Dial-up was a major pain in the ass. If you aren’t old enough to remember using it to access the internet, just imagine that you’re waiting for a YouTube video to buffer for somewhere between 24 hours and a month. That was how long it would take you to download a movie. Not that … | Continue reading
Global superpowers aren’t determined by how widely their .domain is used, but if they were, the world would look very different. In order to show what that might look like,Nominet has created a new world map where the scale is based on each country’s number of top-level domain re … | Continue reading
You’ll definitely have seen its ads plastered on billboards if you live in pretty much any major city across the world – who knew you needed to care so much about payments processing? Spotted a @braintree @PayPal ad with the Empire State Building in the background. #paymentsnerd … | Continue reading
It’s no secret that cyber attackers are becoming increasingly sophisticated, stealthy, and motivated. As we’ve seen in high profile breaches at Target, JP Morgan and Home Depot, attackers can infiltrate environments and maneuver undetected for months at a time to set up the “perf … | Continue reading
I’m a huge fan of Sonos’ speakers and have a number of them in my home, but there’s some bad news out of the company today: it’s laying off employees to refocus in the long term. In an announcement today, the company’s CEO, John Macfarlane, said that “we’re making a decision to s … | Continue reading
The Chinese government has launched a pilot program to track vehicles in real-time, starting with 200,000 electronic IDs issued to trucks and buses in the city of Shenzhen, reports Reuters. The trial includes vehicles carrying hazardous materials as well as school buses ferrying … | Continue reading
If you’re like me and often find yourself scouring through YouTube for food videos before, during and after meals, you’ll want to check out Nom. It’s a new livestreaming platform for gourmands, home cooks, professional chefs and anyone interested in the culinary arts to share the … | Continue reading
A lot of tech concepts come through TNW’s doors on the daily – some of them make it to consumers’ hands, others get killed for their own good. Nootrobox’s Go Cubes chewable coffee persevered. Go Cubes emerged last summer as an Indiegogo project to bring gummy coffee cubes to your … | Continue reading
While one could hazard that gaming remains top-of-mind for those interested in VR, it’s not the only experience potential users are drawn to. With that in mind, Oculus announced today a bevvy of new features to tap into the social media side of VR on a Samsung Gear VR device. “Th … | Continue reading
If you’re looking for a new an novel way to experience the games that have likely shaped your childhood, look no further than one developer’s bold attempt to bring the classics of the NES into the third dimension. The 3DNES project, available in beta for free in the Firefox brows … | Continue reading
Hot on the heels of yesterday’s news that the FCC would begin to subsidize broadband in low-income households, President Obama voiced support for the FCC’s ‘Lifeline’ subsidy and detailed a desire to expand the initiative to get 20 million low-income households subscribed to high … | Continue reading
After deciding to position Google+ around interests and communities, Google is making its largest push yet with a new site dubbed ‘Create.’ What Create (actually ‘crea+e’ in Plus-speak) hopes to do is source thought leaders around topics. Those who create themed Google+ collectio … | Continue reading
Google Docs just got a handy new ‘outline’ feature that lets you jump from section to section in a snap on desktop or Android. For the desktop, a new preview pane on the left side shows you the header sections of your document, almost like an evolving table of contents. Click on … | Continue reading
Twitter Moments now have embedded links, so users can get more out of newsworthy snippets. Embedded links take you to an article or blog post, and users can navigate back to Moments at any time. You’ll also be taken back to the Moment you left off at. When available, Moments link … | Continue reading
The two separate weekend runs of landmark American music festival Coachella have long been sold-out, thanks to a panic-inducing pre-sale before the spring even’t lineup was announced and a head-spinning general sale in January. But if you’re bummed about missing the boat or would … | Continue reading
Alongside today’s news of a very early preview of the next version of Android, Google is announcing the Android Beta Program to let developers try new features – including multi-window support and improved notifications – without having to flash a freshROM and wipe their devices. … | Continue reading
