Gadgets, Game & Mobile News

Twitter co-founder and former CEO Ev Williams has stepped down from the social network's board of directors. He didn't really give an explanation other than saying that he's doing so to be able to "focus on some other things." Williams currently serv...

YouTube is killing anti-vaccine channels' ability to earn from advertisements following a BuzzFeed News report that put a spotlight on the spread of anti-vax videos on the platform. During its investigation, the publication discovered that ads, inclu...

As a species, we've done a pretty bang up job making the rest of the planet incredibly dangerous for other animals. Ask any badger and they'll tell you, "humans are the worst." Roadways are particularly treacherous to the rest of the animal kingdom....

Virgin Galactic sent its first test passenger into sub-space today. The company's chief astronaut instructor Beth Moses accompanied two pilots on a flight 55.85 miles above the Earth, just a few miles below the internationally recognized space bounda...

Huawei's big reveal at next week's Mobile World Congress may have been scooped by a billboard. An advertisement on display at the event, spotted by Twitter user @gimme2pm, shows a yet-to-be-announced folding smartphone called the Huawei Mate X. Engad...

Intel has said that while it will send out sample versions of its 5G modems to its clients this year, the chips won't be in phones before 2020. Apple uses Intel modems in its iPhones, so the timeline suggests we might not see a 5G iPhone until next y...

There was a time a year or so ago when, if a friend wanted to send me a meme or a funny selfie, it would be on Snapchat. But I don't remember the last time that happened; at some point Instagram became our go-to messaging app. And apparently I'm not...

If you needed another reason to consider buying Analogue's Mega SG console, you might just have one: the chance to play Hardcore, a 1994 Sega Genesis game that was previewed but never published. After 25 years in the dark, Hardcore will see the light...

Earlier this week, multiple brands pulled their advertisements from YouTube in response to what one YouTuber called a "soft-core pedophilia ring" being fostered via video comments. In response, YouTube removed hundreds of channels and disabled commen...

North, the makers of the Focals smart glasses, has laid off a portion of its workforce. The company confirmed the layoffs to Engadget but would not specify how many people lost their jobs. The Verge reported today that the cuts affected 150 employees...

After a few very rough months, Bethesda is ready to show where Fallout 76 is headed next... and it might just inject some needed variety into the online action RPG. The company has published a 2019 roadmap that starts on March 12th with Wild Appalac...

At least 11 popular apps are reportedly sharing people's sensitive data with Facebook, even if they don't have an account on the social network. The Wall Street Journal found that apps which can help track personal information such as body weight, me...

MWC doesn't officially begin until Monday, but a few companies are revealing the goods this weekend ahead of the show. Microsoft is one of those, and we'll be there on Sunday (February 24th) to bring you all the news as it's announced in liveblog for...

German automakers BMW and Daimler AG provided a host of details on their partnerhsip that will that will invest more than $1 billion into mobility services. The companies, which agreed to pool their services last year, plan to invest in handful of pr...

By Kaitlyn Wells This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, Wirecutter and Engadget may earn affiliate commission. Read the full bag and cable organizers guide her...

Showtime's long-awaited Desus & Mero late-night talk show premiered Thursday, and while you'll typically need a subscription to check out the series, the network has shared the debut episode for free. Desus Nice and The Kid Mero, who gained a fol...

There's a good chance you use or have used Chrome, so there's good reason for you to be disturbed by new data from Duo Security that shows just how vulnerable the 180,000-plus Chrome apps and extensions are. For starters, 85 percent of them don't hav...

If the Bixby button on your Samsung Galaxy phone doesn't get much use, you might prefer to make it open another app. Samsung noted the remapping option when it revealed the S10 lineup this week, but if you have a slightly older Galaxy phone (namely,...

Epic entered the world of eSports with a bang last year when it unveiled its $100 million Fortnite tournaments. It made waves again last month by staging its latest showdown at the Australian Open. Not everything went according to plan, however, with...

Circle makes a fantastic screen time management tool and today the company announced a round of funding to help fuel its growth. The $20 million series B included participation from Netgear and T-Mobile, along with Third Kind Venture Capital and follow-on investments from Relay Ventures and other Series A participants.

With this round of funding, Circle has raised over $30 million to date including a Series A from 2017.

According to the company, Circle intends to use the funds to expand its product offering and form new partnerships with hardware makers and mobile carriers.

The timing is perfect. Parents are increasingly looking at ways to make sure children and teenagers do not become addicted to screens.

Circle works different from other solutions attempting to limit screen time. It’s hardware based and sits plugged into a home’s network. It allows an administrator, like a parent, to easily restrict the amount of time a device, such as an iPhone owned by a child, is able to access the local network. It’s easy and that’s the point.

Circle sits in a small, but growing field of services attempting to give parents the ability to limit their child’s screen time. Some of these solutions, like Apple’s, sits in the cloud and thought works well, is limited to iOS and Mac OS devices. Others, like those on Netgear’s Orbi products, offer a similar network-wide net, but is much harder to use than Circle.

In my household we use tools like Circle. The lure of the screen is just too great and these solutions, when used in combination with traditional parenting, ensure my children stare into the real world — at least for a few minutes a day.