Latest Technology

Epic Games was sued today by the parent of an underage player in California who are claiming that Fortnite Save the World’s original blind-draw loot box mechanics were unfair and deceptive to consumers. To be clear, Epic has already ended the practice of blind-draw loot boxes , and they only ever existed in Fortnite’s original “Save the World” co-op mode, not the popular Fortnite Battle Royale mode that rocketed the game to fame. But the plaintiff is arguing that they — and hundreds of thousands of other players — were tricked out of their money by Epic’s business practices. In the complaint, the plaintiff argues that the chances of a Llama loot box dropping a rare item are slim. They claim that by not disclosing the rates at which the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2VuHilj

Twitter announced today that it’s building a new feature that would let users hide replies to their tweets. The feature, noticed first by expert software unpacker Jane Manchun Wong , would bring a drastic change to how users control the conversations they create on the platform. It wouldn’t let a user permanently hide replies, but it would make those replies more difficult to see in the event the original conversation starter wanted to discourage bad-faith or otherwise unpleasant discussions around their tweets. “People who start interesting conversations on Twitter are really important to us, and we want to empower them to make the conversations they start as healthy as possible by giving them some control,” explains Michelle Yasmeen... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2T7Srf9

Tesla is bringing back its “full self-driving” feature, after removing the option from its website in October amid criticism the company was overstating the autonomy of its vehicles. The option is back on the menu as part of a shift in how the company markets its advanced driver-assist system Autopilot to its customers, coinciding with news of the company’s new $35,000 Model 3 and its plan to move sales largely online . Starting today, Tesla is splitting Autopilot into two packages: regular Autopilot, with automatic steering on highways and traffic-aware cruise control; and Full Self-Driving Capability, with Tesla’s recently unveiled “Navigate on Autopilot” feature that guides the car from “on-ramp to off-ramp” by suggesting and making... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2TnAcS6

Amazon’s Dash buttons are no more. The tiny stick-on buttons that allowed customers to quickly reorder popular household items with a press have been discontinued by the online retailer, as confirmed by CNET . Dash buttons were priced at only $5 and were available for a slew of brands spanning many categories — from paper towels and laundry detergent to condoms . They could be mounted wherever made the most sense, whether in the kitchen, bathroom, or any other spot where users might need a reminder to order more of something. Existing Dash buttons will continue to function “so long as the public keeps using them,” CNET says. The company seems to believe that the smart home and its Alexa voice assistant have obviated the need for Dash... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2Tjol7Q

The Apple Pencil that works with the sixth-generation iPad, as well as iPad Pro models released prior to 2018, is $20 off of its usual $99 price tag at Amazon, per MacRumors . At $79.88, it’s a more affordable purchase if you’ve been wanting to use your iPad to jot down notes or practice drawing. Compared to more affordable styluses for the iPad, like Logitech’s Crayon, the Apple Pencil offers pressure and tilt sensitivity, which makes it the better choice for those who want to get creative with it. If you want to know more about what the Apple Pencil is capable of, The Verge ’s resident comics artist Dami Lee put each of these devices to the test . The Apple Pencil 2 released alongside the 2018 iPad Pros handles charging in a more elegant... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2UkOVdG

Oculus will enforce tight rules for publishing a game or app on the Oculus Quest, asking developers to demonstrate “quality and probable market success” on the upcoming virtual reality headset. In a blog post yesterday , publishing director Chris Pruett wrote that Oculus is setting the standard for Quest apps “higher than we’ve ever enforced before,” compared to standards for the Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, or Oculus Go. Pruett says the move will give Quest owners a consistently good experience, while preventing developers from sinking resources into games that don’t sell. The Oculus Store already vets apps, but for the Quest, developers will need to provide a “concept document” before they can start the submission process. “We’re... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2EDLLwt

