Tech Point

For elderly gamers, this could be the biggest hit since Wii Sports : a new video game helped older people with hearing loss get better at tracking speech in noisy environments, new research says. The game had players complete a puzzle by listening for clues as background noise steadily got louder. After two months of playing, elderly adults with hearing loss could hear 25 percent more words spoken under noisy conditions than they could before, according to the study published in the journal Current Biology . It won’t replace hearing aids, but it could boost their effectiveness. “That was a holy shit moment.” There’s a growing interest in using video games as digital medicine to treat disorders like ADHD or lazy eye , but the idea is somewhat controversial . Playing a game might make you better at winning it, but there’s less evidence that it could boost your performance in real-world situations. Still, researchers led by Daniel Polley at Massachusetts Eye and E

This week, a bipartisan group of US senators took the first steps toward regulating online political advertising in a manner similar to the way the government already regulates these ads in traditional media. Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar (MN) and Mark Warner (VA), joined by Republican Sen. John McCain (AZ), say their Honest Ads Act will protect against foreign interference in elections by requiring platforms like Facebook to make details about ads’ buyers, pricing, and targeting publicly available. Advocates cheered the move, which they said represented a long-overdue step to apply the same standards of transparency and fairness to online ads that have long been the norm for print, radio, and television. At the same time, the bill’s passage is far from certain: so far, it has just one Republican supporter in Congress, and the tech companies that would be affected have deployed a phalanx of lobbyists. “It goes a long way,” said Alex Howard, deputy director of th

There are the smartphones and laptops we use every day, and then there’s Next Level technology. In this new Verge video series, s enior e ditor Lauren Goode takes you behind the scenes to show you the technology that’s being worked on at some of the world’s most innovative companies and research institutions. From modular airplanes to prescription video games to Hollywood’s attempt to hack your emotions, Next Level will show you the technology that has the potential to radically change the way we interact with tech. Commercial flying is, for most people, a mediocre experience at best. Unless you shell out for an upgraded seat, you’re generally stuck with little leg room, tepid meals, and nowhere to go for hours or more — all for an average airfare of $350 in the US . Add in recent events , involving overbooking, passenger apparel choices, and dead pets, and the airlines aren’t exactly winning the hearts of customers right now. This is the problem that Airbus thinks it

  At Microsoft's Build 2016 conference, the company shocked the tech world when it announced support for Bash shell and the entire Linux command line system on Windows 10. This year the surprise continued by extending its Linux love to SUSE and Fedora distributions as well. With the first announcement, Microsoft tapped Ubuntu maker Canonical to help ensure smooth Bash performance on Windows as it is on the various Linux distributions. Well, today Canonical is officially releasing Ubuntu in the Windows Store for download right now. Microsoft's Rich Turner also released an official announcement that lays out the benefits of this Windows Store version of Ubuntu as well as some helpful FAQs. Ubuntu (and SUSE and Fedora eventually) run in a sandboxed environment alongside Windows 10. This implementation also allows it to share hardware and files with Windows 10. This integrated approach allows developers to run Linux command line utilities without having to create

  Last month, we found out some juicy tidbits of information about the upcoming Pixel and Pixel XL phones. According to rumors, Google cancelled the mid-sized Pixel 2 XL that was code-named "Muskie" and went instead with an even larger phone code-named "Taimen". The original leak from XDA-Developers highlighted noteworthy specs including an LG made 5.9" 1440p screen powered by a Snapdragon 835, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. However, up until this point, no photos had been seen. Thanks to a report from Android Police , we may finally have a real look into what the Pixel 2 XL will look like: We rate this rumor a 8 out of 10 on our confidence scale. The reason we are subtracting two points is due to the fact that we are not confident our source material reflects a fully finalized design. As such, there is a possibility that small changes may still occur before the phone makes it into production, as we don't expect Google to announce this

  Throughout the years we’ve reviewed dozens of smartphones and got hands on time with plenty others. The good news is that as smartphones have matured, they've become so good in terms of hardware and design that it’s getting harder to pick something you will truly regret... or if you’re the glass half empty kinda person, they’ve become so good that picking the one that’s right for you can be a challenging task. You've read the reviews and have formed your own opinions on the devices you've owned and currently own, but with our vast access to devices, the best smartphones feature is meant to highlight the stuff that matters, what we'd buy for ourselves based in a number of factors (particularly price point) and thus make it easier for you to buy the best possible device. The Best Phone A Flagship for Less A Mid-Priced Superstar Best Budget Phone iPhone Lovers: Wait Best Overall Samsung Galaxy S8+ In numbers Price:

As tech enthusiasts we pay tribute to one of the most iconic leaders in the history of our industry. Steve Jobs was a tech visionary that transcended the possibilities of his time. Here's a brief timeline of his career in and outside of Apple. Feb 1955   Steve Jobs is born in San Francisco, adopted by the family of Paul and Clara Jobs. 1971 Attended lectures at HP during high school and earned a summer gig alongside Steve Wozniak. 1972   Steve drops out of Reed College after one semester because he "couldn't see the value in it." 1973 A frugal Jobs slept on friends' floors and collected soda bottles for money while sitting in on free courses at Reed, including one for calligraphy. A decade later, he applied this experience to the first Mac's typeface. Fall 1974 After leaving college permanently, Jobs returned to California and scored a technician position with Atari. Apr 1976 Jobs

