The Verge

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is finally admitting that he underestimated how difficult it is to develop a safe and reliable self-driving car. To which the entire engineering community rose up as one to say, “No duh.”Or at least that’s how it should have happened in a just world. Instead, all the Tesla sycophants and ass-kissers on Twitter told Musk to keep up the good work, that they believed in him, and encouraged him to hurry up and roll out the latest version of his “Full Self-Driving” software that, it’s worth pointing out, does not enable a Tesla vehicle to drive itself without input from the driver.Musk has a long history of over promising and under deliveringMusk has a long history of over promising and under delivering when it comes... Continue reading…

A road that buckled in the recent heat. | Washington State Department of Transportation North via Twitter During last weekend’s deadly heat wave, some roads in the Pacific Northwest buckled. Workers ventured out in blistering conditions to put cracked concrete and asphalt byways back together. Steel drawbridges were doused with water to make sure they wouldn’t swell shut under the oppressive heat.The heat dome that sat over the region provided a brutal stress test of its roadways, some of which couldn’t withstand multiple days of record-breaking temperatures. It’s something that’s happened before, in Washington, Wisconsin, South Dakota, and anywhere else experiencing extreme heatwaves.

Jeff Bezos, who has served as the CEO of Amazon since founding the company exactly 27 years ago on July 5th, 1994, has officially stepped down from the role. Andy Jassy is now listed as the company’s CEO on its investor relations website, after previously having run Amazon Web Services since 2003, while Bezos is listed as Executive Chair. The July 5th handover date was previously announced in a shareholder meeting in May.It’s an important moment for Amazon, which has had the same CEO for the entirety of its existence. Under Bezos’ leadership, the company survived the dot-com bubble bursting in the late 90s to become one of the world’s most prominent technology companies. Amazon currently dominates online commerce in the US and parts of... Continue reading…

The new Microsoft Store on Windows 11. Microsoft’s dysfunctional app store for Windows, the Microsoft Store, is finally improving under Windows 11. While there’s a UI overhaul and some speed improvements, the key change is allowing more apps into the store. In just the past week alone, some popular apps have started to appear in the Microsoft Store on Windows 11, making it more useful than before.OBS Studio, Zoom, Canva, WinZip, and Adobe Acrobat Reader have all made their way to the Microsoft Store in the past week, alongside Microsoft Edge browser extensions. These early additions, during a beta period for Windows 11, are a promising start.The Microsoft Store is changing on Windows 11, and eventually Windows 10, to include any traditional desktop apps. Microsoft... Continue reading…

A new day is coming. | Photo by Nguyen Tran A car that gets cheaper every time you share it Continue reading…

Xiaomi’s Mi 11 Ultra is finally going on sale in India in limited quantities. The company had announced its latest flagship smartphone all the way back in March, but it’s been near-impossible to buy one outside of China ever since. The phone sold out instantly in the UK in May, suggesting very limited stock, and last month Xiaomi said the Indian launch would be delayed “due to circumstances beyond our control.”Now, Xiaomi has announced details of how people in India will actually be able to buy one, as long as they’re willing to jump through a few hoops. Customers will need to buy an “ultra gift card” for Rs. 1,999 (~$27) on the Mi.com website, which can later be redeemed against the price of the Mi 11 Ultra and includes some bonuses... Continue reading…

