When Philadelphia City Councilman Bill Greenlee heard that a coffee shop and a salad restaurant right near City Hall didn’t accept cash, he thought it sounded unfair. “I can get my coffee and muffin, but the person behind me who has the monetary unit of the United States of America, that’s been accepted here in …

When New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority begins rolling out its new, tap-and-go replacement for the subway’s MetroCard system next week, Google will be going along for the ride. In a blog post Thursday, Google said the OMNY payment system will be compatible with Google Pay for paying fares using supported phones and Google Assistant for real-time transit directions. The support launches May 31, when the …

Fifty-three nonbinary emoji are coming to Android Q, Google confirmed Wednesday.  The designs launched Tuesday on Pixel smartphones as a beta release. They’ll come to Android Q, the next version of Google’s mobile operating system, later in the year.  In the interview with Fast Company, designer Jennifer Daniel said gender is complicated: “It is an impossible task to communicate gender in a …

The perfect selfie is coming at a cost for Dutch tulip farmers.  Selfie takers are causing thousands of euros in damage to tulip farms in the Netherlands, CNN reported last week.   “Last year I had one field and there were 200 people in the field,” a grower named Simon Pennings told CNN, saying people, particularly younger folks, are in …

On the heels of a study exploring a rise in teen suicide among boys following the Netflix show 13 Reasons Why in 2017, the streaming service says it’s looking into the research. “This is a critically important topic and we have worked hard to ensure that we handle this sensitive issue responsibly,” Netflix said. The study, out Monday from the …

Amazon Go stores are working on accepting cash, a company spokesperson confirmed to CNET on Wednesday. This follows a CNBC report about an an internal all-hands meeting in which Steve Kessel, who runs Amazon’s physical stores, said the company had plans for “additional payment mechanisms” in its stores.  The comment, CNBC reported, was in response to a question regarding discrimination …

Pokemon Go Fest is making its return in 2019 as part of the Pokemon Go Summer Tour.  The event, which brings together trainers to catch the fictional creatures, is headed to Chicago’s Grant Park and is expanding to four days (June 13-16) from the original two. It’s also coming to Dortmund, Germany, July 4-7, organizers said Thursday. “Last year’s Pokemon …

Viacom video from networks like Comedy Central, BET, MTV and Nickelodeon will be coming to T-Mobile’s forthcoming streaming TV service.  “We are thrilled to join forces with T-Mobile on a new entertainment service that represents an important evolution in how audiences consume our content,” Viacom CEO Bob Bakish said in a release Wednesday.  The deal will include both live and …

Apple on Monday unveiled Apple News Plus, a $9.99 per month subscription service that lets you access articles from different publications including more than 300 magazines. The service traces its roots back to Texture, a digital magazine distributor that was billed as a sort of Netflix for magazines. It gave users unlimited access to different magazines for a single fee. …

AT&T’s wannabe 5G network, 5G E, might actually be slower than its competitors’ 4G LTE networks. Opensignal, a company that looks into mobile network performance, on Friday published a study comparing the speeds of AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile. Though there wasn’t a raging gulf, 5G E clocked in slower than services from Verizon and T-Mobile that use the comparable …