Ultrabooks are by far the most popular category of laptops, providing enough performance for everyday tasks in a compact, portable form factor you can carry between home and office. But there’s one crucial task that these thin-and-light machines are incapable of, and that’s hardcore PC gaming. Most people looking to play games on their PC will examine a few options. Desktop PCs are the best choice from a price and performance perspective, but they aren't portable. A desktop will require an external monitor and peripherals, and simply can’t replace what a laptop does. Gaming laptops are a portable equivalent and surely they're getting better, but for the most part they're always larger and heavier than an ultraportable for a decent level of power; plus they tend to be pretty expensive. A new option for PC gaming has started to appear over the last few years: external graphics boxes, which connect to a laptop and provide the power of a fully-fledged g

Try as I might, I can’t recall exactly what compelled me to connect a second monitor to my PC for the very first time. Whatever the reason, I was immediately sold on the extra real estate and vowed that I’d never go back to a single display. It’s a promise that I kept for nearly a decade but as the saying goes, never say never. I punched my ticket on the multi-monitor express in 2006 with the purchase of two 22-inch displays. It was tough to swallow at $300+ a pop -- especially for a broke college student -- but later on as a hardware reviewer, I somehow rationalized it as a “need” and pulled the trigger. Having twice the desktop space did wonders for productivity. Being able to have Word open on one screen and photos for a review loaded on the other was invaluable. Similarly, working on a research paper and not having to flip between my write-up and sources was great. When I wasn't writing, I’d use one monitor to surf the web and keep my e-mail, music pl

  All mobile carriers have some type of unlimited data plan, but as we all know “unlimited” is only used in the loosest sense of the term. All these services have a data cap, and the usual practice is to throttle down network speeds once a customer reaches that limit. Verizon’s Unlimited Talk, Text, & Data is no different. Customers have a 22GB per month allowance. If they exceed this limit, they are “ subject to deprioritization .” Meaning if the tower is busy, you will be the first to get slowed down. Ironically, some customers that are exceeding the cap are going to be kicked off their unlimited data subscription. Recently customers began complaining that they had received notification from Verizon “to either port their plans to another carrier or face outright termination.” The problem is only occurring with customers who are carried under the LTE in Rural America (LRA) program. Verizon initiated LRA to bring high-speed LTE service to those in rural areas. To

France is launching the world’s largest startup campus in a converted railway depot in Paris, and it’s keeping the door open for those from underprivileged backgrounds. The space, now dubbed Station F but previously known as the 1920s-era freight hall Halle Freyssinet , opened its doors this week to eligible startups from around the world. The building is 366,000 square feet and contains 3,000 desks, an onsite restaurant and bar, and eight event spaces. The space will host companies from 26 international programs, and the French government is working with the city of Paris to build nearby housing starting in 2018. This is all part of a larger push from France to foster homegrown entrepreneurship and try and build a incubating tech culture like that of California’s Silicon Valley. Station F is being primarily backed by French telecom mogul and billion investor Xavier Niel, to the tune of around €250 million. Most of the startup programs Station F supports are run b

  Sometimes you see a product and you’re like “Wow, that’s so futuristic.” Then you remember you’re living in 2017, 20 years after the date that a sentient AI wiped out most of humanity in the original Terminator movie, and you think: “Huh, maybe we’re living in the future already .” So it is with these amazing LED eyelashes. They’re called f.lashes, and they’re the creation of designer Tien Pham, who first showed them off at Maker Faire earlier this year. Encouraged by the reaction he received, Pham has now launched a Kickstarter to make his wearable electronics into a commercial product, and has already attracted more than double his $40,000 target. F.lashes are tiny strips of LEDs that you stick to your eyelids with lash adhesive. There’s an annoying, bulky controller and a connecting wire you have to hide somewhere (best bet: in your hair), but once that’s in place, the effect is amazing. The f.lashes come in seven different colors, and light up in various pa

  On-ear and over-ear headphones generally tend to offer dramatically better sound than smaller, in-ear buds. The trade-off is, in exchange for better music, you have to carry around the bulkier, larger devices. But what if you didn’t? What if you could roll up a pair of on-ear headphones and just stow them in a jacket pocket like you do a pair of earbuds? That’s the idea behind the Luzli Roller MK01, a pair of handcrafted stainless steel and aluminum headphones that feature a headband similar to a metal link bracelet on a watch. The flexible band allows them to roll up into a compact and portable package. According to Luzli, the Roller MK01 features 22 separate stainless steel springs built into the headband, allowing the 13 links to move and conform to the wearer’s head. Each pair comes in a wooden display case and a suede travel bag, along with a few other more normal accessories, like spare earpads, a cl

Toyota recently completed its first in-home trial of its new Human Support Robot. The Japanese auto giant built the HSR to help people with disabilities perform everyday tasks around the home, like open doors and fetch water bottles. In this case, the robot was delivered to the home of a US Army vet who is paraplegic, and, as you can imagine, the results were quite heartwarming. The HSR, with its articulated torso and arm and video calling functionality, has mainly been in use in hospitals in Japan, helping with that country’s rapidly aging population. Demonstrations showed people operating the HSR remotely via a touchscreen tablet to open curtains and deliver food and water to bed-ridden family members. But this is the first time the robot has been used in someone’s private home. “a natural extension of our work as a mobility company that helps people navigate their world” Romulo “Romy” Camargo is a decorated war veteran who was wounded in Afghanis