Tesla will only sell its vehicles online, the company said. The electric carmaker will close most of its stores over the “next few months.” Tesla announced the move at the same time it said it will finally begin to sell its long-promised $35,000 Model 3. Tesla will keep some of its retail locations open, which the company described as “a small number of stores in high-traffic locations remaining as galleries, showcases and Tesla information centers.” “All sales will be online,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a call with reporters Thursday. The decision to shift away from brick-and-mortar retail is necessary if the company is to remain financially sustainable, Tesla said. The company’s finances have stabilized somewhat in recent months,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2UdCrVr

Tesla is finally rolling out the long-awaited $35,000 version of the Model 3. The company is currently making multiple versions of a “Standard Range” Model 3 that can travel 220 miles on a single charge. The most affordable Model 3 to date started at $42,900 after a February price reduction . The Model 3 was always supposed to start at $35,000 dating back to its reveal in 2016, but Tesla had to focus on higher-priced versions of the car once it was in production. The company would “die” if it sold the more affordable version too soon, Musk said in 2018 , in part because of how much money Tesla had committed to getting the Model 3 off the ground. Higher-priced versions of the Model 3, which have sold for as much as $70,000, came with big... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2GSeTCu

After missing its initial planned release timeframe, the $400 JBL Link Bar has been delayed yet again and is now scheduled to launch sometime in the summer — assuming the plan actually sticks this time. The product was first announced at Google I/O last May as a unique hybrid soundbar/streaming device running Google’s Android TV software. JBL initially hoped to get it out by late summer. Then that turned into the fall / October . And when that didn’t pan out either, the shipping target slipped to spring . Even before spring rolls around, JBL seems to have already realized it’s going to miss that window too. So now we’re looking at summer — meaning after Google’s next I/O keynote. More specifically, it’s “mid-to-late summer” according to a... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2GQxgrm

11 suits filed since the company’s crisis started in October, while a core engineering team has jumped to rival startup Rivian Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2SvGQBf

You might want to watch Tesla’s website in just under an hour, because Elon Musk is teasing — well, Tesla’s teasing something. To focus your attention, the company has suspended sales of the Model 3, Model S and Model X, as noted by CNBC , with all the buy buttons redirecting to this page. We’ve known since Tuesday that Elon Musk had some sort of announcement in store, but at first it seemed like his cryptic tweet — he merely wrote “Thursday 2pm” — might have something to do with his response to the SEC trying to get him held in contempt of court . Thursday 2pm — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 27, 2019 On Wednesday, he clarified that it’d actually be a Tesla announcement , as opposed to some personal news or related to his other... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2EFxoYr

Even after California banned non-medical exemptions for vaccines, an unvaccinated teenage boy in the state still spread measles to a half dozen people in an outbreak last year, a new study reports. The findings show that while tightening legislative loopholes is key to stopping the spread of measles, it’s not enough. The outbreak investigation, published today in the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report , follows a 15-year-old boy who came back from England at the end of February 2018 with measles. Soon after, he infected a second boy at a Boy Scout event, a third at school, and a fourth at a tutoring center. All were unvaccinated. And the outbreak doesn’t stop there — it continued in a... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2U9lEms

Comcast left customers of its Xfinity Mobile phone service vulnerable to hacks and identify theft by setting the default PIN codes of its accounts to “0000,” making it easy for malicious third parties to steal customers’ identities. The vulnerability was pointed out by one user who wrote in to The Washington Post to describe “a tech horror story,” which Comcast then confirmed. The hacked user, from California, told the Post he had his phone number hijacked and transferred to a new account, with his credit card still attached to the new phone. The hacker then used the card to buy a new Apple computer in Georgia. If the PIN sounds familiar, that might be because Kanye West made headlines for setting his iPhone X password to 000000 — not a... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2Nynlao

Some TikTok users are having their accounts and videos deleted without warning after inputting a birthdate that would make them younger than 13, following a change to the app’s terms yesterday regarding children’s privacy law. TikTok is prompting users to prove they’re of age to use the app following an FTC settlement agreement that required the app to come into compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, which dictates that apps and websites get parental approval for users under 13. Typically, social media companies and web services tend to make 13 the age requirement, to avoid the liability of requiring parental consent. Some companies like Facebook have developed separate kid-friendly apps, such as... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2IIwtL0

