The Verge

Photo By: Rosalind O’Connor/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images Saturday Night Live will be live from New York— and streaming to 100 countries around the world for the first time ever, NBC announced. Elon Musk is hosting the show for the first time (in case you have not read anything else on The Verge dot com today), and Miley Cyrus will be the musical guest.“‘SNL’ is a global phenomenon and this livestream marks the first time audiences around the world will experience the show simultaneously along with the US,” Frances Berwick of NBCU said in a statement. “It’s incredibly exciting to create this worldwide event with host Elon Musk and musical guest Miley Cyrus. We thank our international partners and YouTube for helping us make it happen.”Musk tweeted a link to the international feed:

Anthony Mackie as Falcon | Marvel Now that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has wrapped and we’re still a few weeks away from the debut of Loki, Marvel has released a behind-the-scenes video on its YouTube channel detailing the CGI effects that made it look like Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) was flying through the air as Falcon [minor spoilers ahead if you haven’t watched the show yet].Eric Leven, VFX Supervisor for Falcon, breaks down a couple of the show’s key scenes. including the mid-air chase scene from the series’ first episode.“What I really wanted to do for the big action sequences was, as much as possible, make things feel like they’re grounded in reality,” Leven explains. “Obviously, we don't have Anthony Mackie flying around in a real jet pack with real... Continue reading…

Image: Boom Comics / Matias Bergara 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.With most mainstream comics today tending to skew more toward sci-fi superheroes, Boom Studio’s Coda is a perfect gateway for those who prefer swords and sorcery — set in a magical post-apocalypse with some of the best comic art around.What is it? Coda is a 12-issue fantasy comic set in a desolate apocalypse after a gigantic, magical war between the forces of good and evil that cost the world most of its magic. Think Mad Max: Fury Road if it happened after the final... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge | Photo by Getty Images Pool Who is Elon Musk?Oh, come on.Seriously!Fine. He’s the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, the founder of The Boring Company and Neuralink, a certified member of the PayPal Mafia, and a well-known internet troll.He sounds rich.He is. Depending on where the market closes on Friday, he’s either the first or the second richest person in the world. The other contender is Jeff Bezos. A substantial part of both men’s net worth is tied up in their company stock.Okay. What is Saturday Night Live?Saturday Night Live is an American television show that has been on the air since 1975. It is in a sketch comedy format. There is usually at least one good sketch in each 90-minute episode, and it is often the digital short.SNL features a guest host, usually... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla has agreed to pay a $750,000 fine and install a solar roof project to settle air quality violations at its Fremont, California plant, officials announced Friday.The Bay Area Air Quality Management District, which regulates air pollution in nine San Francisco Bay Area counties, said the settlement covers 33 notices of violations dating back to 2015, including “installing or modifying equipment without proper permits, failure to conduct required emissions testing, failure to maintain records and failure to report information to the Air District in a timely manner.”The violations have since been corrected and Tesla is back in compliance, according to the air district’s statement.Both sides had agreed that the fine should be $1... Continue reading…

Image: Satechi I’m here with the latest collection of the best tech deals that appeared on The Verge this week. Similar to the last weekend’s post, deals have been ramping up lately. Hopefully it has helped you save a little money either shopping for yourself or a mom in your life for Mother’s Day. If you happen to be searching for a belated gift to ship over (orders placed today probably won’t arrive by Sunday, May 9th, which is Mother’s Day), check out our gift guide that’s full of fun gift ideas.Here are this week’s best deals.Save 15 percent on useful tech accessories from SatechiSatechi makes several accessories, like USB-C hubs, adapters, Apple Watch chargers, and much more. If you find something you want from its catalog of gadgets, it’s... Continue reading…

