Geek News

A California appellate court has ruled that Tinder’s variable pricing for Tinder Plus, which charges more for users over 30, is discriminatory as it makes an “arbitrary, class-based generalization” about users’ incomes, as reported by Quartz . The case against Tinder was brought forth by Allen Candelore, who argued that the company’s age-based pricing is a violation of California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act and the Unfair Competition Law. Tinder Plus charges $9.99 per month for users under 30, and $19.99 per month for users over 30, defending the model by saying that those who are younger have less disposable incomes. While a lower trial court initially agreed with Tinder, the appeals court has reversed the decision, saying that no matter... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2BHEl6D"

You can certainly watch sports on cord-cutting TV services , but major sports exclusives? Not until now. YouTube TV has reached a deal that makes it the official live TV and video partner for Major League Soccer's brand new team, the Los Angeles Football Club. The streaming service will be the only place for Angelenos to watch all locally televised English-language LAFC games, and it'll also carry all nationally broadcast games on ESPN, Fox and FS1. The deal will be impossible to ignore regardless of how you watch -- players will have YouTube TV's logo "prominently" plastered on their jerseys. You won't have to pay more than YouTube TV's $35 base monthly rate to watch. This certainly isn't the biggest team deal in TV land, and it remains to be seen how many people will tune in. MLS doesn't attract nearly as many viewers as other sports leagues in the US, even on conventional TV -- how many people are going to add or switch to YouTube TV just ...

Remember the iPhone 5C ? Apple’s foray into making a plastic-cased, brightly colored line of theoretically cheaper iPhones may not have lasted long (largely due to people preferring the nicer aluminum models and the fact that they weren’t actually all that cheap), but Sharp’s new Android One S3 phone looks like it’s picking up the style of Apple’s short-lived experiment, with a few improvements, via GSMArena . The Android One S3 costs 32,400 yen (roughly $300), putting it far more in line with mid-range and budget phones than the 5C ever was. The phone is also larger, with a 5-inch IGZO LCD display at 1080p resolution. The rest of the specs are uninspiring, at best — a Snapdragon 430 processor, 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of internal storage,... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2DRmCzx"

YouTube TV, the Google-owned video site’s over-the-top pay-TV service, is the first digital-only offering to become the official video partner of a US sports team. YouTube is partnering with Los Angeles FC , the newly created Major League Soccer team in the area, in a multiyear deal that will grant YouTube TV subscribers exclusive access to locally televised games on all channels YouTube offers. YouTube TV’s logo will also be placed on LAFC jerseys, while the company will provide LAFC with on-site studio resources for a 30-minute pre- and post-game show. The deal marks the first time an OTT service has inked a live-streaming exclusivity deal with a sports team — something typically reserved for local affiliates under Fox or CBS. That... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2DSPKXi"

If Amazon's newly opened Go supermarket is any indicator, shopping with physical currency won't be an option for much longer. Instead of human cashiers (or even self-checkout stands) the store relies on a range of technology to know who's shopping and what they're buying. Amazon then automatically deducts the cost of your items from your bank account. From a turnstile entrance that identifies shoppers by scanning their smartphones to tracking cameras that know what is pulled from each shelf, Amazon Go bills itself as the shopping experience of the future. But where do the working poor fit into such a future? Or otherwise underserved and rural communities that may not have access to internet connections, smartphones, or even checking accounts? You know, all the things that Amazon's new store demands of shoppers just to get in the door. As our economy embraces digital transactions while shunning cash, it's the poor that will be most harmed. "There are man...

Last week, Representative Adam Schiff and Senator Dianne Feinstein asked Facebook and Twitter to investigate whether Russia-linked accounts were involved in spreading the #ReleaseTheMemo campaign. The hashtag refers to a memo written by Republican Representative Devin Nunes that claims the FBI has abused its power. Democrats, however, have maintained that the memo is misleading and largely meant to undermine Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into inappropriate interactions between Russian officials and the Trump administration. Both Facebook and Twitter responded to that letter, but neither Congressperson is satisfied with their answers and they've sent another letter reiterating their requests. Facebook's response to the first letter, just two paragraphs long, basically says it's continuously monitoring its platform for any foreign interference and it will update Congress if anything seems noteable. "We are committed to protecting our platform...

Companies are all about making sure you're working, and they're using increasingly high-tech solutions to do so. One firm in London uses AI to analyze your daily behavior, while the FreshTeam messaging app can track employee locations . Now, Amazon was just awarded a patent for a wristband that tracks warehouse workers' hand movements. The patents, originally filed in 2016, may likely never see the light of day. As Gizomodo points out, the wristband system has three parts, with an ultrasonic unit for the wrist, various ultrasonic devices placed around the work area and a module to manage all that data. The patent also points to a haptic feedback module, which could buzz employees for various reasons, including notifying them of breaks or to help them find items in the warehouse, Apple Watch navigation-style. While legal, of course, a system like this should likely raise privacy concerns, though as Geekwire notes, the patent itself positions such a wristband as a lab...

