Latest Technology

Labor Day is Monday, September 2nd, in the US. Whether you have the day off or not, we salute our hard-working readers, and we’re here to share the best Labor Day-themed deals from around the internet. Compared to the holiday season, opportunities to save on tech gadgets during the summer and fall are sparse. But if you’re looking to spend a little cash, these discounts will help you get more for your money. We’ve pulled together deals from brands like Ring, Dyson, Google, and retailers like Best Buy and Amazon below. If an end date is applicable for any these sales, you’ll find it appended to each discount. Everything that Satechi makes, including its new dual HDMI USB-C hubs (shown in the image above), is 20 percent off on Amazon for... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2ZINdou

Friday afternoon, Jack Dorsey’s 4.2 million Twitter followers got an unpleasant surprise. A group of vandals had gained access to the account , and used that access to blast out a stream of offensive messages and plugs for their group’s discord channel. Within 15 minutes, the account was back under control and the group was banned from Discord, but the incident was a reminder of the serious vulnerabilities in even the highest-profile accounts, and just how insecure phone-based authentication has become. The hackers got in through Twitter’s text-to-tweet service, operated by the acquired service Cloudhopper. Using Cloudhopper, Twitter users can post tweets by texting messages to a shortcode number, usually 40404. It’s a useful trick for S... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2PvYOaR

Photo: Disney Netflix announced this week that a number of its fall films will have exclusive theatrical runs before they start streaming. This isn’t the first time Netflix has debuted its films in theaters — a few hit theaters first last year, too — but this year’s theatrical slate is much larger and seems to indicate something of a shift in strategy. This year, Netflix is putting 10 movies in theaters ahead of time, up from just three last year (though a fourth was added later). It’ll range from a quiet relationships drama (Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story ) to an over-the-top comedy (the Eddie Murphy- led Dolemite Is My Name ) to prestige fare (Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman ). That’s a significant portion of Netflix’s fall film slate, and it includes... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2MNMyQK

Photo by John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images Earlier this week, incoming Harvard freshman Ismail B. Ajjawi found himself blocked from entering the US. Ajjawi, a Palestinian resident of Lebanon, had landed in Boston before the start of classes. But The Harvard Crimson reported that after hours of questioning, US Customs and Border Protection agents revoked his visa. Ajjawi said a CBP agent searched his phone and laptop while asking questions about his friends’ social media activity. Then, she “started screaming at me,” Ajjawi said. “She said that she found people posting political points of view that oppose the US on my friend[s] list.” CBP hasn’t revealed what actually got Ajjawi’s visa revoked. “Specific information on individual travelers cannot be released due to the Privacy Act... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2Ln6uXD

German startup Volocopter says it’s the first company to fly an electric vertical takeoff and landing (or eVTOL) aircraft at an international airport while integrated into the air traffic management system. The company released a video of its 18-rotor aircraft (or octadecacopter ) flying around the Helsinki Airport on Friday, which shows test pilot Damian Hischier zooming around the runways a few dozen feet in the air. It’s not Volocopter’s first test flight by any means. But if the company (or its many competitors) has any hope of proving out a use case for short-hop eVTOL flights, coexisting with airports will be crucial. Volocopter’s been kicking around since the first days of The Verge’s existence in 2011, and in that time, it has... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2PoUY2U

Twitch is trying to bring more top-tier talent to its platform after superstar streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins left to join competing streaming service Mixer , and it’s starting with Fortnite player Nicholas “Nick Eh 30” Amyoony . Amyoony announced that, starting September 1st, he will be moving away from YouTube and live-streaming his Fortnite matches exclusively on Twitch. Although the deal still allows him to upload compilation edits of his gameplay to YouTube (a move many streamers do to increase their audience across platforms and potentially earn more revenue), the majority of his focus will be on Twitch. Amyoony said he decided to jump ship to take advantage of Twitch’s low latency (meaning he can talk to viewers without worrying... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2HAxuSi