A few of today’s best deals are new, but mostly consist of leftovers from earlier in the week. It’s another opportunity to check them out if they passed you by before. There’s a good spread of discounts across several product categories, including connected home tech, televisions, Xbox One X consoles, home entertainment accessories, and more. The Roomba 890 robot vacuum is $359.99 at Newegg with the offer code EMCTVVD54 used at checkout. This particular model costs around $449 at most retailers, and to make things easier, it can be triggered remotely if it’s connected to your home Wi-Fi, or with your voice via Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. Compared to the far more expensive Roomba 980, it’s not as powerful and can’t last as long,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2SywfWl

Sony has announced the new CFexpress Type B spec and its newest CompactFlash memory card that’s supposed to be faster than anything else on the market. The new card’s read and write speeds are 1,700 MB/s and 1,480 MB/s, respectively. That stomps out Sony’s previous fastest card, which topped out at 630MB/s. The new CEB-G128 memory card will come in 128GB and 256GB storage versions, with an even bigger 512GB variant “planned for the future.” Sony also announced a new CFexpress card reader — so you can move files off the card — that’s sold separately, called the MRW-G1 and optimized specifically for the Type B card. It’s designed to be durable, by withstanding up to 70N of bend force, and can supposedly withstand falls from up to five... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2IGkM7n

Time to draft your teams and start your trash talk Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2GPNW29

Facebook has applied to patent a system where people could comment on laws that might affect them, then have that feedback worked into a formal political proposal, creating a way for people to “meaningfully engage in civil discourse” online. The concept would build on Facebook’s earlier attempts at promoting civic engagement, and it sounds similar to other, existing crowdsourced democracy tools. But Facebook’s vast scale could put tremendous weight behind any kind of private political forum. The patent , titled “Providing digital forums to enhance civic engagement,” covers a localized and politics-focused form of social networking. The system would identify a proposed new law or amendment, then use existing social networking data to find... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2SyfTNg

Update February 28th, 2019 1:15PM ET: This article was originally published on May 28th, 2018 at 10:11AM ET. It has been updated to include a new Alexa Privacy settings page on the Alexa app and on the web. Digital assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant are designed to learn more about you as they listen, and part of doing so is to record conversations you’ve had with them to learn your tone of voice, prompts, and requests. While this is supposed to help the assistants like Alexa learn to give you better answers, this feature-not-a-bug has landed Amazon in a string of bizarre headlines. In 2018, users have reported that their Echo speakers began spontaneously laughing , while a family in Portland said their device recorded and... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2EDnMxr

A political action committee has placed hundreds of thousands of illegal robocalls impersonating President Trump’s reelection campaign, according to a new report from CNN today . According to CNN, the Support American Leaders PAC has placed over 200,000 calls raising more than $100,000 in January alone. None of the money raised is going to the Trump campaign, CNN said. It’s going to the PAC which is supposedly affiliated with the campaign, but has yet to spend any money on the 2020 elections or even the last election cycle. Most of that money is going toward making more robocalls. The calls used recordings of President Trump asking for support, likely taken from former speeches and events. “I’m Donald Trump. Tonight I am asking you to... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2UcDmpd

A group of democratic lawmakers today announced a bill to end the practice of forced arbitration, an issue that was recently pressed by Google employee organizers, who appeared alongside lawmakers during the announcement. Mandatory arbitration clauses, frequently inserted into contracts, require employees and others to waive their right to sue. Instead, complaints are funneled through a private system. The practice, critics of the widespread system say, gives employers the upper hand in disputes. Calling the practice “fundamentally unfair and un-American,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal Act, or FAIR Act, was about “guaranteeing every individual their day in court.” The bill, which has been... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2IGNAgg

