As Chicago’s innovation scene continues to grow, tech employers should have plenty of fresh talent to choose from, according to a new report, which shows the number of local STEM graduates, and computer science grads specifically, is skyrocketing. The report, published today by t … | Continue reading
Publisher Starbreeze and developer Behaviour Digital announced today that they’ve sold more than 3 million copies of their multiplayer horror game, Dead by Daylight. Dead by Daylight launched for PC in June 2016. PlayStation 4 and Xbox One releases followed in June 2017. It featu … | Continue reading
Spire wants to make fitness wearables even easier by designing them to be truly wearable. The company is announcing the Spire Fitness Tag, which is small enough to stick to your clothing and serve as a personal health monitor. It can track your heart rate, breathing, activity, sl … | Continue reading
When Chris Keller started FollowUp in 2007, it was an email reminder tool that kept you productive throughout the day. Now, a decade and an acquisition later, the company is launching its next product, a Contact Relationship Management (CRM) service that’s similar to Rapportive, … | Continue reading
Drones can make the world more efficient and safer, something Intel and Cyberhawk are demonstrating through a case study in which they used drones to inspect a gas terminal in St. Fergus, Scotland. This is another example of how using drones can extend the reach of humans and sim … | Continue reading
Airbnb is advancing its mission of inclusivity with the acquisition of Accomable, which will boost Airbnb’s ability to provide service to travelers with disabilities. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founded two years ago by Srin Madipalli and Martyn Sibley, who bo … | Continue reading
Lyft today announced that it has hired the majority of employees from Kamcord, a company that plans to sunset its products for livestreaming and social media. Lyft did not acquire Kamcord or its livestreaming tech, but as part of the deal, 12 of Kamcord’s 15 employees will join t … | Continue reading
PRESS RELEASE: ezCater, the only nationwide marketplace for business catering, today announced that it now has more than 60,000 restaurants and caterers available on its platform and that all 60,000 are available through ezCater White Glove,... | Continue reading
(Reuters) — Three days before Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories announced quarterly results this summer, a message circulated on a private WhatsApp group saying the Indian drugmaker would not post good numbers. Dr. Reddy’s was going to report a loss, according to the message on the “Marke … | Continue reading
Intel is going all-in on 5G networking, which will get us blazing fast wireless internet access. The world’s biggest chip maker is announcing a family of 5G radio modems that will be able to transfer data wirelessly at multiple gigabits per second when they debut in 2019. Intel, … | Continue reading
Yahoo is adding two new features to its email service ahead of the holiday season. Now users will be able to “clip” coupons, albeit digitally, and keep track of their travel information, regardless of whether it’s in Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, or Outlook. According to Juniper Research, 8 … | Continue reading
PRESS RELEASE: CANDI today announced its collaboration with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and the launch of a new solution that simplifies the connection of smart building devices and data to apps. Through the integration of Google Pub/Sub... | Continue reading
Video-streaming company Vimeo has announced that it now supports high dynamic range (HDR) content. HDR, for the uninitiated, is a technique used to enhance the contrast of colors, making shadows and highlights more distinctive — blacks appear blacker, and whites appear whiter. It … | Continue reading
PRESS RELEASE: Veridium, a leader in strong authentication using biometrics announced today its partnership with Wala, a South African-based, blockchain-powered financial services platform for the unbanked and underbanked, to bring universal... | Continue reading
Japanese telecommunications and automotive giants SoftBank and Honda are teaming up for a joint research program that will look at how fifth generation mobile networks, or 5G, can be used to improve connected car technology. 5G promises higher capacity connectivity compared to ex … | Continue reading
This week, Travis (aka Superman*) and Stewart (aka Deadpool*) talk about AI and the internet of things (still the worst tech term in existence), conversational UI (hello, Ikea!), AI and customer service, and two opposing Facebook stories that are united by one common thread — how … | Continue reading
Nintendo Switch has had a strong first year with incredible new releases like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, and Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, but November is all about older ports for Nintendo’s hybrid home/handheld console. We’ve already seen d … | Continue reading
Social media has become darker, uglier, and meaner in recent years. It may be wrecking our mental health, destroying our politics, and tearing at the social fabric. Adam Hildreth, founder and CEO of social media risk management firm Crisp, believes it doesn’t have to be that way. … | Continue reading
(Reuters) — General Motors (GM) plans to launch a new family of electric vehicles in 2021 that will cost less to build and make a profit for the U.S. No. 1 automaker, Chief Executive Mary Barra told investors on Wednesday. Her plans represent a direct challenge to money-losing el … | Continue reading
Algorithmia announced the commercial availability of a new tool today that’s designed to help companies take their machine learning models from experimentation to production. Called the Algorithmia AI Layer, the system is designed to help companies deal with the operation, integr … | Continue reading
PRESS RELEASE: PayStand, the B2B payment platform for the future of business, today announced a $6M Series A round led by BlueRun Ventures with participation from Cervin Ventures, Serra Ventures, TiE and Capital for Founders. "With technology... | Continue reading
Online language learning platform Duolingo is finally introducing a course to help English speakers learn Chinese. The launch comes some six months after Duolingo introduced a Japanese course, which, along with Chinese, was among the company’s most requested language courses. Duo … | Continue reading
Baidu today unveiled its first two home robots and smart speaker powered with DuerOS, its conversational AI technology similar to Amazon’s Alexa or Microsoft’s Cortana. The three new devices, part of the new Raven series, made their debut onstage today at the Baidu World confere … | Continue reading
Even if the world’s going to end, the party must go on. In Small Talk, you wander around a shindig and chat with fellow revelers. Outside the windows, meteors streak across the sky. But rather than break down in an existential crisis, you instead engage in fleeting conversations, … | Continue reading
