As Apple continues to publicly battle the FBI, which wants the company to unlock an iPhone used by the terrorist at the center of the San Bernardino shooting, John Oliver has finally taken on why encryption is important. Oliver explained why everyone should care about encryption … | Continue reading
When Microsoft acquired Mojang in 2014 for $2.5 billion, the idea was for the tech giant to break into mobile gaming with the developer’s massively popular title, Minecraft. Now, researchers at Microsoft are using a new platform called AIX to train an artificial intelligence agen … | Continue reading
Apple has been all over the news over the past few weeks after the FBI asked the company to help it unlock an iPhone owned by one of the terrorists involved in the San Bernadino attacks. The war on encryption is now heating up: The Justice Department is going after Facebook-owned … | Continue reading
The man behind Team GhostShell — the hacker collective behind some of the biggest cyber attacks in recent memory, including attacks on the FBI, NASA and the Pentagon as well as a leak that saw 2.5 million Russian “government, educational, academic, political and law enforcement” … | Continue reading
At the IBM Cognitive Studio at SXSW, the company demoed its beloved emotion-reading robot, Pepper. More than 7,000 robots have been deployed at Japanese stores, cruise ships and hotels, with goals of providing guest services, entertainment, and advertising promotional events. Thi … | Continue reading
We’ve had several decades of platforms and apps collecting data about us – and in a heavyweight panel on Sunday at SXSW, the debate turned to how that data is being used to both make assumptions about us and alter the products and services we’re offered. In the introduction, Ashk … | Continue reading
Over the past few weeks, the FBI has been trying to force Apple into helping it open the iPhone 5c that belonged to San Bernadino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook. Apple has refused – and a slew of other tech companies have joined the tech giant in claiming that what the FBI wants pose … | Continue reading
The ‘connected home’ is a concept we’ve heard a lot about over the past few years, but how about the connected yard? At SXSW, Scotts – the company behind gardening brands like Miracle-Gro and Weedol – has been showing off its Gro ‘Connected Yard’ offering that is set to launch in … | Continue reading
This week, the US patent office issued 5,436 patents. Each patent adds a little something new to the human knowledge base. As we cannot list all five thousand, the PatentYogi team has selected the six most interesting patents. Apple’s multi-function device US 20160070399 Apple fi … | Continue reading
As we’ve reported several times over the past few weeks, Apple’s ongoing spat with the FBI and phone hacking is a big deal. Just to recap: the Federal Bureau of Investigation claims that it requires Apple’s assistance to bypass the “auto-erase” feature on San Bernadino shooter Sy … | Continue reading
SXSW is known as the tech conference at which bizarre things happen, whether its people queuing for hours to have their photo taken with a cat, or companies spending huge amounts of money to build promotional landmarks, such as a life sized TIE Fighter. But quietly and away from … | Continue reading
Basic coding is becoming a fundamental requirement in the digital world, but the good news is that most anyone can learn the ropes in a few hours. The Coding 101 Bundle is a great place to start, with eight courses covering the fundamentals of Web and app development available at … | Continue reading
Invites send to everyone who’s ever known you: check. Dungeons and drag queen theme: check. Glowing aurora jungle juice: check. What else is missing to throw that epic party of yours? Technology! It never hurts to throw some of the cool gadgets in there to make your event merrier … | Continue reading
This weekend, the world’s greatest Go player beat Google’s AlphaGo, an AI program developed by Google’s DeepMind unit. Lee Se-dol, the 33-year-old South Korean has been pitted against a machine in a game that is arguably the most technically challenging thing to take place on a b … | Continue reading
Those of us in America are very familiar with the rights of free speech — we take the First Amendment very seriously. But when global platforms like Facebook and Google are charged with protecting the value of hate speech, even in places where it’s more common to be mindful of hu … | Continue reading
Leave it to HBO to use SXSW as an annual opportunity to amp up the upcoming season of ‘Game of Thrones.’ This year, the team at the cleverly-named SXSWesteros exhibit keeps it current with The Hall of Faces, the theme in one of GoT’s latest season six trailers. Fans of the show – … | Continue reading
