Geek News

Silicon valley has a diversity problem . Sexism and racism are everywhere in the technology sector, and it's time to put an end to it. The Internet Association, a lobbying group for some of the biggest names in tech (think Amazon, Airbnb, Uber, Facebook, Google and Twitter) has promised to hire a new person to focus on these issues. According to Recode , the new push comes in response to the threat of regulation from the Congressional Black Caucus. Two members of Congress wrote to the Association last November. In it, Emanuel Cleaver, II, and Bonnie Watson Coleman asked for more transparency and better policies to ensure the diversity of hires in the technology industry, ending with a bit of a threat. "If these issues go unchecked Congress will be left with few options and will demand increased regulations to address these issues," they wrote. The Internet Association's leader Michael Beckerman responded to this missive with a letter of his own (it was obtaine...

Get Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms - Celeste's Starter Pack for FREE starting now through Friday at 11:00am Pacific Time. Start by adding the base game to your account for free here. Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms is an official free-to-play Dungeons & Dragons-based clicker game. Assemble a party of champions and master the art of Formation Strategy. Upgrade your heroes, collect unique gear, and unlock new Champions in regular new events. via Steam RSS News Feed "http://ift.tt/2GcJCGP"

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order today requiring any internet service provider with a state contract to honor the principles of net neutrality. In a statement the governor said, "With this executive order, we reaffirm our commitment to freedom and democracy and help ensure that the internet remains free and open to all." The FCC's dangerous ruling goes against the core values of our democracy, and New York will do everything in our power to protect net neutrality and the free exchange of ideas. — Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) January 24, 2018 According to the order, starting March 1st, any internet service provider entering or renewing a government contract will be required to sign a binding agreement ensuring that it will uphold the ideals of net neutrality and will not block, throttle or prioritize internet content. If they don't, the companies will not be granted a state contract. Montana Governor Steve Bullock signed a very similar ...

After a long silence on social media, Logan Paul is finally addressing the backlash to a controversial video in which he filmed a the corpse of a suicide victim in Japan’s Aokigahara forest. The video sparked immediate backlash online , and Paul removed the video from his channel and posted two apologies in the days that followed. On January 3rd, he tweeted “taking time to reflect no vlog for now see you soon,” and hasn’t been heard from since — until now. “I know I’ve made mistakes,” says Paul in his newest vlog, as mournful piano music plays behind him. “I know I’ve let people down.” Paul says he has spent the last three weeks trying to address his ignorance about the issue of suicide and wants to share what he has learned in hopes of... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2rzwng1"

If you're still holding on to your Pebble smartwatch for dear life, we have good news: you won't have to let go for a while longer. Fitbit has extended its support for Pebble services from the original end-of-2017 cutoff to June 30th, 2018. You now have half a year longer to say your goodbyes and decide what (if anything) you'll wear next. There's an added incentive to part ways, too. Fitbit is sweetening the pot by offering a $50 discount on the Ionic if you own a Pebble watch. You'll get an email offering the discount if you bought before December 7th, 2016 and opted to receive Fitbit marketing messages, while everyone else can register for updates to get their discount. According to Fitbit, this is about a more graceful transition that gives developers more time to port Pebble content to the Ionic's Fitbit OS, and "passionate" fans more time to see what awaits if they make the switch. Of course, that's the rose-tinted version -- ultimate...

Subnautica is Now Available on Steam and is 10% off!* Descend into the depths of an alien underwater world filled with wonder and peril. Craft equipment, pilot submarines and out-smart wildlife to explore lush coral reefs, volcanoes, cave systems, and more - all while trying to survive. *Offer ends January 30 at 10AM Pacific Time via Steam RSS News Feed "http://ift.tt/2DzpAVd"

In December, a number of US Representatives sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) asking it to investigate fraudulent comments submitted to the FCC's proposal to repeal net neutrality. Multiple groups found evidence that millions of the comments submitted during the FCC's public comment period were linked to fake email addresses , were fraudulently posted under others' names and addresses and were even attributed to people known to be dead. Congressional leaders , attorneys general and even FCC commissioners called for the FCC to delay its vote on the proposal while the extent of the fake comments could be properly investigated, though as we well know, the FCC went ahead with the vote anyway. Now, Ars Technica reports , the GAO has agreed to investigate the issue. NEWS: GAO has accepted 10 Democrats' request for an investigation of the pervasiveness of fraudulent comments made during a federal rule making process. pic.twitter.com/fVlBIxBAV...