Funeral pyres burn for people who died of COVID-19 in India, on May 6. | Photo by PRAKASH SINGH/AFP via Getty Images This pandemic has taken millions of lives around the world — and researchers are realizing that the true death toll may be much higher than the official numbers we see every day.As of May 3rd, the death toll in the US officially stood at 574,043, but a new analysis published this week by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) estimates that the actual toll is 905,289. IHME is a health research center based at the University of Washington that specializes in measuring global health on a population level. Its new analysis estimates that the global death toll due to COVID-19 stands at 6.93 million, not 3.24 million.The key word here is “estimate.” The researchers looked at countries around the world that reported deaths... Continue reading…

Colonial Pipeline says it was victim of cyberattack | Getty Images One of the largest pipelines in the US has been taken offline by its operator following a cyberattack. First reported by the New York Times, Colonial Pipeline, which carries 45 percent of the fuel supplies for the eastern US, said in a statement late Friday that it took “certain systems offline to contain the threat, which has temporarily halted all pipeline operations and affected some of our IT systems.”The pipeline is 5,500 miles long and carries jet fuel and refined gasoline from the Gulf Coast to New York, according to the Times, transporting some 2.5 million barrels daily.It’s not yet clear whether the attack targeted Colonial’s industrial control systems, or if there was ransomware or malware involved. Alpharetta, Georgia-based... Continue reading…

If you’re already invested in a wireless charging lifestyle, the Blade 11 Prime is a budget phone to match it Continue reading…

Ruin and recovery in the video game industry Continue reading…

Last May, TiVo attempted to muscle in on Roku and Amazon with an HDMI streaming dongle of its own — the $70 TiVo Stream 4K, which traded in the company’s traditional live TV + DVR functionality for the likes of Sling TV, Netflix, HBO and YouTube. It now appears that attempt was so unsuccessful, the company’s planning to abandon its Android TV dongle efforts entirely.Xperi Holdings CEO Jon Kirchner explained in an earnings call (via Zatz Not Funny) that it no longer feels it can compete using Android TV — the company likes to think its differentiator is a content guide that surfaces and lets you search for shows and movies across a variety of apps, but now that Google’s already baked something like that into its new “Google TV” layer on... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Shortly before the Epic v. Apple trial, Epic Games made an interesting announcement: it would offer the indie game storefront Itch.io as an app on its own Epic Games Store. The Fortnite publisher was going to trial with the aim of making Apple offer competing app stores on its iPhone and iPad, so the move showed that Epic was willing to open up its own store in the same way.On the fifth day of court, however, Apple tried to turn Itch.io into a liability — by telling Epic Games Store general manager Steven Allison about “so-called adult games” that were “so offensive we cannot speak about them here.”Itch.io is one of relatively few non-game apps on the Epic Games Store, along with software like the Brave browser. It’s also, as we’ve... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Is Roblox a game or not? Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Today, there’s only one official way to play Google’s Stadia game streaming service on your 4K TV — the last-gen Chromecast Ultra, connected to the company’s proprietary Stadia Controller over Wi-Fi. That’s because Google hasn’t yet brought Stadia to the new-and-improved $50 Chromecast, and its predecessor didn’t support Bluetooth, meaning the only way to pair a controller was to loop through Google’s servers in the cloud.But Google now has a workaround, 9to5Google reports. There’s a new “bridge mode” hidden in the latest version of the Stadia app on Android that should let you send controller signals from your phone — letting you play Stadia with your phone’s touchscreen, or even connect another gamepad to your phone. You’ll be able... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge 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 on The Vergecast, Nilay and Dieter talk with Verge senior reporter Adi Robertson and senior editor Tom Warren about the first week of the Epic Games v. Apple trial.Adi and Tom are among the group of Verge newsroom staff who are reporting and live-tweeting important moments from the ongoing trial, so they join the podcast to discuss their takeaways and discoveries throughout the week from questioning, testimonials, and documents in court.You can listen here or in your preferred podcast player to hear the full discussion.F... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri has tweeted an apology about a bug that deleted users’ story posts on Thursday. The timing was unfortunate for activists trying to raise awareness about missing Indigenous women, with organizations Red Dress and National Day of Awareness of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG, abbreviated by some as MMIWG2S to include two-spirit people) questioning whether their posts had somehow been erased deliberately. According to Instagram, however, the bug affected stories, archives, and highlights of Instagram users across the globe.Mosseri and Instagram’s statement about the deletions say this isn’t the case and that the stories were not removed because of anything content-related. He... Continue reading…