Buyers of the new Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus will find a preinstalled plastic screen protector on their device when they unbox it beginning March 8th. Samsung has confirmed that it’s shipping the S10 with a protector on the display, meaning you won’t have to immediately hunt for something that’s compatible with the ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor on day one. Now, this is just your very basic screen protector — similar to what OnePlus does with their phones, if I had to guess — and it isn’t glass, so it’s bound to scratch over time. The included protector has a 90-day warranty. Samsung will sell extras of its first-party screen protector for $29.99, but the company doesn’t plan to bring it to Best Buy or carrier stores... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2Nz2yDH

Samsung’s promised Bixby remapping update is now available for owners of older Galaxy flagships, including the S8 and S8 Plus, S9 and S9 Plus, Note 8, and Note 9, after debuting on the soon-to-be-released S10 line . Assuming you have a compatible device that’s running Samsung’s Android Pie / One Touch UI software, you should be getting a new update that’ll bring the much requested feature to your phone. There are a few caveats to the feature, as noted by The Verge ’s Dan Seifert on Twitter : you can’t remap the Bixby button to launch another voice assistant, like Google Assistant or Cortana, even if you have those apps installed. my S10+ review unit has received an update to the Bixby app that lets me natively remap the button to a... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2TmQESC

Today, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) is introducing a data privacy bill that would explicitly bar platforms like Facebook and Google from serving targeted ads that discriminate against protected groups, particularly by race, sexual orientation or gender. The DATA Privacy Act would empower the Federal Trade Commission to put in place specific definitions for what is considered discriminatory behavior in targeted ad and data practices. It would also extend the FTC’s civil penalty authority for violations of those rules, alongside broader protections on user data. “The Senator is focused [on making sure] that as Congress tackles the issue of protecting Americans data privacy, our government is also guarding against potential forms of... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2C7vSwL

The makers of Halide, a popular third-party iOS camera app that offers advanced RAW shooting and other powerful tools, are today releasing another photography app: Spectre . Spectre costs $1.99 and comes with one big specialty: long exposures. Long exposures are very common in the DSLR world: they can make an ordinary nighttime city shot feel much more artistic by creating streaks of light from passing cars. Or you can take a long exposure to bring a real sense of moving water to waterfalls or other nature scenes. But on phones, long exposures have often gone ignored: there’s no way of capturing one with the built-in camera on the iPhone or Google Pixel, for example. On devices from Samsung, LG, and others with manual photo modes, it can... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2Ukhk3y

The Crew Dragon will see space for the first time Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2ECH71I

Coinhive, a service that allows websites to use their visitor’s computers to mine cryptocurrencies, is shutting down, ZDNet reports. All of the service’s in-browser mining scripts will stop working on March 8th, and users will have until April 30th to withdraw any remaining Monero — the anonymity-focused cryptocurrency mined by the software — from their accounts. Coinhive’s service launched in 2017 as a way to mine cryptocurrency in the background of a website, turning visitors’ processing power directly into cash. Some sites were upfront with visitors about their use of the software, most notably the news website Salon and UNICEF , but countless others either didn’t disclose the fact they were using it , or saw the Javascript code added... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2TkGXEb

All Amazon Prime customers in the US can now set which day of the week they want to receive their packages. Customers can set which day they want as their default delivery day for future packages, and change them at checkout later. Items will come bundled in one package, saving boxes and making shipment deliveries more predictable. The feature, called Amazon Day, was first introduced in November as an invite-only program . The concept is part of Amazon’s “Shipment Zero” sustainability initiative, which aims to make all of Amazon’s shipments carbon neutral, with half its shipments being carbon neutral by 2030. Amazon says that since testing began with a group of Prime members last year, the company has reduced packaging by “tens of... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2T6PQlF

Trolls are trying to take down the YouTube channel of PewDiePie’s rival by misusing the site’s new rules against predatory comments on videos of children . YouTube spent the bulk of last week trying to clean up comments sections by banning users and channels associated with predatory comments, but the people trolling aren’t going to get anywhere, because they’ve misunderstood how the new rules work. In particular, trolls are leaving comments on videos from T-Series , a popular Bollywood channel that’s close to overtaking PewDiePie as the largest channel on YouTube. Their comments include timestamps suggesting there’s “CP,” or child pornography, at certain moments. A number of advertisers paused spending on YouTube last week after it came... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2XrIHLa