Photo by Jan Thijs / Amazon Prime Studios Since Game of Thrones ended in May, HBO’s streaming rivals have been racing to capture their share of the viewers who still crave shows packed with fantasy spectacle, intrigue, and sex. Amazon seems especially focused on winning over genre fans: its Prime Video service is currently spinning up an epic-fantasy lineup that promises series based on The Lord of the Rings and The Wheel of Time . It’s starting its run with the original show Carnival Row , which will release its first eight-episode season on August 30th. It’s a gorgeous, well-written, and unrepentantly political series, but it’s at its absolute worst when the writers try too hard to make it feel like Game of Thrones . Carnival Row is set in a world that resembles what the 1800s... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2KArgDF

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Unlike the PS4 or Xbox One, the Nintendo Switch doesn’t make voice chatting easy. This is probably not something you want to hear if you want to talk trash with your friends while settling the score in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate . That’s not to say that voice chat isn’t possible; it’s just much more limited, and the process differs depending on the multiplayer game that you want to play. WhatsApp and Discord are simple apps to use if you want to remove the uncertainty of being able to corral your friends, but not everyone wants to rely on outside apps or services. What follows is a catalog of the games that allow voice chat as well as the accessories that make it easier. We’ll be monitoring Nintendo’s progress in building out voice chat... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2PpLtk3

Photo by Bill Ingalls / NASA Hurricane Dorian is slowly making its way toward the eastern coast of Florida, prompting NASA’s premier spaceport, Kennedy Space Center (KSC), to prep for the coming storm. Employees at the spaceport are used to bracing for hurricanes, and they have already started moving some key hardware to safety before Dorian arrives. Right now, the more than 8,000 employees at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral are operating under an internal status known as HURCON IV, which means that the area expects to experience hurricane-level winds exceeding 75 miles per hour within the next three days. Dorian is predicted to hit the Florida coast on Monday, September 2nd, possibly as a Category 4 storm with winds exceeding 140 miles per hour . That would... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2ZD3XBI

There are so many streaming options available these days, and so many conflicting recommendations, that it’s hard to see through all the crap you could be watching. Each Friday, The Verge ’s Cut the Crap column simplifies the choice by sorting through the overwhelming multitude of movies and TV shows on subscription services and recommending a single perfect thing to watch this weekend. What to watch “The Gorg Who Would Be King,” a 1987 episode of the HBO children’s series Fraggle Rock , and one of the last installments of the show’s original five-season run. The story follows Junior, the prince of his giant-sized race, as he shrinks down to the size of a Fraggle, and gets a lesson from the much smaller species about what it means to be... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2zyJkb0

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge This episode of The Vergecast was was easy to put together because there was a lot of news this week. About an hour before taping the show, Apple announced the date of its fall hardware event — September 10th — which is presumably where it will announce a new iPhone. This week, Nilay Patel, Dieter Bohn, and Paul Miller theorize what could be coming out of Apple’s event based on the past couple of months of rumors. They also discuss what’s going on with Siri . Microsoft also revealed the date of its fall Surface event: October 2nd. Could there be a new dual-screened device coming soon? The crew discusses. Those are the big things that were talked about, but there was a whole lot more — like Paul’s weekly segment “ Fridge ice is trash... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2PqFZWw

In 1982, Jim Henson and Frank Oz redefined fantasy filmmaking with The Dark Crystal , an ambitious, puppet-driven movie that tells a wondrous story about an ancient world on the brink of destruction or salvation. In the post- Game of Thrones fantasy licensing frenzy, it would have been easy for Netflix to snap up the rights to the Dark Crystal world, make a cheap knockoff, and count on nostalgia to lure viewers. Instead, Clash of the Titans and The Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier has produced a true labor of love. The series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance builds on everything that made the film great, and it has the potential to become a classic in its own right. The Dark Crystal, set on the dying world of Thra, followed two... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2TWoqvK

‘What is live? And what is recorded?’ Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2L9QadI

It’s a close call Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2xyNVH5

It’s hard to know what to expect from a game with a title like Astral Chain . It’s a name that calls to mind things like astrological and arcane philosophy books. But in reality, it’s the latest release from Platinum Games, a studio best-known for stylish action games like Bayonetta , Vanquish, and, more recently, Nier: Automata , a collaboration with idiosyncratic director Yoko Taro . Astral Chain is full of thrilling action sequences, but in most ways, it’s completely unlike any other Platinum game. Really, it’s unlike anything I’ve played before. It’s a cyberpunk police anime about an interdimensional invasion that blends action, puzzle-solving, platforming, and detective work. There are plot threads about stray cats and the future of... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2UmGbVp

