Geek News

We're only a few hours away from Sony's latest quarterly earnings report, but Sony has announced that CEO Kaz Hirai will be replaced as of April 1st. While CFO Kenichiro Yoshida is named as his replacement, Hirai will become Chairman, just as Howard Stringer did when Hirai replaced him in 2012 . Hirai will retire as CEO with Sony in a much better state than when he took over, after turning its businesses around under his One Sony strategy. Over the last few years, Sony has cut costs repeatedly, selling its Vaio PC operation, revamping the way it makes and sells TVs and refocusing its mobile business. One incident that marred Hirai's tenure as chief was the 2014 hacking of Sony Pictures -- its leader Michael Lynton left about a year ago and the studio is leading in the box office so far for 2018 with Jumanji . When it reports earnings it will likely show huge profits based on the PS4 and the smartphone camera components it sells. Yoshida has proven himself as a ke...

Google Maps might plot the fastest route to your destination, but sometimes the service doesn't seem know about accidents or rerouted public transit. Coord wants to fix that by supplying current navigation information for companies to plug into their other apps and services using an API. That doesn't just mean traffic data. Ever notice some navigation apps giving you limited options -- or suspiciously supplying only one ride-hailing service? Coord bundles in multiple transportation options, which will soon include those that haven't made it into mainstream apps, like bike-sharing and car-sharing. It can also provide data to help services book transportation methods within their app. But it also includes less common data about the city -- for example, identifying legal pick-up and drop-off zones for ride-sharing drivers or provide time-sensitive toll and parking information. Ideally, a service will plug into Coord's data hose and provide an end-to-end navigation pro...

When Airbus first announced its plans to develop a self-flying taxi, it sounded like a fever dream of a sci-fi fan. Now, the aerospace giant has proven that it wasn't joking: Airbus' Vahana team have successfully flown their autonomous air taxi dubbed "Alpha One" for the first time. Sure, it only reached an altitude of 16 feet and remained in the air for 53 seconds before descending, but it did so while fully self-piloted. The team conducted another test flight the day after, and by the sound of things, that one also went well. Airbus created the project to "democratize personal flight" by leveraging all the latest technologies, including machine vision and electric propulsion. Based on that vision, the Vahana team created Alpha One as a single-passenger electric vertical-take-off-and-landing (VTOL) self-piloted vehicle. The company's ultimate goal is to build an autonomous passenger drone network, similar to the ride-hailing fleet of self-driving ...

If you lost hours and hours delving beneath Tristram in the original Diablo , you have David Brevik to thank, who created and programmed the classic action RPG. The veteran developer went on to co-found and head the studio that became Blizzard North, which made the even-more-successful Diablo II . After years consulting and leading studio Gazillion Entertainment, Brevik is returning to dungeons and lurking horrors in his next game It Lurks Below , which he created entirely himself and will launch later this year. Like Diablo , It Lurks Below is a hybrid adventure game mixing class-based RPG elements with live action...and a lot of loot. Brevik even built the engine bringing the game's 2D pixel-block look to life. The game also has digging and construction mechanics -- literal delving -- in the vein of Minecraft and Terraria , which the veteran developer apparently adores, but wanted to put his own spin on. "I wanted more of a point to a lot of those games," Brevik...

Looks like Google is making good on its promise to bring its cord-cutting alternative to more popular platforms. YouTube TV is now available for Apple TVs, after having hit Roku devices earlier today. The service is available in almost 100 different metro areas, and can also be downloaded for Chromecast, Android TV, Xbox One and newer Samsung and LG TVs. It's taken almost a full year since Google announced the service for this to happen. As a refresher, YouTube TV lets subscribers watch more than 40 channels live, with options like CBS, Fox, NBC, CBS, USA and FX. Sports fans will appreciate the 10 available sports options that include ESPN, Fox Sports and NBCSN. You can also add on Showtime for an extra fee on top of the monthly $35 cost. That covers up to six users, which roughly works out to an affordable $6 per person. You'll also get unlimited cloud DVR storage and will be able to search for TV shows just like you would on Google the search engine. Now that YouTube...

It's no secret that Snapchat has struggled a bit when it comes to attracting users and generating revenue. And earlier this month, reports surfaced that Snap had laid off 22 employees and consolidated its content operations. Now, as TechCrunch reports, Snapchat has launched an in-app Snap Store, and it could be a sign of where the company will seek revenue going forward. Currently, there are five items for sale, a dancing hot dog plush toy, a hat, two sweatshirts and a t-shirt. But according to the store itself, items will come and go, so if you're really into that dog lens t-shirt, you should grab it when you see it. Snapchat has sold things before -- last October, the company sold a dancing hotdog costume based on its filter and of course there's Spectacles . But this is a bit different, as Snapchat is now selling these things directly through its app rather than through Amazon or other retail partners. Snapchat merch probably isn't going to save the company (...

