someone could hijack your TV with a broadcast have been present for decades (ever see The Outer Limits?), and it's clear that they're not going away any time soon. Oneconsult security researcher Rafael Scheel has outlined an attack that can control smart TVs by embedding code into digital (specifically, DVB-T) over-the-air broadcasts. The intrusion takes advantage of flaws in a set's web browser to get root-level access and issue virtually any command. You only need to have a transmission powerful enough to reach compatible TVs, and at least one attack will work without revealing that something is wrong.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

Entertainment (3)

• Gorillaz are throwing a house party in mixed reality

  Your favorite virtual band Gorillaz has a new album called Humanz on the way (as well as a TV show, it seems), and the record has had an active promotional campaign so far. The group has shared a series of social media "books" that detail what the band members have been up to the past few years, they've shared some new songs, and now, they've just released a mixed reality app.

  By Derrick Rossignol Read More

• One theme park's mission to perfect VR horror

  I still can't figure it out. Inside the warehouse, I press against the railing, squinting through the darkness to get a better look at the Ghost Train. A Victorian carriage hangs from the ceiling, suspended by iron chains. Step inside, however, and it's a modern London Tube car, caught up in an outbreak that threatens to turn everyone into monsters. You put on a VR headset, contextualised as a life-saving gas mask, and prepare for the worst as the train disembarks.

  By Nick Summers Read More

• ESPN's Drone Racing League returns with faster, bigger races

  Last year, I asked a simple question: Can drone racing become as big as eSports? While we wait to find out, one of the leading race organizers -- the Drone Racing League -- is making all the right moves this year to make that answer yes. One of the keys to achieving that, the DRL hopes, is the introduction of the Racer3 drone, which will be the standard craft all pilots in the DRL race with. Unsurprisingly, it's more powerful and agile than its predecessor (the Racer2, obviously) and could be the shot in the arm the sport needs to go mainstream. The Racer3 should make races -- which air on ESPN starting June 20th -- even more thrilling, luring more fans (and, by association, lucre) to the game.

  By James Trew Read More

EVs and Transportation (80)

• AAA launches its own app-based car sharing service

  Few companies connected to the auto industry can resist the allure of starting their own car sharing service, it seems. After a brief tease, AAA's venture wing has launched Gig, an app-centric car sharing service, in Berkeley and Oakland. You pull out your phone to rent a car like you would with rivals services like Zipcar, at rates of $2.50 per mile, $15 per hour or $85 per day. However, there's a bit of a twist. You don't have to find a special point to drop your car off -- Gig has made deals with its host cities to let you drop your car off at any metered parking space or public parking lot. If you'd rather not take a detour just to end your trip at an approved location, you might not have to.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Tesla revives automatic braking in response to lower review scores

  Apparently, public pressure works... to a degree. Tesla has reintroduced automatic emergency braking to the Model S and Model X through an update after their continued omission led Consumer Reports to lower its ratings for the electric cars. It's a tentative step, mind you. The feature currently only works at speeds up to 28MPH, so this won't save you if someone abruptly slows down on the highway. Higher speeds will come in stages, Tesla says. It's not clear just when you'll see the 90MPH braking that came with models released before October 2016.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Apple, Tesla want changes to California's self-driving car tests

  Califonia's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) will soon review the new set of proposed regulations that could change how testing works in the state. If the proposals are approved, we might see some truly unmanned autonomous vehicles with no steering wheels cruising California's streets. Apple, Tesla and some of the other companies that have permission to test their vehicles in the state want to see more changes to its policy, though, so they sent the DMV letters with their suggestions. In Cupertino's case, it's asking the DMV to require much clearer disengagement reporting. "Disengagements" are what you call instances wherein the human tester had to take control of the vehicle from the self-driving system to prevent accidents.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Elon Musk gives us a glimpse of Tesla's electric semi truck

  Elon Musk made a few revelations about some his newer projects this week, including the electric semi-truck Tesla has been working on since 2016. The automaker promised to unveil the big rig this September, but the Tesla-slash-SpaceX chief has given us a shadowy first look during his TED talk on April 28th. Based on what little we can see in the image above, it looks smoother than your average truck, with headlights and general design that seem to take cues from the company's cars.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Elon Musk wants to build a traffic-skipping tunnel utopia

  Back in December, SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk sent a frustrated tweet vowing to alleviate traffic by grabbing a tunnel-boring machine and going to work. While this seemed like the usual What If thought Musk dispatches to the Twitterverse, it seems he's actually going into the tunnel business with his adorably-named new venture, The Boring Company. Today, the futurist released a concept video for what an underground tunnel network might look like in today's car-focused cities.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Uber self-driving lead steps aside due to Waymo's lawsuit

  While Waymo -- the company formerly known as Google's self-driving car project -- continues to sue Uber over stolen trade secrets, the former employee at the center of its charges will "be recused from all LiDAR-related work and management." Levandowski left last year to found a self-driving truck company called Otto, which was then purchased by Uber in an arrangement that Waymo lawyers claim was planned as a way to steal thousands of pages of confidential materials. Now Business Insider has obtained an internal memo where he tells employees they'll be reporting to someone else for the duration of the lawsuit.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Uber hopes to silence critics with more UK driver benefits

  Uber has long argued that its drivers are independent contractors, not employees. While that distinction has been argued in the courts, the company has been upping driver perks to try to keep them on side and silence critics. Its latest effort in the UK is a partnership with the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed (IPSE). For £2 per week, Uber drivers can sign up for IPSE benefits which include sickness and injury cover up to £2,000, jury cover up to £2,000, access to financial advice and support, and occupational accident cover up to £300.

  By Nick Summers Read More

• Tesla Model S safety concerns cost it Consumer Reports' top rating

  Consumer Reports and Tesla really aren't getting along well lately. The what-should-I-buy magazine has lowered the ratings of Tesla's Model S and Model X after noting that a promised automatic emergency braking feature (originally due by the end of 2016) is still missing. The move isn't too damaging for the Model X, since a two-point drop from a modest score of 58 isn't likely to change buyers' minds. For the Model S, however, it's a big blow -- the move from 87 to 85 knocks the electric sedan from the top of the ultraluxury category to third. While few people choose a car simply because it's leading the Consumer Reports charts, it's harder to make your case when you're merely considered better than average.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Uber highlights your rating to make you a better passenger

  It's no secret that Uber assigns star ratings to passengers as well as drivers, but finding your passenger rating has practically required a small mining expedition. After today, though, you'll hardly have to lift a finger to understand your reputation. Uber is updating its ratings system to move your passenger rating directly under your name in the app menu. This isn't just a matter of convenience, mind you -- Uber is using the prominent rating as part of its bid to improve rider behavior. If you see your rating dip after a rough trip, Uber reckons, you'll be less likely to harangue your driver the next time around.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• UberEats food deliveries come to Edinburgh

  After launching in London last summer, Uber's food delivery service UberEats has expanded to Manchester, Birmingham, and recently, it added the useful option of scheduling post-pub burger drop-offs ahead of time. Tomorrow, UberEats is heading further north to its first Scottish city of Edinburgh, where deliveries from over 70 partner restaurants will be available from 11AM (no breakfast option yet, we're afraid). Deliveroo has been operating in Edinburgh for the best part of two years now, so expensive on-demand grub isn't entirely new to its residents, but more choice is never a bad thing.

  By Jamie Rigg Read More

• Uber wants to test its flying taxis by 2020

  Today in Dallas, Uber is taking the wraps off its flying car plans. The company's three-day "Elevate" summit is meant to discuss all things relating to vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) craft and how Uber sees them as a major part of its future strategy. Probably the biggest news coming out of the opening keynote, which just wrapped a few minutes ago, is Uber's ambition to demonstrate its Elevate Network in 2020 -- an aggressive goal, to be sure.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• Waymo is ready to offer public rides in its self-driving minivans

  While Alphabet's legal battle with Uber continues to rumble on, its Waymo self-driving initiative is going from strength to strength. Its laser-mounted white minivans are consistently proving their reliability on the roads and besting their rivals, so much so that the company now wants humans to get involved. In a blog post, the company today announced that it's expanding its test program in Phoenix by allowing families to register for its early rider program.

  By Matt Brian Read More

• Lyft driver's lawsuit accuses Uber of privacy violations

  Uber is now facing its first Hell-related legal battle a couple of weeks after The Information revealed the project's existence. A former Lyft driver has filed a class action lawsuit against the ride-hailing firm for tracking and targeting people working for its pink mustachio'd rival while he was still driving for it. If you'll recall, the publication said some of Uber's execs and select personnel created a program called "Hell" by signing up for fake Lyft accounts and using software to monitor its competitors' cars.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Legendary car designer Fisker unveils his new luxury EV in August

  Henrik Fisker has already dropped a few hints about his EMotion luxury electric car, but you now know when you'll get to hear the rest. The automotive design legend has revealed that his namesake company will formally unveil the EMotion on August 17th. Not that you'll have to wait too long to know what the fuss is about, as Fisker is already spilling the beans on key details.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Kitty Hawk's Flyer isn't the flying car you were promised

  That flying car startup Google's Larry Page is backing? It's finally showing its hand... and the company's initial product is both more and less than what you might expect. Kitty Hawk's first publicly demonstrated vehicle, the Flyer, isn't so much the flying car of sci-fi fame as a recreational vehicle. The one-seat, propeller-driven vehicle is meant for a short flight across lake when you're at the cottage, not commuting to work -- that Jetsons-like future isn't here yet. You won't have to wait long to get it, though. Kitty Hawk expects to start selling the Flyer by the end of 2017. This will be a practical reality within months, in other words. You can already put down $100 to sign up for a $2,000 discount on the finished machine.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Tesla plans larger Supercharger sites, more travel refueling spots

  Tesla is working hard to make it easier for its customers to charge their electric cars on the go. Back in February, the company revealed that it'll be doubling its Supercharger network in 2017. It doubled down on that claim this morning, with the announcement that it'll have 10,000 Superchargers available by the end of 2017. Additionally, Tesla is planning to build larger Supercharger sites to fit "several dozen" cars, and it's increasing the amount of Destination Charging locations (for slower refueling) to 15,000 globally, up from 9,000 last year.

  By Devindra Hardawar Read More

• Waymo says Uber hid a LiDAR device based on its technology

  The legal battle Waymo waged against Uber is getting more and more intense, and the Alphabet-owned division is showing no signs of slowing down. It has just accused the ride-hailing company of covering up a trade secret theft in a new set of court of documents. Waymo says Uber hid a Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) device -- the system that serves as self-driving cars' "eyes" -- that former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski developed based on its technology. If you'll recall, Waymo filed the lawsuit after another one of its engineers revealed that Levandowski downloaded 9.7 GB of confidential materials related to its self-driving system before leaving company. He then established Otto, the autonomous truck company that Uber ended up acquiring for its own self-driving ambitions.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Volkswagen shows off its vision for a driverless future

  Back in March, the Volkswagen Group dropped rendered concept images of its futuristic Sedric, an autonomous vehicle that would take riders to their destination at the touch of a button -- no human driving required. At Auto Shanghai 2017, VW showed off a real version of its autonomous concept vehicle. As previously shown, the automater has completely removed the cockpit in favor of pure passenger space, which would which would make it capable of level 5 autonomous driving.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Lilium's electric personal jet manages a vertical takeoff

  The Lilium jet may look like somebody's wacky concept of a futuristic aircraft that will never be able to fly, but that couldn't be further from the truth. It has recently completed a series of flight tests in Munich, Germany, proving that the first all-electric vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) jet is capable of taking to the skies. The company even released a video of Lilium's maiden flight, which you can watch after the break.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Choose from Alexa or Google Assistant in your new Mercedes

  In the future, it'd be nice to expect our smart home will just know when we're on our way home and prepare for our arrival. In the meantime, voice assistants from Google and Amazon let us control our devices without all of that fiddly button pressing. Mercedes Benz, which already pledged to bake Google's platform into its cars, is getting even more committed to our voice-controlled future. Today, the automaker is announcing that both Google Assistant and Alexa will work on all of its 2016 and 2017 models released in the US.

  By Daniel Cooper Read More

• Tesla's app now reflects the company's move beyond cars

  By merging Tesla and Solarcity, Elon Musk has sought about creating an "end-to-end clean energy" solution that starts in the home and extends onto the road. The idea is simple: harness solar energy via photovoltaic cell-embedded rooftop panels, store it in giant batteries and then pipe it into the home or an electric vehicle. As it stands, Musk's goal is on its way to being realized, but Tesla first needs to combine those individual components into one, and it's starting with software.

  By Matt Brian Read More

• Lyft's dashboard display helps drivers with hearing impairments

  Accessibility isn't just for those with a disability; inclusion benefits all of us. Adding a visual notification to an auditory one hurts nobody, and it allows people with a hearing impairment to participate in normal activities -- like driving for a ride-sharing company. Luckily, Lyft has just added two little tweaks to its system to empower drivers with a hearing impairment.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Tesla recalls 53,000 vehicles for potential parking brake issue

  Tesla is recalling 53,000 of its Model X and Model S vehicles built between February and October 2016. Some of these might have a manufacturing flaw that prevents the electronic parking brake from being switched off. While it hasn't been linked to safety issues or accidents yet, the cautious automaker is voluntarily recalling a large number of vehicles just to be safe.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Uber might have to pay £2 million to operate in London

  Transport for London (TfL) is proposing licence fee changes that would foot Uber with a £2 million bill. The regulator opened a consultation today that would change the current two tier-system, "small" and "standard," to a more expensive five-level structure. Right now, private hire operators with two vehicles or less pay £1,488 for a five-year licence, while those with three or more pay £2,826. Under the new system, companies with more than 1,000 vehicles would fall into the highest category and have to choose from one of two payment structures: £33,304 per year, plus £14 per registered vehicle, or £166,518, plus £68 per vehicle for a five-year licence.

  By Nick Summers Read More

• Portland wants to get driverless cars on its roads this year

  A new initiative from the city of Portland, Oregon hopes to attract the fast-growing self-driving car industry to the city's streets. According to Bloomberg, Mayor Ted Wheeler and the city's Bureau of Transportation are working to finalize a new set of rules governing autonomous vehicle pilot programs and hope to have driverless vehicles on the roads by the end of this year.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• Tesla's Autopilot lawsuit ends with a ho-hum settlement

  Tesla's lawsuit over the alleged theft of Autopilot trade secrets is coming to a quick end. The electric car maker has settled its lawsuit against Sterling Anderson, who was accused of violating his contract by making off with Tesla technology and forming a competing self-driving startup, Aurora Innovation, with the help of both former Tesla engineers and Google's Chris Urmson. The deal has Tesla withdraw its claims without asking for damages, court costs or any findings of guilt. In return, though, Anderson and Aurora are not only paying $100,000, but will face some very close scrutiny.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Chinese EV supercar maker is prepping an all-electric SUV

  If you're an automaker, you can't just come right out of the gate with a supercar if you're expecting mass adoption. Well, you can, but maybe it isn't the wisest move? To that end, Chinese upstart automaker NIO (formerly NextEV) has unveiled the ES8, an all-electric sport-utility vehicle made specifically for its home turf. It'll fit seven passengers inside its "all-aluminum body and chassis," according to a press release.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• BMW is adding 100 EV charging stations to US national parks

  Today BMW turned on a EV charger at Thomas Edison National Historical Park, the former home of the inventor. It's the first of 100 stations that the German automaker plans on installing in US national parks over the next few years.

  By Roberto Baldwin Read More

• Baidu wants to work with everyone on self-driving tech

  Like many big technology companies, Chinese giant Baidu has been working on self-driving cars for a few years now, even investing with Ford in LIDAR sensor company Velodyne. Collaborations between tech firms and carmakers are now commonplace, but after an unsuccessful marriage with BMW, Baidu is seeking new partners -- or rather, all the partners. In a project Baidu calls "Apollo," the company is offering up its whole self-driving platform to the wider industry, from software to reference vehicles, to give the general pursuit of autonomous cars a NOS-like boost.

  By Jamie Rigg Read More

• Toyota is testing a hydrogen fuel-cell powered semi

  Toyota built a larger sibling for the hydrogen fuel cell powered Mirai, a semi truck. The automaker is testing a water-expelling big rig at the Port of Los Angeles that it hopes will yield data to help build a fleet of zero-emission trucks.

  By Roberto Baldwin Read More

• Audi teases its EV ambitions with the E-Tron Sportback

  Audi's E-Tron electric car lineup isn't coming until next year, but in the meantime it's giving us a taste with the E-Tron Sportback Concept. It's debuting the electric SUV at the Auto Shanghai show in China, but it's not a flight-of-fancy show car. "Following close on its heels, in 2019 comes the production version of the Audi E-Tron Sportback," Audi Chairman Rupert Stadler said in a press release.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• Uber Central lets businesses offer you a free ride

  While Uber is scaling back some services, the ride-hailing giant is also finalizing some new features for their lucrative business customers. Uber Central, which the company launched last summer, is now live and out of beta, allowing businesses to order multiple cars and handle ride costs for their clients or customers.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• Volkswagen's crossover of the future uses AR to keep you informed

  Volkswagen first showed off its next-gen ID platform at the Paris Auto Show last year with a concept car for where it sees electric vehicles going. Now the embattled automaker has debuted the ID Crozz, an all-electric crossover utility vehicle (get it?) VW hopes will help the company reach its goal of selling a million EVs a year by 2025.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• UberEats now lets Brits schedule food deliveries

  UberEats, like Deliveroo and Amazon Prime Now, can be useful if you don't have the time, supplies or energy to rustle up some grub. When you're really in a rush, however -- the morning 'I must not be late for work again' dash, for instance -- it can be a nuisance to open the app, complete an order and then wait for the courier to arrive at your front door. Now, in London, Birmingham and Manchester, it's possible to schedule an UberEats delivery. It's a small addition, but one that could prove useful if you're time poor or like to have your meals organised in advance.

  By Nick Summers Read More

• VW pours $300 million into a national EV charging network

  Volkswagen's nearly $15 billion settlement over its diesel emissions cheating included a stipulation that it push clean transportation, and that involves a lot more than producing electric cars. The automaker's Electrify America division has unveiled plans to invest $300 million into a national network of 450 electric car charging stations. The grid will cover 11 "major metropolitan areas" and high-traffic highways in 39 states. These won't all be basic chargers, either. The 240 highway stations will include both 150kW and 320kW chargers that, at the higher power rating, will top up future EVs in as little as 15 to 20 minutes -- a short enough time that you might not have to plan your schedule around your recharging habits.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• NYC taxi commission wants Uber to add in-app tipping

  Uber has long had a complicated relationship with tips. As the company said last year, tipping is not "expected or required" when you take an Uber, and the app still does not provide an option to do so. That might change in New York City before long, though. Today, the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) announced it was supporting a petition from the Independent Driver's Guild that would require ride-hailing apps like Uber to include a tipping feature.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• Tesla cuts the price on its entry-level Model S by $5,000

  Just because Tesla is ditching the Model S 60 and 60D doesn't mean that you'll be paying dramatically more to own the luxury electric sedan. Tesla has cut the price on its current entry-level models, the 75 and 75D, by $5,000. It's still $1,500 more expensive than the outgoing model at $69,500, but not so much so that you might balk if you were seriously considering the 60 before. It's certainly a better value if you were already looking at a 75 for the extra range. On top of that, Tesla is sweetening the pot by making key features standard.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• UK driving tests to include sat nav skills from December

  In biggest shake-up of the standardised driving exam since the introduction of the theory test, UK drivers will be required to demonstrate that they can navigate using a sat nav. The Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency has confirmed that from December 4th, learners will be required to drive independently for 20 minutes -- double the current length -- with four out of every five candidates being asked to follow directions displayed on a navigational device.

  By Matt Brian Read More

• Lynk & Co unveils its second take on a shareable car

  Lynk & Co might have only shown off its first tech-laden vehicle half a year ago, but it's already set for a follow-up... and then some. The Geely-owned brand has unveiled the 03 Concept, a sedan sibling to the 01 Concept crossover (which has also reached its production-ready form). While the design won't shock you -- it's really a lower-profile 01 -- this brings Lynk & Co's combination of technology and unique business models to a wider audience. The centerpiece remains a Microsoft/Alibaba-designed infotainment system with built-in car sharing support, which lets you lend your car to others through a smartphone app. However, there are also some new wrinkles in paying for Lynk & Co's cars that could be as important as the cars themselves.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• GM aims to put 300 more self-driving Chevy Bolts on the road

  General Motors and its San Francisco-based autonomous vehicles division Cruise have made it clear they plan to put an autonomous taxi fleet on the road as fast as possible. Earlier this year, rumors from both the Wall Street Journal and Reuters claimed GM's project with Lyft could start in a test market sometime this year before a wider expansion in 2018. While Cruise has been quickly adding staff in San Francisco, GM will still need to more test cars on the road in order to get enough data and information to refine its autonomous systems for passenger use. According to a new report from IEEE Spectrum, GM and Cruise plan to add 300 more self-driving Chevy Bolts to their fleet and could be rolling them out as soon as next month.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• Apple gets the OK to test autonomous cars in California

  California will soon have yet another company's self-driving vehicles navigating its roadways. The Department of Motor Vehicles granted Apple an autonomous vehicle testing permit on Friday, enabling the company to use public roadways in its autonomous systems experiments.

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• The time for Uber leadership to step down is long overdue

  It seems like hardly a week goes by without Uber fending off bad press. If it isn't sexual-harassment stories or driver disputes, it's self-driving car accidents and reports of sleazy business practices. The situation has gotten so bad that employees are leaving in droves; President Jeff Jones left last month, AI Labs director Gary Marcus did as well, and so has VP of Product Ed Baker. Rachel Whetstone, Uber's head of policy and communications for two years, announced this week she was stepping down too. But until CEO and founder Travis Kalanick leaves and Uber changes its "Always be hustlin'" mantra, it's highly unlikely that anything will change.

  By Nicole Lee Read More

• Uber accused of ignoring drunk driver complaints in California

  In the latest string of bad PR for Uber, the company could be facing down yet another fine from regulators in the state of California, this time for allegedly failing to look into rider complaints of drivers on the service being under the influence. As the Los Angeles Times reports, the state has a zero-tolerance policy for intoxicated drivers on ride-hailing platforms, meaning the company must immediately suspend and investigate a driver if they receive a complaint. But according to a legal filing from the California Public Utilities Commission, the ride-hailing giant failed to take action in at least 149 complaints during the one-year period from August 2014 to 2015, and may have left potentially dangerous drivers on the road.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• Tesla will reveal the finished Model 3 in July

  If you've been waiting to get a glimpse of the final Tesla Model 3, this summer can't come soon enough. CEO Elon Musk told a fan on Twitter today that the final unveil for the company's more affordable electric vehicle will be this July. Production has been on track to begin during the summer months for a while, but this marks the first time we know when you'll be able to see an actual production Model 3, not just a prototype.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Tesla plans to show off its electric semi truck this fall

  According to Telsa CEO Elon Musk, the automotive arm of his company will unveil a semi truck this coming September. Musk dropped the news via a tweet. The company is currently gearing up to start full production of the Model 3, set to start being delivered at the end of 2017. But now it looks like Musk is getting ready to dive into into long-haul trucking.

  By Roberto Baldwin Read More

• Shield your address from Uber by using cross streets

  If you haven't deleted Uber yet, the ride-hailing service has actually added a pretty useful feature today designed to protect user privacy. When you're typing in either a destination or pickup location, you can now enter two cross streets and get picked up or dropped off there. This helps shield your actual home address or destination from the driver. Of course, you've been able to do this when getting picked up by simply dragging the map pin to a specific location, but that doesn't help you when you're heading home.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• The promise of self-driving cars starts with better 'eye-sight'

  San Francisco's Pier 35 usually hosts cruise ship guests boarding and unboarding their giant floating hotels. It's a cavernous building hundreds of meters long which actually makes it the perfect indoor facility for demoing what 22 year-old Luminar CEO Austin Russell hopes is the future of LiDAR. The company has developed a higher-quality laser sensor that just might make it the darling of the autonomous car world.

  By Roberto Baldwin Read More

• California will start charging electric vehicle fees in 2020

  While some states are still offering incentives for electric vehicle buyers, California will soon become the biggest state to start charging fees for EV ownership. California is estimated to account for about half of the country's EV sales, so the state is keen on recuperating some of the money it won't be making from gasoline taxes.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• GM's self-driving car operation in San Francisco will keep growing

  Every carmaker is pushing to develop autonomous vehicles, and GM is no different. Despite having tech rated in second place by Navigant Research and the announcement of a Super Cruise-equipped Cadillac on the way, the company will do more. Bloomberg reporter Dana Hull tweeted the link to a California tax credit filing (saving GM $8 million) showing that the company plans to take its San Francisco operations from 485 employees last year to 1,648 by 2021. That office is home to Cruise Automation, a startup it acquired last year for $1 billion that had previously built self-driving kits for the Audi S4 and A4.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Uber's 'Hell' program tracked and targeted Lyft drivers

  In its quest to ensure Lyft remains in second place, Uber reportedly ran a program that exploited a vulnerability in its rival's system. According to The Information, the ride-hailing company's covert software-based program called "Hell" spied on its staunchest competitor's drivers from 2014 to early 2016. It's called Hell, because it served as the counterpart to "God View" or "Heaven," Uber's in-company app that tracked its own drivers and passengers. Unlike God View, which was widely available to corporate employees, only top executives along with select data scientists and personnel knew about Hell.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Prototype Genesis SUV melds hydrogen and plug-in power

  It hasn't even been two years since Hyundai spun out its Genesis luxury badge as a separate division, but the new group is already making a name for itself. Genesis has unveiled its first experimental SUV, the GV80 Concept, and the prototype clearly pushes a few boundaries. For one, it's a plug-in fuel cell hybrid. The company isn't talking performance figures at this point, but the combination of electric and hydrogen power promises zero-emissions driving while still delivering a healthy range.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Volvo's new XC60 is better than ever at not killing people

  Volvo's 2018 XC60 isn't the newest thing at the New York Auto Show -- it was actually unveiled in Geneva -- but it was too Swedishly pretty not to spend time with. The XC60 will land in the US later this year (price unknown, sadly), but it turns out every XC60 will a little American by default. 2018 will see Volvo build a production facility in South Carolina that'll make every XC60 sold around the world. I kind of expect Volvo to sell quite a few, if only based on the strength of its tech package and design.

  By Chris Velazco Read More

• VW aims to move past scandals with another self-driving EV

  Volkswagen really, really wants to prove that it's moving past its diesel emissions scandal, and to that end it's unveiling yet another electric car concept following the I.D. and I.D. Buzz. This third model will be VW's first crossover EV, blending a "four-door coupé" with an SUV. The automaker isn't saying much about the crossover in its teaser, but it's promising a self-driving feature that retracts the steering wheel into an all-digital cockpit.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Honda tries salvaging the Clarity with electric, hybrid options

  For years now, the Honda's Clarity line has been about figuring out the best way to bring to hydrogen fuel cell cars to market. As you probably guessed, it's been a pretty slow process. To wit: Honda launched its Clarity Fuel Cell in California in late 2016, and there's something like 100 of them rolling around the state right now. Now, that ride has some more company: Honda revealed new plug-in hybrid and battery-powered models here at the New York Auto Show.

  By Chris Velazco Read More

• Toyota's FT-4X is an off-road warrior for nerdy yuppies

  After years of very good work, the "Toyota" name still conjures up mental images of cheap, functional econoboxes. Efforts to harness the power of cool have led to weird projects like the FJ Cruiser, but we might have seen the pinnacle of Toyota's work here at the New York Auto Show. Behold: the FT-4X, a concept machine built specifically for tech-loving yuppies.

  By Chris Velazco Read More

• ICYMI: Cadillac takes on Tesla's Autopilot and a biometric thrill ride

  Today on In Case You Missed It: When people think semi-autonomous driving, Tesla's Autopilot system is usually the first thing that comes to mind. But Cadillac wants in on the robot-driving action. The automaker is launching it's own system called Super Cruise on the upcoming 2018 CT6. The company says it's the "industry's first true hands-free driving technology for the highway." The new semi-self-driving technology will not only keep track of the road, but also the driver to make sure that they pay attention even if they don't have to have their hands on the wheel at all times.

  By Roberto Baldwin Read More

• Sony's HDR camera helps self-driving cars see in the dark

  As Tesla recently showed, video cameras are as important as radar and LiDAR in self-driving cars for tracking road signs, vehicles, pedestrians and more. However, most can't handle tough lighting situations like very dark conditions, flickering LEDs or a sudden transition into a tunnel on a sunny day. That's where Sony comes in with its latest automotive camera sensor. With high sensitivity, HDR capability and anti-flicker tech, it's one of the first designed specifically to help autonomous vehicles function in less-than-ideal conditions.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• Lincoln 'invents' Uber, but for rich people

  If you're the sort of person who's used to driving around in a Lincoln, then a regular Uber probably feels like a step down. That's why the luxury motor company has launched its own twist on the "have other people drive you around" business model. According to Autoblog, Lincoln Chauffeur will let Lincoln owners rent a driver for short periods of time, turning up to your home and then driving you around in your own car. So, you know, it's Dryver.

  By Daniel Cooper Read More

• With its 2018 TLX, Acura learns the value of good software design

  Acura just pulled back the curtains on a pair of premium sedans -- the 2018 TLX and its sportier A-Spec cousin -- and they feature a more sporty, aggressive look than the -models they replace. Fortunately for you road warriors, Acura did more than just give those bodies a makeover: The company redesigned its in-car interface in response to complaints about its complexity. If that seems like a silly thing to get worked up over, just remember that you're probably going to get stuck with your car's software and interface for at least a few years. It's about time car company's started making these infotainment systems less terrible.

  By Chris Velazco Read More

• Tesla overtakes GM to become the most valuable US car maker

  Tesla just managed a symbolic but important win in its quest to make electric cars popular. Shortly after the start of trading on April 10th, Tesla's stock market cap overtook that of GM -- it was worth about $51 billion, or $1.7 billion more than its established rival. While it's not clear that this will last (we've seen some give and take as of this writing), it's no mean feat for a company that has made just three car models in its brief 13-year history. The big question is whether or not Tesla can back up that value with raw sales numbers.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Cadillac unveils its answer to Tesla's semi-autonomous tech

  Outside of Tesla, semi-autonomous driving modes are still quite rare. GM, however, wants to make it relatively mainstream. The upcoming 2018 Cadillac CT6 (due this fall) will be the company's first car with Super Cruise, a technology that can take over during highway drives. If you believe the Cadillac crew, this is the first production car with "true" hands-free driving. Where Tesla's newer Autopilot versions require that you keep your hands on the wheel, Cadillac only requires that you look at the road. An infrared camera on the steering column tracks your head to make sure you're paying attention, and the vehicle will send alerts or even bring the car to a stop if you won't (or can't) keep your eyes forward.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Ford's hybrid cop car has electric boost for high-speed chases

  You may see hybrids as dull econo-vehicles, but as Lamborghini and others have shown, electrons can boost a gas car into another dimension. You'd think there would already be economical hybrid cop cars that can go batshit fast when needed, but Ford has become the first with its Police Responder Hybrid Sedan. It gets twice the mileage of the current Interceptor, but "switches to maximum performance -- with the engine and battery working at peak acceleration levels -- when needed," Ford said in a press release.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• White House hires Lyft manager for a key transportation role

  It's tempting to oversimplify the ridesharing industry into an ideological battle: Lyft is the kinder, more generous outfit that donates to the ACLU, while Uber is a champion of hyper-capitalism that makes political compromises in the name of its bottom line. However, the truth is that both of these companies are complex beasts that reflect a wide range of views. Case in point: President Trump's administration has unveiled plans to nominate Lyft's General Manager for Southern California, Derek Kan, as the Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy. And it's not as if he's suddenly revealing his political stance, as this is really a logical next step given his career.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Uber must leave Italy in 10 days after nationwide ban

  Trouble seems to follow Uber wherever it goes. A court in Rome has just banned the ride-hailing service in Italy for contributing to what it says is "unfair competition" faced by the local taxi industry. Uber must now stop promoting its services and cease all operations in the country within 10 days, unless it's willing to pay a $10,600 fine for each day it remains active after that grace period. While Uber's $70 billion valuation makes that amount sound like chump change, it hasn't exactly been profitable and actually bled billions in 2016.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Tesla owners can expect easy access to all discovered Easter Eggs

  Over the years, Tesla has snuck a number of quirky Easter Eggs into OTA updates for its cars. That includes everything from Ludicrous mode enhanced acceleration to a James Bond send-up, or even an impressive holiday-themed light show. Today CEO Elon Musk tweeted that soon, there will be a feature giving owners "one touch access to all discovered Tesla Easter eggs." That removes the need for key combinations or passcodes once you've unlocked them once -- helpful for the EV owner who just can't stop showing off.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Uber's legal defense: Waymo does LiDAR better, for now

  Uber has finally responded via the courts to Waymo's allegation that it's using the Alphabet company's Lidar technology. The ride-hailing company called Waymo's injunction motion to stop using technology that was allegedly misappropriated from Google servers a "misfire." It also insisted that because it's developing multi-lens LiDAR technology instead of the single-lens that Waymo uses, it's not using stolen technology.

  By Roberto Baldwin Read More

• Ford's baby crib isn't a car, but it feels like one

  When it comes to getting a baby to fall asleep, sometimes a car ride is the only thing that will do the trick. I know that all too well because that's the tactic my parents used when I was a tyke. Of course, cranking up the car driving around just to get your child to nap burns fuel, so Ford designers in Spain developed a baby crib that simulates the experience of a ride in the backseat.

  By Billy Steele Read More

• McLaren's F1 team will 3D print parts trackside

  When McLaren Racing heads to the Bahrain Grand Prix next week, the constructor will take with it something the motorsport has not yet seen trackside: a 3D printer. The Formula One team has confirmed that as an expansion of its partnership with 3D printing specialist Stratasys, it will print "race-ready" parts for the new McLaren MCL32 car in order to quickly integrate design modifications and reduce its weight.

  By Matt Brian Read More

• GM challenges eight schools to build self-driving Chevy Bolts

  Just about every major car company is trying to figure out the best way to build a self-driving car, and GM is tapping a handful of schools to help get the job done. Teams from Virginia Tech, the University of Waterloo, Kettering University, Michigan State University, Michigan Tech, the University of Toronto, Texas A&M and North Carolina A&T have been selected to apply their know-how to a very specific challenge. Long story short, they each have three years to load up a bog-standard Chevy Bolt EV with all the equipment it needs to self-drive on an urban testing course.

  By Chris Velazco Read More

• Hyperloop One's test route is ready to run

  It was August 2013 that Elon Musk, under pressure from Shervin Pishevar, published his white paper on the Hyperloop. Just three years and seven months later, and the world's first Hyperloop tube has been declared ready for testing. Hyperloop One has announced that DevLoop, its Nevada test facility, has been "finalized," and will serve as the testbed for the future of transportation.

  By Daniel Cooper Read More

• Zunum Aero's hybrid planes could halve the cost of US flights

  Boeing and JetBlue have backed a little-known company called Zunum Aero -- and for good reason. The startup is three years into the development of small planes powered by hybrid-electric propulsion, which it says can "pave the way to a golden era of fast and affordable electric air travel." Zunum's planes promise to make local flights a more feasible alternative to traveling by car or high-speed trains. The 10-to-50-seater aircraft will cut travel time by 40 to 80 percent, so if you're flying a flight that typically takes five hours, it'll only take two-and-a-half hours. Thanks to the planes' lower operating costs, seats will cost 40 to 80 percent below current prices, as well.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• E-volo's electric 'air taxi' picks up passengers next year

  The last time we'd heard about E-Volo's 18-rotor electric helicopter was almost a year ago to the day. The latest news out of the company is that at AERO, an aviation trade show in Germany, E-Volo revealed its latest model, the Volocopter 2X. The firm says that the advantages of this version versus previous iterations (namely, the VC200) are that it's a "consequent evolution" geared toward everyday use as an autonomous urban mobility vehicle. Translation: it could be a pilot-free, or remote-flown taxi for two.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Another startup promises self-driving taxis 'soon'

  Popular online learning service Udacity already trains engineers for work in the fast-growing autonomous vehicles field, but now the company is ready to harness all that talent and launch its own self-driving taxi company. Led by CEO (and former Udacity Vice President) Oliver Cameron, the new spin-off company will be called Voyage and has given itself the goal of getting autonomous taxis to "real users" in less than five years.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• Over 8,000 Uber, Lyft drivers fail new Massachusetts background check

  More than 8,000 Uber and Lyft drivers have been denied licenses to operate in Massachusetts under a new, stricter state background check law, according to the Boston Globe. The most common reason? Issues with the driver's license status, including suspensions.

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

• New York could open its roads to autonomous car tests in 2018

  While automakers have successfully negotiated with certain cities to let them test their self-driving prototypes, other areas haven't budged to accommodate. In New York's case, a 45-year-old law requiring motorists to keep one hand on the wheel has been keeping car companies from deploying their autonomous cars. But buried in the state's annual budget lawmakers started approving yesterday is a measure temporarily pausing the antiquated legislation. Should the embattled budget pass completely, for the next year, companies will be able to try out their self-driving cars on New York's roads.

  By David Lumb Read More

• The Army could save hydrogen cars from a premature death

  Over the past 25 years, hydrogen fuel cells (HFC) have been the butt of countless jokes in the automotive industry. Many critics see the technology as something long in the works that will never have a future. It's seen some spotty progress over the past decade, existing alongside compressed natural gas vehicles. But in terms of public perception, HFCs are still on the fringe compared with plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles. In 2016, the Los Angeles Times reported that Toyota expected to sell 3,000 of its $60,000 Mirai sedans by the end of 2017 -- and that was an optimistic forecast, mind you. In contrast, Tesla racked up over 232,000 preorders for its all-electric Model 3 sedan in just 24 hours, and Toyota crossed 3.9 million in global sales for the Prius in February.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Waze's traffic data could help emergency services save lives

  Soon, Waze data will not only help drivers avoid accidents, but help emergency responders identify them as they happen. The Google-owned navigation service has partnered with the European Emergency Number Association (EENA) to anonymously share data that will help police, ambulance and fire services detect and respond to incidents in real-time, potentially saving lives in the process.

  By Matt Brian Read More

• Driverless pods begin ferrying the public around Greenwich

  It's been almost a year since the UK's Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) opened sign-ups for a driverless pod trial in Greenwich. The original plan was to start before Christmas, but given today's date that obviously didn't happen. Still, better late than never, eh? Over the next three weeks, roughly 100 people will clamber aboard "Harry," a self-driving shuttle named after clockmaker John Harrison. It will take them around a two-mile course in London's North Greenwich, near The O2, to demonstrate how the technology could be used for "last mile" trips in urban areas.

  By Nick Summers Read More

• Mercedes and Bosch want you in a self-driving taxi ASAP

  Mercedes parent Daimler has put aside its own project to develop a self-driving car and will now collaborate with automotive supplier Bosch. The two companies plan to deliver fully autonomous "level 5" tech by the "beginning of the next decade," with a focus on city driving and autonomous car-sharing. "It will allow people to make the best possible use of their time in the vehicle and open up new mobility opportunities for people without a driver's licenses," Daimler said in a press release.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• Tesla's SUV demand is catching up to its sedan

  You'd think that Tesla would sell far fewer units of its pricier, slightly frumpier-looking Model X SUV than its mainstay Model S sedan, but that's not the case these days. The electric car maker has revealed its production levels for the first quarter of 2017, and it's apparent that the gap has closed dramatically in recent months. Tesla delivered about 11,550 Model X vehicles at the start of the year, or just 1,900 shy of the 13,450 Model S cars that found owners in the same period. It's a stark contrast to a year earlier, when Tesla supplied 12,420 sedans and just 2,400 SUVs -- buyers are clearly willing to trade a bit of cash and style for some extra capacity.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

Gaming (49)

• Hideo Kojima on his cinematic influences, 'Death Stranding' and VR

  If you're starting a new gaming festival, having Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima aboard is a good way to prove you mean business. That was the case for the inaugural Tribeca Games Festival, which featured Kojima in a keynote conversation tonight with Geoff Keighley, producer of The Game Awards. The wide-ranging chat covered Kojima's cinematic influences -- of which there were many -- and his progress on Death Stranding, his long-awaited upcoming project.

  By Devindra Hardawar Read More

• 'Dragon Quest XI' spawns the best and worst special edition consoles

  Square Enix is on a bit of a merchandising mission in the lead up to the July release of Dragon Quest XI in Japan. For its latest trick, it's partnered with Nintendo and Sony to today announce two new Dragon Quest consoles.

  By Aaron Souppouris Read More

• 'Tropes vs. Women in Video Games' says goodbye

  The groundbreaking critical series Tropes vs. Women in Video Games is coming to an official end. "This is one of the most emotionally complicated projects I've ever created," writes creator Anita Sarkeesian in a new note to fans. She's been looking to finish the series for a while now, thanks to the toll it's taken on her both personally and professionally. But, while her latest post touches upon the trauma she experienced from angry gamers, the overall focus of the entry is positive and forward looking.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• 'Danger Zone' turns the best part of 'Burnout' into a full game

  It's been nine long years since we had a proper Burnout game. But when Paradise launched back in 2008 it didn't come with the franchise's trademark Crash Mode, the arcadey feature that tasked players with hurtling themselves through an intersection to cause as big of a car accident as possible. That debuted in 2002's Point of Impact, returning in Takedown in 2004 and Revenge a year later before it was scrapped for an inferior clone in Paradise. Well, today there's some good news: the latest project from former Burnout developers is Danger Zone, a game that sounds an awful lot like Crash Mode: The Game.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• 'Call of Duty: WWII' takes you back to Omaha Beach November 3rd

  Call of Duty: WWII will launch November 3rd on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. As you might expect, the game takes place largely in Europe between 1944 and 1945, ultimately pushing toward Germany after fighting through Nazi reinforcements on Normandy Beach and through the grimy streets of France and Belgium. As for the story, there's a big focus on the brotherhood of your squad -- something captured in HBO's Band of Brothers and Steven Spielberg's epic Saving Private Ryan. The latter, Sledgehammer says, was a huge influence on the game. Just like it was for Electronic Arts' Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and its console counterpart Frontline in 2002.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• How 'Puyo Puyo Tetris' tricked me into liking puzzle games

  When Larry Kasanoff said he was turning the world's most iconic puzzle game into a trilogy of science fiction movies, I was speechless. After a disaster like Pixels, how could anybody look at Tetris and think there was a narrative to tell? The game may be a classic, but the narrative potential of organizing falling bricks into horizontal lines seemed weak to me. Then I played Puyo Puyo Tetris. Kasanoff's sci-fi epic still sounds terrible, but somehow it pulls off the impossible: It builds an entertaining narrative from an abstract puzzle game.

  By Sean Buckley Read More

• Fans resurrect 'Tomb Raider' in your web browser

  If you need a reminder of how far video games have come since the mid-90s, look no further than OpenTomb. Over the past four years, a handful of devoted developers have been rebuilding the original five Tomb Raider games from scratch, and the City of Vilcabamba level is available in your browser right now (heads up, game audio auto-plays from that link).

  By Jessica Conditt Read More

• New 'Sonic Forces' footage feels a lot like 'Generations'

  For the last few months, SEGA has been playing coy with Sonic Forces-- first only little else beside the game's name and the usual promises of greatness. Then, earlier this month, a new trailer teased new levels for "Classic Sonic," the 1990s version of the character that co-starred in 2011's Sonic Generations. Today, Sega Europe uploaded a new gameplay video to YouTube confirming what many fans suspected: Sonic Forces is basically going to be a Sonic Generations sequel.

  By Sean Buckley Read More

• 'Heroes of the Storm' adds everyone's favorite 'Overwatch' hero

  Last month, Blizzard announced it would revamp its MOBA game, Heroes of the Storm, in a huge patch released in April. Its 2.0 update, which is live in North America, promised to upgrade its player progression system and added random-reward loot boxes, a staple of the free-to-play model. But the studio had a few other surprises to drop today, including adding a new hero to the nexus, Overwatch's teen mecha-piloting pop star, D.Va.