Asa Mathat/Recode Tesla CEO Elon Musk — the first or second richest man in the world, depending on the phase of the Moon — will host Saturday Night Live this weekend (the first or second funniest show that airs on Saturday evenings, depending on if anything else is on TV).The event is a strange confluence of things that The Verge covers: a powerful tech leader with ambitions that are as huge as his blind spots, and someone destined to barrage you with so many dad jokes that one is bound to land at some point. Plus maybe Dogecoin? (A meme gone so awry that it’s shaping the actual landscape of the physical world is definitely some Verge shit.)So what can we expect when Musk takes the stage late on Saturday evening? Using a bit of algorithmic trickery and... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge More than 200 Alphabet employees have signed a petition from Google childcare workers asking for a commute stipend. The petition calls for workers to be given an extra $1,500 per month to help pay for ride-shares, car rentals, or other transportation costs.Google is asking childcare workers and educators to return to in-person work on Monday, May 10th, while the company’s shuttle service remains suspended. Some make as little as $25 an hour.“Transportation isn’t just a nice-to-have for us, it’s fundamental if we want to do our job,” said Denise Belardes, a childcare worker, in a press release. “We’re not the ones making hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. We do not have the option to work from home as other Googlers. We need... Continue reading…

Google’s Nest Mini hits an all-time low — at least price-wise. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Whether you’ve fully committed to the smart home ecosystem or are just dabbling in the space for the first time, picking up a smart speaker is a no-brainer for most people. If you haven’t yet grabbed an Amazon or Google smart speaker, however, Adorama is taking $31 off the Google Nest Mini as part of its latest flash sale through Sunday, May 9th. Simply use the promo code EXTRAOFF11 at checkout to knock an additional $11 off the listed sale price and receive free shipping.Like its predecessor, the second-gen Google Nest Mini offers a range of voice-activated features, only with bolder sound, capacitive touch zones, and an improved design that allows you to hang the device on your wall. At the core of the fabric-lined puck is Google... Continue reading…

Impossible Burgers sit on a tray at the Impossible Foods Inc. booth on day five of the 2nd China International Import Expo (CIIE) at the National Exhibition and Convention Center on November 9, 2019 in Shanghai, China. | Photo by Gao Yuwen/VCG via Getty Images Impossible Burgers will be making their way onto school menus across the US. The meatless burger just received the Child Nutrition Label from the USDA, which could make it easier for public schools to serve the product because the Impossible Burgers will be eligible for national school lunch funding. Impossible Foods hopes to offer up protein-packed lunches that don’t generate as much greenhouse gases as red meat. But slapping branding on foods served up to kids can still be harmful, even if the meals might be better for the environment.“Companies should really keep their branding out”“Just on principle, we believe that schools should be commercial free,” says Marlene Schwartz, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity... Continue reading…

US telecom companies are braced for expensive changes in the coming years — and by extension, so are the rest of us. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Expect generous promotions and shiny new plans as the expensive 5G buildout continues Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Many of us are excited that COVID-19 vaccines are now widely available in the US, and it seems like Google Assistant is joining in. In fact, it’s got a song to share about it (via Android Police).You can listen to the song yourself by asking Google Assistant to “sing the vaccine song,” but I’ve also recorded it. Take a listen.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A week after their broken-down negotiations spilled into the public, Google and Roku still haven’t been able to reach a deal to renew YouTube TV’s presence on the huge streaming platform. But Google has come up with something of a workaround in the meantime: it’s going to let people access YouTube TV directly from the main YouTube app.YouTube users will start seeing a “Go to YouTube TV” option in the main YouTube app over the next few days. When they select that, they’ll then be switched over to the standard YouTube TV user experience. This option is coming to Roku devices first — where it’s currently most needed — but will also come to YouTube on other platforms as well. Image: YouTube In essence, Google has... Continue reading…

