Uber is rolling out a major redesign of its app today — the most significant update since 2012. The changes, which are only for users and not drivers, are supposed to offer a much cleaner interface, less confusion around which service to request, and shortcut options to frequent destinations. The…

If you’re a fan of Apple laptops, I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news: Apple has finally updated its Pro laptop line with some genuinely new and powerful options. Even better, the new MacBook Pro has been shrunken down to the degree of serving as the MacBook Air’s spiritual…

Updated at 3:45 p.m. Our Facebook timelines erupted early Monday morning with a specific kind of post: Seemingly half of our friends had apparently traveled to the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota and used Facebook to “check in.” Except they weren’t really there. They had used Facebook’s…

Maybe Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) had the right idea after all. Maybe Republicans are willing to trigger a constitutional crisis over the Supreme Court. Some conservatives certainly seem to be warming up to McCain’s controversial suggestion last week that Senate Republicans should dig in their heels…

Like 20 to 30 percent of genital warts, Sex Box has recurred. Once again, couples are getting into a big soundproof box in front of a live studio audience, having sex, then coming out of the box and talking about the sex they just had. Part voyeuristic giggle-fest, part sex education seminar from…

The “future” — or a dumb gimmick? Last night’s Apple event was bizarre — I had been anticipating this show for a while, mostly looking forward to being able to stop telling people not to buy a Mac, because everything was so outdated. But, even though what I saw was interesting, it really feels like…

Snyder had spent the preceding months building a computer in his basement, cobbling it together with remnants of electromagnetic switches and electronic wiring he'd found thrown out behind several telephone company offices. Their switch to touch-tone phones was his gain, as the outdated relays…

“#DaddyWillSaveUs,” a pro-Donald Trump exhibit billed as “the first conservative art show” in America, was like a parody of bad art. PHOTOGRAPH BY KIMBERLY FLORES GUZMÁN In the fall of 2008, as the election of Barack Obama started to seem inevitable, many Republicans began wondering about their…

When my Mom was dying, my siblings and I gathered to be with her in her final days. None of us knew anything about supporting someone in her transition out of this life into the next, but we were pretty sure we wanted to keep her at home, so we did. While we supported Mom, we were, in turn,…

Kanishk Tharoor | Kill Screen | October 2016 | 13 minutes (3,204 words) The following essay was published by Kill Screen , the video game arts and culture magazine, and co-funded by Longreads Members. *** The pleasure of Sid Meier’s Civilization series is that it is at once tantalizingly grand and…

Top Stories Canada ‘I am scared to death’: Neighbours describe shock, fear as shooting kills four in Fredericton, including two police officers Fredericton police said they have arrested one suspect who is being treated for serious injuries sustained in the shooting. City Hall Mayor John Tory urges…

Despite best intentions and mountains of data, many organizations continue to offer lackluster experiences for their customers. Many organizations function with an internal focus, and that becomes apparent when customers interact with their various products, services and employees. Every interaction…

Over the years, there’s been a steady rise of out gay superheroes in both Marvel and DC’s rosters — and now that number has grown a little larger, with the revelation in tomorrow’s All-New X-Men #40 that one of the founding members of the X-Men is gay. Spoilers , of course, for All-New X-Men #40…

Image Credit: America #1 cover by Jamie McKelvie and Matthew Wilson/Uncanny X-Men #600 interior art by Sara Pichelli, Mahmud Asrar, Stuart Immonen, Kris Anka, Chris Bachalo, David Marquez, and Frazer Irving Over the past few years, Marvel’s comic roster has steadily become more and more diverse, as…

Image: AP Remember how smartwatches were supposed to be the next big thing? About that... The market intelligence firm IDC reported on Monday that smartwatch shipments are down 51.6 percent year-over-year for the third quarter of 2016. This is bad news for all smartwatch vendors (except maybe…

