GUEST: Chatbots and conversational UI are among the most hyped technologies of 2016. Chatbots are computer programs that can maintain automated text conversations with users through use of artificial intelligence and natural language processing. Early excitement about chatbots ha … | Continue reading
The internet doesn’t have a discrimination problem; people on the internet have a discrimination problem. This problem became Airbnb’s problem back in May, much like it became the problem of Uber, Facebook, Twitter and hundreds of other tech companies before that. After the hasht … | Continue reading
Picture this: a pair of headphones plugged into 3.5mm dongle, which is then plugged into a Lightning adapter, which is then plugged into your phone. That is the reality we live in now that Apple removed the headphone jack on the new iPhone 7. Because the new phone only has one Li … | Continue reading
SpotHero is not new to the on-demand parking game. It raised $2.5 million in 2012, and another $20 million in series B funding in 2015. This for a service that allows drivers to prepay for a parking space in a garage via app before the car ever leaves the driveway. “You can reser … | Continue reading
The era of Mage and Rogue dominance in Arena is possibly coming to an end. Blizzard announced major changes designed to make the Arena mode of its popular digital card game Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft more fair. Hearthstone generates more than $20 million a month from in-game … | Continue reading
A company called Budnitz introduced what it says is the "world's lightest" electric bike. It's called the Budnitz Model E. It has a single speed, is made of titanium alloy, and can help riders reach up to 15mph for up to 100 miles. It's custom-made in Vermont and everything you'l … | Continue reading
Alexa is ready to speak freely.Amazon's digital assistant will soon be able to talk to you even if you haven't issued a voice command, according to a new paywalled report from The Information. As the outlet put it, your Echo could tell you when your Uber has arrived rather than w … | Continue reading
The Deputy Chairman of Russia’s central bank has poured cold water on the frenzied buzz surrounding blockchain, opining that the innovation is still years away from being adopted by the banking industry. Speaking at a banking conference that focused on Russian banks in the 21st c … | Continue reading
Yosemite National Park announced yesterday that it's growing by 400 acres, The New York Times reports. Though that's not a lot of land for a park that totals 1,169 square miles, the expansion is significant because it includes wetlands — key environmental areas that improve water … | Continue reading
Fluent City, the most New York startup you’ll read about today, announced today that it scored a $2.5 million. Fluent City started as a service offering language classes in Manhattan and Brooklyn. However, with the new funding, the startup wants to expand to other courses, includ … | Continue reading
If you’ve ever looked at a phone and thought that’s just too expensive, you’re most definitely not the only one. Buying new phones is certainly an investment, especially when it comes to flagship devices. This another option however: buying refurbished.Refurbished phones are almo … | Continue reading
The untouched wilderness on this planet is disappearing — and disappearing fast. That's bad news, and not just because trees look nice: we depend on vast swathes of pristine nature to support diverse forms of life, to keep climate change at bay, and to ensure that local economies … | Continue reading
Influencer marketing has proven to be a very effective way for brands large and small to build credibility and trust with their audience. However, many influencer marketing programs fail before they even get off the ground. But why? There are many reasons that these programs don’ … | Continue reading
Following yesterday’s iPhone 7 announcement, Apple is announcing that new AppleCare+ members will be able to get their cracked screens fixed for $29. This is big news for everyone who uses an iPhone with AppleCare+, and ultimately, anyone who owns an iPhone to begin with.It’s wor … | Continue reading
With training camp less than three weeks away and their first preseason game set for Oct. 8, the Minnesota Timberwolves still are waiting to hear from veteran forward Kevin Garnett on his decision to play in 2016-17 or to retire. “Kevin hasn’t told me or informed me yet if he’s c … | Continue reading
A senior Bank of England official says the central bank's fintech accelerator is looking for new blockchain opportunities. | Continue reading
Although the wearable companion to the popular augmented reality game was slated a July release, Pokemon Go Now is finally coming September 16. | Continue reading
Managing the App Store can be one of the most difficult experiences for new developers. Getting noticed is hard, the experience isn’t that great, and now Apple is allowing search ads. And to make things more interesting, there’s a lot of interest in different platforms beyond tra … | Continue reading
So the day has now drawn to a close, and it’s time to take a look at how things played out, and how we can interpret the action we saw during the session as far as putting together an actionable strategy for this evening is concerned. Volatility looks to have finally returned to … | Continue reading
Twitter is currently rolling out read receipts in Direct Messaging, showing a blue check mark next to a message's timestamp when it has been read. That check mark can currently only be seen Twitter's mobile apps on Android and iOS, but will also be generated when messages are vie … | Continue reading
Photos in iOS 10 is better than ever, but it’s still not as good as Google Photos. Today, Google’s photo app got even better by baking in the ability to edit iOS Live Photos and turn them into easily shareable GIFs or movies. Granted, the feature was already available, but before … | Continue reading
Apple has released the iOS 10 Gold Master to members of its public beta program ahead of the wide release on Tuesday, September 13. Developers received the update yesterday. That means beta testers are getting basically the same version everyone else will five days in advance, ba … | Continue reading
On The Missing Link, Jabez interviews The LinkedIn Lady, Carol McManus. She shares three pillars to building influence and establishing a successful brand. | Continue reading
Google parent company Alphabet is teaming up with fast casual chain Chipotle to test drone delivery for Virginia Tech students, according to a report from Bloomberg. The pilot program marks a turning point for Alphabet’s Project Wing division, giving the team ample room to experi … | Continue reading