Amazon's fourth quarterly earnings results has just come in and, as expected, it was a pretty great holiday season for the online retail giant. According to the release, the company made $60.5 billion in the last few months, which is close to a 36 percent increase when compared to this time last year. It all adds up to a Q4 net income of $1.9 billion, its biggest recorded profit ever, partially thanks to a $789 million tax boost. Though Amazon doesn't usually break out its sales per category, CEO Jeff Bezos did say that a lot of this recent growth has to do with the rise of Alexa adoption in recent years. "We've reached an important point where other companies and developers are accelerating adoption of Alexa," he said in a statement. "There are now over 30,000 skills from outside developers, customers can control more than 4,000 smart home devices from 1,200 unique brands with Alexa, and we're seeing strong response to our new far-field voice kit f...

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You probably don't need to be reminded that Google makes the vast majority of its money from ads scattered across every corner of the internet. Other products are more recognizably Google-y, however, and Alphabet's new earnings release shows off some impressive growth in areas beyond just ad money. Alphabet raked in $32.3 billion in revenue in its fourth quarter, and just about $4.7 billion came from what Alphabet refers to as Google's "other revenues." For those keeping track, that's the most money Alphabet has pulled in from its "other revenues" segment, which is where you and I probably spend most of our money. "Other revenues" encompasses cash earned from the Play Store, subscription services like YouTube Red and Google's cloud offerings, not to mention Google's own hardware. We're still waiting for more details in Alphabet's customary post-earnings conference call, but if nothing else, we know that Google sold a ton ...

The holidays were not kind to GoPro. The action camera company had already issued an earnings warning in January, dropping its projected Q4 revenues from $470 million to $340 million, that's a 37 percent year-over-year decline. The holidays were so dreadful, in fact, that GoPro has since decided to abandon its drone pursuits and a fifth of its workforce, roughly 300 positions . That said, the company did earn $1.18 billion in 2017, flat year-over-year, and the staff reductions did help drop GoPro's operating expenses by 30 percent, which left the company with $247 million in cash and marketable securities at the end of the year. That's $50 million more than it had on hand at the end of Q3. Neither the oft troubled Karma drone nor the existing Hero5 flagship camera managed to ignite the public's passions during the holidays. As a result, the company was forced to offer these products at a discount, further eroding its profit margins during the critical sales season...

This past holiday quarter was a particularly notable one for Apple: It released the iPhone X, probably the most hyped and anticipated device the company has launched in many years. And despite some grumblings in the financial and media world that the iPhone X isn't selling as well as expected, and indeed Apple slipped a little bit. The company just announced that it sold 77.3 million iPhones in its fiscal year Q1, down a scant 1.3 percent compared to the 78.3 million sold one year ago. It's the first time iPhone sales have declined during a holiday quarter since the phone launched, as best we can tell. That speaks both to how saturated the iPhone market is getting, how relatively incremental annual iPhone updates are getting, the massive iPhone X revision aside. Despite that, Apple says the iPhone X has been the top-selling iPhone every week since it shipped in early November. Mac sales also dropped slightly, to 5.1 million units -- good for a five percent year-over-year de...

Tesla's electric race car series has been in the planning stages for awhile, and now it has been approved by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the organization that oversees Formula One. Eventually, the plan is to put together an all-electric series of racing events around the world. But because others' electric racing vehicles aren't ready yet, the Electric Car Production Series is starting with the Tesla Model S P100D. It was previously called the Electric GT Wold Series . According to The Verge , the organization is planning on conducting its first race later this year, but nothing has been finalized yet. Motorsport.com reports that the electric series race weekends will include a format of three heats to qualify and two races that are 30 miles long. These will take place during the daytime and in the evening. Tesla isn't close to the only car company with an electric racing model, though. Jaguar is planning on an EV racing line of cars i...

Google has been improving its Home devices for a while now. The company added better search, upgraded the Home app interface and enabled an intercom feature last November. It can also now match your voice to your own Netflix profile, too, a feature that builds upon Home's multiple voice recognition system. Now Google has added an update that adds a voice-powered alarm function and makes it a bit easier to find shows and music with your Home devices. If you link your Netflix account with Google Home, you can tell it to watch any of the streaming platform's shows with a voice command. Home will also answer any questions you might have about when a certain show airs or what network it's on. You can also control YouTube TV the same way. The update also adds new Google Play Music functionality, too; just ask for the track, album or artist and Home will play it, provided you've purchased or uploaded it to the service. You can also set a music-based alarm with your vo...