NASA just released video and audio of its mini Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, flying around the Martian surface during its fourth flight test, as captured by the craft’s robotic partner Perseverance from nearly a football field’s distance away.The footage, combining audio and video of an Ingenuity flight test for the first time, starts off with the soft, rumbling hum of the Martian wind. Ingenuity can be seen stationary on the surface in the right-hand corner of the frame before taking off for flight. When the copter ascends, the ambient hum intensifies; the faint, muffled sound of Ingenuity’s twin rotor blades spinning at 2,537 RPM picks up and it eventually zips across the frame.Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z device captured the video, a... Continue reading…

Tile has announced that it’ll be launching support for Amazon Sidewalk — the company’s local, Bluetooth network — on June 14th, allowing Amazon’s Echo devices to strengthen Tile’s network.The two companies had already announced plans for Tile to join Sidewalk last fall, but today’s announcement gives an actual date and details for the integration. The addition of Tile support comes just a few days after Amazon is turning on Sidewalk support for compatible Echo devices in the US on June 8th, too. Also getting access to Sidewalk are Level’s smart locks, which will be able to leverage Sidewalk to directly connect to Ring doorbells, allowing the locks to be used even when outside of Bluetooth range.According to Amazon, Sidewalk uses a... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge TikTok announced two new integrations for its app on Thursday: sharing audio back into TikTok using the new Sound Kit, and using your TikTok account to log in to other apps with Login Kit. Developers can apply to use the new SDKs to insert the short-form video app’s content in even more places, but they may open the company and its users to new privacy concerns.The basic features of Login Kit will sound familiar. Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat already offer similar integrations to speed up the logging in process. Like those other versions, TikTok says that using Login Kit will allow users to securely log in to other apps, but also let developers offer TikTok content inside those apps, like adding videos to a dating profile. Using Login... Continue reading…

Image: Getty Images New cars are getting more expensive thanks to the global semiconductor shortage. And the price of used cars is going up, too.About 13 percent of people who bought a new car in the US in April paid above sticker price, according to Jessica Caldwell, director of insights at Edmunds. Last year, only 8 percent of buyers paid more.New vehicle prices have been on the rise for a while now, but the shortage is only worsening the trend. Automakers are temporarily shutting down production lines around the world. The chips they are able to source are going into the most popular new vehicles — the ones that make the most money. To make matters worse, demand for new cars and trucks is increasing, leading to markups. This has pushed more consumers... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In a new statement posted on its website, WhatsApp says users won’t lose any functionality if they fail to accept its new privacy policy by May 15th. “No one will have their accounts deleted or lose functionality of WhatsApp on May 15th because of this update,” the FAQ now reads.That’s different from what the page originally said when it was posted in February, when it warned that failing to accept the new terms by the May deadline would mean users would lose functionality. “We’ve extended the effective date to May 15th,” the page said at the time. “If you haven’t accepted by then, WhatsApp will not delete your account. However, you won’t have full functionality of WhatsApp until you accept. For a short time, you’ll be able to receive... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge As the first week of the Epic v. Apple trial comes to a close, Apple is picking a fight over one of Epic’s witnesses. The fight centers on testimony from Lori Wright, Microsoft’s vice president of Xbox business development, who testified about the distinction between “general purpose” and “special purpose” devices on Wednesday in favor of Epic’s claim. Wright’s testimony set off a day of confusion over whether Microsoft actually makes money selling Xbox hardware. Apple is now asking the judge for an “adverse credibility finding,” basically a determination that Wright’s testimony can’t be trusted because of irregularities in document production.In a new filing, Apple argued that some of the documents referred to in Wright’s testimony... Continue reading…

