Xiaomi and Microsoft announced today that they’re deepening a previously established partnership to encompass work on cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and PC hardware. Thus far, the two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding, pledging to evaluate future aven … | Continue reading
As Ubisoft prepares to launch its third season, Rainbow Six: Siege is more popular than ever. But the publisher is introducing something outside of the tactical shooter’s core asymmetrical multiplayer with its new Outbreak mode. Unlike the head-to-head gameplay that has helped Si … | Continue reading
Pointedly expanding its efforts to address Chinese cybersecurity threats, the United States today urged Australia to keep Huawei equipment out of its 5G networks, reports Australia’s Financial Review. U.S. lawmakers and security agencies previously lobbied top U.S. carriers to cu … | Continue reading
The nonprofit 1,000 Dreams Fund (1DF) is celebrating Women’s History Month with its Twitch BroadcastHER Grant for women creators who livestream. From March 1 to April 1, it has partnered with Twitch to run a charity stream that will feature 10 women broadcasters. The goal is to e … | Continue reading
Faced with atypically slow 4G cellular networks, India has taken its first step towards higher-speed 5G service, as leading Indian carrier Bharti Airtel and China’s Huawei have successfully completed India’s first 5G network trial. Last week, India committed to finalizing its 5G … | Continue reading
Phil Spencer, executive vice president of gaming at Microsoft, spoke from the heart about diversity and being a leader in building a better culture at the company at the opening of the elite game conference, the DICE Summit, this week in Las Vegas. I was proud to see a leader of … | Continue reading
Apple’s wireless charging pad, dubbed AirPower, will likely ship in March, according to a new report from the generally reliable Japanese blog MacOtakara. While Apple pre-announced the multi-device Qi charging accessory last September with an ambiguous 2018 release date, the blog … | Continue reading
EXCLUSIVE: As more and more manufacturers have adopted nearly bezel-less, 18:9 displays and have even begun to move them downmarket, Sony Mobile has remained stubbornly attached to generous top and bottom bezels throughout its lineup. That will end Sunday, on the eve of Barcelon … | Continue reading
VB LIVE: Practical use cases for AI are delivering concrete, powerful business results, from reducing customer service costs to reliably helping deliver what a customer wants, when they want it and where. It’s time to get AI-savvy to keep your competitive edge. Join Kayak’s chief … | Continue reading
Samsung has rescued Opera Software’s Opera Max data-saving, privacy-protecting Android browser app from oblivion and relaunched it today as Samsung Max. Norwegian tech company Opera, which first became known for its desktop browser when it launched in 1995, has offered mobile bro … | Continue reading
(Reuters) — Intel did not inform U.S. cyber security officials of the so-called Meltdown and Spectre chip security flaws until they leaked to the public, six months after Alphabet notified the chipmaker of the problems, according to letters sent by tech companies to lawmakers on … | Continue reading
Nintendo scored big at the DICE Awards, one of gaming’s biggest nights for honoring the best games of the year. Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild won Game of the Year. The DICE Awards are selected by industry peers who are members of the Academy of Interactive Ar … | Continue reading
Genyo Takeda, 68, received the Lifetime Achievement award at the prestigious DICE Awards tonight during the DICE Summit elite gaming event in Las Vegas. Takeda was honored for his work on generations of Nintendo game consoles, including the Nintendo 64, GameCube, and the Nintendo … | Continue reading
Sony knows that you’re having trouble getting into some games on your PlayStation 4 this evening. The publisher has acknowledged an outage of its PlayStation Network service, and it has dispatched a team to get the servers back up and running. The company has updated the PSN stat … | Continue reading
U.K. esports fans will have more to look forward to than just tuning into see how the London Spitfire are doing in the Overwatch League. Esports platform Faceit is bringing the biggest Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament to the U.K. later this year. The CS: GO Major will … | Continue reading
Discord is expanding its Verified Servers program to include esports teams and leagues. The company has already welcomed game developers and musicians to start official channels on the powerful chat app. Now, fans of Team Liquid and Cloud 9 can find the online homes for those squ … | Continue reading
