There’s a hilariously prescient sight gag in an old episode of “The Simpsons.” Homer is walking through the town dump when he passes a big pile of VCR tapes. The sign above reads, “Betamax.” Next, another pile, this time with a sign reading, “Laserdiscs.” Finally, he walks past an empty space; the sign says, “Reserved …

It’s another nail in the coffin for the Galaxy Note 7 phone. Samsung is releasing an update to its South Korean users later this month that will stop Galaxy Note 7s from being able to charge. The move is the latest of Samsung’s many attempts to get people to ditch their devices. The company did the same for US users …

The second 50 million is always the hardest part. Online streaming music service iHeartRadio, run by terrestrial radio giant iHeartMedia, said Thursday it now has more than 100 million registered users. The service reached the 50 million mark in June 2014. Note that registered users is not the same as monthly active users, the industry standard reported by iHeart’s competitors …

Record stores mean a lot to Zane Lowe. Best known for his 12 years as one of the BBC’s top Radio 1 DJs, Lowe uncovered the earliest recordings of hip-hop by devotedly riffling through record store bins, and he found the way to Nirvana by awkwardly humming the guitar riff to “Smells Like Teen Spirit” to his local record store …

Now playing: Watch this: Apple’s iPhone 7 wants you to cut the cord 1:49 Last September, Apple finally did away with the abysmal, 16GB model in its iPhone lineup. Starting with the iPhone 7, you have the option of 32GB, 128GB and a whopping 256GB. Even the iPhone SE has kicked the low-storage habit, with Apple recently doubling its base …

OLED, QLED, 4K, HDR. If you’re at a loss with modern TV abbreviations, we give you a quick rundown on the big trends and what to look for in the new TVs hitting shelves (and hopefully your homes) in 2017. From improved operating systems, geeking out over remote control features and going nuts for panels under a centimetre thick, we …

Twitter just become bearable again. The service has introduced new filters that allow you to block specific words from both your timeline and your notifications. That means if you’re as sick to death as I am of politics cluttering up the bulk of your feed, well, now you’ve got options. For example, I think it goes without saying that mentions …

Fossil Group is going all-in on connected watches. The company previously announced that it planned to release 300 new smartwatches, hybrid watches and fitness trackers across multiple brands in 2017. Fossil is now making good on that promise and has shown off a variety of new models at the Baselworld watch and jewelry expo in Switzerland. Later this year we …

Artificial intelligence can help us do a whole lot of things: figure out what to binge-watch next, decide when to heat our homes, or even, eventually, drive us home. One former Googler wants to add another thing to the list: make you a better tweeter or Facebooker. On Thursday, Bindu Reddy, who used to be the head of product for …

Google wants you to use its Duo app for calls — with or without video. At its Google for Brazil event in São Paulo, the search giant announced that its video-calling app for Android and iOS will now support audio-only calls for those times when maybe making a video call isn’t a great idea or when your connection is less …