In the Internet of Things -- or the "Intelligence of Things," which is more apt -- the automotive segment has become a leading center of innovation. Only healthcare offers the same ability to leverage advances in sensors, processing, connectivity and artificial intelligence technology to advance an industry while simultaneously improving society. As a result, the entire electronics and automotive ecosystem is racing to develop self-driving/autonomous vehicles. However, changing an established industry does not come without challenges. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2NFvSdS

Image: Microsoft Minecraft Earth ’s closed beta has launched on Android in Seattle, London, Tokyo, Stockholm, and Mexico City, its developer Mojang announced today . If you’re lucky enough to have a beta invite and live in one of the launch cities, then you can start playing the augmented reality mobile game right now. You’ll need an AR-compatible device running Android 7 or above to play. Today’s launch means that Minecraft Earth ’s Android release is proceeding a little more slowly than it is on iOS since the beta launched on Apple’s operating system last month. However, Android users will get access to the game’s “Rubies” in-game currency before it launches on iOS. In a blog post announcing the start of the Android beta, the game’s developer says that... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2zvrTs7

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge North has added native support for Android’s notification actions to its Focals smart glasses. Using the new functionality, you’ll now be able to access any shortcuts app developers include in their app’s notifications. 9to5Google , which first spotted the update, notes that these actions can include deleting or archiving emails in the Gmail app or retweeting tweets on Twitter. The feature should make it easier to rely more on your smart glasses without having to take your phone out of your pocket, similar to the functionality that was previously available with Google Glass. Unfortunately, the new feature is only available to Android users for the time being, so it’s unable to help with one of our biggest issues with the Focals , which is... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2Lar0fa

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge When a tech platform grows beyond a certain size, a now-familiar phenomenon begins to unfold. The creators no longer have a view of — or control over — all the day-to-day activity on the platform, allowing bad actors to manipulate it to their own ends. On Twitter, this led to unchecked harassment and abuse, much of it focused on women and minorities. On Facebook, it led to Cambridge Analytica and Russian interference in the 2016 election. On YouTube, it led to a surge in extremist content, boosted by algorithmic recommendations. Last week, thanks to a terrific investigation in the Wall Street Journal , we saw how size has blinded Amazon to a host of dangerous products that third-party sellers have made available. Alexandra Berzon, Shane... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2NHYtPt

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Security researchers working in Google’s Project Zero team say they have discovered a number of hacked websites which used previously undisclosed security flaws to indiscriminately attack any iPhone that visited them . Motherboard reports that the attack could be one of the largest ever conducted against iPhone users. If a user visited one of the malicious websites using a vulnerable device, then their personal files, messages, and real time location data could be compromised. After reporting their findings to Apple, the iPhone manufacturer patched the vulnerabilities earlier this year. Motherboard notes that the attack could have allowed the sites to install an implant with access to an iPhone’s keychain. This would have given the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2ZqvK95

Four decades of portable, personal music Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2UdAPMe

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge Hurricane Dorian’s expected landfall on Florida has Miami, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, and Tampa scrambling to remove bikes and scooters from their streets. If the devices aren’t removed from the streets, they could potentially be picked up by hurricane winds — transforming into threats to people and property. Miami has demanded that all of these mobility companies remove their products from the streets by noon on Friday, Bloomberg reported . Tampa has not yet issued a request for removal, but if (or when) it does, the companies will have 12 hours to comply with it. (“All of our vendors appear prepared for that requirement, and are staying tuned to the weather notices,” says a spokesperson for the city of Tampa.) Lime, Uber’s scooter... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2ZE5bwi