Over the last couple of years, publishing startup Serial Box has experimented with new ways to tell stories. Today the company is moving into the superhero world with a new partnership with Marvel, which will produce new stories about Black Panther, Black Widow, Jessica Jones, and Thor. The publisher is best known for long-form, serialized stories called “Serials”, which play out like a season of television. Each season is composed of 10 to 16 individual installments, which take about 40 minutes to read, each one designed to be read on its own, but which also convey a season-long storyline. The similarities to a TV show don’t stop there: instead of individual authors writing a single work on their own, they bring in a writer’s room of... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2tH2EQz

Uber and Lyft are reportedly planning to give some of its drivers cash bonuses with the intent that those drivers would then be able to use the cash to purchase stock in the two companies’ respective impending IPOs, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal . It’s a complicated workaround to a unique problem facing the ride-sharing companies, who can’t grant stock to their drivers due to Securities and Exchange Commission rules that prevent giving private company stock shares to contractors, who technically aren’t considered full-time employees under the law. And while the SEC has requested comments from companies as to whether or not it should change that rule, it’s unlikely that even with the support of Uber, Lyft, and... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2tFbKgL

The beloved browser game Neopets is back with a new attempt on mobile, this time inspired by smartphone hits Puzzle & Dragons and Words with Friends . In its new game , Legends and Letters , Neopets revives old characters from 2005 and earlier in a word game that combines lore with vocabulary building. Neopets has been dying a slow death over the past decade. The game has had a rough history: the original creators sold it to Viacom in 2005, which then eventually sold to JumpStart in 2014. The result has been massive turnover and a radical restructuring of the people that make up the game’s development team. Only two members of JumpStart’s team have been with Neopets for over ten years, meaning that they were there during Viacom’s... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2Xxh4Ae

From the NBA to FC Barcelona, Nike dresses some of the biggest athletes in the world — and now the company is turning its attention to gaming. Today Nike and the League of Legends Pro League, China’s biggest e-sports competition, announced a deal that would see Nike become the official apparel provider for the league. That includes clothing, sneakers, and, eventually, team jerseys. The LPL says that the first Nike-designed jerseys will be unveiled during the 2019 League of Legends World Championship in Paris later this year. The deal runs through the 2022 season. The LPL debuted back in 2013 and currently features 16 teams, along with big-name sponsors like Mercedes-Benz. The league has been gaining popularity and prominence in recent... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2GVkMPt

20th Century Fox debuted a second trailer for the long-awaited next (and presumably final) installment its X-Men franchise, Dark Phoenix . Directed by Simon Kinberg, the film reunites James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Sophie Turner, and others to adapt the Dark Phoenix storyline from the X-Men comics. The story is one of the best-known from the X-Men comics franchise, in which mutant Jean Grey is exposed to radiation, which boost her powers. The studio released its first trailer last fall , showing off the danger that Jean Grey’s powers pose to the world, and the complicity that Professor Xavier (player by McAvoy) has in her formation. We see a bit of this in the trailer: the X-Men head to space and are... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2XtMnfC

Predicting the power output of wind farms has been challenging, but it's becoming less so with the use of machine learning. Google and British artificial intelligence company DeepMind have been using ML algorithms to improve predictions of the wind power output at Google's wind farms in the Midwest, according to a post coauthored by DeepMind Program Manager Sims Witherspoon and Google Carbon Free Energy Program Lead Will Fadrhonc. The farms use the algorithms to predict wind power output 36 hours ahead of generation. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2VpQbfO

Since its debut in 2016, more than 1 billion people have downloaded Pokémon Go , which is significantly more than have played every previous entry in the series combined. At its peak, tens of millions of people played monthly, swarming city streets and turning Pokémon Go into the first global real-world video game. It introduced new people to the franchise, and rekindled an interest in lapsed fans. Often, when a entertainment property reaches that kind of mainstream success, particularly with a streamlined take like Pokémon Go , fans worry about the dumbing down of their beloved games. But that’s not what happened to Pokémon : instead, Pokémon Go inspired a creative boom for the franchise, leading to some of the best, most approachable P... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2EjeTrp

