The Verge

Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge OLED has been commonplace in high-end TVs for quite a while, but it’s still making its way into the laptop mainstream. That’s good news for shoppers looking for a more vibrant multimedia experience. OLED panels have unbeatable contrast ratios, combining the blackest possible blacks with the whitest possible whites. They bring entertainment to a new level, and they can lend a hand with creative photo and video work, too.Not too long ago, OLED laptops were a luxury purchase. But smaller mainstream OLED devices are becoming more common each year. Whether you’re a die-hard OLED enthusiast or you’re just looking for a way to upgrade your movie-watching experience, you now have two excellent 13-inch OLED machines to choose from: the Dell XPS... Continue reading…

T Mobile data breach | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Following a weekend report that its servers had been breached, T-Mobile said Monday that unauthorized access to some of its data occurred, but it had not yet determined whether personal customer data was involved.“We are confident that the entry point used to gain access has been closed, and we are continuing our deep technical review of the situation across our systems to identify the nature of any data that was illegally accessed,” the company said in a news release. “This investigation will take some time but we are working with the highest degree of urgency. Until we have completed this assessment we cannot confirm the reported number of records affected or the validity of statements made by others.”Motherboard reported on Sunday... Continue reading…

If you sync your iCloud Passwords with Windows, Apple’s new, dedicated iCloud Passwords app is going to give you some much-needed new abilities. The app, which comes with the iCloud for Windows 12.5 update, lets you search through your saved passwords, update them, add new ones, and delete login info you no longer want.Apple’s documentation explains how to manage your iCloud Passwords using the new app, but it’s relatively straightforward. You can access the app from the Start menu, and make any changes to your passwords that you need. Those changes will then be synced to your Apple devices. iCloud Passwords running on Windows 10 (note that all data included in screenshots is example data). Apple rolled out some... Continue reading…

Image: Activision Activision has officially announced Call of Duty: Vanguard, the next title in the hugely popular series, with a short teaser video on Monday. While the video doesn’t reveal a lot — it consists mostly of footage of four different locales that each feature a mysterious face — it seems that the game will take place during World War II, likely on the four fronts of the war.Details are light right now, but more will be revealed about Call of Duty: Vanguard at an event inside Call of Duty: Warzone, the series’ take on a free-to-play battle royale shooter, on August 19th at 1:30PM ET.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Nearly 2 million terrorist watchlist records, including “no-fly” list indicators, were purportedly exposed online. The list was indexed across multiple search engines on July 19th, but the Department of Homeland Security did not remove it until three weeks later, as first reported by Bleeping Computer Monday.Security Discovery researcher Volodymyr “Bob” Diachenko discovered the watchlist, which appears to be the product of the Terrorist Screening Center, last month. The files were indexed by multiple search engines in an easily readable format. Records included information like full names, citizenship status, date of birth, passport numbers, and no-fly indicators. No password or separate authentication was necessary to access it,... Continue reading…

Image: Bluesky Bluesky, the Twitter-funded effort to create a decentralized social network standard, has finally found a project lead — the creator of Happening, Jay Graber. Bluesky and Graber have also begun hiring for the project’s first developers, meaning the slowly gestating project might finally become a bit less “blue sky” and a bit more real.Besides experience leading the work on Happening’s event organizing features, Graber worked on Zcash, a cryptocurrency created by the Electric Coin Company that uses zero-knowledge cryptography to secure transactions. Graber was also one of the authors of a report Bluesky published in January detailing its research into decentralized web systems.

Tinder is adding ID Verification option for all users | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tinder said on Monday that it will make its ID Verification feature available to all members around the world “in the coming quarters,” according to a news release. The feature will allow users to verify their identities by uploading documentation; in Japan, where the feature has been live since 2019, a passport or license is typically used, but that may vary from place to place.The company said it will take into consideration recommendations from experts and input from Tinder members about which documents would be used in each country as well as local regulations and laws while it rolls out the feature. Tinder says it will use the feedback to ensure the process is inclusive and “privacy-friendly.”Rory Kozoll, head of trust and safety... Continue reading…

Peloton Peloton is ready to address at least one of its treadmill recalls. Regular Tread owners can now get their equipment fixed, which will involve a technician coming to users’ homes. They can schedule the visit starting this month. The company recalled both the Tread Plus, its more expensive first treadmill, and the Tread, its newer, cheaper device, in May after reports of multiple injuries and at least one death on the Tread Plus. There were 18 incidents of the regular Tread’s touchscreen falling and causing minor cuts and bruises in the UK and Canada.Peloton and the Consumer Product Safety Commission haven’t said exactly what was wrong with the Tread — only that the touchscreen could loosen — or how it’s being fixed. Only 1,050 units of... Continue reading…

