Technology news

You can find a lot of Halloween-themed coverage on The Verge, but this week also marked the Mexican holiday Día de Muertos — and the 20th anniversary of Grim Fandango, the classic adventure game that was heavily inspired by it. Grim Fandango was one of the last games from the acclaimed studio LucasArts, and its clever blend of noir pastiche and folklore has earned it acclaim since the very beginning, when GameSpot praised its “great writing and beautiful art direction.”

Amazon is apparently narrowing in on its location for its second headquarters: Crystal City, Virginia, on the outskirts of Washington DC in Northern Virginia. The Washington Post says that the company has “held advanced discussions” that are “more detailed” than similar talks happening in other candidate locations in the immediate region and around the country.The Post says that the talks have included discussions about which buildings the company can occupy, and how qui

Black Friday isn’t quite here yet, but we wouldn’t blame you for assuming it was late November already given the amount of deals that have started to pop up. Target has unleashed its Black Friday ad, and we expect others to follow suit shortly.Before things get too hectic with shopping for the holidays, there are a some really good deals to check out — a few of which will expire pretty soon.
Expiring later today, November 3rd, is the big promo blitz for Red Dead Redemption 2 t

Wireless carriers are preparing for 5G connectivity, the next generation of cellular networking that promises to bring faster download speeds to consumers. Hardware manufacturers are also getting ready, with plans already in motion for a number of devices that will take advantage of those faster networks. A new report suggests that Apple will release its 5G phone in 2020.The FCC granted Apple approval to experiment with 5G technology last year, laying the groundwork for a 5G phone down the road

Kim Stanley Robinson is known for his heady and thought-provoking science fiction novels. Aurora turned the concept of a generation ship on its head, following a decrepit interstellar ship sailing for a moon in the Tau Ceti system, while New York 2140 examines the economics of climate change. His latest, Red Moon, is set within spitting distance of today, envisioning the power struggle between an ascendant China and a declining United States. While it’s chock-full of ideas, it’s an

If you spend a lot of time playing the hottest games online, you're bound to run into some network connectivity issues now and then. You could experience the frustrating lag that comes with a slow or weak wireless connection, or you could be booted from your favorite game just as you're winning, causing a stain on your otherwise impeccable win record and leaving you red in the face. 
If you already have high-speed internet, chances are you've experienced one or both of these situations in t

As the midterms approach, a central question has been how campaigns would adapt to the fact their digital ads were now public. Thanks to online archives established this year by Facebook, Google, Twitter, we now have unprecedented visibility into campaigns. But as I’ve noted here a couple times now, advertisers are working hard to make themselves less visible. The tug-of-war between transparency and obscurity is turning out to be one of the defining stories of this election.
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The US Missile Defense Agency recently destroyed a fake nuclear warhead launched into space. Released last week, a video from defense contractor Raytheon, shows a ballistic missile launch from the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kuai, Hawaii. Also in that video is footage of its interceptor technology, Standard Missile-3 Block IIA, successfully destroying it shortly after being launched from the USS John Finn, a naval destroyer vessel. The launch is notable due to failure in previous systems

More than 20,000 Google employees and contractors participated in the mass global walkout yesterday to protest the company’s handling of sexual harassment allegations against top executives, according to organizers of the protest who published a Medium post this evening. As of September 30th, 2018, Google had 94,372 full-time and contract employees worldwide, meaning more than 20 percent of the entire company participated in the walkout.“We have the eyes of many companies looking at

General Motors said it plans to bring two new electric bikes to market next year — one folding and one compact — as the automaker makes a broader push into electrification and other ideas that try to move beyond its traditional business model of producing and selling gas-power vehicles.
The automaker didn’t have a lot of information to share about the e-bikes or its ultimate plans. For instance, Hannah Parish, director of General Motors Urban Mobility Solutions, wouldn&rsq