Sony has launched a new research and development program called Future Lab, and is at SXSW demoing the first prototypes from the program, including a new wearable device with the working name “N.” The device responds to voice prompts and can be used to receive information, like n … | Continue reading
It wouldn’t be SXSW with a handful of experiences that explore the boundaries of the weird and wonderful parts of technology. Last night I had the pleasure of interacting with a giant, stark white ‘playground’ that looked like one part Chuck E. Cheese interactive station and one … | Continue reading
Does your business need a mobile app, but you don’t know how to code? Thankfully, accelerating advancements in tech have delivered a robust market for app making software, and the influx of simple app creators is just getting started. ShoutEm helps you design a quality app and pr … | Continue reading
Tensions between the authorities and Apple are steadily rising over the infamous “San Bernardino phone”, and the vibe in techland is strained. Many are awaiting the conclusion of this butting-of-heads between the private sector and the government – where the outcome is sure to be … | Continue reading
What do you call people who are stretching the limits of their imaginations to engineer a new future? At The Next Web, we went with imagineers. We want to offer our favourite entrepreneurs and pioneers a platform to share the visions and insights that will shape our future, which … | Continue reading
After launching a small Linux-based device that can mine Bitcoin and make machine-to-machine payments last year, 21 has launched a micropayments marketplace that allows people to trade digital goods using cryptocurrency. The 21 Marketplace’s initial focus is on enabling developer … | Continue reading
Amazon has teamed up with Capital One Financial Corporation to let you make a number of bank transactions using only your voice with the company’s Alexa-enabled devices like the Echo, Tap and Echo Dot. Once you’ve turned on the Capital One skill in the Alexa app, you can check yo … | Continue reading
Yahoo is in turmoil. Its CEO and Board are pursuing different paths to either return it to solvency or a shell corporation. Much of what’s being discussed is what the company should do with core assets, two of which are Flickr and Tumblr. CEO Marissa Meyer says she wants three ye … | Continue reading
On launch, Apple’s new MacBook didn’t have much going for it with regard to accessories. Now that USB-C is more familiar to device manufacturers, we’re getting some really powerful plug-in devices, and Minix’s NEO C is no different. The hub plugs into a MacBook’s USB-C port and o … | Continue reading
Google has been hard at work on developing the driverless car for 8 years now, and more than ever there’s promise that we will live in a future where driving is no longer required. But just how far off are we before we have mass adoption of the driverless car? Google Self-Driving … | Continue reading
As President Obama makes his historic appearance at SXSW, it was clear the topic of Apple versus FBI was the elephant in the room. Though Obama spent most of the one-hour conversation on the importance of innovation to leverage civic engagement, he managed to avoid commenting on … | Continue reading
President Barack Obama today kicked off SXSW with an opening keynote urging attendees to utilize technology and innovation as a way to encourage civic engagement. It is the first time a sitting president has made an appearance at the Austin festival. “We are at a moment in histor … | Continue reading
If you’re keeping up with USB-C, you know there are a rising number of peripherals and cables coming out all the time. Moshi’s new Charge Cable for the MacBook may be the best of the lot, though. Though it may seem like any other USB-C cable, Moshi has actually put quite a bit of … | Continue reading
Google took pretty much everyone by surprise when it announced the Android N Developer Preview yesterday, over two months before the expected announcement at Google I/O. After joining the new Android Beta Program, I installed the OS on my Nexus 6P through a simple system update. … | Continue reading
If you want to see what a world with built-in backdoors looks like should congress rule on the side of the FBI, look no further than Microsoft. One of the key points to Apple’s argument — and what made the hearing necessary in the first place — is its inability to decrypt the iPh … | Continue reading
Apple’s battery case for the iPhone 6 made news for being weird, but it was a decent concept. Tech21 seems to have seen it as a challenge, so it created the Evo Endurance case. If you’re not familiar with Tech21, they’ve got an impressive polymer that flexes to protect your phone … | Continue reading