Yik Yak — the anonymous, local social media app that only shows posts from people in your immediate area — has returned from the grave with new ownership after shutting down four years ago.According to the app’s relaunched website, the new incarnation of Yik Yak bought the rights to redevelop the service in February 2021, with the aim of providing a local social media network that’s free from the “labels” that dominate communication on other platforms.The new app resembles the original version of Yik Yak from 2014: users can post and comment on short text posts that are only able to be viewed within a five-mile radius. Like Reddit, posts can be upvoted and downvoted, and a separate “hot” feed compiles the top post from the past 24... Continue reading…

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Microsoft is starting to test a new 4K dashboard for the Xbox Series X today. Xbox Insiders in the Alpha and Alpha Skip-Ahead rings will get access to the increased resolution for the Xbox dashboard later today, designed to improve UI elements for 4K displays.“This change means Home, Guide, and other areas of the UI will be displayed in a higher native resolution for increased sharpness and text readability,” says Microsoft’s Xbox testing team.Until this new 4K dashboard, Xbox Series X consoles had been running dashboard UI elements at 1080p. Native 4K elements for Home, Guide, and other parts of the dashboard will greatly improve how the Xbox Series X appears on 4K TVs.It’s not yet clear whether HDR will also be supported as part... Continue reading…

OpenTable is adding a new feature that will let restaurants tag diners as “verified” for meeting entry requirements. The initial — and obvious — use of the verification feature will be for restaurants to log guests who are vaccinated for COVID-19, but the feature could also be used to do things like confirm a diner is of legal drinking age or other requirements for entry.The feature should be rolling out to restaurants later this month, and it aims to help make it easier for restaurant owners to better serve repeat customers, especially with cities like New York City starting to roll out vaccination requirements for restaurants as the delta variant continues to rise.OpenTable wants to make things easier for repeat dinersThe... Continue reading…

Walmart is looking to hire a new senior director to develop new digital currency products, possibly including cryptocurrency payments, according to a listing on the company’s job site (via Bloomberg). The move mirrors a similar interest shown by Walmart’s sworn enemy Amazon, which wants to hire someone to head up cryptocurrency products.The new Walmart senior director position will serve as the company’s “Cryptocurrency and Digital Currency Product Lead,” in charge of “developing the digital currency strategy and product roadmap.” Among other responsibilities, the listing says this new role will also be focused on “identify[ing] crypto related investment and partnerships,” suggesting Walmart might buy its way into preexisting... Continue reading…

Photo by Horst Galuschka/picture alliance via Getty Images Google Maps users will be able to find and rent Spin’s electric scooters after the Ford-owned company announced a new global integration on Tuesday.Starting Sunday, anyone who uses Google Maps will be able to see the nearest available Spin e-bike or e-scooter in real time, including how long it will take to walk to the vehicle, as well as battery range and expected arrival time.But to pay for the scooter, unlock it, and take their ride, users will be redirected to Spin’s app. Google Maps users will be able to see Spin’s availability in 84 cities, campuses, and towns in Europe and North America, the company said.“Our goal is really to make it just as convenient or even more convenient to get around with alternative transit, bikes,... Continue reading…

Public health data systems in the United States are out of date, underfunded, and can’t communicate with each other. Those issues left states unable to keep track of COVID-19 spread, and during surges, many local health departments stopped contact tracing, according to a new investigation from Politico.The deep-dive look at the gaps in public health surveillance shows breakdowns at nearly every step in the process. Labs that ran COVID-19 tests didn’t report data directly to health departments through electronic systems, instead using faxes or emails. Health departments used different systems to track different types of outbreaks and relied on programs that required laborious, manual entry. They couldn’t get information about cases... Continue reading…

Viktor, a character in Cyberpunk 2077. | Image: CD Projekt Red Cyberpunk 2077 will let you more easily reset your character’s perks in the upcoming 1.3 patch, according to a new blog post from developer CD Projekt Red. The new feature arrives ahead of the next-gen upgrade set to hit sometime this year and could be useful for anyone who wants to dive back into the game and switch up how their character plays.You can see the new feature in action in a video from the developer, which shows that you’ll have to pay some in-game currency to reset your perks. You can already reset your perks, but it’s quite expensive to do so — this new option seems to be much more affordable.It appears that the reset feature doesn’t let you switch up your attributes (the five main traits in the game’s skill tree that... Continue reading…

Kitfox Games Boyfriend Dungeon is getting an update, but not to its gameplay. In response to players’ concerns that the current content warning doesn’t go far enough, Kitfox Games tweeted on Saturday that it would update the message next week. The developer says that right now the warning, “inadequately describes the events of stalking and emotional manipulation that exist in the story.”