Netflix is set to release a three-part documentary special on Microsoft co-founder, billionaire, and philanthropist Bill Gates. A new trailer for the docuseries, which is called Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates , explores the past, present, and future of Gates’ life. The trailer includes commentary on Gates’ ambitious push to being a titan in Silicon Valley, the personal sacrifices he made to ensure that Microsoft could compete with competitors like Apple, and his leap into philanthropy around the world. The documentary series “offers unprecedented access to Gates as he pursues unique solutions to some of the world’s most complex problems with the same level of optimism, curiosity, and fervor that inspired his original vision for... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/34jYqj0

Photo: Kevin Baker / Netflix In a behind-the-scenes interview, they discuss the technology and craft that made their prequel possible Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2PkWTWh

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The world is about to be oversaturated with subscription streaming services, and Plex wants to be the platform that helps people keep track of everything. The company’s platform has developed a reputation for being a one-stop piracy shop , and now it’s working on offering users the ability to buy video subscription services in the first half of 2020, according to Variety . The move will also see Plex launch an ad-supported streaming service of its own using content from other networks and studios, and it will give people the ability to buy VOD titles. Plex isn’t trying to replace Netflix, nor will it likely carry Netflix Originals, according to CEO Keith Valory. Partnering with companies like Warner Bros., however, that will start to make... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2zwhVqc

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Hulu is already pretty affordable, but the streaming service is teaming up with Chrissy Teigen, celebrity and co-host of Eater ’s upcoming Hulu series Family Style , to promote an even better deal. The ad-supported plan is 50 percent off for six months, bringing it down to a mere $2.99 per month . This offer is available for new and “eligible returning” Hulu users, but not people who are currently subscribed. Once your six months of Hulu at $2.99 are up, you’ll be charged $5.99 per month moving forward. Hulu is the only streaming service where you can stream The Handmaid’s Tale , Veronica Mars (including the new fourth season), and it’s currently developing a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series. If you’re a student who subscribes to... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2Zzn3bN

Image: Samsung Samsung has quietly announced a new Bixby-powered smart speaker called the Galaxy Home Mini , and it’s inviting Galaxy smartphone owners in South Korea to sign up to beta-test the new device. Samsung says the new speaker can control IoT devices, it integrates with Samsung’s SmartThings platform, and it uses sound technology provided by Samsung’s AKG audio brand. SamMobile was first to spot the announcement. This is the first time Samsung has officially admitted that its smaller smart speaker exists, although we had a decent idea it was coming, thanks to its appearance in a Federal Communications Commission filing earlier this year. Beyond the few details shared by Samsung in the beta announcement, we know next to nothing about this new... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/30DV7Rn

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Over the course of reviewing the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus , I spent quite a bit of time evaluating DeX. With the Note, Samsung introduced apps for both Windows and Mac that would let you have a sort of desktop interface for your phone on the computer you already use. My take on these DeX apps is straightforward: they’re not great. If you just use them for simple tasks like texting, copying and pasting small bits of text, or dragging and dropping a file or two, it’s fine. Pushing any harder than that is likely to be a recipe for sorrow, however, as things tend to get laggy pretty quickly. I think that’s more the fault of the desktop software than the phone’s hardware, but regardless, it’s slightly disappointing. I don’t think that’s a... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/32d4msg

1,000 videos later, Film Riot is still looking beyond YouTube Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2ZBBHPL

Sellers are finding old AmazonBasics listings and using them to sell weighted blankets, knives, and clocks Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2Zlq4gx

The Fenix 6 series of multi-sport GPS watches. | Image: Garmin Garmin’s new Fenix 6 series of multi-sport GPS watches is here. The lineup features the first Garmin watch with a transparent solar charging lens, larger 1.4-inch sunlight readable displays, and new features that can extend battery life and more accurately track your performance. These are the watches you buy when outdoor fitness is your priority, money is no object, and adaptability to everyday life indoors is still important. The Fenix 6X Pro Solar is the flagship device. Its “Power Glass” solar lens not only extends the watch’s 21-day battery life (in smartwatch mode) by up to three days, its display is also 36-percent larger than the largest display available in the Fenix 5 series. The solar option is only available with the larger... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2MJ85tN