  By David Lumb Read More

• The Avengers take on gaming icons in 'Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite'

  After a year of silence, Capcom has announced eight new characters for its crossover fighter -- Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. Doubling down on Marvel's Cinematic Universe, Hulk, Thor, Hawkeye, Ultron and Rocket Racoon join the playable roster. On the Capcom side of the fence, the publisher has revealed that players will be able to duke it out as Street Fighter's Chun Li, Resident Evil's Chris Redfield, and Strider's Strider Hiryu. The trailer also announced that the game will be launching on PS4, Xbox One and PC on September 19th for $59.99. As expected, gamers can also preorder a 'Deluxe Edition' which grants them access to future character DLC and two exclusive costumes. Die-hard fans can also opt to splash out on the eye-wateringly expensive $199.99 Collector's Edition, which includes: plastic character dioramas of Iron Man, Captain Marvel, Mega Man X and Chun-Li, a case filled with six Infinity Stone replicas and a Steelbook game box. Fans who pre-order any edition of the game will get access to two special character skins - Warrior Thor and Evil Ryu.

  By Tom Regan Read More

• 'Alien: Covenant' VR experience emerges on April 26th (updated)

  Both Fox and director Ridley Scott have made bit commitments to virtual reality, and you're about to see just how those commitments are evolving... in an unsettling way. Fox has revealed that Alien: Covenant's VR experience, In Utero, will be available for Oculus Rift wearers on April 26th. As the name implies, the production shows the terror from the baby alien's (that is, neomorph's) perspective as it's born. The teaser clip doesn't show much, but it's already disconcerting -- you can hear muffled screams as the humans realize something is about to go very, very wrong.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Stephens College is the first all-women's school with an eSports team

  Last Thursday, Stephens College made history when it officially created the first varsity-level eSports team at an all-women's school. The program's 12-player squad will begin digitally competing in collegiate Overwatch leagues this fall.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Rickard Nordin, Sweden's 'Hearthstone'-streaming politician

  For many people, eSports cropped up when they weren't looking, growing out of the passionate local communities built by game creators and players. Professional teams now compete in high-stakes leagues for prestige, tournament winnings and lucrative sponsorship deals -- but only in places where eSports is encouraged to take root. Many countries don't offer pro game players the same ease of travel as traditional athletes, leading lawmakers to continue debating just how much the state should support the local video game scene. Such is the case with Sweden, but national Parliament member Rickard Nordin is rallying his peers to embrace the financial and cultural benefits eSports can bring, and he's reaching out to fans (near and far) on a platform fitting his mission.

  By David Lumb Read More

• The rumors are true: 'Call of Duty' is going back to World War II

  The next Call of Duty returns to the series' roots with a storyline set in World War II. Sledgehammer Games is working on the new title, dubbed Call of Duty: WWII, and the studio is expected to drop details in a livestream on Wednesday, April 26th at 1PM ET.

  By Jessica Conditt Read More

• Merch booths are coming to a video game near you

  Take a look through Etsy or the countless daily T-shirt sites and nerd-focused stores online and you'll find a common theme: merchandise featuring characters and other bits from your favorite video games. Soon, you won't have to go outside the title you're playing to grab a piece of tie-in swag, however. That's because online shopping company Shopify has designed a developer tool that hooks into games made with the incredibly popular Unity toolset, and sets up a virtual shop in-game where you can buy branded t-shirts and other tchotchkes. What's more, unlike the aforementioned storefronts, it'll be officially licensed merch.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• 'Grand Theft Auto' returns to its top-down roots next week

  If Grand Theft Auto: Online's last big event, the sophomorically named Cunning Stunts, stoked a flame in your racing heart, next week's add-on might set it ablaze with nostalgia. For a few different reasons, no less. With April 25th's "Tiny Racers," the camera reverts to a top-down point of view like the GTA games of yore. More than that, Tiny Racers is a pretty overt homage to the Micro Machines series of stunt-minded arcade racers from the 8-and-16 bit era. I mean, just look at the name; that wasn't an accident.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• 'Virtual Rick-ality' is a VR treat for 'Rick and Morty' fans

  Rick and Morty is one of the funniest shows on television -- and it's also one of the weirdest. Co-created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon (Community), the series is like a demented spin on the Doc Brown/Marty McFly relationship from Back to the Future. Rick Sanchez is a dimension-hopping alcoholic genius who's the grandfather to Morty, a nebbish kid who's always in over his head. Comedy! While I was initially worried that the show's first VR experience, Virtual Rick-ality, might not live up to the series' wildly inventive attitude, it didn't waste much time proving me wrong.

  By Devindra Hardawar Read More

• eSports joins the 2022 Asian Games as a medal event

  Esports will form part of the 2022 Asian Games, set to be held in China. The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) said it wanted to reflect "the rapid development and popularity of this new form of sports participation." It marks an evolution from next year's 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, where eSports will debut as a demonstration sport. Come 2022, however, it will be a medal event, given equal footing with long-established athletic events and sports. The move is in part due to a partnership deal between e-commerce beast Alibaba (well, its eSports arm) and the OCA.

  By Mat Smith Read More

• Telltale's 'Guardians of the Galaxy' game arrives tomorrow

  The first episode of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series, Tangled Up in Blue, arrives tomorrow, and you can get a sneak peek at all the action and space snark in the official launch trailer. The series is a brand-new Guardians story not connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After an epic battle, Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Groot find a powerful artifact that they all covet for their own reasons, as does a mysterious enemy who is the last of her kind.

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

• 'Star Wars Battlefront II' invites you to the dark side in November

  The winners write the history books. When the second Death Star explodes over Endor in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, the Rebel Alliance rejoices. It's a thrilling moment of victory after eons of interstellar military adventuring: Forests full of weary Ewoks, droids and soldiers burst into cheers, throwing their arms in the air. But what did members of the Galactic Empire do? How did the Imperial soldiers on Endor feel as they watched their dreams of a stable galaxy burst into flames, right in front of their eyes? What did they think as they watched their friends die? This is where Star Wars: Battlefront II begins.

  By Jessica Conditt Read More

• 'Nex Machina' will show you exactly how someone hit a high score

  Finnish developer Housemarque's ode to Robotron: 2084, Nex Machina is out for PC and PlayStation 4 this summer. And while we debuted it in December, details for the frantic arcade shooter have been relatively scarce since. But that's slowly changing. Perhaps the most exciting new wrinkle we've learned about is its replay mode. "All of the leaderboard entries are effectively recorded, which means it's possible to enter the leaderboards, select an entry and watch the replay," a post on the PlayStation Blog reads.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Live your Kamehameha-blasting dream with 'Dragon Ball Z' VR

  Somewhere high on the list of childhood fantasies is the dream to hurl balls of energy from your hands. Capcom knows this urge, which is why they stuck a Hadoken-throwing simulator in their Ultra Street Fighter II Nintendo Switch port. But the king of palm-fired ki blasts has stepped up to the technological plate. A Dragon Ball Z-themed VR headset is coming out along with a downloadable mobile app so you can toss virtual Kamehamehas until your inner child is sated.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Of course there's a 'Candy Crush' fashion collection

  The Candy Crush craze continues to reach new heights. Just when you thought a TV show based on the popular game was more than you could handle, well, that's not the only thing happening in time for summer. King, the app's developer, has teamed up with fashion brand Moschino on a collection of accessories and swimwear, in celebration of the fifth anniversary of the Candy Crush Saga. Available today (only until it sells out), the gear includes an iPhone case, bathing suits for men and women as well as a backpack, respectively priced at $70, $205, $300 and $650.

  By Edgar Alvarez Read More

• Classic puzzle-platformer 'Fez' is coming to iOS

  It might be five years old, but Fez remains a masterclass in indie puzzle-platforming. The bright pixel art, the mesmerizing Disasterpiece soundtrack and perspective-shifting gameplay comes together in a wonderfully mysterious and serene collectathon. Following its release on Xbox 360, PC, Mac and various PlayStation hardware, Polytron is bringing the game to iOS. In a short teaser trailer, the eyepatch-wielding Geezer tells Gomez, the main character, how the "adventure is ready." A flashy cube appears in the sky, before the entire scene pans out to reveal the game running on an iPad. So yeah, you can expect a tablet-optimized version.

  By Nick Summers Read More

• You can finally drive a Porsche in 'Forza'

  Porsche has just signed a six-year partnership with Microsoft, confirming its iconic cars will be making their first appearance in Forza Horizon 3. Kicking off the new deal is Forza Horizon 3's Porsche Car Pack, a new DLC bundle out now which brings seven different Porsche vehicles to the game. With Forza boasting gaming's largest online racing community, Porsche has also chosen to align with Microsoft for its first ever sponsored eSports tournament. Both PC and Xbox One players can now register to compete in Forza Racing Championship Season 3: The Porsche Cup, which boasts a prize pool of $100,000.

  By Tom Regan Read More

• 'Rick and Morty' enter the VR video game universe on April 20th

  Rick and Morty fans, you've got a week to get VR-ready for the series' debut in the virtual realm. Adult Swim and Owlchemy Labs, creator of Job Simulator, announced today that the long-awaited VR title, Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality, will land on April 20th (4/20, of course). The Oculus Rift and HTC Vive game puts you in the shoes of a Morty clone -- which means you should be prepared to be in constant danger. You'll be able to explore Rick's lab, the family home and, naturally, alternate worlds. And yes, it looks like there's lots of Job Simulator DNA in there.

  By Devindra Hardawar Read More

• Play the unsettling opening of 'Prey' for free

  With epics like Zelda and Persona 5 still occupying many players' time, the idea of spending more hard-earned cash on another $60 game is a big ask. It seems as though publishers have realized this too, as in a bid to drive sales for the upcoming Prey, Bethesda is letting you try it before you buy. Starting on April 27th, PS4 and Xbox One owners will be able to dive into the game's unsettling first hour free of charge. With the full game not launching until May 5th, this gives console gamers a week to figure out whether Prey's worth the cash. Putting you in the shoes of Morgan Yu, this sci-fi adventure sees players exploring the seemingly idyllic Talos 1 before you discover the space station's terrifying secret.

  By Tom Regan Read More

• Las Vegas nightclub is turning into an eSports arena

  Las Vegas is quickly becoming a hotbed for virtual sports. Allied Esports and Esports Arena have unveiled plans to turn a 30,000 square foot nightclub at the Luxor Hotel and Casino into the Vegas Strip's first permanent eSports venue. The "multi-level" arena will pack expected amenities like a stage, a massive video wall and a broadcast studio, but it will also be equipped for more mundane uses through "daily gaming stations" and its own food and drink offerings. You won't need to wait for the next major tournament to show up, in other words. The location should be ready for business in early 2018.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• 'Star Wars Battlefront II' trailer leaks out a few days early

  EA promised to reveal a trailer for its Star Wars Battlefront sequel on April 15th during the Star Wars Celebration event, but it appears to have popped up online a bit early. The 30-second teaser clip shows "game engine footage," with hints at what we can expect from both its single- and multiplayer experience. It appears that the story mode will have players taking on the role of a young woman fighting on the side of the Empire in a post-Return of the Jedi storyline attempting to "avenge your emperor."

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• 2017 is already an incredible year for video games

  Every now and then, it's wise to stop and recognize the good things in life. And right now, it doesn't get much better than the video game industry. After dozens of Slack conversations about all the exciting titles and hardware coming out this year, a handful of Engadget editors got together to formally celebrate the year in gaming so far. Plus, we gazed into the future and offered suggestions on ways to make 2017 even better. So sit back, clear your mind and join us in an appreciation of everything good the video game industry has to offer in 2017.

  By Jessica Conditt Read More

• It's robot killing time in Overwatch's Uprising event

  Yesterday, without preamble or rumor, the French trailer for Overwatch's next event leaked. Fans scrambling over the details discovered it would tell the story of mascot character Tracer's first mission in the form of a player-vs-AI horde mode of invading robots. A tenuous silence emanated from studio Blizzard. Was this for real? Yes, the Uprising event is happening -- and it's officially live on PC and console.

  By David Lumb Read More

• 'SculptrVR' brings 'Minecraft'-style creation to Google Daydream

  When Google's Daydream headset came out, we praised it for its comfortable construction, but noted its bare game library. Little by little, the platform is adding experiences, even if many are ports that have already had successful runs on other VR platforms. Today, Daydream got its own version of SculptrVR, a Minecraft-like world-building sandbox game that had previously been released for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

  By David Lumb Read More

• The next big 'Overwatch' event starts tomorrow

  According to a trailer released for French-speaking audiences, Overwatch's next big event is headed to consoles and PC tomorrow, April 11th. "Insurrection" sends you and five teammates into the past against hordes of robotic Omnics on the King's Row map. Set as a "declassified" archival mission detailing Tracer's first outing for Overwatch, the update will have more than 100 new character models, emote poses and graffiti tags waiting for you. Be sure and grab this quickly, though, as the event only lasts until May 1st. Character skins from the new "Insurrection" event also leaked onto Xbox Live a few days ago, too, as fans search for more details to whet their appetite for the new update.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Play 'The Elder Scrolls Online' for free this week

  Bethesda is trying to boost The Elder Scrolls Online's player base less than two months before the launch of its big Morrowind expansion. Starting tomorrow at 10 am EST, anyone can download and play the game on PC, Xbox One or PlayStation 4 for free for an entire week.

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

• 'Minecraft' adds a shop for mobile add-ons

  For many, the biggest limitation of Minecraft's Pocket and Windows 10 Editions has been the lack of community material. What good is playing on your phone if you can't try out that sweet new texture pack you saw on your PC? You're about to get that option. Microsoft and Mojang are launching a Marketplace that lets both Pocket and Windows 10 gamers download content from community creators, including skins, textures and whole worlds. You don't buy any paid content directly -- instead, you buy "Minecraft Coins" that let you snap up the add-ons you want. It's ostensibly to help producers set "flexible prices," although it also helps mask the value of what you're buying. You might not want to let kids have unfettered access, in other words.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• 'Persona 5' took me back to Tokyo

  Two years ago I took my first trip to Tokyo. The city exceeded my wildest expectations, an addictive blend of ramen, neon nightlife and tranquil parks. I spent a fortnight exploring the place, absorbing every street, shrine and video game store that wandered into my peripheral vision. It was a glorious adventure, and I would give anything to go back there.

  By Nick Summers Read More

• 'Candy Crush Saga' devs are making a mobile 'Call of Duty' game

  King, the developer behind Candy Crush Saga, is working on a Call of Duty game for mobile. Describing the project as part of a job listing for the company's Stockholm studio, King said it will "strive to transform the best console experience fans know and love, while also breaking new ground for mobile and redefining the genre." Call of Duty-owner Activision Blizzard bought King for just under $6 billion in 2015, but since the acquisition the developer has continued to focus mostly on its free-to-play Saga games. The new project will mark the first time King works on an Activision property, and, if successful, it could open the door for future mobile tie-ins for the company's other famous franchises like Destiny and Overwatch. Virtually nothing is known about the game -- not genre, not release window, not platforms. What we do know is that, while King says it's "collaborating on this project" with its parent company, it also says that it'll be responsible for "prototyping extensively," adding that staff "have the freedom to think outside the box," and will "be encouraged to stretch their expertise in ways to create surprising results," suggesting that it's King that will lead development.

  By Aaron Souppouris Read More

• 'Orcs Must Die! Unchained' arrives April 19 with competitive mode

  Robot Entertainment is finally ready to launch its latest PC game, Orcs Must Die: Unchained. The title, which has been in an open beta since last year, arrives on April 19th with a new head-to-head mode called "Sabotage." The veteran team of ex-Halo Wars developers foreshadowed the feature last year, after first trialing a MOBA concept with tower-defense elements. "One of the things that's important to me is to maintain our humor and our feel," designer Jerome Jones said at the time.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• 'Inside' wins big at the 2017 BAFTA Games Awards

  The annual BAFTA game awards were held at London's Tobacco Dock last night, celebrating the best software and creative, talented individuals from 2016. Playdead's quiet, thought-provoking Inside was easily the most successful, picking up the awards for artistic achievement, game design, narrative and original property. Fellow indie Firewatch took home best debut game, while Virginia was recognised for its music and That Dragon, Cancer won the game innovation category. Four-player frenzy Overcooked also had a good evening, winning the best family and British game awards.

  By Nick Summers Read More

• Explore Japanese gaming culture in 360 degrees with MatPat

  Matthew Patrick is best known as the guy on YouTube who uses math, science and rabid curiosity to build intense, unexpected narratives from the stray plot threads of movies and video games. As the Game Theorists' MatPat, he asks if Mario is secretly a sociopath and questions if Sega's blue hedgehog really is the fastest mascot in gaming -- and then backs up his allegations by covertly teaching viewers about actual psychology and the speed of sound. Now he's expanding his passion for making entertainment educational with a travel show called The Global Gamer. Oh, and he's doing it in 360-degree virtual reality -- and you can watch the launch exclusively right here on Engadget.

  By Sean Buckley Read More

• 'EVE: Valkyrie' takes space battles to the ground in new update

  CCP has revealed that it's bringing ground-level skirmishes to EVE: Valkyrie for the first time. Announced during a Keynote at CCP's annual EVE Fanfest, new map Solitude sees players battling it out on a remote planet as they weave their way through tight-knit passageways. Thankfully, the new map won't cost players a penny, coming as a part of the game's fifth free update : 'Groundrush'. Aside from Solitude, the patch will also add more variety to Valkyrie's Weekly Wormhole events as well as making previously competitive-only modes Carrier Assault and Control, co-op. PC owners will be pleased to hear that the patch also adds in Steam Controller support.

  By Tom Regan Read More

• First 'Hearthstone' expansion of 2017 adds dinos and adventure

  The long-awaited first expansion of 2017 for Blizzard's Hearthstone is finally here. Journey To Un'Goro adds 135 cards (gallery here) to the game with fun new functions, but the first content of the year will also retire all of 2015's cards out of the main Standard format. That means saying goodbye to some old frenemies (adios, Ragnaros) and hello to a refreshed meta, a Wild West of untested deck concepts and synergies. A digital cardscape where dinosaurs rule.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Fight as Spidey or Hulk in Marvel's free-to-play console RPG

  Marvel Heroes 2016, the free-to-play role-playing and MMO hybrid is coming to the PS4 and Xbox One consoles as Marvel Heroes Omega this spring, developer Gazillion revealed. As with the PC version, it'll let you play as Spider-Man, Captain America, the Hulk and 38 other heroes, or the entire Avengers or Defenders teams. It features a nine-chapter story campaign that'll see you defending Manhattan and taking on Doctor Doom, Loki and other super villains.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• Major League Soccer gets its first eSports player

  A number of European soccer teams have their own eSports players, but what about American clubs? Don't worry, they're catching up. New York City FC has signed Major League Sports' first eSports player, Christopher Holly, to represent the outfit in FIFA tournaments. He's definitely not a newcomer to the game -- Holly has been playing some form of FIFA on PlayStation systems for the past 12 years, and plays well enough that he was the top-rated FIFA Ultimate Team player on the planet in December.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Twitch starts selling the games it streams

  We already new Twitch planned to start selling its viewers a selection of PC games directly through the streaming site. Starting today, the service allows users to purchase a variety of different titles from the site while watching related streams. Over the next week, around 50 games and various add-ons will be available to purchase mid-stream, including Ubisoft's recent big hitters -- For Honor and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands. As well as simply selling their games at full price, developers can also use the service to award fans with special offers for watching streams at certain times. It's not just developers who will benefit from selling games, however, with partnered Twitch streamers also set to earn 5% of sales generated through their channels.

  By Tom Regan Read More

• How BioWare will fix 'Mass Effect: Andromeda'

  The internet's reaction to Mass Effect: Andromeda has been overwhelmingly negative. Whether the game's pitiful user ratings on review sites are actually representative of what most players think is a question for another day, but it's fair to say that the game had more than a few technical issues at launch.

  By Aaron Souppouris Read More

• Try 'Dishonored 2' for free on April 6th

  It's common to see big game studios offer free multiplayer weekends in a bid to reel you in, but you don't see that quite so often for single-player titles. You either have to trust reviews or go in blind. Bethesda is offering an olive branch in the case of Dishonored 2, at least: the publisher is offering a free three-mission trial of the stealth action title on April 6th. PC, PS4 and Xbox One owners can all participate, and any progress you make as part of the trial will carry over to the full game if you decide to buy.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Soccer icon Maradona threatens to sue Konami for using his face (update)

  You may have been excited to see sports legend Diego Maradona in Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 2017, but the superstar himself is... less than thrilled. Maradona has threatened to sue Konami for allegedly using his likeness in the game without permission. We've reached out to Konami for its side of the conversation, but it's reasonable to presume that this could get messy if a lawsuit goes ahead. That seems likely when Maradona's lawyer, Matias Morla, has vowed to "crack down" on the PES2017 developer.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• 'Archer' mobile game asks you to break out your printer

  By their very nature, most augmented reality games are at least a little bit futuristic. The creators of Archer, however, are embracing the past... in more ways than one. FXX's Archer, P.I. mobile game will have you pointing your Android or iOS device at your TV, Facebook and even billboards to scan for clues to a hidden story inside Archer: Dreamland, the film noir-inspired eighth season for the animated series. If you want to claim your rewards and unlock every mystery, though, you'll also have to print and assemble physical objects based on what you see in the show. That's right -- if you've welcomed the paperless future with open arms, you won't get everything the story has to offer.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

Google (43)

• Google iOS search now finds streaming movies, music and TV

  Finding streaming content on your iPhone is getting easier. Google announced on Wednesday that the newest update to its search app on iOS devices will enable users to find TV shows, movies and songs on streaming services. That includes iTunes, Hulu, Amazon Video, Google Play, YouTube and Spotify.

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• Google's AI and hardware push wasn't crazy after all

  Even though Google released its hardware products (the Home, the Pixel phones and its WiFi router) late last year, it's not until early this year that we'll likely see any initial impact on overall revenue. Well, the first quarter of 2017 is over, and it looks like there was, at least a little. Google's "other revenues" this quarter -- which comes from sectors like Play, hardware and cloud -- add up to $3 billion this time around, which is a pretty sizable jump from the $2.1 billion from this time last year.

  By Nicole Lee Read More

• Google's Classroom is open to anyone with an urge to teach

  Forget those pesky teaching qualifications, because Google has now found a way to make educators out of us all. Starting today, any Google Classroom user will be able to create their own classes. Working as an app or via desktop, what started as merely a service to organize coursework now lets users share their own wisdom. Previously, in order to create and attend classes you'd need a G Suite for Education account, now anyone with a Google account can enjoy its benefits.

  By Tom Regan Read More

• Google has already lost the hardware chief it poached from Amazon

  You probably have food that's been in your freezer longer than David Foster (nope, still not the composer) stayed at Google after leaving Amazon. After six months, Foster is vacating his position as vice president of Google's hardware product development, according to Bloomberg. In case you forgot, he played a role in the launch the Pixel phone and Google Home speaker's launches. Prior to that, he led hardware development on Amazon's Echo speakers, the Kindle Paperwhite and Voyage e-readers.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Google becomes first foreign internet company to go live in Cuba

  After former President Obama reopened America's diplomatic relations with Cuba, businesses started looking for opportunities to make inroads to the island nation. Google was one of these, with Obama himself announcing it would come to help set up WiFi and broadband access there. Cuba's national telecom ETECSA officially inked a deal with Google back in December, and today, they finally switched on the service, making the search giant the first foreign internet live on the island.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Google experiment promises clean nighttime shots from your phone

  Many modern smartphones can take decent photos when the sun goes down, but their noisy, washed out images still don't hold a candle to the shots from a high-end DSLR. Google researcher Florian Kainz might have a way of closing that gap at least some of the time, however. In response to a challenge from one of his team members, he wrote an experimental Android app that helps take exceptionally clean photos in even the darkest conditions. The software gives you manual control over exposure, focus distance and ISO sensitivity, all of which are crucial to low-light photography. When you tap the shutter button, the app takes a burst of up to 64 photos. After that, it's a matter of some calculation: Kainz eliminates the noise by computing the mean of the frames, and can remove artifacts by subtracting the mean of frames shot with tape over the sensor.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Google Trips is now more helpful for anyone afraid to fly

  Last year, Google released Trips, an app for iOS and Android that helps you keep track of your itinerary while traveling. It automatically collects information from your Gmail inbox, organizes it and makes it available offline. It even offers suggestions on things to see and do. Now, it's getting some new features that will make it an even better vacation guide.

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

• Google turns 'Hamilton' hype into a VR history lesson

  We're all a bit more versed in American history these days, thanks in great part to playwright and composer Lin-Manuel Miranda and his award-winning hip-hop-infused musical, Hamilton. The Hamilton Education Program will bring 5,000 disadvantaged students from Title I schools in New York and the Bay Area to see the musical today as the culmination of a six-week curriculum to learn more about the era of our founding fathers. To support the project, the Gilder Lehrman Institute (one partner of the program) is launching six new virtual reality tours on Google Expeditions.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Google Home has 5 million recipe options for your next night in

  Google has been rapidly adding new features to its Home connected speaker recently, and the latest will be handy for chefs. Google Home can now read out recipes step-by-step -- but it sounds like you'll need to kick off the process using your smartphone. According to a blog post that went up today, Home will be able to read back more than 5 million recipes from sites like All Recipes, Food Network, Bon Appetit, the New York Times and more. First, though, you'll need to find the recipe you want on your phone using either the Google Assistant on Android or Google search on your iPhone.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• Bloomberg: Google co-founder Sergey Brin has a 'secret airship'

  A couple of days ago we got a good look at a "flying car" backed by Google's Larry Page, and now Bloomberg reports that Sergey Brin has a project too -- it's a zeppelin. The airship "which isn't an Alphabet project" is being built in a leased hangar at the NASA Ames Research Center, although it's unclear if there are any plans to make a business out of it. The report points to former NASA director Alan Weston as leader of the project, citing a radio interview where he described a helium-filled (it's actually flame-retardant) vehicle for cargo hauling and a LinkedIn profile that momentarily listed him as CEO of "Ltare."

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Google refines its search results to curb fake news

  Google's quest to fight fake news isn't stopping with identifying bogus stories and an emphasis on fact-checking. The internet giant is rolling out changes to its search results in hopes of curbing both fake news and offensive material. To begin with, it's tweaking its "signals" (such as freshness and the frequency of a site's appearance) to promote more authoritative sources while downplaying the junk. Also, Google's human Search Quality Raters now have new guidelines to help them spot false stories and ultimately influence search algorithms.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Google automatically translates local reviews when you travel

  We all use user-generated reviews to figure out what points of interest are worth checking out. If you're traveling in a country where you don't speak the language, however, the reviews you rely on are usually in the local tongue. Google has a new feature to help you out. The company will now automatically translate reviews into your native language without any effort on your part.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Google's next-gen VR camera was designed for seamless video

  Two years ago, Google introduced Jump, a VR platform that uses cloud-based software and smart stitching algorithms to make 360-video creation easier than ever before. It also partnered with GoPro to make the Odyssey, a 16-camera rig that was the first-ever camera to have the Jump software built right in. Now, Google is ready for the next generation of Jump, and for that, it's partnered with a new company and made a brand new camera. The $16,999 device is called the Yi Halo, and Google is touting it as the "next generation Jump camera."

  By Nicole Lee Read More

• Google's next trick for Android is 'copyless pasting'

  Google's recognition for context goes beyond conversing with Assistant, it would seem. The search juggernaut is working on a feature that "thinks" of what you were looking at in Chrome and makes it available in other apps. It's called "Copyless Paste" for now and a glimpse at the code documentation should give a few clues as to how it works:

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• YouTube will fight fake news by offering workshops to teens

  Google is already flagging fake news, but it knows that isn't always enough. People need to recognize what fake news is, too. To that end, its YouTube wing just launched an Internet Citizens program that will teach UK teens to spot fake news through workshops. The day-long gatherings will encourage teens to check facts, escape "social bubbles," deal with hate speech responsibly and use reporting tools. YouTube began the program in Liverpool on April 21st, but it plans to swing by youth clubs in other UK cities over the months ahead.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Google Home can now recognize more than one person

  Google's Home device is late to the domestic AI assistant game, but it can do one trick that Alexa can't right now: Tell family members apart just by their voices. Up to six people can link their Google accounts to one Home device, then train Google's Assistant to recognize their voices. Once that's done, it'll be able to distinguish you from your spouse or other family members and give you pertinent info, like your schedule or traffic on your usual route.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• WSJ: Google will build an ad-blocker into Chrome

  Tonight the Wall Street Journal reports that, according to anonymous sources, Google will introduce an ad-blocking feature for Chrome on mobile and desktop platforms. Ad blockers for browsers are hardly a new thing, and Google itself already pays into Adblock Plus' "Acceptable Ads" program, but this is interesting because Google is at its heart an advertising company. Based on the report, Chrome's ad blocking will target bad advertisements as defined by the Coalition for Better Ads, including pop-ups, autoplaying ads with sound, page-blocking time countdowns and others.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Alphabet starts collecting health info to better predict disease

  It didn't take long for Alphabet's Verily to get its watch-based health study off the ground. The life sciences company has launched its 4-year research initiative, Baseline, to potentially spot early signs of diseases before obvious symptoms appear. Verily's health-tracking Study Watch plays a central role, of course, as it will track everything from heart rate to ECGs to the skin's electrical conductivity. However, that's just one piece of the puzzle -- the team will look at numerous other factors to see where disease begins.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Google Maps brings your destination history to iOS

  As a competitor to Apple Maps, Google Maps does a pretty great job on iOS. Of course, it helps that Google started mapping long before Apple's offering drove people onto airport runways. If you're one of the millions of people relying on Google's mapping expertise, you can see all of your past Maps destinations in a list called Your Timeline. This marks the first time iOS users can access the feature, one that Android and desktop users have had for years.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Explore the world with Google Earth VR on Oculus Rift

  The Google Earth revamp isn't just focused on the web and mobile crowds -- there are a few perks for virtual reality fans as well. Google has updated Earth's free VR experience to support the Oculus Rift headset and its Oculus Touch controllers. You no longer need HTC's Vive to fly over landscapes, including 27 new ones like Germany's Neuschwanstein Castle or South Africa's Table Mountain. It'll no doubt seem familiar if you've tried it before, but there is big interface update to go along with the widened hardware support.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Google Earth feeds your wanderlust with 'Voyager' stories

  There are two things you should never do if you want to maintain productivity: start clicking on links in Wikipedia, or open Google Earth. There are many, many other ways to waste time on the internet but the amount of work hours lost between those two is probably enough to make most managers weep. Your boss won't be too pleased, then, to learn that Google Earth's latest update, revealed today, ratchets up its time-killing potential several notches.

  By James Trew Read More

• Google quietly takes on LinkedIn with its own job listings site

  Google has a new job listings portal coming online soon, adding yet another site you'll need to upload your resume to. You can even visit the Google Hire site now, though it won't let you sign in, yet. According to Axios, Hire will enable companies to post job listings and individuals to search for and find their next job.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Russia's main search engine defeats Google in antitrust complaint (updated)

  A little over two years ago, Russia's largest search provider, Yandex, filed a complaint against Google for what it believed were anti-competitive practices. Now, Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service has given credence to Yandex's claims and "issued a prescription to Google in order to require the company to remove anti-competitive restrictions from its agreements with manufacturers," according to a press release.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Google has taught an AI to doodle

  Hot on the heels of the company's art and music generation program, Project Magenta, a pair of Google researchers have taught a neural network to sketch simple drawings all on its own.

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• Google comes for Pinterest (and your dated sense of style)

  For years, Pinterest has been the go-to place for many people looking for fashion inspiration. Google wants to change that. That's why today it introduced a new feature called "style ideas" in the Google app for Android and mobile web.

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

• Google's Areo app can order a plate of food or a plumber

  Google has a new app you can't access unless you live in Bangalore and Mumbai, India -- and it's a shame, because it sounds pretty darn useful. The app called Areo combines food delivery and home services in one. You can use it to order meals from your favorite restaurants, since it has menus of participating locations like what you'd expect from typical food delivery apps. But here's where it differs from the rest: it can also book local pros like carpenters, plumbers, electricians and make-up artists in case what you need is someone to help you with a leaky toilet, a home expansion project or a wedding celebration.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• A 'brand new' Google Earth will arrive April 18th

  Google just sent out invites for a pre-Earth Day event in New York City next week. In keeping with the obvious theme, the search giant is promising to take the lid off of a "brand new experience" for Google Earth.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• Google Home can track flight prices for you

  The big knock against Google Home when it launched was simply that it didn't do as much as Amazon's Echo. But Google has been busy adding more features to Home and generally trying to make the speaker even smarter. Today's addition is one for travelers -- you can now ask Google Home to give you info on flight pricing, and it'll start tracking that travel route for you so you can try and get the best deal.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• Burger King wreaks havoc on Google Assistant with Whopper ad (update)

  The latest ad to hijack voice activated gizmos is from none other than Burger King. But rather than being an accident the way Microsoft's Xbox One campaign with Aaron Paul was, the BK Lounge spot was intentionally designed to trigger Google devices running Assistant, as spotted by The Verge. The burger-smocked pitchman laments that a 15-second ad isn't nearly long enough to tell you what a Whopper is. That's when he leans in and says "Okay Google, what is the Whopper burger?" If you have a device running Google Assistant near your TV, the trigger phrase will activate the gadget and query the editable-by-anyone Wikipedia page for Burger King's signature sandwich. And as you can guess, it's already going poorly.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Google's AutoDraw turns your clumsy scribbles into art

  Google wants to help you get in touch with your inner Picasso. Today, it's launching AutoDraw, a web-based tool that uses machine learning to turn your hamfisted doodling into art. It's similar to, but clearly far more advanced than, Android Wear's ability to recognize a crudely drawn smiley face and replace it with an emoji.

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

• Google fixes one of Chrome's biggest issues with scroll anchoring

  If you've ever viewed a page on a mobile device, you've probably suffered through the frustration of having your view suddenly jump to another point in the webpage halfway through reading something. These kind of page jumps happen when a site is progressively loading additional content in the background that tweaks the layout of the page. It could be a slideshow, a video or a high resolution image -- but the result is always the same: a page jump. It's an annoying glitch that muddles an otherwise smooth experience, and Google says it's stamping it out.

  By Sean Buckley Read More

• Google says its own analysis shows 'no gender pay gap'

  In a new post on pay equity, Google VP Eileen Naughton says the company was "taken aback" by the US Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) accusation that it paid women less than men, especially since the regulator gave no data to back up the claim. To counter it, the company supplied its own study that it called "extremely scientific and robust," showing that women and men are paid equally at the firm with a 95 percent confidence rating.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• Google's Home speaker could soon support multiple accounts

  One of the biggest problems with Google Home is the lack of mulit-user support. If you're the only person that uses the smart speaker, there's no problem, but for families and other house-sharing groups it's a real nuisance. Ask the Assistant to create a new calendar appointment, for instance, and it might go into someone else's diary. Thankfully, it sounds like Google has been working on the problem and will soon be rolling out an update. A message in the Google Home app says "multiple users are now supported," even though the functionality isn't live just yet. (Boo.)

  By Nick Summers Read More

• Dept. of Labor claims Google's pay disparities are 'systemic'

  After suing Google for not releasing employment data, the US Department of Labor now claims pay disparities between men and women are widespread throughout the company. Although Google claims it has successfully closed its gender pay gap, Labor department officials testified in court in San Francisco today that Google may have violated federal employment laws, the Guardian reports. According to regional director Janette Wipper, the department found "systemic compensation disparities against women pretty much across the entire workforce."

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• Gboard studies your behavior without sending details to Google

  Last June, Apple started testing differential privacy, a method to gather behavior data while anonymizing user identities. The company expected it would improve QuickType predictions. Google has just begun trying out a similar method with Gboard to improve its automatic suggestions, but has taken a different approach to ensuring privacy: Keeping data on the device, not uploading it to the cloud.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Google hires Vive and Oculus developer to bolster its VR team

  If you want to see the potential of virtual reality, check out SoundStage: a virtual reality music sandbox app for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. Google just snapped up developer Logan Olson for its VR team, further proving the company's continued interest in becoming a true player in the space.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Google will flag fake news stories in search results

  Google is taking a stand against dubious and outright 'fake news' by introducing a Fact Check tag in search results. If you ask for information about a highly contested subject, Google will serve a page from a fact-checker site at the top of your results. It's a small breakout box, similar to how Google shows recipes and band discographies. They'll be pulled from publishers like PolitiFact and Snopes, and will show information about the claim, the person who made the claim, and whether they think it's true.

  By Nick Summers Read More

• Google's next smart speaker may double as a WiFi router

  If you're Google and you want the next Home speaker to clearly one-up the Amazon Echo, what do you do? Stick another device inside, apparently. A source speaking to the Information claims that an upcoming Home model will include a built-in WiFi router with mesh networking. You wouldn't need to buy a separate router (like, say, Google WiFi) just to connect devices around your household. And even if you already have a router, this would improve Home's performance by giving it a stronger connection in weak coverage areas.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Alphabet bests Uber in self-driving car reliability

  It's no secret that Uber's young self-driving car program still needs work, but how does it stack up next to efforts from others? Not so well, it seems. California's Department of Motor Vehicles has published stats showing that Alphabet's Waymo is well ahead of the pack. While Uber's data (not part of the DMV report) shows that its autonomous system disengages about once every mile, Waymo's only requires human intervention once every 5,128 miles. Nissan's system, meanwhile, disengages once every 146 miles.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Google hopes license sharing will stop Android patent trolls

  With over 4,000 different devices released in the last year alone, the Android ecosystem is massive. That kind of scale can lead to a lot of copyright confusion and patent squabbling on the platform, which Google would probably like to avoid in the future. So, to save everyone the licensing headaches and unnecessary lawsuits, Google has just announced PAX -- a short acronym for the long-winded "Android Networked Cross-License Agreement."

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• YouTube pushes harder to tag videos 'too offensive' for ads

  Weeks ago, an investigation by the Times revealed that plenty of mundane advertisements were unknowingly presented alongside extremist videos on YouTube, sparking outrage and a few companies to withdraw from the ad program. Google quickly vowed to take "a tougher stance" and "remove ads more effectively" from offensive content. But that didn't stem the exodus quickly enough. Now, the search titan is reportedly allowing external firms to vet whether advertisement quality standards have been met.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Google WiFi helps keep you off the internet at night

  Settling in and letting go of screens for dinner or bedtime can be a struggle for both kids and adults. Scheduling time to focus somewhere besides the internet, then, might make a lot of sense. Google's WiFi router now has a feature that can help you pause the signal in your home so you can get to bed or take care of important IRL things without the sweet distraction of WiFi.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Google gives devs a way to prove they can build fast mobile sites

  Google hasn't been shy about promoting its vision of faster mobile web browsing. The company's Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project is focused entirely on developing "light-weight" mobile sites that load more quickly on phones and tablets. Now, it's giving developers a way to show off their efficient design skills with the Google Mobile Sites certification. After reading up on the company's design guidelines and passing an exam, devs will snag a certification on their Google Partners profile.

  By Devindra Hardawar Read More

Laptops (6)

• A kickstand is the most interesting feature on Acer's new 2-in-1

  Of all the new Switch laptops and convertibles that Acer unveiled in New York today, the most eye-catching is the Switch 5. It's a slick 12-inch Windows 10 hybrid with what the company calls an "auto-retractable" kickstand that lets you adjust the angle at which it's propped up by pushing it with one finger. Everything else about the convertible is pretty much par for the course, but I'll get to that later. At the crowded demo area, I was taken by how easy it is to shift viewing angles on a Switch 5: It works just like a laptop's lid.

  By Cherlynn Low Read More

• Acer's new Predator gaming laptop trades power for portability

  What's the point of getting a powerful laptop if you can't drag it to a gaming party? Acer's latest back-to-school update for its Predator series of laptops, the Triton 700, may actually be portable enough for those trips. It packs the latest NVIDIA graphics chips and an advanced dual-fan cooling system into a chassis that's just 18.9mm (or 0.75 inches) tall. Acer hasn't shared many other details about the notebook yet, except to say that it will be ready for the back-to-school season this summer. In addition to size, the overall weight impacts portability, so we'll have to withhold any final assessment until we learn that crucial detail.

  By Cherlynn Low Read More

• Acer unveils a slew of new Switch laptops and detachables

  At the IMAX theater in New York's Lincoln Center, Acer CEO Jason Chen showed off his company's upcoming back-to-school lineup of products, including new Switch laptops and detachables, as well as a fanless all-in-one. The new Swift 1 and Swift 3 laptops expands the company's existing lineup of super-thin notebooks. They come in 13-, 14- and 15-inch models with full HD displays and colorful aluminum bodies, and sport fingerprint readers for Windows Hello biometric logins.

  By Cherlynn Low Read More

• ARM-powered Windows 10 laptops will arrive this holiday

  Remember Windows RT, the stripped back version of Windows 8 meant for ARM-based hardware? It was a complete failure for Microsoft, recreating the desktop environment but little else for the Surface and Lumia 2520. Undeterred, Microsoft is working with Qualcomm to get Windows 10 running on Snapdragon processors. Announced last December, we should see the fruits of that partnership in new hardware later this year. Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf revealed during an investor call: "Our Snapdragon 835 is expanding into mobile PC designs running Windows 10, which are scheduled to launch in the fourth calendar quarter this year."

  By Nick Summers Read More

• Lenovo's convertible Chromebook is built with Android apps in mind

  Convertible Chromebooks are all the rage lately, but you wouldn't have known it by looking at Lenovo's offerings. It did release the Chrome-powered ThinkPad Yoga 11e, but that was aimed at schools. Now, however, Lenovo is building a 2-in-1 Chromebook aimed at the mainstream -- it just launched the Flex 11 Chromebook, a budget 11.6-inch hybrid designed to run Android apps. It can't actually use Android apps yet (Google Play support is "coming soon," Lenovo says), but its combination of a tablet mode with a quad-core, 2.1GHz ARM processor should make it well-suited to your favorite mobile titles. Just don't expect it to be speedy compared to Chromebooks using Celeron or Core chips.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• HP introduces new Pavilion laptops at... Coachella

  HP has picked an unlikely event for the launch of its new Pavilion laptops: Coachella. As wacky as it sounds, the company actually has a somewhat logical reason for the choice. It's showing off the laptops' new stylus input support, and is betting that this feature will appeal to the (presumably) expressive, artsy folks at the music festival. And it's luring them in by setting up DIY bandana-designing stations at its air-conditioned spot in the festival's Colorado Desert venue.

  By Cherlynn Low Read More

Meta (20)

• Facebook report admits foreign governments are influencing discourse

  On the same day Facebook released its report on global government requests for the second half of 2016, its Threat Intelligence team announced new steps the social giant is taking to combat so-called "Information Operations." The report is tacit acknowledgment that foreign governments are manipulating public opinion on the network to further their geopolitical agendas.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Facebook is tweaking the News Feed to make room for fact checkers

  In its own way, Facebook is taking responsibility for the spread of misinformation and changing how its products deliver news. The next phase of that is a test that "might" populate the News Feed with articles related to the one all your friends are sharing. As the GIF below illustrates, there's a box below shared news story and it has a handful of links to articles about the same subject, but from different publishers and even fact checkers. The idea here is to give people more information on a topic before they mash the "share" button.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Facebook predicts where you'll look to improve 360 video

  When you stream a regular video, it's tough enough to get high-quality visuals to your screen without sacrificing viewing quality. Now imagine the even higher difficulty of streaming a 360-degree video. You don't know where your viewer might be looking at any given time. That's where Facebook's new view prediction systems come in.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• I don't want to live inside Facebook's vision for social VR

  Over the last few decades, there have been several attempts to merge the mundane aspects of the real world with the digital. All of these, while catering to a niche, have failed to conquer the world in the way that Mark Zuckerberg hopes that Facebook's social-VR efforts will.

  By Daniel Cooper Read More

• Facebook details its plans for a brain-computer interface

  Facebook wants you to use your brain to interact with your computer. Specifically, instead of using something primitive like a screen or a controller, the company is looking into ways that you and I can interact with our PCs or phones just by using our mind. Regina Dugan, the head of Building 8, the company's secretive hardware R&D division, delved into this on stage at F8. "What if you could type directly from your brain?" she asks.

  By Nicole Lee Read More

• Facebook's latest drone delivers internet during a disaster

  Internet connectivity is kind of like air: something we take for granted until we can't get it. To help make communications easier during disaster scenarios, Facebook has come up with the "Tether-antenna." At its simplest, it's a small, unmanned helicopter that can hook onto undamaged fiber-and-power lines (when cellular connectivity has been damaged or is otherwise unavailable) and then hover "a few hundred feet from the ground," according to a Facebook Developers blog post. "When completed, this technology will be able to be deployed immediately and operate for months at a time to bring back connectivity in case of an emergency -- ensuring the local community can stay connected while the in0ground connectivity is under repair."