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin brought its fight against NASA’s Moon program to federal court on Monday, doubling down on accusations that the agency wrongly evaluated its lunar lander proposal. The complaint escalates a monthslong crusade by the company to win a chunk of lunar lander funds that was only given to its rival, Elon Musk’s SpaceX and comes weeks after Blue Origin’s first protest over the Moon program was squashed by a federal watchdog agency. Now in court, Blue Origin’s challenge could trigger another pause to SpaceX’s contract and a new lengthy delay to NASA’s race to land astronauts on the Moon by 2024.Blue Origin’s complaint, filed with the US Court of Federal Claims, was shrouded behind a protective order but was... Continue reading…

Intel Arc is the new branding for Intel’s GPUs. Intel is branding its upcoming consumer GPUs as Intel Arc. This new Arc brand will cover both the hardware and software powering Intel’s high-end discrete GPUs, as well as multiple hardware generations. The first of those, known previously as DG2, is expected to arrive in the form of codename “Alchemist” in Q1 2022.Intel’s Arc-based Alchemist GPUs will be available in both desktops and notebooks in early 2022, with Intel seemingly aiming to compete against both AMD and Nvidia here. While we still don’t know much about the performance of the first Alchemist GPUs, Intel published a teaser video today that showed prototype silicon powering PUBG, Psychonauts 2, Metro Exodus, and more.

Two sharks and a surfer off the coast of California. | Image: CSULB Shark Lab A quick Google search for “sharks” drums up a sampling of headlines of recent sightings. “Leopard Sharks Return to La Jolla Waters in Droves,” reads one, while another highlights a “cluster of juvenile great white sharks off Pacific Palisades coast.” There’s been a steady stream of these kinds of stories all summer: sharks swimming eerily close to unknowing swimmers nearby.Drones are actually helping researchers dispel some misguided fearsIf there seem to be more shark sightings than ever, it may be thanks to drones. Aside from driving some scary headlines, drones are actually helping researchers dispel some misguided fears: it turns out that shark encounters aren’t actually so rare. People often don’t even realize when there are... Continue reading…

Image: Amazon Amazon refreshed its Fire HD 10 tablets in late April, and it added a faster processor and more RAM to make its biggest budget-friendly model a better value. Now is a great time to buy one, as the Fire HD 10 with 32GB of storage and ads on the lock screen is $50 off its usual price, bringing it down to $100. The ad-free version is $115. And, if 32GB of storage doesn’t seem like it’ll be enough, you can purchase an affordable 256GB microSD card that can greatly expand its internal storage for things like apps, movies, and more (it supports up to a 1TB microSD card).The slightly more capable Fire HD 10 Plus is also far less expensive than usual. Normally $180, it’s $130. This upgrade won’t be for everyone, but it has more RAM (4GB... Continue reading…

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened a probe into Tesla’s Autopilot software, citing the cars’ repeated collisions with parked emergency vehicles.The NHTSA investigation will cover Tesla Models Y, X, S, and 3 vehicles released from 2014 through 2021. The federal agency says since 2018 it has logged 11 incidents (which include 17 injuries and one fatality) in which Tesla vehicles using the company’s Autopilot features, like Traffic-Aware Cruise Control, have crashed into stationary emergency vehicles. The agency says most of these incidents took place after dark, with the software ignoring scene control measures including warning lights, flares, cones, and an illuminated arrow board.The... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge How stable are stablecoins? Continue reading…

Fitbit is apparently preparing an update to its line of Charge fitness trackers, and newly-leaked images offer our best look yet at what will likely be the refreshed design.The renders, from leaker Evan Blass, purportedly show the upcoming Charge 5 model. It looks like it shares design notes with Fitbit’s recent Luxe tracker, released in April. There’s an organic feel to the tracker, with a curved screen that blends into a more rounded body.Two slim panels on either side of the device look like they will offer capacitive controls, letting users tap and slide to navigate the tracker’s settings. Fitbit has put capacitive buttons on past devices like the Charge 4 and Fitbit Sense, but they’re far from universally adored. In our own... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is developing a new accessibility feature for Android that lets you control a phone using facial expressions like a smile or raised eyebrows, XDA Developers reports. The “Camera Switch” feature has arrived with version 12 of Android’s Accessibility Suite app, released alongside Android 12’s fourth beta. The new version of the app isn’t available via Google Play just yet, XDA reports, but there’s an APK to sideload if you want to give it a try.According to XDA Developers, facial expressions (which also include looking left, right, or up) can be used to access a number of controls, ranging from scrolling, going home, or viewing quick settings or notifications. Screenshots show you can adjust how sensitive the software is when... Continue reading…

