Varjo, a Finnish startup developing virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (XR) technologies for the enterprise, has raised $54 million in a series C round of funding. The Helsinki-based company also announced a new CEO — Timo Toikkanen has been promoted from president and chief operating officer, while Niko Eiden will step into the chief […]
Read More
(Reuters) — A California judge on Monday granted the state’s request for a preliminary injunction blocking Uber and Lyft from classifying their drivers as independent contractors rather than employees. The ruling by Judge Ethan Schulman of San Francisco Superior Court is a defeat for the ride-hailing companies, as they defend against a May 5 lawsuit […]
Read More
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden chose Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) to be his vice presidential running mate today. Born in Oakland, California and raised in Berkeley, Harris is the first African American woman and first Asian American woman to be chosen as a vice presidential candidate on a major party ticket in U.S. history. Though […]
Read More
TOPLINE Marjorie Taylor Greene knocked off her challenger in the Republican primary runoff election for Georgia’s deeply red 14th Congressional District on Tuesday, ensuring Congress is all but certain to get its first lawmaker who openly supports the QAnon conspiracy theory. An attendee holds signs a sign of the letter “Q” before the start of […]
Read More
Brian Myers (formerly Curt Hawkins) made his IMPACT Wrestling debut Tuesday night, challenging … [+] IMPACT world champion Eddie Kingston. Credit: WWE.com IMPACT Wrestling featured another week of Eddie Edwards’ Open Challenge featuring the debut of Brian Myers (Curt Hawkins), while The Good Brothers, Luke Gallows and Karl Edwards—fresh off TalkNShopAMania, continued their feud with […]
Read More
TOPLINE Former Pinterest COO Françoise Brougher sued the company on Tuesday for gender discrimination and retaliation, accusing Pinterest of firing her after she brought up concerns about “rampant discrimination, hostile work environment and misogyny” inside the company. A banner for the online image board Pinterest Inc. hangs from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on […]
Read More
TOPLINE In the wake of a pandemic-crippled tourist season, and a sharp increase in businesses allowing employees to work from home, national retailers and restaurant chains are choosing to permanently close their Manhattan locations, according to the New York Times. A woman wearing a protective mask walks by stores on Madison Avenue during the coronavirus […]
Read More
2020 has been a challenging year for everyone, but especially for those who found themselves sheltering in place in a too-tiny home, or stuck in a city that completely shut down due to COVID-19. In major cities, I’ve seen a huge uptick in people retreating to their more spacious suburban homes, which were usually reserved […]
Read More
INDIO, CA – APRIL 12: (EDITORS NOTE: Retransmission with alternate crop.) (L-R) Jennie Kim, Rosé, … [+] Lisa and Jisoo of ‘BLACKPINK’ are seen at the YouTube Music Artist Lounge at Coachella 2019 on April 12, 2019 in Indio, California. (Photo by Roger Kisby/Getty Images for YouTube) Getty Images for YouTube After weeks of teasing […]
Read More
Simon Property Group sees opportunity to buy bankrupt retailers including Brooks Brothers and Lucky … [+] Brand. (Photo Illustration by Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) LightRocket via Getty Images The coronavirus pandemic has led to store and mall closings and pushed struggling retailers including J.C. Penney and Lord & Taylor to file for bankruptcy […]
Read More
TOPSHOT – This undated picture released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency … [+] (KCNA) on November 19, 2016 shows a firing contest among women multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) gunners selected from the large combined units of the KPA at an undisclosed location. / AFP / KCNA / STR (Photo credit should […]
Read More
Celebrities celebrated former Vice President Joe Biden’s announcement Tuesday that he has chosen Democratic primary opponent Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as his vice presidential nominee, making her the first Black woman and first South Asian women on a major political party’s presidential ticket. Singer John Legend tweeted his congratulations and said he is “very much […]
Read More
A U.S. Army M-109 howitzer firing at night. U.S. Army The U.S. Army is trying to figure out what role it might play in the fighting if China attacks Taiwan or grabs disputed territory in the China Seas. A thousand-mile cannon the Army is developing could be the key. Batteries of the super-powerful Strategic Long-Range […]
Read More
WordPress.org today launched WordPress 5.5, which brings a slew of speed, search, security, block editor, accessibility, and developer updates. You can download version 5.5, which was developed by 805 volunteer contributors, now from WordPress.org/Download. WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that powers over 30% of the web (including VentureBeat). This means there is a […]
Read More
Microsoft is putting Halo: Infinite back into the oven. The publisher announced today that it is pushing the next Halo game into 2021 so that developer 343 Industries can have more time to refine the final product. This is a major blow to the Xbox Series X, which is still launching later this year, according […]