Surprise, team Android! Google’s next operating system, codenamed Android N, is being shown off much earlier than expected thanks to Developer Preview launched today, and it includes a feature stock Android fans have wanted for ages: Split-Screen view. New versions of Android are … | Continue reading
Developers creating games using Unity can now take advantage of Twitter Fabric. In bringing Fabric to Unity, Twitter set out to solve some challenges game developers face. In addition to user metrics, Fabric can help developers generate revenue, acquire and retain users as well a … | Continue reading
Sure, drones might eventually be part of Amazon’s last-mile delivery services but the company has to get pretty serious about fast, long-haul logistics if it wants to continue to offer rapid delivery to growing numbers across the world. Amazon already owns a stake in French freig … | Continue reading
Today, the Associated Press has obtained (and released) surveillance video from inside the Mountain View public transit bus that was side-swiped by a Google self-driving car last month — its first at-fault accident. Fortunately the accident occurred at low speeds, and resulted in … | Continue reading
With the increasing prevalence of fingerprint scanners on smartphones and other devices, and a growing number of services calling for authentication of some kind, using your biometric info to secure access will only become more commonplace. In theory, that should make your life a … | Continue reading
This post was brought to you by Telefónica.Technology is increasingly seen as an essential component of our daily lives, and so too are the global tech companies ushering us into the digital age. Google, Facebook, Apple, Uber and AirBnb are just a few of the companies shifting th … | Continue reading
Dear writer, How many words have you written today? We heard you’re facing obstacles: like writer’s block and keeping distractions at bay. It sounds pretty dire. We’re writers too – we also stray. Still, we hate that you’re having these problems – they’re pretty biting. So in our … | Continue reading
Last week, Spotify quietly released an OBGYN-approved playlist designed for listening before, during, and after childbirth. Did someone ask for this? Okay, fine, I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the target audience, but this 30-song playlist lasts about two hours and horror sto … | Continue reading
Face swapping is all the rage right now and Facebook wants in on the action. According to a report from Business Insider, the social network has acquired one of the most popular apps right now, Masquerade. The app works in a similar way to Snapchat’s face filters, letting you mor … | Continue reading
Wearables cannot be used for monitoring staff, even with their explicit permission or when done anonymously, so says The Netherlands’ Data Protection Authority in a new ruling against two companies. That could put a pin in the future of the quantified self at work, particularly a … | Continue reading
Hello Belo. A little over three months ago, I traded rainy Rotterdam, the Netherlands for sunny Belo Horizonte, Brazil to give my relationship with my girlfriend a true shot. I was definitely up for the challenge, since I enjoy going out of my comfort zone and push my boundaries. … | Continue reading
Facebook announced that it’s rolling out its Live Video feature to all of its users last month, which is great. But you know what isn’t great? Getting a notification every time anyone you’re friends with or follow is live. Well, Facebook has decided that this won’t need to be a b … | Continue reading
Building your own website doesn’t require the coding expertise it used to. Thanks to user-friendly WordPress themes and tutorials, virtually anybody can create an eye-catching and enjoyable website – but where to start? The options are nearly limitless, so TNW has put together a … | Continue reading
A group at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have found a way to speed up the Web without actually increasing the connection throughput or making fundamental code changes. It created Polaris, a framework that determines how to overlap the objec … | Continue reading
I’ve been impressed by Drupe’s clever design since I discovered it a year ago. It lets you connect with your contacts just by dragging and dropping their pictures onto the app of your choice, whether it’s WhatsApp, SMS or phone. Drupe integrated a dialer a few months ago and toda … | Continue reading
In an attempt to keep up with its mobile-ready audience, image platform and meme capital of the Internet Imgur revamped apps today for both iOS and Android as well as a new iPad experience. The newly updated apps for iOS take advantage of both 3D Touch and Spotlight search, makin … | Continue reading