Michael Gandolfini stars as Tony Soprano in The Many Saints of Newark | HBO Max The Good Fight returned to its very weird and funny roots this week and introduced Mandy Patinkin as a — let’s say “unconventional” judge, and it’s as if my favorite character from Homeland got a new job. I know everyone is probably maxed out on how many streaming channels they can/want to subscribe to, but The Good Fight is reason enough to at least check out Paramount Plus. And I have no idea what’s going to happen on the next episode of Loki but (mild spoiler ahead!) I can’t imagine the two characters who got pruned will stay pruned.This week we finally get a first look at the prequel to The Sopranos and a new look at the new Masters of the Universe show.The Many Saints of NewarkIn this prequel to The Sopranos, Michael... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A security researcher has found that certain Wi-Fi networks with the percent symbol (%) in their names can disable Wi-Fi on iPhones and other iOS devices. Carl Schou tweeted that if an iPhone comes within range of a network named %secretclub%power, the device won’t be able to use Wi-Fi or any related features, and even after resetting network settings, the bug may continue to render Wi-Fi on the device unusable.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Several verified profile pages on Gettr, the new social media platform from Jason Miller, once an advisor to former President Trump, were apparently hacked and defaced briefly on Sunday (via Insider).The accounts of several well-known Republicans, including Miller, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene had their pages’ header images replaced with the same message: “@JubaBaghdad was here :) ^^ free palestine ^^.” according to screenshots. Twitter user @JubaBaghdad told Insider it was easy to hack the pages and that he had done it “just for fun.” Most of the affected profiles appeared to be back to normal at the time of publication.Zachary Petrizzo, a writer for Salon, posted screenshots on Twitter of... Continue reading…

Comics have never been bigger: with Marvel TV shows, DC movies, and indie adaptations growing by the day, comic books have never been more prominent in pop culture. This biweekly Verge column recommends comic series new and old, whether you’re a longtime fan or a newcomer.Trese is one of the most interesting new shows on Netflix, a gritty detective story set in a modern-day Manilla beset by all kinds of supernatural forces. It’s great, but it also ends quickly: the debut season is only six episodes long. Luckily, if you’re looking for more of Alexandra Trese, there’s plenty to dig into with the books on which the show is based.What is it? Trese follows the titular Alexandra Trese, a Manilla resident who owns a club called Diabolical,... Continue reading…

Earlier this year, I did something weird: I bought an iPod 5th generation, originally manufactured back in 2006. I got it mostly as a fun thing to mod, but I’ve actually been using it on a near-daily basis. The experience has brought me to the conclusion that Apple should bring back the iPod, but updated for the modern age. It should keep the click-wheel of course, but I can’t stop thinking about how good an iPod, designed for the age of music streaming, AirPods, and high-res displays would be. I know that might sound silly, but let me explain.There are a few reasons why Apple should make a new iPod. For one, it would allow the company to capitalize on some nostalgia for the iPod age that seems to be coming around, based on recent... Continue reading…

TikTok’s parent company has started selling its AI to other companies | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge ByteDance, the Beijing-based parent company of video sharing app TikTok has started selling TikTok’s AI to other companies, the Financial Times reports (may require subscription). The company has a new division called BytePlus, and according to its website, its client list already includes US fashion app Goat, Singapore travel site WeGo, Indonesian shopping app Chilibeli, and India-based social gaming platform GamesApp.TikTok’s recommendation algorithm is a huge part of what has made it so popular. Essentially, the way you interact with the app affects what videos it will recommend to you. The company explained in a blog post last year how its ForYou feed determines what videos to serve a given user. Its recommendations are based on... Continue reading…

The 20 Pro 5G includes premium features you’d be hard-pressed to find in another $500 phone Continue reading…

Didi has some 377 million users in China | Getty Images The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has ordered app stores to remove Didi Chuxing’s app, claiming the ride-hailing company had been illegally collecting users’ personal data (via Reuters). The regulator said it had ordered the company to make updates to put it in compliance with China’s data protection rules, but didn’t elaborate on what the violations may have involved.Didi was founded in China in 2012, and a recent regulatory filing shows it has 377 million active users in China alone. The company just went public on June 30th, the biggest IPO of a Chinese company on a US stock exchanges since Alibaba in 2014. On Friday, the CAC announced new user registrations for Didi’s service were being suspended pending a “cybersecurity... Continue reading…