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge It’s been a good 24 hours for defaults. Motion smoothing might stop being the default on TVs. Fitbit has a real shot at making the de-facto default smartwatch for Android users, who desperately need one. And the best default of all: the default opt-out on Siri recordings. Here’s our story on it: Apple apologizes for Siri audio recordings, announces privacy changes going forward . A key part of this story is that Apple straight-up apologized. That apology is totally warranted, and I’d like to briefly explain why. If you haven’t been following all the drama surrounding smart assistants saving your voice on their servers so humans could listen, I wrote a piece about it earlier this month . The main way Apple was (and is) better is it more... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2NDUxiJ

Verizon, the No. 1 mobile carrier in the United States, this week introduced a free version of its robocall-blocking app, which will be standard on all new Android devices. The company further announced that it will auto-enroll eligible Android users to its Call Filter service and block what are seen as "high-risk" calls. This includes calls from numbers that have been reported as fraudulent. Those calls will be sent to voicemail, while the display on caller ID will indicate "Potential Spam" to warn callers that it is likely a robocall. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2Lb4IbS

Image: USPTO / Google A recently discovered patent suggests that Google was at one point experimenting with the idea of putting a camera slap bang in the middle of the face of a smartwatch. LetsGoDigital spotted the patent, which was filed back in July 2017, earlier this week. The patent is simply titled “Camera Watch,” and contains seven diagrams of the unreleased design. There was a time when cameras were a much more regular feature in smartwatches. Samsung, for example, included a camera on both the Galaxy Gear and Gear 2 in 2013 and 2014 respectively. However, in recent years they’ve become less common. Apple has never included a camera on an Apple Watch (although a patent suggests that it once considered putting one into the watch’s band ), and cameras... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2ZoHc5g

Amelia Krales By 2018, it was clear that Pinterest suffered from a problem many of its peers had long dealt with. Because most people are vaccinated and do not spend their free time making pro-vaccine content for social networks, a search for “vaccines” on Pinterest returned anti-vaccination results 75 percent of the time . The consequences of vaccine-related misinformation taking over Pinterest and other, larger social networks is not theoretical: measles has had a scary resurgence around the world ,and the World Health Organization now lists vaccine hesitancy as a top-10 threat to global health. While the other big platforms dithered, Pinterest took decisive action: it stopped returning results for vaccine searches. “It’s better not to serve those... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2MG8f5j

Redmi Note 8 Pro. Xiaomi has announced the latest entry in its phenomenally popular Redmi Note series and, just as the Redmi Note 7 heralded a flood of 48-megapixel phone cameras earlier this year, the Redmi Note 8 Pro is among the first with a 64-megapixel sensor. Realme semi-revealed its XT with the same sensor a couple of days ago, but Xiaomi has now made a full announcement, so feel free to debate among yourselves as to who was truly first. Why would you want a 64-megapixel camera? Well, as with 48-megapixel phones, it’s generally not so you can shoot at full resolution. Both sensor designs use 0.8μm pixels that are grouped together in fours for better light sensitivity that’s supposedly equivalent to 1.6μm pixels. Using that technique, a 48-megapixel... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2HyzkD7

Swipe up or down on the small profile picture in the top right to switch accounts. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge There’s now a simpler way of swiping between Gmail accounts on Android that has long existed in iOS. Android Police reports that as of version 2019.08.18 of the app, you can swipe up or down on your profile picture in the top right of the interface to switch between accounts. Alternatively, you can tap on your profile picture to select from a full list of your accounts, just as you could before. If this sounds familiar, then it’s because Google has been steadily adding the feature to its lineup of Android apps including, as Android Police notes, Maps , Drive , and Contacts . However, it’s a much more useful inclusion in the Gmail app, because so many people access both their personal and work emails on a single phone and need to flip... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2MITJJV

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Microsoft’s first unveiled its HoloLens 2 headset at Mobile World Congress back in February, promising a release later this year. Reuters now reports that the HoloLens 2 headset will go on sale in September. Microsoft’s head of AI and research, Harry Shum, reportedly revealed next month’s release date during an onstage appearance at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on Thursday. It’s not clear exactly when the headset will be available in September, or whether it will be available to developers and businesses at the same time next month. We’ve reached out to Microsoft for more information. Microsoft started taking preorders from businesses for the $3,500 HoloLens 2 headset earlier this year, before unveiling a d... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2zpWR4O

