The Verge

Image: 3D Robotics Kitty Hawk, the air taxi company backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, is buying what’s left of one-time DJI competitor 3D Robotics. As part of the acquisition, 3D Robotics co-founder Chris Anderson will become Kitty Hawk’s chief operating officer.The acquisition was first reported by Forbes, which published a detailed look at the current state of Kitty Hawk and its new focus on developing a remote-piloted electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft on Friday.Anderson will serve under CEO Sebastian Thrun, a former Google executive who founded the company’s self-driving car project (before it became standalone company Waymo) and launched its famous “X” moonshot division.Kitty Hawk is shifting its focus after recent... Continue reading…

Photo by EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP via Getty Images Darnella Frazier — the teen who used her smartphone to film the video of George Floyd’s murder in May 2020 that sparked a wave of Black Lives Matter protests worldwide, which culminated in the murder conviction of former police officer Derek Chauvin — will receive a special citation from the Pulitzer Board.Frazier was given the citation for “courageously recording the murder of George Floyd, a video that spurred protests against police brutality around the world, highlighting the crucial role of citizens in journalists’ quest for truth and justice,” the Pulitzer Board said (PDF).Frazier’s video, which was viewed by millions, ignited one of the biggest protest movements in American history and demonstrated how a smartphone with a... Continue reading…

This is impressive, but it won’t help me get around town. During the iOS portion of Apple’s WWDC keynote, it showed some amazing demos of 3D cities and AR transit directions, but amid all the beautiful features there were a few things missing from the stage and Apple’s iOS 15 feature list. Namely, some basic navigation tools that would let me get around easier.Since Apple seems to be focusing a lot on Maps (it got stage time at last year’s keynote, too), perhaps they’re also taking requests? Here’s my wishlist. Don’t forget, you’re here forever. Offline MapsWithout a cellular signal or Wi-Fi, Apple Maps turns into a brick — you can’t search for locations, find routes, or do anything useful. This is, to put it lightly, a bit of a problem for a navigation app that’s been... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On Friday, House Democrats introduced five new bills meant to chip away at the power of big tech companies, targeting a variety of practices that antitrust advocates say are stifling competition.These measures are the House Judiciary Committee’s historic, 16-month long investigation into the business tactics of companies like Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google. With this new slate of bills, Congress is getting ready to legislate based on the concerns raised by that investigation — and the move could reshape the tech industry as we know it.“Right now, unregulated tech monopolies have too much power over our economy”“Right now, unregulated tech monopolies have too much power over our economy. They are in a unique position to pick... Continue reading…

China’s Zhurong rover with its landing platform. | Image: CNSA China has released new images from its Zhurong rover, which began wheeling its way around Mars in late May. One of the photos is a lovely selfie of Zhurong posed next to its landing platform. The “touring group photo,” as the China National Space Administration calls it in a blog post, was taken with a small wireless camera that the rover placed on the surface before scooting back to line up for the shot like an excited parent.Zhurong also took a photo of the landing platform by itself, showing the ramp the rover drove down, the Chinese flag, and if you look closely to the left of the flag, the mascots for the Beijing Winter Olympics. Image: CNSA Zhurong’s landing platform. There are more photos in the Twitter... Continue reading…

Razer’s new Opus X comes in three divisive colors | Razer Razer announced the Opus X, a new set of over-ear wireless headphones that offer active noise cancellation for just $100. Based on the small amount of differences and seemingly no major compromises compared to the pricier Opus headphones it launched last year, these could be a solid option if you have a little less money to spend on wireless headphones. It’s available to purchase now on Razer’s site.Overall, the design appears to be similar to the Opus. It’s tough to tell from images how build quality or materials might have changed given the price reduction. This model comes in one of three new colors — green, pink, and white — which are a bit louder and more divisive than the black or midnight blue colors of the standard Opus. The... Continue reading…

A look at Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix. | Image: Adi Shankar on Twitter Ubisoft and Netflix on Friday shared a first look at a new series based on Far Cry and announced that another is set to debut on the streaming service.One Far Cry series is an anime based on the cyberpunk-themed Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, called Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix. Variety describes the show as “an original anime featuring alter egos of Ubisoft characters in a highly-referenced homage to the early 80s.”Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix has been given a six-episode order, according to Variety. You can get a look at it in the tweets below from creator and executive producer Adi Shankar.

