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Getty/Bennett Raglin The toy retailer Toys R Us filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday. The retailer made the move as part of an effort to pay down $5 billion in debt it owes as a result of a leveraged buyout in 2005, according to an earlier report from The Wall Street Journal. The chain’s trio of owners — the private-equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Bain Capital Partners and the real-estate investment trust Vornado Realty Trust — bought the company in…

For the second time in as many years, internet advertisers are facing unprecedented disruption to their business model thanks to a new feature in a forthcoming Apple software update. iOS 11, the latest version of Apple’s operating system for mobile devices, will hit users’ phones and tablets on Tuesday. It will include a new default feature for the Safari web browser dubbed “intelligent tracking prevention”, which prevents certain websites from tracking users around the net, in effect blocking those annoying…

While application systems are always getting larger, the trend is for them to be made from smaller and smaller components.  To deploy and operate microservices and lightweight application components, development and DevOps teams are increasingly considering using containers, an operating system virtualisation technology. The trend of creating applications from a larger number of smaller components has meant some of them have become so small they no longer need a whole server to themselves – even a very small one.  However,…

NASA is funding a study to work out how to treat the mental health of Astronauts on long-duration space missions. As part of the research, an e-mental health tool developed by researchers at Black Dog Institute will be trialled this month. myCompass is an interactive self-help tool which gives evidence-based psychological interventions for depression and anxiety, such as cognitive behaviour therapy, entirely via online platforms. The fully automated and free program lets you access personalised treatment plans anytime on your…

Samsung is reportedly working on a camera that can take up to 1,000 pictures a second. According to KoreaIT News, the South Korean tech giant is nearing completion of the testing phase, with mass production expected to begin in November. Presumably, this is so Samsung can include the specialized camera into its upcoming Galaxy S9 smartphone, which will release sometime next year. KoreaIT News says that Samsung is working on what it refers to as a “three-layered image sensor.” Normally, a…

Ofelia Legaspi goes two weeks with old technology like the walkman, discman and a point and shoot camera.  (Steve Russell / Toronto Star) | Order this photo   By Ofelia LegaspiSpecial to the Star Fri., Nov. 13, 2015 I’m a Millennial and I’m lucky. I was born in 1984, right on the cusp of the tech takeover. I recall text-commanded DOS computers, the grating sound of dial-up Internet and the advent of the first clunky cellphones the size of cordless receivers. It…

The AI Minute is our daily podcast about AI. It was designed originally to be a minute (or so) of the latest news in AI. We received feedback from our audience that they had plenty of news sources, but from Gigaom they expected analysis. So a few weeks ago, we changed the AI Minute to being a source of analysis about AI. It addresses a wide range of issues, from the difficulties of AI, its limits, how it is (and…

California Gov. Jerry Brown compared Trump supporters to cave dwellers at an event in New York. He also said that everything Trump does, including the way he handles climate change and North Korea, are “stupid and dangerous and silly.” He predicts that Trump will “fail very soon.” According to Politico: “They’re both kind of very similar,” Brown said at a climate change event in New York. “You should check out the derivation of ‘Trump-ite’ and ‘troglodyte,’ because…

Most people use LinkedIn to get email alerts for new job postings that match their interests but did you know that LinkedIn can also help track new hires made by a company? You can easily keep an eye on new employees joining your own company or a competitor. Also see: The Best Email Alerts Services How to Set People Search Alerts on LinkedIn Similar to job alerts, you can set up people alerts in LinkedIn and they will send you…

iOS 11 is scheduled to be released tomorrow (although here’s a way you can get your hands on it today if you want), and if you’re thinking about upgrading to iOS 11 the moment it’s released, there are some steps that you should take so you don’t end up in a world of hurt. See also: iOS 11: It’s gone from awful to awesome How to get iOS 11 The recommended way is to tap Settings > General > Software…

If you happen to frequent the dicier corners of the internet, specifically the well-known copyright trampling website The Pirate Bay, then beware that the latter has been testing a new method of making money – using the PCs of visitors to mine cryptocurrency. Torrent Freak discovered that the piracy website had implemented a Javascript cryptocurrency miner which employs the resources of the user’s PC to mine Monero coins. Some visitors to observed their CPU resource usage spiking heavily as the…

Rob Marvin is the Assistant Editor of PCMag’s Business section. He covers startups, business and venture capital, and writes features, news, and trend stories on all manner of emerging technologies. Beats include: blockchain, artificial intelligence and cognitive computing, augmented reality, enterprise IoT, legal cannabis tech, social media, the mobile app economy, digital commerce and payments, cloud, Big Data, low code development, containers and microservices, deep linking, M&A, SEO, virtual assistants and voice AI, chatbots, and enterprise software in general. Rob…

Share Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Google Plus Modern smartphones come equipped with huge screens with high resolutions, a myriad of apps and powerful processor, but heavy use all those features rapidly drains the battery. With heavy use you’re lucky if your phone will last a day on a single charge, which can leave you with a dead device when you least need it. Power banks offer a solution. Our top picks are: Anker PowerCore 20100 RavPower PowerStation Series 20100mAh Aukey PB-N36 Read on…

Angular 5, the next version of the popular Google-developed JavaScript framework, was to have debuted this month. But the release is now set to arrive October 23, because Google needs more time to work on the upgrade process. As a result of Angular 5’s delay, Angular 6 should arrive in March or April 2018, followed by Angular 7 in September or October 2018. Each version is promised to be backward-compatible with the prior release. Angular 5’s promised capabilities include building…

Six times real life has caught up with Hollywood sci-fi films iOS 11, Apple’s most significant software update in years, will officially launch on Sept. 19. It brings a new Files app, Split View, drag and drop, an upgraded App Store, and so much more.  ( Apple ) Apple’s next major software update is about to arrive, and with it comes new features, an enhanced user interface, and changes both big and small that will change how people interact with…

In 2016’s Ghostbusters reboot, slime was unavoidable. In the film’s opening scene, a tour guide discovers that the floor of the eerie Aldridge Mansion has turned into a yawning chasm of neon green glop. Soon after, the doubtful Dr. Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig) relinquishes her skepticism of paranormal activity when she nearly slips on a chartreuse wad of ectoplasm. In nearly every important scene, there it is: slime dripping from ceilings or churning in fissures. At one point, Slimer steals…

In July, the Director of the World Wide Web Consortium overruled dozens of members’ objections to publishing a DRM standard without a compromise to protect accessibility, security research, archiving, and competition. EFF appealed the decision, the first-ever appeal in W3C history, which concluded last week with a deeply divided membership. 58.4% of the group voted to go on with publication, and the W3C did so today, an unprecedented move in a body that has always operated on consensus…

A month after Twitter launched its new timeline, which sorts tweets in your feed according to relevancy instead of chronology, the company has quietly turned it on by default. It also appears to be live for all users.  Originally launched in February, the new timeline was opt-in, and it was only available to some users.  Now users are reporting getting a notification that the setting is now opt-out.  Image: Stan Schroeder/Mashable The Next Web also noticed that Twitter updated its FAQ…

In the days following the Department of Homeland Security’s ban against using Kaspersky antivirus software, several of that company’s competitors have begun using the controversy for a business advantage. The ban, issued Wednesday, is the culmination of months of open distrust for the Russian-based company from members of Congress and leaders of the US intelligence community, and reflects a nervousness that information about US government computers is routinely sent to servers in Russia. DHS’s statement echoes the broad distrust that…