(Reuters) — Facebook opens its new London office on Monday and said it would add 800 more jobs in the capital next year, underlining its commitment to Britain as the country prepares for Brexit. The social network said more than half of the people working at the site in central L … | Continue reading
Mobile messaging giant Line is to acquire Tokyo-based mobile ad tech company Five. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Line, which is a subsidiary of South Korea’s biggest web operator, Naver Corp, has grown to more than 220 million users through the popularity of its WhatsApp- … | Continue reading
(Reuters) — Australia’s competition regulator said on Monday it would investigate whether U.S. online giants Facebook and Alphabet Inc’s Google has disrupted the news media market to the detriment of publishers and consumers. Like their rivals globally, Australia’s traditional me … | Continue reading
OPINION: The push of VR toward mainstream adoption is at an interesting moment. On the one hand, we have more VR headsets on the market than ever before powered by technology from Microsoft, Facebook, Sony and Google, with manufacturers including Samsung, Acer, Lenovo, Dell and H … | Continue reading
Very quietly, Dungeons & Dragons is testing how to treat the long-lived and beloved brand in the gaming space. Earlier this year, Experiment 7 launched Dungeon Chess, a D&D-flavored take on the ages-old game … in virtual reality. Next up came Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realm … | Continue reading
GUEST: Back in May, I wrote about the concept of DAOs, decentralized autonomous organizations capable of running themselves thanks to blockchain technology — no CEO or C-Suite needed. At the time I was writing, there were a few people in the blockchain community testing out the i … | Continue reading
As bitcoin prices fluctuate near record highs and adoption picks up, the world’s largest bitcoin ATM provider is bringing its largest installation to-date to Georgia. Coinsource has placed 18 of its bitcoin ATMs in Atlanta which, along with 2 in Athens, add 20 new units to Georgi … | Continue reading
Reigns: Her Majesty builds on its predecessor’s devilishly simple mechanics with a new story of political and cosmic intrigue. As in the first Reigns, indie developer François Alliot (aka Nerial) invites you to try on the crown — this time as the queen. Her Majesty is coming out … | Continue reading
Y’all really like watching commercials for PlayStation games, as Sony has again has more TV ad impressions than any other video game publisher in the U.S. GamesBeat has partnered with iSpot.tv, the real-time TV ad measurement company with attention and conversion analytics from m … | Continue reading
GUEST: Paying more attention to the reality of the workers and businesses in so-called “Flyover Country” isn’t a fad. Mark Zuckerberg may no longer be writing about his travels across the U.S., but the work still continues to bring more attention to startups outside of the coasts … | Continue reading
GUEST: If you’ve seen The Matrix, Terminator, or Wargames, you’ve probably already planned out your bunker for the post-AI apocalypse. Technology is changing continually, with newer and stranger devices created every week. Even the technology we never thought would go out of styl … | Continue reading
Gamers are going to get a lot of bargains on Cyber Monday, the traditional discount day for electronic commerce holiday shopping. Cyber Monday hasn’t always been as big a deal for gamers, but the discounting strategy has spread everywhere. The day has grown in significance as ele … | Continue reading
With its ability to transport users anywhere and give them any kind of experience, VR has huge potential as a tool for positive change. Google is highlighting that with its new philanthropy program, Daydream Impact. This new initiative is designed to give organizations, non-profi … | Continue reading
GUEST: With the U.S. economy much improved, this year’s Christmas season is expected to be one of the best in years, and with the advance of digital technology, smartphones will be a key buying method for many consumers. Put those elements together and you have the latest “off th … | Continue reading
GUEST: In a 2014 editorial titled “Bitcoin is the New PayPal,” we made the case that PayPal’s history could provide insight on Bitcoin’s future. Specifically, we argued that, in the short term, the Bitcoin ecosystem would expect a bumpy ride from fraudsters, but with some precaut … | Continue reading
GUEST: Luxury Italian retailer Yoox has announced it is running an exciting new type of pre-roll ad on YouTube: 15-second buy-it-or-lose-it offers. The company will be runnign the ads until mid-December in a few regions globally. The ads are 15-second countdowns featuring a uniqu … | Continue reading