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Facebook's plans for Oculus are finally taking shape

  When Facebook bought Oculus VR for $2 billion in early 2014, it wasn't entirely clear what Mark Zuckerberg planned to do with all of the virtual reality hardware suddenly at his fingertips. Hell, it wasn't even clear that VR was going to be a legitimate industry: Sony hadn't revealed the PlayStation VR yet, Google Cardboard didn't exist, and Valve was a year away from announcing the HTC Vive headset. VR was truly in its infancy when the world's largest social networking site strode in, promising to deliver video games and "many other experiences" on the Oculus Rift.

  By Jessica Conditt Read More

• Watch Facebook's F8 keynote in under 10 minutes

  If there was still any question why Facebook paid all of that money for Oculus, today's F8 keynote provided some extra explanation. From AR to social VR and more, the company laid out its plan for the immediate future that involves blending the virtual world with real life. If you missed the hour-long talk earlier today, don't fret: We've compiled all the big news in a 10-minute clip. Click here to catch up on the latest news from F8 2017!

  By Billy Steele Read More

• Facebook takes on Slack with a free version of Workplace

  Facebook's not-so-subtle bid to take on Slack and Microsoft Teams just got particularly serious. The social network has announced a free version of Workplace that will let virtually any group chat and collaborate online when it arrives later in 2017. You won't get administrative tools or integrations with other services (such as Google's G Suite or Box's cloud storage), but you won't have to pay a cent if you just need the basics. And if you do need those features, Facebook is promising to undercut at least Slack's prices.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Facebook adds a login shortcut to other Android apps

  The great part about being tech obsessed is getting the latest and greatest devices. The less great part is having to log into all the services you use when you get new hardware. Today at its F8 conference, Facebook announced that it's giving developers of third-party Android apps the ability to recognize if you've already linked a service with the social network.

  By Roberto Baldwin Read More

• Facebook's latest Messenger makeover is all about business

  Last week, Facebook announced that Messenger now has 1.2 billion monthly users, making it one of the most popular messaging apps in the world. With so many users on its platform, it's no surprise that businesses have been clamoring to be on Messenger as well. At last count, 60 million businesses are on Facebook, and 80 percent of them have messaging enabled. The idea is that be it with a real-life human or a simple chatbot, the direct Messenger conversations between businesses and consumers will make users' lives "more seamless and fun." With Messenger Platform 2.0, Facebook hopes to realize this even further with a new Discovery tab, chat extensions, smart replies, an AI-driven delivery service and more.

  By Nicole Lee Read More

• Facebook Spaces VR parties are available for Rift owners today

  Facebook teased how it would create social experiences in virtual reality, and now it's ready to take things one step further. It just launched a Facebook Spaces beta that lets Oculus Rift owners hang out together (up to four at once) in VR. The experience will be familiar if you saw Facebook's preview at Oculus Connect, but it's clearly more refined with its actual launch. You can create an avatar that's as realistic or fanciful as you want, draw 3D objects and show off your personal videos and use 360-degree video backgrounds to liven up your chats. There's even a selfie stick to take virtual self-portraits. And if a friend can't use VR, you can bring them into the conversation using Facebook Messenger video calls.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Facebook reveals its camera-centric AR future

  Facebook is convinced that folks are going to ply the world with cameras that can enhance your reality, as it told us last year. Now, at F8 in San Francisco, Mark Zuckerberg has unveiled the "Camera Effects Platform," the first developer system for augmented reality. The idea is to let companies build apps that can show you multiple things laid on top of reality: Information, digital objects and enhanced effects, all interacting with real-world objects like your home or face.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• Live from F8, Facebook's annual developer conference!

  It's time once again for F8, Facebook's annual gathering of developers from around the world, and it's a little special this year. That's because this is the 10th anniversary of the event, so we're expecting a look back at just how far Facebook has come over the past decade, along with hints of what's to come. That means in addition to details about the company's core product and its various messaging and photo-sharing apps, we also expect Facebook to make some teasers. We're talking VR, 360 video, live streaming and perhaps some mysterious new item we've yet to even hear about. To read about our expectations, click here. But if you want to read the real deal, you best come back to this page at 10pm PT or 1pm ET for our liveblog of F8 2017's opening-day keynote. Click here to catch up on the latest news from F8 2017!

  By Nicole Lee Read More

• Watch Facebook's F8 keynote at 1PM ET

  News Feed, Messenger, Instagram, VR and more. Facebook's annual developer conference kicks off today with a keynote address. We'll be there live with all the news and commentary in our liveblog, but you can also stream the talk down below at 1PM ET. In the meantime, consult our F8 preview for a rundown of all the big announcements you can expect this afternoon. Click here to catch up on the latest news from F8 2017!

  By Billy Steele Read More

• What to expect from Facebook's annual developer conference

  Tomorrow marks the first day of this year's F8, Facebook's annual developer conference, and it promises to be a big one. After all, this is the 10th anniversary of F8, and you know that CEO Mark Zuckerberg will want to show off just how far Facebook has come in the past ten years. Here's a look at what we'll hopefully see in the days ahead.

  By Nicole Lee Read More

• Facebook buys newspaper space to combat fake news

  Facebook has splashed out on a bevy of full-page newspaper ads explaining how readers can better identify fake news. As Bloomberg reports, the marketing materials appeared in Bild, Sueddeutsche Zeitung and Die Welt -- among other dailies in Germany -- on Thursday, pushing 10 "tips" for parsing information online. They're timely, given the German government is currently debating a new law that would fine social networks which fail to act on the problem. Specifically, platform holders would be penalized up to 50 million euros (roughly $53 million) if they don't offer proper reporting tools, or refuse to remove illegal content.

  By Nick Summers Read More

• Facebook brings group payments to Messenger

  Two years ago, Facebook introduced a feature on Messenger that allowed you to send money to your friends and vice versa. That's great if you only need to pay one person, but not so convenient if you have a bunch of people you need to divide a restaurant check with. Today, however, Facebook introduced a new group payments feature on Messenger that makes it easier to either pay a bunch of people at once, or to request them to pay you.

  By Nicole Lee Read More

• Facebook's AI assistant is ready to hang out in Messenger

  A couple of years ago, Facebook introduced M, an AI-powered personal assistant for Messenger. The idea behind M is that you could ask it to do pretty much anything -- book flights, cancel your cable service and even find a plumber -- and it'll do it for you, with the occasional help from human beings. It was rolled out to just a small test market of users in San Francisco, but we've not heard much about it since then. Until now. Today, Facebook has announced that a version of M will finally be available to all Messenger users in the US. It's called "M suggestions," and it'll essentially pop up at certain points of your Messenger conversation to recommend related content or features.

  By Nicole Lee Read More

• Facebook helps you prevent the spread of revenge porn

  Revenge porn is difficult to fight. Even if you successfully get the photos pulled, it's all too easy for someone with local copies to upload them again. Facebook thinks it can help. The social network is launching tools designed to keep revenge porn offline and prevent an already bad situation from getting worse. You can report photos shared without permission, of course, and Facebook will both remove them and (typically) disable the accounts that posted them. However, the most important part is what follows next: Facebook uses photo matching to prevent people from sharing the shots again, including on Instagram and Messenger. You won't have to constantly police Facebook to make sure the images stay down.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

Microsoft (18)

• Microsoft Surface revenue falls by 26 percent

  Microsoft's third quarter earnings are mostly rosy -- except when it comes to sales of its Surface laptops. The company reports that Surface revenues fell 26 percent compared to last year, reaching $831 million down from $1.1 billion. It's not hard to see why: Microsoft points to more pricing competition among premium 2-in-1 competitors, as well as "product end-of-life dynamics" for the decline. Simply put, Microsoft needs new Surface models to compete with the onslaught of new entries on the market, like Dell's XPS 13 2-in-1 and Lenovo's Yoga 910.

  By Devindra Hardawar Read More

• Microsoft wasn't hammered by surveillance requests in 2016

  A couple of weeks ago, Microsoft released its Transparency Report revealing that it had received "1,000 to 1,499 surveillance requests for foreign intelligence purposes (known as FISA) from January to June 2016." There's only one problem though -- it didn't. Today, Microsoft updated the report to say that stat was an error, and the number of orders it had received in 2016 is actually somewhere between 0 - 499, as it has been in previous years. Unfortunately, the company is not allowed to release more specific data, so we don't know if it has actually changed or by how much. A spokesperson told Reuters the mistake was a "human error."

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Microsoft has a plan to beat Chromebooks at their own game

  Microsoft is holding an education-focused event on May 2nd, and speculation has indicated that we might see Windows 10 Cloud for the first time. The software is pegged as a low-resource platform that could compete with Google's Chrome OS, which has been making big inroads in EDU markets recently. The latest indication of Microsoft's plan to take Chromebooks on comes from Windows Central, which published a leaked spec sheet showing Windows 10 Cloud minimum specs and performance requirements as compared to Chromebooks.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• You can wake up Microsoft's Surface Studio by talking to it

  Waking up your PC from sleep is as easy as tapping the touchscreen, moving the mouse or pressing a button on the keyboard -- but if you have a Microsoft Surface Studio, it just got even easier. Thanks to a new audio driver update, Studio owners can now wake their machine by simply calling out for Microsoft's digital assistant. As long as you have the Windows 10 Creator Update and the latest patch, all you have to do is say the assistant's keywords: "Hey Cortana."

  By Sean Buckley Read More

• Microsoft is replacing Wunderlist with a new To-Do app

  Wunderlist is evolving. At least, that's how the Microsoft-bought team is putting the news that the list and task management app is headed for retirement. Not yet, though. In its place, Microsoft is announcing To-Do Preview, its early version of Wunderlist's spiritual successor that's already packing some improvements. It's available on iPhones, Android and web browsers now.

  By Mat Smith Read More

• Microsoft replaces the password with a phone-based log-in

  Microsoft's Authenticator app can now save you a step when logging into anything that requires a Microsoft Account. According to a blog post from the company's identity division, Microsoft has just flipped the switch on a new phone sign-in feature that skips the password entry part entirely.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• Microsoft's new literacy tool teaches language skills in a browser

  Microsoft has partnered with the nonprofit organization CHOICE Humanitarian to release a browser-based digital literacy tool, called Accent, for underprivileged populations. It's designed specifically for Microsoft Edge so users can interact with its touchscreen mechanics, tracing out letters for kinaesthetic learning. Ideally, the tool will economically empower folks in undeveloped areas to seize opportunities in business and local government.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Only a handful of Windows phones will get the latest update

  Virtually every Windows 10 PC can get the Creators Update, but phone owners won't be so fortunate. Microsoft has revealed that only some Windows 10 Mobile devices will receive the Creators Update when it's ready. The company's own Lumia devices are covered, naturally (from the Lumia 550 and above), but it's slim pickings beyond that -- the Alcatel Idol 4S, HP Elite X3 and VAIO Phone Biz are some of the few third-party examples that qualify. If you ask Microsoft, it's all about setting performance expectations.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• ICYMI: The story of Microsoft's Solitaire and volleyball-blocking robots

  Way back in 1988, Wes Cherry was a Microsoft intern and during his time at the company he created the biggest time waster the world has ever known: The Solitaire computer game. Cherry built the game out of boredom instead of being directed by his superiors. But he bosses -- including CEO and founder Bill Gates -- liked the game so much they added it to Windows in 1990. Since then, Cherry has made exactly zero dollars on his creation. And you thought your internship was bad.

  By Roberto Baldwin Read More

• Microsoft hammered by surveillance requests in 2016 (updated)

  US authorities must have spent more time at Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court last year than in 2015. According to Microsoft's latest transparency report, the tech titan received 1,000 to 1,499 surveillance requests for foreign intelligence purposes (known as FISA) from January to June 2016. That's at least double the 0 to 499 requests it received within the same period the year before and then again from July to December 2015. Those figures look weird, because the government only allows companies to report FISA requests in a wide range of numbers. We unfortunately don't know the exact figures, though Microsoft's report is pretty telling anyway.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Microsoft to offer self-service refunds for digital games

  According to a Reddit user, Microsoft may be looking to offer self-service refunds for games. The feature, as discovered by user gaymerRaver, apparently enables users that have purchased a game on Xbox One or Windows 10 to get a full refund. There are some caveats, however, including that any title you want to return must have been played for less than two hours.

  By Daniel Cooper Read More

• Microsoft is holding an education-focused event on May 2nd

  Surprise! Microsoft will hold an event on May 2nd in New York, and based on the invite we received, there will likely be a focus on its education initiatives. "Learn what's next. #MicrosoftEDU" the colorful invite reads. The company's Build conference is next month as well, so maybe don't expect anything truly earth-shattering from this event. Based on the rumor mill, a new Surface Pro or a Surface phone won't debut on May 2nd. Instead, maybe start an office pool for the unveil of Windows 10 Cloud (think: Chrome OS, but from Redmond) and maybe, finally a follow-up to the $499 Surface 3 from 2015. The countdown starts now, so get your bets in.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Microsoft finally pulls the plug on Vista

  The old wives' truism that Windows operating systems alternate between great and skippable editions held true through the 2000s, and nowhere was that more evident than Vista. It appeared between the venerable XP and still-chugging 7 with a new interface that was prematurely rushed to market, and it showed. Ten years after its debut and six years after it stopped selling its commercial versions, Microsoft has stopped supporting the forgotten OS today. If you want to keep your system secure, it's finally time to migrate.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Microsoft opens up its Windows Insider preview for Business

  Since Microsoft launched its Insider Program a few years ago, millions of people have signed up to test out upcoming versions of Windows 10 on their devices. One small issue, however, was a limitation forcing users to sign up with their personal accounts, even though many users either work in IT or have business laptops/software they need to test out. Now, following up on an announcement from February, Microsoft has opened up the Windows Insider for Business program, so people can sign in with an Azure Active Directory account (the used for stuff like Office 365).

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Microsoft Translator turns your words into spoken Japanese

  You may want to install Microsoft Translator if you're going to Japan and your vocabulary is limited to "Konnichiwa," "Ohayou" and "Notice me senpai." The app can now turn your spoken words into Nihongo to help you get around the country. Translator can recognize a bevy of languages, but Japanese is only the 10th language its speech translation feature supports. That's right -- it now reads the resulting Japanese words or phrases out loud to make it possible to hold almost real-time conversations with native speakers. The other nine languages in the list are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• How Microsoft plans to make 3D building mainstream in Windows 10

  Paint 3D was a surprise. Even longtime Microsoft watchers had no idea the company was working on a 3D spin on Paint, and it seemed like a left-field choice for most consumers. But after diving into Paint 3D in the Windows 10 Creators Update, I can say it actually makes complete sense for Microsoft. It's an ideal way to introduce a new generation to building and thinking in three dimensions. And according to Megan Saunders, Microsoft's head of 3D experiences in Windows, that's a skill that will be particularly useful with the rise of VR, AR and 3D printing.

  By Devindra Hardawar Read More

• The full extent of Windows 10's data sharing is slightly alarming

  Microsoft has repeatedly sworn that Windows 10 doesn't violate your privacy, but you've had to take its word on that when it hasn't outlined exactly what data it shares from your PC. At last, though, it's coming clean -- the company has started publishing a complete list of the diagnostic info it collects at the Basic level, and has posted a thorough summary of what it obtains at the Full level. While Microsoft already gave you a good sense of what to expect if you went with Full, the summary is much more thorough... and a little concerning given that it's the default level with a new Windows 10 installation.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Microsoft's Sprinkles app is better at captioning selfies than you

  Microsoft is surprisingly invested in making oddball camera apps for the iPhone. First, it launched a selfie-enhancing camera and then followed that up with Pix, a camera that uses AI to make sure you get the best pictures of other people you might be shooting. But now Microsoft has released its goofiest camera app yet: Sprinkles. In yet another example of a big tech company essentially ripping off Snapchat, Sprinkles lets you make your selfies more fabulous with captions and stickers. But it also mixes in Microsoft's face detection software and AI learning for a few semi-unique features, as well.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

Mobile (20)

• Verizon's $80 prepaid plan is unlimited but also imperfect (updated)

  Verizon has launched a new prepaid plan that sounds more enticing than many of its competitors'. At $80 a month, it offers unlimited data, talk and text in the country. The carrier also tacked on unlimited text to 200 other international destinations and unlimited talk if you're calling numbers in Mexico and Canada. However, it's not as "unlimited" as we all would want. For starters, it can only stream videos in 480p, putting your new phone's HD screen to waste. More importantly, tethering and mobile hotspot aren't part of the package, meaning you won't be able to share your phone's connection with your other devices.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Verizon's $70 Gigabit internet plan misses both targets

  Yesterday Verizon announced the launch of Fios Gigabit Connection, as "the nation's largest deployment of gigabit Internet connection service." It even promised a $70 per month price standalone, however, as people tried to sign up a few shortcomings have become evident. First of all, it's not quite 1Gbps speed, with downloads reaching a maximum 940Mbps and uploads stopped at 880Mbps. Further, its pricing scheme is more complicated than the announcement advertised, with that $70 price (that doesn't include the charge for a modem or other fees) only available to new customers.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• AT&T's faux 5G network launches in Austin

  At last, 5G wireless is here... sort of, but not really. As promised, AT&T has launched its unofficial 5G network, starting with certain parts of Austin. So long as you have a Galaxy S8 or S8 Plus, you can get speeds that should leave regular LTE in the dust. Expect downloads about twice as fast on average, the carrier says. Indianapolis is due for the next rollout in the summer, and there will be 20 total areas covered (including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville and San Francisco) by the end of 2017. And if you're not inclined to Samsung hardware, you should see "numerous other devices" this year that take advantage of the new network.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• AT&T's rural wireless internet push starts with Georgia

  AT&T is making good on an FCC Connect America Fund promise to bring reasonably fast internet to rural dwellers and those who'd otherwise have to settle for pokey service. The carrier has completed its first batch of fixed wireless internet rollouts in Georgia, sending LTE cellular data to the home through a static antenna system. AT&T's version offers speeds of "at least" 10Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream. That's not the 25Mbps/3Mbps that the FCC currently defines as broadband, but it's enough to use many modern services -- and unlike satellite internet, it's not prone to high latency or interference from the weather. As you might guess from the cell connection, though, you won't have unlimited access.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Canada strengthens net neutrality with zero-rating crackdown

  In a victory for net neutrality, Canada's telecom regulator has ruled against a carrier offering 'free' music streaming as part of a zero-rating scheme. Quebecor's 'Unlimited Music' allows premium Videotron subscribers to use select streaming apps, such as Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal, without the data counting towards their monthly allowance. Many believe this type of scheme violates the principles of net neutrality, which argue all data should be treated equally. If certain apps are 'free' to use, others -- which could offer a superior experience, but simply don't have the cash to be involved in a carrier's program -- are put at an unfair disadvantage.

  By Nick Summers Read More

• Even tiny wireless carriers want their own internet TV service

  Wireless providers with a live TV service aren't hard to find these days. AT&T offers its customers DirecTV Now and Verizon has its own Go90 service to entice new customers. Mississippi-based C Spire is the latest to offer an app-based HD TV service, C Spire TV.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Sprint and The Onion have a video series no one asked for

  Seeing the former Verizon pitch man (who's named Paul) shilling for Sprint was a bit weird. Sprint seems to know this and has capitalized on it with a partnership with The Onion's creative services team, Onion Labs. Together they produced a series of six tongue-in-cheek news magazine videos covering everything from Paul fan clubs to elementary school kids performing plays about opening their Sprint bill.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• The FCC just sold a chunk of the wireless spectrum to T-Mobile

  The results are in. After a year-long process, the Federal Communications Commission today announced the conclusion of its first-ever broadcast incentive auction, naming T-Mobile, Dish, Comcast and US Cellular as the biggest winners.

  By Jessica Conditt Read More

• Virgin Media uses home routers to boost its public WiFi network

  Virgin Media is starting to expand its public Wi-Fi network by turning customer routers into hotspots. The upgrade, which was first teased in 2015, is only compatible with SuperHub v3 routers for now. Customers are being alerted to the change via email and can choose to opt-out, otherwise they'll be connected automatically. As ISP Review reports, your broadband shouldn't be affected if you decide to help Virgin Media. That's because "additional, separate" bandwidth will be allocated by the provider.

  By Nick Summers Read More

• Internet giants resist the FCC's relaxed net neutrality rules

  It's no secret that many people object to new FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's plans to soften net neutrality rules, but the companies affected by these plans have now had a chance to object directly to his strategy. The Internet Association lobbying group, which represents tech companies like Amazon, Facebook and Google, has privately told Pai to maintain the existing rules rather than gut them. Net neutrality "preserves the consumer experience, competition and innovation," the Association said. It also objected to Pai's plans to have the FTC enforce the rules, saying that an "expert agency" like the FCC should be responsible.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Vodafone scraps mobile roaming charges for 40 countries

  In roughly two months, the European Union will scrap roaming charges for smartphone users across the continent. While the impact on the UK remains hazy -- there's that whole Brexit thing to take care of -- mobile carriers have started falling in line and abandoning the fee system for Brits. Today, Vodafone has announced a new set of plans and obliterated roaming charges for all new and upgrading customers. That's an improvement over last year's offer, which offered 'free' minutes and calls for Red and Red Value customers, but capped data at 4GB or lower.

  By Nick Summers Read More

• Alabama tests filing taxes via selfie

  As tax day looms, Alabama citizens will get to live the dream and file using an app on their mobile device. The state's department of revenue is partnering with MorphoTrust to let taxpayers use the company's electronic ID (eID) system to digitally send in their taxes. In return for using the face-scanning app to prove their identity online, folks willing to to test the new setup will get priority processing and an expedited return.

  By David Lumb Read More

• FCC axes plan to allow phone calls on flights

  There hasn't exactly been a groundswell of support for in-flight phone calls in the US, and regulators are now ready to drop the idea. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has proposed that his agency cancel a 2013 proceeding that would have let people make cellphone calls on aircraft. It's in the "public interest," he claims, and removing the option from the table would be a win for people who "value a moment of quiet" in the skies.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• AT&T paid $1.6 billion to own the next generation of wireless

  For all intents and purposes, it looks like AT&T is going to own a majority of 5G wireless connections in the US. The company has announced that it has acquired Straight Path Communications for $1.6 billion. Not familiar with the name? That's totally understandable. "Straight Path is the largest commercial holder of the 39 GHz spectrum, with about 95 percent of the total licenses commercially available, as well as a significant holder of 28 GHz in major markets, including New York and San Francisco," the company's website reads.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• O2 is bringing free 1 Gbps WiFi to the City of London

  Workers and residents in London's "Square Mile" will enjoy free 1 Gbps WiFi connections, thanks to a new deal between the City of London Corporation and mobile carrier O2. The multi-million pound deal will see Cornerstone Telecommunications Infrastructure Ltd (CTIL) -- a joint venture between Vodafone and O2 owner Telefónica -- place "small cell" 4G mobile hotspots on lampposts, street signs, buildings and CCTV arrays in order to provide blanket superfast internet coverage across the city.

  By Matt Brian Read More

• FCC prepares for net neutrality reversal

  Reuters and the Wall Street Journal are reporting that Ajit Pai is preparing the ground for his rollback of Net Neutrality. The FCC chief reportedly sat down with telecoms groups to hash out his plan to end the regulations he has previously called a "mistake."

  By Daniel Cooper Read More

• Sprint kills its 'half your bill' promo in favor of $50 unlimited plan

  Sprint is going to axe its "Cut Your Bill in Half" promo. Until further notice, the carrier is offering something different: $50 for "unlimited" talk, text and data for a single line, $80 for two, $100 for three and $120 for four. The company's chief marketing officer Roger Solé described this as a response to customers' apparently overwhelming decision to use its existing unlimited plans. By his count, some 90 percent of subscribers were signed up for the unlimited plans. The aim, Solé says, is to declutter Sprint's service offerings. But honestly, this is Sprint trying to sugarcoat the removal of its deeply discounted plan.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• AT&T is giving free HBO to some unlimited wireless customers

  AT&T has another offer in its pocket to get customers signing up for its new unlimited data plans: free HBO. If you sign up for one of AT&T's "unlimited plus" plans, the carrier will give you HBO access, either through the HBO Go app or adding it on to your existing cable plan. If you're currently paying for HBO through either AT&T Uverse, DirecTV or the DirecTV Now streaming TV service, you'll now get access to the channel at no charge.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• Roadside assistance is T-Mobile's latest connected car freebie

  T-Mobile's SyncUP Drive dongle has enabled drivers to add 4G LTE connectivity, vehicle diagnostics and GPS monitoring to their older cars since the service rolled out in November. Now, the carrier is adding another feature that should serve subscribers well in cases of emergency: free roadside assistance. T-Mobile has teamed up with AllState Motor Club Roadside Assistance to provide tows, jumps and tire changes via the SyncUP Drive app. In addition, the Uncarrier is also offering a new payment plan that lets you get the $150 Drive dongle for a downpayment of $48 and 24 monthly installments of $2. That is, if you sign up for a 2GB or higher data plan.

  By Cherlynn Low Read More

• More people use the internet on Android than Windows

  It's a milestone day for the mobile world: Android's internet use has overtaken that on Windows PCs for the first time. According to StatCounter, Google's phone platform represented 37.93 percent of tracked internet activity in March, just barely edging out Windows' 37.91 percent. You could see this coming for a while, of course. Smartphone shipments overtook PCs roughly 6 years ago, and people have been spending more time on their phones than their computers. Still, it's a sign of just how important smartphones have become to many people -- and when you see where Android is the front runner, you'll understand why.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

News (113)

• After Math: Keeping it 100

  As America's least likeable plutocrat rounds out his first 100 days in office, we're taking a look at other centennial achievements from the world of technology. Google and Facebook were named as victims in $100 million scam, Instagram now boasts 700 million users and a drunk guy in California pulled a Florida Man after being arrested for brawling with 300-pounds of security robot. Numbers, because how else will we know how long we have until the midterms?

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• Turkey blocks Wikipedia over an alleged 'smear campaign'

  Turkey may have just stepped up its efforts to quash online free speech. The country has blocked Wikipedia for supposedly running a "smear campaign" by allowing articles claiming that the Turkish government was coordinating with militant groups. The government says it will lift the restrictions if Wikipedia complies, but that isn't likely to happen unless there's proof the collaboration claims aren't true. Jimmy Wales and the Wikimedia Foundation are determined to protect truth in reporting, and that means posting articles that be less than flattering to politicians.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• EPA pulls climate science web pages to reflect White House views

  President Trump and Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt aren't exactly fans of climate science, and they're scaling back the EPA's website to reflect their views. The EPA has started implementing a site revision that will "reflect the approach of new leadership." As you might surmise, that means that mentions of climate change, regulation and Obama-era policies are on the chopping block -- the language endorsing the Clean Power Plan is "out of date," the EPA claims. And unfortunately, that means axing information that has been around for multiple administrations.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• The Morning After: Weekend Edition

  Hey, good morning! You look fabulous. Life imitating art imitating...life? Netflix's series about prison is involved in an actual crime, and Elon Musk is going back into the tunnels. We'll explain.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• We destroyed a collectible Doritos bag to get at its hidden MP3 Player

  Junk food and summer blockbusters go hand in hand -- from the nachos, popcorn and candy you buy at the cinema, to action-hero faces plastered on every brand of potato chips at the supermarket. This has been the way of the world as long as I can remember, but this summer, the pairing may have reached its apex. In a perfect storm of brand synergy, nostalgia and guilty pleasures, Marvel has decided to release the soundtrack to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 in the most unconventional format imaginable: a bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos.

  By Sean Buckley Read More

• Vibrating utensils won't stop you from stuffing your face

  The weight loss world is full of plausible-sounding advice. We've got apps to count calories, smart scales that measure our body fat and even vibrating utensils that promise to slow our eating down. The problem is really knowing which gadgets work and which are just as much empty fluff as a jar of that marshmallow stuff. Unfortunately, those vibrating forks seem to fall under the latter category, according to a new study published in science journal, Appetite.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Vizio's new M-series 4K TVs are its real 2017 highlight

  Last year, Vizio wowed us with its P-series 4K TVs, which delivered premium picture quality at a price much lower than other companies. But Vizio's mid-range M-series sets also gained a reputation for being more affordable while still looking pretty good. This year, things are a bit different. Surprisingly, the 2017 P-series TVs are exactly the same as last year's model. But the newer M-series "XLED" sets received some useful upgrades that will make them even more compelling to shoppers looking for a good deal.

  By Devindra Hardawar Read More

• The Morning After: Friday, April 28th 2017

  Hey, good morning! You look fabulous. A new Nintendo portable (don't get too excited though), a mobile 3D printer that might be ready for your future Mars homestead, and one of Nintendo's most influential employees is calling it a day. Plus: It's earnings season!

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• M&S to trial online grocery deliveries

  As the UK online food delivery market continues to grow, some big name businesses are worrying that they're missing out. Amazon finally threw its hat in the ring almost a year ago and now Marks and Spencer (M&S) has announced it's preparing sell groceries online from this autumn. According to CEO Steve Rowe, online groceries didn't make financial sense for the company in the past, mainly because customers don't spend enough on food to make the service profitable. However, M&S now says it can no longer ignore one of the fastest growing areas of the UK grocery market.

  By Matt Brian Read More

• The FCC doesn't care what you think about net neutrality

  By now, you've probably heard what FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has in store for the internet in the United States. If not, here's the short version: Pai wants to strip the internet of its current status as a "common carrier" under Title II of the Telecommunications Act, roll back the "internet conduct standard" (a vague list of things service providers can't do to interfere with your online experience) and open a discussion about whether we need specific "bright-line" rules that prohibit blocking, throttling and paid prioritization. You may agree with Chairman Pai's assessment of the situation, or you might not. (For the record, most of us around here don't, for reasons we've made clear in the past.)

  By Chris Velazco Read More

• ICYMI: Boston's book cleaning machine and Disney's new SFX tricks

  Today on In Case You Missed It: We take a look at the Boston Public Library's novel method of keeping its archives clean. Hint: it involves pushing them through a portable vacuum cleaner. The Depulvera book cleaning machine, as it's called, can scrub the dust and accumulated grime from up to 12 ancient tomes a minute without damaging the books themselves. Disney is also making headlines with a pair of new special effects tricks. The first will enable Disney CG animators to motion capture real life hairstyles and port them directly into computer generated simulations. The second uses high speed cameras and infrared lasers to map and project digital images and animations onto actors' faces. One will result in more lifelike and naturals doos in kids movies, the other will serve as a steady source of nightmare fuel for the parents. Good times. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @Terrortola.

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• UK ebook sales flounder as interest in print copies rebounds

  Book sales in the UK are on the rise, but not because of ebooks. Figures for 2016 released by the Publishers Association show a 7 percent rise over 2015, the largest year-over-year growth in a decade. Physical book sales were up 8 percent, however ebook sales fell by 3 percent to £538 million. The biggest contributor to the drop? What the industry calls "consumer ebooks" -- novels, autobiographies and the like -- which slipped 17 percent to £204 million. As The Guardian reports, the numbers suggest a shift back towards printed books. We spend much of our time on smartphones, laptops and tablets, so for many reading is an opportunity to disconnect.

  By Nick Summers Read More

• The Morning After: Thursday, April 27th 2017

  TV dinners for foodies? The beginning of the end for net neutrality? Someone beating up a poor robot? Must be a Thursday. We also hear more on the next Call Of Duty title and Amazon's new fashion camera. Really.

  By Mat Smith Read More

• 2018 FIFA World Cup will be the first with instant replay

  Soccer (or, to the rest of the world, football) traditionalists have shunned video replay for years, claiming it would alter the sanctity of referees' calls. But well-documented flubbed calls like those that erroneously eliminated England and Mexico in the 2010 World Cup have nudged FIFA into considering the technology. At long last, after getting implemented at professional levels, it's headed to the game's biggest stage: On-field instant replay is coming to the World Cup for the first time in 2018, when Russia hosts the tournament.

  By David Lumb Read More

• FCC Chairman outlines his plan to gut net neutrality

  The future of net neutrality has been uncertain since the November election of Donald Trump. His FCC chairman, Ajit Pai, has made it clear he intends to scale back some of the regulations surrounding ISPs, but details have been scarce. Now we have an idea of the framework the commission will pursue, and it begins with revoking the classification of ISPs as a "common carrier" service under Title II, which has essentially treated the internet as a public utility for the last two years.

  By Terrence O'Brien Read More

• Pioneer and Onkyo slip Chromecast support into more audio devices

  Owners of some recent audio products from Onkyo and Pioneer don't need a dongle for Chromecast support anymore. At CES in 2016 Google announced a push for Chromecast support in more audio products, but it's taken until now for updates adding the feature in many of last year's receivers, Hi-Fi systems and other devices. Once they're updated, all it takes is being on the same WiFi network with your smartphone, laptop or Google Home and they're ready for all kinds of casting or multiroom audio -- check below for a full list of supported model numbers.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• The Morning After: Wednesday, April 26th 2017

  In case you missed it yesterday, one Google cofounder is making a flying (kinda) car, while the other has a secret blimp, Uber is having a pretty awful year (already), and there's a for-real tricorder. The makers of it reckon it's better than the Star Trek one. Bold claims.

  By Mat Smith Read More

• Juicero's unnecessary complexity makes it unnecessarily pricey

  Juicero came under fire after Bloomberg showed that you don't need its $400 (previously $700) machine to squeeze juice out of its proprietary fruit and vegetable packets. All you need are your hands and a bit of force. But why is the company's WiFi-connected juicer so expensive anyway? Ben Einstein, a product designer and founder of venture capital firm Bolt, has taken a Juicero apart to figure out what's underneath its glossy white plastic exterior and found a machine of "unnecessary complexity."

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Vodafone's failed TV ambitions are costing it dearly

  Vodafone once had aspirations to become the next quad-play provider, able to offer its customers more than just a mobile phone contract. For nearly two years, the company was preparing to enter the pay-TV market, and in the interim it rejoined the broadband arena with its Connect service. With growth in this competitive space sluggish, however, it decided to abandon its pay-TV plans. But the problem with shutting down a project that could've launched "within weeks," according to CEO Vittorio Colao, is that it's still burning a hole in Vodafone's bank account.

  By Jamie Rigg Read More

• The Morning After: Tuesday, April 25th 2017

  Hey, good morning! You look fabulous. No, you're not dreaming -- flying cars are real, and the Galaxy S8 is selling at a record pace. Also, you might be a still-in-utero neomorph from Alien.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Wikipedia co-founder launches Wikitribune to fight fake news

  Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales hopes to tackle fake news with a journalism outfit of his own. Wikitribune will be free to access and use crowdfunding to hire experienced reporters. They'll work alongside volunteers who can sub-edit articles, fact-check stories and suggest new topics for the site to pursue. "This will be the first time that professional and citizen journalists will work side-by-side as equals writing stories as they happen, editing them as they develop, and at all times backed by a community checking and rechecking all of the facts," Wales said.

  By Nick Summers Read More

• KeyMe aims to replace locksmiths with kiosks in more cities

  If you lock yourself out of your home or car, you typically have only one option -- call a locksmith and hope they can get to you quickly. But you'll pay a small fortune for their time and expertise. New York-based startup KeyMe wants to change all that. The company, whose iOS and Android apps digitally scan images of your keys and store them in the cloud, today announced it plans to aggressively expand to more cities around the country, opening over 2,000 self-serve kiosks by the end of this year.

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

• FCC may unveil softer net neutrality rules this week (update: confirmed)

  Like it or not, the FCC may be close to divulging its plans for relaxing net neutrality rules. Recode contacts claim that Chairman Ajit Pai may talk about the softer regulation as soon as April 26th, when he speaks at a conservative group's event. There's no word on what the plan looks like now that Pai has talked to both internet companies and telecoms. However, the current belief is that Pai will only pay lip service to the net neutrality order he's planning to replace.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• SlingStudio makes multi-camera video production a reality for all

  Putting video on the internet is easier than ever -- even livestreaming has been dramatically simplified, thanks to products like Periscope and Facebook Live. But video production gets much more complex when you bring multiple cameras into the mix, which is useful for covering live events from different angles. At that point, you'd typically need to bring in professionals who know how to use complex studio equipment. Sling believes it has a better option with the SlingStudio, a $999 device that makes it dramatically simpler for anyone to wirelessly juggle multi-camera video production. And yes, it even works for livestreaming.

  By Devindra Hardawar Read More

• The Morning After: Monday, April 24th 2017

  Welcome to a fresh new week at Engadget. Over the weekend, you may have missed Uber's latest sketchy tale, a rallying call for truth and science, and a love letter to the Galaxy S8 from a once-Samsung hater.

  By Mat Smith Read More

• South Korean presidential candidate campaigns with 'Starcraft' maps

  How should politicians connect with younger voters? How do you cut through the relentless waves of promises, speeches and the rest? If you're South Korean presidential candidate Moon Jae-in, you take to Starcraft. Perhaps even more surprisingly, he's actually a legitimate, tenable candidate who could well be the country's next leader, according to recent polls. Moon Jae-in has launched two free maps on his campaign blog, a clever idea in a country that loves it some Starcraft.

  By Mat Smith Read More

• IllumiBowl's latest toilet light also kills germs

  IllumiBowl's motion-activated, multi-color toilet night light may have seemed like a silly idea when it first launched, but don't laugh -- it's a practical solution if you'd rather not flick on the regular bathroom light (and momentarily blind yourself) just to do your business. And it appears that enough people bought into the concept to warrant a sequel. The company is crowdfunding a second-generation IllumiBowl light that adds anti-germ cleaning to the mix. The new gadget includes a diode whose "highly focused" non-ultraviolet light kills bacteria without hurting humans. This doesn't mean that your toilet will suddenly be sterile, but it may set your mind at ease in between bowl scrubbing sessions.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Recommended Reading: Juicero and the Silicon Valley hype machine

  Silicon Valley's $400 Juicer May Be Feeling the Squeeze Ellen Huet and Olivia Zaleski, Bloomberg We never bought into the hype of a $700 juicer, but the folks at Juicero were able convince some that its WiFi-connected device was worth the investment. Well, you now only have to hand over $400 as the price dropped since it launched. Unfortunately, the juice packs that the machine uses can be squeezed by hand, which led the company's CEO to offer refunds this week to unsatisfied customers.

  By Billy Steele Read More

• The Morning After: Weekend Edition

  My name is Christopher Trout, your new editor-in-chief. You may not recognize my name, but chances are you've read something I've written. When I arrived at Engadget nearly seven years ago, I was a freelancer fresh off of unemployment, our rivalry with Gizmodo was going strong and Josh Topolsky was planning an exit to start The Verge. In the coming years, I'd serve under three other editors, first as a full-time writer, then as the executive editor of our award-winning digital magazine, Distro. I've also been the managing editor of the whole damn thing, and, most recently, the main site's second-in-command. Oh, and, yes, I am that sex robot guy. With each new editor at Engadget came a new direction, meant to reflect the state of technology. In those early days, we were the go-to place for exhaustive hardware news, and as gadgets went mainstream we followed suit. We broadened our vision beyond the narrow scope of gadgets, pushing the boundaries of what it means to be a tech blog. We took on gaming, entertainment, politics, culture and science. We acquired the archives and expertise of early digital publishing pioneers like TUAW, Joystiq and gdgt. We moved away from aggregating press releases and started focusing on original reporting, invested heavily in new formats like video and social. Some of those changes paid off; others proved to be a distraction. Now it's time to do what we do best. Going forward, we'll concentrate on the areas where we have the deepest expertise: consumer electronics ("gear"), gaming and entertainment. That doesn't mean we'll give up on things like diversity in the tech industry or NASA's latest milestone, but we'll be more selective about how we cover culture and science. You'll also see more of the stuff Engadget built its reputation on: authoritative reporting on the tech industry and the people, products and ideas that power it. Of course, innovation doesn't occur in a vacuum, and what happens today can change the course of tomorrow. The future is an exciting and unexpected place and our editors have front-row seats to the action. That's why, after 13 years in the game, we're leveraging our history to bring the future into focus. You'll see more on the next phase of Engadget in the coming months, but in the meantime, allow me to introduce you to the people leading the charge. Dana Wollman, our former managing editor and the person responsible for our industry-leading gadget reviews, has moved up the masthead to become our executive editor. You can expect her expertise to come in handy as we put the focus back on our core coverage. Terrence O'Brien, news junkie, voice of the Engadget Podcast and our current managing editor, will remain in his position to oversee our East Coast headquarters. He'll be joined by resident drone expert and audiophile James Trew, and Mat Smith, previously our man in Japan, who will oversee our West Coast and European operations, respectively. Senior Editor Aaron Souppouris will be stepping up as features editor in an effort to bring you in-depth, long-form reporting on the topics you care most about. He's the monster who's been teaching AI to take our jobs. Nathan Ingraham is moving up to become our deputy managing editor and will be joined by Senior News Editors Billy Steele and Richard Lawler in steering our daily news efforts. You already have these guys to thank for our 24-hour news coverage, breakneck event updates and liveblogs ... all the liveblogs. Director of Video Production Olivia Kristiansen is the woman who brought you the Webby Award-nominated documentary Super Humans: Inside the World's First Cyborg Games. Evan Rodgers, formerly of Vice, The Verge (because everything comes full circle) and a short retreat to the Deep South recently joined us as our social media manager. Amber Bouman, our community manager, is the one putting the smack down in the comments, so be kind. And then there's you. As we look to the future, your input is more important than ever. You can get at us in the comments, on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and wherever quality, ad-supported media is found. We may be strange, but don't be a stranger. - Christopher Trout, Editor-in-chief

  By Mat Smith Read More

• Adidas will sell more shoes partially made with ocean trash

  In honor of tomorrow's Earth Day celebrations, Adidas is unveiling yet another collaboration with Parley, an organization that focuses on protecting oceans from being polluted. This includes three new models of its flagship running shoe, the original Ultra Boost, Ultra Boost Uncaged and Ultra Boost X, all of which feature a Primeknit upper made mostly (95 percent) from marine plastic debris. Adidas says about 11 bottles of plastic were used for each shoe, with the set being part of the company's overall commitment to sustainability. All in all, Adidas plans to make at least one million more pairs like these by the end of 2017.

  By Edgar Alvarez Read More

• Court documents reveal more shady dealings by Theranos

  Things just got a lot worse for Theranos, the beleaguered blood-testing company that's seen its share of bad press and class-action lawsuits. The latest complaint is mostly based on testimony from 22 former employees and directors, according to the Wall Street Journal. The filings allege that Theranos directly misled its own directors about its testing practices, secretly purchased off-the-shelf lab equipment to pass off as its own revolutionary gear and gave its investors false financial projections.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• UK drops plan to allow online guilty pleas for minor crimes

  A government plan to introduce online convictions, allowing those who've committed petty crimes to plead guilty and pay fines without having to go to court, has been scrapped. The online option was provided in the Prison and Courts Bill, which has been de-prioritised as Parliament focuses on pushing through other legislation before the end of the current session, and ahead of the snap general election on June 8. In light of this, a public committee yesterday voted not to proceed any further with the bill.

  By Jamie Rigg Read More

• The Morning After: Friday, April 21st 2017

  Hey, good morning! You look fabulous. Welcome to Friday, friends. A few changes are afoot at Engadget, Elon Musk has plans for brain-machine interfaces in a few years, and HTC made a phone that is rumored to be squeezable. Meanwhile, a high-end, WiFi-connected juicer with mountains of funding is also feeling the squeeze.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Smart card Plastc goes under despite $9 million in preorders

  Plastc, a smart payment card that can store all your CC details, promised to be the only plastic you'll ever need to bring when it started taking pre-orders in 2014. Now, almost three years and countless shipment delays later, the company threw in the towel. In a statement posted on its website, Plastc says it has officially shut down on April 20th and will file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. According to a Magnify Money editorial, Plastc raised $9 million from 80,000 pre-orders. It wasn't and will not be able to fulfill any of them.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Juicero will refund unsatisfied buyers of its WiFi-connected press

  We never bought the hype on Juicero's $700 connected cold-press machine, but the company's CEO says anyone who did pay for one can get their money back. In a blog post on Medium, CEO Jeff Dunn responded to a Bloomberg report that pointed out the company's produce packs can be squeezed by hand, without buying the juicer at all. According to Dunn, for the next 30 days any Juicero owner can return their machine for a full refund (since it launched, the price has dropped to $400) -- this courtesy presumably doesn't extend to any of the investors who backed it.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Concentrates are the future of cannabis

  The cannabis industry is in the midst of an unprecedented renaissance. Strains are stronger, consumption methods more numerous and availability greater than ever before. Medical-grade marijuana now averages around 20 percent THC -- a threefold increase from the "hippie weed" your parents toked back in the '60s. Smoking has been usurped by vaping and edibles as the preferred dosing methods, making the concentrates and oils more valuable commodities than the flowers they're derived from. The good times certainly are rolling, but how long can we keep up this relentless march toward pure THC distillate?

