Google Maps tells you if locations are wheelchair accessible and other top stories.

• Google Maps tells you if locations are wheelchair accessible

  

  The listings are only available in the US right now, and you can expect to see gaps in coverage given that it's based on user input. Still, it could make the difference between visiting that hot new restaurant and having to consider something else for dinner. Akasaka also notes that this could help anyone who might have an extra challenge getting up stairs, such as families with prams. Even if you don't have a specific need for these accessibility notices, then, you might well benefit from t..

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• Play Pong on the MacBook Pro Touch Bar with this app

  

  If you have a new MacBook Pro with a Touch Bar, then there’s a great new game for you to play. It’s a variation on Pong, the Atari classic from the 1970s. But instead of controlling the location of your paddle with a joystick or a controller or a key on the keyboard, this game — called TouchBarPong — lets you slide your finger on the Touch Bar, the narrow display that sits just above the keyboard on the laptop. You can really get into the game when you put it in full-screen mode, and you see y..

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• Microsoft Cortana is about to become your all-purpose productivity bot

  

  Microsoft Cortana is playing catch-up with Siri and the Google Assistant, but that’s about to change that. The company Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded in 1975 has made no secret of the fact that they intend to become an AI powerhouse. Many of the recent changes in Microsoft Office have been related to productivity automation. You can click a button to create a slideshow in PowerPoint, use the Editor feature in Word to improve your writing, and find out whether you spend too much time processi..

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• The world's largest diamonds reveal secrets of the inner Earth

  

  Some people see a giant diamond and think: I want that. Geologist Evan Smith sees a giant diamond and thinks: I’d like to study that.“Some of the diamonds I’ve looked at are probably worth multiple millions of dollars, but I’m not wowed by the price tag as much as by the fact that they come from so deep in the Earth,” he said. Smith is a research fellow at the Gemological Institute of America in New York City, where he has been studying a rare type of diamond known for being exceptionally larg..

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• How the hot startup that stole Apple's thunder wound up in Silicon Valley's graveyard

  

  Eric Migicovsky Craig Barritt/Getty Images for AOL Inc. For a moment, it looked like the story would have a happy ending. As struggling smartwatch maker Pebble discussed selling itself to Fitbit, a larger competitor in the wearable technology market, the chatter among the Pebble team was that they would continue working on their product under the wing of a new, more stable corporate parent. Fitbit’s co-founder James Park even visited Pebble’s offices and, following a..

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• Tech Heavyweights Won't Help Build Donald Trump's Muslim Registry

  

  When President-elect Donald Trump met leaders from the tech industry Wednesday in a room at Trump Towers in Manhattan, New York City, he referred to a rise in the stock market and said: “So right now everybody in this room has to like me — at least a little bit.” Whether or not they actually like him or not, but big tech companies are certainly not behind his proposed plan to build a registry to track Muslims in the United States.Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was conspicuously not invited to the meeti..

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• Google's search-savvy keyboard comes to Android

  

  Gboard is available now, and works with over 100 languages. Don't expect to drop GIFs into conversations regardless of the app, though. GIF sharing only works for Android users in Allo, Hangouts and Messenger right now, and sharing in other apps depends on developers integrating image keyboard support.VIDEO

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• Watch: Mysterious ghost shark captured on camera for the first time

  

    The pointy-nosed blue chimaera, or ghost shark, was filmed alive for the first time ever off the coasts of Hawaii and California. The deep-sea fish was previously known only from specimens caught in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. (Jorge Ribas/The Washington Post) Like its Greek mythological namesake, the chimaera — or “ghost shark” — is a mysterious, rarely seen creature with a patchwork of bizarre features. Dwelling in the depths of the ocean, its eyes are pale and seemingly dead. Wher..

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