Struggling smartphone maker Essential has made a sizable cut to its staff. The phone startup founded by Andy Rubin, the creator of Android, had experienced a few setbacks. In May, it canceled the Essential Phone 2. The company had reportedly spent over $100 million developing its first set of products, of which only the original …

Facebook is reportedly planning another video chat device, but this one could be for your TV. The world’s largest social network is building a camera-equipped device that sits on top of a TV and allows video calling along with entertainment services, according to Cheddar. The device is reportedly code-named “Ripley” and uses the same technology as Facebook’s Portal video chat …

DuckDuckGo now runs 30 million private searches a day. The privacy-focused search engine on Thursday said in a tweet that “it took us seven years to reach 10 million private searches in one day, then another two years to hit 20 million, and now less than a year later we’re at 30 million! Thank you all. #ComeToTheDuckSide.” DuckDuckGo fun fact: …

Now you can post 3D photos on your Facebook news feed. Facebook on Thursday started rolling out a feature that turns 2D shots taken with a compatible dual-lens phone into 3D photos. On your news feed, you can scroll, pan and tilt to see the photos in 3D. Everyone is able to see 3D photos in their news feed now, …

A new Verizon ad that touts the company’s help for firefighters hasn’t played well. On Monday, the carrier giant released a video on YouTube about helping first responders. It then quickly removed the video from the social network after it became the target of criticism on Reddit, where users pointed out that Verizon had throttled firefighters’ mobile data during the Mendocino Complex …

AT&T will supply Magic Leap with 5G connectivity for testing its mixed-reality tech. AT&T will build a 5G test zone at the Magic Leap campus in Plantation, Florida, next year, the companies revealed Wednesday during the LEAP (Learn, Engage, Accelerate, Program) developers conference in Los Angeles. Developers at the Magic Leap headquarters will be able to test applications and devices …

Instagram is taking action against bullying on its platform. On Tuesday, the Facebook-owned photo sharing network rolled out a machine-learning tool that detects bullying in photos and captions. If the AI tool deems a photo unkind or unwelcome, it will send the snap sent to Instagram’s community operations team for further review, according to a blog post. The AI tool …

Selfie deaths are becoming a problem, according to researchers. A study published in the most recent edition of the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care calls for the declaration of “No Selfie Zones” in dangerous areas such as mountain tops, tall buildings and water bodies in order to decrease deaths. India-based researchers found that 259 people worldwide died from …

Facebook may finally be bringing the diet version of its app to Apple devices. The social network appears to have launched Facebook Lite for iOS devices on Thursday, but so far only in Turkey. The iOS version of Facebook Lite uses less data, saves space on your iPhone and can even work with 2G, according to its App Store description. …

Two researchers are using smartphone data to try to diagnose Parkinson’s disease. In a paper published Thursday, Patrick Schwab and Walter Karlen of the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Systems in Switzerland proposed using smartphone data and machine learning to help diagnose Parkinson’s disease. The idea is to use data collected by a smartphone and analyze it for signs of …