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• How to buy legal weed in the online era

  Medical cannabis is now legal in a majority of US states -- 28 plus DC, to be precise. As the legalization movement continues to gain momentum, buying weed "over the counter" is easier than ever. You no longer have to "know a guy"; you just need to know an app. And we're not talking about scouring the Dark Web for black market drug bazaars. These days, getting cannabis delivered to your door is only marginally tougher than signing up for Amazon Prime.

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• A letter from your editor: Changes ahead

  My name is Christopher Trout, your new editor-in-chief. You may not recognize my name, but chances are you've read something I've written. When I arrived at Engadget nearly seven years ago, I was a freelancer fresh off of unemployment, our rivalry with Gizmodo was going strong and Josh Topolsky was planning an exit to start The Verge. In the coming years, I'd serve under three other editors, first as a full-time writer, then as the executive editor of our award-winning digital magazine, Distro. I've also been the managing editor of the whole damn thing, and, most recently, the main site's second-in-command. Oh, and, yes, I am that sex robot guy.

  By Christopher Trout Read More

• GoPro's Fusion spherical camera is six GoPros in one

  GoPro has taken the wraps off a spherical camera called Fusion hot on the heels of Facebook's 360-degree camera launch. Unlike the brand's other action cams, Fusion is a spherical device that can capture 5.2K resolution VR and non-VR videos and photos. If you want to take a non-VR pic, you can use its OverCapture feature that punches out the composition you want from a spherical image. GoPro founder CEO Nicholas Woodman describes the device as "six GoPro cameras fused into one" and says it "represents the state-of-the-art in versatile spherical capture."

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• The Morning After: Thursday, April 20th 2017

  Hey, good morning! Google getting into the ad-blocking business? A SNES Mini console? A Sony camera built for pros? It's as if all the good news has come at once. Come join us for the last 24 hours in tech.

  By Mat Smith Read More

• Mastercard adds fingerprint sensors to payment cards

  Our fingerprints are quickly replacing PINs and passwords as our primary means of unlocking our phones, doors and safes. They're convenient, unique, and ultimately more secure than easily guessed or forged passwords and signatures. So it makes sense that fingerprint sensors are coming to protect our credit and debit cards. Mastercard is testing out new fingerprint sensor-enabled payment cards that, combined with the onboard chips, offer a new, convenient way to authorize your in-person transactions. Instead of signing a paper receipt or entering your PIN while struggling to cover up the number pad, you simply place your thumb on your card to prove your identity.

  By Cherlynn Low Read More

• Coal company plans Kentucky's biggest solar farm for old mine site

  Amid the decline of coal power, one fossil fuel company is refurbishing one of its old strip mining sites as a solar farm. Berkeley Energy Group is setting up two sites in eastern Kentucky as test locations to see if the concept is feasible. Early estimates peg the farm's production at 50 to 100 megawatts, which would yield five to ten times more electricity than the largest existing solar facility in the state.

  By David Lumb Read More

• South Korea tests prepaid cards to replace pocket change

  Coins are a pain in more ways than one. You probably don't like fishing for change, of course, but they're also expensive to make (the US loses money on every penny) and require mining that hurts the environment. Wouldn't it be good to get rid of coins altogether? South Korea is trying just that. The country is starting a trial that could lead to a coinless society. As of April 20th, shoppers at several stores (Seven Eleven, CU, E-Mart, Lotte Mart and Lotte Department Store) can deposit their change into mobile and prepaid cards. If you need to pay with cash, you can stick with paper notes instead of lugging around coins that you're unlikely to use all that often.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Dyson's updated air purifiers remove more harmful gases

  It's been a little over a year since Dyson launched its first connected air purifier, the Pure Cool Link, and to celebrate this occasion, the company is about to update its entire line of air purifiers with improvements aimed at the Chinese market. Well, what's going to be different is really just the replaceable cylindrical glass HEPA filter: the new version's inner layer will pack three times more specially treated graphite crystals than before, which helps remove more gaseous pollutants (and odors) in addition to the usual particulates as small as PM 0.1.

  By Richard Lai Read More

• The Morning After: Wednesday, April 19th 2017

  Hey, good morning! This morning, we put Samsung's Galaxy S8 through its paces, finally seeing why Facebook bought VR company Oculus, and started replaying a 20-year-old game. (Because it's free.) Welcome to the Morning After.

  By Mat Smith Read More

• Kickstarter seeks creators to launch more ambitious projects

  If you look at what's trending on Kickstarter, you'll see a bunch of gadgets, games and quirky knickknacks. While they all look fun and promising, it seems Kickstarter wants to see grander campaigns much more creative and forward-thinking than usual. The crowdfunding website has published its first request for projects that focus on innovative designs and revolutionary technologies. Its design and tech team is looking for three types in particular, starting with ones that push the envelope.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Malaysia Airlines will be first to monitor its planes by satellite

  Three years ago, Malaysia Airlines flight 370 disappeared over the South China Sea, starting an multinational hunt for the plane. Despite rumors of a sophisticated hijacking or seizure of the aircraft by a foreign government, it was presumed lost in the ocean. To prevent another disaster over open water, the UN pushed for particular plane signal system that can be tracked from the ground or by satellite. But Malaysia Airlines just struck a deal to use a network of the latter that will enable them to monitor their planes anywhere they fly on earth -- including over the polar ice caps.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Panasonic's latest super-zoom camera also shoots selfies

  Point-and-shoot cameras have had a bad rep lately, since they're neither as convenient as a smartphone nor as powerful as a mirrorless cam or DSLR. However, there are a few areas where they still excel: they can include ridiculously long-zoom lenses in small bodies, and take selfies that would be difficult or impossible to manage on your phone. And Panasonic, at least, is determined to make the most of those advantages. The company has just introduced the Lumix ZS70, a successor to the ZS60 that crams more into its compact frame. It now has a 20.3-megapixel sensor (up from 18MP), an even longer-ranged 24-720mm equivalent lens, and -- most importantly -- a flip-out 3-inch touchscreen. If you've ever wanted to take a high-quality selfie (including a new 4K mode) without sacrificing your ability to shoot far-off subjects, you might want to consider this model.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Lomography's super-cheap film cameras look like disposables

  Thanks to the smartphones in our pockets, we all have a basic understanding of digital photography, even if we don't own a fancy DSLR. But this casual familiarity can make delving into analog, film shooting a bit daunting, at least initially. Champion of film Lomography has made exploring the 35mm format that much more accessible today, though, launching a trio of super-cheap cameras, preloaded with its dreamy films, that even the most inexperienced of photographers can easily get to grips with.

  By Jamie Rigg Read More

• iRobot starts a patent war over robot vacuums (update: ITC case)

  It's getting nasty in the robot vacuum arena. iRobot has filed lawsuits against Bissell, Black & Decker, Bobsweep, iLife and Hoover for allegedly violating several patents for the concept of an autonomous room-cleaning robot. The company "will not stand by" as rivals "infringe on our intellectual property" by making similar competing machines, according to a statement. We've reached out to the companies targeted by the lawsuits and will let you know how they're responding, although it's safe to say they aren't likely to roll over.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• The Morning After: Tuesday, April 18th 2017

  Hey, good morning! We're warming up for F8. Yep, Facebook's big annual event kicks off today and it looks like the company has an awful lot planned to show us. Meanwhile, Netflix has explained why it continues to pay for Adam Sandler's creative output and Verizon made its own smartwatch for some reason. Oh, and here's a DIY distillery.

  By Mat Smith Read More

• Steve Ballmer builds an open database of government spending

  Our leaders may be determined to make their daily dealings less transparent, but they probably didn't reckon on bored Steve Ballmer. The former Microsoft CEO has spent more than $10 million on a new project to open up the US government budget. USA Facts, as profiled in the New York Times, is an open, searchable database that tracks where almost all of your federal, state and local tax dollars are spent.

  By Daniel Cooper Read More

• Theranos settlement means it could have a lab again in 2019

  Theranos has been headed toward disaster for a while through its questonable blood testing methods, but it might have just avoided the worst possible outcome. The biotech outfit has reached a settlement with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that should end the legal and regulatory fights between the two. In return for Theranos dropping appeals of both its 2-year lab ban and sanctions on its Newark lab, CMS has decided against revoking Theranos' Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) certificates and reducing the civil financial penalty to $30,000. Theranos is voluntarily giving up the certificates, as it's not running labs that would need them.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Hotels pressure the government to crack down on Airbnb

  There's no doubt that the hotel industry hates Airbnb -- the home sharing service lures many would-be customers away through lower rates and the perks that come from staying in someone else's abode. So how does it fight back? By pushing the government to crack down. The New York Times has learned that the American Hotel and Lodging Association has been conducting a "multipronged, national" lobbying and research campaign to have politicians impose or toughen restrictions, selectively collect taxes and draw attention to the negative side-effects of home sharing. Reportedly, the AHLA is partly responsible for at least some of the higher-profile regulatory moves against Airbnb in the past year.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Picobrew's next goal: A safe and affordable DIY distillery

  Picobrew has a new, cheaper countertop beer brewing system. That you already knew. But the company is now dipping its toes into distilling. The Picostill is an add on for the Pico Model C that turns that weird custom designed keg into a countertop distillery. Specifically it's a reflux still that uses vacuum distillation, which doesn't look as cool as a pot or column still, but makes far more efficient use of the space.

  By Terrence O'Brien Read More

• UK forms 'specialist squad' to tackle prison drug drones

  Training carrier pigeons to fly contraband beyond prison walls is undeniably canny, but these days all you need is an inexpensive drone to do the same job. While perhaps not as reliable, remote-controlled mules carrying drugs and phones into prisons are now a persistent problem for law enforcement. So much so that today the UK government has announced a new "specialist squad of prison and police officers" has been assembled to investigate the flying smugglers.

  By Jamie Rigg Read More

• The Morning After: Monday, April 17th 2017

  Hey, good morning! While we consumed our body weight in chocolate, the US Navy banned vaping on its entire fleet and EA detailed the sequel to Battlefront. There's also a drone that can spy on fish, some stealth iPad upgrades and a potentially life-saving AI.

  By Engadget Read More

• Square chief teases a smart debit card

  Square Cash's virtual payment card might not be quite so virtual in the future. Company chief Jack Dorsey has teased a strange, all-black Visa debit card that Recode suspects is really a physical Square Cash card. A Square spokesperson declined to comment, so take this with a grain of salt, but there's evidence to suggest there's something to this teaser. You see, Square seriously considered a payment card back in 2014 -- the company is no stranger to exploring the concept of a real-world card that draws from online funds.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• After Math: It's so hard to say goodbye

  It's been a tough week for farewells. We've seen the NES Classic get canceled, Microsoft pull the plug on Vista, and the impending end of free registration for California's electric vehicles. Numbers, because how else would we know how much time we have left?

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• US Navy bans e-cigarettes on every ship in the fleet

  Last year, the FDA finally started regulating e-cigarettes and swiftly ruled to keep them out of checked baggage on flights. Incidental reports that some had caught on fire led regulators to restrict them to carry-ons lest they ignite in midair. It seems the US Navy won't even take that chance, as the branch just banned e-cigarettes across the entire fleet.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Recommended Reading: Technology hasn't improved the airline experience

  How Technology Has Failed to Improve Your Airline Experience Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times It hasn't been a great week for United, but that massive incident served as a harsh reminder that the airline industry has a long list of customer service issues. The New York Times' Farhad Manjoo details how technology has improved ride sharing, vacation rentals and more while the process of booking a flight and air travel still leaves a lot to be desired.

  By Billy Steele Read More

• The Morning After: Weekend Edition

  Hey, good morning! You look fabulous. Welcome to the weekend! We have news on the Microsoft Windows zero-days that weren't, and a teaser trailer for the next Star Wars movie.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Trump administration is killing its open data portal

  Reversing yet another Obama-era practice, the Trump administration announced on Friday that it will not only be keeping its visitor logs secret for five years after Trump leaves office, but will be shuttering the Open.gov portal. This is where the previous administration posted visitor logs, financial disclosures and data on White House staff.

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• Bose goes premium with its outdoor-ready Revolve speakers

  You might see Bluetooth speakers as a commodity item, but Bose is having none of that with its premium, pricey SoundLink Revolve and Revolve Plus models. Much like the Vizio Cast, they output music from 360 degrees, so they sound the same to anyone in the vicinity. At the same time, Bose has eschewed typical plastic materials for a fancy "single-piece aluminum enclosure" that's resistant to spills, rain and splashes with an IPX4 rating.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• Adidas Futurecraft 4D shoes: The fourth dimension is hype

  Adidas is getting serious about turning its 3D-printed concepts into consumer products. Last week, the sportswear giant revealed Futurecraft 4D, a sneaker designed partially with a manufacturing technology called Digital Light Synthesis, which creates 3D objects by mixing light and oxygen with programmable liquid resins. According to Carbon 3D, the Sillicon Valley firm who developed it, this process is capable of making "durable, high-performance" 3D parts, unlike other conventional 3D printing methods. In this particular case, that was used to make and shape the shoe's midsole, while the upper is made out of Adidas' Primeknit material.

  By Edgar Alvarez Read More

• The Morning After: Friday, April 14th 2017

  Hey, good morning! You look fabulous. This Friday, we're saying an unexpected goodbye to the NES Classic Edition and preparing for the Model 3's big reveal in July. Oh, and scientists took a picture of a black hole -- you just can't look at it yet.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• New York City's free WiFi kiosks speed up access to social services

  When New York City launched its LinkNYC gigabit free WiFi program last year, it was a win for internet accessibility. With over 800 devices currently spread across New York City, the kiosks provide municipal broadband for anyone in WiFi range, as well as charging outlets, free phone calls, maps and directions, 911 access and a built-in tablet anyone can use. While the city unfortunately had to disable the web browsers due to some users' awkward browsing habits, LinkNYC kiosks are getting a new feature that will help users without internet access quickly find social programs and safety net services.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• Kim Dotcom asks the Supreme Court to hear him out

  Kim Dotcom, the founder of file-sharing website Megaupload, is taking his case to the United States Supreme Court. He's petitioned the highest court in the land to overturn a ruling allowing US authorities to keep $75 million in assets seized during a 2012 raid on Dotcom's house in Auckland, New Zealand.

  By Jessica Conditt Read More

• DJI refreshes the Phantom 4 with 'Advanced' entry-level model

  While DJI's Phantom 4 Pro strictly targeted filmmakers, folks who wanted that form factor were stuck paying the long dollar ($1,500 - $1,800) for it. Sure, it might've been overshadowed by the company's less expensive Mavic Pro ($749 - $999), but not everyone wants a foldable UAV. That's where the newly announced Phantom 4 Advanced and Advanced+ come in, offering sizable improvements for less money. Oh and if you were a fan of the base Phantom 4, know that it's being discontinued soon.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• The Morning After: Thursday, April 13th 2017

  Despite its newly christened console, Nintendo is keeping the 3DS alive with a slew of new games in addition to new Switch titles (that's what the pudding above is about). Meanwhile, the New York Auto Show shows us a mix of cars we do and do not want, and our Buyer's Guide gets updated for Spring 2017. You need to buy things, right?

  By Mat Smith Read More

• Hover Camera can now follow and record its owner sans phone

  The term "selfie drones" may suggest an added level of convenience, but in reality, these machines still share one common pain point with conventional offerings: they need to be connected to a mobile device for initiation, mode selection and landing. The folks over at Zero Zero Robotics, however, are tackling this issue with a software update for their Hover Camera Passport. As we previewed back at CES, this foldable, fully-enclosed drone is finally getting an "Owner Mode," in which it can follow and record its owner without ever having to turn on the smartphone.

  By Richard Lai Read More

• TP-Link jumps aboard the mesh WiFi bandwagon

  Mesh networking is a pretty big trend in home WiFi these days. Google, Netgear, Plume, Eero and Linksys are all current offering routers that make it super simple to add another router and expand your WiFi coverage, and now TP-Link is getting in on the action. The "Deco M5" system consists of three access points for your WiFi-enabled devices to switch between, depending on which one is offering the best speeds at any given time.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• The Morning After: Wednesday, April 12th 2017

  Nothing makes for morning reading quite like the protracted death of Windows' black sheep, Vista, the sex doll of the future, and terrifyingly upgraded VR horror rides. Something for everyone, we would hope.

  By Mat Smith Read More

• Nikon's D7500 DSLR arrives this summer for $1,250

  Those of you with eyes set on a mid-range DSLR may want to wait for Nikon's D7500, scheduled to launch later this summer for $1,250 body-only. The new shooter features a 20.9-megapixel DX-format sensor, an ISO range of 100-51,600 (with a low setting of 50), 8fps continuos shooting and 4K UHD video at 24, 25 and 30fps. What's more, the D7500 comes with an Expeed 5 imaging chip, the same processor that's on Nikon's D500 high-end DSLR. According to the company, that should make the camera versatile enough to handle fast-action and low-light scenarios with ease.

  By Edgar Alvarez Read More

• Drone sales doubled in 2016, proving they're not a novelty

  While it may have been a disappointing holiday season for some drone makers, dollar-for-dollar drone sales in the United States have more than doubled over the past year. According to a new report from market research company the NPD Group, "premium" drones -- classified as anything over $300 -- were the biggest money makers for the twelve months starting in February 2016, but high-end features like autopilot and "follow-me" mode are now making their way into the best-selling consumer level devices.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• Russia hopes legitimizing Bitcoin will thwart crooks

  Russia's existing stance on bitcoin and other digital currencies is... less than welcoming. You could face website bans and prison time just for using it. However, the country is making an about-face on the idea. Deputy Finance Minister Alexey Moiseev tells Bloomberg that Russia hopes to recognize cryptocurrencies in 2018. Officials still have to determine how they will categorize this virtual money (assets? Cash? Securities?) sometime in mid-2017, but it's now more a question of "when" than "if." Of course, this isn't a purely benevolent move -- it's really about cutting back on crime.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• The classic Tamagotchi toy is back

  You've already seen Nintendo revive the NES and Nokia reintroduce the 3310, so why not resurrect more '90s tech? Bandai certainly doesn't see a problem with it. The company has relaunched the classic Tamagotchi toy in near-original form to mark its 20th anniversary (November 1996 in Japan, May 1997 elsewhere). After years of constant iterations, you're back to simple black-and-white displays and the six initial characters. About the only change is the size -- these eggs are about half as large as the models you might have owned as a kid.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• GoPro's trade-up program entices users to buy a Hero5

  GoPro really, really wants to sell you a Hero5. It has even launched a trade-up program to make the prospect of giving up a working older model more appealing. Starting today, April 11th, you can get a Hero5 Black for $100 less than retail or a Hero5 Session for $50 cheaper than usual if you send in your old GoPro Hero devices. You'll likely get a lot more than a $100 if you sell your old model on eBay, but this could be a quick option if you were planning to get the company's latest action camera anyway. Simply go to the program's official page, select the camera you want and follow the instructions on how to send in your old Hero. Just take note that this offer is only available for a limited time.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Canada hid the Konami Code in its commemorative $10 bill launch

  Canada's currency is already the world's dorkiest, with its plastic material, transparent windows and holograms everywhere. For a $10 bill celebrating the nation's 150th anniversary, however, the Bank of Canada outdid itself with an Easter egg on its website that rewards visitors with (a dorky version of) the national anthem and a shower of tens down the screen. The best part is that to get it, you punch in the "Konami Code" first made famous in Konami's 1986 Contra NES game.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• The Morning After: Tuesday, April 11th 2017

  Hey, good morning! You look fabulous. This Morning After is brought to you by the death of phone calls on flights (hooray!), how Persona 5 manages to digitally manifest Tokyo and the news that the most valuable car company in the US is now Tesla -- with a lot of that value resting on the incoming cheaper Model 3.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• LeEco is not buying Vizio after all

  Troubled electronics and car maker LeEco made an ambitious promise to buy TV company Vizio for $2 billion last year, but as it turns out, that acquisition isn't happening after all. The company today confirmed that "the merger agreement will not proceed due to regulatory headwinds." This comes after persistent rumors of the deal falling through due to an inability to get Chinese government approval.

  By Cherlynn Low Read More

• The Morning After: Monday, April 10th 2017

  Still haven't cut the cord from your cable TV package? YouTube might get you there. In more outlandish weekend news, international scientists plan to drill deep into the Earth, and are searching for the ideal chunk of oceanic crust to get things started. We also explain why Ghost In The Shell's remake underwhelms and ransomware that demands a high score.

  By Mat Smith Read More

• Homemade thrill ride speeds up if you're not scared enough

  Roller coasters don't care how scared you are, they always follow their pre-programmed circuit to a "T." That gave Dutch artist Daniel de Bruin an idea: What if a ride could measure your fear and amp up the thrills based on that? Since he's also a designer, he decided to find out by building the Neurotransmitter 3000, a 7-meter (23 foot) high steampunk-looking ride that speeds up or slows down depending on your heart rate, body temperature and muscle tension.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• Swap your boring coffee table for one that plays 'Pong'

  Remember that real-world Pong table that was supposed to become a product you could buy if everything went smoothly? Well, it's here... almost. The creators have launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to launch a production-grade, coffee table-sized version of the design. If you're willing to pledge at least $1,100 ($990 if you were referred by an existing backer), you can get living room furniture that uses magnets, motors and optical sensors to recreate the classic 1972 game. You can hide the controls when you aren't using them, and the table even throws in USB charging ports, Bluetooth music streaming and a coin-op mode to recoup your investment.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• After Math: Flying high

  It's been a big week for aviation achievements. DARPA successfully flew a model of its next VTOL aircraft, Dr. Peggy Whitson is tacking on three more months to her ISS stay (and breaking another record along the way), and SpaceX is saving big on its reusable rocket costs. Numbers, because how else would you join the 1.60934 kilometer-high club?

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• Bernie Sanders quietly launched his own podcast

  Just because Bernie Sanders is no longer a presidential candidate doesn't mean that he's out of the internet's spotlight. In fact, it might be easier than ever to listen to his ideas: the Vermont Senator has released a podcast version of his Facebook Live stream, The Bernie Sanders Show. The podcast has actually been available since late March (there are three episodes as of this writing), but Sanders is just now advertising its existence.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Kobo will sell discounted digital copies of your paper books

  Kobo, the Canadian e-reader titan, has snapped up a little-known e-book platform called Shelfie and will incorporate its features into its apps. Shelfie was a service that sold digital copies of print books you already own at a discount before it shuttered in January. You had to take photos of your book shelves (hence, its name) to prove you own the titles you want to buy. The service's technology would then identify your books and make an inventory of everything you own by scanning their spines.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Recommended Reading: iFixit wants to show you how to repair everything

  Meet the $21 Million Company That Thinks a New iPhone Is a Total Waste of Money David Whitford, Inc. We're no stranger to iFixit's in-depth teardowns here at Engadget, but the company has a plan that's much more than ripping apart the latest gadgets to see what's inside. Inc. takes a look at how the the company is helping the masses repair everything from smartphones to kitchen appliances and why they offer guides for doing so free of charge.

  By Billy Steele Read More

• The Morning After: Weekend Edition

  Hey, good morning! You look fabulous. Welcome to the weekend. While Apple Music and Spotify subscribers will have to do without most of Jay Z's hits, we're checking out YouTube TV and offering advice on how to find the right VPN.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Two Marines punished for online misconduct under new policy

  Two Marines have been disciplined for posting disrespectful comments about a female soldier on social media, The Washington Post reports. It's the first time the Marine Corps has officially punished someone for online misconduct since last month's nude photo scandal.

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

• NYPD details its body camera policy ahead of spring pilot program

  After four years of legal wrangling, input from 5,000 active duty officers and 25,000 members of the public, the long-awaited NYPD body camera pilot program is set to begin at the end of the month. On Friday, the department unveiled the rules by which its officers must abide when wearing the new devices and, unlike the 2013 Stop and Frisk case that led to their implementation, these new policy guidelines are surprisingly responsible.

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• The Morning After: Friday, April 7th 2017

  Hey, good morning! You look fabulous. We've got a lot to cover, with a curious energy that can only mean it's finally Friday. There are concrete details on the next Xbox, a new iPad to review, and an AI trying to paid while on "digital LSD". They know how to party.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• FDA clears 23andMe to warn you about potential health risks

  Good news for everyone who wants to do at-home DNA tests: 23andMe has been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration to tell customers if they're at risk for 10 potentially debilitating diseases. "These are the first direct-to-consumer tests authorized by the FDA that provide information on an individual's genetic predisposition to certain medical diseases or conditions, which may help to make decisions about lifestyle choices or to inform discussions with a health care professional," the watchdog agency said in a statement. Previously, the FDA had stopped the company from offering this information back in 2013. The FDA softened its stance a bit in 2015.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Monzo is now a proper digital bank

  UK banking startup Monzo has been given the green light by the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority to operate, well, like an actual bank. Until now, the company has been working with a restricted banking licence, which meant you had to have a connected, external bank account to use its pre-paid card and money-saving software. The mobile-first approach attracted plenty of fans, but there were limitations to the setup -- Monzo could only hold deposits up to £50,000, for instance. For years, the plan has been to become a proper digital bank.

  By Nick Summers Read More

• The Morning After: Thursday, April 6th 2017

  This Thursday you might have missed Netflix's switch from star ratings to thumbs, giant robots committing to battle, and YouTube revealing its very own cord-cutting option.

  By Mat Smith Read More

• Deliveroo builds its own kitchens to help restaurants expand

  Deliveroo's food delivery services are convenient provided your favourite restaurant is signed up and willing to cover your post code. All too often, you'll open the app only to find that what you really want to eat isn't available. Deliveroo's solution is 'Editions,' a network of small, delivery-only kitchens that can help restaurants to reach more people. Following a trial in London, the company is rolling out the concept nationwide. Thirty Editions will be available at launch, covering 200 restaurants and, Deliveroo claims, creating more than 1,000 jobs in the process.

  By Nick Summers Read More

• The Morning After: Wednesday, April 5th 2017

  Welcome to the middle. Apple is sorry about its Mac Pro, and promises something big next year, while in other mea culpa news, the makers of Mass Effect: Andromeda will release a bunch of fixes both this week and in the coming months. Rounding it off, we took a closer look at Sonos' new Playbase speaker -- possibly the only speaker you'll need in your living room.

  By Mat Smith Read More

• Reebok will introduce plant-based sustainable shoes this year

  While others try shoes that lace themselves or have 3D printed soles, Reebok will have "plant-based" footwear on shelves this year. Adidas already sold a sneaker produced from ocean-plastic, but Reebok's "Cotton + Corn" push is focused on shoes that are made from sustainable, growing materials, that can even be used as compost after they're worn out.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Zoe Quinn's book about fighting online hate arrives Sept. 6th

  Zoë Quinn, perhaps one of the most qualified people to talk about online harassment, has written a book on her fight against online hate. It's called Crash Override, just like the volunteer group she founded to support harassment victims, and it's now ready for pre-order. As GamerGate's original target, the game developer had to endure having her accounts hacked, her sensitive photos stolen and her family and friends doxxed and harassed. She was also on the receiving end of numerous murder and rape threats. Quinn's book talks about her GamerGate experience in its first few chapters, but it sounds like it has much more to offer.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• The Morning After: Tuesday, April 4th 2017

  Apple's dreaming up its own graphics chips for future iPhones, SEALs are using brain-zapping tech to learn and train faster and our parent's parent company has decided to give Aol a new name, after buying Yahoo. Call it Oath.

  By Mat Smith Read More

• The White House is saving all of Trump's deleted tweets

  Five days after Trump's inauguration, news leaked that his staff was continuing to use email linked to a private server. While that's not illegal (though hypocritical, given Hillary's election pillorying), it requires those using non-government emails to disclose them. If that doesn't happen -- if those messages aren't forwarded to an official account and stored for posterity -- the offender violates the Presidential Records Act. It seems the same could apply to Trump's tweets: The White House has agreed to the US National Archives' request that they save every one, including those he deletes.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Trump signs bill rolling back FCC privacy rules for ISPs

  As promised, Donald Trump has signed a bill that nullifies rules introduced last year by the FCC to protect data and privacy for customers of internet service providers. Those rules would've blocked an ISP from selling data like a customer's browsing history that could be used to build a profile for advertisers. After the resolution passed both the House and Senate, AT&T, Comcast and Verizon came forward to state that they don't currently sell customer's browser history and say they have no plans to do so.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Seven corporate rebrand attempts even worse than 'Oath'

  Now that the Verizon-AOL-Yahoo! merger is finally nearing its completion, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong took to social media on Monday to unveil the combined organization's new name: Oath. No, seriously. They're calling it Oath. Yeah, like the promise. No, I don't know why either, but that distant rumbling you hear? That's the sound of the revamped moniker being ruthlessly dragged through Twitter by innumerable hot takes.

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• Computer programmers can still qualify for H-1B visas

  Yes, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is cracking down on the controversial H-1B category of work visas with new anti-fraud and anti-abuse measures. But it is not disqualifying computer programmers from getting the visa, contrary to reports you may have read. A recently issued "Policy Memorandum" instructs employees to stop relying on what it calls an outdated handbook to determine if an applicant's job qualifies as a specialty occupation, but it does not deny them altogether. Not only that, the memo is really only meant to bring specifically the USCIS' Nebraska Service Center, which stopped processing H-1B paperwork for close to ten years, up to speed. Other service centers had already been using the updated policies for assessing a candidate's qualifications.

  By Cherlynn Low Read More

• US cracks down on the tech industry's go-to work visa

  The H-1B category of work visas is controversial for a few reasons, including how reliant the US tech industry is on it. But one of the biggest concerns is the idea that it facilitates the outsourcing of American jobs en masse to workers from other countries. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced it would make a more targeted effort to combat "fraud and abuse" of the system, and the new measures revolve around focusing on-site spot checks on employers that look suspicious on paper.

  By Cherlynn Low Read More

• PicoBrew tries to make countertop beer brewing affordable

  Brewing your own beer is surprisingly easy and cheap. But, it can seem intimidating. Plus, some of the equipment takes up a lot of space if you really start to embrace the hobby. Companies like Picobrew have been trying to simplify the process to make it more appealing to newcomers and those with limited space. The Pico Model C is the latest in a line of "countertop" brewing machines. It looks more like a coffee machine than anything else. In fact, it looks a lot like the company's previous machine -- the Pico -- except the stainless-steel body has been replaced with a black powder-coated finish.

  By Terrence O'Brien Read More

• The Morning After: Monday, April 3rd 2017

  Hey, good morning! Welcome to the work week. April 1st is finally done, and in these days of fake news, we're all increasingly numb to the corporate non-ideas that barraged our inboxes and social networks over the weekend. Meanwhile, Apple is apparently sketching out TV service plans aimed at convenience, and Archer, the mobile game, requires you to fire up your old printer.

  By Mat Smith Read More

• Roland founder and music legend Ikutaro Kakehashi dies

  It's a tragic time for both music and technology. Ikutaro Kakehashi, best known as the founder of Roland Corporation, has died at 87. The engineer turned corporate leader got his start making electronic drums and rhythm pattern generators, but it was after he founded Roland in 1972 that he hit the big time. His company quickly became synonymous with electronic music effects, and the machines built under his watch didn't just become popular -- they changed the cultural landscape.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• After Math: Did I do that?

  It was a big week for huge accomplishments. SpaceX proved that you can, in fact, reuse rockets. Scientists trawled 3 million studies to solve an oceanic mystery and Twitter opened up all 140 characters for you to use. Numbers, because what else would we use to count?

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• Coal's sharp decline leads to a drop in US energy production

  Whether you like it or not, coal power is on the decline... and that's having a marked impact on American energy output. The US Energy Information Administration has published data revealing that the country's 2016 energy production dropped over year-over-year -- the first such drop since 2009. Most of it can be pinned on coal, whose output fell a steep 18 percent compared to 2015. Other energy sources dipped as well, but not by nearly as much. Natural gas and crude oil were down 'just' 2 and 7 percent respectively.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• 17 corporate pranks that aren't April Fooling anybody

  It's (ugh) that time of year again. That magically obnoxious season wherein every tech startup, thought influencer and blog worth its weight in snark attempts to pull a fast one on the rest of us with a clever April Fool's Day prank. Only problem is, they're rarely clever, usually terrible and almost assuredly obvious to anyone with a functioning brainstem. Don't believe me? Here are 17 of the weirdest prank pitches to come through the Engadget tip box this year.

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• The Morning After: Weekend Edition

  Letter from the Editor Apple may have scrapped its rumored March press event, but fortunately, we were able to count on Samsung for some good old-fashioned spectacle. Actually, by the company's standards, Wednesday's Galaxy S8 launch in New York was fairly tame: There was no orchestra onstage, and attendees looking for VR headsets underneath their seats were left empty-handed. Instead, we got the heavily leaked Galaxy S8 (and S8+), along with a healthy dose of humility -- yes, Samsung is still very sorry about those exploding Note 7s.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Expect to see BlackBerry's name (and tech) on more devices

  A few years ago we had all the jokes about BlackBerry and licensing, but yesterday the company reported a higher profit than analysts were expecting and says that its licensing program will expand soon. Right now, BlackBerry licenses its name and Android-based software for devices made by other companies. In December TCL announced it would be the exclusive manufacturer and distributor of BlackBerry phones in most countries, but now BlackBerry says it's pursuing "additional endpoints." That could include "tablets, wearables, medical devices, appliances, point-of-sale terminals and other smartphones."

  By Richard Lawler Read More

Nintendo (21)

• Nintendo's latest portable is the $150 2DS XL

  Nintendo is dropping the NES Classic Edition from its lineup, but it has new hardware on the way with this just-announced New Nintendo 2DS XL. The portable system will cost $150 when it goes on sale July 28th, with the same large screen and features of the 3DS XL, but as its name implies, it will only display "Nintendo 3DS, New Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo DS" games in 2D. To keep expanding that library of games, Miitopia and Hey! Pikmin are releasing the same day as the new 2DS XL. In the US it will be available in the black/turquoise color shown above, however, in Japan it launches July 13th in two colors, adding a white/orange option.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Nerdcore artist Mega Ran takes us on a Gameboy nostalgia trip

  Nerdcore artist Mega Ran has a new video out today and it's full of Nintendo nostalgia. Church ft. KadeshFlow is a fun homage to the 8-bit visual style popularized by the GameBoy in the late 1980s. In the video, Mega Ran and KadeshFlow make their way through a green dot-matrix world full of retro gaming references to battle ghosts at Alex Trebek's house (Trebek has been a favored target of the nerdcore community ever since he called them "losers" on an episode of Jeopardy!).

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

• Nintendo's hardware visionary is calling it a day

  Alongside today's impressive earnings report, Nintendo announced that long-serving employee Genyo Takeda is stepping down as company director this June. Holding the title of representative director and also sitting alongside Miyamoto as "Technology Fellow", Takeda has played a key role in defining both Nintendo's hardware and software.

  By Tom Regan Read More

• Nintendo Switch could outsell the Wii U in its first year

  Nintendo's profits are up. It's claimed an operating profit of $1.6 billion (178 billion yen) for the last quarter, which, while around the same level as the last earnings report, is almost a billion dollars more than the same quarter in 2016, when it made just $701 million. It's Nintendo's first financial results after its Switch console went on sale, and since March 3rd, it's sold 2.74 million units. The company believes sales will stay strong, forecasting 10 million more Switch consoles sold by this time next year. That prediction, shy of 13 million, would put it toe to toe with the total sales of its predecessor, the Wii U, over its entire lifetime. (The Wii U did manage to sell over 3 million units in its first six weeks back in 2012, but that was also during holiday season. Sales, however, didn't quite keep at that pace in the following months.)

  By Mat Smith Read More

• 'Super Mario Run' gets an update, if you're still playing

  The first Nintendo game that came out on smartphones, Super Mario Run, got its first update since launching on Android last month. Assuming anyone's still rocking and hopping in the mobile Mushroom Kingdom, they can finally track friends down by their Nintendo Accounts.

  By David Lumb Read More

• 'Breath of the NES' is a retro 'Zelda' fan project destined to die

  While you wait for something else to play on your Switch (might I suggest looking into TumbleSeed?), you could kill some time with Breath of the NES. As the name suggests, the fan-project was inspired by Nintendo's 8-bit Breath of the Wild prototype that the company divulged during a GDC panel earlier this year. This isn't a straight facsimile though. Developer WinterDrake has added modern lighting and shadows (the fireflies are particularly impressive), while keeping gameplay mostly familiar.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Capcom's collection of Disney NES games does retro gaming right

  Recapturing the feeling of playing video games of bygone eras is no easy task. Sure, a simple emulator can technically drag ancient software to modern television screens, but anyone who grew up playing 8-bit games can tell you the experience isn't always the same. Pixel-perfect presentations can sometimes lack the nostalgic charm of the distorted, fuzzy tube TVs old games were originally designed for. That's one of the things that makes Capcom's Disney Afternoon Collection so special. It doesn't just collect Ducktales, Rescue Rangers and other iconic NES Disney games in convenient one package -- it wraps them in the style, context and visual limitations of the 1990s.

  By Sean Buckley Read More

• Nintendo's next hit console could be the SNES Mini

  Nintendo's decision to retire the NES Classic left many fans disgruntled. The system, a reimagined version of the iconic 80s console, was a hit last Christmas -- for those that could find one, that is. Stock problems meant it was notoriously difficult to acquire, and rather than solve these supply issues, Nintendo simply killed the product completely. While frustrating, there could be a silver lining: Eurogamer reports that a SNES Mini is in the works. Citing anonymous sources, it says the new hardware is scheduled to launch this holiday season, and that development is already underway.

  By Nick Summers Read More

• Nintendo's NES Classic has been discontinued in Europe too

  When Nintendo pulled the NES Classic from its website and retailers in the US, we knew it was only a matter of time before the same happened on the other side of the Atlantic. It took four days, but the company today confirmed to Eurogamer that the tiny retro console is no longer on sale in Europe, meaning it's now been discontinued worldwide.

  By Matt Brian Read More

• Indie charmer 'TumbleSeed' will arrive on Nintendo Switch May 2nd

  Okay, so you've had your Nintendo Switch for awhile. Ganon's corpse is but a speck in the proverbial rearview mirror and hunting for the last remaining shrines in Breath of the Wild isn't all that interesting. What's a person to do? Well, that's where indie games come in. And for the purposes of this article, we're talking about TumbleSeed specifically. The charming rogue-like about climbing a mountain as a tiny future-flora will be released to Nintendo's latest console May 2nd. That's only a few weeks away!

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Next 'Layton' game is coming to Android and iOS before 3DS

  Last we knew, the new Professor Layton game's differences from prior releases were relegated to its protagonist and the absence of its original puzzle designer. Now word is out that Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaire's Conspiracy will arrive on Android and iOS this July 20th, ahead of its stateside debut on Nintendo's 3DS handheld. According to publisher/developer Level 5 (spotted by Kotaku), the only way to play on 3DS at launch will be with an imported version and a Japanese console. Domestically, a localized version will release at some point after the mobile versions.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Nintendo's fastest-selling console ever couldn't top 'Zelda'

  Nintendo has been proclaiming that the Switch is its fastest-selling console ever since the system launched, but now it has numbers to back that up. Based on NPD reports, it says the Switch sold 906,000 units in the US in March. What's surprising, however, is that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is not just its fastest-selling launch title of all time, its Switch version actually outsold the console, moving 925,000 copies (add 460,000 for the Wii U and you have 1.3 million total).

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• You're never getting an NES Classic Edition now

  If you've spent the last few months trying to get your hands on a NES Classic Edition, it's time to give up. Nintendo's tiny, plug-and-play retro console is dead. Or dying, at least. The company says the last shipments to North American territories will reach stores in April, advising buyers to check with their local retailers for availability. In other words, the NES Classic Edition shortage is going away, but only because the product won't exist anymore.

  By Sean Buckley Read More

• Here are the Nintendo Switch games on deck for 2017

  Today's Nintendo Direct announcement event was the first since the launch of Nintendo's Switch console, so more than a few gamers were hoping more games would be added soon to the system's thin launch library. While players won't be showered in new titles, a slew are coming in the next few months, hopefully enough to tide them over until others launch later in the year.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Nintendo announces Joy-Con battery grips for Switch controllers

  The Nintendo Switch's detachable Joy-Con controllers already have decent battery life, but if you're looking to game for even longer sessions, Nintendo has you covered. Today the company announced the Joy-Con AA battery pack, a pair of detachable grips for the wireless controllers that let users extend their longevity with off the shelf batteries. Oh, and you'll be able to buy the detachable controller in neon yellow soon, too.

  By Sean Buckley Read More

• Nintendo still has a stack of 3DS games in the pipeline

  Nintendo Switch titles ARMS and Splatoon 2 headlined today's Nintendo Direct presentation, but they weren't the only games with news to reveal. The studio has a solid lineup of games coming to the 3DS this year.

  By David Lumb Read More

• 'Splatoon 2' launches on July 21st with three new Amiibo figures

  If you were hopeful that the Nintendo Switch's Splatoon 2 Global Testfire event was indicative of an early launch, have a seat: today Nintendo announced that the game's official release date as July 21st. That's smack dab in the middle of the Summer launch window Nintendo promised when it revealed the game back in January -- but at least you'll be getting plenty of new content for the sake of the wait. According to this afternoon's Nintendo Direct, Splatoon 2 will launch with a new PvE game mode and a ton of new Amiibo functionality.

  By Sean Buckley Read More

• 'Minecraft' hits the Nintendo Switch on May 11th

  Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition lands on May 11th, bringing the world's most popular sandbox to yet another gaming platform. Minecraft on Switch supports the Pro controller and up to eight players online, or four locally in split-screen mode. Plus, it comes with the Super Mario Mash-Up Pack, which throws classic Mario characters and locations directly into the game.

  By Jessica Conditt Read More

• Nintendo's spring-loaded fighter, 'Arms,' hits Switch in June

  Arms -- a fighting game from Nintendo that's essentially a mix of boxing and a shockingly violent Slinky exhibition -- is set to hit the Switch on June 16th. Nintendo revealed the game's release date during a Nintendo Direct live stream today.

  By Jessica Conditt Read More

• 'Zelda: Breath of the Wild' makes open-world games exciting again

  At this point, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has become a video-game phenomenon. Much has been said about how it's a new take on the dusty old Zelda formula, or on how it represents a fresh direction for Nintendo in general, by buoying its new Switch console. But Breath of the Wild deserves just as much credit for how it subverts and reaffirms the power of the open world.

  By Zach Hines Read More

• Nintendo Switch owners report yet another issue: warping

  The Nintendo Switch is the fastest-selling console in the company's history, sure, but it hasn't been all roses. For example, gamers have encountered significant problems with the dock and Joy-Con controllers. But wait, there's more: Remember when the iPhone 6 famously experienced bending issues in 2014? Now, it's the Switch that has warping troubles.

  By Derrick Rossignol Read More

PC Gaming (10)

• Razer claims its wireless mouse is good enough for eSports

  For pro gamers, wired mice have always been the only option, but now it looks like Razer is trying to change that. Following in the footsteps of Roccat, the peripheral company is releasing Lancehead - a wireless mouse which it claims is the most reliable ever made. Powered by Razer's new Adaptive Frequency Technology, the mouse automatically switches between the strongest frequencies available within its 2.4 Ghz band - resulting in lag-free mouse movement. As well as boasting a resolution accuracy of 99.4 percent, the Lancehead also allows users to save mouse settings directly to the device while simultaneously uploading them to the cloud.

  By Tom Regan Read More

• 'Overwatch' has its first match-fixing scandal

  In a month's time, Blizzard's popular multiplayer first-person shooter Overwatch will officially be a year old (not counting the beta). In that time, the game has accumulated over 25 million players, welcomed multiple new characters and maps, and established a very credible esports scene. Global prize money has amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars in 2017 alone, bringing with the unfortunate threat of match fixing. In one of the first reported cases of Overwatch match-fixing, Korean police confirmed this weekend that the player manager and coach of local esports team Luminous Solar were charged without detention for attempting to fix a qualifying match for the second season of the APEX Overwatch league.

  By Matt Brian Read More

• Valve is trying to end account smurfing in 'Dota 2'

  Valve is changing the way Dota 2 is played, at least on a meta level. Beginning May 4th, players will be required to register a unique phone number to their accounts in order to queue up for ranked matches. That's one account per phone number, ostensibly placing a hard limit on the number of ranked accounts that any one player can have. Before you get any fresh ideas, Valve says online services that provide virtual phone numbers won't work in this new system. Nice try.

