Technology news

In March 2017, thieves made off with radiation detectors and small disks of radioactive plutonium and cesium that were stashed in the back of a rental car, the Center for Public Integrity reported on Monday. The gear had belonged to two Idaho National Laboratory employees, who’d been sent to recover radioactive materials from a lab in Texas.The employees’ tools for the mission? Radiation detectors and dime-sized disks of plutonium and cesium used to make sure the detectors were work

An investigative journalist who went undercover as a Facebook moderator in the UK says the company lets pages from far-right fringe groups “exceed deletion threshold,” and that those pages are “subject to different treatment in the same category as pages belonging to governments and news organizations.” The accusation is a damning one, undermining Facebook’s claims that it is actively trying to cut down on fake news, propaganda, hate speech, and other harmful conte

A major voting machine maker, Election Systems & Software, revealed in a letter to a US senator that it installed remote-access software on its machines over a period of six years. The revelation raises substantial security concerns, as reported by Motherboard, which obtained the letter.
ES&S admitted in the letter sent to Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) in April that it had provided the embattled remote connection software called pcAnywhere to “a small number of customers between 2000 a

If your Instagram account is public, there’s no real way to stop people from looking at your feed. Even if you block someone, your photos are just a private browser window away. That said, Instagram is at least trying to give users more direct control over their own list of followers; the company has started more widely testing the ability to manually remove followers with a few taps.Users with private accounts have long had the ability to remove followers and immediately cut off access t

Mophie, a best-selling manufacturer of stylish battery cases, just announced a range of battery packs specifically built for use with different iOS devices, including the iPhone, iPad, and AirPods.
Its new Powerstation battery packs all charge via Apple’s Lightning connector — meaning the cord you use to charge your phone is the same one that charges the battery, cutting down on wires and making your bag a little more streamlined. mophie
Each Powerstation includes an LED power indic

Twitch is adding GIF usage to its platform. The company announced today that streamers can now search for and pull animated images using the Giphy extension. GIFs will then post to a pre-determined section of the screen dictated by the streamer.According to Twitch, GIFs will be queued up and delivered one-by-one. “Extensions are a great framework designed to make channels on Twitch more interactive so creators can better engage and retain their fans,” said VP of developer experience

Virtual reality and water slides seem like things that shouldn’t mix. One is a still nascent technology that generally tends to rely on delicate and sensitive electronic equipment, and the other is a form of entertainment that largely involves sliding fast in an enclosed space filled with water — things which generally tend to have harmful effects on delicate and sensitive electronic equipment.And yet, here we are, with VRSlide, which recently opened at Galaxy Erding in Germany, and

Like AT&T, Sprint has raised the “administrative fee” it tacks on to the bills of its wireless customers, according to a recent report from The Wall Street Journal. The fee is supposedly meant to cover payments to local telephone companies, property taxes, and other legal expenses, Sprint claims. Users on Reddit and other forums report seeing the fee increase — from $1.99 to $2.50 per month — on their bills as early as March of this year.The Verge previously reported

The Spotify app on Android and iOS now lets you clear your cache without affecting your downloaded songs. That’s a minor quality of life improvement for users who want Spotify to take up less storage space but still want to be able to listen to songs while offline.The update appears to have quietly rolled out over the past few weeks to Android users, as spotted by Android Police and confirmed by The Verge. Spotify will also now clarify that downloads aren’t being deleted when you de

ReachNow, BMW’s car-sharing subsidiary, is launching a new service in Seattle aimed at competing with Uber and Lyft. Starting today, ReachNow users in the city will see a ride-sharing option in the app that lets them hail a car immediately or schedule a ride up to a week in advance. Trips will cost $2.40 per mile plus $0.40 per minute (with a minimum ride price of $3.24), which is on par with some of Uber’s higher-tiered options.
Since it won’t be the cheapest ride in town, BM

At the end of a three-hour hearing that was meant to address concerns over censorship and wound up including everything from whether Google blocks mentions of Jesus to President Donald Trump’s embrace of Vladimir Putin, lawmakers landed on an unlikely conclusion: it’s time to ban more accounts.
Pointing to posts from hyperpartisan Facebook pages including Infowars and Milkshakes Against the Republic Party that appeared to incite violence, a bipartisan group of lawmakers on the House

Verizon has confirmed that it will no longer activate 3G-only phones on its CDMA network ahead of a 2019 shutdown as the telecom migrates nearly all of its traffic over to its 4G LTE network. The news, reported earlier today by DroidLife, is now official, following months of rumors that this summer would be the cutoff for 3G phones on Verizon.The company released a statement to DroidLife outlining the thought process behind the move:For several years we’ve been been publicly saying that o