Governments , journalists , experts , and more have issued or written guidance on how to understand bitcoin. But none of these guides are as helpful as Square’s new illustrated story about the birth of Bitcoin that even small children can understand. The explainer, called “My First Bitcoin and the Legend of Satoshi Nakamoto” and titled in blazing ombre letters, uses colorful illustrations of machines and whirring gizmos to explain Bitcoin, all drawn by Square’s Cash App brand and design team. Satoshi Nakamoto refers to Bitcoin’s creator, about whom little is known. The illustrations depict bitcoins as shiny letter Bs that can be chopped up into valuable fractions, kind of like a huge diamond. They’re made with “very complex math,” as... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2nq2vyc"

While scientists have been working on growing organs and body parts like ears for some time, researchers in China have taken it one important step further. They've grown new ears for five children with microtia -- an ear defect that results in small, underdeveloped ears and often affects hearing -- grafted them onto the children and continued to observe the development for over two years. The work is important because it's the first study of its kind and shows that these sorts of methods stand to be a viable option going forward. First, the scientists built scaffolds based on the children's healthy ears using CT scanning and 3D printing . Those scaffolds were then seeded with cells from the children's underdeveloped, microtia ears and cultured for three months. The team then implanted the ears in the five patients, who have been continuously monitored ever since. Now, the researchers have over two years of follow-up data and the results are promising. None of the c...

Animals Humans have a surprisingly primitive way of sizing up strangers Like Pavlov's dogs, we unconsciously use our past experiences to guide our future decisions. Sometimes, the results are dangerous. via Popular Science "http://ift.tt/2DQCqyD"

Yesterday, organizers for the upcoming Game Developers Conference announced the lineup for the 18th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards, and topping that list were honors for a trio of men who helped build gaming as we know it: Vlambeer co-founder Rami Ismail (Ambassador Award), Double Fine founder Tim Schafer (Lifetime Achievement), and Atari founder Nolan Bushnell (Pioneer Award). But an outcry followed for the latter, and the hashtag #NotNolan surfaced anecdotes of sexual misconduct and harassment that Bushnell had encouraged in Atari's offices during its heydey in the 70s -- stories that he'd actually given in interviews. A day later, GDC officially retracted its award to Bushnell. pic.twitter.com/ma5txGiIx7 — Official_GDC (@Official_GDC) January 31, 2018 Unlike E3's pure games showcase, GDC is more of an event by and for the industry, where devs gather to teach each other and celebrate accomplishments. The decision to award Bushnell seemed in especially poor...

You'll be able to see Jaguar's answer to the Tesla Model X March 1st. What's more, when the production model debuts next month, the British luxury automaker's I-Pace electric crossover SUV will be able to hit an 80 percent charge in 45 minutes thanks to an available 100-kW DC fast charger, Autoblog writes . That's up from a 80 percent charge in two hours when the I-Pace was still just a concept at the LA Auto Show in 2016, using a 50-kW fast charger. There's also a connected app that enables you to, essentially, warm the car up while it's plugged in. Autoblog also reports that pre-orders go live during the reveal next month, as well. Jaguar hasn't said how much this will cost just yet, however. In lieu of that, you'll be able to tune into the global debut livestream March 1st at 1PM Eastern and hope for a sticker price along with the rest of us. And for an idea of how the EV handles in inclement conditions, check out the video below. Via: ...

Google has updated its Flights app with a pair of new features that should help weary (and wary) travelers get to grips with the next trip to the airport. The first uses machine learning to predict upcoming flight delays, and the second breaks down exactly what different airlines mean by “basic economy” — explaining what amenities are and are not included in so-called last class. Predicting flight delays is probably the most interesting of these two. According to reports from VentureBeat and TechCrunch , Google combs through historical data of flight delays to look for common patterns in late departures. These include factors like location, weather, and aircraft arriving late. Once the algorithms are 80 percent sure there’ll be a delay,... Continue reading… via The Verge - Tech Posts "http://ift.tt/2DRyPQz"

The underpinnings of Chrome OS have found their way into the server room in a very roundabout way. Red Hat has acquired CoreOS, the creators of an operating system for containerized apps (Container Linux) that shares roots with both Google's Chromium OS project and Gentoo Linux. The $250 million deal promises to help Red Hat fulfill its dreams of helping people use open code to deploy apps in any environment they like, whether it's on a local network or multiple cloud services. CoreOS has played a particularly major role in Kubernetes, the Google-built open platform for deploying those containerized apps. It's the second-largest contributor to the project beyond Google itself, Red Hat said. Additional tools like Tectonic and Quay have made it easier for big businesses to move and track apps. You probably won't notice any of the Chrome OS influence at Red Hat. However, this shows just how far Google's web-centric platform has spread. Elements of an OS originall...