True Blood and Magic Mike star Joe Manganiello has been cast to play the main supervillain Deathstroke in Warner Bros.’s upcoming solo Batman movie. According to The Wall Street Journal, DC Films head Geoff Johns confirmed the casting during an interview about his role in DC’s mo … | Continue reading
We're salivating over the new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, but not so much over the new Apple Watch Series 2.At its two-hour long Apple event on Wednesday, the company tried its best to go through as many core new features of the new iPhones and Apple Watch as time permitted. But there a … | Continue reading
Whether you’re working out of a dorm room or running a billion dollar company, a little pivot can go a long way. At their worst, pivots can derail a company’s success, but at their best, they demonstrate a company is still attuned to its user base — no matter how big it gets. Dig … | Continue reading
Blockchain technology isn't ready to replace banks today, according to a high-ranking official at Russia's central bank. | Continue reading
Everyone expects GPUs like Nvidia's Tesla P100 in purpose-built AI servers, but optimizing memory access is also a major issue. IBM is using Nvidia's NVLink to help with that bottleneck. | Continue reading
As we barrel ahead toward a world without headphone jacks, Astell & Kern is providing a new way to take advantage of the wireless future we have been forced into enjoy. The AK XB10 is a wireless DAC (digital-to-analog converter) and amp that will let you use your wired headphones … | Continue reading
Twitter announced today a handful of upgrades coming to its messaging service on iOS and Android, introducing read receipts, typing indicator bubbles, and detailed previews for links — the latter being a noteworthy change for a social network that once banned external links in DM … | Continue reading
At the iPhone 7 launch event yesterday, Tim Cook and the Apple team announced the device's new features, which include controversially removing the headphone jack.On The Late Show last night, Stephen Colbert did his best Tim Cook impersonation to announce some of the iPhone 7's p … | Continue reading
Apple introduced the iPhone 7 sans 3.5mm jack but with new 'revolutionary AirPods'. Today we find out they'll work with Android, but are they worth buying? | Continue reading
Late last month, news broke of the exoplanet Proxima Centauri b. Orbiting the closest star to our Solar System, there’s a lot to love about Proxima b since it shares a few key traits with our own home planet.But before we start making intergalactic vacation plans, let’s pump the … | Continue reading
As you may have read on this site, Apple had an event yesterday and we attended. Walt and Nilay met up in San Francisco for this week's episode of Ctrl-Walt-Delete and they invited Vergecast regulars Lauren Goode and Dieter Bohn to the show where they discussed their first impres … | Continue reading
Democrat Hillary Clinton criticized Donald Trump at a press conference Thursday, calling the Republican nominee's praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin "unpatriotic and insulting" and saying his comments about seizing foreign oil were absurd. Photo: AP | Continue reading
The iPhone 7 event yesterday might as well have been met with a collective ‘meh’ from the world. You probably already know the story: it’s got the form of an iPhone 6s, upgraded internals, better cameras and no headphone jack. The iPhone 7 is a beautiful example of incrementing t … | Continue reading
Google today said that it has updated its Google Photos app for iOS with the image stabilization technology that it first implemented in the Motion Stills iOS app it released earlier this year. “Now, with the latest Google Photos update on iOS, you can make your Live Photos smoot … | Continue reading
I’m a serial fidgeter. Put me in a meeting and I’ll bob my knees like a maniac, I’ll tear apart coffee cup holders into little shreds, and I’ll pick off the nail polish off my fingers. Now there’s... | Continue reading
There is a new generation of companies exerting such great influence on society that they’re essentially becoming utilities. Google, Amazon, Facebook and Uber are near monopolies that provide services as integral to our modern life as power, telephone and transportation systems w … | Continue reading
This episode of StudioPress FM features Tonya Mork of Know the Code. She is known for planting seeds and inspiring folks to consider a different approach. | Continue reading
Pokémon Go has achieved a number of records since its debut – the most downloaded app in its first week ever and the fastest to reach 50 million installs on Google Play, for example – but now you can add one more to the list: the fastest game to reach $500 million in revenue. Acc … | Continue reading
Online merchants spend a lot of money on chargebacks, which are demands by credit card providers to reimburse for fraudulent charges. That’s why Signifyd created technology that assesses a transaction risk before the card is processed. The San Jose-based company is raising $19 mi … | Continue reading
2016 might be the year that HTTP finally dies. Chrome’s security team announced today that the browser will start marking websites that use insecure HTTP connections to transmit passwords and credit card data as insecure, beginning in January 2017. The warning will appear in the … | Continue reading
The Dark Web is the mucky underbelly of the Internet. This is a lawless domain, where the rule of law doesn’t exist, and anything goes. If you’ve got the money, you can get your hands on narcotics, fake passports, firearms, even hitmen. And according to Israeli threat intelligenc … | Continue reading
Following numerous reports of exploding batteries, Samsung might have a huge Galaxy Note 7 emergency on its hands as a man from Florida claims his phone blew up, setting his car on fire. According to a report from FOX 13 News, the incident took place this Monday shortly after Nat … | Continue reading
BuzzFeed’s John Paczkowski has a big story diving into Apple’s decision to kill the headphone jack, which is definitely worth a read. Basically, the company’s decision boiled down to letting go of a single-use analog port to create more room inside the phone’s case for a larger b … | Continue reading
With Apple’s Health app getting a big upgrade in iOS 10, the company is putting a lot of focus on helping its users live a healthier life. When you open the updated app, you’ll be greeted by friendly-looking videos that explain the different key areas to you. They all look amazin … | Continue reading