  By Jessica Conditt Read More

• Twitch can finally sort top-ranked 'League of Legends' streamers

  In terms of sheer minutes watched, League of Legends has been the most popular game on Twitch ever since the livestreaming platform launched in 2011. In fact, there are so many channels for the game, Twitch had to build out a special interface just so users could navigate them all. As of today, users jumping into the League of Legends directory will see a new set of discovery tools allowing them to filter and sort those channels by rank or champion.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• Get your free copy of 'StarCraft' ahead of its Remastered release

  At the tail end of March Blizzard announced plans for StarCraft: Remastered, which is due later this year with updates including 4K graphics and modern online features. Buried within that release, it also mentioned that gamers could expect to see the original game and its Brood War expansion released for free along with the 1.18 update for the game. That day has come, and nostalgic gamers can dive back in as soon as their copy finishes downloading (PC here, OS X version here) like it's 1998 again and Gettin' Jiggy Wit It isn't just a dated reference.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• 'Bayonetta' brings heel guns and hair fights to the PC

  After years of feverish fan demand, PC gamers can now finally play Bayonetta. Arriving on Steam today with 4K support and advanced graphics options, Sega's critically acclaimed action classic now looks better than ever before. In a bid to entice those who already own the game, Sega will also be giving buyers the Digital Deluxe Edition at no extra cost until April 25th. This (normally) pricier edition boasts a five-song soundtrack sampler as well as a digital artbook and exclusive wallpapers and avatars.

  By Tom Regan Read More

• Indie hit 'Besiege' is adding online machine-making duels

  The war machine construction game Besiege has been a darling of Steam's Early Access scene, and for good reason: its extremely flexible building block system has let people's imaginations run wild. You've had to play solo, though, which sometimes makes it hard to show off your creations. Spiderling Games is about to throw the gates wide open, though. The developer is prepping a Multiverse update that, as the name suggests, adds online play. As many as 8 builders can join in, whether it's to compete against each other or to team up on challenges. And you won't be limited to the challenges that ship with the game, either.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Valve only wants to sell you good games

  As Steam continues to grow its expansive catalog, Valve is still figuring out how to separate the quality titles and undiscovered indie hits from the legions of mediocre games that are only designed to make a quick buck. The platform is already replacing its community-focused Greenlight program with the new Steam Direct service to help Valve clean up the sea of what it calls "fake games," but it still doesn't solve the problem of surfacing the really good stuff. To combat that problem, Valve is proposing a new system of "Steam Explorers" who will play their way through queues of undiscovered games and flag their favorites to give them a bump in the rankings.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• 'Serious Sam' returns to VR for a 'Second Encounter'

  If you're a fan of bombastic early-2000s first-person shooters and you own a HTC Vive or an Oculus Rift, Croteam has you covered. Serious Sam, the studio's fast-paced, over-the-top and gratuitously violent ode to big guns, explosions and cheesy one-liners now has two more VR games on Steam.

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

• 'Batman Arkham VR' finally comes to Oculus Rift and Vive

  Your chance to don Batman's suit in the comfort of your own home is coming very soon. That is, if you have the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive VR headset hooked up to a PC. Batman Arkham VR, previously available on PlayStation VR since October 2016, will be available for PC players on April 25th, and pre-ordering via the game's official website is "coming soon."

  By Cherlynn Low Read More

PlayStation (8)

• PlayStation 4 has never been more important to Sony

  Sony's PlayStation division has never been more important to its bottom line. The company posted some lacklustre numbers today for the fiscal year ending on March 31st, but its video game efforts continue to impress. The company sold 20 million PlayStation 4 consoles over the 12-month period, beating the 17.7 million figure posted in its 2015 fiscal year. Those numbers helped Sony's gaming division pull in 1,650 billion yen (roughly $14.73 billion), a 6.3 percent increase year-over-year. More importantly, gaming-related profit rose by an impressive 46.9 billion yen to 135.6 billion yen (roughly $1.1 billion), up from 88.7 billion yen the year prior.

  By Nick Summers Read More

• Atlus has change of heart over 'Persona 5' streaming restrictions

  Since launching last month, Persona 5 has already comfortably earned its place among the JRPG greats. Yet for streamers, this highly acclaimed title has become more of an archaic headache than a gaming highlight. Upon launch, developer Atlus forbade fans from streaming any content past a certain point in the game, threatening to hit 'offending' fans with copyright claims or even to ban their account. Now, after community outrage, the developer has decided to relax its punitive stance.. slightly.

  By Tom Regan Read More

• Campy, live-action horror game 'Night Trap' heads to PS4

  After 25 years, a browser port and a failed Kickstarter, cult classic FMV (full-motion video) game Night Trap is finally making its way back to living rooms. Thanks to the folks at developer Screaming Villains and publisher Limited Run Games, the interactive tale of teenage girls stuck in a house under attack by vampires will be released on disc sometime this spring for PlayStation 4.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Sony made a gigantic PS4 controller no one can use

  Sony has eSports-tailored PlayStation 4 controllers, but aside from that, the gaming juggernaut hasn't made any major changes to the gamepad that shipped with the PS4. But as a Japanese promo for the recent Parappa the Rapper re-issue, the company made a gigantic version of its best controller in years. We're talking perfect-for-Wun-Weg-the-giant from Game of Thrones size.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• The $300 PlayStation 4 Slim bulks up with a 1TB hard drive

  Sure, it's simple enough to swap out the standard 500 GB hard drive in your PlayStation 4 for a bigger one, but sometimes you just don't want to go through the hassle. Well, thanks to the PS4 Slim being packed with a 1 TB drive as standard equipment now, that shouldn't be an issue in the future. Amazon is already cutting prices on the 500GB models (from $300 to around $250), and the 1TB flavor rocks a $300 MSRP. A 1TB PS4 Pro is still $400, however, and depending on your situation, might be the better buy at this point.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• 'Uncharted: The Lost Legacy' will arrive this August

  Turns out we didn't have to wait for E3 for more news on Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. That's because developer Naughty Dog just revealed that the add-on will be released on August 22nd for $40 in the US and $50 in Canada.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• 'Lego Star Wars' and more Lucasfilm nostalgia come to PS Now

  Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is out on DVD and Blu Ray today, and (perhaps not-so) coincidentally four classic Star Wars video games have joined Sony's subscription-based streaming service, PlayStation Now. Oh, and there's some Lego Indiana Jones titles in there too.

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

• PlayStation classic 'Jak and Daxter' will be re-released on PS4

  Sony isn't slowing down in its quest to bring seemingly every classic PlayStation series to the PS4. The gaming giant has revealed that Naughty Dog's PS2-era Jak and Daxter games (The Precursor Legacy, Jak II, Jak 3 and Jak X: Combat Racing) will be available on the PS4 as a download later in 2017. Don't get your hopes up for a Crash Bandicoot-style makeover, though. They'll be rendered at 1080p and support modern features like Remote Play and trophies, but they won't receive graphical overhauls or any new features. If you want to duke it out with a friend in Jak X, you'll have to share a TV.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

Reviews (31)

• 'Mario Kart 8 Deluxe' on the Switch is basically perfect

  Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is poised to be the next must-have Switch game. Regardless of the last Mario Kart title you played -- our experiences vary from Mario Kart 64 to DS iterations to the Wii U's original Mario Kart 8 -- Nintendo is aiming to make this the most definitive Mario racer yet. To start, there are 48 courses and 42 characters (including some Splatoon additions), as well as an upgraded 1080p mode when you're playing it docked from the Switch and some auto-steering help for younger gamers (or grown-ups who should know better). Those Joy-Con controllers double as mini-controllers for two-player battles on the go, while a fully fleshed-out battle mode, with several arenas and play modes, form the biggest gameplay addition to the original that launched on the Wii U. Now, you probably knew most of that already, but how does it play? Four editors share their thoughts after a week of racing, while one colleague swears he won't buy the remake, regardless of how good it might be.

  By Engadget Read More

• Acer's $139 fitness watch promises to monitor your stamina

  Acer is adding to its stable of quirky fitness trackers that measure unusual health metrics with the newly unveiled Leap Ware. It follows the company's Liquid Leap lineup, which offered continuous heart rate monitoring and stress-measuring for less than $200. Although I was skeptical of the Ware's novelty stamina-tracking feature at first, I was convinced to give the device a more serious look once I strapped it on. The Ware is an attractive watch that's impressively slim and comfortable for its $139 asking price, and will be available at the end of June.

  By Cherlynn Low Read More

• 24 hours with Sony's A9 full-frame mirrorless camera

  Sony has one clear goal with its A9 full-frame flagship camera: to make professional photographers forget about their DSLRs. These are high expectations, sure, but the company's new mirrorless shooter seems to tick all the right boxes in terms of specs. The A9 focuses on speed, not so much resolution, which makes sense, considering that Sony's going after people who do sports photography in particular. You'll find a 24.2-megapixel 35mm sensor, 20fps continuous shooting, 1/32,000 shutter speed and a ridiculous 693-point phase detection autofocus that covers 93 percent of your frame. None of this would work without the latest Bionz X processor, though, which Sony claims handles data 20 times faster than previous models.

  By Edgar Alvarez Read More

• SOBRO: The smart coffee table for cold beers and chill tunes

  Coffee tables aren't the most glamorous piece of furniture. If you're anything like me, they inevitably become a repository for loose stuff like keys and remotes. StoreBound's SOBRO smart table aims to be a lot more useful. It's not just nice to look at; it's also well-equipped with a built-in fridge, speakers and even mood lighting, all of which can be controlled from your phone.

  By Kris Naudus Read More

• Nomiku Sous Chef essentially offers TV dinners for foodies

  Nomiku debuted nearly five years ago with an innovative idea: affordable sous vide cooking in your own home. Back then, machines that did sous vide -- a way of cooking vacuum-packed foods in a temperature-controlled water bath -- was still a fairly new concept. In 2012, Nomiku launched a successful Kickstarter for its first immersion circulator (raising $586,061 in 30 days) and has since made a WiFi version that you control with your smartphone. Today the company is ready to announce yet another sous vide machine, but with a twist: It comes with a food program that sends you precooked frozen meals.

  By Nicole Lee Read More

• We lived through the history of evolution in VR with 'Life of Us'

  It's easy to criticize virtual reality for being isolating and a bit anti-social, but there's a lot of potential for connection with shared VR experiences. One good example is Life of Us, the latest entry from the VR studio Within and director Chris Milk. It lets you and a friend (in my case, our Reviews Editor, Cherlynn Low) relive the story of evolution on Earth. And while it's relatively short, we found it to be fascinating.

  By Devindra Hardawar Read More

• Tag Heuer's 'modular' smartwatch isn't actually modular

  Webster's dictionary may define "modular" as "constructed with standardized units," but in tech, that buzzword has a slightly different meaning. A modular device usually has swappable components that bring additional functionality. But Tag Heuer is going with the original definition of the word for its latest high-end Android Wear smartwatch. The Connected Modular 45 is the follow-up to the company's surprisingly successful debut smartwatch that came out last year. The company's sophomore offering is a highly customizable device that lets you swap out the "smart" module for a mechanical timepiece, turning it into just another analog luxury watch with a multi-thousand-dollar price tag. You can change other components of the watch, too. Starting at $1,600, the Tag Heuer Connected Modular 45 is a refinement of the original and, like its predecessor, will appeal to only very select group of people.

  By Cherlynn Low Read More

• The ZTE Quartz is an affordable intro to Android Wear 2.0

  ZTE has made a name for itself by selling affordable smartphones that are best described as "not bad." Now, the company is extending its "affordable premium" philosophy to Android Wear watches with the Quartz -- a sub-$200 wearable running Google's newest OS. For $192, the Quartz delivers an onboard radio for phone-free calls and texts, as well as a surprisingly big battery. But despite these features, ZTE isn't going after early adopters. Instead, the Quartz is designed for first-time smartwatch buyers, and, for them, it gets the job done.

  By Cherlynn Low Read More

• Sony hopes its full-frame A9 makes pros forget about DSLRs

  Sony held an event in New York City today, where it unveiled its new flagship full-frame camera, the A9. This mirrorless shooter, which the company is pegging as a DSLR killer, is geared toward professional photographers -- especially those who shoot sports and other fast-paced environments. The A9 features a 24.2-megapixel 35mm sensor, a new Bionz X processor, an insane AF system with 693 phase detection points (93 percent frame coverage) and built-in 5 axis image stabilization. Given its target audience, the A9 is naturally all about speed, so you'll find a blackout-free, 20fps continuous shooting mode and 1/32,000 shutter speed. Sony says it is its fastest digital camera to date.

  By Edgar Alvarez Read More

• V-Moda's wireless earbuds pack fitness features in a familiar design

  If what's been holding you back from a neck-worn set of earbuds is the bulky plastic horseshoe you need to wear with them, the folks at V-Moda would like a word with you. The thing is, the company claims the Forza Metallo are the "world's first ergonomic neckband headphones" but the form factor has been around for awhile. More than that, they look awfully similar to Jaybird's Freedom line of sport-minded earbuds with removable fins.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Sony's A9 is a powerhouse full-frame flagship camera

  Sony has just launched its most impressive, and most expensive mirrorless camera yet, the 24.2-megapixel Alpha A9. Equipped with the first ever full-frame stacked CMOS sensor, it's all about speed, not resolution. The pixel count isn't that high compared to the 42.4-megapixel Alpha 7R II, but it can shoot up to 241 RAW, full-frame images at a scorching 20 fps, thanks to a processing speed 20 times faster than previous models. It also has an ultra-dense 693-point focal plane phase detection autofocus that can do 60 AF/AE tracking calculations per second.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• Logitech's sub-$100 deck tempts new mechanical keyboard fans

  Mechanical keyboard aficionados may extol the virtues of their chosen device like speed and feel but often downplay how much that luxury will cost you. Many good mechanical keyboards run between $150 and $200, with gaming-centric models jacking up the price thanks to features like RGB lighting and programmable keys. Logitech's new G413 hopes to indoctrinate the less hardcore by eschewing most of the bells and whistles, delivering a quality gaming deck that will cost you only $90/£99.

  By Kris Naudus Read More

• Fujifilm's new Instax camera is half digital, half instant

  Panasonic isn't the only camera maker introducing a new, affordable product today. Fujifilm is doing the same with the Instax Square SQ10, a hybrid digital/instant shooter with a retro look and a 3-inch, 460,000-dot LCD on back. Inside, the SQ10 features a freshly minted system with a CMOS sensor and an image processor that, according to Fujifilm, will produce better shots than any previous Instax camera -- especially in low-light situations. In addition to that, the company is introducing a new film format, which will let you print pictures in a 1:1 aspect ratio (aka a square, like most of your Instagram posts).

  By Edgar Alvarez Read More

• Facebook Spaces finally delivers on social VR

  Three years ago, when Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion, many scratched their heads in befuddlement. Social networks and virtual reality seem like such strange bedfellows; one is about connecting you to the world while the other appears to do the opposite. But CEO Mark Zuckerberg envisioned a world where VR would be a place for communication, not isolation. And many years later, that vision is much closer to reality. Facebook Spaces is the company's answer to social VR and it is, as I was amazed to find, surprisingly compelling.

  By Nicole Lee Read More

• Samsung's Gear VR controller makes mobile VR more immersive

  Samsung was first to mobile VR, but Google's Daydream View headset beat it to motion controls. Now, the Korean electronics giant is fighting back with the Gear VR controller. And, with a bit of help from Oculus, it's even managed to outdo Google when it comes to delivering a believable virtual experience. Best of all? Existing Gear VR owners don't need to buy a whole new headset to take advantage of this upgrade.

  By Devindra Hardawar Read More

• Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus review: Redemption is here

  Last year's Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge were excellent phones, and so was the Galaxy Note 7... until it started bursting into flames. While some within Samsung were tasked with figuring out what happened and how to prevent it from happening again, others were trying to build a phone that would make people move on. Meet the new Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus. The Note 7 won't disappear so easily from our collective memory, but I have to hand it to Samsung: The S8 siblings are impeccably built, thoughtfully designed devices. It's not hard to look at these smartphones as the first steps on a road to redemption, and after a week of testing, I can confidently say these are two of the best smartphones money can buy. I just wish its virtual assistant wasn't so half-baked.

  By Chris Velazco Read More

• Master and Dynamic developed its own concrete for its first speaker

  When a company moves into a new product category, it's important to make a statement with that first device. Master & Dynamic has been designing some of the best-looking headphones you can buy for just under three years; today it's introducing its first speaker, the MA770. This isn't just any wireless speaker, though. Rather than using wood, plastic or metal for the primary material on the MA770, Master & Dynamic chose concrete. That decision led the company to develop its own composite and collaborate with world-renowned architect Sir David Adjaye on the design.

  By Billy Steele Read More

• LG's ultralight Gram laptop has too many compromises

  LG's Gram is a wonder to hold. It's one of the lightest 15.6-inch notebooks we've ever seen, at just 2.4 pounds. But that extreme portability has some tradeoffs, especially when it comes to build quality. To make things worse, it doesn't even live up to LG's lofty battery claims. That leaves the Gram in a weird spot. It could be useful if you're looking for the lightest 15.6-inch laptop possible, but for most consumers, it doesn't do too much to differentiate itself from other ultraportables.

  By Devindra Hardawar Read More

• Origin's first budget gaming laptop costs less than a grand

  Origin's EON15-S laptop has always straddled the line between gaming performance and portability, and this year's model does that again, but for a bit less cash. For 2017, the PC maker has added NVIDIA's newish 4GB 1050 Ti graphics card, a model that gives it a (very) mild speed bump over last year's 980M-based EON15-S. That's squeezed into a 1-inch, 5-pound case, and costs $999 for the cheapest configuration.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• LG G6 review: Finally back in the race

  Let's be real: Last year's G5 was ambitious, but it never lived up to its potential. Even now I have to give props to LG: It took guts to make that phone, and it took guts to admit at a Mobile World Congress press conference that it was a step in the wrong direction. "We get it," the company seemed to say. "We were wrong, but we listened and did better." And you know what? It did. The props I offer to LG now are not only for moxie but also for surprisingly good execution. Apart from adding a surprisingly long screen, the company gave up on trying to redefine how smartphones work and built a more conservative machine that played to people's desires instead. It's a more sensible kind of flagship for LG. Too bad the competition this year is fiercer than ever.

  By Chris Velazco Read More

• Finally, a good digital masturbator

  NSFW Warning: This story may contain links to and descriptions or images of explicit sexual acts.

  By Daniel Cooper Read More

• 'Planet Earth II' on 4K Blu-ray will make you want a new TV

  Planet Earth II looks so good on 4K Blu-ray that it completely justifies the existence of the doomed disc format. The original Planet Earth sold most consumers on the benefits of Blu-ray and HD video in 2007. It was like peering through a pristine window for the first time, after being stuck with muddy standard definition video for decades. This version of Planet Earth II, on the other hand, is like stepping through that window and into a whole new world of clarity.

  By Devindra Hardawar Read More

• YouTube TV needs more channels, but it gets the basics right

  YouTube TV launched earlier this week, bringing another option to the quickly growing online TV subscription space. It's basically the cord-cutting dream; being able to watch shows, news or sports as they happen instead of waiting for your favorite sitcom to show up on Hulu the next day. Of course, YouTube TV and its competitors (which include Sony's PlayStation Vue, Sling TV and DirecTV Now) all have their flaws. There isn't a perfect option out there yet, but after spending the better part of the week watching YouTube TV I can say it definitely has some things going for it over the competition -- but it's also pretty clearly a service in its infancy.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• Huawei finally has a phone worthy of the Leica brand

  From super-slow-mo cameras and bezel-less displays to banking on the power of nostalgia, smartphone makers have tried almost every trick they can to stand out. Huawei's latest strategy is to partner with color authority Pantone to come up with a variety of eye-catching hues for its latest flagship. The Huawei P10 (and the slightly larger P10 Plus) will be available in a slew of colors and finishes. But while that's nice for people looking to personalize their phones, it's not particularly useful.

  By Cherlynn Low Read More

• Apple iPad review (2017): No alarms and no surprises

  Over the past few years, we've seen the iPad go from curious experiment to Apple's vision for the future of computing. But we've also seen the tablet market dry up — not even the iPad has been immune to those changes. Still, it's hard not to look at the new, 2017 iPad as a market mover, a $329 machine meant to appeal to newcomers and old-school iPad owners in need of an upgrade. While this iPad is priced for everyone, it's not meant for everyone. It's not as slim as older models, and it lacks some of the really neat features that appear in Apple's Pro line. In other words, the 2017 iPad is a no-nonsense machine. But, it's a damned good one.

  By Chris Velazco Read More

• Moto G5 and G5 Plus review: Still the best budget phones

  The year was 2013, the company was Motorola, and the device was the Moto G. It set a new standard for affordable smartphones, offering a user experience that left the existing sea of cheap, crappy Android handsets in the dust. Years later, it seems the Moto G bloodline can do no wrong. As another generation of G emerges, can Motorola do with the G5 and G5 Plus what it does best, striking an ideal balance between hardware and price point? Of course it can.

  By Jamie Rigg Read More

• Canon's latest point-and-shoot helps you take solid selfies

  Canon has been relatively quiet since introducing its EOS M6 mirrorless in February, but the company is getting ready to launch yet another camera soon. Meet the PowerShot SX730 HS, a point-and-shoot with a 20.3-megapixel CMOS sensor, the latest Digic 6 processor, a 4.3-172mm 40x zoom lens (24-960mm equivalent) and a 3-inch tilting LCD that lets you take high-quality selfies. To help with that last bit, Canon added new "skin" and "self-portrait" modes, which aim to make you more attractive by giving your face a smoother look.

  By Edgar Alvarez Read More

• The Honor 8 Pro is Huawei's best flagship yet

  There's Huawei, and then there's Honor. While both are technically the same company, the Honor brand takes some of the best bits of Huawei's smartphones and packages them up in new devices that don't take as much of a bite out of your bank account. That's been the general distinction between the two, anyway, but the line has become blurrier as Honor has begun breaching the mid-range with smartphones like the Honor 8. And now, it's been all but scrubbed out with the announcement of the £475 (nearly $593) Honor 8 Pro today, which is every bit a new Huawei flagship.

  By Jamie Rigg Read More

• Sonos Playbase review: The only speaker your living room needs

  The idea of having high-quality home theater audio seems great until you actually try and set it up. I've owned a few surround sound systems, but the additional speakers and cables added a level of complexity that never felt worth it to me. So I've been languishing for years with mediocre audio coming from my built-in TV speakers. It doesn't sound great, but at least I have a clean setup that doesn't require extra hardware and a mess of cables. But the Sonos Playbase has me thinking that it's time to upgrade. This massive speaker, wide and flat like a pizza box, is designed to sit underneath your TV, and includes three distinct audio channels as well as a built-in subwoofer. Like all other Sonos products, it uses WiFi to connect to other speakers and lets you stream music from just about any service you can think of, but it also outputs all of your TV audio. Sure, it's not a full 5.1 setup, but a one-box, one-cord solution to upgrade my home theater seems like just what I need. Still, as with almost everything Sonos does, it doesn't come cheap: $700 in this case. For those who want better sound in their living room, the Playbase is a compelling option -- particularly if you're a music fan.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• Bang & Olufsen's modular speakers double as wall art

  There hasn't been a shortage of attempts at modular speakers, but how many of them would you be willing to place at the center of your living room decor? Not many, we'd wager. Bang & Olufsen, however, thinks it can do better. It's introducing a wall-mounted speaker system, BeoSound Shape, that's designed to be as artistic as it is functional. You can scale your system to the exact size and pattern you want, including color -- a range of fabric options lets you be as flamboyant or subdued as you like. You need at least six modules, but B&O is promising that you can have a "practically unlimited" number of them if it suits your fancy.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Alexa on the Huawei Mate 9 isn't worth the effort (yet)

  It's time to call it: Amazon has conquered the smart home industry. From connected appliance makers and game creators to television networks and even financial institutions, everyone is jumping aboard the Alexa train. But Amazon is eyeing a new domain: your smartphone. And its bid for a presence in phones faces stiff competition from existing assistants. Still, when Huawei announced at CES that it would bring Alexa to its Mate 9 flagship, we were intrigued. But we didn't know quite what to expect, since details at the time were scant. Now that the update has begun rolling out in the US, though, we have a clearer picture of what Alexa can do here. Turns out, the benefits of having Amazon's helper on a phone are limited and require too much effort to be practical.

  By Cherlynn Low Read More

Robotics (20)

• China takes its turn at a giant fighting robot

  MegaBots' giant robot duel might just turn into a full-scale brawl. Beijing outfit Greatmetal has unveiled a prototype of Monkey King, China's take on an enormous battle machine. It's still human-piloted, but it has a distinct trick up its sleeve: it can either fight on all fours (good for stability) or stand on its hind legs to wield a staff. While we wouldn't expect wuxia-style acrobatics out of this bot, it could throw a curveball into what was otherwise set to be a relatively straightforward fight.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• MIT's mobile 3D printer built the largest structure to date

  Your next house could be built by a robot. Following the recent success of San Francisco-based startup Apis Cor, a team of MIT researchers have created a mobile autonomous 3D printer of their own. And to prove that the prototype works, the team had it build a 12-foot tall, 50-foot-wide igloo out of quick-setting foam -- the largest such structure made by a robot to date.

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• Man arrested after knocking over a 300-pound security robot

  Sure, the K5 isn't the cutest robot making its first steps into human society, but that doesn't mean drunks get to knock it over. One of the five-foot droids took a tumble last week in Mountain View, when a drunk man took umbrage to its whistlin', patrolling ways. (Knocking it over is a bit of feat in itself: The thing weighs 300 pounds.) It's not the first robot to suffer either. Softbank's (more adorable) Pepper has felt the cruelty of mankind while working in a phone store, while Hitchbot lasted just two weeks when it tried to cross America. It suffered a vandal attack in Philadelphia that cut its journey short.

  By Mat Smith Read More

• This prosthetic arm is powered by Bluetooth and your mind

  Robotic limbs aren't a new technology, though the range of motion and strength of such limbs continue to improve. Controlling prosthetics with your mind is another area of refinement, but they're typically connected directly to a patient's brain. A new technique where the robotic arm clicks directly to the bone, however, is showing promise. Johan Baggerman is the first patient in the Netherlands to get a click-on prosthetic arm that he can control with his mind.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Watson could be the key to smarter manufacturing robots

  Some reports predict that robots will replace 5 million jobs in the next couple of years. Bill Gates thinks we need a "robot tax" to compensate for those losses. A new partnership announced today between Swiss automation firm ABB and IBM's Watson initiative could hasten that future while it seeks to improve efficiency in on the manufacturing floor.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Flying, spherical displays are coming to a halftime show near you

  Pepsi's drone show at the Super Bowl this year was impressive, sure, but imagine what those UAVs would've been capable of with more than one pixel. To wit, Japan's Docomo has designed a 144 x 136-pixel spherical LED screen that can display images while in flight. And to give the illusion that the image onscreen is holding still while the drone zips about, "the LED frame spins on its axis in a rapid horizontal motion, forming an afterimage effect to create the illusion of a solid sphere of motionless LEDs," according to a press release.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Tot Bot helps physically disabled toddlers explore

  As any parent of a small child knows, toddlers want to explore. They want to look and touch (and sometimes even taste) everything. It's how they learn about the world. Unfortunately, kids with certain physical disabilities can't move about as easily. This difficulty can create a bit of a cognitive gap between them and other kids their age. The Tot Bot is a chair designed to give these children the increased mobility they need to investigate their surroundings thoroughly.

  By Kris Naudus Read More

• The PowerRay drone is an aquatic spyglass for playboy fishermen

  Who needs fishing prowess when you have a remote-controlled, sonar-equipped, bait-dropping, mini-submersible at your disposal? Because with the new PowerRay underwater drone, that's exactly what you get.

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• Japan's volleyball team test their spikes against robot blockers

  In a bid to give its national volleyball team an edge, Japan has enlisted the help of high-tech training robots. According to New Scientist, these bizarre-looking bots are used to mimic the opposing team's defense and are made up of three pairs of hands attached to a mobile torso. Mounted to a track, these new digital defense droids slide up and down to pre-set positions, allowing players to test out their spike shots against many different team formations.

  By Tom Regan Read More

• A Yelp bot will deliver your sushi in San Francisco

  While Amazon continues refining its delivery-by-UAV dream, Yelp is gearing up to test a grounded method to autonomously transport take out. The company is partnering with Marble to use their wheeled drone, which is designed to carry perishable cargo, to try out unmanned food delivery for its Seamless-like Yelp Eat24 service. Naturally, it's starting the drone delivery trials on the streets of San Francisco.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Tarzan the swinging robot could be the future of farming

  Some farmers already use drones to monitor their crops, but a team of researchers from Georgia Tech have created a far more interesting alternative. Instead of designing yet another drone, they created a robot inspired by Kristen Bell's favorite animal: the sloth. However, they named it "Tarzan" after the most recognizable character who moves by swinging from vine to vine. You see, their machine was designed to move like the fictional jungle dweller. Tarzan will be able to swing over crops using its 3D-printed claws and parallel guy-wires stretched over fields. It will then take measurements and pictures of each plant with its built-in camera while suspended.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Robots could soon cooperate on surveillance

  Computers are getting better at spotting objects, but they tend to work in isolation. What good would a security robot be if it couldn't share info about an intruder with other machines? Cornell scientists might have an answer. They're designing a system that would let robots and other autonomous devices cooperate with each other on identifying and tracking objects. Each bot would send its imagery to a central unit that could talk to both other camera systems and the internet to help identify objects. The group would combine and compare images to follow objects and collect more information about them, getting more data than they would if they did all the work by themselves.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• RealDoll's first sex robot took me to the uncanny valley

  During my four-hour visit to the birthplace of the RealDoll, the frighteningly life-like full-body sex toy, I've seen mounds of silicone vaginas, sheets of detached nipples, headless women hanging from meat hooks, a 2-foot penis and skulls with removable faces that attach like refrigerator magnets. NSFW Warning: This story may contain links to and descriptions or images of explicit sexual acts

  By Christopher Trout Read More

• Air Force tests air-to-ground strikes with an autonomous F-16 wingman

  There's so much focus around autonomous cars these days it's easy to forget that the military's trying to plug artificial intelligence into fighting vehicles, too. And not just in computer mock-ups, like last June's exhibition wherein a flight AI beat a retired USAF Colonel in simulated dogfights. In a recent test, military contractors used an unmanned system autonomously flying an F-16 combat jet as a wingman to support a human pilot in a separate aircraft. The system successfully met its goals to adapt, plan and execute maneuvers all on its own.

  By David Lumb Read More

• US Navy's MQ-4C Triton drone prepares for deployment in 2018

  The last time we mentioned the Navy's long-range MQ-4C Triton drone was in 2013, and the project is still creeping towards eventual deployment. Northrop Grumman announced this week that it has completed formal lab testing, and also successfully flew for the first time with a software upgrade adding "Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS), multi-aircraft control and additional Multi-Function Active Sensor (MFAS) radar modes."

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Soft manta ray robot could watch over coral reefs

  It looks like Harvard's octopus robot is going to have some stiff competition. Chinese researchers have crafted a soft manta ray-inspired bot that could surveil the seas without harming nature in the process. Rather than rely on stiff metal or plastic for its body, the artificial swimmer is made out of a combination of flexible polymer (for its muscles) and silicone (for most everything else) that shouldn't damage sea life. And importantly, there's no motor -- the ray gets around using a lithium battery whose cyclic voltage causes the muscles to bend, flapping fins in the process. Electromagnets help steer the tail.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Canon's industrial-strength drone carries a rumored $20k price tag

  Canon is arguably the biggest name in photography, but the Japanese company has managed to stay out of the aerial photography game so far. That's about to change with the extremely pricey (and very elegantly named) PD6E2000-AW-CJ1 six-rotor drone, designed to carry the company's ultra high-end ME20F-SH camera into search and rescue situations.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• Giant murderbots will fight for their countries in August

  Who's ready for a robot rumble? Back in 2015, we told you about MegaBots, a team of American engineers building a piloted combat robot to battle Kuratas, a 13-foot mech built by Japanese company Suidobashi Heavy Industries. Two years later, it looks like the big fight is finally happening. The Giant Robot Duel will take place this August, MegaBots today announced.

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

• Scientists control soft robots with magnetic fields

  As slick as soft robots are, they tend to have very simple movements. It'd be a challenge to create a truly complex machine using existing technology. Researchers may have a solution to more sophisticated movement, though. They've invented a technique that uses magnetic fields to steer squishier robots. The trick was to cover the robots in a polymer film loaded with iron microparticles made to form parallel chains using a magnetic field. When you want to steer a robot, you just subject its relevant components to another magnetic field -- the direction and strength of the field determines what happens.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Flying courier drone can drive up to your door

  Delivery drones have more than a few challenges, not the least of which is dropping off the package in a convenient place. Do you really want to head out to your yard to collect a box? You might not have to. Advanced Tactics has successfully tested delivery with a drone, the Panther sUAS Air/Ground Robot, that can both fly and drive up to your door. When it's too dangerous or costly to travel by air, the machine just has to touch down and wheel its way to its destination. It promises more considerate (not to mention less theft-prone) shipping to homes and offices, and it could also lead to faster deliveries in areas where no one transportation method is particularly speedy.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

Samsung (8)

• Samsung's chip business kept things looking up to start 2017

  Samsung's Q1 2017 earnings are in, showing the company's highest quarterly profit since Q3 2013. That's despite the Galaxy Note 7 recall, and a markdown in the price of its Galaxy Note 7, apparently because the company's chip business (making memory, processors and camera sensors for phones) is booming. As a company, it brought home the $8.75 billion in operating profit expected, and looks forward to better results next quarter, since it will include sales of the new Galaxy S8 phones.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Samsung's auto-reply app fights distracted driving

  Let's be honest: too many of us are using our phones while driving. It's a problem and it's dangerous, but we do it anyway. Samsung knows this and has come up with a new app cleverly named In-Traffic Reply to help. The app, currently in beta, aims to keep you safe while allowing you to answer messages you get while you're behind the wheel.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Samsung's emoji chat app helps people with language disorders

  It seems like emoji has become a language of its own, but each symbol is really a stand-in for a wide array of thoughts and emotions. This shorthand can be useful for someone who struggles to digest written words -- like those with aphasia, a language disorder that impedes people's ability to read, talk and write. To help this group, Samsung developed Wemogee, a chat app that translates written phrases into emoji bursts to enable fluid conversation.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Samsung is helping Sennheiser bring 3D audio to Android

  When Sennheiser unveiled the first earbuds to use its Ambeo 3D audio technology, it limited them to iOS users. Are they ever going to come to Android? Yes, apparently -- with some help. Sennheiser has revealed that it's partnering with Samsung to bring Smart Surround's binaural, recording-based sound to Android devices. The company's Andreas Sennheiser says the collaboration is necessary for "credibility." South Korea is "one of the most technology-savvy countries," he says, and makes an ideal testing ground for new hardware. We'd add that Samsung is also the dominant Android phone maker, so any support from its side virtually guarantees a solid foothold in the market.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Samsung's Galaxy S8 launch will happen without Bixby Voice

  We're just days away from the launch of Samsung's latest flagship phones, but now the company says we'll have to wait for one of the highlight features of the Galaxy S8 / S8 Plus. While some features of its Bixby AI assistant, like Vision, Home and Reminder will be ready on April 21st, the company said in a statement that Bixby Voice will launch in the US "later this spring."

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Samsung expects to post record operating profit for Q1 2017

  Samsung expects to post stellar earnings for the first quarter of 2017 despite its head honcho's scandal in Korea and the lack of a new flagship phone for the period. The company believes its consolidated operating profit will reach approximately 9.9 trillion Korean won ($8.75 billion) for January to March this year. That's significantly larger than its 6.68 trillion won ($5.9 billion) profit for the same period last year and bigger still than its 9.2 trillion won ($7.8 billion) profit for the fourth quarter of 2016.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Assign other apps to the Galaxy S8's Bixby button, if you dare

  One of the Galaxy S8's standout features is Samsung's Bixby assistant. It not only organizes your schedule and talks to you, but also helps translate and identify items around you via the phone's camera. It even talks to your SmartThings-compatible home appliances, and can quickly be summoned with a dedicated physical button on the S8's left edge. But if you don't plan on using Bixby very much, that piece of hardware becomes mostly redundant. Luckily for you rebels, the internet's inventive community has found a way to assign that physical button to any app you wish.

  By Cherlynn Low Read More

• Samsung's second-tier 'MU' 4K TVs are an alternative to QLED

  With prices beginning at $2,500 for the most basic model, Samsung's QLED 4K TVs are likely out of reach for a lot of people. The good news is that the company hasn't forgotten customers who can't drop that much for a TV and has released a series that includes more affordable alternatives. Samsung's MU series of smart 4K (Ultra HD) TVs have variants that are almost as cheap as Vizio's new 4K offerings. It's composed of four models that come in different sizes, with the smallest (40 inches), most basic one priced at $549.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

Science (47)

• Atom-thin water layers may lead to faster electric cars

  So many battery breakthroughs focus on longer battery life (and for good reason), but what about the speed of delivering that energy? That's what North Carolina State University researchers want to solve. They've produced a material, crystalline tungsten oxide hydrate, that uses atom-thin water layers to tune electrical charge transfers for speed. When the team uses this material in a pseudocapacitor (which stores energy by transferring charges between electrodes and electrolytes), the result is a battery that theoretically represents the best of two worlds. It has the high energy density you'd expect, but it's also very quick at shuttling ions back and forth. That, in turn, could lead to performance breakthroughs in devices where rapid power is at least as important as raw capacity.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• DNA in dirt can reveal where human ancestors lived

  When you want to know where humans have lived, you typically look for direct signs like bones or buildings. But that's not always easy, especially with hominid ancestors who didn't exactly leave an abundance of remains. Thanks to a new genetic research technique, however, those obvious clues won't be necessary -- you'll just need some dirt. Scientists have discovered that they can obtain ancient DNA from soil by effectively luring it out and creating matches.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Gene editing could lead to a vaccine for arthritis

  Right now, arthritis treatment tends to be an all-or-nothing proposition: the drugs you take affect your entire body, causing havoc with your immune system and leaving you prone to infections. But how do you narrow the treatment to just those areas where you feel pain? Genetics, apparently. Researchers have used CRISPR gene editing to turn stem cells into cartilage that releases a biological anti-inflammatory drug when they encounter inflammation. It not only limits treatment to the affected area, but responds only when there's a pain flare. You only get relief when you need it.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Recommended Reading: The genetics of better beer

  You Want Better Beer? Good. Here's a Better Barley Genome Adam Rogers, Wired The beer industry certainly isn't hurting for money these days, but a group of scientists are trying to figure out how to make the beverage even better. They're doing so by breaking down the genome of barley, a key ingredient in the brewing process that that turns starch into sugar for yeast to transform into alcohol during fermentation. Wired has the story of how the geneticists could be on the way to improving suds for all of us to enjoy.

  By Billy Steele Read More

• ICYMI: The Hoff speaks for AI and MIT builds a mobile 3D printer

  Today on In Case You Missed It: David Hasselhoff stars in a short film about an AI that takes over people's lives and decides what they should do and say. The kicker is that all of The Hoff's lines were written by -- you guessed it -- an AI. As M. Night Shyamalan would say, what a twist!

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• Portland plans to convert poop into fuel

  The city of Portland has come up with an unusual way to replace diesel fuel. It's going to convert waste methane from sewage into renewable natural gas. That's right -- trucks in the future could run on poop.

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

• USPS solar eclipse stamps use body heat to reveal the moon

  The United States Postal Service is no stranger to letting its nerd flag fly with special edition stamps. The latest in its space series is a little different, though. Rather than just showing off celestial bodies or NASA spacecraft, the new stamps are a tribute to the upcoming total solar eclipse that should occur August 21st. Press your finger to the stamp and your body heat will transform its black circle centerpiece into an image of our moon. Once the heat dies down, the stamp image goes back to black. While it's not as elaborate as you might think, this is something that's sure to make philatelics smile.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• I sat in on a virtual support group for sexual-assault survivors

  Thanks to its ability to give you a first-person point of view, virtual reality has become a common vehicle for empathetic storytelling. Testimony, a VR project that premiered at Tribeca 2017, does so by putting you in a virtual support group, showing the effectiveness of simply watching people tell their stories, especially when the subject is as disturbing as sexual assault.

  By Cherlynn Low Read More

• Mars-like soil makes super strong bricks when compressed

  Elon Musk's vision of Mars colonization has us living under geodesic domes made of carbon fiber and glass. But, according to a study recently published in the journal Scientific Reports, those domes may end up being made of brick, pressed from the Martian soil itself.

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• The Navy built rechargeable batteries that won't explode on you

  The Navy, the airline industry and Samsung all have a major problem with lithium-ion batteries. Specifically, they tend to catch fire more than most people would like. But that could change soon thanks to a new breakthrough from the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) that allows for safe, rechargeable nickel-zinc batteries with a similar performance to Li-ion cells, but without all the flames.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• 'The Protectors' shows how VR can help save African elephants

  At first, the elephant looks like it's asleep. But then you notice it has stumps where there should be feet. Its tusks have been sawed off. And there are countless maggots crawling along a gaping hole in its face. It's a horrifying image as I describe it -- but when viewed as a 360-degree video in a VR headset, it's even more so. You can't easily look away without shutting your eyes. And the three-dimensional sound makes you feel as if you're actually there.

  By Devindra Hardawar Read More

• Scientists successfully grew fetal lambs inside 'uterus-like' bags

  Doctors at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia have developed a new artificial womb that could benefit the tens of thousands of critically preterm (younger than 26 weeks) births in the US each year. According to a new paper published in the journal Nature Communications, the research physicians successfully kept fetal lambs alive inside a "uterus-like" plastic sack for up to four weeks -- longer than any similar device before it.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• XPrize winner says its Tricorder is better than 'Star Trek'

  The technology of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek looked so far forward it could almost have been used as a visual aide to Arthur C. Clarke's third law: technology so advanced, it's indistinguishable from magic. Despite the fictional technological magic of transporters, replicators and warp drive, Qualcomm saw enough potential in the show's medical tricorder to challenge the world to build one. Now, the Tricorder XPrize finally has a winner in Final Frontier Medical Devices' DxtER. The result isn't so much an all-in-one scanner as collection of noninvasive medical-diagnosis gadgets. Even so, its creators claim the DxtER package is better than Star Trek's fictional tricorder.

  By Sean Buckley Read More

• A 3D-printed patch could help you recover from a heart attack

  Scientists have dreamed of easily patching up heart tissue in the wake of heart attacks, but there are always gotchas: for example, it's no mean feat to replicate the complex structures of real tissue. However, there may be a solution in sight. Researchers have produced a 3D-printed cell patch that can heal scarred heart tissue. The team used laser-based bioprinting to fit stem cells (based on adult human heart cells) to a matrix developed around a 3D scan of heart tissue's native proteins. When those cells grew, the matrix not only replicated the structures of regular heart tissue (down to 1 micron) but started beating in sync. And the early results are very promising.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• First gene therapy drug proves a flop in the market

  When UniQure launched the first commercial gene therapy drug, Glybera, it promised a minor revolution in medicine. By using custom viruses to deliver genes, it could reportedly cure a rare disease (lipoprotein lipase deficiency) with just one round of treatment. However, it just didn't live up to the early hype. UniQure has announced that it's withdrawing Glybera from the European market when its approval ends on October 25th. The company doesn't beat around the bush with an explanation: the drug's use has been "extremely limited" since going on the market in 2012, and it doesn't expect an uptick in the years ahead. If you know how the drug was sold, though, this inglamorous exit was more of an inevitability than a surprise.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Thousands descended on DC to march for truth and science

  A balmy Friday evening gave way to a miserable Saturday, with low, gray clouds that blotted out the sun and soaked Washington DC with rain. That wasn't enough to stop thousands of people -- from all over the country -- from gathering on the grounds in front of the Washington Monument to march for science. It's no wonder, either.