Nintendo stunned the gaming world last month when it unveiled Labo, a system that uses the Switch and some cardboard to make lovably homely little minigames. Reception among the Engadget staff was... mixed . But Nintendo might have nullified a growing concern about the system's longevity with its latest announcement. At a hands-on press event earlier today, the company introduced the Toy-Con Garage , a feature in the Labo's base software that lets users essentially create their own Switch-empowered cardboard toys. It might be a complex process, though. Reports from the event explain that users can repurpose cardboard parts and apply new functionality to them through the Toy-Con Garage feature in the Labo software. During a demo, Nintendo showed how one could set the Motorbike cardboard-and-controller setup to drive the RC Car, or reconfigure the piano software and custom cardboard cutouts to make an electric guitar. I'm ready to play hard #NintendoLabo pic.twitter....

Netflix's team-up with broadcaster Univision on El Chapo was a hit (it became hugely popular both in Mexico and on Univision), and the two are determined to capitalize on this success. They've renewed their partnership with the promise of creating "at least" five more shows together. The productions will be available in both English and Spanish, with Univision getting the chance to air them on TV in the US before they stream worldwide on Netflix. The first show out of the gate will be Tijuana , a Spanish-language show about a "web of corruption" that unfolds when reporters investigate the assassination of a presidential candidate. It's not certain when the first shows from the production will arrive, although it may take a while when production on Tijuana doesn't start until April. Both sides have strong incentives to work together. Univision, of course, extends the reach of its Hispanic American-oriented programming beyond both its existing v...

Spotify and gaming chat app Discord are joining forces so your entire channel can bump to the same music during a raid. Starting today, you can link your Spotify Premium account to your Discord account and keep the beats rocking for your entire community. "All users are now able to instantly highlight and share their favorite tunes with their friends across Discord," Spotify writes . More than that, whatever you're currently listening to will be attached to a tag on your profile so you don't have to keep answering the same question over and over again. All told, this sounds a lot like how Turntable.fm (RIP) or Dubtrack work. Previously, Spotify replaced Sony's Music Unlimited service on PlayStation, and just last year it was available on Xbox One. The partnership makes sense too, and it isn't much of a stretch to imagine Twitch streamers or other online communities offering the music feature for their respective subscribers. Regardless, it should make ...

Equifax still appears to have trouble wrapping its head around the concept of trustworthy software following its massive security breach . The company has launched its promised free credit report locking service, Lock & Alert, but there's one overriding problem: at least initially, the mobile app associated with it doesn't appear to work. The New York Times and Ars Technica both report pervasive problems with the app, ranging from the basic login to... you know, locking your credit report. In the NYT 's case, the tester gave up after the locking attempt stalled five times in a row. A company spokesperson told the NYT that it hadn't heard of widespread issues, but did say it was working on "isolated problems." It's a good thing the company has extended free credit freezes until June 30th, then. You can go the more traditional route until Equifax has (hopefully) sorted things out. The one consolation: Equifax is avoiding one of the legal mista...

The Super Bowl is almost here, and that means one thing in the tech world besides new ads : conveniently timed sports partnerships. The NFL and Sleep Number have unveiled an agreement that will offer every league player a Sleep Number 360 smart bed. The auto-adjusting design will theoretically improve their rest, of course, but the real star is the sleep tracking. Sleep Number will work with teams to incorporate the players' habits into their training regimens, so they'll know whether or not they're getting enough sleep to make the most of their performance on the field. The company has already been piloting efforts with the Dallas Cowboys and Minnesota Vikings. Sleep definitely isn't the most pressing health issue the NFL is facing right now -- more than a few people would argue the league should be addressing head injuries first. In that sense, this deal is trivial compared to the larger problems looming over American football. Still, it does take the sports fi...

India officially will not treat cryptocurrencies as legal tender and will try to stop their use in payments, according to a Bloomberg report. This isn't unexpected, given how the country sent tens of thousands of tax notices out after realizing virtual currencies are making $315 million worth of trade per month. While India has finally come out against cryptocurrencies, after repeated warnings that they were "Ponzi schemes," the government will continue exploring the blockchain's potential for the future digital economy. This comes a day after South Korea ultimately decided to regulate , not ban cryptocurrencies, despite its government sharing India's concern about tax evasion and the subsequent disruption of global trade. Beyond skirting state revenue collection, both countries have logical worries about the safety of cryptocurrency, given how a hacker stole over $500 million from the Tokyo-based exchange Coincheck last week. Source: Bloomberg via Engad...