Apple In 2019, facing down extensive investigations by The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times that showed Apple’s App Store clearly and consistently ranking its own apps ahead of competitors, Apple claimed it had done nothing wrong — a secret algorithm containing 42 different variables was working as intended, top executives told the Times, insisting that Apple doesn’t manually alter search results.Why do I bring this up? An intriguing email chain has surfaced during the Epic v. Apple trial where it sure looks like Apple did the exact opposite — seemingly admitting it manually boosted the ranking of its own Files app ahead of the competition for 11 entire months.“Who green lit putting the Files app above Dropbox in organic search... Continue reading…

Photo by ADITYA AJI/AFP via Getty Images The fast food mega chain McDonald’s is the latest company to have private data stolen by a third party, The Wall Street Journal reports. Unlike other recent attacks on CNA Financial and the Colonial Pipeline, McDonald’s claims it isn’t dealing with ransomware, but store information in the US was taken, along with some customer information in South Korea and Taiwan.The company discovered the data breach after hiring consultants to “investigate unauthorized activity on an internal security system” McDonald’s tells the Journal. In the US, the data accessed included business contact information for franchises, the seating capacity of stores, and the square footage of play areas. The South Korean and Taiwanese arms of McDonald’s “had... Continue reading…

Photo: Netflix Geralt of Rivia is coming back, and you can get the first look at The Witcher’s second season in the incredibly brief clip below. It’s focused primarily on Ciri, though it appears there are some secrets hidden in the teaser. You may want to watch it a few times to catch everything.

King Dice, voiced by Wayne Brady, in The Cuphead Show. | Image: Netflix Netflix showed off a brief teaser of its upcoming show based on the game Cuphead at its Geeked Week event on Friday, and just as you’d expect, the game’s old-school animation style looks to translate perfectly into an animated series. Netflix also announced that Wayne Brady will voice the dastardly King Dice.You can check out the clip, which features Brady’s King Dice, in the video above.Studio MDHR, developer of the Cuphead game, first announced that The Cuphead Show was in the works nearly two years ago. “Witness the wondrous Inkwell Isles as you’ve never seen them before in an original series inspired by classic animation styles of the 1930s,” Studio MDHR said in a tweet at the time.The animation in this teaser looks fantastic,... Continue reading…

The sprawling fantasy realm of League of Legends is expanding in a big way. At its Netflix Geeked Week, the streaming service showed off a new two-minute clip for Arcane, the first animated series set in the world of Riot’s popular strategy game. The show has been in the works for some time: it was first revealed in 2019, and earlier this year, Netflix confirmed its partnership with Riot.According to Riot, the new show is “set in the utopian region of Piltover and the oppressed underground of Zaun, the story follows the origins of two iconic League champions-and the power that will tear them apart.”While this is Riot’s first foray into television, Arcane is part of a bigger plan to turn League into an MCU-style behemoth spanning... Continue reading…

Cal from Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. | Image: EA EA released a free next-gen update for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order on Friday, and the announcement comes with good news for people who own a physical copy of the game but have a discless next-gen console: EA will let you convert your physical copy to a digital one so you can take advantage of the upgrade, the company says in an FAQ.If you want to upgrade your disc version to digital, click this link to EA’s support website. If you click on the Digital Edition PS5 or Xbox Series S icons, then “Codes and promotions,” then “Replace disc with code,” then “Select Contact Option,” you’ll be taken to a form to fill out to request your digital code. The form says an EA support representative will email you within 72 hours after you fill it... Continue reading…

Archer Aviation, a Santa Clara-based aviation startup, unveiled a new electric aircraft Thursday that it says will serve as the basis for a future fleet of air taxis that will criss-cross cities and help alleviate traffic. But much like the majority of these startups, the company was not able to demonstrate its flying taxis doing the thing they’re supposed to do: flying.At an event in Los Angeles Thursday, complete with dramatic lighting, soaring visuals, and even a pair of drummers, the company showed off the 12-rotor aircraft, which it is calling Maker. Clocking in at 1,508kg (3,324lbs), the gleaming silver vehicle looks like an airplane / helicopter hybrid, with two wings sporting six rotors each jutting out from an egg-shaped... Continue reading…