2019 is going to be all about fast, foldable, and 5G Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2EjeIfJ

Samsung and Fitbit both quadrupled the number of smartwatches shipped in the holiday quarter of of 2018 compared to the same period in the previous year, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics . The growth has caused Apple’s share of the smartwatch market to drop by over 15 percent over the same period, even if it still dominates with control of over half the market. The numbers paint a healthy picture for the global smartwatch market, which overall grew by 56 percent annually, according to analyst numbers. Despite Apple’s drop in market share it is still selling more smartwatches than ever before. Apple’s shipments increased by 1.4 million units compared to the same quarter in the previous year, for a total of 9.2 million... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2GQfl42

The eighth season of Fortnite has arrived to the sound of an erupting volcano. The biggest change is the addition of two new locations that have formed in the aftermath — Lazy Lagoon and Sunny Steps — which can be found in the northwest of the island, around the volcano that sprouted where Wailing Woods used to be. There’s now lava to look out for, and volcanic vents that will give you a boost into the air. The snowy portion of the island that formed in season 7, meanwhile, is still in place leading to the most diverse iteration of the Fortnite island yet. This season has a pirate and adventure theme, which means not only the changes to the map itself, but also a new pirate cannon weapon. Meanwhile, a number of prominent elements have... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2H9ZtbZ

The 7Sphere Ski Jacket from KJUS pumps away sweat as fast as you make it Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2GQIkF2

The world’s highest capacity undersea cable could be capable of speeds that are 20 percent faster than thought theoretically possible. A recent experiment using 16QAM modulation achieved record transfer speeds of 26.2 Terabits per second on a 4,000 mile transatlantic cable jointly owned by Facebook and Microsoft. This represents a 20 percent improvement on the 20 Tbps each pair of the cable’s eight optic fibers was originally thought capable of, according to the team of researchers from Infinera that conducted the test. The speeds were demonstrated on the MAREA cable, which is currently the world’s highest capacity subsea cable with a total theoretical capacity of 160 Tbps. The cable, operated by Telxius, runs between Bilbao in Spain and... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2TqZhLU

Ricoh has announced a new Theta that’s the highest-end model yet in the company’s line of 360-degree cameras. The Theta Z1 should mark a big step up in image quality with dual backside-illuminated 1-inch sensors, RAW shooting capability, and lenses with variable apertures. It produces 23-megapixel images that can be shot at f/2.1, f/3.5, and f/5.6, which together with the much larger sensors are likely to make for a more versatile camera in a variety of situations. Design-wise, not much has changed from the previous flagship model, 2017’s Theta V . The Z1 has bigger lenses inside a slightly thicker frame, as you’d expect, and there’s now a monochrome OLED screen that provides basic information, but otherwise it’s very much in the vein of... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2EBPhYe

A storm in northern California dumped so much water on the region that roads turned into moats, isolating two California towns . It’s the kind of storm that experts project might become more extreme as climate change continues — which could mean a future of even worse flooding for California. Over the past few days, parts of northern California have been drenched with record levels of rain. North of San Francisco, the Russian River rolled over its banks to surround the Sonoma County towns of Guerneville and Monte Rio , The Press Democrat reports . Yesterday , thousands of people were told to evacuate. By today, it was too late for some: “Guerneville is officially an island,” the Sonoma County sheriff announced on Facebook . “You will not be... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2UbZOOY

Fortnite is one of the most popular and profitable video games in history, and its publisher Epic is copying creative work from children and independent artists without paying them. So it’s not surprising that seven people have sued the company, claiming Epic broke copyright law by turning their dance moves into Fortnite emotes. These suits are exploring interesting new legal territory. But if they succeed, it could be bad for dance, bad for copyright, and bad for the culture these lawsuits are ostensibly trying to protect. For anybody who’s not familiar with Fortnite , emotes are short avatar animations that players can buy or earn. Like other cosmetic in-game items, they’re often fun because they’re familiar. You can get generic... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2TiKKSI