SGDQ is You. | Image: Games Done Quick Games Done Quick’s weeklong summer speedrunning event for charity begins on Sunday, and looks to have a whole bunch of good runs to look forward to. Things kick off for Summer Games Done Quick (SGDQ) Online 2021 at 12PM ET on the Games Done Quick Twitch channel.You can see the full schedule here, and it’s packed with a treasure trove of interesting-looking runs. There’s a lot I want to check out, but I think I’m most interested in the blindfolded 70-star run of Super Mario 64 on Saturday.SGDQ and its wintertime counterpart, Awesome Games Done Quick, are two of my favorite weeks of the year. I love watching players absolutely dismantle some of my favorite games, such as in this run of Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment, or pulling off... Continue reading…

At an Anime Expo Lite panel, LucasFilm revealed the very first look at Star Wars: Visions, an upcoming anthology of short anime films set in a galaxy far, far away. The sneak peek featured a huge range of visual styles and ideas, with shorts that featured, among many other things, a rock opera, a chibi Boba Fett, droids in straw hats, a twin Star Destroyer, and much more.“We really wanted to give these creators a wide creative birth to explore the Star Wars galaxy,” LucasFilm executive producer James Waugh said during the panel. “We wanted this to be as authentic as possible to the studios and the creators. The idea was, this is their vision, riffing off all of the elements of the Star Wars galaxy that inspired them.”The shorts... Continue reading…

Trump supporters stand on the U.S. Capitol Police armored vehicle as others take over the steps of the Capitol on January 6th. | Photo By Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Some 49 people accused of taking part in the January 6th riot at the US Capitol building have tried to erase images, videos, and texts from their phones and social media accounts, the Associated Press reported, citing a review of court records. Authorities told the AP that the people may have realized that the many photos and videos posted to social media by people participating in the riot could be used as evidence against them.The AP cited several cases where accused rioters’ social media posts apparently contradicted what they told authorities about their involvement in the attack.Hundreds of supporters of former President Trump stormed the Capitol building on January 6th as members of Congress prepared to certify the results of... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Just in time to ruin the holiday weekend, ransomware attackers have apparently used Kaseya — a software platform designed to help manage IT services remotely — to deliver their payload. Sophos director and ethical hacker Mark Loman tweeted about the attack on Friday, and reported that affected systems will demand $44,999 to be unlocked. A note on Kaseya’s website implores customers to shut off their VSA servers for now “because one of the first things the attacker does is shutoff administrative access to the VSA.”On Saturday, Kaseya issued another update, saying that it had been advised by its outside experts that “customers who experienced ransomware and receive a communication from the attackers should not click... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A court in Amsterdam ruled that privacy litigation against Facebook in the Netherlands can proceed, rejecting the social network’s bid to have the lawsuit from two non-profit groups thrown out.As TechCrunch reported, the Amsterdam-based Data Privacy Foundation and Dutch consumer advocacy organization Consumentenbond are suing Facebook on behalf of users over what they claim are violations of European Union privacy law. The lawsuit says Facebook has not provided enough details about the information it gathers from users, including what it does with the data, and therefore doesn’t have a legal basis to process the information.Facebook tried to block the lawsuit claiming that the Amsterdam court doesn’t have jurisdiction over its... Continue reading…

Earlier this year, I spent a month covering the trial for a dispute between Apple and Epic. The case was one of the biggest antitrust suits in recent memory, and it brought to light revelations about both companies and the larger tech industry, often in the form of legal filings. I (and other reporters) try to pick out the most relevant details from these filings for readers. But sometimes, the documents are worth checking out in their own right. A site called CourtListener makes that easier than it might sound — if you know how to look.US federal court documents are supposed to be publicly available through the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system. But as somebody who frequently uses PACER, I can confirm it’s a... Continue reading…