SharePlay displayed on an iPhone. | Image: Apple Apple is bringing one of streaming’s trendiest features to iPhone users with the debut of SharePlay in iOS 15 later this year, allowing FaceTime users to stream music, online videos, and movies together with friends. The move positions FaceTime to compete more directly with platforms like Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and Houseparty, which all offer ways to video chat while watching things as a group. It offers Apple a chance to hook a new generation of users on FaceTime — but the service is still missing some key integrations to make that happen, particularly for the teens most likely to use it.SharePlay, announced earlier this week and likely arriving in the fall, will allow FaceTime users to share and stream media in real time from... Continue reading…

Disney is set to launch its standalone Star+ streaming service in Latin America in August, but Starz has filed complaints in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina alleging Disney is infringing on its brand identity and that the soon-to-launch service will only confuse consumers.In an English language translation of the complaints seen by The Verge and previously reported by The Wrap, Starz argues that Disney’s “Star Plus” service — which will host content from Disney, FX, 20th Century Studios and National Geographic, as well as Star originals — sounds too phonetically similar to its own StarzPlay offering also available in the regions where it filed its complaints.Starz, a premium cable offering and streaming app, has been operating under the... Continue reading…

Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where co-hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories.This week, Nilay and Dieter bring in Verge editors Alex Cranz and Chris Welch to discuss all of the announcements from Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference that took place this week — from a preview of iOS 15 to the introduction of spatial audio on Apple Music to a new drag-and-drop feature between the Mac and the iPad.You can listen to the full discussion here or in your preferred podcast app.Links from this week’s episode:

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verg Apple is finally adding support for Windows Precision Touchpad drivers in its latest Boot Camp update. The new 6.1.15 update includes support for Windows Precision Touchpad, including single tap to click, lower-right corner to right-click, down motion to scroll up, and three or four finger gestures.Various Reddit users noticed the surprise update went live yesterday, and it apparently works better than third-party solutions like Trackpad++ and mac-precision-touchpad that people have had to use for years. “Works way better than both of them with better palm and thumb detection too,” says one Reddit user.Microsoft started supporting Precision Touchpads more than seven years agoMicrosoft first started introducing Windows Precision... Continue reading…

Illustration by Maria Chimishkyan I’m a chronic oversharer on social media — and usually an intentional one. Mostly, I write about my severe mental health struggles and things that deeply enrage me, but that constant oversharing can be hard to maintain. As much as I post, I delete a lot too, either because posts are too vulnerable, too hurtful, or too likely to spark conflict. It’s hard to know if the defiant overshares are really helping, or if I’m just worried about how a judgmental world will respond.The intimacy of social media can lead us to share a lot, and being vulnerable in those spaces can give us a rare sense of power. The #MeToo movement brought on a flood of women disclosing their experiences with sexual violence and other issues, leading to increased... Continue reading…

Finding a webcam during the early stages of the pandemic was borderline impossible. That’s not the case anymore. Most models are in stock, and sometimes, they’re even cheaper than their original prices, like Razer’s unique Kiyo webcam that has a ring light built in to make you look a little more lively during video calls. Normally $100, it’s $75 at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart. This webcam supports 1080p at 30 frames per second, or 720p resolution at 60 frames per second. Those aren’t cutting-edge specs, but there’s a good chance that it’s better than your laptop’s webcam.The $200 Kiyo Pro released in early 2021 with support for 1080p resolution at 60 frames per second, but it doesn’t have the built-in ring light.There was a $30 off... Continue reading…

A great travel coffee kit. A thousand times better than whatever’s in the room Continue reading…

Illustration by Maria Chimishkyan In 2016, Lily Chen started a competition to rewrite the building blocks of encryption.With her team of mathematicians at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology, Chen reached out to academic and industry cryptographers around the world to find algorithms that could resist new threats posed by quantum computers. Five years later, the project is almost complete. After three rounds of elimination, Chen and her team have now narrowed the 69 submissions down to a final seven algorithms, with several winners to be named at the end of the year. If things go according to plan, the result will be a new set of NIST-certified algorithms — and a new measure of protection against the chaos of a fully operational quantum computer.“... Continue reading…