A team of researchers has revealed a new security vulnerability in the Thunderbolt data transfer specification called “ Thunderclap ” that could leave computers open to serious attacks from otherwise innocuous USB-C or DisplayPort hardware. As researcher Theo Markettos explains , Thunderclap takes advantage of the privileged, direct-memory access (DMA) that Thunderbolt accessories are granted to gain access to the target device. Unless proper protections are put in place, hackers can use that access to steal data, track files, and run malicious code. It’s the sort of OS-level access that accessories like GPUs or network cards are typically granted. Because Thunderbolt is designed to replicate those functions externally, it requires the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2BUuJbG

The structure of a mouse mind is incredibly complex Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2GOURsq

First, the goods news: USB 3.2, the upcoming specification that the USB Implementers Forum announced back in 2017 , is finally coming out this year. The bad news is that the group has also brought with it a slate of new names not only for the new standard , but also for the old versions of USB 3.0, too. Here’s how it all breaks down: USB 3.2 Gen 1: originally known as USB 3.0, and previously renamed to USB 3.1 Gen 1. It’s the original USB 3.0 specification, and it can transfer data at up to 5Gbps. USB 3.2 Gen 2: Previously known as USB 3.1, and then later as USB 3.1 Gen 2. It offers speeds at up to 10Gbps. USB 3.2 Gen 2x2: formally known as USB 3.2, it’s the newest and fastest spec, promising offers speeds at up to 20Gbps (by using two... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2T0BeEe

A new cryptovirus called "B0r0nt0K" has been putting Linux and possibly Windows Web servers at risk of encrypting all of the infected domain's files. The new ransomware threat and the ransom of 20 bitcoins -- about $75,000 -- first came to light last week in a forum post. A client's website had all its files encrypted and renamed with the .rontok extension appended to them, the forum user indicated. The website was running on Ubuntu 16.04. The B0r0nt0K ransom note is not displayed in a text format or in the message itself, based on the report. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2tFVU5m

Lasting trauma doesn’t necessarily have to be in the job description for workers who watch graphic or violent videos as part of their jobs. Content moderators, journalists, and activists often have to wade through horrific images, videos and text to do their work, a task that can imperil their mental health and lead to post-traumatic stress disorder. Luckily, experts say there are ways to minimize the harms of so-called vicarious or secondary trauma. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is caused by experiencing or witnessing a terrifying incident, and the symptoms include acute anxiety, flashbacks, and intrusive thoughts. Though most people think about PTSD in the context of war or being physically involved with a crisis, in recent... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2Nwieri

Following reports that Motorola would, too, get into the folding smartphone scene , the company today confirmed in an interview with Engadget that it is working on a folding device that would launch “[no] later than everybody else in the market.” That puts Motorola’s timeline at sometime this year at the latest, with Samsung due to launch its Galaxy Fold in April and Huawei’s Mate X in mid-2019. Motorola usually holds an annual smartphone launch event around August. That time last year, it announced its 5G-ready Moto Z3 with the 5G Moto Mod , so we’ll likely get a glimpse at Motorola’s take on foldable screens this summer. The Engadget interview also confirms that the design would not feature a screen on the outside of the device like... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2IC6hRV

Facebook says it fired a contractor who worked with right-wing sting group Project Veritas on a “stunt,” as the group today published screenshots of internal Facebook conversations. The Veritas report includes 60 pages of documents and a related video , which features on-the-street confrontations with named Facebook employees. The documents, provided by a former Facebook contractor now employed by Veritas, include screenshots of Facebook employee discussions on moderation efforts, as well as an internal presentation discussing a racist troll campaign. According to Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe, who narrates the video, Facebook’s practices for limiting harassment and hate speech are designed to hit right-wing users the hardest.... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2H8CXjJ