The Longing feels like a troll. It’s a game that takes 400 real-world days to finish, and it moves at a pace that could only generously be described as glacial. The first word that ever appears on screen is “Wait!” Simple tasks, like walking up some stairs or opening a door, drag on forever. And yet, here I am, a month after I first started, and I can’t seem to stop playing.The game puts you in the role of a “shade,” a small creature who lives in service to an ancient king. At the outset of The Longing, the king tells you he must go into a kind of hibernation and leaves you to, well, wait. The towering king sits in a giant throne, occasionally snoring, and you’re left alone in a dark, twisting, subterranean world. You have 400 days... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A new phase of the historic union vote by Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama begins today. The news kicks off with an appeals hearing where the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) will contest the results of the election.“Things are not over,” says Veena Dubal, a law professor at the University of California, Hastings. “We all need to be continuing to pay attention to this part.”Earlier this year, after a months-long union busting campaign, workers voted 1,798 to 738 against forming a union. The decision was hailed as a crushing blow to the labor movement. But experts say the election was always going to be hotly contested. Even if RWDSU won, Amazon would almost certainly have fought the results, and the... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Microsoft has been trying to build a lighter version of Windows for more than 10 years without success. The latest effort, Windows 10X, has reportedly now been shelved, in favor of improving Windows 10 instead.Petri reports that Windows 10X will no longer ship this year, and the OS will likely never arrive in its current form. Microsoft had originally been planning to deliver Windows 10X, a more lightweight and simplified version of Windows, alongside new dual-screen devices like the Surface Neo. That was before the pandemic hit, and Microsoft decided to prioritize Windows 10X for single-screen laptops instead. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Surface Neo was supposed to ship with Windows 10X. T... Continue reading…

Photo by Britta Pedersen-Pool/Getty Images Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been overstating the capabilities of the company’s advanced driver assist system, the company’s director of Autopilot software told the California Department of Motor Vehicles. The comments came from a memo released by legal transparency group PlainSite, which obtained the documents from a public records request.It was the latest revelation about the widening gap between what Musk says publicly about Autopilot and what Autopilot can actually do. And it coincides with Tesla coming under increased scrutiny after a Tesla vehicle without anyone in the driver’s seat crashed in Texas, killing two men.“Elon’s tweet does not match engineering reality per CJ”“Elon’s tweet does not match engineering reality per CJ.... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Google Photos’ free, unlimited storage is going away on June 1st — which means that you’ve only got a few weeks left to upload all your pictures and videos before the company’s new 15GB cap kicks in.As the company had previously announced last fall, Google Photos’ beloved policy of allowing users to back up an unlimited number of “high quality” photos and videos will be ending next month, replaced by a 15GB limit before customers will have to pay for more storage space.But everyone gets to start fresh with that 15GB (minus whatever you’re already using with your Gmail and Google Drive accounts, which might be a lot for some users) starting on June 1st: anything you’ve uploaded beforehand won’t count toward that cap, meaning that if... Continue reading…

Forgetter. Dslcollection is using technology to explore new ways to show off works of art Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge ‘The AV industry has promised too much for too long, and has delivered too little’ Continue reading…

Image: Vizio Vizio’s 55-inch OLED TV has received a price cut during Best Buy’s sale event that will last through the weekend. Normally $1,300, it’s $1,200, making it one of the most affordable methods of getting an OLED. This model made its way into our roundup of the best TVs for gaming, thanks to its HDMI 2.1 ports that allow for 4K resolution at 120Hz. In other words, it can show up to 120 frames per second.My colleague Chris Welch thinks this is a good option if you want to save money compared to an LG OLED but still want the best possible picture quality and generous viewing angles.Also at Best Buy, Apple’s new HomePod mini includes a Wemo smart Wi-Fi plug for $110. The speaker alone usually costs $100, and Best Buy reduced the cost of the... Continue reading…