Illustration by Maria Chimishkyan All of those obnoxious marketing emails that crowd your inbox aren’t just pushing a product. They’re also tracking whether you’ve opened the email, when you opened it, and where you were at the time by using software like Mailchimp to embed tracking software into the message.How does it work? A single tracking pixel is embedded in the email, usually (but not always) hidden within an image or a link. When the email is opened, code within the pixel sends the info back to the company’s server.There have been some attempts to restrict the amount of information that can be transmitted this way. For example, since 2014, Google has served all images in Gmail through its own proxy servers, which could hide your location from at least some... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple’s iOS 15 preview earlier this week gave us a look at an important new feature coming to your iPhone’s notifications: help. A few new tools may act as a life preserver for those of us up to our eyeballs in a sea of notifications every day, regulating which apps and people are allowed to bug us, and when. But on the flip side, app developers get some additional tools for getting your attention, too, and could very well start sending you even more notifications — albeit in a less disruptive way.First, the good news: the new notification features in iOS 15 look genuinely good and useful. There’s a new feature called Focus that allows you to choose which people and apps you’d like to see notifications from at a given time. It’s like... Continue reading…

In the future you’ll be able to sign up for a service without needing to create a password at all. | Image: Apple Apple’s upcoming iOS 15 and macOS Monterey will preview a new feature called “Passkeys in iCloud Keychain,” which is an attempt to help replace passwords with a more secure login process. Instead of logging into an app or website using string of text, a WWDC presentation showed how you could instead use Face ID, Touch ID, or a security key, to gain access. The Passkeys are then synced across your Apple devices using iCloud.Although passwords are currently the most popular way to secure accounts, they’re plagued with a host of problems. Passwords can be phished, forgotten, and they’re insecure if not used properly (think about the number of times you’ve been tempted to re-use one across multiple accounts). But Apple thinks its new... Continue reading…

How China’s biggest audio platform funded one man’s frat boy dreams Continue reading…

Elon Musk teased that Tesla’s new Model S Plaid would be capable of running Cyberpunk 2077 earlier this year, and he’s now demonstrated the car’s “PS5-level performance.” The refreshed Model S includes a new Tesla infotainment system, powered by AMD’s Ryzen processor and a discrete AMD RDNA 2 GPU.“There’s never been a car that has state of the art computing technology, state of the art infotainment where this is literally at the level of a PlayStation 5,” said Tesla CEO Elon Musk during a demo event last night. “This is actual PlayStation 5-level performance… yes it can run Cyberpunk. It’s high frame rate, it will do 60fps with state of the art games.”AMD revealed last week that it’s powering this new infotainment system in both the... Continue reading…

Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images Have you even made it as an artist if you’re not singing in a made up language for a Sims game? There’s a proud tradition of popular musicians like Carly Rae Jepsen or Janelle Monáe re-recording songs in Simlish, the in-game language of The Sims, and now, celebrated alternative artist Japanese Breakfast (Michelle Zauner) is joining their ranks with a cover of her single “Be Sweet” for The Sims 4 Cottage Living.Zauner’s track is summer-y and eminently danceable, and it feels just the same underneath a trailer hawking more features for The Sims 4, even with the chorus transformed to “Ya wana baleesh da voo ya wana baleeeeeeeeesh”. It’s also delightfully weird in the way all covers in “Simlish” are — I just love hearing famous musicians... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Ulrich Kranz, a former BMW executive and the recently departed CEO and co-founder of EV startup Canoo, has been hired by Apple, the company has confirmed to The Verge. Kranz will reportedly work on the Silicon Valley behemoth’s electric car under Doug Field, the former Tesla executive who runs the day-to-day operations of the project, which is codenamed “Project Titan.” News of Kranz joining Apple was first reported by Bloomberg.Kranz was one of the executives who helped launch BMW’s all-electric i3 hatchback and hybrid i8 sports car. Shortly after he left the German automaker at the end of 2016, he and fellow BMW executive Stefan Krause were tapped to help turn around struggling EV startup Faraday Future. The pair clashed with Faraday... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Last summer, former President Trump cast TikTok as the mascot for the US’s growing concerns over China when he signed a series of executive orders to erase the popular short video platform off app stores. It set off a wave of lawsuits keeping the orders from going into effect but left the door open for a future administration to take more serious action.That’s what President Joe Biden did Wednesday when he signed his own order revoking these Trump-era bans and beginning the process to set new rules for software tied to the Chinese government. Biden’s order laid out a fresh framework for identifying the actual national security risks posed by these apps — a stark contrast with the chaos spurred on by Trump’s individual bans.WHAT IT... Continue reading…