Netgear has dipped its toes into the retail market with the launch of a co-branded store with electronics retailer B8ta at a prime location at the Santana Row luxury outdoor mall in San Jose, California. The new concept store opening today is the first in the networking company’s … | Continue reading
GUEST: When I ranked last year’s top 10 startup ecosystems, they didn’t show much movement from the year before. But this year’s analysis has shown tectonic shifts in the world’s innovation landscape. A new entrant has joined us this year, Shanghai, with Berlin dropping out of th … | Continue reading
Dames Making Games is a Toronto-based arts nonprofit that focuses on creating an inclusive community for video game developers, particularly those who are transgender, nonbinary (not identifying as only a man or woman), and women. Since the start, its home has been Gamma Space, a … | Continue reading
Google Assistant can be found in a growing range of devices, but only two wireless headphones — the Bose QuietComfort 35 II and Google Pixel Buds — are made especially for hands-free interaction with Google’s AI assistant to do things like create reminders, get calendar updates, … | Continue reading
GUEST: Until this week, many people had never heard of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Then it became part of a dramatic showdown between advocates and critics of regulation, as two individuals with dramatically different worldviews each claimed to be the bureau’ … | Continue reading
The battle for net neutrality is ramping into high gear, as we anticipate an FCC vote on December 14 to either confirm or reject Chairman Pai’s draft order to undermine the 2015 Open Internet Order. With the future of the Internet, its capacity to continue fostering innovation, a … | Continue reading
(Reuters) — Samsung Electronics’ $8 billion purchase of automotive and audio electronics company Harman has given the technology conglomerate confidence to chase more big deals, its strategy chief said on Friday. Young Sohn, the South Korean company’s Silicon Valley-based preside … | Continue reading
Kenneth Tran wants you to believe that he is going to Washington, D.C. to solve gaming’s loot box problem. He is the director and founder of the National Committee for Games Policy, which announced its formation earlier this week with a press release that I reported on. At the ti … | Continue reading
A bill to extend one of the NSA’s most powerful surveillance tools, and further peel back American civil liberties, was approved today by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in a strict party line vote (12-8), with Republican members voting in the majority. The c … | Continue reading
Over 100 games now support Tobii‘s eye-tracking technology, including blockbuster hits like Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Origins and indie favorites such as Ori and the Blind Forest. That means that these games are also more accessible to players who may have disabilities that tra … | Continue reading
GUEST: Two reports have set the healthcare community abuzz this week. The first uncovered that CVS is considering buying health insurance giant Aetna. The second revealed that Amazon has obtained pharmacy licenses in multiple states. (A closer look revealed the licenses covered t … | Continue reading
GUEST: What does it mean to be human? The answer to this is, like humanity, in constant flux, evolving with our species and the times. But one essential, defining element for centuries is our mortality. All people get sick, and all people die. But advanced technologies like AI co … | Continue reading
GUEST: The latest method of crowdfunding originating in the cryptocurrency world is exploding, with ICOs raising more than 3.5 billion this year. It is also giving a headache to regulators and a growing number of swindled investors. The latest example saw one such cryptocurrency … | Continue reading
Twitch is turning the The Game Awards into a more interactive experience with a livestream overlay viewers can use to vote on who they think will win. The extension rolls out at 5:30 p.m. Pacific on December 7, which is when the award show will air. Muxy, a company that specializ … | Continue reading
GUEST: Unlike Silicon Valley, where the capital, talent, and temperament for change are all there to help a startup go from idea to IPO, startups elsewhere don’t always have access to the resources necessary to grow and scale. At the same time, corporations across the country are … | Continue reading
What’s worse than having a dead-simple password that anyone can guess? No password. To go with it, let’s add a username that anyone can enter. That’s exactly what happened to Apple this week: Anyone could log in to your Mac with the username “root” and a blank password. Oh, and a … | Continue reading