GUEST: As I wrote back in June, startups in the VR/AR space are wading through a shroud of mystery as to when the industry’s winter will give way to widespread traction and mainstream adoption. I also offered an example of an exceptional case earlier this month about how a UK-bas … | Continue reading
Google subsidiary DeepMind announced today that it’s working with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to use machine learning in an attempt to predict when patients will deteriorate during a hospital stay. Deterioration (when patients get worse under hospital care) is a signi … | Continue reading
GUEST: In Brian Aldiss’ landmark short story “Supertoys Last All Summer Long,” a child whiles the day away with his sentient teddy bear. Since the story was published in 1969, the “boy and his robot” trope has become a staple of science fiction. According to new research, however … | Continue reading
The 14th annual International Mobile Gaming Awards (IMGA) has announced 174 nominations in 13 different categories, including the Grand Prix award. Most of the winners will be determined by a jury panel, but folks can vote online for the People’s Choice award on the IMGA website. … | Continue reading
PRESS RELEASE: Complai, the Austin-based makers of Shep, today announced the company has closed a $1.4 million seed funding round led by Moonshots Capital with participation from the Capital Factory, an Austin-based accelerator and fund. The financing... | Continue reading
The new Metal Gear game is out from publisher and global pachinko-gambling syndicate Konami, and as far as I can tell, it’s about drinking dirty water and struggling with the inventory system. OK — that’s not true. It’s actually about surviving in another hell dimension by findin … | Continue reading
PRESS RELEASE: Augmented reality marketplace Surreal has rebranded as Leo AR and joined visioncamp, a new accelerator program operated by betaworks. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180222006332/en/ … | Continue reading
GUEST: Few emerging technologies generate as much buzz as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and chatbots. Even so, it seems like these new technologies explode onto the public radar, then vanish as quickly as they arrive. Behind the scenes, though, companies and resea … | Continue reading
Paradox Interactive revealed today that its space strategy game Stellaris has passed 1.5 million copies sold since launching in May 2016. The in-house development team, Paradox Development Studio, also released the Apocalypse expansion today, which features new planet-scale comba … | Continue reading
Epic Games’ hit multiplayer shooter Fortnite: Battle Royale is starting Season 3 today, and with it comes a new Battle Pass that gives players access to a new wave of cosmetic items, including costumes, gliders, pickaxes, and more. It also includes some new console frame-rate opt … | Continue reading
Airbnb today announced a series of changes to its app to give people more ways to decide what kind of home they want to stay in when away from home. Starting this summer, Airbnb will now allow people to search for properties based on new categories like unique homes, vacation hom … | Continue reading
FanAI has raised $2.5 million in seed funding for its platform that uses artificial intelligence to monetize esports fans. Esports ventures are getting a lot of funding these days, and market researcher Newzoo believes esports will grow to $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion in 2020. Sa … | Continue reading
Indigo Fair, a platform that connects independent retailers with makers and manufacturers, has raised $12 million in a series A round of funding led by Khosla Ventures and Forerunner Ventures, with participation from Sequoia. Founded out of San Francisco in 2017, Indigo Fair targ … | Continue reading
SPONSORED: Presented by CSG The future is here — but that doesn’t mean we can’t still look forward. It’s easy to ask how smart devices can get smarter; to wonder how to satisfy a plugged-in society that’s used to having every convenience at a literal arm’s length. “Customers expe … | Continue reading
Google passed Facebook as the top referral traffic driver in 2017 as the search giant doubled down on mobile and the social giant cleaned up its News Feed. That move resulted in an even bigger change last year: Search overtook social in 2017, after the two first swapped spots in … | Continue reading
It’s been quite a year for beauty brand Glossier (pronounced gloss-ee-ay). In 2017, the New York City-based startup added two product categories and expanded to new markets, opening offices in London and Montreal — it acquired Canadian tech agency Dynamo in December. Today, Gloss … | Continue reading