Image: New Line Cinema New Line Cinema and Warner Brothers Animation are working on a new Lord of the Rings movie that’s bound for theaters, with an anime twist (via Variety). The movie will be called The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, and it will cover the history behind the fortress at Helm’s Deep — whose battle is one of the most exciting parts of the entire original trilogy with its exploding walls, shield surfing, and incredible horse stunts.In case you need your memory jogged:Kenji Kamiyama will be directing the movie, and it’ll be interesting to see how well his style maps to a medieval fantasy setting — he’s mostly tackled futuristic sci-fi projects before, including Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, 009 Re: Cyborg, and... Continue reading…

Elden Ring, the long-awaited action RPG made in collaboration between FromSoftware and writer George R.R. Martin, has finally shown new signs of life. We got a surprise trailer today at the end of the Summer Game Fest Kickoff Live event as well as a release date. January 21, 2022 is when you’ll be able to play it on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, and last-gen consoles. Publisher Bandai Namco says the Xbox version of the game will support Smart Delivery, and players who purchase the PS4 version of the game will get a free upgrade to the PS5 version.The first gameplay from the elusive title that was announced during E3 2019 shows plenty of PvE magic and swordplay while traversing through fantastical environments on horseback. I’m sure we’ll see... Continue reading…

New crewmate colors are coming to Among Us. | Image: Innersloth Among Us is getting a new hide and seek mode, visor cosmetics, achievements, and a fifth map, developer Innersloth announced at Summer Game Fest on Thursday. However, there wasn’t a date shared for any of those updates, so it’s not clear when you might be able to check them out for yourself.In a blog, Innersloth also announced that account linking is on the roadmap as well, which should be handy if you play the game across multiple platforms.

Photo by: Lindsey Nicholson/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Uber mistakenly sent out an email to some of its drivers and delivery workers last month offering to cover some of their health insurance costs — only to revoke the offer two weeks later.On May 26th, an email from Uber with the enticing subject line “It’s a great time to get health coverage” appeared in the inbox of an unspecified number of the company’s drivers and delivery workers. When they opened the email, they were greeted by an even more alluring proposition: “Uber can help cover your healthcare costs.”Drivers and couriers for Uber are classified as independent contractors, making them ineligible for employer-sponsored health insurance plans. For years, many of these workers have lobbied for more benefits and protections, only... Continue reading…

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands hits early next year. | Image: Gearbox Borderlands developer Gearbox and 2K Games announced a new fantasy shooter called Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands on Thursday at Summer Games Fest. It has an all-star cast, including Andy Samberg, Will Arnett, Wanda Sykes, and Ashly Burch. The new game is set to launch in early 2022.At the event, Burch, who voices Tiny Tina in the Borderlands series, described it as a “high fantasy looter shooter,” and in the trailer, it certainly looked a lot like a Borderlands game, both with its cel-shaded visual style and the appearance of a ridiculous-looking gun that shot some kind of electric laser beam. Unlike in Borderlands, though, you’ll create your own character.

Hideo Kojima stopped by this year’s Summer Game Fest to announce a surprise: Death Stranding is not only coming to the PS5, but it’ll be an enhanced director’s cut of the game. Unfortunately, there’s no real detail about the new version, but an early glimpse hinted at some additional stealth elements, similar to Kojima’s work on the Metal Gear Solid franchise. Players can likely expect visual and performance upgrades as well. The director’s cut is slated as “coming soon,” with a proper reveal in the coming weeks.Death Stranding first launched on the PS4 in 2019 and made its way to the PC last year. Continue reading…

Microsoft is back teasing Windows 11 again. In a new video on YouTube, the software giant has published an 11-minute (ahem) collection of startup sounds from various versions of Windows. They’re all slowed down by 4,000 percent, and Microsoft positions this as a relaxing video for those far too excited by the Windows event on June 24th.“Having trouble relaxing because you’re too excited for the June 24th Microsoft Event?” asks the YouTube caption. “Take a slow trip down memory lane with the Windows 95, XP, and 7 startup sounds slowed down to a meditative 4,000 percent reduced speed.”I think this is very much teasing a new startup sound for Windows 11, or whatever the next version of Windows will be called. Microsoft has been teasing “a... Continue reading…