If you’re in the US, you might be prepping for some exciting Independence Day plans. Whatever you’re getting up to — whether it be drinks with close friends and family or fireworks, if it’s safe in your area — we’ve pulled together some tech deals we think are worth your while. Plenty of retailers and manufacturers are offering great discounts this weekend on a wide variety of tech, including phones, video games, handy travel accessories, and more.Preowned games are B2G1 free at GameStopWhether you have a Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X, or another platform, you can load up on games this weekend with GameStop’s latest promo. If you add three preowned games to your cart, you’ll receive the least expensive one for free at checkout.... Continue reading…

Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images The Boring Company, Elon Musk’s tunneling venture, pitched an underground transit system to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the town’s mayor said in a tweet. It’s the latest city to become transfixed by Musk’s quixotic “Tesla in a tunnel” concept.It’s not a done deal, but Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis called it “an innovative and unprecedented approach to addressing traffic congestion and transit needs.” Trantalis said the project, which would be called the “Las Ollas Loop,” would connect Fort Lauderdale’s downtown to the beach.

The Department of Justice has opened an investigation into troubled electric vehicle startup Lordstown Motors, which is backed by General Motors and went public late last year but has yet to get its pickup — the Endurance — into production, according to The Wall Street Journal. It’s the second official probe into the startup, as the Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation earlier this year into Lordstown Motors executives’ misleading claims about how many preorders it had logged for the Endurance.The new investigation, which is being run by the US Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York, comes just weeks after Lordstown Motors’ CEO and founder was pushed out following a law firm’s probe into those... Continue reading…

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images The US Federal Trade Commission has sued chip maker Broadcom for allegedly abusing a monopoly on semiconductor components. A newly issued complaint accuses Broadcom of threatening to charge higher prices, refuse technical support, or cut off chip sales if its customers bought other products from competing companies.Starting in 2016, Broadcom allegedly struck “exclusive or near-exclusive” deals with at least 10 companies manufacturing video set-top boxes and broadband devices like modems. It allegedly required these “strategic” partners to use a variety of Broadcom components even if they weren’t the best or cheapest option for a given device. Nonexclusive “tactical” partners were charged higher prices for slower product delivery and... Continue reading…

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Following last month’s announcement that OnePlus was integrating with Oppo, effectively becoming a sub-brand of the phone manufacturer, the company announced on Friday that it’s also merging OxygenOS with Oppo’s ColorOS operating system (via 9to5Google).Both companies’ software will remain separate and continue to serve their individual regions (OxygenOS for OnePlus phones globally, ColorOS on OnePlus and Oppo devices in China) but share a common codebase, which OnePlus says should standardize its software experience and streamline the development process for future OxygenOS updates.OnePlus says the change will also allow the company to guarantee better Android update support going forward, something Samsung has also tried to improve... Continue reading…

Image: CD Projekt Red The Witcher: Monster Slayer, an upcoming Pokémon Go-like augmented reality game for mobile devices set in The Witcher universe, will be released on July 21st, CD Projekt Red announced on Friday. It will be available for free on both platforms.In Monster Slayer, you’ll explore the world around you and fight menacing virtual monsters in AR. You’ll also go on “story-driven quests that propel you through epic adventures inspired by the Witcher series, taking you deep into the heart of what it means to be an elite monster slayer,” according to the game’s website. The game was first announced in August 2020.If you’re on Android, you can pre-register for the game on Google Play right now. If you do, you’ll be able to play the game as soon... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge An internal survey designed by Apple employees shows respondents want the option to work from home and fear their colleagues may have to leave if the company forces people back to the office.In the survey, which was sent out in early June, nearly 90 percent of respondents said they “strongly agree” with the statement “location-flexible working options are a very important issue to me.” A total of 1,749 people answered the question. Employees defined “location-flexible” as the option to work from home indefinitely.The news comes on the heels of Tim Cook’s announcement that Apple will be rolling out a new hybrid work model that will require employees to return to the office three days a week starting in early September. While the move... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge Porsche is recalling its first EV, the Taycan, to fix an issue where some cars suddenly lose power while in motion. The automaker has already sold around 43,000 Taycans globally to date, though it claims (without further clarification) that only a small number are affected. Owners will have to bring their electric Porsches to a dealer for the software fix, which the company says will take between 60 and 90 minutes. The fix is being applied to new Taycans coming off the production line.The same issue is also affecting the new Audi E-Tron GT, as it is built on the Taycan’s electric powertrain. That recall involves far fewer vehicles, though, as Audi only just started shipping the electric sports car.At least a dozen Taycan owners have... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google’s latest diversity report shows that despite some gains in the number of Black employees, the company is lagging in its goal to double the number of Black workers by 2025. And the search giant is having particular difficulty retaining women of color, the report released Thursday (pdf) shows.Google uses a scale it calls an attrition index, with the number 100 used as a benchmark. The attrition figure for Black women on that index rose from 110 in 2020 to 146 in 2021, the report shows. Among Native American women the attrition index was up to 148 in 2021, compared to 123 in 2020. The 2021 attrition figures also were higher for Asian men and women and for Latinx men, the report showed.“We recognize the platform that we have and... Continue reading…

