Minecraft’s cross-platform update is now available on Xbox, PC, and mobile

Minecraft has been available on tons of different devices in the past. Now, Microsoft is finally bringing all those platforms together with the “Better Together” update, which is rolling out today for Xbox One, mobile devices, and Windows 10 PCs. The Nintendo Switch is still set to get the Better Together update, too, although that’s been delayed until later in the winter.

The update essentially takes the different versions of Minecraft that have been available on PC, Xbox, iOS, and Android, and consolidates them into one master version, with the same features, functionality, and content no matter where you play. That means that the console versions of Minecraft on Xbox One (and eventually, the Nintendo Switch) will now run the same...

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Motorola’s Moto X4 is Project Fi’s first Android One smartphone

The United States will be getting its first taste of Android One very soon. Today, Google and Motorola announced that the Moto X4 will be coming to Google’s Project Fi wireless carrier with the stripped-down Android One treatment. The Project Fi Moto X4 will cost $399 and come in two colors: black or silver. It will be available for preorder starting today.

The Android One version of the X4 is a little different than the one Motorola is selling in Europe and other parts of the world. It has a “pure Android experience”, which means that it lacks some of the enhancements that Motorola adds to its Android phones. You won’t find Moto Voice, Moto Access, attentive display, or one-button nav options on the Fi phone, but it will have Motorola’s...

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A startup created a smart dog food scooper to order you more of its food

YaDoggie is a new dog food subscription company that claims to be more accurate with its shipments, so you're not overwhelmed with weekly or monthly pet food deliveries. The company's success, it says, hinges on its smart scoop. The Bluetooth food scooper tracks how much you feed your dog and tells other people in the house that your pup's been fed. Even if they don't have the companion iOS / Android app, the scooper has a light on the front that serves as a food indicator. Red means don't feed the dog while green means go ahead, give that doggo some food.

The scooper is pretty simple. It has a Bluetooth chip inside, as well as an accelerometer and some onboard memory. It doesn't require charging. Whenever you pair with the scooper,...

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Hurricane Maria has already left 90 percent of Puerto Rico without power

Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico on Wednesday, leaving at least 10,000 people in shelters and 90 percent of the island without power.

The Category 4 storm made landfall with winds of 155 miles per hour, breaking two National Weather Service radars. It is the first Category 4 storm to hit the island since 1932. The Weather Service has described storm surges reaching up to nine feet above land at the coast.

This is the third hurricane to hit the Caribbean islands in the past couple of weeks, after Hurricanes Irma and Jose. Speaking on CNN, Puerto Rico governor Ricardo Rosselló said that the US territory had been prepared for Irma, but the damage from this storm is expected to be much worse. As of 2:30AM, there were already at least 10,000...

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Tim Cook says DACA is the ‘biggest issue of our time’

“This is about basic human dignity and respect,” says Apple’s CEO

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Zack Snyder’s new four-minute film is only available on an app

Director Zack Snyder (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Man of Steel) just released a new four-minute short film. It’s called Snow Steam Iron, and if you want to watch it, you’ll have to download an app first. The app, Vero, is pitched as a social network for creators; Snyder has used it in the past to share Justice League footage.

Here is the synopsis of Snow Steam Iron, according to Vero: “Snow gently falls on the blood-stained streets of a seedy out-of-time New York City. Steam envelopes the nightmare unfolding within its narrow alleys. Iron is the will of the one who would dare to resist… fight… survive.”

Snyder made the film with the help of his son and daughter, according to an interview with Wired. “It was a cathartic...

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Watch the bloody first trailer for Netflix’s The Punisher

When The Defenders hit Netflix in August, it came with a short teaser trailer for the next big Netflix/Marvel show: The Punisher. Now, the streaming service has released a full trailer for the new show, showing off Jon Bernthal’s antihero in his full glory.

The trailer shows Castle suiting up as the character with his iconic skull vest as he takes a tough-on-crime approach to New York City’s underworld after discovering a conspiracy. Along the way, he’s pursued by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. He’s not going it alone: he’ll be joined by Microchip, an ally of Castle’s from the comics. The trailer sets up The Punisher with its own distinct tone that’s different from the other Marvel Netflix shows. It wades into...

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Verizon is giving away free iPhone 8s in an AR Snapchat scavenger hunt

Do you want a free new iPhone 8? Verizon has rolled out an AR scavenger hunt on Snapchat with a total of 256 iPhone 8s to be given out in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Dallas, and Atlanta, as spotted by FastCoDesign. It’s clearly a massive advertisement for the telecommunications giant, but the hunt does involve some neat features and experiences.

To start off, users are asked to scan a Snapcode that will open a link with instructions, before giving you to your first clue. Accessing your location, the app will tell you how far away you are from the prize and when you need to get there. For example, one clue says, “The 8 is hiding near an elephant, that is your clue. But this one lives in a stadium, not...

