Technology news

For a day, the desert portion of Fortnite’s island kept getting struck by lightning bolts emanating from a rift in the sky. Nobody knew what it meant — the only thing that seemed clear was that the strikes were getting faster, and that every so often, a new cactus on the map would get destroyed. This evening, it seems that the lightning strikes are done, and they’ve been replaced by something even more mysterious.
Unlike the original rift event, which was broadcasted in advanc

It’s an understatement to say that Apple makes lots of popular products that people like to buy: iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, and more. But none as apparently as beloved as the 3.5mm headphone jack to Lightning port dongle — at least, if Best Buy’s sale data is anything to go by, according to a report from Ceros (via 9to5Mac).
Yes, as the chart indicates, the humble $9 dongle has dominated as the most purchased Apple product at the blue-and-yellow hued electronics store since Q2

Instagram is testing out a feature that groups users into college community lists, according to a CNBC report. It’s a move following the beginnings of parent company Facebook, which started out as a college-exclusive social networking platform. The service is intended for students currently enrolled in university, excluding alumni.
Some users have been prompted to join their college community to connect with other students, which adds the user to a class-based list. Joining the group lets

Multiple members of Congress, including Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, wrote a letter to the Federal Trade Commission today demanding an investigation into Verizon’s data-throttling practices surrounding emergency response workers. The letter comes after documents filed this week detailed how Verizon throttled firefighters’ data connections while they were battling the Mendocino, California wildfire. The company wouldn’t restore the firefighters’ data speeds un

LG’s 2018 lineup of AI-enabled ThinQ TVs are getting Google Assistant functionality in many of its international markets. Starting today, Google Assistant will be available in Canada, Australia, and the UK, with support coming to South Korea, Spain, France, and Germany by the end of the year.ThinQ for the support, google
LG’s ThinQ TVs came with integrated Google Assistant when they launched in the US and added support for Alexa commands soon after. The built-in ThinQ AI, which runs

Facebook wants to highlight the similarities between its users. The company confirmed to CNET today that it’s running a small test in the US of a feature called “things in common” that’ll call out the various things users might have in common with random strangers they come across on the platform.You might see the label above someone’s name when browsing through a comments conversation, so it could highlight that you both went to the same school, for example, or th

The struggling movie subscription service MoviePass has sent an email to members who have annual subscriptions, forcing them onto the same terms as monthly subscribers and offering them prorated refunds if they want to cancel their membership instead.“We want to thank you for being a loyal member of our annual MoviePass plan. Your commitment to MoviePass has contributed to making our vision for an accessible and affordable moviegoing experience a reality,” reads the email. “Af

Welcome to the first edition of This Week in Elon, a limited-edition weekly newsletter you can get in your inbox by subscribing here.
You were silly like us; your gift survived it all:
The parish of rich women, physical decay,
Yourself.—W. H. Auden, “In Memory of WB Yeats”Since we’re into poetry this week, I thought I’d just open this bad boy with a little epigraph. While I’m basically always here for poet chat, the rest of you fine and sane people are probab

After weeks of manufactured drama, diss tracks, and embarrassing press conferences, YouTubers KSI and Logan Paul will finally face off in a one-on-one fight at the UK’s Manchester Arena. The event kicks off Saturday, August 25th, and it will also include Deji and Jake Paul — KSI and Logan’s younger siblings, respectively — taking swings at each other in the ring.Thousands are expected to show up to the event live, but everyone else can follow along at home.Who’s fi

For the second time this week, U.K. phone giant EE has fixed a security lapse, which allowed a security researcher to gain access to an internal site.
The researcher, who goes by the pseudonym Six, found the company’s internal training site indexed on Google. (We’re not linking to the page as it remains an active site.) Although the site required an employee username and password to log in, the researcher found that an “admin” account existed, of which anyone with the ans

There’s something undeniably intoxicating about subverting concepts and ideas imbued with the warm comfort of nostalgic purity just for the laughs. Seth Rogen’s Sausage Party transformed the idea of a cute, animated children’s movie into a just-for-adults gagfest. The Deadpool franchise has built its success on turning the established framework of the four-quadrant superhero movie into the raunchiest of R-rated comedies. When it does work, it breathes new life into aging ideas