Cooler, quieter, cheaper Continue reading…

Michael Keaton stars as a doctor who prescribes OxyContin to his patients in Dopesick | Hulu In addition to keeping up with The Good Fight and Ted Lasso (seems like people either really loved or really hated the latest Christmas-themed episode; I liked it but admit I found it a bit jarring that the show hit pause on several promising plot lines so Ted could wear a Santa hat), I also got caught up in The White Lotus, a series that everyone on Twitter is apparently watching. Lotus has its first-season finale tonight, and while I’m an episode behind right now, I’m sort of pushing myself to see it through.There are standout performances by Steve Zahn and Jennifer Coolidge, but the show’s just not clicking for me so far. Bad things happen to mostly awful people and one dies, but we don’t know who yet. The show takes place in Hawaii... Continue reading…

T Mobile may have suffered a customer data breach | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile confirmed Sunday that it’s looking into an online forum post that claims to be selling a large trove of its customers’ sensitive data. Motherboard reported that it was in contact with the seller of the data, who said they had taken data from T-Mobile’s servers that included Social Security numbers, names, addresses, and driver license information related to more than 100 million people. After reviewing samples of the data, Motherboard reported it appeared authentic.“We are aware of claims made in an underground forum and have been actively investigating their validity,” a T-Mobile spokesperson said in an email to The Verge. “We do not have any additional information to share at this time.”It’s not clear when the data may have... Continue reading…

An Asian giant hornet attacking a paper wasps’ nest is all kinds of nope. | Washington State Dept. of Agriculture The Washington State Department of Agriculture has confirmed the first sighting of a live Asian giant hornet (nickname: murder hornet) in the state this year, the agency said in a news release.Yes I am back on my murder hornet BS. And coincidentally, I am writing this about an hour after a regular-sized (enormous) wasp was prowling around in my kitchen and I had to shoo it outside with a broom handle and a lot of swearing.You may recall last year, when many of us were introduced to the Asian giant hornet after it was spotted in the US for the first time. The WSDA trapped its first specimen last August, and eradicated its first Asian giant hornet nest in October. I encourage you to read the news release of that eradication event... Continue reading…

Twitter has reinstated several Indian politicians’ accounts, after suspending them for a tweet about a child murder. | Illustration by Alex Castro Twitter has reinstated the accounts of several politicians in India’s opposition party, which were suspended after party leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted a photo of himself with the parents of a girl who was allegedly raped and murdered in New Delhi, Reuters reported. Gandhi had tweeted his support of the girl’s family, saying that they deserved justice and others had shared his tweet.However, Indian law prohibits the disclosure of the identities of children and sexual assault victims. According to a notice posted on the Lumen database, India’s National Commission for Protection of Child Rights requested Twitter take action. A Twitter spokesperson said in an email to The Verge that Gandhi submitted a copy of an authorization letter from the... Continue reading…

An improved ThinkPad X1 Yoga with an updated screen Continue reading…

Apple ordered to pay $300 million in a patent dispute | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple must pay $300 million in royalties following a retrial in a patent dispute, a Texas jury determined Friday. As reported by Reuters, the jury found that Apple should pay patent company Optis Wireless Technology and its related companies because the technology Apple used in its iPhones, iPads, and Watches allegedly infringed Optis’ patents.Last year, a jury awarded Optis $506 million in the dispute, but a judge vacated that award in April, and ordered a new trial focused on damages only. US District Judge Rodney Gilstrap said the first jury had not been allowed to consider whether the amount was awarded on the “fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory,” or FRAND, terms required in standard-essential patent cases.The five patents... Continue reading…