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We are the ones making the iPhone and Pixel more expensive

This year has seen a big upgrade in quality from most phone companies: Samsung’s new Galaxy Note doesn’t explode, Apple’s iPhone has a radical redesign, the OnePlus 5 is lovely, and LG’s V30 is shaping up to be a strong contender. If you love technology, you love it for precisely this inexorable march toward better, faster, and prettier devices. But one thing that’s different about the best smartphones of 2017 is that the price of admission is going up.

• The Huawei P9 cost £449 in the UK in 2016, but this year’s P10 starts at £569. You get more, but you pay more as well. (+26%)
• The OnePlus 3 was $399 in 2016, but the 2017 OnePlus 5’s starting price is $479. (+20%)
• The Galaxy Note 7 was $849 in 2016, but now the Galaxy Note 8 costs $930...

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Valve is ‘fixing’ its review-bombing problem by making users do more work

Last week, the indie game Firewatch suffered a Steam “review bombing.” Developer Campo Santo ordered Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg to remove a Firewatch video after he shouted a racial slur elsewhere. In response, angry fans pushed the critically acclaimed game’s score from an overall “very positive” to a more recent “mixed” reception, against PewDiePie’s wishes. Firewatch’s reviews are still generally excellent, so this controversy hasn’t necessarily hurt Campo Santo. But review bombing and similar attacks are a long-standing issue for developers, making Steam a less useful platform to buy and sell games. Given that Steam holds massive sway over the PC gaming market, that’s a real problem.

Yesterday, Valve seemed like it was finally...

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The American fix

How a startup hopes to treat the rural opioid epidemic — at a profit

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Airbnb now lets you book restaurant reservations in the US

Airbnb today announced that it will now help guests book restaurant reservations during their travels. The feature is yet another one of the company’s expansion from a home rental service to a full-scale travel agency, particularly with Airbnb’s launch of its Trips initiative last year.

The reservation system is powered by Resy, which Airbnb invested $13 million in January. This marks Airbnb’s first off-platform partnership — last year Airbnb began testing restaurant recommendations as part of Trips. In the Airbnb app, you can click a new tab for Restaurants and search for businesses in 16 US cities to book a table without leaving the app. Customers can add reservation requests for special events like birthdays or anniversary...

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Stratolaunch tests all six engines on its massive rocket-launching plane

WhatsApp reportedly refused to build a backdoor for the UK government

Messaging service WhatsApp rejected a UK Government request to create a way to access encrypted messages earlier this year, reports Sky News, citing an anonymous security source. The British Government reportedly asked WhatsApp in a meeting during summer to produce technical solutions that would allow access — known as a backdoor. Sky News reports that 80 percent of investigations into terrorism and serious crime are affected by encryption.

"It is crucially important that we can access their communications — and when we can't, it can provide a black hole for investigators," the source said. Extremists are known to use encryption apps like WhatsApp and Telegram to communicate, and an inability to access those messages has been a constant...

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Blizzard’s Overwatch league will finally debut in January

Super Mario Odyssey's weird new controls are actually great

Watch Lara Croft in action in the first trailer for new Tomb Raider reboot

Lara Croft is back. Nearly a decade and a half after the last adaptation of the classic video game Tomb Raider, Alicia Vikander is taking over the title role of the daring archeologist in Roar Uthaug’s upcoming reboot.

The film is based off of the gritty 2013 game, which featured an updated version of Lara Croft’s origins. The trailer shows that the film is following the same track, opening with Lara returning home (in a scene that’s reminiscent of Iron Fist’s return home, right down to the set), to discover that her father has died. Before his death, he left behind a video message: he discovered a tomb called the Mother of Death. She has to get to it before a mysterious organization called Trinity opens it, because the fate of the...

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9 cool AR apps you should download to try out iOS 11’s ARKit

Since it was first announced at WWDC, Apple’s ARKit has been open to developers to get a feel for the new platform. Now that iOS 11 is finally here, ARKit is available for anyone with an iPhone 6S or later, the iPad Pro, and the latest 9.7-inch iPad. In the time between the announcement and its official release yesterday, developers have used ARKit to create apps for big brands like The Food Network and AMC’s The Walking Dead, as well as for smaller, but no less important amusements like this demo that does nothing but visualize AR tea cups resting on top of a good dog.

Whether it’s existing apps that have added AR functionality with their updates, or fresh new apps introduced specifically for the platform, here are nine AR-ready iOS...

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HTC is halting trade of its shares in anticipation of expected takeover

HTC, one of Taiwan’s premier tech brands and a true pioneer in the development of the Android hardware ecosystem, has today announced it is about to halt trading of its shares tomorrow in anticipation of a “major announcement,” as first reported by Bloomberg’s Tim Culpan. Earlier this month, the company was rumored to be in the final stages of negotiating a takeover with Google, and today’s news appears to be setting the stage for that buyout becoming official. Or it could be some anonymous asset-holding company buying up what’s left of HTC, but the exciting scenario is definitely the one that involves Google.

The official HTC response to the reported Google negotiations was issued today in a boilerplate statement of “HTC does not...

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Apple admits to Apple Watch LTE problems just before it ships