Earlier this week it was revealed that Verizon throttled emergency firefighters’ data connections while they battled the Mendocino, California wildfire. Today, Verizon says it’ll ensure “that it never happens again.” The company says it has since removed all speed cap restrictions for first responders on the West Coast and in Hawaii, with the plan to continue doing so during future disasters. Verizon will also launch a new service plan next week that’ll cater to fi

Working at The Verge, it’s easy to get caught up in the latest and greatest gadgets dominating the tech news cycle. But sometimes, locked in our own tech bubbles, we tend to miss out on things. Everyone has a blind spot. You can only read so many online reviews, and the best way to see the actual products people are using in their daily lives is to ask around.
That’s why I asked my non-tech reporter colleagues at The Verge, along with a few of my friends from our sister sites Eater

For startups, especially e-commerce companies, branding is everything.
A slogan, an ad, even the design of the logo can make the difference between success and failure. But understanding how to develop a brand and strategically evolve that brand over time isn’t the easiest task. Luckily, three experts are coming to Disrupt to talk through the ins and outs.
Red Antler’s Emily Heyward, Brandless’Tina Sharkey, and Casper CEO Philip Krim will join us at TC Disrupt SF in early Septe

Welcome to Cheat Sheet, our brief breakdown-style reviews of festival films, VR previews, and other special event releases. This review was originally posted after the film’s premiere at the 2018 SXSW Interactive Festival, where it played under the title Search. It has been updated for the film’s wide theatrical release.
In 2015, the movie Unfriended landed in theaters, telling a conventional supernatural revenge story with an unconventional conceit: the entire film took place on th

New facial recognition tech at an airport near Washington, DC caught a man attempting to enter the US with false documents, the US Customs and Border Protection said yesterday.While arriving in Washington Dulles International Airport after a flight from São Paulo, the man presented a genuine French passport as his ID. But the facial recognition system flagged the man’s face as not matching the passport photo. Officers then searched his person, as he grew “visibly nervous,&rdq

Last call, folks! Last call to take advantage of the potentially life-changing connections and opportunities that await early-stage founders in Startup Alley. Today is the final day you can secure an exhibit table in Startup Alley at Disrupt San Francisco 2018 — which takes place September 5-7. Buy your Disrupt SF Startup Alley Exhibitor Package today before the clock strikes 5 p.m. PT.
Picture it. You and more than 1,200 exhibitors and sponsors showcasing the latest and greatest

There’s no shortage of “nature soundtracks,” but how many of them are the actual sounds from a US National Park?To celebrate its 102nd birthday, the National Park Service is offering ParkTracks, a 12-minute mix of sounds from across various national parks. The sounds were captured by the NPS’s(wonderfully named) Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division, and the mix is available to download now.If that’s not enough, head over to the website of the Sounds and Night Sk

When Alibaba reported its earnings yesterday, the cloud data got a bit buried in other stories, but it’s worth pointing out that its cloud business grew 93 percent in the most recent quarter to $710 million. That’s down a smidgen from the gaudy triple digit growth of last report, but their market share has doubled in just two years, and they are growing fast.
As John Dinsdale, principal analyst at Synergy Research, a firm that keeps a close eye on the cloud market points out, the dip

The World Bank has launched the first bond on a blockchain with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
The A$110 million ($87 million) bond-i (blockchain operated new debt instrument) — so named, I’m assuming, because of Australia’s famed Bondi Beach (bankers have the funnies!) — is the first bond to be created, allocated, transferred and managed using distributed ledger technology.
The investment is one small step for Australian finance and one giant leap for blockchains in

It’s not just parents who are worrying about their children’s device usage. According to a new study released by Pew Research Center this week, U.S. teens are now taking steps to limit themselves from overuse of their phone and its addictive apps, like social media. A majority, 54% of teens, said they spend too much time on their phone, and nearly that many – 52% – said they are trying to limit their phone use in various ways.
In addition, 57% say they’re trying to

There are so many streaming options available these days, and so many conflicting recommendations, that it’s hard to see through all the crap you could be watching. Each Friday, The Verge’s Cut the Crap column simplifies the choice by sorting through the overwhelming multitude of movies and TV shows on subscription services and recommending a single perfect thing to watch this weekend.
What to watch
Meet the Feebles is a 1989 musical comedy produced and directed by The Lord of the R

