Google, which has accused Symantec and its partners of misissuing tens of thousands of certificates for encrypted web connections, quietly announced Thursday that it’s downgrading the level and length of trust Chrome will place in certificates issued by Symantec. Encrypted web connections — HTTPS connections like those on banking sites, login pages or news sites like this one… Read More
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants the company to own the future of virtual reality, and in the short term that means putting a lot of VR headsets on a lot of faces. To do so, the company is hiring Michael Hillman, a 15-year veteran of Apple, to lead the VR product roadmap for Oculus as head of VR hardware. Read More
Apple began offering a “free app of the week” back in 2012 as a means of highlighting some of the App Store’s best titles and encouraging users to start downloading. Google, belatedly, is following in Apple’s footsteps with its own newly launched “free app of the week” section on Google Play. However, we understand that Google has not yet committed to… Read More
Earlier this month, Sarah Silverman tweeted about a new website called Make Tweets Great Again that had sprung up to give money to the ACLU every time President Donald Trump dropped a tweet bomb from his personal account. The project is a prime example of a newfound “apptivism” from coders and developers across the Web. Read More
Faraday Future, the would-be Tesla rival facing well-documented challenges in terms of capitalization and efforts to bring its first production vehicle to market, has scrapped plans to construct an assembly facility and “experience center” (read: showroom) in Vallejo, California on Mare Island. Read More
Developers, let’s see if you’re in luck this year and get a ticket for Apple’s developer conference, WWDC 2017. While tickets cost $1,599, there are just too many people who want to go to the conference to accommodate them all. For the past few years, Apple has run a lottery to select ticket holders. The lottery is opening now for WWDC 2017. You have until March 31 at 10 AM… Read More
It’s patch day at Apple. The company just released four new versions of its four operating systems for all its devices — iOS 10.3, macOS 10.12.4, watchOS 3.2 and tvOS 10.2. Some of those updates are more important than others. Read More
We finally have a peek at the smartphone that Android co-founder Andy Rubin and his team have been building. Today, Rubin tweeted out a teaser photo of the yet-to-be-named device emerging from his stealth startup.
I'm really excited about how this is shaping up. Eager to get it in more people's hands… pic.twitter.com/LRzQCFSKTm
— Andy Rubin (@Arubin) March 27… Read More
The PlayStation 4 Pro just got an update that makes it an even better companion for a 4K TV set. An update to the native PlayStation Media Player app will enable 4K video playback, for files in mp4 format saved on either a USB drive or kept in a home server the PS4 Pro hardware con communicate with. Not that if you’ve got a drive attached to your PS4 Pro that’s formatted to act as… Read More
London-based ‘social impact’ accelerator, Bethnal Green Ventures, which backs pre-seed startups with ideas for using tech to tackle social and/or environmental problems, has taken £1.3 million in funding from three social tech and innovation funders: Big Society Capital, Nominet Trust and Nesta. Read More
Just when you thought it was safe to eat a salad researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute have shown that a decellularized spinach leaf can be turned into a vascular network that could help doctors regrow organs. The project, featured in the journal Biomaterials, is about as proof-of-concept as you can get, but the primary value is proving that a previously existing vascular system can… Read More
Toyota and NTT, one of Japan’s largest carriers, are teaming up to work on connected vehicle technology, with an agreement to work together on research and development in this emerging area. The team-up makes a lot of sense, since both carriers and automakers are looking to maximize the amount of data they can get from their customers as vehicles become increasingly connected.
The… Read More
Earlier this month, TechCrunch reported Facebook was rolling out a new feature called “Town Hall,” which would allow the social network’s users to easily locate, follow and contact their local, state and federal government representatives. The company today confirmed the feature is available to all U.S. users on desktop and mobile, and will now include News Feed integration. Read More
Keeping in touch when there’s no communications infrastructure for one reason or another is nice for you and me, but critical for disaster response, forest fire control and military operations. GoTenna wants its new Pro device to be part of that by providing powerful, reliable, off-grid comms in a package a fraction the size and weight of existing systems. Read More
Waymo is working on one of the key areas it still needs to tackle ahead of any general public launch of its self-driving technology: snow. The company’s vehicles still had a lot to learn in this specific realm as of late last year, and it’s one of the most challenging road conditions any autonomous vehicle can face, because of the effects of deep cold and blanketing snow not only… Read More
I’ve been covering Station F for quite a few months already, but the startup campus based in Paris has yet to open. The team had to delay the launch after a pipe burst that inundated the basement. The opening date has now moved from April to the end of June, with startups moving in during the first week of July. The building is already looking quite nice as I was there last week.… Read More
Wells Fargo just announced that you’ll be able to use your phone or smartwatch to withdraw money from 13,000 ATMs in the U.S. As spotted by MacRumors, the bank says that it will support Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay. Five thousand ATMs should already support those NFC payment systems, others will follow suit. TechCrunch first reported that Bank of America and Wells Fargo were… Read More
Facebook Messenger wants to be an offline social gathering tool, not just an online chat app. Today it’s adding a new Live Location feature that lets you share for an hour within a private direct or group message thread your real-time location on a map. The recipients can then see an estimate of how long it would take you to reach them by car. Read More
Daniel Burka is a design partner at GV. In this episode of High Resolution, he discusses how designers can elevate their position in a boardroom, why he thinks design is the equivalent of the scientific method for businesses and the Google Design Sprint. Read More
Believe it or not, farmers in the U.S. have faced a labor shortage for years. U.S. citizens aren’t drawn to agriculture the way they were in previous generations. The labor trend has pushed farmers to automate some of the tasks done by agronomists and field workers in the past, using software, robotics and IoT devices like Arable’s. Read More
