Day: November 1, 2017

 While the Senate has spent the better part of a year making sense of Russia’s actions to influence the 2016 election, tech made quick work of its own analysis — or so it thinks. The glacial pace of Congress is often criticized, particularly contrasted to the tech industry which still moves fast and breaks things, […]

 A fancy new iPhone’s as good a reason as any to bring a big upgrade to Apple’s free music production service, GarageBand. The iOS version of the app is getting a slew of updates for 3.2, starting with a layout optimized for the iPhone X’s 458 ppi display. The biggest bit of news for today’s […]

 Doppler Labs, a smart earbud company that raised more than $50 million in funding from backers like Universal Music, Live Nation and the Chernin Group has shut down after running out of cash and options. The company posted a farewell note to customers on its site this morning. The startup most notably developed the Here […]

 As Google gradually builds out its footprint in travel search, the company is also making a move to cut off its role as a data provider to would-be competitors. The company has quietly announced that in April of next year, it will shut down its QPX Express API, an airfare search feed, which it had […]

 Twitter’s Periscope is going after live broadcasters in a big way, as it’s now promising to give back more of their earnings from the sales of Super Hearts in their live video streams. Introduced in June, Super Hearts are in-app virtual goods that offer a form of virtual tipping. The idea is similar to Twitch’s […]

 With one day left to go in the federal fiscal year, the department had renewed funding for a longstanding reading program for the disabled, and it had chosen Benetech for the third time to run the five-year, $42.5 million project. That meant Benetech could continue to operate Bookshare, which provides digitally materials to 500,000 students […]

 While you can open up your bank app and probably find all the relevant information for your credit cards and bank accounts, there isn’t really a very neat spot for the same information on your drivers’ license or insurance. That’s a demand that Credit Karma, normally known for free credit reports with some financial advice […]

 As Google builds platforms like ARCore and Daydream that allow users to step into virtual worlds or put virtual scenes inside their phone’s field-of-view, there’s a big onus on game developers to craft the content that makes the platforms worth checking out. Google is looking to make creators’ jobs a bit easier today with the […]

 The Google Pixelbook is a bit of an odd duck among notebooks, or among tablets – or even among notebook/tablet hybrids. It’s a Chromebook, which by now is an established category, though one with very specific appeal; and it runs Android apps, which makes it feel very much like an iPad competitor. It’s a great […]

 Russian information troll farm the Internert Research Agency spent just 0.05% as much on Facebook ads as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s campaigns combined in the run up to the 2016 US presidential election. While there might have been other Russian disinformation groups, the IRA spent $46,000 on pre-election day Facebook ads compared to $81 […]