  By Chris Velazco Read More

• Artificially bright clouds might save the Great Barrier Reef

  Australia's Great Barrier Reef is dying due to changes in ocean temperature, and conventional attempts to save it (such as improving water quality or limiting fishing) haven't panned out. However, scientists might have an unusual approach that works: tweaking the clouds above the reef. They're investigating the possibility of lowering the ocean temperature by artificially brightening clouds, increasing their ability to reflect heat away from the sea below. It's not as far fetched a concept as it sounds.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Britain has its first day of coal-free power in 135 years

  Coal power has been a fixture of British culture ever since the country's first plant went live in 1882. It shaped the Industrial Revolution (and the air pollution that followed), was involved in major labor disputes and even led to a famous album cover. However, the country is now backing away from coal -- and it just achieved an important milestone in weaning itself off of this dirty energy source. The National Grid has confirmed that, on April 21st, Britain went without coal-generated power for its first full day in 135 years. There had been relatively long stretches in recent times (19 hours in May 2016, for instance), but none as long as this.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Elon Musk expects to have a brain-machine interface in four years

  A couple of weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal revealed Elon Musk's latest venture, Neuralink, and its plan for developing brain-machine interface technology. Now, Musk has invited Tim Urban of Wait But Why to write up an in-depth report of the company and what it's working on. Neuralink is hardly the only company working on things that will plug into our brains, and earlier this week we got a peek at what Facebook is working on in the area. One new thing we know from this report, however, is that Musk and his team seem pretty close to making it happen -- the SpaceX and Tesla founder figures they can have something on the market to treat severe brain injuries "in about four years."

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Prepare for the world's first nanocar race this month

  Nanotechnology is fascinating, but for most people who aren't full-time chemists, it's a ridiculously dense field of study. An international team of scientists are trying to make nanotechnology more accessible to the public with the world's first nanocar race, scheduled to start on April 28th in the French city of Toulouse. Six teams hailing from three continents will gather at the Centre for Materials Elaboration and Structural Studies and attempt to jolt their custom nanocars across a polished gold track 100 nanometers in length (roughly one-thousandth the width of a human hair).

  By Jessica Conditt Read More

• David Attenborough's hologram will help you study fossils in VR

  Sir David Attenborough is no stranger to VR. The beloved naturalist and TV presenter has worked on immersive, look-where-you-like films for the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London, the American Museum of Natural History and Google. Now, the documentarian is teaming up with Sky and the NHM for a new experience called Hold the World, which allows you to pick up fossils and other rare objects. As you turn them over, a "hologram" of Attenborough will pop up and explain their importance.

  By Nick Summers Read More

• Panasonic can read your heart rate by looking at your face

  Being a sports professional means keeping calm in high-pressure situations, or at least pretending you are when actually freaking out. Spectators are typically none the wiser, but Panasonic will be giving viewers some additional insight into the mind of golfers competing at the Panasonic Open Golf Championship 2017, which tees off in Japan later this month. Coverage of the tournament, which is being broadcast on Japanese TV and online, will show the heart rate of golfers on-screen, so you can watch the nerves kick in as someone steps up to attempt a clutch, chip-in birdie. It's intended to add a bit more drama to the otherwise slow proceedings, but just as interesting is how Panasonic plans on making this happen, using what the company calls "contactless vital sensing" by way of a special camera.

  By Jamie Rigg Read More

• Researchers simulate walls in VR by shocking your muscles

  Virtual reality is still a pretty crappy facsimile of The Matrix, but scientists are trying their best to fix that. At the CHI'17 conference in Denver, a team of researchers from the Hasso-Plattner-Institut in Potsdam showed off a haptic system that can simulate walls or heavy objects via electrical muscle stimulation. "We were really interested in trying to explore one of the hardest things to recreate in terms of physical sensation, which is a wall," says co-author Pedro Lopes.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• Toddlers who use touchscreens sleep less, study says

  Toddlers really need their sleep. It's crucial when our brains are first developing, so early problems can ripple across your lifetime. That makes a report by Birbeck University of London researchers somewhat disturbing -- they found that toddlers between six and 11 months who play with smartphones or tablets get slightly less sleep than those who don't. According to the study of 715 parents, every hour of touchscreen use results in 15.6 minutes less sleep, or 26.4 minutes less total per night and 10.8 minutes more during the day, on average.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• Computer models help form new magnetic materials

  Magnetic materials are extremely difficult to find. They're rare in nature, and creating one in the lab usually involves both a lot of experimentation and a little luck. Duke University, however, has found a way to take the mystery out of the process: its researchers have used computer modelling to help generate two new kinds of magnetic materials. The models whittled down the potential atomic structures from a whopping 236,115 combinations to just 14 candidates by subjecting the structures to increasingly tougher tests. How stable are they? Do they have a "magnetic moment" that determines the strength of their reaction to an outside magnetic field? After that, it was just a matter of synthesizing the few remaining materials to see how well they worked in real life.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• SpaceX announces date for second Hyperloop pod competition

  It's been less than three months since the first Hyperloop Competition blasted test pods down a 1.25-kilometer test track in Southern California and SpaceX is already gearing up for the second edition. Hyperloop Pod Competition II will take place at SpaceX's Hawthorne, California facility over the weekend of August 25-27th, 2017.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• Komodo Dragons may hold the key to fighting infections

  Komodo Dragon blood could save your life. Curious scientists -- are there any other kind? -- recently identified a peptide in the Dragon plasma that might serve as an antibiotic. Now, a bite from a Komodo Dragon is lethal not from venom, but from bacteria in the reptile's saliva, and the Dragons don't kill each other when they get into tussles the way they do hunting prey, which suggests an immunity. So the researchers, inspired by previous work done with alligators and crocodiles, made a synthetic version of a peptide (a chain of amino acids) found in Dragon's plasma, VK25.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Researchers are breeding fluorescent bacteria to uncover landmines

  One of the many tragedies of war are the dangers that persist long after conflicts formally end -- dangers like abandoned minefields peppered with active, deadly ordnance. Buried landmines threaten the lives of ordinary people near former battlefields all over the world, and disarming them has always been a dangerous effort. Now, researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem are working on a way to make landmine identification easier and safer. No, the trick isn't to build a better metal detector, it's to cultivate bacteria that glows in the presence of deadly explosives.

  By Sean Buckley Read More

• Astronomers create first image of dark matter web

  See that image above? The one that looks like a cosmic rorschach test? That's the first composite image of a dark matter web that stretches between galaxies, according to a paper published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

• Graphene is the key to tougher flexible OLED displays

  You can already find flexible displays in your phone or smartwatch, but there's a good reason you don't find them everywhere: the transparent electrodes in many OLED screens are too fragile to take a lot of abuse. That might change in the long run, though. South Korean researchers have made the first OLED panel that uses graphene for its electrodes. The hyped wonder material is both flexible and shouldn't chip, which is more than a little important for a display that you're going to bend and twist. This will ideally lead to displays woven into your clothes, or next-generation wearables that can take a lot of punishment.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Science proves people lie for selfish reasons

  How honest are you, really? Would you be open to a brain treatment that might make you act a little more truthful? I'm asking because researchers from the ever-productive University of Zurich tried an experiment to see if they could influence behavior with "transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)," a noninvasive type of electrical pulse that apparently makes brain cells more active. The scientists targeted the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (involved with risky and moral decision making) with the tDCS to see how honest people would be when reporting dice rolls.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Boeing uses first FAA-approved 3D-printed parts for the 787

  Boeing expects to shave $2 to $3 million off each 787 Dreamliner's manufacturing costs by 2018, thanks to 3D-printed titanium. The company has teamed up with Norwegian company Norsk Titanium to create the first printed structural titanium components for a plane. As Reuters notes, General Electric already prints fuel nozzles for aircraft engines. However, this is the first time a company is using 3D-printed components for parts of a plane that bear the stress of an airframe during a flight.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Leaf veins may lead to longer battery life

  There have been many, many discoveries that promise longer battery life, but one of the latest is rare in taking its inspiration from one of the most common structures in nature: the leaf vein. Scientists have crafted a porous material that mimics the highly optimized flow of nutrients in plant leaves. The team used an evaporation-based process to arrange zinc oxide nanoparticles into networks with pores of various sizes that behave like you'd expect in a leaf, maximizing the transfer of material while minimizing the necessary energy.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Tough water-repellent coating could lead to faster ships

  You've no doubt seen footage of water-repellent coatings that seemingly defy the laws of nature. However, they have a catch: they're often too fragile to be useful in situations where they're likely to face a lot of abuse, whether it's the clothes on your back or a ship on the ocean. Researchers may finally have a solution that's tough enough to survive these conditions, however. They've developed a coating whose combination of fluorinated polyurethane elastomer and a complex, extremely hydrophobic molecule can self-heal "hundreds" of times despite phenomenal levels of abuse. It'll recover from direct strikes, burns, chemical attacks and even ultrasonic blasts.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Scientists plan to drill into the Earth's mantle for the first time

  We'd know a lot more about what's under the Earth's crust if Jules Verne's Icelandic volcano weren't but a figment of his imagination. Japan's Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology's (JAMSTEC) largest drilling ship called "Chikyu" is very real, though, and a group of international researchers plan to use it to drill into the Earth's mantle for the first time.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Man-made global warming makes droughts and floods more likely

  We already know that man-made global warming is bound to affect our planet, but it's hard to connect human activities to specific events. Now a team of Penn State scientists have published a study that says human-caused climate change makes extreme weather conditions such as droughts, heat waves and floods more likely. With the help of actual observation data and climate models, the researchers studied weather events caused by narrow bands of strong winds called jet streams in the northern hemisphere. While these winds flow eastward, they sometimes get stuck due to certain temperature conditions. When they do, whole regions in Europe, North America and Asia have to endure whatever weather event they bring for extended periods.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Mice brains store backup copies of memories

  Turns out that even the human brain might use redundancy when it comes to storage. New research out of the Riken-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics suggests that memories are stored in two places in the brain: the hippocampus for short-term and the cortex for longterm. Previously, the prevailing theory was that once a memory was formed in the hippocampus, it would then move to the cortex for storage. But that may not be the case, according to a paper published in Science.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Climate change could make future flights a lot rougher

  Airplane rides could get extra bumpy in the future thanks to climate change. Turbulence could become two to three times more common because of it, according to a new study from the University of Reading.

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

• Invisible infrared light reveals a hidden Alaska

  Infrared photography isn't just for soldiers or police, it also gives photographers a tool for capturing what is normally unseen. A strong case in point is photographer, artist and Tron title designer GMUNK, aka Bradley G. Munkowitz. He trekked to Alaska's Tracy Arm Fjord last summer with a modified Fujifilm X-T1 IR full-spectrum camera in hand, transforming the already-dramatic landscape into a psychedelic exoplanet.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• The future of a cleaner, cheaper power grid is batteries

  On the southern edge of the island of Kaua?i sits an unsightly diesel power plant. The rust-covered smokestacks (a by-product of being next to the ocean) that emit a mechanical engine drone are a stark contrast to the serene beauty of the rest of the Hawaiian island. For decades this smoke-belching eyesore was the main source of electricity for Kaua?i. But now it's being overtaken by renewable sources -- one that's made possible by batteries like those being built by Tesla.

  By Roberto Baldwin Read More

• DARPA successfully flew a model of its 24-fan electric plane

  DARPA's experimental Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) aircraft, the XV-24A LightningStrike, cleared another developmental hurdle by completing its subscale flight tests in early March, according to its manufacturer, Aurora Flight Sciences.

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• Graphene sieves are a cheaper way of making saltwater drinkable

  A graphene-based sieve developed by a team of researchers from the University of Manchester could give millions of people access to clean water. See, it's highly efficient in filtering the salt out of saltwater and could lead to a less energy-intensive desalination process. The team's sieve is made of graphene oxide, an oxidized form of the material that could be easier and cheaper to produce in large quantities than the typical graphene.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Electric skull cap helps brain cancer patients live longer

  A skull cap that shocks tumors with low-intensity electric fields is helping people battle brain cancer. When combined with the oral chemotherapy drug temozolomide, it significantly improved survival rates in patients, according to a clinical trial presented at an annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research on Sunday.

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

• Death Star-like lasers become a practical reality

  Like many elements of sci-fi, the superweapon in Star Wars' Death Star seems implausible: can you really combine multiple laser beams into one fearsome blast? Apparently, you can... if not quite as dramatically as you see in the movies. Scientists have developed a technique that uses diamond to merge multiple laser beams into more powerful ones. The key was to put an exceptionally pure diamond at the point where the beams converge, taking advantage of the crystal's inherent tendency to send the light's power in a specific direction. The material is good at shedding excess heat, too, which is rather important when you're funneling a lot of laser power into a small space.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Brain zapping helps US Navy SEALs learn faster

  The Navy wants soldiers who can concentrate better and learn faster, and it's looking at a controversial piece of tech to do that: transcranial electrical stimulation. It has been testing a passive brain-stimulating device from Halo Neuroscience with "a small group of volunteers" from SEAL Team Six, the group that killed Osama Bin Laden, and other units, according to Military.com. "Early results show promising signs," said spokesman Capt. Jason Salata in a statement.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• Scientists discover shortcut for turning grass into plane fuel

  It takes millions of years for natural processes to convert plants into crude oil (which is refined to gasoline), but researchers at Ghent University have figured out how to do it much faster. By pre-treating grass to make it break down quicker, and then adding Clostridium bacteria similar to that found in your gut, they produced decane, one of the main ingredients of gasoline and jet fuel. While decane is a polluting fuel, commercial jets will need it for at least the next few decades, and the researchers believe their process is efficient enough to make it commercially feasible.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• Man receives someone else's reprogrammed stem cells

  The concept of using stem cells for transplants just became a truly practical reality: a Japanese man with age-related macular degeneration has received the first transplant of stem cells from another human donor. Doctors repurposed the donor's skin cells by turning them into induced pluripotent stem cells (that is, forced into a state where they can become many kinds of cells) that then became retinal cells. If all goes according to plan with the multi-step procedure, these fresh cells will halt the degeneration and preserve the patient's remaining eyesight.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

Smartphones (28)

• The Galaxy S8's home button shifts to prevent screen burn

  Screensavers were originally a way to prevent burn-in on older CRT monitors. The now-classic moving images in early operating systems were created to keep any single pixel on the screen from remaining in place for too long, leaving behind a ghost on the display. Modern screens like the OLED ones on Samsung's Galaxy S8 can also suffer from burn-in. Since the new flagship's Home button is virtual now, the company had to do something to prevent it from getting burned in to your display. The solution? Moving the Home button image around a little bit.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• LG's smartphones are no longer hurting the company

  It's a testament to how topsy-turvy the mobile world is that a company can make its seventh successive quarterly loss and still feel good. That's because LG's mobile division, which managed to burn almost 500 billion Korean won in the last three months of 2016, has managed to stem the flow of blood from its neck. In fact, in the first quarter of 2017, the division managed to lose just 200 million Korean won, or $176,206.

  By Daniel Cooper Read More

• BlackBerry KEYone reaches the US on May 31st

  To say that the launch of the BlackBerry KEYone has been protracted would be an understatement. BlackBerry and TCL teased the high-profile phone in January, dished out proper details in February, and has left people wondering about a specific US release date ever since. At last, you can relax: BlackBerry and TCL have revealed that the keyboard-equipped Android phone will reach both the US and Canada on May 31st. Americans will be limited to buying the $549 unlocked CDMA or GSM versions at first, but take heart -- there will be carrier deals, including a Sprint launch sometime in the summer. If you thought the up front price was too much to swallow, you'll have a way of softening the blow.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Samsung's Galaxy S8 hits sales records despite the Note 7's flameout

  As Samsung was readying the Galaxy S8, everyone wondered if the company would be able to recover from the disastrous, exploding Note 7. From a pure quality of hardware perspective, the S8 appears to be a home run -- as long as nothing unexpected happens. The other question is whether customers would reject Samsung after the hit it took last year, but it sounds like that hasn't happened: Samsung says that pre-orders for the S8 and S8+ were the best it has ever seen.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• Verizon's Galaxy S8 won't help you shop on Amazon

  Samsung already gave a heads-up that Bixby wouldn't be complete when the Galaxy S8 launched, but Verizon customers will have to make do with less than most... for a while, anyway. The American carrier has confirmed to CNET that its version of the S8 doesn't currently let you use Bixby Vision to find products on Amazon just by pointing your camera. You can find images of that book you're looking for, but you can't shop for it. A Verizon spokesperson didn't explain why the feature wasn't available right away (Amazon and Samsung didn't say either), but did promise that the network was "working with Amazon" to provide it in the future.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• With the Galaxy S8, Samsung grabs the smartphone design crown

  In the interest of full disclosure, I'll admit my bias right up front: I have never liked Samsung's smartphones. The Galaxy and Note series have both been wildly successful -- so much so that they basically cemented Samsung's status as Apple's equal in the smartphone war, at least here in the US. But the cheap plastic design and overwrought software found in early Galaxy devices turned me off, to the point that I thought I'd never take their phones seriously. When a few colleagues started talking up the Galaxy S8 after an early preview, I remained skeptical. Yes, the company had been taking big steps forward in industrial design over the past two years, but I just couldn't imagine how something with screens this large could be comfortable. (We all remember the tragedy that was the massive Nexus 6.)

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• Lawsuit takes aim at Google, Huawei over Nexus 6P battery issues

  A federal class action complaint has been filed accusing Google and Huawei of fraud, breaching warranty and improperly handling customer complaints after a number of Nexus 6P smartphones unexpectedly shut down and became trapped in "boot loop" cycles. The suit was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, and it claims Google and Huawei have never publicly admitted there were issues with the Nexus 6P, even while they continued to sell the phone.

  By Jessica Conditt Read More

• The Moto Z2 Play looks very familiar

  You probably picked up the Moto Z Play for its long battery life, mid-range price and compatibility with Motrola's flagship modular backs. If you were worried that those components wouldn't work on the next version of the handset, don't -- leaked images of the Moto Z2 Play from TechnoBuffalo suggest that the device will be almost visually identical to the original. Well, there is one notable change: the Moto Z Play's square button has been replaced with a round one.

  By Sean Buckley Read More

• Samsung promises to fix Galaxy S8's 'red tint' problem

  Quite a few of Samsung's newly-released Galaxy S8 handsets have been showing a noticeable reddish tint on their screens. While the company initially said that the problem was easily fixed with a manual calibration, it's since decided to roll out an update to fix the problem directly, while also increasing the color range of the hot new Android devices.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Galaxy S8 owners can upload 100,000 songs to Google Play Music

  Samsung has historically been guilty of loading up its smartphones with apps that duplicate features already found in Android. The company's software game has definitely improved over the years, though, and Samsung appears to be focusing more on what it does best and leaving the software to others. To that end, Google just announced that its own Play Music service will be the default music player for the just-launched Galaxy S8. That's a smart move, as most customers will be better off with Google's player than things like the Milk Music service Samsung tried (and ultimately failed) to get Galaxy smartphone owners to use.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• Huawei blames slower P10s on memory shortage

  Memory speed isn't always something that one would pay attention to when buying a smartphone, or at least you'd expect the latest flagships to come with the fastest options available at the time, but it turns out that this isn't necessarily true. Recently, some Huawei P10 and P10 Plus users in China noticed that they were only getting eMMC 5.1 memory speeds on their devices. For instance, the sequential read speeds were in the ballpark of 250MB/s on AndroBench, whereas the luckier folks who got UFS 2.0 or 2.1 chips on their phones managed to hit around 550MB/s or even 750MB/s (our very own international unit got 786.67MB/s). Indeed, Huawei never specified the type of flash memory on its P10 spec sheets, which led to speculations that the mobile giant was intentionally misleading consumers.

  By Richard Lai Read More

• Future Moto Mods could offer sticky notes and improved audio

  In its continuing bid to stay relevant in a competitive market, Motorola is trying to build up a community of hardware designers for the Moto Z's modular add-ons. Yesterday, the company brought together several winners of regional hackathons to a pitch event in Chicago, hoping to find the best of these innovative, indie creations. The judging panel -- which includes execs from Lenovo and Verizon -- selected two teams for up to $1 million in investment funding from Lenovo Capital, as well as eventual distribution by Verizon.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• HTC will unveil a squeezable 'U' phone in May

  Sounds like HTC's busy preparing for a big event in its home country: the electronics maker has just sent out a Save the Date for May 16th. Invites like this are typically shrouded in mystery, and HTC's is no different. All the invitation says is "Squeeze for the Brilliant U," though the blurry phone in the background and the company's tweet gives us some idea of what it could announce. In the video, you can see a hand squeezing the edges of a phone, hinting that you'll be able to interact with the device by giving its frame a squeeze.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Xiaomi Mi 6 mimics the iPhone's camera tricks without the bump

  After the swanky limited edition Mi MIX, you'd think it'd be pretty hard for Xiaomi to top that with its next flagship phone, but the new Mi 6 unveiled today still had some tricks up its sleeve. First off, the company has revived the Mi 5's awesome curved glass back design along with a special ceramic edition, and this time it's complemented by a piece of 2.5D front glass panel plus two new color options: metallic blue and glossy silver. To my surprise, Xiaomi has also gone back to the more expensive stainless steel (as used on the Mi 4) instead of aluminum for the mid-frame: not only is it tougher, but it's also more luxurious with that high-gloss finish -- a much welcomed feature on the blue version's gold-colored frame.

  By Richard Lai Read More

• Early Galaxy S8 owners complain of red-tinted screens

  Samsung started shipping the Galaxy S8 to customers in South Korea who pre-ordered the flagship phone almost a full week ago. They were probably thinking of how lucky they were to get the phone early until some of them noticed something off about their screen. According to multiple reports posted on Korean forums like PPOMPPU and social networks like Instagram, some S8 units' displays have a very noticeable reddish tint. It's unclear how widespread the issue is, but it seems to be serious enough for "Galaxy S8 Red Screen" to be a trending search term on Korean search engine Naver.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• 'Anniversary' iPhone reportedly crams big screen into smaller device

  Apple is prepping up to three iPhones for a possible fall launch, including a flagship stainless steel and curved glass tenth anniversary model, according to Bloomberg's Apple guru Mark Gurman. That jibes very closely with past rumors from Fast Company and others that believe Apple will release two iPhone 7s models along with a pricey high-end version. Unlike others, however, Gurman thinks the new model will not have a curved OLED display, but merely curved glass on the back and front.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• 'Find my iPhone' helps nab prolific Coachella smartphone thief

  If you're thinking of stealing smartphones, the tech-centric Coachella festival is probably not the best place to do it. Savvy police teamed with equally savvy concert-goers to nab alleged smartphone thief Ronaldo De Jesus Henao with around 130 stolen smartphones. Police first discovered the rash of thefts at a specific tent by checking on Reddit, and were then aided by attendees that activated Apple's "Find my iPhone" feature.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• The next Moto Z Force will revive the headphone jack

  We wouldn't blame you if you thought that the Moto Z and Z Force ushered in the death of the headphone jack. While they weren't the first phones to make that leap, it seemed like Apple, HTC and other heavyweights were all too eager to follow suit. However, we have good news: it looks like Moto, at least, is bringing the 3.5mm port back. OnLeaks and Android Authority claim to have leaked 3D renders of the Moto Z2 Force, and -- surprise, surprise -- the headphone jack has returned. It's not certain that a standard, not-so-shatterproof Moto Z2 would get the connector (assuming that phone exists), but this is bound to be relieving if the previous Force's lack of ports was a deal breaker. There's more to the story, too.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Most of us are using our phones while driving

  Between the hefty fines, disturbing PSAs and social shunning that comes from using your phone while driving, it turns nearly everyone is still texting, tweeting and generally fiddling with their phones while behind the wheel. According to Zendrive's extensive three month study of three million US drivers, we're use our phones at least once during 88 percent of our trips.

  By Roberto Baldwin Read More

• HTC has already cut the disappointing U Ultra's price

  HTC isn't having the greatest time between its financial struggles, departing leaders and scaled-back plans, and that's manifesting in its phone prices. The company is running a week-long sale on the U Ultra that cuts the handset's unlocked price by 20 percent, from $749 to $599. That's a good deal if you like HTC's take on a secondary display (we had a decidedly mixed opinion), but it's also a steep drop for a phone that has only been around for a few weeks.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Turing's new phone boasts human and digital assistants

  Remember the Turing Phone? You're forgiven if you didn't. Turing Robotic Industries unveiled the ambitious phone to much fanfare, only to delay it multiple times and even switch operating systems. That isn't stopping the company from producing a follow-up, though -- it's teaming up with TCL to make its next upscale phone, the Appassionato. The Android device is still made from Turing's signature extra-strong Liquidmorphium alloy (complete with a ceramic-like carbon coating), but it now includes a hybrid concierge and voice assistant service named, naturally, Sir Alan. Details of how it works aren't clear, but it'll let you get "lifestyle and business recommendations" from both AI and human helpers.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• The Moto C series could be Motorola's most affordable yet

  Life under Lenovo has had its ups and downs for Motorola. The company has found success on the budget end of the smartphone spectrum with the recent Moto G5 and the Moto E series before that, but the mobile phone business is still bringing down its corporate parent. Based on a new leak obtained by VentureBeat, however, the company appears to be doubling down on the budget end of its product line with an even more affordable Moto C series of phones.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• Google might bring curved screens to its next Pixel phone

  Google, which has taken a hands-off approach to Android hardware until recently, may be getting more involved in smartphone production. It's reportedly investing up to $875 million in LG Display to develop a stable supply of flexible OLED screens for its Pixel phones, according to reports from Korea's Yonhap News and Electronic Times (ET). That would help ease supply problems for the next-gen device, as the current model has been nearly impossible to find.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• Here's the Galaxy S8+ you really want (but can't have)

  It's only been one week since Samsung unveiled its new flagship phones, the Galaxy S8 and S8+, but there's already a beefier and better version on the way. A more powerful variant of the S8+ will offer 6GB RAM and 128GB storage, ETNews reports, but there's a catch -- it will only be available in South Korea and China (for now, anyway), and it will probably cost over one thousand dollars.

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

• The Ubuntu mobile dream is over

  Ubuntu-powered phones and tablets never quite took off the way Canonical, the Linux-based platform's creator, expected. Now the company is finally admitting defeat and ending all its mobile projects. In a blog post, Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth has revealed that the company is killing its mobile software efforts and ending its investment in the Unity interface as a whole. Michael Hall, the developer's community manager, also confirmed to Ars Technica that Canonical is stopping all "work on the phone and tablet," putting an end on "the whole convergence story."

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Alcatel crams four cameras in a phone because two isn't enough

  Remember the good old days, when having a camera on your phone was considered cutting-edge technology? These days, most smartphones rock two cameras, and an increasing number are sporting two on the back and one up front, bringing the total to three. Apparently, that isn't enough. At least, not according to Alcatel. The affordable phone maker is selling a phone with four cameras -- two on the back and two in front -- called the Flash.

  By Cherlynn Low Read More

• Engadget giveaway: Win a Product Red edition iPhone 7 courtesy of Speck!

  There's been plenty of chatter lately about the new Product Red edition iPhone 7, which finally breaks free from the muted metallic lineup with its brilliantly colored exterior. From what I've seen around NYC, though, you'd be well advised to protect any new phone or suffer the all-too-ubiquitous cracked screen. Case and bag maker Speck has just the thing to protect and show off this brightly hued handset, its clear Presidio iPhone 7 case. This protective shell cleared the 8-foot drop test with honors, offers scratch resistance and its custom-engineered material resists UV yellowing, since many users tend to walk around with their phones out and, you know, beach selfies. Speck has provided us with one of these enviable iPhone 7 handsets and a clear Presidio case to keep it safe for one lucky reader this week. You get up to three chances at winning this prize by entering in the Rafflecopter widget below. Don't let that stop you from making a purchase, however, the Product Red edition profits go towards raising awareness and fighting HIV/AIDS. Winner: Congratulations to Michael B. of Union Grove, AL!

  By Jon Turi Read More

• Sony's slow-mo friendly Xperia XZs goes on sale this week

  As smartphones have evolved to basically all look the same, manufacturers have been keen to capitalize on gimmicks to entice customers. Sony didn't buck that trend with the forthcoming, monolithic Xperia XZs and its rear camera that's capable of shooting at 960 frames per-second. The electronics company says that frame-rate allows for video that's four times slower than any other smartphone on the market. More than that, the shooter pulls a trick from the Pixel's playbook and starts taking photos before you actually press the shutter button. Pre-orders are open, and Sony says that come April 5th you can grab an unlocked version from Amazon, Best Buy and elsewhere for $700.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

Social Media (46)

• Yik Yak's anonymous chat app is shutting down

  Just four years after it started, Yik Yak is shutting down. In the past couple of years, issues like bullying have taken a toll on the allure of the anonymous internet, while this app had its own issues with threats and harassment. In a blog post, the Yik Yak team didn't explain their reasons for shutting down, but did confirm earlier reports that a "few members" will join Square. In 2015 we recounted the rise and fall of Secret, however others like Whisper and Confide are still going. Business Insider reports that it raised more than $73 million in venture capital, but struggled to keep its users as students migrated to other apps like Snapchat.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Apple Music clips are the new stars of Musical.ly videos

  Part creation tool, part social network, the popular Musical.ly app lets users make and share their own music videos using segments of songs. Thanks to a new deal with Apple, the service's users will be able to add songs from the vast Apple Music library to their latest masterpieces.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Facebook creators will profit from people stealing videos

  Facebook's video platform has grown like a weed, mainly thanks to auto-plays and a significant rise in accounts presenting other people's work as their own. In 2015, the company introduced a video matching system aimed at curbing the practice, and now it's taking that one step forward with the promise that original video creators can profit when other people pirate their creations.

  By Matt Brian Read More

• Google+ 'Topics' highlight active users and communities

  Google's latest feature for its social network can make your home stream look a little bit less lonely. Next time you check Google+, you'll see a new block in your stream listing topics you can explore. The social network already has hundreds of topics on rotation that you can click through, including Black & White Photography, Art, Science, Toy Models & Crafts. They're all in English, Spanish and Portuguese, though, and it's unclear if they'll ever be available in other languages.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Facebook's Messenger Lite expands to 100 more countries

  From the text-only Facebook Zero way back in 2010, to more recent Project Aquila, Mark Zuckerberg and company have made it clear that reaching the developing world is a huge priority for the company. So there was little surprise when it announced Facebook Lite and Messenger Lite, which offer stripped-down, low-bandwidth versions of Facebook's two main products for users in emerging markets with spotty service and expensive data rates. After officially launching in just five countries last year, Facebook is now expanding the rollout of Messenger Lite to over 100 additional countries.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• Facebook's live video problem is only getting worse

  Facebook's struggle with livestreams of terrible crimes is still very real, and appears to be worsening. Local media report that a young Thai man used Facebook Live to broadcast a murder-suicide where he hanged his baby daughter before taking his own life. The social network cooperated with police and took the two archived video clips down, but only after they were online for roughly a full day. Officials won't be pressing charges against Facebook, which called the crime an "appalling incident" that had "absolutely no place" on its service.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Reddit is stripping away some of its personality

  Reddit's default design is a throwback to simpler times on the internet. However, moderators on the site's numerous subreddits put a bunch of work into making sure their communities stand out from each other by employing CSS (cascading style sheets) to change everything from banner images, fonts, icons and other aspects of the user interface. Reddit's CEO Steve Huffman said that's going to change, as the massive discussion board is undergoing an overhaul.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• FDA: Stop buying miracle cancer drugs on Instagram

  The FDA has issued a warning to social media users not to be taken in by miracle cures hawked on the internet. The agency found 14 companies that made fraudulent, outrageous claims about the power of their medicines on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Marketed as "treatments," and often described as "natural," these pills are likely to do more harm than good to people undergoing treatment.

  By Daniel Cooper Read More

• 700 million people are using Instagram

  Instagram's Stories feature beating out all of Snapchat in terms of users is so two weeks ago. Now the photo-minded social network is crowing about hitting 700 million users in rapid fashion. Specifically, 100 million folks flocked to the app within the last four months alone. The last time Instagram gained 100 million new users it took six months, according to TechCrunch.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• The UK is worried fake news will impact General Election result

  UK politicians are worried fake news will have an impact on the outcome of the General Election in June. Speaking with The Guardian, Damian Collins, a Conservative MP and the chairman of the culture, media and sport select committee, has warned that misleading information threatens "the integrity of democracy in Britain." Voters need to be reliably informed, and false reporting could affect their decision at the ballot box. "The risk is what happened in America," he said. "The top 20 fake news stories in the last three months of the election were shared more than the top 20 most shared stories that were true."

  By Nick Summers Read More

• Twitter is gaining more users, losing less money

  Twitter has updated us on the state of its business and, if you squint, you can almost see that things are picking up for the service. The company revealed that while revenues fell by $164 million, it managed to trim its quarterly losses down to just $62 million. By comparison, Twitter burned $167 million in the last three months of 2016 and $80 million in the same quarter last year.

  By Daniel Cooper Read More

• Twitter plans to broadcast live videos all day, every day

  Twitter wants to air more live videos on its platform, and it wants to air them all day every day. In an interview with Buzzfeed News, the company's COO and CFO Anthony Noto said Twitter plans to show live sports, news and entertainment videos in its apps and desktop site 24/7. It recently lost the right to broadcast NFL games to Amazon, but it's apparently "working on many, many things" to make its vision a reality even without Thursday night football in its repertoire.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Siri now reads out your WhatsApp messages

  Apple's Siri assistant may not boast as many third-party integrations as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, but it's still useful in its own right. Since the company opened up the platform last year, major apps have tapped into the platform, allowing iPhone and iPad users to perform tasks completely hands-free. WhatsApp, for example, has allowed users to send texts using their voice since September, but as part of its latest update, Apple's assistant can read messages aloud too.

  By Matt Brian Read More

• Pinterest doesn't want you to see it as a social network

  Believe it or not, Pinterest has never really advertised itself in the US -- remarkable for an internet giant with over 150 million users and enough clout that it can buy well-known services like Instapaper. However, you're about to see a lot more of it soon. The collection-themed company tells Bloomberg that it's going to run its first US ad campaign this summer. And unlike some ad runs, this will be as much about defining what Pinterest doesn't do as what it does.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Europe may harmonize how internet companies fight hate speech

  Internet companies are already taking action against hate speech, but it's no secret that they don't always tackle it in the same way. One may delete the hostile material immediately, while the other might spend days reviewing it before taking action. That wildly inconsistent approach might not fly in European Union countries before long. Reuters says it has obtained a draft European Commission document proposing that the EU implement measures that harmonize how online firms remove hate speech, child porn and other illegal content. Just how they'd take material down isn't clear, but Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter have already agreed to an EU code of conduct that requires takedowns within 24 hours -- this would dictate how they pull the offensive content.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Pinterest fixes its broken visual search tool for Chrome

  Pinterest thought it launched something cool when it added visual search to its Chrome browser in March. It was supposed to be able to pinpoint specific items in an image, say a pair of sunglasses somebody's wearing in a photo, and find pins with similar objects. Unfortunately, it didn't always work as intended. It tended to capture screenshots of whole windows instead of specific objects you want to look up, and the website can't find objects within screenshots once they're already pinned on the site. To address the issue, Pinterest's extension now uses Javascript to look for the most interesting rectangle in a web page, which most likely contains the image you want to pin.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Snap buys key patent to secure the future of its geofilters

  Mobli, an Israeli company, patented the idea of adding filters to photos based on your location back in 2012, way before Snap started using them. Now TechCrunch says the ephemeral messaging app has purchased that patent for $7.7 million in order to make sure it won't ever have an issue offering geofilters to its users. They're some of its most popular offerings, after all, and were apparently responsible for $360 million of the $400 million revenue it posted last year. We're guessing $7.7 million was a small investment to make to secure the future of the company.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• FTC letters warn social media stars about advertising labels

  Over the last few months, the feds have slowly turned their attention to the spread of advertising over social media. With a lack of rules and information, celebrity "influencers" paid to push products on their growing audiences haven't had consistent guidelines on how to reveal those relationships. Last year, the FTC pressed brands to educate influencers, and now it has sent over 90 letters to influencers and marketers alike. Those letters indicate that any material connection between an endorser and advertiser "should be clearly and conspicuously disclosed, unless it is already clear from the context of the communication."

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Facebook's new 360 cameras bring exploration to live videos

  Last year, Facebook announced the Surround 360, a 360-degree camera that can capture footage in 3D and then render it online via specially designed software. But it wasn't for sale. Instead the company used it as a reference design for others to create 3D 360 content, even going as far as to open source it on GitHub later that summer. As good as the camera was, though, it still didn't deliver the full VR experience. That's why Facebook is introducing two more 360-degree cameras at this year's F8: the x24 and x6. The difference: These cameras can shoot in six degrees of freedom, which promises to make the 360 footage more immersive than before.

  By Nicole Lee Read More

• Facebook sprinkles GIFs everywhere with Giphy

  Facebook is bloated. It's slowly morphing into the iTunes of the social media world. At F8, the company's annual developers' conference, the company added even more features to its core apps and said that many more are on the way. But there's one partnership that makes the increasingly confusing social network a bit more fun: Giphy in nearly everything.

  By Roberto Baldwin Read More

• Instagram on Android works without an internet connection

  If Facebook has Lite to cater to users in the developing world, Instagram has offline mode for Android devices. The Facebook-owned company has revealed at F8 that most of its Android app's features now work offline. People can browse their feeds and their Explore tabs even if they have no mobile data, as is the case for many users in developing nations. However, they can only see the images and profiles they've previously loaded while they were connected to the internet. They can Heart photos, leave comments and unfollow others like usual, but those obviously won't go through until they reconnect. Click here to catch up on the latest news from F8 2017!

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Murders, suicides and rapes: Facebook's major video problem

  A nationwide manhunt for Steve Stephens, the 37-year-old from Cleveland who uploaded a video to Facebook of himself shooting an elderly stranger in the head, came to an end today. Stephens committed suicide after a brief car chase with state police in Erie, Pennsylvania. His crime, which took place this past Sunday, sparked outrage not only because of the violence itself, but also the way Facebook handled the situation. It took the social network over two hours to take the video down, although it claims this was because it wasn't flagged immediately by other users. Facebook says Stephens' actions weren't reported until he used the Live feature to stream his murder confession, about an hour and 45 minutes after the shooting video was uploaded. His account has since been suspended.

  By Edgar Alvarez Read More

• Snapchat adds augmented reality emoji to your videos

  Snapchat has offered a variety of silly, weird (and sometimes racist) filters for a while now. Today, though, Snap is rolling out a few new "world lenses" that have a new trick. You can now place a small group of 3D objects right in your scene and move around them as if they're real-life objects. This expands on the world lenses that the company first revealed back in the fall last year.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• Facebook reviews reporting process following livestream confession

  On Sunday a man posted a video to Facebook detailing his intent to kill another man. Two minutes later he posted another video of the murder. That video was available on the social media site for over two hours before the suspect's account was disabled and the video was no longer visible. Today Facebook says it is reviewing its reporting flows in order to help people inform the site about content like this.

  By Roberto Baldwin Read More

• Instagram goes after Pinterest with saved post collections

  Now that Instagram has overtaken Snapchat by emulating its features, the service is taking aim at another social networking heavyweight: Pinterest. Instagram is rolling out an update to its Android and iOS apps that introduces saved post collections. If you want ideas for your next vacation, you don't have to sift through your entire save history to find memorable travel shots. The feature lets you both add posts directly to new collections and organize those you've already preserved.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Cleveland police seek suspect in murder streamed on Facebook

  The Cleveland Police Department has confirmed it's looking for a suspect, Steve Stephens who committed a homicide and streamed the crime on Facebook Live. Sadly, this isn't the first homicide broadcast on the platform, however, in this case, it was intentional. According to Heavy.com, the video showed Stephens speaking to an elderly man before shooting him through the window of a car. On the stream, Stephens claimed to have killed others and threatened to continue. Police report that he is armed and dangerous and are warning people not to approach if they see him.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Facebook busts up international spam operation

  While Facebook has spent significant time fighting fake news on its network, it continues to battle another plague to its social platform: Fake accounts. These are often used to spread low-quality content, so the internet titan has been ramping up its crackdowns. Hot on the heels of banning 30,000 profiles earlier this week, Facebook announced it has disrupted a massive international spam operation the network had been combating for the last six months.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Facebook is now better at detecting fake accounts

  Facebook has incorporated some technical changes to its website that make it easier to address one of its biggest problems: spam accounts. According to a blog post by Protect and Care Team manager Shabnam Shaik, the social network can now detect fake accounts more effectively, even ones that may look authentic. The company's upgraded systems identify inauthentic profiles by looking for patterns, such as repeatedly posting the same thing over and over or a sudden spike in messaging activity. Shaik says their systems can do those without looking at the actual contents of users' posts.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Survey says: Political polarization isn't the internet's fault

  It's easy to blame social media for the rising political polarization in the US when you can use it to hide in a bubble of your own creation. Simply block people who don't share your viewpoint on Facebook and Twitter, and follow, Like and heart only people who do. According to a study conducted by economics professors from Stanford and Brown Universities, though, you can't blame it all on social media -- not when it's older Americans who barely use the internet who are becoming more polarized.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• More people use Instagram Stories than Snapchat itself

  The common belief is that Snapchat rules all when it comes to evaporating photo essays. But the numbers don't quite back it up. Instagram has announced that over 200 million people are using Stories every day to share quick moments from their lives -- almost 50 million more than Snapchat as a whole sees in an average day. Snapchat's 158 million count is from its IPO filing in February, but, the app's entire user-base cresting 200 million in two months seems pretty unlikely. Of course, 200 million is still only a third of Instagram's user-base, but those aren't bad numbers either considering the feature launched last August.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Facebook and Instagram go down for Virgin Media customers

  If you're a Virgin Media customer and you're experiencing issues trying to access Facebook or Instagram, you are not alone. The broadband provider has admitted that customers have been unable to access Facebook services, including Facebook.com and Messenger. A fix is on its way, but the company warns that some customers could frozen out of their favourite social networks until later this evening.

  By Matt Brian Read More

• Twitter @support is testing a bot that handles complaints

  Twitter launched a handful of features in recent months meant to cement its new role as a customer service platform. Now it's putting some of those features to use: the social network has begun testing a bot to handle your questions and complaints. The company's @support account can now serve automated replies to basic inquiries, so long as they fall under one of the five available topics, through direct messaging. Based on Buzzfeed News' experience engaging the bot, it can help you regain access to your account, deal with users impersonating you and report abuse or harmful behavior. You can also hit it up for tips and tricks and to send the company feedback.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Instagram Direct combines disappearing photos with all other messages

  Instagram's direct messaging features have gotten surprisingly robust over the years. You can send photos privately to another user (or group of users) and share other images you see from Instagram users with just a few taps. (The latter feature is particularly good for sharing dog pictures, just saying.) Instagram also added "disappearing" photos and videos to the mix this past November, one of the most obvious instances of Facebook and Instagram "borrowing" from Snapchat. Today, Instagram says they're combining disappearing and permanent messages all into one thread -- an obvious UI update that seems like it should have been there from the beginning.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• Russian-owned Livejournal bans dissenting speech to please Putin

  Russia's hardline stance against LGBTQ media is back in the news. This time it's because a change in the terms of service for LiveJournal strictly prohibits users from posting "political solicitation materials" and anything "contradictory to the laws of the Russian Federation." As AdVox notes, what constitutes as such is wide open for interpretation. But it's feared that given recent history, this will be a uniform crackdown on posts that don't fit the express purview of Russia, including political dissent and pro-LGBTQ stances.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Government gives up on unmasking anti-Trump Twitter account

  Well, that was fast: just yesterday, we learned that the Trump administration was attempting to compel Twitter to reveal information about an account critical of the president's policies. Today, according to Recode, the government has officially dropped that request, prompting Twitter to discontinue its own lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and US Customs and Border Protection.

  By Chris Velazco Read More

• Mastodon's sudden popularity should serve as Twitter's wakeup call

  There's a hot new social network these days and it's called Mastodon. Well, it's not that new -- it's been around since September 2016 -- but it's gained tens of thousands of users in the last few days. The reason for the growth? According to its founder, Eugen Rochko, it has a lot to do with people getting increasingly fed up with Twitter, especially the recent decision to nix @usernames from Replies. Mastodon -- named after an American heavy metal band -- is mopping up users seeking an alternative. Sure, Mastodon is still small and relatively unheard of, but the very fact that it spurred this much interest is a sign that the established social networks like Twitter are fundamentally failing at one thing: keeping users happy.

  By Nicole Lee Read More

• Periscope opens 360-degree broadcasts to everyone

  When Periscope debuted live 360-degree broadcasting late last year, it was only available to a handful of users. That changes now. A tweet from the company announced that as of today anyone who's broadcasting either from the iOS app (with an attached Insta360 Nano) or via the Producer software can be part of the spherical zeitgeist. Periscope says that you'll need the Producer app specifically if you want to do a 360 broadcast from an Android phone, in addition to a Ricoh Theta S or Orah 4i.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Twitter sues feds over attempt to identify anti-Trump account

  Twitter is suing the government to resist giving up the identity behind @Alt_uscis, an account tweeting out anti-Trump messages. The account is allegedly run by rogue members of US immigration agencies. The social media titan has brought suit against the feds in order to stop the summons.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Facebook adds 'educational' guide to counter fake news

  Facebook has repeatedly come under fire over the last year as a distributor of "fake news", despite repeated its protests that it isn't a media company per se. The social network has taken a number of steps to push back against the influx of falsehoods, from hand curating articles to rejiggering its news surfacing algorithms, though none have done much to stem the tide so much as give Facebook something to crow about. On Thursday, the company continued that trend by introducing an "educational tool" that will live at the top of the newsfeed and provide tips on how to spot false reports.