League of Legends developer Riot is making something new — and very chill. The company just released an album called Sessions: Vi, which is packed with 37 lo-fi tracks from producers like Chromonicci, Junior State, Laxcity, and Tennyson. The idea, the company says, is to offer “stream-safe” music that creators on platforms like YouTube and Twitch can use, without having to worry about copyright strikes. The album is available to stream now on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube.In typical Riot fashion, there’s also a narrative album. The title is in reference to League character Vi, a criminal with high-tech gauntlets, and Riot’s head of music Toa Dunn says the album is meant to reflect a day in her life. The tracks are divided into... Continue reading…

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Tesla delivered 201,250 vehicles in the second quarter of 2021, a record for the company but still falling slightly short of Wall Street expectations. Elon Musk’s company also produced 206,421 vehicles during the same period.Of all the cars that Tesla produced during the quarter, the vast majority — 204,081 — were Model 3 and Model Y vehicles. On top of that, Tesla also produced 2,340 Model S and Model X vehicles — though the company did not break out how many Model S sedans were the high-end Plaid variant that just started reaching customers.the company did not break out how many Model S Plaid sedans were deliveredEarlier last month, Tesla held a delivery event for the redesigned Model S, featuring a new powertrain, more... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge By locating the battery in the floor of the vehicle, auto companies are making it difficult to convert EVs for wheelchair users Continue reading…

Right now, Dell’s G15 Ryzen Edition is perhaps the most affordable gaming laptop that has a powerful Ryzen 7 5800H processor and an Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics chip inside (via Slickdeals). Those two components alone make today’s price of $1,078 an amazing deal (originally $1,459). Additionally, this laptop features a 15.6-inch 1080p screen with a 165Hz refresh rate, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 512GB NVMe SSD (both the RAM and storage are user-upgradeable). I can’t hide that I’m pretty excited about this deal, partially because I don’t know how much longer it will last.If you’re interested in buying a gaming laptop that doesn’t cost too much but want one that has a respectable graphics card, consider this one. Its RTX 3060 supports up to 115W... Continue reading…

Photo by: Jose More/VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Right now, anyone rolling up their sleeve for a COVID-19 vaccine in the United States is supposed to get a long information sheet. The document informs them that, even though the vaccine can prevent COVID-19, it’s technically not yet approved in the country.Instead, people are getting the shot under an emergency use authorization (EUA) — a designation that let the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sign off on the lifesaving immunizations without going through the long, onerous licensing process. The shots still went through a rigorous safety review, and there’s ample evidence that they’re highly effective.But for some people, the “emergency” tag and the fact that the shots are still unapproved is a reason to avoid getting vaccinated.... Continue reading…