The upcoming Battlefield 2042 is powered by the Frostbite engine. | Image: EA Motherboard is reporting that EA has fallen victim to hackers, who made away with the source code to FIFA 21, the Frostbite engine (which is behind not only EA’s soccer/football series, but Battlefield as well), and other game development tools. The hackers are reportedly advertising that the data is for sale on hacking forums, but that they’ll only consider offers from big-name members of the hacking community.Source code is a big deal in programing, so it’s a big deal when companies lose control over it, and the gaming industry has seen some huge thefts recently: hackers stole CD Projekt Red’s source code for Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3 in February and in July of 2020, Nintendo saw the source code for many SNES and Nintendo 64... Continue reading…

Netflix’s expansion into anime continues. Today, the streaming service announced details for a number of exciting shows, ranging from a horror series with characters designed by Final Fantasy’s Yoshitaka Amano to the next chapter in the Gundam franchise to another Godzilla show. Here’s everything that was announced:Mobile Suit Gundam HathawayThe headliner was the return of classic mech franchise Gundam, with a series called Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway. “After Char’s rebellion, Hathaway Noa leads an insurgency against Earth Federation, but meeting an enemy officer and a mysterious woman alters his fate,” the description reads. It’s listed as coming soon and will eventually be joined by a live-action Gundam film from director Jordan... Continue reading…

Dark Sky on the web. Following Apple’s acquisition of popular weather app Dark Sky in March 2020, Dark Sky’s iOS app and website will be available until the end of 2022, co-founder Adam Grossman said in a Monday update to Dark Sky’s blog (via 9to5Mac).The update about the 2022 shutdown hit the same day that Apple announced new weather features coming to iOS 15 as part of its WWDC keynote presentation. The stock Weather app is getting a new design, full-screen weather maps, next-hour precipitation notifications, and even new animated backgrounds.Dark Sky shut down the Android and Wear OS versions of its apps on August 1st, 2020. But the iOS app is still available for $3.99 on the App Store, if you’re interested in buying it ahead of next year’s shutdown.T... Continue reading…

Image: Netflix Our first look at Kevin Smith’s revival of He-Man is here: today, Netflix debuted the first trailer for Masters of the Universe: Revelation, which will hit the streaming service on July 23rd.Unlike She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, which also streamed on Netflix, the new He-Man series isn’t a reboot of the classic cartoon. Instead, it’s a continuation, which picks up right after the original show ended in 1985, with the excellent addition of Mark Hamill as Skeletor.Here’s how Smith, who is serving as showrunner, describes it:

Tesla will hold a delivery event for its new, high-performance “Plaid” version of the Model S on Thursday. It’s an effort by Elon Musk’s company to reignite interest in its nearly decade-old electric sedan, which is also facing stiff competition from Porsche and Mercedes-Benz. When its released, Musk claims the Plaid Model S will be the “quickest production car ever made.”The event, which will be held at Tesla’s factory in Fremont, CA, will be livestreamed for the public starting at 7PM PT / 10PM ET (though the event may not actually begin until closer to 8:30PM PT). It was originally scheduled for June 3rd, but Musk pushed it to the 10th after tweeting that the vehicle needed “one more week of tweak.”The delivery of the refreshed... Continue reading…

Apple Apple’s new health features will be available for anyone with an iPhone. But two of the tools announced at WWDC 2021, walking steadiness and the ability to share health data with family members, could be particularly useful for older adults.People who work with older adults are excited that a company like Apple is interested in tech that could be used for this group. Experts have spent years frustrated that companies don’t design products to meet the needs of that demographic. There have been a few attempts to introduce new tools, but none got much traction, says Richard Schulz, a social psychologist studying aging at the University of Pittsburgh.“I think the reason is that the big boys — companies like Apple — never got into it,”... Continue reading…

Image: Roblox The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) has sued Roblox for letting users upload music from Ariana Grande, Imagine Dragons, deadmau5, and other artists without paying a licensing fee. The lawsuit seeks $200 million in damages and a court order that will make Roblox crack down on piracy.The NMPA filed suit yesterday on behalf of several major music publishers. It accuses Roblox — a massively popular, kid-focused platform for games and social experiences — of hosting a shared library of copyrighted but unlicensed songs. The complaint alleges that Roblox “actively preys on its impressionable user base and their desire for popular music, teaching children that pirating music is perfectly acceptable.”“‘Roblox’ allows a prodigious... Continue reading…