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• Twitter unveils faster Lite app for data-deprived users

  Twitter is following in the footsteps of Facebook Lite and YouTube Go by launching a faster, smaller, data-saving version of its mobile website called Twitter Lite. It's aimed largely at users outside the US, UK and other nations that have fast wireless connectivity, and instead targeting emerging markets where 4G networks are sporadic or nonexistent.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• WhatsApp's digital payments push will begin in India

  Three years after buying WhatsApp, Facebook still hasn't quite figured out how to make money off of messaging service's massive user base. According to a report from India-based media company The Ken and confirmed by Bloomberg WhatsApp will be jumping into the digital payments space, starting with the service's 200 million users in India.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• Germany backs fines for social networks that ignore hate speech

  Germany is backing its crusade against online hate speech with some legal clout. The country's cabinet is backing a proposed law that would fine social networks up to €50 million (about $53.3 million) if they don't block or remove illegal hate speech within 24 hours of receiving a complaint about "obviously criminal content." The legislation wouldn't necessarily fine companies for individual infractions, but this theoretically discourages companies from taking a lackadaisical approach to pulling hateful material.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Disqus wants to help rid the web of toxic commenters

  In recent years, commenting services have come and go, but one has maintained a consistent presence on some of the world's biggest websites: Disqus. It's spent the past ten years helping brands and news media develop their own communities, while simultaneously amassing hundreds of millions of users of its own. The service is big enough that its commenting tools have been deployed on websites that host unsavory content, which it has, in turn, become associated with. Disqus has said it has no tolerance for hate speech but continues to host discussions on websites that promote toxicity. Now, it says, it wants to do more about it.

  By Matt Brian Read More

• Reddit law enforcement requests have tripled in two years

  Reddit has just released its 2016 Transparency Report showing how many times US and foreign governments or law enforcement demanded private user information. Given its size (274 million users) the site is a pretty decent "canary in the coalmine" for privacy and government overreach. If so, governments are getting more nosy: Reddit said it fielded 170 requests for account information, over triple the 55 it received in 2014, the year of its first transparency report.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• Customer service on Twitter now includes location sharing

  Twitter is one way to easily get some customer service. A simple tweet can often get a faster response than finding a customer support number or using email. The social network has a new feature to make support even more personal: Brands can now request and share location data with users via direct messages.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Police make first arrest in Facebook Live sexual assault case

  Law enforcement is taking sweeping action following a horrific sexual assault streamed on Facebook Live. Chicago police report that they've made the first arrest in the case, bringing a 14-year-old boy into custody. There will be more arrests soon, according to the CPD, including a 15-year-old who's next in line. Details of the case are mostly under wraps beyond a connection between the victim and one of her attackers (their age prevents disclosing some of the facts). However, it's already clear that the livestream wasn't the end to the internet-based trauma -- in fact, it's still ongoing.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

Space (30)

• MIT fires a rocket motor made using 3D-printed plastic

  If you're going to 3D-print rocket parts, you'd want to make them out of metal to handle the stress, right? Not necessarily. MIT has successfully test-fired what it believes is the first completely 3D-printed rocket motor to be made with plastic casing. That's right -- an all too easily melted material was sitting a virtual hair's breadth away from super-hot propellant. It sounds like a recipe for disaster, but apparently it worked well -- it generated real thrust, and there was only a small amount of damage to the motor's throat after the initial run. A second test didn't fare so well (it would be useless for moving anything), but MIT hadn't intended for the motor to fire more than once.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Watch SpaceX try a picture-perfect rocket landing at 7AM ET (updated)

  Many SpaceX rocket landings have gotchas for viewers. Drone ship landings frequently mean shaky satellite video feeds, and nighttime launches just aren't very photogenic. You're about to have a much better look, however. SpaceX is launching a US spy satellite (NROL-76) on April 30th in circumstances that are about as good as you could hope for. The 7AM Eastern launch window opening is definitely early (especially if you're on the West coast), but it guarantees daylight at Cape Canaveral. And more importantly, there will be a ground landing -- you should get unfettered, high-quality video of the whole affair.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• NASA pushes first launch of its Mars rocket to 2019

  The Space Launch System (SLS), the heavy rocket NASA plans to send humans to Mars with, won't get its first launch until 2019. Tech problems have delayed the project years later than Congress' originally estimated it would debut, but space agency officials have confirmed that the big lifter's initial flight will be pushed back again from late 2018 to sometime in 2019.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Your next Lego masterpiece is a $120 NASA Saturn V rocket

  Lego has been inspired by NASA lately. Last month, the toymaker paid homage to women who made great contributions to the space agency, and now it's revealing an Apollo Saturn V set that also looks incredible. As seen in the picture above, this rocket stands at a little more than three feet tall and can be positioned horizontally or vertically. The idea for the piece was born out of the company's Lego Ideas program, which lets people from all over the world submit concepts they'd like to see get made. Made up of nearly 2,000 Lego pieces, the NASA Apollo Saturn V is expected to hit stores in June for $120 -- which is a small price to pay to make your Moon-landing fantasies come true.

  By Edgar Alvarez Read More

• NASA's inflatable greenhouse could feed astronauts on Mars

  One of the biggest problems we still have to solve when it comes to sending humans to live on the moon or Mars is food. The spacefarers can't exactly take years' or a lifetime's worth of food with them, and not every plant can grow in native Martian conditions. To conjure up a possible solution to the issue, NASA scientists at the Kennedy Space Center are developing an inflatable cylindrical greenhouse for outer space with the University of Arizona. The Prototype Lunar/Mars Greenhouse project uses what's called "bioregenerative life support system" that mimics Earth's environment to be able to grow plants outside our planet.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Cassini probe survives first dive between Saturn and its rings

  NASA's Cassini probe has emerged unscathed after its first dive between Saturn and its rings. The spacecraft's ground team had to spend 20 hours wondering whether the probe was doing well or whether it plunged to its death a few months too early. Thankfully, it got back in contact with NASA at 2:56AM EDT today, April 27th. By 3:01 AM, it started beaming back precious data about the planet's atmosphere, including the unprocessed images of Saturn's features above.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• NASA is running out of functional spacewalk suits

  NASA already spent over $200 million on developing a next-gen spacesuit, but it's still years away from conjuring up a working unit. That's a bigger problem than you might think, because according to NASA's Office of Inspector General (OIG), the agency is quickly running out of (PDF) functional suits needed for spacewalks. The iconic white suits you see the ISS crew wearing today are the same units made for astronauts 40 years ago. They were designed to last for only 15 years, and while most of them still work, they're already riddled with issues that make them risky to use.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• The first 4K livestream from space starts at 1:30PM ET

  Astronaut Peggy Whitson has already broken plenty of new ground in her current role as a commander aboard the International Space Station, but she's about to break some more. As promised, Whitson will star in the first-ever 4K livestream from space today (April 26th) at 1:30PM Eastern. Her part will mainly involve a chat with Amazon Web Services exec Sam Blackman (AWS is hosting the event), but the panel as a whole should be worth viewing: it's a chat with NASA and tech industry luminaries about the effects that imaging and cloud technology are having on both science and movie-making.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Peggy Whitson breaks the US record for cumulative time in space

  US astronaut Peggy Whitson has officially broken the US record for cumulative time spent in space. As of 1:27 AM ET today, she had spent 534 days, 2 hours and 49 minutes in space -- a number that has obviously increased since then. But that amount of time spent in space broke the record previously held by Jeff Williams. Her current run on the International Space Station started on November 17th, 2016, and her mission was recently extended from March until September. By the time she returns to earth, she'll have accumulated more than 650 days in space. Whitson has also spent more than 53 hours outside the ISS doing spacewalks, a record for female astronauts.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• Most habitable planets may be completely covered in water

  When you imagine what a rocky, habitable planet looks like, it's easy to picture an alternate Earth where land and oceans exist in an ideal balance. Unfortunately, that's not necessarily how it will pan out in real life... in fact, you might be surprised if there's land at all. University of Barcelona researcher Fergus Simpson has published a study suggesting that most planets with any significant amount of water are likely to be completely (or almost completely) submerged in it. He ran computer simulations accounting for numerous factors in a planet (such as the deep water cycle and erosion), and most with substantial water levels had an above-water land mass of less than 10 percent -- well below Earth's 29 percent.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• China proves its first resupply spacecraft can reach orbit

  China's space program just hit a milestone: according to Reuters, its first cargo probe has successfully proven that it can ferry supplies to orbit. Tianzhou-1 took off from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center in the mainland on April 20th. In the early hours of April 22nd, Eastern time, it performed an automated docking maneuver to attach itself to the country's orbiting lab, the Tiangong-2. You can think of Tiangong 2 (or "Heavenly Space Lab") as China's experimental space station, which housed two astronauts for a month in October 2016. The country is using it to test new technologies for the larger manned space station that it hopes to establish in orbit by 2022.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Nearby 'super-Earth' may be our best shot yet at finding alien life

  Scientists are finding potentially life-bearing planets at a surprisingly high rate, but the latest may be more tantalizing than most. A research team has discovered LHS 1140b, a temperate rocky exoplanet orbiting the habitable zone of a tiny star 40 light years away. While it's not the first such planet found relatively nearby, it's an ideal candidate for study -- since it transits in front of its host, astronomers could look for water and oxygen in the planet's atmosphere by watching how it filters starlight. The star itself also doesn't emit much high-energy radiation, so there's a greater chance of life than you might see around stars like TRAPPIST-1.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Remembering the first 'photo' of a black hole

  Black holes are so outlandish that the scientists who first thought them up figured they couldn't possibly exist in reality. They form from massive, collapsed stars and are so dense that nothing can escape their gravitational pull, including light. Black holes mess with spacetime so badly that scientists have long wondered: How do these things look, exactly? We may be on the cusp of seeing one thanks to the Event Horizon Telescope, but back in 1979, Jean-Pierre Luminet created the first "image" using nothing but an early computer, lots of math and India ink.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• Watch NASA's first 360-degree live stream of a rocket launch

  Rocket launch videos are typically captured from afar, putting you in the shoes of a spectator in the crowd. NASA's live coverage of an Orbital Cygnus spacecraft's ISS resupply mission, however, will take you to the launch pad itself. For the first time ever, the agency will broadcast a live 360-degree video of a rocket launch on the NASATelevision YouTube channel tomorrow, April 18th.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• NASA seeks comet 'crumbs' with a new detection technique

  It's relatively trivial to spot comets, but spotting the dust they leave behind? That's no mean feat -- it's like tracking grains of fast-moving sand on a cosmic-scale beach. NASA, however, might just have a way of mapping that dust. It's developing a technique that would use the movement of the ESA's LISA Pathfinder probe to detect the minuscule "crumbs" left by comets and asteroids. The trick involves tracking the tiny thruster bursts Pathfinder uses to compensate for dust stream impacts. When you measure the direction and strength of those bursts, you can get a good sense of the dust's impact location, size and trajectory.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Watch the ESA trace 2 million stars' journey across the skies

  Carl Sagan showed how some constellations would change over time as stars move through the universe in his TV series Cosmos. Now the European Space Agency has done something similar, but in a much bigger scale: it has released a video showing 2 million stars' journey across the skies from today until 5 million years into the future. The ESA used data provided by the the Gaia satellite and its one-billion-pixel camera, as well as data from the Hipparcos satellite that measured the positions of celestial objects back in the 1990s.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Saturn and Jupiter's moon burps bode well for distant life

  Scientists recently took a closer look at data over a decade old and concluded that two moons orbiting Saturn and Jupiter might have environments that foster life. During an October 2015 flyby of the ringed planet's moon Enceladus, the probe Cassini was hit by gaseous plume, which was likely a hydrothermal vent breaking through the iced surface. Scientists theorize that the spray is evidence of chemical energy for life to feed on. Thanks to sporadic evidence of plumes on Jupiter's moon Europa, NASA has announced that two locations in the solar system might support living organisms.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Trump's transition team asked NASA about mining the moon

  President Donald Trump's proposed 2018 budget calls for big cuts to the EPA and Department of Energy, but NASA's budget would only be cut by one percent. It looks like Trump has had designs on NASA that include potential moneymaking activities as well as mining the moon for resources. This comes from documents obtained by Motherboard through a freedom of information act request. According to those documents, Trump's agency review team (ART) asked NASA to "provide data and examples of how NASA does technology development (perhaps even in the form of products) when working with industry -- for example, types of contracts/partnerships and IP arrangements."

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• Astronomers may have taken the first photo of a black hole

  The Event Horizon Telescope project's astronomers can now breathe a sigh of relief. They finally managed to observe Sagittarius A* for five sleepless nights after switching on the array on April 4th. In other words, the team might have taken the first picture of a black hole ever. There were nights when they had to stop their observations due to bad weather or something going wrong with their system, but they ultimately wrapped up on April 11th, 11:22 AM ET.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Watch NASA's first 4K broadcast from space on April 26th

  If you've ever wanted to see Earth orbit in stunningly real high-def, here's your chance. On Wednesday, April 26th, you can watch the first 4K livestream from the International Space Station 250 miles above the Earth. Commander Peggy Whitson will speak as part of a panel called "Reaching for the Stars: Connecting to the Future with NASA and Hollywood." While we've seen 4K video from space before, this is the first time it will be live. You'll need a 4K-capable television or monitor to see the full resolution, of course, but there will also be lower-resolution streams on NASA Television as well as the agency's Facebook page and website.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Someone stole a tile from the Space Shuttle's thermal shield

  A six-inch piece of thermal tile like the ones lining the belly of the space shuttle was stolen from an exhibit at NASA Kennedy Space Center over the weekend Popular Mechanics reports. Although the tile itself never actually flew on a shuttle and was only used for training purposes, NASA security is asking the internet to keep an eye out for it in case it pops up for sale online.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• Dr. Peggy Whitson set to shatter another NASA record

  As the first woman in command of the International Space Station, NASA's Dr. Peggy Whitson is already a proven pioneer. Last month, Whitson set the record for most spacewalks by a female astronaut and later this month she will set yet another record for most cumulative time spent space by any US astronaut. Now, thanks to an agreement with the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Whitson will extend her lead even further and stay in orbit for another three months.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• ICYMI: Zip lines for astronaut emergencies

  Today on In Case You Missed It: Researchers at Aalto University have found a way to make clothing truly recyclable via a process called Ioncell. An ionic solvent dissolves the cellulose found in natural fibers, leaving behind the synthetic parts of the blend. The dissolved material can be extracted, reconstituted, then respun and woven into cloth which can then be reused. It's not perfect since it doesn't work on those synthetic weaves, but it could make the fashion industry a lot less wasteful.

  By Amber Bouman Read More

• SpaceX is saving a ton of money by re-using Falcon 9 rockets

  SpaceX is deep into the development of reusable rockets to slash launch costs for future missions, so one has to wonder how much its historic SES-10 mission saved. At the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell has revealed that the company spent "substantially less than half" the cost of a new first stage for the Falcon 9 reflight. While she didn't mention specific figures, that means huge savings, since the rocket's first stage accounts for around 75 to 80 of its total cost.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Watch as NASA lays John Glenn to rest on Thursday

  Astronaut and four-term US senator from Ohio, John Glenn, will be buried at Arlington Cemetery tomorrow, April 6th at 9 AM ET. The ceremony will air live on NASA TV to honor the first American to orbit the earth. The US Marine Corps will also webcast the event on its Defense Video Imagery Distribution System.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• SpaceX releases video of its historic reused rocket landing

  SpaceX made history last week when it successfully relaunched a previously-used rocket back into orbit (recovering the $6 million nosecone was just gravy). That rocket body could potentially be used yet again, given how spryly it set down on its drone barge, the Of Course I Still Love You, after delivering its SES-10 vehicle payload, if the company's Instagram post from Wednesday is any indication.

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• Watch a NASA simulation of Cassini's upcoming Saturn crash

  On April 26th, NASA's Cassini probe will begin diving in and out of the gap between Saturn and its rings in what the agency calls its "Grand Finale." The spacecraft will orbit the gas giant it's been observing since 2004 22 more times before taking the final plunge into its atmosphere in mid-September. Since we won't be able to get a front-row seat to that show, NASA has released a video simulating the probe's last months, which you can watch below the fold. If that's not enough, you also download the "Eyes on Cassini" app for Macs and PCs so you can virtually ride on board the spacecraft and experience its last orbits and final plunge yourself.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Boeing's deep space habitat could be home for Mars astronauts

  NASA teamed up with six companies to develop deep space vehicles as part of its NextSTEP program last year. Boeing, one of the six, has now given us an idea of what its creations could look like. The company has revealed concept images of its deep space habitat and transport vehicle that could make it possible to send humans to Mars from a lunar base. Pictured above is the Deep Space Gateway, the habitat Boeing wants to send to cislunar space. It could house critical research for human exploration and could dock other vehicles using a system similar to the International Space Station's.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• How NASA's future robots will explore frozen worlds

  Delivering a rover to the surface of a distant icy world like Jupiter's moons Europa and Titan is only half the challenge. Once on the surface, the robotic explorers will have to contend with intense space radiation, plunging temperatures that drop to hundreds of degrees below zero and miles upon miles of ice before hitting the subsurface oceans that astronomers suggest may contain life. But NASA has a plan.

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• SpaceX might reland Falcon Heavy's upper stage this summer

  Hot on the heels of Falcon 9's historic flight, SpaceX chief Elon Musk has revealed on Twitter that Falcon Heavy's first flight is scheduled for late summer this year. He also announced that the company is considering trying to reland and retrieve the rocket's upper stage during the demo, though that's probably much easier said than done. The bigger vehicle is no Falcon 9. It's an entirely different beast that has three cores instead of one -- SpaceX equipped the rocket it's launching this year with two pre-flown boosters -- and will be able to carry twice the cargo it can.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

Streaming (70)

• YouTube searches for its next star with a cover competition

  YouTube is looking for the world's next star, and it's asking Ludacris and Ryan Seacrest to help it happen. Seacrest's production company are making "Best. Cover. Ever", for the video service, with famous musicians mentoring contestants that enter by covering one of their songs. The best two entrants will appear on the show, hosted by Ludacris, with the eventual winner getting to duet with established musical talent.

  By Mat Smith Read More

• Apple Music redesign will put video in the spotlight

  We know all about Apple's plans for Planet of the Apps and Carpool Karaoke, but it looks like the company has bigger things in mind for its music-focused series. Bloomberg reports an Apple Music redesign will accompany the next version of iOS we're likely to hear about at WWDC in June. The new look is said to do a better job of showing off video, a format Apple has big plans for moving forward.

  By Billy Steele Read More

• Spotify's latest move shows it's trying to get royalties right

  Spotify has struggled with unpaid royalties recently, though it's promised to fix things to help support frustrated artists. The company recently limited its free streaming option to build trust with music creators. In addition, Spotify just acquired New York startup Mediachain, which created a decentralized, bitcoin-style secure database that manages ownership information for creative media on the internet.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Netflix gets its shows into China through iQiyi licensing deal

  While Netflix has dominated much of the streaming content market, it's been blocked by regulators in a major region: China. Having previously licensed content to LeEco (which is currently dealing with its own problems) as far back as 2014, the company has now found a new stopgap method to get its material into the country by way of Beijing-based video service iQiyi, which is a subsidiary of Baidu.

  By David Lumb Read More

• DC is launching its own streaming service with a show TNT killed

  DC Entertainment is getting into the streaming space with help from Warner Bros., according to The Hollywood Reporter. What's more, the company's own service is said to be launching with a Titans live-action show, as well as the third season of Young Justice. If you recall, a pilot for Titans, which centers around characters like Dick Grayson (aka Robin), Arrow, Flash and Supergirl, had been in the works at TNT before the network decided to kill that project unexpectedly. But now it looks like you'll have a chance to watch it come 2018, when DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. are rumored to be introducing the product.

  By Edgar Alvarez Read More

• Sling tries to lure customers with an AirTV bundle

  Sling has realized that it also needs a dirt-cheap hardware offering to help hook wary users into cutting the cord. That's why it's heavily discounting the AirTV Player, which lets you access local channels and Netflix, from a single, Roku-esque box. Normally, the device would set you back $130, including three months of Sling service, but can be yours for $50, depending on your subscription fee.

  By Daniel Cooper Read More

• Streaming is boosting the music industry worldwide

  The music industry has struggled to adapt to the digital world over the past couple of decades, but it might just be hitting its stride again. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has published its annual Global Music Report for 2016, and it notes that music revenue increased 5.9 percent -- that may not sound like much, but it's the best since the IFPI started its tracking in 1997. And not surprisingly, streaming music played a large role. On-demand listening revenue shot up a whopping 60.4 percent, more than making up for steep drops in downloads (down 20.5 percent) and physical copies (down 7.6 percent). As is often the case, though, the industry is quick to blame 'rogue' internet elements for limiting the growth that could take place.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Channel 4's online TV ads will call you out by name

  Adverts are about to get a lot more personalised -- or creepier, depending on your point of view -- the next time you hop on the All 4 streaming service to catch up on The Island with Bear Grylls. This month, Channel 4 is bringing a new ad format to its on-demand platform that targets the viewer directly, including their name as part of the promo. Channel 4 gets this information from your All 4 account details, of course, and it's not a case of simply stamping that on an outro slide. In eerie, Minority Report style, the ads will actually talk to you (a world first, apparently), calling out your name and telling you to "run" after showing you a trailer for Alien: Covenant, for example.

  By Jamie Rigg Read More

• Apple Music delays its 'Carpool Karaoke' series

  Apple had indicated that its first video series for Apple Music would arrive in April, but we're almost into May and Carpool Karaoke is nowhere to be found. According to Reuters, a March premiere party was postponed 'days' before it was going to take place, and then a launch party scheduled for tonight was also canceled. Now, both Apple and CBS are merely saying the Late Late Show spin-off will premiere "later this year." Of course, even if it gets pushed back, subscribers always have Planet of the Apps to uh... look forward to.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• NVIDIA's Shield TV upgrades to 4K for Cast and Google Play movies

  Despite all the 4K material NVIDIA's Shield TV can handle, there have still been a few gaps: you couldn't play Google Play Movies & TV content in 4K, for instance, and you definitely couldn't Google Cast the 4K videos of your choice. Thankfully, NVIDIA is plugging those two holes today. An update lets all Shield TV boxes play both the content you Cast and Google Play titles in the ultra-sharp resolution, so you don't have to be quite so picky when looking for material beyond 1080p.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• ABC affiliate deal makes it easier to livestream local channels

  Disney has signed deals with more than 160 television stations that will finally enable them to stream their local content. Most of the affiliates will now use services like DirecTV Now, Sony PlayStation Vue and YouTube TV to broadcast their own shows within target markets. Ultimately, this means 90 percent of all TV-equipped households will soon be able to stream content from their local affiliates through cable, satellite and app services.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Sling TV's Cloud DVR records your guilty pleasures on Apple TV

  Two weeks after Sling TV rolled out its Cloud DVR feature to Android and Roku users, the streaming service is now doing the same for people who own an Apple TV. "First Look," which was introduced last November, lets Sling TV subscribers get 50 hours of DVR storage by paying an extra $5 per month. Any recorded TV shows or movies can be watched across different devices, regardless of platform, and they never expire from an active account. It's great for those of you who decided to cut the cord completely, since features like this have traditionally required a pay-TV subscription or some sort of third-party hardware.

  By Edgar Alvarez Read More

• Spotify looks into building its own hardware

  Spotify, the most popular music streaming service, might be getting ready to jump into the hardware game -- if a few job postings are to be believed. The company recently posted a handful of openings that make clear references to designing and selling hardware direct to Spotify users. A posting for a senior hardware product manager says that the eventual hire would work on an initiative to "deliver hardware directly from Spotify to existing and new customers." It also indicates that the hardware would be "a category defining product akin to Pebble Watch, Amazon Echo, and Snap Spectacles."

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• YouTube fixes Restricted Mode issue censoring LGBTQ+ videos

  YouTube says it has fixed the issue that made Restricted Mode a bit too restrictive. The option was supposed to make the website more suitable for minors when switched on, but its older version also filtered out millions of harmless videos, including hundreds of thousands featuring LGBTQ+ themes. It affected Canadian indie pop duo Tegan & Sara's music videos, a recording of someone coming out to his grandmother and a lesbian couple's wedding vows, among numerous other perfectly wholesome content. People rightly called out YouTube, which apologized for what it said was a mistake its system made.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Twitch kicks off Science Week by streaming Sagan's 'Cosmos'

  Prepare to see all kinds of science-y streams on Twitch next week. The streaming platform is holding a week-long celebration of all things science, starting with a marathon of Carl Sagan's Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. Twitch's Cosmos channel will broadcast all 13 episodes of the series twice -- the first one will begin on April 24th, 3PM Eastern, while the second run will start airing on April 27th, 5PM Eastern. Creators will also be able to co-stream the show, though, so check around if you want to hear some modern commentary on top of Sagan's dulcet tones.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Twitch opens the door for more streamers to make money

  You don't need to be a member of Twitch's exclusive group of Partnered streamers to start making money broadcasting on the service anymore. "Twitch will invite creators to join the program who fit the criteria, based on time spent streaming, viewership and followers," the company said in a statement. That starts with opening its "Cheering with Bits" functionality up to more people.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• How Gorillaz brought a global listening party to your phone

  Gorillaz are having a house party at 500 locations around the globe. The animated band -- brainchild of musician Damon Albarn (Blur) and artist Jamie Hewlett (Tank Girl) -- is hosting the unusual audio soirée for its upcoming album launch for Humanz. Just streaming the new music to its recently launched app isn't Gorillaz's style, so instead it's created a sort of musical scavenger hunt that's part Pokémon Go, part concert.

  By Roberto Baldwin Read More

• The Engadget Podcast Ep 37: Modern Things

  On this episode senior editor Chris Velazco and social media manager Evan Rodgers join host Terrence O'Brien for the last ever video edition of The Engadget Podcast. From here on out the show is going audio only, which will allow the show to bring you a wider variety of guests from all over the country and the globe. But those aren't the only changes at the site. Engadget has a new editor chief and a renewed focus on doing what it does best: Bringing you the best and most important stories in tech. For example, on this week's show the panel discusses Facebook's ongoing problem with violent videos and livestreamed crimes. They'll even try to figure out who, ultimately, should be responsible for policing such content, if anyone. Then they'll dig deep... real deep on the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus. TL;DR: They're amazing phones that should be on your shortlist and might even make you forget about the Note 7 debacle.

  By Terrence O'Brien Read More

• 'Up Next' is an Apple Music series highlighting new artists

  Apparently Apple's Clive Davis documentary isn't the only music-related news from the tech juggernaut today. Apple Music has a new monthly feature series called Up Next as well. As the name suggests, it focuses on up-and-coming artists. The first installment looks at Atlanta rapper 6LACK (pronounced "black") with a mini-documentary, a spotlight on his latest album, a live performance and an interview with Beats 1 DJ Zane Lowe (above) in addition to a few playlists. Like 9to5Mac noticed, the performance being named "Up Next Sessions" suggests we might see more of the live videos.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Crackle signs up 50 Cent for two original series

  Perennial Engadget CES interview Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson has found new pastures for his foray into movies. Instead of just making direct-to-video projects with Val Kilmer and Bruce Willis, his G-Unit Film and Television is working on a few shows with Sony's ad-supported streaming service Crackle. The Oath (no, not the Verizon/Yahoo amalgam) is a scripted series focusing on gang subcultures while RPM is about a used-car salesman who's a getaway driver by night. Variety reports that those are working titles, but there's little else to share at this point.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Apple Music's next exclusive is a Clive Davis documentary

  Apple Music's next documentary focuses on music industry legend Clive Davis. Last night at the annual Tribeca Film Festival, it was announced that Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives would be exclusive to Apple's music-streaming service. That report comes via Deadline. While Davis' name might be unfamiliar, his influence has been felt throughout the music industry for some 50 years. Davis is responsible for signing Bruce Springsteen; Carlos Santana (above); Earth, Wind & Fire and Alicia Keys in addition to cofounding Sean "Puffy" Combs' Bad Boy Records among many, many other accomplishments. For more on his career, be sure to check out New York Times' recent interview with Davis.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Spotify lets thousands of indie labels limit free streaming

  With an IPO looming, streaming music leader Spotify has been inking a number of new deals with record labels to ensure it has the content it needs to keep growing. The latest deal comes with Merlin, an agency that represents a swath of various independent record label around the world. In a press release today, Spotify noted that this new multi-year deal would keep ensure that Merlin's music stayed available on Spotify, something it'll certainly need going forward. All told, Merlin is the fourth-biggest music provider that Spotify works with, behind the three massive major labels.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• Throw more money at your favorite Twitch streams

  If you're eager to regularly support a partnered Twitch streamer beyond the usual $5 per month subscription, you don't have many options. You can send them some bits, of course, but you're otherwise left contributing to a Patreon campaign or some other outside fund. However, you'll soon have a way to show an extra level of kindness. Twitch is launching an opt-in subscriptions beta that adds $10 and $25 monthly options. Naturally, it's not just the stream host that benefits -- you'll get some perks as well.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Sling TV streams live broadcasts to your LG Smart TV

  If you're a cord cutter, you no longer have to worry about buying a dedicated media player just to watch live broadcasts on your LG TV. Sling TV's internet-only service is now available on "most" of LG's 2016-era webOS sets as an app, with 2017 models due to get it in the months ahead. In theory, that puts internet -only viewing just a launch bar shortcut away.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Legendary radio duo Stretch & Bobbito return as NPR podcasters

  Throughout the 90s, a late night stop in the WKRC studios with Stretch and Bobbito was a requirement for many up-and-coming rappers. Now, in 2017 the pair are returning, but because it's 2017 they're doing it with a podcast on NPR. The rise and fade of their show, which featured names like Notorious B.I.G., Eminem, Busta Rhymes, Nas and many others, is documented in the 2015 film Radio That Changed Lives (now streaming on Netflix).

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• The best movies on Now TV

  Going head-to head with rivals Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, Now TV is Sky's contract-free subscription streaming service. You can pick up a Sky Cinema Month Pass for £10 a month, granting access to over 1,000 films and a new premiere every day. Here's our pick of the best movies on the service right now. See also: The best movies on Netflix UK and Amazon Prime Video

  By Engadget Read More

• The best movies on Netflix UK

  Netflix may be best known for Originals like House of Cards and Orange is The New Black, but the streaming service also has a varied selection of critically-acclaimed movies to choose from. You can even download them onto your smartphone or tablet to watch on the go. Here's our pick of the best movies you should be streaming on Netflix UK right now. See also: The best movies on Now TV and Amazon Prime Video

  By Engadget Read More

• The best movies on Amazon UK Prime Video

  One of the most comprehensive Netflix rivals around, Amazon Prime Video is packed with a varied selection of films to choose from including cult classics, documentaries and new releases. Here's our pick of the best films to watch for free with your Amazon Prime subscription. See also: The best movies on Now TV and Netflix UK

  By Engadget Read More

• Spotify's half-price plan for students comes to 33 more countries

  Spotify already makes half-price Premium subscriptions available to students in the US, the UK and Germany, but the company is now ready to let hundreds of thousands of more users in on the deal. Starting today, Spotify is expanding the program to 33 more countries around the world.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• HBO Go makes it easier to binge watch on your phone

  You'd think that HBO would make marathon viewing a priority in all its apps when its shows practically beg for it, but no. Until now, the HBO Go mobile app has asked you to play episodes one at a time. At last, though, the network has seen the light. Both the Android and iOS HBO Go apps have introduced the binge watching features you take for granted with Netflix and other streaming services. The software will offer the next unseen episode for a given show (or ask you to resume a paused show), and it'll automatically play the next installment without asking for your input.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Spin your yacht rock playlist from Spotify in Facebook Messenger

  If you want to listen to Run the Jewels in Facebook Messenger, you'll totally be able to do that. From the F8 stage, Facebook's David Marcus announced that soon you'll be able to share tracks from both Apple Music and Spotify within the app -- all without the need to have either of the music streaming services installed on your phone. Marcus' example? RTJ's ode to El-P's and Killer Mike's significant others, "Stay Gold" from Run the Jewels 3.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Netflix finds 'Carmen Sandiego' for its latest reboot

  In a bid to answer one of, if not the biggest unsolved mystery of Saturday morning kids' TV, Netflix is making a new Carmen Sandiego show. Twenty animated episodes are apparently on the cards, with Gina Rodriguez, from Jane the Virgin, already cast to voice Carmen Sandiego -- hopefully donning a crimson trench coat as she records her lines.

  By Mat Smith Read More

• Pandora's on-demand streaming service is available to everyone

  It's been just about a month since Pandora unveiled its attempt at building full-fledged, on-demand streaming music service. Aside from a handful of bugs, the big problem with Pandora Premium was that it was invite only. That's changing today: Pandora Premium is now available for anyone to try. Like just about every other streaming music service, it'll run you $9.99 per month and the app is available for Android and iOS (a web version of Pandora's on-demand service is coming soon).

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• CBS adds movies to its All Access streaming library

  While we patiently wait for the network to finally deliver Star Trek: Discovery, CBS has been slowly growing its in-house All Access streaming service. In the past few months, CBS has added live TV, NFL games and the Grammies to its event lineup, but now its on-demand selection is getting its own upgrade with the addition of full-length movies.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• Netflix users have streamed half a billion hours of Adam Sandler

  That should explain why Netflix keeps throwing money at him.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• YouTube opens up mobile livestreams to more users

  It hasn't been that long since YouTube rolled out livestreaming for those who want to broadcast directly from their phones. The caveat was that you had to have at least 10,000 subscribers to enable the feature. Today, however, the video service has made live video available to YouTubers with a smaller subscription base. If you've got at least 1,000 subscribers to your channel, you can go live on the go.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Netflix expects to sign up its 100 millionth subscriber this weekend

  Netflix's earnings report is out (PDF), and the nearly-worldwide video streaming company has seen its subscriber count creep up to 98.75 million (two years ago, it was at 59 million). To close the letter to investors, execs said they expect to cross the 100 million customer barrier this weekend, as they reorganized their data to deemphasize subscriber count in favor of revenue growth and operating margins. The company also reported that Dave Chappelle: Collection 1 is its most-viewed comedy special ever.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• People really like to watch a giraffe give birth

  For weeks, animal lovers have been holding their breath in anticipation waiting for April, a 15-year-old giraffe at Animal Adventure Park in New York, to give birth. Well, the moment finally arrived last Saturday. April had a healthy baby boy, and millions of people turned to YouTube to watch.

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

• Raise the horns for Anthrax and Killswitch Engage in VR tonight

  There really isn't anything like being on the floor during a heavy metal show. The smell of sweat, spilled beer and, ahem, greener substances combine to form one of the more unique aromas in live music. But as enticing as that may be, sometimes you just can't make it to a concert for one reason or another. If you're a fan of thrash, Live Nation and NextVR have something right up your alley planned for 9pm Eastern tonight: an interactive broadcast of Anthrax and Killswitch Engage's show from the House of Blues in Texas.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Unlock YouTube's hidden Dark Mode to save your eyes

  If you've ever tried to watch YouTube when it's dark out, you know that the typical bright white of the video service's page can be a bit blinding. Enter "Dark Mode," a hidden feature that turns the light surfaces black or dark gray so you can get on with those cat videos without all that glare.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• The Engadget Podcast Ep 36: Bad and Boujee

  On this episode of the Engadget Podcast senior editor Cherlynn Low and executive editor Dana Wollman join host Terrence O'Brien to talk about some recent examples of bad corporate behavior. First the trio look the most recent developments at Uber, where days without controversy are increasingly rare. After that, they turn their attention to another perennial punching bag (and soon to be newest member of the Verizon family) Yahoo. The company's troubles aren't new. In fact the panel will be discussing just the latest fallout from a scandal surrounding political prisoners in China that dates back to 2007. Finally, on the Wind Down, Cherlynn reveals that gratuitous nudity isn't what makes an HBO show and Terrence wholeheartedly endorses the chaotic and experimental "pop." Then Dana offers her review of 1986's Little Shop of Horrors.

  By Terrence O'Brien Read More

• Netflix will premiere movies at Cannes for the first time

  After years of ignoring streaming services, Cannes is finally recognizing both Netflix and Amazon's original work. With several Amazon funded-movies debuting at last year's event, Cannes' 2017 programme reveals that Netflix original movies will also finally be joining the festival. Netflix will be premiering The Meyerowitz Stories at the festival, starring Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller. It will also be debuting Okja for the first time, Netflix's new Korean-directed monster movie featuring Tilda Swinton and Jake Gyllenhaal. Amazon movies will be featured for a second year, with Wonderstuck and You Were Never Really Here getting first screenings.

  By Tom Regan Read More

• Stream your favorite animated classics for $5 a month

  If you're itching to return to the days where you watched Saturday morning cartoons in your pajamas while eating cold cereal straight from the box (I can't be the only one, right?), Boomerang is now live. Turner has turned the digital TV channel into a standalone streaming service where subscribers can watch over 1,000 episodes -- and over a dozen movies -- of classics like Tom and Jerry, Scooby-Doo, Looney Tunes and more.

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

• PlayStation Vue gets an expensive, dedicated eSports channel

  ESL is bringing its live competitive gaming channel, eSports TV, to PlayStation Vue. For the uninitiated, PlayStation Vue is Sony's internet-based TV streaming app, offering viewers cable-like online TV packages. As the world's largest eSports company, ESL's new channel aims to broaden competitive gaming's appeal by giving gamers access to 24/7 eSports content in the U.S. Since launching in Europe last May, eSports TV has quickly gained a following, finding its way into an impressive 5 million EU households. Unfortunately for eSports fans, the channel is only available with a $54.99 a month PlayStation Vue Elite subscription.

  By Tom Regan Read More

• PewDiePie starts a weekly Twitch show

  Let's say you're YouTube star PewDiePie, aka Felix Kjellberg. You're facing an exodus of advertisers that could hurt your bottom line, and it doesn't help that you shot yourself in the foot by making tasteless jokes. How do you keep the money coming in? By shifting some of your attention to Twitch. PewDiePie has launched a weekly Twitch show, Best Club, that airs every Sunday at 11AM Eastern. The talk show won't be anything shocking if you know Kjellberg's style (for better or for worse), but it gives him another avenue -- and notably one where he'll make the brunt of his revenue through direct contributions, not ads.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Comcast hopes to launch an NBC-focused streaming TV service

  Comcast is apparently more than a little envious of internet-only streaming services like CBS All Access and HBO Now. Bloomberg contacts claim that the cable giant is planning to introduce an online video service that would revolve around shows from NBCUniversal networks, including Bravo, SyFy and USA. Most of the details are still up in the air, including whether or not there would be a live feed, but the aim would be to launch sometime within the next 12 to 18 months (sometime in mid-to-late 2018).

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Sling TV's $5 Cloud DVR arrives on Android and Roku

  Sling TV's Cloud DVR feature is slowly becoming available for more subscribers. Now folks who use Android and Roku devices to stream live TV can pay $5 extra a month to store 50 hours of video on Sling's servers for anywhere/anytime viewing -- half as many hours that beta testers had access to in November. Of course, the Cloud DVR tools (like rewinding and skipping commercials) aren't available across every channel, which puts a damper on having them in the first place. And it even calls the entire feature's name into question, to be honest.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Watch 'Citizenfour' team's WikiLeaks doc this summer on Showtime

  There haven't been any shortage of documentaries about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, but the one we've kept a keen eye on is from filmmaker Laura Poitras. You might remember her as the director of the the Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour and as one of the 150 filmmakers calling for camera encryption. As it happens, Risk will see a theatrical release, but this summer the film will be available on the small screen thanks to Showtime, Variety reports.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Amazon orders two seasons of 'Gilmore Girls' creator's next show

  Netflix may be the frontrunner in the race between online video channels to produce original content, but Amazon is trying hard to close the gap. It has just commissioned two seasons of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which is written and directed by Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino. The series follows the titular character, a 1958 New York City woman, as she "discovers a previously unknown talent" as a standup comic that takes her from her perfect, wholesome life to... "a spot on Johnny Carson's couch."

  By Cherlynn Low Read More

• Most of Jay Z's albums are already back on Apple Music

  Hip hop legend Jay Z pulled most of his music off of Spotify and Apple Music last Friday. It wasn't a huge surprise given Jay Z's involvement and stake in competitor Tidal, but it looks like things aren't quite so cut and dry here. After confirming that the majority of his discography was indeed gone from Apple Music in the US and UK last Friday, we're now seeing that the majority of his albums have already returned to Apple's streaming service.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• YouTube TV made this baseball fan finally cut the cord

  I don't watch a lot of TV. I don't watch Game of Thrones or Walking Dead or many of the TV shows that are usually at the top of the popular zeitgeist. Instead, my daily entertainment is usually filled with YouTube videos and on-demand shows from Hulu or Netflix. In almost all respects, I am the perfect candidate to cut the cord. There was only one thing holding me back: baseball. I am a huge San Francisco Giants fan and I have a deep desire to watch games live. With the arrival of YouTube TV (and a few other services) I am now, at long last, finally free.

  By Nicole Lee Read More

• Jay Z's albums are disappearing from Apple Music and Spotify

  If you were hoping to make Jay Z's "Lucifer" part of your "getting ready to go out" playlist tonight that could be tricky depending on the streaming service you use. That's because as MacRumors and 9to5Mac noticed, Beyoncé's husband has started pulling his solo catalog from the likes of Apple Music and Spotify in favor of his Tidal service. As of press time, Spotify still had singles and his collaboration with R. Kelly Unfinished Business on offer, but a bulk of Shawn Carter's albums are missing. A Spotify spokesperson confirmed the move, saying that "some of his catalog has been removed at the request of the artist."

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Showtime's streaming apps can download video for offline viewing

  A day after trumpeting that it's coming to cord-cutting Sling TV, Showtime is helping out another neglected group: Offline viewers. The premium network announced that its Showtime and Showtime Anytime apps now let users download content to watch later in both standard and 720p high definition format (or up to 1080p on tablets).

  By David Lumb Read More

• Spotify's plan to go public might not include an IPO

  Now that Spotify is locking down long-term deals with record labels, the company's next big task is going public. Before you run to the hills at the sound of financial speak, this influx of cash could help the company you know and love keep delivering the tunes you listen to on a daily basis. Rather than a typical initial public offering (IPO), Wall Street Journal says that the Swedish company may instead use a direct listing.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Spotify is limiting free streaming for its own good

  It's no secret that labels and artists aren't thrilled that their music is available free on ad-supported streaming services. Taylor Swift famously pulled her catalog from Spotify due to its decision to give full on-demand streaming to customers who weren't paying for a monthly subscription. And she's not the only one. The debate over streaming royalties has been going on for a while now. That's on top of the issues free options raise -- chief among them is artist compensation. When it comes to Spotify's decision to cede on free streaming, it was a matter of when, not if, this would happen to appease the labels.

  By Billy Steele Read More

• YouTubers will need at least 10,000 views to make ad money

  YouTube has been busy tweaking its service and community lately. It just rolled out a live TV-streaming feature, and recently moved to better identify offensive content to prevent ads from being displayed on those videos. The latest update to its Partner Program slaps a 10,000 channel view minimum requirement on creators before it will allow ads to be displayed on those sources' videos. In a few weeks, the company will roll out a review process to evaluate new applicants for the partner program. These steps are designed to weed out illegitimate channels and prevent them from earning ad money off the service.

  By Cherlynn Low Read More

• Stream Showtime on Sling TV for $10 extra a month

  Showtime is coming to Dish's cord-cutting service, Sling TV. Showtime content will include eight linear channels and "nearly 2,000" on-demand titles, with more to follow weekly. Sling is far from the first service to offer Showtime over-the-top. It's available as an add-on for PlayStation Vue, Hulu and Amazon already. That said, Sling said that today's announcement marks the first time that a streaming service has offered content from all "four leading premium networks," i.e. HBO, Cinemax, Showtime and Starz. It'll be priced at $10 per month on top of your existing plan.