Last week, I wrote about a new organization called the Center on Rural Innovation and its efforts to create a scalable model for rural economic development. Founder Matt Dunne believes that in order to compete with larger population centers, rural communities must find a way to w … | Continue reading
Disney’s Lucasfilm opened the doors of its campus in the Presidio in San Francisco to hold a Droidathon, a contest aimed at publicizing science, technology, engineering, the art, and math (STEAM) education for children. Facebook, ILM, ILMxLab, Google, Fitbit and Instagram volunte … | Continue reading
Electronic Arts’ stock price has climbed steadily since 2012 as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 were winding down, but some Wall Street analysts are not sure about the publisher’s latest big release and the public reaction to it. Fans are angry at what they perceive as mechanics t … | Continue reading
Twitter is facing extensive pressure across multiple fronts, including a growing chorus of users upset about the rampant harassment and attacks being levied by trolls.The latest case that has caused the company to do some soul searching involves its verification status it bestows … | Continue reading
GUEST: Bots are gaining lots of attention, thanks to the momentum in artificial intelligence and natural language processing. In fact, according to this Business Insider study, 80 percent of businesses are using, or intend to use, chatbots by 2020. While simplified rules-based bo … | Continue reading
Sometimes a sentient ball of hair and dust just wants a cherry. That’s the whole point of Chuchel, the latest puzzle and exploration game from Czech indie studio Amanita Design. Its past work includes surreal point-and-click adventures such as the Samorost, Machinarium, and Botan … | Continue reading
The internet is currently expressing outrage over the fact that Google Docs is currently down. According to people on Twitter and also DownDetector.com, the popular document software isn’t working as intended, but Google’s G Suite dashboard isn’t indicating any problems. Naturall … | Continue reading
GUEST: When a person feels sick, they might start deciding whether it seems serious enough to visit a doctor. However, things like having to get to the doctor’s office, long delays in the waiting room, and the potential difficulty in getting an appointment could discourage that i … | Continue reading
Star Wars: Battlefront II comes out this week and a lot of people are already playing it and yelling about it on the internet. Numerous fans don’t like its business model and progression system, and they are letting publisher Electronic Arts know it. On the GamesBeat Decides podc … | Continue reading
Unity Technologies and film studio Lionsgate have created a virtual reality advertisement for the launch of the Jigsaw horror film, and an analysis shows that, no surprise, a horror VR experience can really rattle your emotions. Lionsgate created a VR experience to serve as an ad … | Continue reading
Google Assistant received some major upgrades in recent days, and today Google Assistant product manager Brad Abrams announced a series of changes to help developers make voice apps that interact with Google’s AI assistant, including ways to give them more expressive voices and s … | Continue reading
PRESS RELEASE: RATECentric, a digital software platform for the small group insurance industry, recently announced a milestone of one billion in premium billed. The Premium Billing & Collections platform was developed for exclusive ... | Continue reading
Electronic Arts employees and Star Wars: Battlefront II devs are answering questions on Reddit today as part of an effort to win back some fans and address concerns after a recent EA comment that defended the upcoming multiplayer shooter’s progression system became the most downv … | Continue reading
EXCLUSIVE: A new company emerged from stealth today, aimed at helping developers better automate the work they’re doing. Called Atomist, it’s designed to help developers automatically create source code repositories and then automate the deployment of their code in a way that hel … | Continue reading
Star Wars: Battlefront II has inspired a number of loot-box economists to post estimations of how many hours it will take to unlock every star card item that gives perks to your characters. One story claimed (on SWTORstrategies.com, which is down due to overwhelming traffic) you … | Continue reading
Lineage 2: Revolution has already conquered Asia, and it’s here to do the same in the West. And it’s off to a good start: Over 1.5 million players have already signed up for South Korean developer Netmarble’s massively multiplayer online role-playing game. It arrives on iOS and A … | Continue reading
Want to really impress your relatives this Thanksgiving? Why not bring them a cake that looks a video game character’s head? Or you can just make this Cuphead treat for yourself to munch on while you try to beat the difficult indie game. The adorable YouTube channel Sugar High Sc … | Continue reading
On-demand courier network Postmates has launched its platform in Mexico City, representing the company’s first market outside the U.S. Founded out of San Francisco in 2011, Postmates serves as an easy way to match consumer goods with people that are able to deliver them. The comp … | Continue reading
You probably haven’t played it yet, but China’s big mobile MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) Honor of Kings is making a lot of money. Tencent released its financial report for the third quarter of 2017 today, and the Chinese gaming company revealed that revenues from its sma … | Continue reading
GitHub today announced a new feature for its Atom text editor that makes it easier for programmers to work with one another on shared code. Called Teletype, it’s designed to let developers get the experience of in-person collaboration without huddling around the same terminal. De … | Continue reading
PullString today announced plans to launch a simplified version of its platform, this one aimed at professionals who want to quickly design and launch voice apps. A marked departure from the company’s more complicated Author platform, Pullstring’s Converse will be available Novem … | Continue reading
SPONSORED: Presented by Sailthru Both literally and figuratively, the new iPhone is a ten. The device broke preorder records, and since launching, the iPhone X has set a new bar for the most valuable company in the world. And when it comes to mobile purchase conversion, iOS is al … | Continue reading
Microsoft announced today that its Visual Studio integrated development environment is getting a new set of tools aimed at easing the process of building AI systems. Visual Studio Tools for AI is a package that’s designed to provide developers with built-in support for creating a … | Continue reading
GitHub has adopted Microsoft’s tool for managing large-scale source code repositories, according to a joint announcement made as part of the latter company’s Connect conference in New York today. Over the course of the coming months, GitHub will add support for the Git Virtual Fi … | Continue reading