Photo: Netflix Something special happens when you marathon horror movies. On their own, slasher flicks like Friday the 13th or Halloween can seem like nothing more than bloody fun. But when you watch a bunch in a row, the connections and mythologies become much more apparent; Jason Voorhees shifts from a murderous demon into something more sympathetic. Some of them even feature “previously on” segments to make these links more obvious.These movies may not have been created with binge-watching in mind, but in many ways they benefit from it, which is part of what makes the Fear Street trilogy on Netflix so interesting: it was designed to be binged. All three entries, starting with part one on July 2nd, will be released over the course of three weeks.... Continue reading…

Photo by David McNew/Getty Images General Motors has struck a deal with a mining company to source lithium, a key ingredient in electric-car batteries, from geothermal deposits in the US. The automaker is making a “multi-million dollar” investment in Australia’s Controlled Thermal Resources (CTR) to bolster the mining firm’s efforts to extract lithium from California’s Salton Sea Geothermal Field.It’s a risky bet by GM, given that there is no full-scale lithium production in the US from geothermal wells. Most of the world’s lithium comes from two places: lithium brine deposits in South America’s “lithium triangle” of Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia; and hard-rock deposits in Australia. But its a sign that GM is trying to think holistically about the challenge of becoming... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is warning Windows users about an unpatched critical flaw in the Windows Print Spooler service. The vulnerability, dubbed PrintNightmare, was uncovered earlier this week after security researchers accidentally published a proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit. While Microsoft hasn’t rated the vulnerability, it allows attackers to remotely execute code with system-level privileges, which is as critical and problematic as you can get in Windows.Researchers at Sangfor published the PoC, in what appears to have been a mistake, or a miscommunication between the researchers and Microsoft. The test code was quickly deleted, but not before it had already been forked on GitHub.Sangfor researchers had been planning to detail multiple 0-day... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A bipartisan group of lawmakers have asked that the FTC continue its antitrust lawsuit against Facebook after setbacks in court. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT), together with House representatives David Cicilline (D-RI) and Ken Buck (R-CO), signed a letter addressed to FTC Chair Lina Khan detailing why the regulatory action is needed.“It is essential that the Commission take action to deter anticompetitive conduct by digital monopolists by ensuring that they are held liable for antitrust violations to the full extent of the law,” the lawmakers wrote.“It is essential that the Commission take action”This letter comes just four days after Judge James E. Boasberg dismissed the federal government’s key antitrust... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook is testing prompts that will link users to anti-extremism support and resources if the company believes the user knows someone who could be on the path to extremism, or if the user has been exposed to extremist content themselves, according to a report by CNN Business.In a statement to The Verge, a Facebook spokesperson said that the test is part of the company’s “larger work to assess ways to provide resources and support to people on Facebook who may have engaged with or were exposed to extremist content, or may know someone who is at risk.”Facebook says that it’ll continue to remove extremist content that violates its rules, though the company has had issues tracking down and removing similar content, even from groups that i... Continue reading…

Nike The Olympics are back on this summer in Japan — despite local opposition — and athletes will of course find themselves outfitted in the lightest, slickest gear to assist in record-breaking performances. Ahead of the games, Nike has unveiled some of the apparel the US team will wear (including “Rawdacious” themed track spikes with carbon fiber plates), but you may want to keep an eye on outfits reserved for medal winners.Nike is highlighting sustainability themes with pants and jackets that are made from 100 percent recycled material, and while the accompanying footwear is made partially from recycled materials, that’s not the only thing special about it. This year’s medal stand features Nike’s FlyEase tech, which is made for easy entry... Continue reading…

Humble Bundle has announced that it’s going to change how payment sliders will work in its storefront by removing the ability to donate all of what you spend to charity and setting an average minimum cut for Humble Bundle itself between 15 to 30 percent (via Kotaku). The change goes into effect in “mid-July.”When you buy a bundle of games, ebooks, or software on Humble Bundle, you’re traditionally given the option to choose how much of your money goes to Humble Bundle, the creator of what you’re buying, and a charity via a slider for each. Those sliders are sticking around, but now they’ll have a bit less range.The company justified the change in a blog post announcing its plans:

