Kiran Upadhyay

You probably don’t always like/share/comment on the stuff that pops up in your Facebook feed, even if it’s something you care to see. Take, for example, a breaking news items about an earthquake on the other side of the world — you’d probably feel weird hitting a button labeled “Like” on that one, and you might not have anything to say… but that doesn’t mean you don’t care. Realizing this, Facebook is tweaking its algorithms to account for a new metric: the amount of time you spend looking at things in your feed, regardless of whether or not you actively interact with it. Scroll past something without stopping for long, and Facebook’s algorithms will slowly learn that you don’t particularly care for that sort of content. Camp out on a post for a bit, though, and Facebook starts the timer behind the scenes. If you spend more time on this story than you spend on most things in your feed — studying a picture, perusing the comment thread — they’ll take that as a signal that it’s

Your phone is about to get a lot more Fallout; Bethesda Softworks held its own E3 press event last night, wherein they revealed a lot about upcoming title Fallout 4, and launched a new Fallout dedicated mobile game called Fallout Shelter. True fans of the series will probably be most excited by in-game support in Fallout 4 for a real-world Pip-Boy, powered by your very own smartphone. A version of Fallout 4 called the “Fallout 4 Pip-Boy Edition” will ship on November 10, the same day the game is generally released, with a retail price of $120 and a package that includes a Pip-Boy replica, designed to actually be worn on your wrist. The replica has a slot suitable to accommodate a number of different kinds of smartphones thanks to included foam inserts to adjust sizing, and works with the Pip-Boy companion app that lets players actually manipulate their in-game inventory, character perks, holotapes and beyond. As far as second screen experiences go, this one sounds pretty damn am

Forget about your supermarket and buy directly from your local farmers and foodmakers. French startup La Ruche qui dit oui (also known as The Food Assembly in the U.K.) has been making waves in its home country for a while now. But it seems like international investors also got the word as Fred Wilson from Union Square Ventures and Frédéric Court from Felix Capital are leading a $9 million Series B round (€8 million) in the food startup, with XAnge and Quadia also participating. This startup is fascinating for many reasons — La Ruche may have found the most efficient business model when it comes to building a food startup. “Last year, we launched in the U.K., Germany, Spain and Italy. This round means that we need to solidify our existing markets,” co-founder and CEO Marc-David Choukroun told me. “We need to go faster when it comes to our innovation power.” Here’s how La Ruche works. There are hundreds of ruches in many different places in France. You first need to find your loc

Fitbit went public this morning, soaring more than 50 percent at one moment. The wearables firm priced its equity at $20 per share. Early trading saw the shares crest the $30 mark. At the time of writing, Fitibit is currently trading for $29.60, a 48 percent gain. Regardless, the company is having the sort of debut that most startups dream of. It’s worth keeping in mind that Fitbit originally proposed a $14 to $16 share price for its flotation. As such, it’s even further ahead than some perhaps expected. This chart is the porn you were looking for: Originally, Fitbit filed for a $100 million public offering. That figure — often a placeholder — rose to $358 million, using its original share pricing. The company raised even more today. In short, whatever Fitbit had planned for that money it can do, and more.

AHHHHHHHH. I feel like I’ve been waiting years for this. The first real footage of Star Wars Battlefront — an EA-made sequel to the wonderful first person shooter of the same name that LucasArts (RIP) made back in 2004 — just dropped at E3. Unlike previously released footage (which was made with the game’s engine but all pre-rendered) this clip is said to be ripped straight from actual gameplay running on a PS4. I’m perhaps more excited about this than I am about The Force Awakens. Okay, probably not — but it’s close. For anyone who never played it, Battlefront is what happens when you take the Star Wars universe and smash it into a first person shooter with epic, 40-person multiplayer battles. Hoth! Flyable TIE fighters versus flyable X-Wings! AT-ATs versus snowspeeders! Lasers! THE LAAASEEEERS. Fans have been begging for a new Battlefront game for over a decade now — but, despite a number of attempts, LucasArts just couldn’t get one out the door. After LucasArts got

Amazon is apparently enlisting everyday humans in its network of endless online shopping delivery. The WSJ reports that the ecommerce giant is working on an app internally that would allow the average consumer to make a little cash by picking up Amazon packages at various retail locations and dropping them off at their final destination. WSJ’s sources did not have a timeline for the release of this product, internally called ‘On My Way,’ and were unsure whether it would launch at all. Amazon has spent years not only iterating the way it tailors your online shopping experience — the mega retailer has one of the best suggestion engines in the business — but also the way that it gets you your products with speed and convenience. Besides the standard shipping (or two-day for Prime members), Amazon has fiddled with the idea of letting Uber drivers and yellow cabs deliver products same-day, as well as using bike messengers and third-party delivery services for Prime Now and AmazonFr

Microsoft just announced that Xbox One will soon be able to play Xbox 360 games, which gives it backwards compatibility with the previous generation hardware for the first time. Microsoft’s Phil Spencer announced the news on stage at the E3 2015 Xbox keynote today, and the crowd went wild. This will work with over 100 titles beginning this holiday season, with 100 more to follow later. “Our goal is to deliver the largest games library on Xbox One,” Spencer said. Microsoft is developing patches for individual games, and this will work both for online titles and retail discs (with a download). Backwards compatibility has been a top ask from Xbox One owners in the past, so it’s obviously great news to see this happening. It’ll also mean people won’t have to re-buy their old favorites, something which has been spurring many HD remakes. Today, there’s already an initial set of backwards compatible titles available for Xbox preview program members.