Netflix is already $2.37 billion in debt, but the company announced today in a press release that it was raising another $800 million through a new debt offering in order for the streaming service to create more original content. Once the funds are raised, Netflix’s total debt will be more than $3…

Last week I was groped in virtual reality — did you know that could happen? I didn’t, but now I’m all the wiser. While visiting my brother-in-law last weekend, we decided to check out his HTC Vive, a virtual reality (VR) system. My husband and I stood in his home in Redwood City, on an idyllic…

Daniel Rigby in season two’s “The Waldo Moment.” Photo: Channel 4 I do not like Black Mirror . I’m going to lay out some reasons why that is, and try to give a deeper explanation for exactly why it turns me off so aggressively, but ultimately my dislike comes down to a point of taste. It’s a show…

He's still really, really good at driving. Kate Erbland Oct 24, 2016 9:58 am @katerbland Share This Article “The Escape” You’ll forgive “ The Escape ” if it plays up some of the more eye-popping attributes of BMW’s line of luxury vehicles — like that they can single-handedly bring down a helicopter,…

Even though 2016 appears to be the year of painful, public disqualification from higher office, you may be forgiven for not noticing the extraordinary implosion of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. After all, the Trump surrogate and White House Transition chair has benefitted from his early…

A three-card monte game outside the Paramount Building in Times Square in 1979. While the swindle, once common in New York City, has almost vanished, older dealers still use it occasionally. John Sotomayor/The New York Times The crowd outside the sleek Dream Downtown Hotel in Chelsea is large on…

Sponsored / Graphic Design “Fight harder and don’t lose faith”: three art directors on the evolution of the industry The creative world never stands still and the moment that a technology or technique has become established, it seems it is superseded by a new evolution. This, coupled with the…

In 2002, Errol Morris was hired to make a short film for the Academy Awards. Its premise was simple: a parade of talking heads describe their favorite movie. One of these speakers, Donald Trump, professed his love for Citizen Kane . More than that, he strongly identified with its protagonist—the…

QuiVR Over the last few months, several women hav e reported facing or witnessing sexual harassment online in VR. Most recently, author Jordan Belamire explained on Medium last week that the avatar of someone she didn’t know virtually groped her in the online mulitplayer game QuiVR . Yesterday,…

Twitter is killing off Vine , the short-form video app it once hoped would complement its text-based network with a vibrant community of independent creators. The mobile app will be discontinued “in coming months,” the company said. A source told The Verge that significant layoffs hit Vine today,…

I write about gadgets, which means everyone asks me what laptop or dishwasher or whatever to buy. I struggle with this, because the answer often starts with, "It depends." Unless you ask about a phone. In that case, I usually say get an iPhone. Don't get me wrong. I love Android. But the phones can…

After the third and final presidential debate of 2016, the only uncertainty remaining in this race is what Donald Trump will say in his concession speech. Restrained (for him), disciplined (for him), Donald Trump got through a little more than one hour of television without major incident. Then of…

Politicians in Kyrgyzstan have lost the country’s constitution. It emerged during a debate over planned changes to the law that nobody in the central Asian country knew where the original document was. The most recent version of the constitution was approved by referendum in June 2010, when changes…

‘Debate over the subject is intense, bordering on blood sport.’Photograph: Shannon Stapleton / Reuters/Reuters Elizabeth Warren has long been calling for a federal probe into the short-term property rental industry – a shot aimed square at the upside-down-heart logo of Airbnb. This Tyrannosaurus…

Original 'Urban Chaos: Riot Response' artwork (game developed by Rocksteady Studios and published by Eidos Interactive) We've played as soldiers, space engineers and ancient heroes hundreds of times in video games. But despite seeing them in real life almost every day, in the flesh or on our TV…

Detroit's historic Masonic Temple reeked of pot, sweat, flat soda, and Speed Stick deodorant on the night of February 21. The funk of the juggalo had choked the air of the venue that—thanks to its gold ceilings and red carpets —looked like it should have been hosting a performance of Swan Lake ,…