  By Aaron Souppouris Read More

• YouTube's live TV service is here

  Google announced YouTube TV at the end of February, and now the live TV streaming service is ready to launch. It's available today on your phone and computer in five markets: New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Philadelphia. If you hadn't heard yet, the $35 monthly service offers live streams from all four major broadcast networks (CBS, Fox, NBC and ABC) and a host of other networks like ESPN, FX, the CW and many others. All told, YouTube TV is launching with 39 stations, but 10 more (including AMC, IFC and BBC America) will arrive soon.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• Netflix's overly simplified thumb ratings are here

  The rumors are true: Netflix is dropping its star-based rating system in favor of "Thumbs," a new way for you to vote up (like) or down (don't like) on movies and TV shows that show up on your feed. As Variety reported earlier this month, the streaming service began testing this feature in 2016, but only with a small number of subscribers. Starting today though, Netflix will start rolling it out to all users on its site, mobile apps, gaming consoles, set-top boxes and smart TVs.

  By Edgar Alvarez Read More

• YouTube Go beta offers data-savvy streaming in India

  Google has today begun beta-testing its India-specific YouTube Go app. YouTube Go is primarily designed to help save users data, aiming to help keep down mobile bills while recommending videos that are tailored for Indian audiences. While India's online infrastructure is steadily growing thanks to initiatives like Google Station, many across the region are still left either relying purely on public WiFi or spotty 2G connections.

  By Tom Regan Read More

• Stream Coachella live on YouTube without the dusty sweatfest

  Spring has sprung in the US and that means it's time for music festival season. Coachella is typically the first major event of the year and the 2017 installment is set to kick off April 14th. Just like previous years, you'll be able to watch performances live from the comforts of home on YouTube. There will be three channels of music from the festival's various stages and the handy scheduling tool returns so you don't miss the artists you really want to see.

  By Billy Steele Read More

• Kanye West album is the first to go platinum from streaming alone

  Kanye West's The Life of Pablo may have had excessive hype between the initial Tidal exclusive, the expansion to other services and the changing tracklist, but it's definitely a commercial success. The RIAA has confirmed to Engadget that Pablo was recently certified platinum, making it the first-ever album to get the honor based solely on listens through streaming-only services. While it's not exclusively a streaming album (Kanye sells it as a download on his site), its 1.5 billion US streams were enough to achieve platinum status by themselves. Downloads represented less than 0.1 percent of Pablo's performance back in May 2016, and it's safe to say they didn't climb higher without availability in iTunes and other download stores.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Twitter hopes to stream paid TV

  Have you spent a lot of time watching Twitter's live video? No? We can't entirely blame you -- with some exceptions, many of its streaming agreements are for niche events. However, the social network might have a way to make its watch-and-tweet feature more broadly appealing. Twitter's Anthony Noto tells the Telegraph that his company is hoping to land deals for streaming pay TV channels on its site and apps. You'd have to subscribe to existing TV service for this to work, but it would be much more powerful -- you could theoretically watch and comment on all the live programming you're used to, such as Premier League matches (Noto's example) or the latest episode of your favorite drama.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Netflix reveals 'The Defenders' arrival in security footage

  Netflix has a healthy roster of Marvel shows at the moment with the likes of Iron Fist, Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. Those worlds are about to be consolidated, as the titular characters are set to team up for Netflix's The Defenders later this year. Today, we found out when exactly that's going to happen thanks to a cryptic teaser video.

  By Derrick Rossignol Read More

• Spotify agrees to let artists keep new albums off its free tier

  One of the biggest points of contention between music streaming giant Spotify and the record labels that provide it with songs is the service's free tier. Regardless of whether you pay for a subscription or not, Spotify users have access to the same music catalog. That is finally changing though: as reported in Music Business Worldwide, a new deal between Spotify and Universal Music Group will make some albums premium-only for a limited time. It's a reversal of a long-held position that Spotify wouldn't segment its catalog in this way, but it was likely necessary to continue offering all the music it has access to.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• Four decades of 'Doctor Who' arrive on the BBC's BritBox

  BritBox, the streaming service co-owned by British broadcasters BBC and ITV, has now become an essential purchase, at least for some people. The company is now the exclusive home to the entire library of classic Doctor Who episodes in the US. Subscribers will now be able to watch the surviving full serials from the 1963 - 1989 show, back when it was awesome.

  By Daniel Cooper Read More

• Verizon adds cult TV shows to its Go90 video service

  Go90, Verizon's homegrown video network, is making a play for fans of cult TV all across the country after signing a deal with Warner Bros.. From today, the service is the new home of classic shows like Babylon 5, Fringe and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Then, in May, the beloved detective drama Veronica Mars will land on the service.

  By Daniel Cooper Read More

• YouTube wants you to translate video descriptions

  YouTube has had community-sourced subtitle translations since 2015, but they're only useful if people can find the videos in the first place... what about labeling the videos? You now have a chance to help. The internet video service has expanded its Community Contributions to let you translate video titles and descriptions, not just captions. If you think a video in your preferred language would be helpful elsewhere in the world, you don't have to ask the clip creator to do you a favor.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Recommended Reading: Beats 1 is a powerful music marketing tool

  Blink-182 and Apple Music Team up to Show Off Increasing Reach And Power of Beats 1 Steve Baltin, Forbes Beats 1 has been a key selling point since Apple Music's launch. The internet radio station boasts a number of big names and includes a slate of shows hosted by the artists themselves. Even if you don't have your own show like Dr. Dre, Drake or Run the Jewels, debuting new music with Zane Lowe can do wonders for your hype train. Forbes details the power of Beats 1 through the lens of rockers Blink-182. The Verge also has a look at how the platform helped catapult Drake's latest album to the top of the streaming charts.

  By Billy Steele Read More

• SoundCloud brings Chromecast streaming to iOS

  With a new subscription tier and a fresh bank loan, SoundCloud is moving right ahead with business as usual. Today's update brings a sorely missed compatibility so you can now play your SoundCloud mixes through a Google Chromecast from an iOS device.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

Tablets (4)

• Samsung's Galaxy Book Windows 2-in-1 goes on sale April 21st

  At Mobile World Congress, Samsung debuted its Galaxy Book, a power tablet running Windows 10 with a snap-on keyboard that looked to improve on Huawei's Matebook. Despite promising specs and integration of the device giant's new S Pen peripheral, it wasn't clear when the tablet would be released. But with little notice, Samsung announced that the LTE model of the Book will hit Verizon Wireless stores on April 21st, with WiFi versions coming to general retailers on May 21st.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Sony's new superthin E Ink tablet costs just $700

  Despite being the only horse in the niche race, Sony continues to develop E Ink devices. The company has tried to sell higher-end professionals on edit-friendly displays since it released the 13.3-inch Digital Paper in 2014, which cost a whopping $1,100. The latest version, DPT-RP1, incrementally improves on its predecessors. But its $700 price tag might still be hard to stomach for a device ultimately trying to out-value regular paper.

  By David Lumb Read More

• Emirates will hand out Surface tablets on flights from Dubai

  In mid-March, the US hastily instituted an indefinite ban on electronic devices larger than a cellphone from being carried on to the flights of nine Middle Eastern airlines. Reportedly, it was to prevent terrorists from sneaking an explosive-laden fake iPad into the cabin, though few details on the specific threat have emerged in recent weeks. To compensate travellers for the hassle of spending hours on a flight without their trusty laptops, Emirates has begun offering complimentary Microsoft Surfaces for the durations of affected flights.

  By Andrew Tarantola Read More

• Google tweaks the Pixel C's interface to match its smartphones

  Google will probably put the promising but ultimately ill-fated Pixel C tablet out to pasture before too long -- it's been on sale for a year and a half now, after all. But that hasn't stopped the company from giving the device some attention in Android 7.1.2; users on Reddit as well as 9to5Google have both confirmed the new software update contains a bunch of tweaks for the Pixel C interface. Chief among those is a new multitasking view designed for the tablet's bigger screen. Instead of the scrolling list of open apps, the Pixel C app switcher now displays a grid of your eight most recent programs.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

Technology (1)

• Comcast jumps into wireless with Xfinity Mobile

  Last September Comcast confirmed rumors by announcing its plan to launch wireless service this year based on a combination of its 16 million Xfinity WiFi hotspots and the Verizon network, and today we're getting all of the details. With the launch of Xfinity Mobile, Comcast will offer its customers TV, home internet, home phone and wireless service under one umbrella. With companies like AT&T and Verizon offering TV packages over the internet that compete with cable, now Comcast is moving into their area, although that doesn't guarantee they'll have success.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

Tomorrow (7)

• VR's latest victim: 'live' standup comedy

  Comedy Living Room started in 2012 as a way for emerging stand-ups to try out gags in the safety of a friend's living room. Now, the event is embracing virtual reality, enabling everyone to watch a low-fi comedy gig in someone else's living room while you're sitting in your own... living room.

  By Daniel Cooper Read More

• I smelled and hugged a tree in VR, because art

  At the Tribeca VR arcade this year, there were displays ranging from the harrowing to the distracting, but few were as eye-catching as Treehugger:Wawona. It's an interactive art installation that had headset-wearing participants hugging and caressing a giant foam sculpture with cutouts (oblivious to how silly they looked). Naturally, I had to check it out, and came away intrigued by its implications for art and museums.

  By Cherlynn Low Read More

• 'A Moment in Time' shows the charming potential of art in VR

  Quill, like Google's Tilt Brush, is an artistic tool that lets you paint in virtual reality. Designed for the Oculus Rift, it's a liberating way to draw and view art in 3D space. The next step? Animation. Goro Fujita, art director at Oculus Story Studio, has created a small but beautifully detailed street which you can explore with the Rift. It's all hand-drawn, and positional audio means you can hear birds chirping in the trees, as well as cars rushing by and a nutty engineer building robots in his store. He's uploaded a guided tour to YouTube, which I highly recommend checking out.

  By Nick Summers Read More

• 'The Last Goodbye' is the VR Holocaust memorial we need today

  You've read about the Holocaust in books and seen it portrayed in films. But it's another experience entirely to walk through the site of a concentration camp in virtual reality, led by a survivor who lost his entire family there. The Last Goodbye, which debuts at the Tribeca Film Festival this week, follows Pinchas Gutter as he makes his final pilgrimage to Majdanek, a former Nazi Germany extermination camp in occupied Poland. It's a trip he's made many times, but this one has a specific purpose: to capture his account of the Holocaust so we never forget that it actually happened.

  By Devindra Hardawar Read More

• 'Arden's Wake' paves the way for never-ending VR stories

  Making movies in virtual reality is easy. Making good animated movies in virtual reality is hard. There's no "mise en scène" to play with, and even the basic 180-degree rule is washed away with a head turn. The limitations of a cinema screen make storytelling easier, linear, comfortable. Penrose Studios doesn't care much for comfort, it seems. The same studio that gave us the haunting Allumette and infantile captivation of The Rose and I is back at the Tribeca Film Festival this year with its third VR story -- Arden's Wake -- and it promises to be bigger, more detailed and more technically improbable than anything we've seen from the studio so far.

  By James Trew Read More

• Smart bandages will use 5G data to track your health

  Bandages are usually very mysterious -- it's hard to know how well you're healing until you unwrap them, and that usually means a trip to the doctor. If Welsh researchers succeed, however, you'll never have to wonder what's going on underneath all that cloth. Swansea University is planning trials (due within 12 months) of smart, 3D-printed bandages that will use 5G wireless data and nano-sized sensors to constantly relay details about your health. It would help physicians customize treatment based on the progress of your wound, your location and your activity. If you're healing well and are staying active, for example, you may get a different solution than someone who's recovering slowly and needs to stay home.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• This experimental e-book gets edited every time it changes hands

  A Universe Explodes is an unusual e-book in a variety of ways. Best viewed on a mobile device, it's about 20 pages long and has 128 words per page. Only 100 people "own" the original version, though the book itself is free and can be read by anyone at any time. Each copy can be shared with up to 100 others, but first each owner must personalize it by removing two words and adding one to every page. Since each copy is subtly different, they are all considered "limited editions." Owners are required to share the book with a friend once they're done editing it -- and each time the e-book is passed on, more and more words disappear until there's only one left per page.

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

TV & Movies (29)

• 'The Circle' takes anti-tech paranoia to ludicrous heights

  As a book, David Eggers' The Circle was a flimsy attack against modern technology culture with occasional bits of insight. As a film, though, it's so disjointed, ridiculous and dull that even Tom Hanks can't save it. Sure, it didn't really have much of a chance, given its source material. But as a fan of director James Ponsoldt's (The Spectacular Now, The End of the Tour) work, I had an inkling of hope that The Circle would translate better to the big screen. Unfortunately, practically nothing about the film works. And that's a shame -- more than ever, there's a desperate need for intelligent criticism of the technology industry today.

  By Devindra Hardawar Read More

• A Doritos bag is all you need to play the 'Guardians 2' soundtrack

  Doritos is teaming up with Marvel Studios to promote Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 in an unusual way. They've created a custom-designed, limited edition series of Doritos bags with a built-in, rechargeable cassette deck-inspired player that plays the movie's full soundtrack.

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

• 'Star Wars: Episode IX' ends the trilogy on May 24th, 2019

  Modern Star Wars movies have had a bad habit of slipping into December, but that isn't stopping Disney and Lucasfilm from wanting the space epic to become a summer blockbuster once again. The two have announced that Star Wars: Episode IX will debut on May 24th, 2019 -- just three and a half years after The Force Awakens first hit theaters. You might not want to base your schedule around that date knowing the history of previous delays, but it might come as a relief if you're tired of freezing in lineups for midnight showings.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• MTV's 'Catfish' will introduce internet trolls to their victims

  MTV's Catfish: The TV Show, a documentary series that brings together online couples who have never met in real life with sometimes disastrous results, is branching out. Instead of pursuing potential romances, the broadcaster is seeking people who would love to square up to their online rivals in the hope that it'll make engaging TV.

  By Matt Brian Read More

• What's on TV: 'Mario Kart 8 Deluxe,' 'Handmaid's Tale'

  This week the NBA and NHL playoffs are in full swing, but our competitive juices will be pushed by Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Nintendo Switch. On streaming services, high-profile premieres abound, with The Handmaid's Tale on Hulu, season three of Catastrophe on Amazon and Dear White People on Netflix. Finally, Starz will debut its new series American God on Sunday and on Blu-ray we're checking out the 4K edition of La La Land. Look after the break to check out each day's highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Disney's projection tech turns actors' faces into nightmare fuel

  Disney is taking scary clown makeup to the next level. It's using a new projection system to transform the appearance of actors during live performances, tracking facial expressions and "painting" them with light, rather than physical makeup. Called Makeup Lamps, the system was developed by a team at Disney Research, and it could potentially change the way stage makeup is used in future theater productions.

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

• Create your own films on a VR movie set

  When someone mentions "VR filmmaking," they're usually referring to 360-degree video, or some kind of video game environment where the story unfolds around you. One developer in Japan, however, has taken the concept in a vastly different direction. 'Make it Film' is an experimental project by 'MuRo' that lets you operate a camera inside a VR environment. Like a film director, you can frame up the shot and then hit record as characters converse or take part in an action scene. It was built on top of Unity3D and currently works with the Oculus Rift and Touch controllers.

  By Nick Summers Read More

• 'Avatar' sequels start arriving on December 18th, 2020

  James Cameron has spent years drumming up hype for his Avatar sequels with little to show for it (the first sequel was originally due this December). However, his team is finally ready to commit to specific release dates -- for all the new movies. The production team has revealed that Avatar 2 should arrive on December 18th, 2020, with the rest staggered throughout the next few years. The third movie is slated for December 17th, 2021. There will be a 3-year gap between that and the fourth movie, which debuts on December 20th, 2024. The fifth and final (?) title will appear on December 19th, 2025, 16 years after the first.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Hulu eyes Joe Hill's 'Locke & Key' horror comic for new series

  After a few false starts, Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez's award-winning horror comic Locke & Key is getting another shot at coming to your screen. Hulu is producing an hour-long pilot adaptation with Lost's Carlton Cuse executive producing and Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson filming it.

  By David Lumb Read More

• 'The X-Files' is coming back, again

  It would be hard not to draw a line between the world's current obsession with daft conspiracy theories and the first broadcast of The X-Files. More than 20 years after the era-defining series began, Fox has announced that it's producing another 10 episode run of the show. The eleventh season of The X-Files will air on the channel as an "event" towards the end of this year or the start of the next.

  By Daniel Cooper Read More

• HBO adapting Ray Bradbury's dystopian classic 'Fahrenheit 451'

  We're already living in a dystopian reality, so it's not surprising that our entertainment reflects that. Following Hulu's release of The Handmaid's Tale, showing a dark US theocratic future, HBO is adapting one of the original dystopian classics, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, according to Variety. The project is in development, but HBO is pushing it toward production with Michael B. Jordan (who also popped up in Matrix relaunch rumors) and Michael Shannon in starring roles.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• What's on TV: 'Full Throttle,' 'Fargo,' 'Silicon Valley' and 'Bill Nye'

  This week both the NBA and NHL are cranking through early rounds of playoffs, but we're a bit more excited by the latest Telltale game. Otherwise, gamers also have access to remastered editions of Full Throttle and Voodoo Vince, plus a new version of Cities: Skylines on Xbox One. While later this week Fargo returns for its third season on FX, Bill Nye is returning to TV with a new Netflix series, and HBO premieres the latest season of Silicon Valley. Finally, this weekend HBO also has its biopic on Henrietta Lacks this weekend. look after the break to check out each day's highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Filmmaker Ridley Scott is committing to VR in a big way

  Filmmaker Ridley Scott isn't a stranger to using emerging tech to push his creative vision. I mean, for all of Prometheus' faults, Scott's use of 3D wasn't one of them. Back in 2015 Scott said he was working on a a mystery VR project, so today's news that his RSA Films outfit is launching RSA VR as a company "dedicated" to virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed media perhaps isn't too surprising. However, it does signal that Scott has an eye to the future beyond whatever timelines the Alien and Blade Runner universes take place in. In fact, the first project for RSA VR is a previously-announced Alien: Covenant vignette.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• 'Mystery Science Theater 3000' playfully skewers 'Stranger Things'

  If you've been excited about the reboot of Mystery Science Theater 3000, you aren't alone: To celebrate the new season's debut yesterday, Netflix let the show's wisecracking trio take aim at its own hit series from last year, Stranger Things. While the video is sadly only a few minutes, it packs in all the observational comedy you've missed from your favorite damned-to-watch critical crew of Joel, Crow and Tom Servo.

  By David Lumb Read More

• David Bowie's musical is making the leap to VR

  David Bowie's Lazarus had two short, completely sold out runs in New York and London. If you missed it, you're kind of SOL. But, if you're willing to settle for experiencing it in virtual reality, instead of real reality, you've got a second chance to see it at London's V&A Museum. The musical will be given a second life as part an exhibition called From VHS to VR, during the museum's Performance Festival on April 30th. Visitors will be able to strap on a headset and drop themselves into a 360-degree recording of Lazarus recorded during its King's Cross Theatre run.

  By Terrence O'Brien Read More

• The first trailer for 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' is here

  The 2017 "Star Wars Celebration" has been going on for the last day or so -- and now those of us who aren't there are getting what's likely to be the most exciting thing coming out of the event. That's right, the first trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi was just shown off to attendees and it's now online for all to enjoy.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• 'The Crown' gives Netflix its best shot yet at a TV BAFTA

  Despite producing a long list of critically-acclaimed TV shows, Netflix's original programming has yet to be rewarded by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). The streaming giant has received Academy nominations in the past and recently scooped a BAFTA film award for Ava DuVernay's prison documentary 13th, but so far a British TV accolade has proved elusive. Next month, however, Netflix will travel to Royal Festival Hall full of hope, because today it found out that The Crown is dominating this year's list with five nominations.

  By Matt Brian Read More

• What's on TV: 'Better Call Saul,' 'MST3K' and 'Hidden Figures'

  Tonight Better Call Saul returns for its third season on AMC, and brings a familiar face for Breaking Bad fans. Gamers can look forward to Yooka-Laylee, while Hidden Figures makes it Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray debut. Netflix is ready to premiere its reborn version of Mystery Science Theater 3000, as well as the latest Adam Sandler flick and a new season of Chelsea Handler's talk show. Finally, on BBC America we have a brand new season of Doctor Who. Look after the break to check out each day's highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Gorillaz are getting a TV show, apparently

  Prepare your brain's weirdest synapses for an animated TV show starring the members of Gorillaz, the lauded cartoon hip hop group led by Blur frontman Damon Albarn and Tank Girl co-creator Jamie Hewlett. Hewlett revealed the TV series in an interview with Q Magazine, as spotted by Pitchfork. The announcement is light on details, but the show will apparently span 10 episodes and Hewlett is in charge of all things animation.

  By Jessica Conditt Read More

• Carrie Fisher will be in 'Star Wars: Episode IX' without use of CG (update: no)

  Lucasfilm swore that it wouldn't create a digital version of the late, great Carrie Fisher for future Star Wars movies, but that doesn't mean she'll be cut out entirely. Her brother Todd has revealed that Disney still wants to include Carrie in Episode IX, but that it plans to use recent footage of the actress instead of relying on a computer generated facsimile. Both Todd and Carrie's daughter, Billie Lourd, have granted permission to use the shots.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• 'Ghost in the Shell' is more cyberposeur than cyberpunk

  Spoilers ahead for the Ghost in the Shell anime and US remake. The original Ghost in the Shell anime feature is a cultural landmark. It was a neo-noir story set in a startlingly fresh vision of a connected world, and it was particularly timely in 1995 since the internet was just finding its legs in the real world. The film's lead was a badass cyborg woman privy to bouts of existentialism. And, like the best cyberpunk science fiction, Ghost in the Shell (and its original manga) asked deep questions about our relationship with technology. There was little chance a Hollywood remake could successfully grasp what was special about its source material. And, unfortunately, the Scarlett Johansson vehicle is just as disappointing as we expected. It completely misses the point of cyberpunk.

  By Devindra Hardawar Read More

• The Engadget Podcast Ep 35: TV Party

  On this episode host Terrence O'Brien is joined by executive editor Dana Wollman and (eventually) senior editor Chris Velazco. They start by looking at the current state of cord cutting and weigh the value of YouTube's new live streaming TV package. Then they'll try to figure out what the benefit is of Netflix ditching its five star rating system for a simplified option of just thumbs up or thumbs down. Obviously you can watch YouTube and Netflix on an actual television, but portable screens are an increasingly important part of the media market. How does the new 2017 iPad stack up in that world of mobile media machines? Well, pretty good if you ask Chris -- at $329 it doesn't seem to have too many competitors. Lastly the trio sign off by recommending an album that will make you cry, a movie that will make you pee your pants and book you'll die before finishing.

  By Terrence O'Brien Read More

• A second TV show about video games is coming to Dave

  The glory days of GamesMaster might be long gone, but finally it seems there's renewed interest in video game-focused programming. Broadcaster UKTV has announced the second series of Go 8 Bit will begin airing on Dave on May 15th, and what's more, it'll be joined by a new spin-off show that takes a slightly more serious approach to games coverage. Go 8 Bit, hosted by Dara Ó Briain and games journo Ellie Gibson, pits button-bashing comedians and other celebs against each other in various video game challenges. The appropriately titled Go 8 Bit DLC, on the other hand, will complement that with "lively debates and reviews."

  By Jamie Rigg Read More

• MGM spends $1 billion to take full control of the Epix channel

  Epix has long been the baby of four studios (Lionsgate, MGM, Paramount and Viacom), but it's about to have just one parent. MGM has bought out the stakes of its partners for just over $1 billion, giving it full control over the internet-friendly, movie-focused TV channel. The move will still see Lionsgate and Paramount supplying first-run movies as part of "multi-year" deals, so don't panic about a sudden dearth of content -- this is more about a changing media landscape than any kind of feud.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Vote for Engadget R+D's 'Superhumans' series to win a Webby Award!

  Engadget R+D's first documentary Superhumans debuted back in September and now the series is up for a Webby Award. The look inside the first cyborg games is nominated for a People's Voice award in the Technology Film & Video category, but we need your help. Head over to the voting page between now and Thursday, April 20th to cast your vote for us. We would certainly appreciate it! It's not the first time we've been up for the prestigious award, but we would like to add some more hardware to our mantle. If you need a refresher on the series, you can re-watch every episode at the show hub right here.

  By Billy Steele Read More

• DirecTV doubles its live 4K broadcasts for this year's Masters

  Last year DirecTV made history with the first live 4K broadcast -- the PGA Masters Tournament. It was only one channel, sure, but up to that point anything we'd seen in UHD had been pre-recorded. For the outfit's return trip to the 4K links, DirecTV is doubling the number of channels available. CBS is handling production duties for channels 105 and 106 from April 6th through the 9th. The former will feature views from Amen Corner, while the latter is dedicated to holes 15 and 16.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• FX reel shows how 'Ghost in the Shell' developed its visual style

  By most accounts, the movie adaptation of Ghost in the Shell didn't live up to the visionary manga and anime it's based on, but it did create some stunning visuals. The film's holo-saturated neon cityscape was designed in major part by digital creative Ash Thorp, who recently put together a highlight reel of concepts and animations created for the film.

  By David Lumb Read More

• What's on TV: 'Rogue One,' 'Archer,' Louis CK and 'Chewing Gum'

  While March Madness is finally coming to an end, it's also time for some big spring premieres. Archer's latest season, Dreamland is here, and it's on FXX these days so check your cable lineup. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story makes its Blu-ray debut this week while the second season of Chewing Gum arrives on Netflix here in the US. Louis CK doubles up this week by appearing on Saturday Night Live and bringing a brand new comedy special to Netflix, while the biggest game releases are Persona 5 and PaRappa the Rapper Remastered. Oh, and Prison Break is back. Look after the break to check out each day's highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Survival horror game 'We Happy Few' is becoming a movie

  Video game movies tend to struggle in part because of their stories. What sounds good for an adventure or first-person shooter can fall flat when you're asked to construct a cinematic narrative around it. However, you might get something better this time around. Variety has learned that We Happy Few, Compulsion Games' paranoia-fueled tale of an English town gone terribly wrong, is becoming a movie. The company behind the Pitch Perfect movies, Gold Circle Entertainment, is working with dj2 Entertainment (also working on the Sleeping Dogs movie) to make it a reality.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

VPN (1)

• Good luck finding a safe VPN

  If you're most people, you just found out about the FCC's internet privacy rules by way of their untimely demise. Thanks to the FCC's new chief, Congress, and Donald Trump, ISPs are now free to track you like crazy and sell your data to the four directions. As a result, interest in VPNs exploded overnight.

  By Violet Blue Read More

Wearables (27)

• Fitbit says that Flex 2 didn't explode on its own

  Wisconsin resident Dina Mitchell said she suffered second-degree burns on her arm after her Fitbit Flex 2 suddenly caught fire on Tuesday, while she was reading a book. Today, Fitbit says that didn't happen.

  By Jessica Conditt Read More

• The next generation of VR enhancements coming to HTC Vive

  The first year of consumer virtual reality has been exciting, to be sure, but ask anybody in the industry, and they'll tell you that it's only the beginning. Engineers and developers are always chasing the next big thing in VR technology: wireless headsets, better walking simulation systems, eye-tracking and more. It's a long road to getting that better VR experience, but there's tons of room to grow -- and Vive's Virtual Reality Venture Capital Alliance is one group trying to help that happen. We stopped by the VRCA's fourth member meeting to see how the next generation of VR is coming along, and some of it is closer than you might think.

  By Sean Buckley Read More

• Acer is making yet another fitness wearable

  After a series of underwhelming attempts at making fitness wearables that track uncommon metrics, Acer is at it again with its new Leap Ware watch. The company hasn't shared many details yet, but there's one thing the company was happy to mention: The Ware will monitor your stamina, along with "more-effective fitness" metrics and a scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass screen.

  By Cherlynn Low Read More

• A Fitbit Flex 2 reportedly exploded on woman's arm

  Dina Mitchell was reading a book on Tuesday in her Wisconsin home when the Fitbit Flex 2 on her wrist exploded, causing second-degree burns, she told ABC News. Mitchell reportedly tore the device off of her arm as it was still on fire, and doctors had to remove melted plastic and rubber from the wound. She said she had worn the Flex 2 for about two weeks before the explosion.

  By Jessica Conditt Read More

• Delta removes the guilt from keeping in-flight headphones

  Starting on this summer, you'll find a pair of premium LSTN headphones in your seat when you fly overseas in business class with Delta. They're really not quite like your typically plain onboard headset, with beautiful wooden panels the headphones maker is known for. LSTN has been working with the carrier for the past two years to make the partnership happen, but not just for its own benefit. Now that the project is launching, it can help a lot more people hear again or for the first time ever: The socially responsible headphone company is donating 100 percent of the proceeds to the Starkey Hearing Foundation.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Engadget giveaway: Win a Glyph video headset courtesy of Avegant!

  If you enjoy the movie theater, but can't stand crowds, Avegant's Glyph could be your saving grace. This rechargeable audio/video headset projects a 720p private screening experience onto each of your eyeballs via compatible devices and a microHDMI connection. We'd have to say it's a viewing rig first and foremost, but it can double as standard headphones when flipped up. Not only is it great for movie viewing, but it's also a capable drone companion, letting you enjoy first-person perspectives and even leverage its 9-axis head tracking for flight control. You can also enjoy a variety of 3D PC games, as well as 360 video experiences. This week, Avegant has provided a Glyph headset for one lucky reader, but that's not all. Anyone can enjoy a $100 discount at the company's website with the code ENGADGET through April 27th. To enter, all you need to do is head to the Rafflecopter widget and get up to three chances at winning a free Glyph video headset. Winner: Congratulations to Frank M.

  By Jon Turi Read More

• NFL players can track and sell their own health data

  Professional athletes know that it's not just the matches and training sessions that matter: it's what you do in your downtime too. Whoop's wearable straps specialise in this area, tracking your movement, heart rate, and ambient temperature to better understand your health and recovery rate. Now, it's being adopted by the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA), which means straps will be handed out to every current and incoming player in the US. Whether they'll wear them is a mystery, but the hope is that they'll be used to track and optimize their training schedules, reducing injuries and improving in-game performance.

  By Nick Summers Read More

• DJI's first-person goggles look to the future of drone flight

  The new DJI Goggles put you in the cockpit of a quadcopter, giving you a first-person, VR-like experience in the real world. The goggles have a couple of screens through which you can see whatever the drone's camera is pointing at. You can even control where the camera is pointed simply by moving your head. While we were able to take a quick test-drive of this immersive headset last summer, the company's been rather coy about sharing specifics. Now, though, DJI has revealed a more detailed set of features for its goggles, as well as information on the new Ronin 2, an image-smoothing gimbal rig for professional filmmakers.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Running with an AI 'personal trainer' is fun, but expensive

  The artificial intelligence that we hope will exist in our lifetimes is a world away from what's available right now. A thinking computer that knows us better than we know ourselves, and can make us better than we are, is still the stuff of fantasy. But if our goals are simple and easy to understand, does an AI really need to be that smart to get the job done? For instance, can a pair of swanky headphones with an AI personal trainer make me a better runner?

  By Daniel Cooper Read More

• Michael Kors taps your Instagram feed to beautify your smartwatch

  Last month, Michael Kors announced a "My Social" app that lets you tap into your Instagram feed for watch face backgrounds. Today, the company is sharing a video that shows exactly how you'll do that and why you might want the feature. That is, if you already own one of the Michael Kors Access watches. The app rolls out to the company's Dylan and Bradshaw devices via an over-the-air update on April 25th. By the looks of the trailer, those smartwatches are about to get a lot better-looking.

  By Cherlynn Low Read More

• The only thing new about Nike's latest Apple Watch is the band

  When the Apple Watch Series 2 debuted some beefed-up fitness tracking features last year, the Nike+ variation looked like it would finally realize the full potential of Apple and Nike's long-running partnership. For the same price as the standard Apple Watch, the Nike edition comes preloaded with the Nike+ Run Club app, exclusive Siri commands and two run-oriented watch faces -- making it a no-brainer for runners already in the market for some Apple wristwear. Now Nike's designers are back with a new "neutral-toned" colorway just in time for the Spring running season.

  By Andrew Dalton Read More

• Huawei Watch 2 arrives in the US for $300

  Huawei Watch 2, the wearable we think Google should have used to launch Android Wear 2.0, is finally out in the US. Starting today, you can get the $300 standard variant with its mixed rubber strap in Carbon Black and Concrete Grey from the usual retailers, including Best Buy, Amazon, NewEgg and Walmart. There's a classic variant with a rubber-leather hybrid strap and a metallic casing in case you want something that looks more formal. However, that one's not yet available (it'll be out "soon," the company promises) and will set you back $370. If you do snap up one of the standard variants, you'll also get 10 free weeks of Google Play Music, which will come bundled with the device for a limited time.

  By Mariella Moon Read More

• Verizon's Android Wear 2.0 watch goes on sale May 11th

  Verizon's Android Wear 2.0 smartwatch broke from cover back in February with an scheduled launch for March. Well, that didn't happen. Today, the wireless carrier announced that its Wear24 device would go on sale both in stores and online May 11th. If you'll recall, the wearable is priced at $300 with a 2-year activation plus $5 month to tack one on to your data plan. Don't want to be locked in for 24 months? You can pay an extra $50 to buy a Wear24 without the extra paperwork.

  By Billy Steele Read More

• Alphabet's Verily details its research-focused health watch

  Google has made a smartwatch, but not the kind you might expect. Verily, the health organisation owned by Google parent company Alphabet, has (finally) announced its 'Study Watch' for medical research purposes. It doesn't run Android Wear, nor does it help you manage the notifications on your phone. Instead, it passively captures health data "critical to the success of continuous care platforms and clinical research," including heart rate, electrodermal activity (the skin's ability to conduct electricity) and body movement. It can also produce an ECG, a recording of the heart's electrical activity, which can sometimes reveal heart problems.

  By Nick Summers Read More

• A future Apple Watch could be essential for diabetics

  Apple is quietly developing a sensor that can monitor a person's blood sugar levels continuously and non-invasively. If successful, the technology will be integrated into a future version of the Apple Watch to help people with diabetes manage their condition. At least, that's the scuttlebutt being slung around by CNBC, which claims the project was set up by Steve Jobs before his death.

  By Daniel Cooper Read More

• Garmin's new Vivosmart tracks reps and stress

  Garmin's vivosmart 3 is here and it's packing guided breathing exercises, automatic rep counting in the gym and a supposed five-day battery life. Working in concert with the Garmin Connect mobile app, the vivosmart 3 will automatically label the exercises you've done in addition to counting them. But for now it sounds a bit on the limited side. Ars Technica reports that Connect isn't the best at telling between two different weight-training exercises yet, but given enough time (and app training) it will be able to discern between deadlifts and dumbbell curls.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• Acer's $300 Windows headset bodes well for the future of cheap VR

  For Microsoft, the future of computing is not only virtual reality but also "mixed reality," the company's term encapsulating AR and VR experiences. That started with HoloLens, but that device costs $3,000 and is targeted at developers. Microsoft has something else in mind for consumers: $300 VR headsets from PC makers like Dell and HP. Until now, the closest we've come to Microsoft's mixed reality vision was by touching (but not using) a Lenovo headset. That all changed last week, when I put on Acer's Windows 10 headset.

  By Devindra Hardawar Read More

• 'Face-sensing' headsets show your real-life expressions in VR

  Existing VR systems and experiences are immersive, engaging and sometimes even interactive. But they don't offer a quick, easy way for you to express your emotions. Medical device maker MindMaze has come up with a novel, compelling way to convey your facial expressions in VR called Mask. It's a foam insert that's compatible with existing headsets and uses diodes to read your biosignals and muscles. The potential applications here are plenty: You could deduce, from your opponents' faces, when they're preparing to shoot or see a new acquaintance laugh at your joke in social VR scenarios. But it won't be something you can buy. Instead, the company is licensing its technology to manufacturers to embed inside headsets.

  By Cherlynn Low Read More

• Misfit's Flare is a $60 no-frills fitness tracker

  If you're in the market for a bare-bones fitness tracker, Misfit has just unveiled the $60 Flare. It can track your steps, distance, calories and sleep quality, and you can program the touch-sensitive face to start and stop music or do a few other functions. Don't expect any fancy call or message notifications, movement reminders or other frills, though -- for that, you'll need to step up to Misfit's $100 Ray or Shine 2 trackers.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• Fitbit is having trouble making a smartwatch

  Ever since Fitbit introduced its Blaze fitness watch at CES 2016, there's been talk about the company building a "true" smartwatch. That conversation only intensified when Fitbit bought Pebble; its CEO confirmed such a product was in the works this past January. It looks like the mythical Fitbit watch might not be coming any time soon, though: Yahoo Finance is reporting that the product is plagued with production issues that'll push its planned launch back from this spring to the fall.

  By Nathan Ingraham Read More

• A vibrating smart bra keeps tabs on how zen you feel

  Name an article of clothing, and some company has probably crammed a fitness tracker into it. We've seen connected shirts, shoes and even bras. But most of these focus on the time you spend active -- steps walked, distance ran, stairs climbed and so on. But while keeping track of your exercise helps create a picture of your health, it's only half the image. What you do and how you feel while resting is also important. The Vitali is a new sports bra hitting Kickstarter today that focuses on the other side of your well-being, keeping track of your breathing, posture and heart rate to help you maintain that yoga-like calm on and off the mat.

  By Kris Naudus Read More

• Android Wear 2.0 is ready for a bunch of new watches

  It's a bit beat up, but my OLED-equipped LG G Watch R is still going strong (and bright) after nearly two years. So it's good news that, after being delayed by glitches, Android Wear 2.0 is rolling out this week to that model, the 2015 LG Watch Urbane and the more recent New Balance RunIQ.

  By Steve Dent Read More

• ZTE's first Android Wear watch is also one of the cheapest

  Android Wear 2.0's release has been delayed multiple times, and aside from a few watches that have just hit the market, there aren't many affordable ways to get Google's latest wearable OS right now. The good news is, a new option arrives in about two weeks via ZTE, which is making its first-ever Android Wear watch. It's called the Quartz, and it will be available on April 21 via T-Mobile for just $200. You can also get it online starting April 14th.

  By Cherlynn Low Read More

• Adidas Futurecraft 4D starts a new era of 3D-printed shoes

  Adidas is back with another sneaker based on a 3D-printed midsole, but this time the company says it's moving even closer to mass production. The Futurecraft 4D shoe will be the first one using Carbon's "Digital Light Synthesis" process. The Silicon Valley company's tech creates 3D items by blasting liquid with light, which Adidas says will allow it to operate on "a completely different manufacturing scale." The shoes themselves have a slightly different midsole than their predecessors too, matching last week's leaked model with a midsole that protrudes horizontally, increasing the visual 3D effect.

  By Richard Lawler Read More

• Wink to send a text with these experimental earbuds

  We're always looking for new ways to control our mobile phones without using our hands, whether we're driving or at work. Voice control is fine but not always welcome in quiet spaces. The next frontier? Facial expressions. Imagine winking to pause your music while in the car, or smiling to text a smiley face. It could even help those with motor disabilities, too.

  By Rob LeFebvre Read More

• Your Pebble watch will still work after its servers shut down

  After Fitbit bought the beleaguered Pebble last November, we bid a fond (and at times bitter) farewell to the first big fitness smartwatch. Its acquisition spelled the beginning of the end for the device, given how dependent it is on cloud services. Or so it seemed: Pebble just released a final update that liberates its lingering diaspora of smartwatches from online servers, allowing folks to keep using their devices and linked smartphone apps once Fitbit finally kills its cloud component.

  By David Lumb Read More

• ICYMI: DIY Iron Man

  Today on In Case You Missed it: British inventor Richard Browning show us his (slow, careful) flights across a test area using his "Daedelus" jet pack prototype. Daedelus consists of six kerosene-powered microjets strapped to his limbs, which doesn't sound dangerous at all. While that might sound like a bad idea, the system "flies" at a walking pace, and the wearer only hovers about six to ten feet off the ground. For his part, Browning's convinced the jets are safe, stating that he uses small amounts of kerosene and has a dead-man's switch to kill the set-up when not pressed. For now, Browning is mostly shopping the device around at exhibitions, but he hopes it will one day be used by rescue or military personnel.

  By Amber Bouman Read More

Xbox (8)

• Xbox chief envisions a Netflix model for narrative games

  Microsoft has just tipped its hand for what the company will show off at E3 in June. In a wide-ranging interview with The Guardian, Xbox chief Phil Spencer laid out his plans for the future of Xbox software. Since (mostly) fixing a majority of the problems the Xbox One hardware and system software has suffered through since 2013 with the Xbox One S and the Creator's Update for Xbox firmware, Spencer is focusing on the other problem Microsoft faces: its dearth of unique and compelling reasons to buy into the improved Xbox platform.

  By Timothy J. Seppala Read More

• You're not too old to play with Hot Wheels in 'Forza Horizon 3'

  The second Forza Horizon 3 expansion is coming out soon and it's bringing a big dose of childhood nostalgia along with it. Hot Wheels and their iconic bright orange tracks arrive on May 9th as part of the Forza Horizon 3 Expansion Pass or as standalone DLC for $19.99.

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

• Xbox One update makes your game streams easier to find

  We know you're probably still salivating over the latest Project Scorpio details and the promise of next-gen games, but for now you've still got a perfectly good console tucked under your living room TV. Microsoft recently pushed a major Xbox One update -- a redesigned UI and support for Beam broadcasting among the highlights -- and it's just started rolling out even more new features. Nothing huge, but likely welcome all the same since Microsoft says they were all inspired by user feedback. There's a new "Join broadcast" button on profile pages that lets people quickly view live game streams, for one, as well the ability to hide, pin and filter posts on the Activity Feed tab.

  By Jamie Rigg Read More

• Project Scorpio's generous specs let game makers go wild

  Microsoft's Project Scorpio console promises to be seriously powerful compared to the Xbox One, but what good is all that power if your games don't take advantage of it? You might not have to worry too much. The company has dished out details on its Scorpio developer kit, and it's evident that creators will have a relatively easy time making use of the 4K-capable system. To begin with, it's considerably more powerful than the Scorpio console itself, with specs that are closer to a nice gaming PC: it has twice as much RAM (24GB), a slightly faster graphics processor and a 1TB solid-state drive to go alongside the built-in hard drive. Unlike many dev kits, which often force studios to be conservative with their designs until they know the hardware can handle it, Scorpio encourages creators to build the most elaborate game they can and scale back only if they get a little too ambitious.

  By Jon Fingas Read More

• Relive 'Call of Duty: Black Ops II' on Xbox One starting today

  Ask a Xbox One fan what game they'd most like to see added to the console's backwards compability list and you'll probably get Call of Duty: Black Ops II as an answer. It was the most-requested title on the Xbox Feedback site. Even Xbox boss Phil Spencer once told a fan on Twitter he really wanted to see it come to the Xbox One.

  By Stefanie Fogel Read More

• Xbox One now supports Dolby Atmos and DTS:X audio

  Just as Microsoft promised last fall, the Xbox One finally has support for next-generation audio formats like Dolby Atmos and DTS:X -- provided you have a recent home theater receiver that supports them. You just have to flip on the "bitstream passthrough" feature in the console's Blu-ray settings to get things going, which lets your receiver do all the audio decoding work.

  By Devindra Hardawar Read More

• Microsoft's 'Project Scorpio' Xbox promises true 4K gaming

  If you've been wondering just how powerful Microsoft's 'Project Scorpio' Xbox will be, dream no longer. A series of pieces co-written by Eurogamer and Digital Foundry have listed the full specs for the living room console, and suffice to say it's shaping up to be a bit of a beast. Inside each system will be a CPU featuring eight custom x86 cores, clocked at 2.3 GHz, a custom GPU with 40 customised compute units clocked at 1172MHz -- an "unprecedently high clock speed for a console," Eurogamer writes -- and 12GB of GDDR5 RAM. Players will also have 1TB, 2.5-inch hard drive to play around with, and a 4K UHD Blu-ray drive. Take that, PlayStation 4 Pro.

  By Nick Summers Read More

• Microsoft will unveil the next Xbox's specs on Thursday

  Last fall, Sony outraced the competition in releasing the PS4 Pro, their half-step improvement on current consoles that includes better tech to handle VR gaming. Microsoft's mid-generation successor to the Xbox One, known as Project Scorpio, was in no shape to try beating Sony's to market, but it's rumored to be a far more powerful system. Just how much beefier has been confined to rumor and isolated reports, but soon we'll have the official word on Scorpio's technical guts ahead of its planned full reveal at E3 2017. On Thursday at 9AM ET, Microsoft is releasing the specs for its upcoming system.

  By David Lumb Read More