Samsung’s new Galaxy Note 9 provides more of everything that fans of big phones want: more battery, more screen, and more power. The phone is now available for purchase in stores now that the preorder period is over. If you snoozed on it until now, you won’t get a free set of AKG noise-canceling headphones or a load of Fortnite V-bucks (the popular title’s in-game currency).For those who waited, the offers available at launch aren’t bad, however. If you buy the Note 9 fr

Microsoft’s Xbox One controllers haven’t always worked well with Android. While Microsoft added Bluetooth to the Xbox One controllers two years ago, a number of games have had issues with button mapping. Google is now officially supporting Xbox One controllers with Bluetooth in its latest Android Pie release. XDA-Developers reports that a Google engineer has closed a long standing bug report on the Xbox One controller mapping issues, noting that they’re fixed in Android Pie.
&

Cyber security has never gone away as a hot topic in the technology sphere and in 2018 it remains an enormous issue. As the next 3 billion or so of the planet’s people come online, it’s never been more important to secure their safety, their privacy and the security of their personal data. As the same time we are already in the process of building the infrastructure of the future. The smart cities and the autonomous cars-to-come will all have to be secure from cyber attack, from priv

Need something to put on that new Wireless Charging Duo? Good news — the Galaxy Note 9 and Galaxy Watch are available now. Here’s the my full 3,000 word review of the Note 9. The TLDR version is, essentially:Good screen
Very good camera
Decently long battery
Interesting new S-Pen tricks
Way, way too priceyAs for the Galaxy Watch, well, I’m wearing that one as I type this. Expect a review in the near future. But in the meantime, I’m enjoying the experience and am glad the

Google has given its data-saving app Datally an emergency bank mode that lets you set aside data for later use. Datally has also added a bedtime mode that switches off apps’ data usage at night to prevent them from wasting data.The new emergency bank feature blocks other apps from using data after you’ve reached your allotted amount for the day. It will also warn you when you’re running low on data. Google suggests you could use the feature to save enough data for an urgent me

The Galaxy Note 9 is available in stores today. It is an excellent flagship device with few flaws, but it is plagued by Samsung’s virtual assistant Bixby. Most people would assume you could turn off Bixby on the Note 9, just like you could on the Note 8, Galaxy S8, and Galaxy S9 phones — but it turns out, you can’t.Unlike Samsung’s prior Galaxy smartphones, there is no “Bixby Key” settings screen within Android’s main settings or the Bixby app. Previous

Waymo, the former Google self-driving project that spun out to become a business under Alphabet, has opened a subsidiary in China.
The unit, called Huimo Business Consulting Co., opened in Shanghai on May 22, according to a filing with China’s National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System. China Money Network was the first to report on the new entity. The unit, which was set up with 3.5 million yuan ($511,000), lists Waymo as an investor.
A Waymo spokesperson confirmed Thurs

After a delay, RED’s Hydrogen One was scheduled to arrive this month. And then it got delayed again until October/November. If and when the phone actually does arrive, however, odds are pretty good you’re not going actually buy the thing. After all, $1,295 is nearly half an Aibo. For most of us, these first official full pictures are the closest we’ll get to RED’s first smartphone, so enjoy them, I guess.Say what you will about the excessiveness of it all (and there&

PayPalis revamping its mobile app. Again. In an effort to keep pace with newcomers like the bank-owned Zelle, PayPal says its new app will focus on making it easier to use its core features – that is, sending and requesting money. That means many of the app’s homescreen buttons – like Offers, Donate, Order Ahead and others are being tucked away underneath a new “More” menu to eliminate some of the clutter.
The PayPal homescreen had gotten a little too busy with all

T-Mobilehas confirmed hackers breached its systems.
The cell giant, currently merging with Sprint, said in a statement that hackers customer stole names, billing zip codes, phone numbers, email addresses, account numbers, and account type — such as if an account was prepaid or postpaid — in what the company described as an “unauthorized capture of data.”
No customer financial or billing data was compromised, the company said.
It’s not known when the breach occu