In the tech world, a lot happens in a week. Too much, in fact, for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of everything. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of the top 10 tech stories from this week. From major glitches halting all NYSE trading and grounding United Airlines flights, to Tinder introducing verified accounts for celebrities and Disney launching the official Star Wars app for iOS and Android devices, it’s all here.
With San Diego Comic-Con right around the corner, it’s no surprise that Disney and Lucasfilm launched an official Star Wars app for iOS and Android devices. By downloading the app, Star Wars fans can take and share selfies in iconic costumes, get Star Wars themed weather forecasts, and play sound effects from their favorite characters. The app also provides Star Wars news and blogs from StarWars.com, movie trailers, and behind-the-scenes features.
Tinder announced in a blog post on Tuesday that it’s introducing verified profiles for “notable public figures, celebrities, and athletes.” If you see a Tinder profile with a blue check mark icon, that means the profile has been through the verification process, which is similar to the ones used by Facebook and Twitter. Over the past few months, it’s been rumored that celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Hilary Duff have been using the dating platform.
At the time of its launch, Apple Pay had more than 220,000 participating vendors. Now that Apple Pay is compatible with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, banks and retail locations are looking to show their support for Apple Pay. Since new partners are being added to the list every day, we’ve compiled a list of all of the major brands and countries that support Apple Pay.
Microsoft announced on Wednesday that it will be laying off up to 7,800 employees over the next few months, most of which are based in its phone division. Microsoft also stated that it will write off $7.6 billion for its acquisition of Nokia’s devices and services business, but it admits the deal to acquire Nokia was indeed a failure. The new round of layoffs come in addition to the 18,000 employees Microsoft let go last year.
United Airlines flights were halted on Wednesday morning after the FFA said it was experiencing “automation issues,” which forced planes to be grounded for more than two hours. United said in a statement: “We experienced a network connectivity issue this morning. We are working to resolve this and apologize to our customers for any inconvenience.”
The New York Stock Exchange was also halted for nearly four hours on Wednesday after what was described as an “internal problem.” The NYSE blames an internal computer glitch for the issues and reports it wasn’t a cyberattack.
Next page: 5 more tech stories you might have missed this week
YouTube’s biggest star Felix Kjellberg, also known as PewDiePie, has revealed he earned $7.4 million from recording himself playing video games. Since launching his YouTube channel in 2010, Kjellber’s videos received more than 37.7 million subscribers and 9.4 billion views. After Swedish paper Expressen released his earnings, the news began to spread on various social networks.
Keeping up with your friends is tough, and while your Facebook News Feed my appear busy most of the time, missing updates from a certain someone may go unnoticed. As days, or weeks or months go by, you might begin to realize that this person is no longer interacting with your updates, so you check that person’s profile and to your surprise, you’re no longer friends on Facebook! Every day, Facebook members are blindly “unfriended.” While Facebook doesn’t provide a feature to notify its users every time they are removed from someone’s friends list, an app called Who Deleted Me plans to fill that gap.
CBS announced last month its plans for a new a la carte subscription service for Showtime to compete against similar services from HBO and others. Earlier this week, the network launched the new venture, making it available on several platforms including the Apple TV and other Apple devices, Roku boxes, Sony’s PlayStation Vue streaming service, and the Web. By downloading the Showtime app, you can catch up on hit shows like Dexter, Weeds, Californication, and more. After the 30-day free trial, you will need to subscribe to Showtime for $11 a month.
T-Mobile announced on Thursday it’s getting rid of roaming fees for all U.S. users who travel to Mexico and Canada for no extra charge starting July 15. In other words, when T-Mobile users travel to Mexico or Canada, they’ll get calls, texts, and data with speeds up to 4G LTE from Mexican and Canadian networks through their Simple Choice plans at no extra cost. The ‘Mobile without Borders’ feature allows users to call to landlines and mobile phones in both countries.
Back in April 2015, the Office of Personnel Management discovered that 4.2 million former employees’ personal data had been hacked. The government agency revealed that 19.7 million were individuals who applied for background checks, as well as 1.8 million others, who weren’t even applicants at all.
Motorola has built some of my favorite foldables and flagship phones. I had a great time with both the Razr Fold and last year's Signature. So when the company began teasing the Signature 27, I couldn't help be excited. The new model comes with Qualcomm's blazing-fast Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, and better still, it is finally getting a proper global release.
One of the reasons I was obsessed with the last-gen Signature was its amazing price tag. But it seems like that budget flagship dream might be officially dead. Portuguese retailer MegaPC has prematurely listed a 12GB RAM and 512GB storage Signature 27 in Pantone Coal Smoke for €1,594.90 (approx. $1,775).
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.