Remedy’s excellent supernatural thriller Control is available for free on the Epic Games Store from now until June 17th at 11AM ET. All you need is an Epic Games account — just log in to the store while the deal is live, and you can claim your copy of the game for PC.If you haven’t played Control before, I highly recommend picking it up. I really liked exploring the game’s spooky paranormal world, and using protagonist Jesse Faden’s psychic abilities to fling objects from the environment at enemies is a blast.Epic is offering Control as part of its Mega Sale, which also runs through June 17th. Like last year, Epic is offering its $10 Epic Coupons that are applied automatically at checkout on eligible games that cost $14.99 or more... Continue reading…

A general view of Lake Mead, a human-made lake that lies on the Colorado River, about 24 miles southeast of the city of Las Vegas, Nevada, in the states of Nevada and Arizona, on December 21st, 2019, in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Nevada. Formed by the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States and serves water to the states of Arizona, California, and Nevada, as well as some of Mexico, providing sustenance to nearly 20 million people and large areas of farmland. | Photo by Paul Rovere / Getty Images Lake Mead, the reservoir created by the Hoover Dam, that feeds water to 25 million people across Western states, is historically low. On June 9th, the water level dipped to 1,071.57 feet above sea level, narrowly beating a record low last set in 2016.The lake surface has dropped 140 feet since 2000, leaving the reservoir just 37 percent full. With such a dramatic drop, officials expect to declare an official water shortage for the first time ever. That could affect water and energy that Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam deliver to Arizona, California, and Nevada.Water levels at Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the US, are expected to keep dropping throughout the year. The drought tugging at the lake’s water levels is affecting other... Continue reading…

The OnePlus Nord CE 5G will be available in black, blue, and silver. | Image: OnePlus OnePlus has announced a new addition to its lineup of midrange phones, the Nord CE. According to the company, the “CE” stands for “Core Edition,” an indication that the company is focusing on the fundamentals, rather than inflating the device’s spec sheet with unnecessary extras. The phone is launching in Europe and India, and there are no plans for a US release.What this focus on the fundamentals means in practice is that the Nord CE is slightly stripped down compared to last year’s Nord, but it’s slightly higher-specced than its predecessor, too. So you’re getting a higher-resolution 64-megapixel main camera (up from 48 megapixels), but there are only three rear sensors in total. (There’s also an 8-megapixel ultrawide with a... Continue reading…

Illustration by Maria Chimishkyan On May 22nd, a crypto finance project called DeFi100 posted a message to its website: “We scammed you guys and you can’t do shit about it. HA HA. All you moon bois have been scammed and you can’t do shit about it.”Screenshots of the message immediately went viral on crypto Twitter (always anarchic, easily risible). A popular anonymous crypto-tracking Twitter account called Mr. Whale estimated that DeFi100 had run off with $32 million. Cryptocurrency news outlets, as well as Yahoo Finance, ran with the number. The project owners denied any foul play, and it soon became clear the message was a website hack rather than a serious warning — but by then, it was too late. Panic had set in, and the price of the underlying coin was in free... Continue reading…

Summer Game Fest Summer Game Fest 2021, hosted by Geoff Keighley, is getting started with new game announcements two days ahead of E3 2021 with its “Kickoff Live” event. In addition to news, it’s perhaps the only event to feature both an appearance from Jeff Goldblum and a musical performance by Weezer. The list of partners for the preview event includes 2K, Activision, Blizzard, Capcom, InnerSloth, Epic Games, Sony PlayStation, Riot Games, Square Enix, Ubisoft, Microsoft Xbox, and more. Here’s how to watch.When does Summer Game Fest start?The kickoff show is happening this Thursday, June 10th at 2PM ET / 11AM PT / 6PM GMT. And like last year’s happenings, it’s all online, so you can just hang out at home and watch all of the announcements from your... Continue reading…

The Roku Ultra 4K HDR streaming device is $30 off at Walmart, Best Buy, and Amazon today, which drops the price to $69. This is currently Roku’s high-end model, and it apparently has 50 percent more range than the previous model, with a faster quad-core processor that makes channels launch faster. The 2020 Ultra offers 4K playback at up to 60 frames per second, as well as support for Dolby Atmos content and Atmos-ready home entertainment gear. For HDR support, it boasts Dolby Vision and HDR10 compatibility. This device has an ethernet port for the fastest streaming possible in your home, and it includes a wireless remote and a set of earbuds for private listening.Woot is offering a great deal on refurbished AirPods that come with a... Continue reading…