Read MoreAt its Anywhere School 2020 event today, Google announced a slew of updates for educators across Google Classroom and Google Meet to help schools start this next semester. The company said its tools “lighten the load for teachers, school leaders, families, and especially the students who have navigated learning from home with grace and resilience.” […]
Read More
In an effort to make Twitter seem less like a cesspool, the company is rolling out new settings that will allow all users to control who can reply to tweets. Twitter began testing the feature earlier this year and said the results of that experiment convinced it to make the tools available to all users starting […]
Read More
(Reuters) — A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday reversed a lower court ruling against chip supplier Qualcomm in an antitrust lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission. The United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals also vacated an injunction that would have required Qualcomm to change its intellectual property licensing practices. The decision amounted to a […]
Read More
Daybreak Games has acquired Cold Iron Studios, which is making a PC and console game set in the Alien universe. Daybreak said that cofounder Craig Zinkievich will continue to run Cold Iron, which is in San Jose, California. The purchase price was not disclosed. Yes, in space, no one can hear you scream. And hopefully, […]
Read More
About 22.5 million pieces of content published to Facebook were removed for violating the company’s hate speech policies in Q2 2020. The metric comes from Facebook’s latest Community Standards Enforcement Report covering April 2020 through June 2020, which suggests the company’s AI detected 95% of hate speech taken down in Q2. That’s up from 88.8% […]
Read More
Compared with the cameras found in smartphones, computer webcams were all but frozen in time a decade ago, such that most still sport 720p or 1080p resolutions with middling color accuracy and low light performance. Having previously revealed the hidden low light potential in older iPhone cameras, NeuralCam is back with a new app that turns Apple’s […]
Read More
Rainway announced today that its streaming service will add a new feature that installs games from different PC launchers remotely. At its core, Rainway lets people play their PC games on other screens through its free streaming technology. But it also has its own game launcher, which can include titles from your libraries on other […]
Read More
Team Liquid today unveiled Liquid+, a fan engagement platform that rewards the company’s esports fans for engaging with players such as watching streams or participating in online events. It’s the beginning of a way to reward fans and better monetize them by understanding who they are, what they want, and how they want to spend their […]
Read More
Microsoft’s encrypted Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) contains vulnerabilities that could enable attackers to detect activities, keystrokes, and mouse movements in 30-second traces. That’s according to a preprint study from researchers at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, who claim the protocol’s design exposes “fine-grained” actions on which machine learning models could be trained to identify usage […]
Read More
How Women Invest has raised a $10 million venture capital fund to invest in startups with female founders. The fund is run predominantly by female investors, over half of whom are women of color, and they aim to disrupt the “antiquated, unequal landscape of the venture capital system that typically excludes women startup founders.” The […]
Read More
Standard Cognition today inked a partnership to pilot its cashierless checkout technology in a Circle K store in Phoenix, Arizona. The Circle K location’s existing fixtures, lighting, inventory management systems, replenishment processes, and store layout will remain the same post-retrofit, and customers will have the option of paying via an app or with cash and card […]
Read More
The Linux Foundation — in partnership with IBM and startup Grillo — today announced an initiative called OpenEEW to accelerate the deployment of open source earthquake early warning (EEW) detection systems around the world. The organizations say OpenEEW will incorporate sensing, detection, and analysis components from Grillo’s EEW platform, along with a Docker software version […]
Read More
Rockies slugger Charlie Blackmon leads the majors in multiple hitting categories. (Photo by Stephen … [+] Brashear/Getty Images) Getty Images Maybe it’s the beard. Maybe it’s the ballpark. Or maybe, just maybe, Charlie Blackmon wants to add an MVP trophy to the batting crown he won three years ago. After surviving a mild bout with […]
Read More
The limited-edition bottle is a tie-up between couture house Marchesa and Beau Joie Champagne Beau Joie Champagne Champagne has long been the preferred sip of the well-heeled. The bubbles are poured generously at (pre-Covid) fashion weeks. Brigitte Bardot used bottles to christen her boat in the 1970s, and Napoleon Bonaparte would bombastically saber bottles to […]
Read More
Ryan Sheckler releases remake of Bob Marley’s “One Love.” Courtesy of Oakely When you look up the definition of skateboarding, Ryan Sheckler is the standout athlete that instantly comes up. Beyond the out of this world tricks he lands, it’s undeniable how incredible the star has come in his long-standing career. Even when the competitions […]
Read More
Vicki Hollub, president and chief executive officer of Occidental Petroleum Corp., speaks during the … [+] 2019 CERAWeek by IHS Markit conference in Houston, Texas, U.S., on Monday, March 11, 2019. Photographer: F. Carter Smith/Bloomberg © 2019 Bloomberg Finance LP Hindsight is easy, but you have to believe that, if she could go back in […]
Read More