Google just announced that it will introduce a “visual snapshot” feature in Assistant to summarize what’s happening in your day.
The feature, which is available on Android and iOS devices starting this week, will curate a user’s personal information into a single, scrollable interface — from flight times to restaurant reservations to scheduled meetings. The app will also integrate these “snapshots” with whatever notes and lists are jotted into a user&rs

Toxicity in online video games has been out of control for a long time — and curbing it has seemed like a hopeless enterprise. But Ubisoft’s rampage against racist trolls in the past week in Rainbow Six: Siege has given me hope that game developers are finally demonstrating the courage to change things.
I’ve been playing Siege since it came out for the PC in 2015. It has become an outstanding game in its class: a polished experience filled with tense moments and kinetic specta

Public company Ultimate Software is acquiring French startup PeopleDoc for $300 million in cash and stock. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2018. These two companies both make HR solutions.
Ultimate Softwarehas been around for a while. It went public in 1998 and switched to a software-as-a-service solution in 2002 — this solution is called UltiPro. It lets you manage all things HR, from payroll to benefits, time management, onboarding, performance management and

It’s been widely reported that Netflix plans to spend a staggering $8 billion on its content this year, with the company’s chief content officer, Ted Sarandos, saying that a full 85 percent of that spend will be on original offerings. Today, Netflix announced the existence of NX, a new social channel that will promote the service’s science fiction and fantasy titles. In design, NX appears to be like @strongblacklead, a Twitter account that highlights diversity across the subsc

When sci-fi game No Man’s Sky launched in 2016, it was one of the most anticipated games of its generation. Developer Hello Games boasted that every single element of the game, from the rocks to the fish, would be procedurally generated for players rather than tailor-made by the creators. People believed it would be the ultimate game that you could explore with friends. That wasn’t exactly the case at the time (a fact that caused widespread disappointment). But two years later, an u

Two years after its launch, Netflix’s internet speed test is getting an update. Fast.com is now able to measure upload speed and latency. Before, it would only show your download speed. Netflix says it’s run more than 500 million tests since launch, with half of those happening in just the past seven months.
Fast.com is one of the more useful speed tests out there since it measures your connection to Netflix’s servers. In some cases, internet providers seem to optimize connect

If you’re in the market for a wireless charger during Amazon Prime Day 2018, it’s important to remember that some are far better and faster at juicing up your smartphone than others.RavPower makes The Verge’s favorite wireless charger, the Fast Charge. It’s not the cheapest option available, but for your money, its included 24W wall charger and fast 10W output combine for a value that’s tough to beat.We’ve worked with RavPower to make this wireless charger mo

Teens who spend a lot of time using digital media show an uptick in symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a new study reports. That doesn’t mean parents should panic about teens texting at the dinner table; it just means that if your kid is a heavy media user, maybe you should have a conversation about why they like it so much.Today’s study monitored ADHD symptoms in a group of nearly 2,600 high school teenagers. Students who used multiple types of digital med

San Diego Comic-Con 2018 begins this week, so the next couple of days will be filled with a whirlwind of trailers for upcoming films, panels, cosplay, interactive experiences, and more. There will be panels from Warner Bros. about its upcoming slate of DC films, and we’re expecting new looks at The Predator, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Star Trek: Discovery, The Walking Dead, and more.The Verge will be at the convention to bring you the latest news from San Diego. Here’s what

The Beam soundbar is one of Sonos’ first real attempts to conquer the broader speaker market in the age of smart speakers. Today, the device is going on sale, just over a month after first being announced. It’s available for $399.
We reviewed the Beam a couple weeks ago, and by all accounts, it’s a good-sounding speaker. What’s unique about it, at least among Sonos products, is that it’s not outlandishly expensive and is also an all-in-one package, not necessarily

Hot coffee isn't everyone's cup of tea (which is a separate yet also delicious warm beverage). And even if it is your thing, it probably doesn't stay your thing all year round. TL;DR: Sipping a piping hot beverage on a sweltering day is not advised. 
Instead, you might want to transition to cold brew. And rather than making daily (or twice daily) trips to your local coffee spot, you should try your hand at brewing it yourself. Besides, you'll save money and produce less waste by keeping it

When it came time to port serene snowboarding game Alto’s Adventure to Android, Ryan Cash, from developer Snowman, was a bit worried. He’d heard plenty of stories about how hard it was to make money on Android and the challenges of supporting so many different devices. Eventually, the studio partnered with mobile developer Noodlecake for the Android version, and the two decided to make the game free to better suit the platform.
And while it’s true that the Android version of A