Photo by JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images Space tourism firm Virgin Galactic will fly its founder Richard Branson on its next test flight slated for July 11th, the company confirmed Thursday. Branson’s new flight date will come before rival Jeff Bezos is expected to fly in his own space tourism rocket on July 20th, setting the stage for a largely symbolic showdown between two billionaires racing to validate their space tourism rockets.Branson, 70, wasn’t set to fly on Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity spaceplane for another two tests — until Thursday, when the company announced he’d fly on July 11th “testing the private astronaut experience” alongside four mission specialists and two pilots. “I’ve always been a dreamer,” Branson tweeted after the announcement. “My mum taught me to... Continue reading…

Apple is reportedly working on a program called “Retail Flex,” which will give its store employees the chance to work from home some weeks, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. According to the report, the employees would be remotely handling things like tech support and online sales part of the time, and working at the store as usual at other times.Having employees who traditionally work in a store transitioning to a remote role, even if it’s only a partial change, is a big shift, likely brought on by the pandemic. It doesn’t seem like Apple is just jumping into it. The company is reportedly starting a pilot program that will last at least six months, with participating employees being paid the same salary, plus some extra for... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge The next big software update for Apple TV will arrive with tvOS 15. While it won’t become widely available until later this year, users who are part of Apple’s public beta program can now take it for a spin ahead of time. It’s possible and even likely that Apple will continue tinkering with tvOS 15 features ahead of its official launch, but particularly for those looking to test-drive Apple’s forthcoming SharePlay feature, the public beta has officially landed.The goodies arriving in tvOS 15 that Apple has disclosed so far are small — you’re not going to notice a massive redesign of the tvOS interface, for example — but they’re not insignificant, either.Though, a warning: once you install tvOS 15 on a newer Apple TV 4K box, there’s no... Continue reading…

Image: Amazon Amazon is bringing the conclusion to the Rebuild of Evangelion film series — adaptations of the beloved anime Neon Genesis Evangelion created by Hideaki Anno — to Prime Video on August 13th. Evangelion: 3.0 + 1.01 Thrice Upon a Time came out in Japan in March but will be making its global premiere on Prime Video in over 240 countries and territories, Amazon says.Alongside the final fourth film, Amazon will also stream the other films in the series, Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone, Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance, and Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo. The company hasn’t said when those films will be available on its service, but hopefully in time to catch up for Thrice Upon a Time’s August release. You can watch a trailer... Continue reading…

A mockup of what the new trusted friends feature could look like. | Image: Twitter Twitter has shared three early design concepts for new features it’s considering for its service. “Trusted Friends” would let users limit the audience for select tweets to a smaller circle of close friends, while “Facets” could let you categorize your tweets when you send them. Finally, the service is also considering letting users list certain phrases that they’d rather not see in their replies. These ideas are in their early stages, Twitter says, and none are currently in active development.Many Twitter users already have multiple accounts to separate their work and personal lives, often with one of them being private to prevent sharing personal news too publicly. But features like Trusted Friends and Facets could allow for the same... Continue reading…

The hottest album of 2021 is about to drop. The soundtrack of the hit ‘90s sitcom Seinfeld will be released on Friday, July 2nd (via Variety) on “all digital platforms,” though specific platforms weren’t stated. I expect to hear the bouncy slap bass-driven theme song that never fails to make me laugh blaring out of cars, apartments, and cafes this Fourth of July weekend. Believe it or not, there will be 33 tracks on the album, and it’s apparently the first time that this music will be made available in an official fashion.The composer, Jonathan Wolff, told Variety that the soundtrack contains some music that was created for the show but never actually appeared in it. Three jazz songs were made for scenes where Elaine (played by Julia... Continue reading…