GM has announced it will acquire a 40-person startup based in San Francisco named Cruise Automation, which makes autonomous vehicle technology. Terms were not disclosed, though sources claim the deal closed for over $1 billion. Talks began as Cruise was looking for investors, but … | Continue reading
Wikipedia is working hard on making its knowledge more accessible and it has just gone live with a few new changes to make the encyclopedia better to use. It now offers autocomplete when you’re searching for articles, with a handy language drop-down right in the search box and vi … | Continue reading
The downward spiral continues at Yahoo, and a monthly update from the company suggests even more services are being shut off. While we already knew Games was being shut down in May, Livetext is also going away at the end of this month. If you’ve already forgotten Livetext, don’t … | Continue reading
One of the most hackable (in a good way) router manufacturers on the market says it’s going to begin blocking open source firmware, at least in the United States. For years, TP-Link has been an ideal solution for those seeking more control of their home network. A mix of solid ha … | Continue reading
Preorder incentives have long be the way to win in the games industry, getting thousands of dollars worth of sales before your title is even released. Cleverly, Ubisoft has decided to apply the same method to ticketing for its upcoming Assassin’s Creed movie. Keen fans can get th … | Continue reading
You’d have a tough time denying that New York is one of the world’s most important cities when it comes contemporary design. From Keith Haring, subway graffiti and street culture to Sagmeister & Walsh, Etsy and Behance, New York has been holding it down for decades. It’s the same … | Continue reading
With AI Scry, you’ll never have to wonder how your iPhone would describe the world around you if it was capable of autonomous thinking. Available for iOS, AI Scry is a new app that generates automatic descriptions of whatever appears in front of your phone’s camera. Created by Oa … | Continue reading
As denizens of the internet, we leave a huge data trail across the services and sites we use everyday. As the volume of data has increased, the challenge for marketing teams has become to identify the points in that data that reveal the trends they’re seeking. How, as a marketer, … | Continue reading
The story of Victor Frankenstein and his infamous monster has been told time and time again: a young doctor animates new life by piecing together bits of old, decaying materials. Though this morbid experiment seems like it should only succeed in vintage horror novels, its concept … | Continue reading
Over they last few years, Microsoft has worked to transition OneNote from its initial lecture-hall focus into more of a note-taking app for your everyday needs. It’s latest move: pulling users away from competitor Evernote. To do so, Microsoft is releasing its first ever official … | Continue reading
Google publishes hundreds of research papers every year covering everything from algorithms to education and an upcoming project set to be presented later this month seeks to be the best AI assistant you ever had. You may have already run into difficulty when trying to use someth … | Continue reading
There are just too many passwords to remember in our daily routine. Computers, phones, email, bank details, social logins – the list goes on and on, and staying secure while attempting to remember them all is tricky at best. Help has arrived from Password Boss, which securely hel … | Continue reading
What do you get if you cross SimCity with Minecraft? Well, MYMMO, probably. This game, which is being single-handedly built by Aaron John-Baptiste, a Web developer in London, needs to exist. The game lets you design the world of your massively-multiplayer role-playing game, then … | Continue reading
Ah, welcome welcome. I see you enjoyed last week’s edition and are back for more. Well we won’t disappoint. For the uninitiated (go back and start at post one, please) the team at TNW has made a New Year’s Resolution to read a bit more. So every week, a select number of our team … | Continue reading
To you and I the term IDEK means “I don’t even know,” but it turns out that to Venmo, it means something a lot more sinister. As reported by The Verge, a number of Venmo users reported that their payments were being suspended pending checks after using the acronym as the subject … | Continue reading
What’s the difference between a company that uses big data like a grown-up and one that is still in the playpen? Collect it, store it, crunch it, display it… big data has always sounded more like a candy-store display than something businesses use everyday. This past year, as the … | Continue reading