AbleGamers Foundation has opened signups for three sponsorships that will send game developers with disabilities to Train Jam 2018 and the Game Developers Conference 2018. Interested developers can submit an application here. The deadline is 11:59 p.m. Pacific on December 3, 2017 … | Continue reading
Pocket Gems and Universal Studios have launched an interactive story for the Episode mobile app based on the Pitch Perfect films. The Pitch Perfect: In Deep Treble story on Pocket Gems’ Episode platform arrives ahead of Universal’s holiday release of Pitch Perfect 3 film. While P … | Continue reading
There may have been no constituency more opposed to Brexit than Britain’s booming startup community. In the 18 months since the shocking vote to leave the European Union, it’s those entrepreneurs who continue to fret the most. But here’s some good news, at least for the moment. W … | Continue reading
I felt a bit like a lab rat this week as I found that my career in game journalism — and my terribly unskilled gameplay in Cuphead and the reaction to it — were the stuff of academic discourse. I gave a speech about game journalism at a game design class at Stanford University, a … | Continue reading
GUEST: For decades, incumbents in industries such as energy, health care, and finance have enjoyed the luxury of regulatory protection. This has provided a moat against competition and minimized the need for innovation, leaving behind inefficient businesses and frustrated consume … | Continue reading
PRESS RELEASE: Gifto, a new blockchain 'virtual gifting' protocol that will allow millions of content creators to monetize their content on sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, has announced that Pantera and Block Asset have joined a... | Continue reading
EXCLUSIVE: Blockchain technologies aren’t limited to the virtual world. The foundation of decentralized cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum is also being applied to hardware products. Sirin Labs — the company that created the $14,000 Solarin smartphone — earlier this ye … | Continue reading
(Reuters) — Tesla switched on the world’s biggest lithium ion battery on Friday in time to feed Australia’s shaky power grid for the first day of summer, meeting a promise by Elon Musk to build it in 100 days or give it free. “South Australia is now leading the world in dispatcha … | Continue reading
This week, Travis and Stewart discuss the latest in AI-powered apps and show that you don’t have to be a massive organization to use artificial intelligence across your product or service. They also work their way through a list of 100 cryptocurrencies and explain what these bloc … | Continue reading
Twitter is doubling down on its efforts to boost user numbers by expanding the availability of its lightweight Android app to more markets. By way of a quick recap, Twitter introduced a Lite version of its service back in April and made it available on any mobile browser. It then … | Continue reading
Amazon is expanding its traveling “one item at a time” Treasure Truck to the U.K., more than two years after debuting the initiative in the company’s native Seattle. The Amazon Treasure Truck is — as you might’ve guessed — a truck. And this truck travels through neighborhoods wit … | Continue reading
Last week Sberbank, Russia’s national savings bank, the Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF, or FRII, Russia’s largest early-stage startup investment fund), and FortRoss Ventures (formerly known as Money Time) announced the launch of a platform called Global Pitch to help … | Continue reading
Google Play announced today its list of the most popular mobile apps, games, and other content for 2017. Based on popularity alone, Nintendo’s Super Mario Run was the most downloaded new game of the year. Google didn’t say how many downloads the game had on its Google Play store, … | Continue reading
(Reuters) — Qualcomm Inc said on Thursday it filed three new patent infringement complaints against Apple Inc (AAPL.O), saying there were 16 more of its patents that Apple was using in its iPhones. The new complaints represent the latest development in a long-standing dispute and … | Continue reading
A game about an intergalactic insurance salesman could only go in a few different ways. One is the Douglas Adams route with wackiness in outer space and planetoid construction sites. The other is Springloaded Software‘s Obelus, which is a somewhat grim though cheekily surreal loo … | Continue reading
GUEST: With a powerful new camera and advanced sensor technology, the latest round of iPhone products has unlocked new possibilities in the realm of augmented reality (AR). Now more than ever, today’s developers are fully equipped to craft next-level experiences that blur the lin … | Continue reading