Ford seeks to have GM’s lawsuit over the name “BlueCruise” dismissed | Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images Ford has filed a motion asking the US District Court in San Francisco to dismiss a lawsuit from rival GM over Ford’s BlueCruise self-driving feature. Last month, GM filed a trademark infringement lawsuit claiming that the name BlueCruise was too close to Super Cruise, the name of GM’s hands-free driving tech, which it introduced in 2017, as well as its autonomous vehicle subsidiary Cruise.Ford said in its motion that the term “cruise” has been been in “ubiquitous use” over the past 50 years to refer to driver-assist features. “Consumers understand “cruise” to refer to a feature in their vehicle that performs part of the driving task or assists them in driving, and they do not associate that term with any one company or brand,” Ford... Continue reading…

Some workers use remote jobs to juggle multiple employers | Photo by Fabian Strauch/picture alliance via Getty Images For journalists and others in creative and technical fields, having a side hustle or doing freelance work is extremely common. In addition to a day job an editor, for example, one may write paid-per-piece articles for other publications who aren’t competitors of her primary employer, and typically (ideally) with her employer’s explicit or tacit approval. Some people do so for the needed additional income, some like the work.And according to a story in The Wall Street Journal, a new website provides tips for tech workers who want to earn two full-time paychecks while working remotely, giving half-assed effort to one (or both) and without letting either employer know about the other. The WSJ describes the scenario:

The HBO Max app has suffered glitches | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge An upgraded Max app is in the works Continue reading…

The new Samsung Galaxy z Flip 3 | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Google Fi new and existing customers can get the new Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 for $400 off, a significant discount on its $999 price tag. There are a few caveats, of course, and you have to purchase the phone first and keep it on a Fi plan for 30 days before you get the discount in the form of a bill credit. But if you’re an existing Fi subscriber and had your eye on the Flip 3 anyway, this deal makes a lot of sense.If you’re an existing Google Fi customer on one of its full-service plans — data-only plans are not eligible— buy the phone at fi.google.com and activate it on your plan. You have to keep the phone active for 30 days to receive the discount, which comes in the form of a bill credit.Non-Fi subscribers have to activate the... Continue reading…

Is a $900 monitor worth it for next-gen gaming? Continue reading…

In June, we got wind that DJI was about to release its most affordable drone yet: the $299 DJI Mini SE. It appeared to be a revamped Mavic Mini for $100 less — or depending on how you think, $150 more affordable than the $449 DJI Mini 2, our current fav under the $500 mark. The only question was, would it have any real improvements over the aging Mavic Mini or just be an affordable rebrand?This week, DJI quietly put the Mini SE on sale, and we now have the answer.Here are the only differences between the old $399 Mavic Mini and the new $299 Mini SE, as far as we can tell by poring over the company’s spec sheets and FAQ:

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Amplitude Studios’ upcoming strategy game, Humankind, will be the first Stadia release to feature a new touch-focused control scheme when it comes out on August 17th, according to 9to5Google and confirmed to The Verge by Google. “Direct touch” is designed around multitouch finger inputs like a traditional mobile game, rather than the previous way you may have played Stadia on your phone, with a Bluetooth controller or gamepad overlay.The screenshots Google shared give a pretty good idea of how playing with direct touch works in Humankind. A single finger tap selects in-game objects, holding a finger down previews content, two fingers cancel, dragging your fingering around moves your view in-game, and three fingers brings up the pause... Continue reading…

Photo by Avery White for The Verge You could be forgiven for forgetting about Motorola’s folding phones in light of new shiny ones announced by the likes of Samsung, but someone at the company must care about them — a new OS update has been released for the 2019 Razr, bringing it from Android 10, to Android 11 (via Droid-Life). Yes, that’s correct — the OS that started hitting Pixels in September of 2020 is the one that became available for the Razr today.Note: The original Razr reboot and the Razr 5G both became available in 2020. However, the first one was announced in 2019, so I’ll refer to it as the 2019 Razr to help avoid confusion between it and the Razr 5G.Getting the update only a few months after its much better successor isn’t too shabbyWhile it may seem like... Continue reading…

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Google has infringed upon Sonos’ patents, according to an initial ruling from a US International Trade Commission judge. Sonos has been locked in a legal battle with Google after it sued the search giant, claiming that it had infringed on five of its patents relating to smart speakers. In a statement to The Verge, Sonos says that the ruling “is only a first step in a lengthy battle” but calls it an “important milestone in the ongoing effort to defend Sonos’ technology against Google.”The suit began in January of 2020, with Sonos alleging that Google stole technology it had access to as part of a partnership between the two companies. In the lawsuit, Sonos says that Google used that tech in its own products and undercut Sonos. As part... Continue reading…