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple has issued a formal apology for its privacy practices of secretly having human contractors listen to recordings of customers talking to its Siri digital assistant to improve the service. “We realize we haven’t been fully living up to our high ideals, and for that we apologize,” Apple’s statement reads. The company also announced several changes to Siri’s privacy policy going forward: First, by default, we will no longer retain audio recordings of Siri interactions. We will continue to use computer-generated transcripts to help Siri improve. Second, users will be able to opt in to help Siri improve by learning from the audio samples of their requests. We hope that many people will choose to help Siri get better, knowing that... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/32bO1UB

It’s been two years since Mr. Robot ’s third season ended, but thanks to a new trailer, we now know when to expect the fourth and final season to kick off: October 6th. The new trailer for the upcoming season — like the first season 4 teaser , which was released last month — is predictably light on details. But based on the creepy “Silent Night” soundtrack and the aggressively Christmas-y trappings that are shown off, it seems like the new season will take place around the holidays. “We need to get back to work,” Rami Malek’s Elliot says, before being cautioned by the illusory Mr. Robot (Christian Slater) that Elliot’s battle against the corporate monolith E Corp (and, more broadly, the entire institutions of finance and government) is... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/30DTza8

Pinterest Pinterest will now give visitors accurate information about vaccines and their safety when they type in a relevant search term. In an update today, the company says it will now surface reliable information sourced from various scientific organizations whenever someone searches for vaccine-related terms, like “measles” or “vaccine safety.” Among the organizations whose information will show up is the World Health Organization (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and the WHO-established Vaccine Safety Net (VSN), which is a network of websites that provide vaccine safety information in multiple languages. The feature is going live today for English-speaking searchers on the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2MGqrvB

Eero is adding a cheaper tier of service to its premium subscription with the introduction of the $2.99-per-month Eero Secure plan. It offers the same security, site filtering, and ad-blocking features of the old Eero Plus plan without the additional bundled products like 1Password, MalwareBytes, and the Encrypt.me VPN service. The new subscription tier marks one of the first major changes to come to Eero since its Amazon acquisition earlier this year. The existing $9.99-per-month Eero Plus subscription is sticking around, although it’s getting new Eero Secure Plus branding, with the same benefits as before. Both plans will offer discounted prices for annual subscriptions: Eero Secure for $29.99 per year and Eero Secure Plus for $99 per... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2HvdNv4

T-Mobile has a new “Test Drive” deal that’s meant to entice customers on other carriers to switch over. It’s a free hot spot that will let people try out T-Mobile’s network for 30 days (or up to 30GB of data, whichever comes first), so they can see how T-Mobile’s data speeds and coverage work on their existing devices. The company started rolling out the free 30-day hot spot test program last year , but it was far more limited and offered in only Atlanta, Austin, and Boston. Presumably, it was meant to be a quiet trial run for this nationwide offer. This is not T-Mobile’s first “Test Drive” program: in 2014, the company loaned out iPhone 5S devices with T-Mobile service so potential customers could try out the network. That program was... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2Zh5qy2

Photo: Faze Clan Like most celebrities, Offset — one-third of hip-hop trio Migos — can’t really enjoy himself in public like the average person. There are too many prying eyes at the grocery store or the mall. So when he needs to relax, he plays games like Call of Duty and NBA 2K with random people online. Recently, his virtual teammates haven’t been able to stop talking about e-sports and competitive gaming. Stories of teenagers winning millions of dollars playing Fortnite intrigued him, so Offset did some more research on his own. It wasn’t long until he discovered Faze Clan. “It was a special thing,” he tells me, “and I felt like I needed to be a part of it.” Last week, Offset announced that he was investing in Faze Clan, one of the biggest and most... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2MGsL5H

Telltale Games is getting a second life. After a tragic and well-publicized decline, the game studio — best known for adaptations of series like The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones — is coming back after a group of investors purchased the company’s assets with plans to relaunch . The new Telltale Games will be helmed by Jamie Ottilie and Brian Waddle, two industry veterans with experience primarily in mobile gaming and the technology side. “We believe there is still so much life to the brand and its franchises, and we look forward to building upon the company’s storytelling legacy,” Ottilie said in a statement. The new studio will operate out of Malibu, and the new ownership group says that it will be “re-releasing select games from the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2L2bj9G