Today's Deal: Save 70% on Beat Cop !* Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are! *Offer ends Friday at 10AM Pacific Time via Steam RSS News Feed "http://ift.tt/2n8RH6H"

Today, SpaceX performed a static fire test on its Falcon Heavy rocket. Also called the hold-down test, it involved loading the rocket with propellant and firing all of its 27 engines at once while the rocket was secured to the launch pad. The test appears to have been successful, though we are waiting on confirmation from SpaceX. The Falcon Heavy has had a long road to this point; it was first announced back in 2011. The target launch date has been delayed multiple times, but that isn't a surprise. This is an incredibly complex rocket, and the largest since the Saturn Vs that took us to the moon. Now that the static fire appears to have been successfully completed, assuming the rocket performed nominally, the company will likely set a launch date soon. via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2Gf8BJI"

If you're an Olympics nerd, then take note: Samsung has released the official app of the PyeongChang 2018 games. It's ready for download now in the App Store and Google Play Store . The app is available in Korean, English, French, Japanese and Chinese (it's not clear whether this means Mandarin, Cantonese or both). The app aims to deliver a smooth Olympics experience by functioning as a one-stop shop for athlete information, rankings, medal standings, records for both the Olympics and Paralympics and real-time updates. It's powered by Samsung, which has been involved with the Olympic Games since 1998, when they were set in Seoul. Now, the games are returning to Samsung's home country two decades later. via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2F9eeaU"

It's only been two weeks since Vivo's latest attempt with an in-display fingerprint reader on a smartphone, and even though it didn't work perfectly for us, the company thinks it's ready for prime time. In China, consumers will soon be able to use this cool feature on the new Vivo X20 Plus UD, which is available today for 3,598 yuan or about $560, and it'll be shipping from February 1st. As the "UD" in the name implies, the fingerprint reader here has been moved from the rear side to underneath the display, courtesy of Synaptics' Clear ID sensor . Apart from the special black-and-gold design, this device is otherwise identical to the original X20 Plus. You'll find the same 6.43-inch 2,160 x 1,080 (18:9) AMOLED screen, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chipset, 4GB of RAM, a 3,905 mAh battery, a 12-megapixel-plus-5-megapixel f/1.8 dual camera on the back and a 12-megapixel f/2.0 camera on the front. As for storage, the X20 Plus UD here only comes in a ...

Apple has Siri, Amazon has Alexa, and now, Ubisoft has Sam. Yes, really. It's a virtual assistant geared specifically toward gaming, and Ubisoft has started to weave a beta version of the service into its Ubisoft Club companion app... well, for Canadian gamers, anyway. Ubisoft is clearly treating Sam as a test balloon of sorts, meant to gather data and gauge people's reactions to the idea of a game-fluent concierge. After a brief demo, though, it seems pretty clear that not everyone will find Sam useful in the short term. You can engage it in idle chitchat and ask it general knowledge questions, but Sam is at its best when you ask it about (what else?) Ubisoft games. Ask Sam when a particular title comes out, for example, and it'll respond with a link to Ubisoft's online store and might highlight the most recent trailer for good measure. Casually drop an acronym like "ACO" into a conversation and Sam will understand that you're probably talking about A...

There have been quite a few discussions on what makes a planet (and what doesn't) in the past, the most famous of which resulted in the infamous demotion of Pluto from planet status. But now, there's some rumblings on the upper end of things. This week, Kevin Schlaufman published an article in The Astrophysical Journal proposing the maximum size something can be and still be considered a planet: between four and ten times the mass of Jupiter. Jupiter is, in turn , approximately 317 times as massive as Earth. Schlaufman specifically narrows in on the difference between gas giants, like Jupiter or Saturn, and brown dwarfs. Brown dwarfs are, essentially, failed stars and occupy a strange in-between place in the hierarchy of planets and stellar objects. Brown dwarfs are more massive than your typical planet, but don't have quite enough mass to sustain the nuclear fusion of hydrogen in its core. The problem is that there is murkiness in the definition of what actually is a ...