Locals use water hoses to extinguish burning trees in Mugla on August 3, 2021. Turkey’s struggles against its deadliest wildfires in decades came as a blistering heatwave gripped southeastern Europe in July and August, creating tinderbox conditions that Greek officials blame squarely on climate change. | Photo by YASIN AKGUL/AFP via Getty Images July 2021 was officially the hottest month humans have ever recorded. This July narrowly beat out three previous months in 2016, 2019, and 2020 that had tied for the previous title. The fact that all of this has happened so recently just screams climate change.The fact that all of this has happened so recently just screams climate change.“In this case, first place is the worst place to be,” Rick Spinrad, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said in a statement. NOAA confirmed the new temperature record today, which Spinrad said, “adds to the disturbing and disruptive path that climate change has set for the globe.”

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge If you opened your Reddit app today and noticed a new video button next to the search bar, you could be a tap away from experiencing the forum platform’s take on TikTok. TechCrunch writes that the video feed, which pulls content from subreddits you follow along with some you don’t, started rolling out to iOS users on Friday.Loading up the feed on my own Reddit iOS app, the experience is unavoidably TikTok-like. You can scroll through a vertical, perpetual list of videos featuring content from the wide world of Reddit. Interaction options include upvoting and downvoting, along with commenting, “awarding” (using Reddit’s in-app currency to purchase medals and reactions), and sharing. The video feed in the Reddit iOS app... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter is readjusting the contrast on its buttons following feedback about its design updates from earlier this week. Some people have reported eye strain, headaches, and migraines due to the higher visual contrast in the colors of buttons and links, as well as the new font, Chirp.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple has filled in more details around its upcoming plans to scan iCloud Photos for child sexual abuse material (CSAM) via users’ iPhones and iPads. The company released a new paper delving into the safeguards it hopes will increase user trust in the initiative. That includes a rule to only flag images found in multiple child safety databases with different government affiliations — theoretically stopping one country from adding non-CSAM content to the system.Apple’s upcoming iOS and iPadOS releases will automatically match US-based iCloud Photos accounts against known CSAM from a list of image hashes compiled by child safety groups. While many companies scan cloud storage services remotely, Apple’s device-based strategy has drawn... Continue reading…

Image: Nikola This week hydrogen trucking startup Nikola announced that it won a $2 million grant from the Department of Energy. While the DoE announced the grants in July, Nikola is promoting the news just two weeks after founder and former chairman Trevor Milton was indicted for allegedly committing fraud.The grant is meant to help Nikola research autonomous refueling technologies for hydrogen refilling stations. It was awarded by the DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy transportation office as part of its Hydrogen and Fuel Cells R&D program, which is focused on proving the reliability and sustainability of using hydrogen as a zero-emissions power source.The DOE grant comes at a time when the department is getting ready to ramp up... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter is once again putting a halt on applications to its verification program, saying that it needs to work on the application and review process that lets people into the blue check mark club. This change is coming after Twitter admitted that several fake accounts, which reportedly seemed to be part of a botnet, were incorrectly verified.If you’ve recently applied for verification, there is a chance you’ll get it — Twitter Verified has said that it’ll still be reviewing existing applications, so the freeze is just preventing new people from being able to apply. Twitter hasn’t indicated that it’ll be making changes to the criteria that it uses to deem accounts as verifiable or not. The company didn’t immediately respond to a request... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Sonos might be developing a voice assistant alternative to Alexa or Google Assistant for its speakers, according to a customer survey spotted by VoiceBot.ai. The survey, shared by a Sonos customer on Reddit, describes an on-device voice control system that would improve user privacy by not routing questions and commands through the cloud.In the survey (pictured below thanks to Reddit user EdmundFitzgerald29), Sonos writes that its “potential new product offering” would use the wake word “Hey Sonos” and let users control playback, search through songs, and move music to other speakers with their voice. The survey claims that the assistant can respond faster because it would be processing everything on device, rather than relying on an... Continue reading…

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images Immunocompromised people should get a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention committee recommended today. After taking only a standard, two-dose series of the Pfizer / BioNTech or Moderna vaccine, patients may not generate enough antibodies against the coronavirus.“I have known of patients who are immunocompromised and in the hospital, they did all the right things. They’re just suffering from a lack of good vaccine protection,” says Camille Kotton, clinical director of transplant and immunocompromised host infectious diseases at the Massachusetts General Hospital, during the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting today.The decision follows the Food and Drug... Continue reading…

For those who can afford to throw cash at something that sounds great Continue reading…

Somebody get a doctor, this Lambo is sick Continue reading…