Apple is working on at least two new versions of its wireless AirPods earphones, according to a Bloomberg report this morning, with plans to release one as early as this year, and the next as early as next year. Each of the new models is expected to bolster existing features rath … | Continue reading
Period-tracking app Clue announced today that it is launching on Fitbit’s Ionic smartwatch, thereby allowing women to track their period, PMS symptoms, sexual activity, energy, and fertility windows directly from their wrists. “The new Clue app on Ionic is the next step in giving … | Continue reading
Intel today announced a wide-ranging partnership with a consortium of leading PC makers to begin developing personal computers than can fully leverage the power of 5G networks. The intention is to use Intel’s XXM 8000 series 5G modem as the foundation of a new generation of devic … | Continue reading
GameChanger Charity has received $18 million worth of donations in the last two months toward its goal of using video games to help sick kids. The nonprofit also announcing a new venture, ZOTT, which is a content platform specifically for children in hospitals. Former Twitch exec … | Continue reading
ANALYSIS: When is a bus not a bus? Give up? When it’s an eight-seater private hire vehicle designed to bypass strict city regulations. If that punchline didn’t have you laughing out loud, well, you should know it wasn’t a joke. Popular city transit app Citymapper is launching its … | Continue reading
Entrepreneurs can access plenty of data about the business conditions in Silicon Valley. But entrepreneurs outside of the coasts often don’t have access to the same level of coverage and surveys about how diverse their workforce is, or how many entrepreneurs are raising funding. … | Continue reading
Lighthouse is launching a new home security camera powered by voice commands and artificial intelligence. It lets you ask who was jumping around in the living room after you find a broken vase on the floor. And it will tell you if there’s a burglar in your home or if it’s just on … | Continue reading
SPONSORED: Presented by Intel Anyone involved in virtual reality over the course of the past few years, whether as a developer of VR, as a user of VR, or simply tracking the industry’s progress, will agree there’s a word they’ve heard a few times too many: Holodeck. The well-trod … | Continue reading
Facebook has officially opened its first in-house incubator, which will be housed in its London headquarters. The company first announced LDN_LAB back in December when it opened its new HQ in the U.K. capital. The incubator will launch three 12-week courses throughout 2018, with … | Continue reading
PRESS RELEASE: Tinyclues, provider of a leading AI-first marketing campaign intelligence solution, today announced the closing of a USD 18 million Series B investment. Lead investor in the round was the EQT Ventures fund ("EQT Ventures"), with... | Continue reading
(Reuters) — Twitter said on Wednesday it would no longer allow people to post identical messages from multiple accounts, cracking down on a tactic that Russian agents and others have allegedly used to make tweets or topics go viral. The San Francisco-based social network also sai … | Continue reading
Last week, I wrote about Venture for America founder Andrew Yang’s unlikely run for president, with the aim of convincing the general public about the need for universal basic income. Whether or not one agrees that UBI is a necessity in today’s digital economy, the stories highli … | Continue reading
GUEST: Why is the allure of virtual reality in the enterprise becoming increasingly difficult to resist for many marketers? Are there real-world use cases in business-to-business (B2B) marketing today, and will these translate into sales venues any time soon? While some companies … | Continue reading
Amazon Web Services launched its Serverless Application Repository out of beta, which provides developers with an easy way to kick-start their use of its Lambda application development tool. | Continue reading
GUEST: The self-driving car industry is developing rapidly, and companies are competing not just to perfect the technology first, but also to figure out and execute the type of autonomous vehicle model that’s most likely to be profitable and accepted by the general public. Origin … | Continue reading
Hardware sales doubled year-over-year in January, according to industry-tracking firm The NPD Group. Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony all benefited from that spending. “Hardware spending in January 2018 grew 119 percent when compared to year ago, to $278 million,” NPD analyst Mat Pi … | Continue reading