Video site LiveLeak, best known for hosting gruesome footage that mainstream rivals wouldn’t touch, has shut down after fifteen years in operation. In its place is “ItemFix,” a site that bans users from uploading media containing “excessive violence or gory content.”In a blog post, LiveLeak founder Hayden Hewitt did not give an explicit reason for the site’s closure, saying only that: “The world has changed a lot over these last few years, the Internet alongside it, and we as people.” In a video posted on his YouTube channel Trigger Warning, Hewitt offered no further details, but said that maintaining LiveLeak had become a struggle, and that he and his team “just didn’t have it in us to carry on fighting.”“Everything’s different now,... Continue reading…

Image: Apple The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has published its long-awaited report on how manufacturers limit product repairs. The “Nixing the Fix” report details a host of repair restrictions, especially those imposed by mobile phone and car manufacturers. The anticompetitive practices covered by the FTC range from limited availability of spare parts and diagnostic software to designs that make repairs more difficult than they need to be. In response, the FTC wants to develop new laws and rules surrounding repairs, but it also wants better enforcement of existing legislation like the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (MMWA).While debates around right to repair rules in the EU have tended to focus on the environmental impact of sending broken devices... Continue reading…

A pair of Sennheiser HD 800 S headphones. | Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge Sonova, a Swiss company best known for its medical audio products like hearing aids and cochlear implants, is buying the consumer electronics division of German firm Sennheiser. That means Sonova is taking over Sennheiser’s portfolio of consumer headphones, wireless earbuds, and soundbars, moving into an expanding market for personal audio equipment.Sennheiser announced it was looking for a buyer for its consumer business in mid-February “amid strong competitive pressure.” Although the company’s consumer products hit record sales in 2019, the firm still lost money with profit margins “under pressure” from global rivals. It cut 650 jobs and said “all options are open” to help the division.Sennheiser’s brand (and products) will live onN... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge At the beginning of this week’s Epic v. Apple trial, Apple described Epic’s lawsuit as an “assault” on the entire iOS philosophy. One of the iPhone and iPad’s defining features is a curated ecosystem (or, from a different perspective, a walled garden). A loss for Apple could require it to allow side-loaded apps and alternative app stores, potentially including Epic’s own Epic Games Store. Apple says that would damage the privacy and security that iOS is known for, making Apple spend more money to fix new problems that crop up.Epic spent the fourth day of trial offering its counter-narrative: the iOS App Store isn’t actually very good. Calling two Apple executives to the stand, Epic’s attorneys took jabs at everything from the update... Continue reading…

It’s better not to be distracted while driving | Photo by: Arterra/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Who among us has not tried during the pandemic to conceal the background of our home offices during a Zoom call for work— lest we reveal a messy bedroom, or get ragged on by RoomRater?For Republican state Sen. Andrew Brenner of Ohio, the green screen betrayed him during a video call this week, making it clear he was driving a car even though his background image showed what looked like a home office. That wouldn’t have been a big deal except it was the same day that Ohio’s legislature was considering a bill that would have toughened the state’s rules on driving while using an electronic device.One could argue that a video call might be a significant distraction while driving.Brenner told the Columbus Dispatch he was parked for most... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter has started rolling out a new Tip Jar feature on its Android and iOS apps, which (as rumored) will allow users to send money directly to their favorite accounts.To use the tip jar, simply tap on the freshly added dollar bill icon next to someone’s username when viewing their profile on one of Twitter’s mobile apps. Users will be able to toggle the tip jar feature, too (for those individuals or organizations that don’t want people just sending them cash out of the blue). Android users will also be able to send money in Twitter’s Clubhouse-like Spaces.Tip Jar supports a variety of payment options and links: Bandcamp, Cash App, Patreon, Paypal, and Venmo. Twitter is using those services’ external payment processors for... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple has announced that it’s awarding Pennsylvania-based optical technology company II-VI with $410 million from its Advanced Manufacturing Fund. Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted that the company’s tech helps power Apple’s FaceID, Memoji, and Portrait Mode. The company also manufactures lasers that are used in the LIDAR scanner found in the iPhone 12 Pro and iPad Pro, technology that Apple touts as being key to augmented reality experiences.Finisar, which was later acquired by II-VI (pronounced “two-six”) received $390 million from Apple’s fund back in 2017. While this latest investment likely shows that Apple intends to keep FaceID (which is powered by II-VI’s vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers) around for a while, it could also be... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple has announced that it’s awarding Pennsylvania-based optical technology company II-IV with $410 million from its Advanced Manufacturing Fund. Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted that the company’s tech helps power Apple’s FaceID, Memoji, and Portrait Mode. The company also manufactures lasers that are used in the LIDAR scanner found in the iPhone 12 Pro and iPad Pro, technology that Apple touts as being key to augmented reality experiences.Finisar, which was later acquired by II-VI (pronounced “two-six”) received $390 million from Apple’s fund back in 2017. While this latest investment likely shows that Apple intends to keep FaceID (which is powered by II-IV’s vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers) around for a while, it could also be... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Peloton expects it to be a number of months before either of its treadmills are offered for sale again after a recall was issued on both models yesterday. One of the models posed the risk of “injury or death,” Peloton said.The more expensive Tread Plus treadmill, which has been on sale since 2018, “could take months” to return to market, said Peloton CEO John Foley on a call with investors this afternoon. Peloton needs to develop a hardware solution to prevent people, animals, and objects from getting sucked underneath the machine and then get that solution approved by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). A six-year-old child died recently after being pulled underneath a Tread Plus, the commission said.The cheaper machine,... Continue reading…