8bitdo is known for making some of the best wireless retro game controllers around, and now, the company wants you to start making your own. Today, it’s launching a new line of DIY mod kits so you can turn existing classic controllers into wireless ones. Each kit costs $19.99, and there are three kits available: one for the Sega Genesis (or Mega Drive), as well as kits for the NES and SNES. (The kits will also work with the wired controllers that come with the NES and SNES Classics.)
The

T-Mobile is expanding its Simple Global international plan to 70 more countries starting on July 22nd, which will bring the total number of countries and destination served to 210. Introduced alongside the additional regions of coverage is T-Mobile’s new $5 daily data pass, which you can use for 512MB of 4G LTE data unlimited text and talk, starting on August 1st.This move will establish T-Mobile’s Simple Global plan as the most widely available international data plan for US custom

Google is expanding its job search feature to the UK, the company announced last night in a blog post. Now, job hunters will be able to search for employment through the Google Jobs function and have access to info like salary, reviews, and commute time to the office.
In the blog post, Google highlights two existing features that will help job seekers: a job search save function and email alerts for jobs that were posted while you’re not actively browsing its site. Still, Glassdoor, which

Fires are raging across California in what’s been an early and deadly start to this year’s fire season. But the truth is: fire season never really stopped. “We’re responding to wildland fires year round now,” California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) spokesman Scott McLean told The Sacramento Bee.In ways big and small, wildfires are human-made disasters, which means it’s up to us to stop them. To report this video, I spoke to Mike Flann

Ten more moons have been confirmed to orbit around Jupiter, bringing the planet’s total known satellite count to 79. That’s the highest number of moons of any planet in the Solar System. And these newly discovered space rocks are giving astronomers insight as to why the Jupiter system looks like it does today.
Astronomers at Carnegie Institution for Science first found these moons in March 2017, along with two others that were already confirmed in June of last year. The team initial

Girl Scouts of the USA announced today that it will introduce a slew of new badges that address what it called “some of society’s most pressing needs” by homing in on STEM and technology-related issues and advocacy for girls.
The 30 badges will be available exclusively for girls between the ages of five and 18 for efforts and advocacy in cybersecurity, robotics, computer science, space exploration, and the environment. The badges will be earned when girls learn how to code or

Today is World Emoji Day, and to get in on the fun, Apple has replaced all of its executives’ headshots with Memoji versions of their faces. Technically, Memoji are not the same thing as emoji. They’re Apple-exclusive characters that are made in the same style as real emoji, and they can’t be included in text or widely shared, like emoji can be, without turning them into an image. But as far as goofy promos go, we’re talking about a made-up holiday anyway, so I think it

Tinder announced today that users in Canada and Mexico will be able to send their personal Bitmoji within the dating app. They’ll have to connect Tinder and Snap on their phones, but once they do so, they can send stickers to matches. For now, this is only a test, meaning Tinder could decide not to roll out Bitmoji globally.
This feature was already previewed with the launch of Snap’s Snap Kit. The developer kit lets app makers integrate parts of Snap into their own products. Tinder

In a much-anticipated effort to reinstate net neutrality provisions, Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CO) introduced a bill today that would codify free internet regulations into law. Titled The 21st Century Internet Act, the measure would institute the basic outlines of the Federal Communication Commission’s 2015 Open Internet order, which banned the throttling and blocking of content as well as harmful paid prioritization practices. In an even more surprising move, however, the Republican congressm

Let’s be real: you are most certainly never going to be as good as Steve Nash, Chris Paul, James Harden — or really any professional NBA player. But it probably won’t stop you from trying to practice or model your game around your favorite players, and spend hours upon hours figuring out how to get better.
And while there are going to be plenty of attempts to smash image recognition and AI into that problem, a company called NEX Team is hoping to soften the blow a bit by h

You’re going to see a lot of emoji today now that the web has declared it the international holiday for celebrating them. But only one set of emoji is worth remotely caring about, and it’s the return of the blobmoji on Google.
Yes, technically the blobs live on via Allo, but since the messaging app’s development was put on indefinite “hold” back in April, Google’s now reviving the blobs as a sticker pack on Gboard and Android Messages. The pack includes stick

As Amazonlooks to increasingly expand its cashier-less grocery stories — called Amazon Go – across different regions, there’s at least one startup hoping to end up everywhere else beyond Amazon’s empire.
Standard Cognition aims to help businesses create that kind of checkout experience based on machine vision, using image recognition to figure out that a specific person is picking up and walking out the door with a bag of Cheetos. The company said it’s raised an add