Space tourism is both exciting and frightening – the idea of experiencing life beyond earth and getting a glimpse of our planet from above is exhilarating but the safety aspect of it all, since tourists won’t be astronauts, makes me a little nervous. When Amazon founder Jeff Bezo … | Continue reading
If you’re a developer, you’ve probably heard a little bit about ECMAScript 6 (ES6) already, though at first glance it might seem a little confusing. What it really boils down to is this: it’s the next version of JavaScript, which delivers new language features you’ll be able to u … | Continue reading
A recent design tools survey conducted by Khoi Vinh, one of Fast Company’s “fifty most influential designers in America”, shows that Photoshop is slowly losing its popularity among designers. Answers from over 4,000 participants hailing from almost 200 countries prove that design … | Continue reading
While audiences around the world know the UK’s BBC best for its hit TV shows like Top Gear and Doctor Who, it has been a key force in technological advances since since it first started broadcasting almost a century ago. To this day, its labs are cooking up experiments that may c … | Continue reading
It’s been nine months since Facebook launched its Lite app for Android devices that are working with 2G-like speeds. Since it was first released in India and The Philippines, it’s garnered over 100 million users across 150 countries and supports more than 50 languages. The lightw … | Continue reading
Flickr won me over last year when it released version 4.0 of it app and a new Web interface and features. However, now the company has announced that it’s making its best feature – Uploadr – available only to those with a Pro account, I may have to eat my words. It will now cost … | Continue reading
The musical ‘dot comedy’ about Bill Gates and Steve Jobs’ often fractious relationship has had its Broadway debut postponed indefinitely after the “loss of a major investor.” Nerds, which was due to start its run in April after already delaying its first show, has already been ki … | Continue reading
Just when you thought the line-up for TNW Europe in May couldn’t get any sweeter, amazing new names continue to roll in. That’s right – we’ve just recently confirmed Kayvon Beykpour, co-founder and CEO of Periscope, making our list of social media influencers that much more incr … | Continue reading
Each week we’re profiling one company that has been selected for Boost – our early-stage startup growth program. Catch up with these companies in person at The Next Web Conference in Amsterdam on May 26-27. Imagine there was a device that could help make your car run quicker, che … | Continue reading
You’re probably well familiar with Google’s Chrome Experiments that show off the cool things you can pull off with a Web browser these days, but a new collection launched today touts the cool musical possibilities you can build too. Google Music Lab is a small collection of inter … | Continue reading
On the anniversary of Malaysia Airline’s flight MH370’s disappearance, the United Nations Aviation Agency has announced changes that will require aircraft to report their location in real-time. The agency says it’s making three major amendments to the Chicago Convention that spec … | Continue reading
Cloud storage has become the way we store much of our data, but it’s not encrypted. A new solution, Cyptomator, offers an open source solution for cloud storage encryption for your desktop or iOS. Rather than rely on cloud storage safeguards, Cryptomator encrypts your files befor … | Continue reading
Google’s DeepMind-based AI scored a historic victory today in a game of Go against Lee Se-dol, the second highest ranking player in the world. Se-dol resigned after roughly three and a half hours of play in the first in a series of five matches. The win is huge for Google’s Alpha … | Continue reading
Music streaming service Pandora has announced a new tool called AMPcast that lets artists record audio messages and share them with fans instantly, using just their mobile devices. If it seems familiar, it’s because Pandora released a similar but more rudimentary feature around t … | Continue reading
In an effort to make broadband more easily accessible and affordable in the US, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) hopes to offer a subsidy of $9.25 a month to the poor, reports The New York Times. The agency will issue a proposal to its members to approve the plan for l … | Continue reading
Mozilla has updated its Firefox browser with a handy new feature that lets you share your active tab instantly with anyone. In version 45, the browser’s Hello video and voice chat feature is now even more useful. All your actions on a shared tab are visible to your contact in rea … | Continue reading