Photo by Avery White for The Verge In what feels like an increasingly rare occurrence, Google announced that it’s updating Wear OS with a new feature today — but don’t get too excited, it’s just a keyboard. In this case, Google is porting over Gboard, the swipeable, predictive text-powered keyboard that it offers for Android, iOS, and Android TV, as spotted by 9to5Google.Like the larger phone version, Gboard for Wear OS supports multiple input methods on a keyboard that’s slightly more finger-friendly than the old version the operating system used. You can type by tapping, swiping, or speaking. The keyboard also has easier access to emoji and “enhanced suggestions” above the keyboard.

Photo by STR / AFP via Getty Images Another “out-of-control” Chinese rocket stage in orbit has spawned a news cycle. But for people on Earth, there’s not much to worry about.The 100-foot-tall, 22-metric-ton corpse of a Chinese Long March 5B rocket that launched the first chunk of Beijing’s new space station last week will reenter Earth’s atmosphere sometime this weekend, and there’s an extremely high chance that pieces of the rocket will splash down in the ocean, analysts say.“Much of the earth is covered in water, so there’s almost no risk,” said Dan Oltrogge, founder of the Space Safety Coalition and top policy expert at AGI’s Commercial Space Operations Operations Center. The risk to the public isn’t zero, he said, “but it’s a whole lot less” if it’s heading for the... Continue reading…

IBM IBM has revealed what it says are the world’s first 2nm process chips, giving a brief preview of the technology that might eventually power the smartphones, laptops, and gadgets of the future.The big jump here is in transistor count. Compared to today’s 7nm chips, the new IBM technology features dramatically more transistors, thanks to the more compact design. That means chips built using that process can potentially offer big gains in performance and battery life: IBM says its 2nm chips are “projected to achieve 45 percent higher performance, or 75 percent lower energy use, than today’s most advanced 7 nm node chips.”It’ll still be years before you can get oneAccording to AnandTech, IBM’s new 2nm chip features about 333 million... Continue reading…

Photo by Toby Scott/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images According to a Vice report, some Amazon delivery drivers are instructed by their employers to turn off Amazon’s safe driving monitoring app, so they can drive faster and get their deliveries done. The drivers don’t work for Amazon directly, but instead for companies known as Delivery Service Partners, and they report that their managers or dispatchers ask them to turn off Amazon’s Mentor app after leaving it running long enough to get a good score.Mentor, the app made by a company called eDriving, gives delivery drivers a safe driving score based on variables like their braking, acceleration, speed, and distraction throughout the course of their 10-hour shift. Many drivers report that the score that the app gives them is factored into... Continue reading…