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Fitbit has announced the Versa 2, and it’s a big step forward in the company’s quest to make a smartwatch that you might, for at least a few seconds, confuse for an Apple Watch. The glass covering Versa 2’s watchface spills elegantly over its sides, the number of side buttons has been reduced from three to one, and fewer complications on watchfaces give it a more premium look. Fitbit also (finally) got rid of its logo on the bottom bezel. Inevitable comparisons aside, the Versa 2 seems to bring more than enough improvements and features to set it apart from Fitbit’s past efforts, as well as other recent smartwatches. It’s $199.99, the same price as its predecessor, and it features a new OLED screen as its most noticeable improvement.... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2ZvTwjm

On August 14th, a drone weighing 1,215 pounds took off from the tarmac at an air base in Camp Roberts, California. It reached a height of 10 feet, hovered for 64 seconds, and then landed. It was the first successful test flight for Elroy Air, a San Francisco-based startup that aims to put its heavy-lift cargo drones in the air, delivering larger-than-average payloads by 2020. It’s a modest beginning to what could eventually become a trillion-dollar business , if you believe the analysts who think autonomous drone delivery — in particular, cargo drone delivery — has the potential to disrupt the logistics industry. Elroy is among a handful of startups focused on vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft, but for aerial delivery rather... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/30Idjt0

Fitbit Fitbit Premium is a new subscription service that will offer personalized goals, challenges, coaching, and guidance for paid users when it launches in 17 countries this fall. It will cost $9.99 per month, or $79.99 for a year, and it will work with all Fitbit fitness trackers and smartwatches. If Fitbit’s free app just isn’t quite enough data for you, or if you’re just not feeling enough encouragement to stick to your goals, the Premium service may be worth trying out. Fitbit isn’t exactly new to subscription services. It launched its Fitbit Coach alongside the original Versa in 2018 for $7.99 per month, or $39.99 per year (Fitbit says Premium subscribers will get complimentary access to Coach, which consists of workout videos and audio... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/348yrL2

Fossil held up its end of the bargain, Qualcomm and Google didn’t Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2ZmLbz6

Vizio is one of the three manufacturers who are interested in the new mode. | Photo by James Bareham / The Verge The UHD Alliance, a collection of companies who work together to define display standards, has announced Filmmaker Mode , a new TV setting that’s designed to show films as they were originally mastered, with as little post-processing as possible. Although the mode will affect multiple settings like frame rate, aspect ratio, overscanning, and noise reduction, its most important element is that it turns off motion smoothing, which creates that horrible “soap opera effect” that makes even the most expensive films look cheap. LG, Vizio, and Panasonic have all expressed an interest in including the new mode in their TVs. Of course, it’s always been possible to turn off this setting (we’ve got a guide on how to do so right here ) but TV... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2NxMNPv

Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images The BBC is launching its own voice assistant , appropriately called ‘Beeb’ (though the efficacy of that wake word is completely suspect in a world where people might talk about Justin Bieber, just saying). Upon hearing this news, you might be tempted to think, “Ugh, why? This isn’t necessary.” I wouldn’t jump to that conclusion. The Beeb assistant might be a boondoggle, a waste of British taxpayer money, and a classic example of the BBC making a tech thing without a super clear reason or need just because it can. In fact, I would put even money on it being all three of those things, but I’m still rooting for it anyway. I’m rooting for Beeb because we still are screwing up this whole ambient computing, digital assistant thing. Thanks to... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2UcLCGq

A new application may be in the works that allows Instagram users to share real-time information with their closest friends. Called "Threads," the app allows users to set up automatic sharing with their closest Instagram buddies of such information as location, movement and battery life, as well as text, video and photo messages generated using Instagram's tools. Once you choose to activate Threads, it will automatically alert people on your Instagram "close friends" list about your location, movements and more. from TechNewsWorld https://ift.tt/2ND6a9Y