Technology news

A trending and vastly expanding GitHub database where Chinese developers have been airing their workplace grievances may be at risk of censorship. A number of internet users in China are reporting seeing their access to the database cut off when using browsers offered by companies like Tencent, Alibaba, Xiaomi, and Qihoo 360, as first spotted by Abacus. There’s no indication yet that these censorship efforts may have originated from government orders.
Some of the companies that are report

The prevailing strategy in the mobile space as far as cameras go these days seems to be “more is always better,” and leaks (courtesy of OnLeaks, posting at CashKaro) of a new, as yet unknown Motorola device featuring four rear shooters seem to indicate that the company is diving headfirst into the trend.Details at this stage are predictably slim, but we do know a few things: in addition to the plethora of cameras, the device will offer a 6.2-inch display with a teardrop notch (simil

Today’s best deals include a few exclusive offers for readers of The Verge, as well as savings at Amazon on TP-Link networking and smart home products. We’re also seeing a 2019 Samsung QLED TV falling hundreds of dollars below its retail price.Starting things off, you can save over $300 on a Pixel 3 or Pixel 3 XL by buying refurbished instead of new at Daily Steals. The Pixel 3 in black with 64GB of storage will only cost $462.99 with the offer code THEVERGE3 (usually $799.99). If y

Google released its second Android Q developer preview today for all Pixel phones. They’re mostly under-the-hood tweaks, but the update also helps get apps and games ready for the first wave of foldable phones, and it brings along Bubbles, Google’s new take on multitasking that looks similar to Facebook Messenger’s Chat Heads, which could change how Android looks and works depending on how it’s implemented.
See the animated GIF immediately above? That’s Android Q&r

Will Apple’s new foray into streaming be able to swim in the same waters as Netflix and Disney, or will it go the way of Verizon’s Go90? Recode executive editor Peter Kafka and The Verge’s editor-in-chief Nilay Patel discuss Apple’s plan for streaming, news, and more.
You can listen to the discussion in its entirety on The Vergecast right now. Below is a lightly edited excerpt from this interview regarding Apple’s potential plans for streaming TV.
Peter Kafka: So t

Toyota will allow other companies to use nearly 24,000 patents related to its hybrid car technology, the Japanese automaker announced Wednesday. The patents will be available to license for royalty-free use until 2030, and Toyota will also offer consultation services for a fee. Toyota had previously licensed its hybrid technology to automakers like Nissan, Mazda, and Subaru before today’s announcement.Toyota is the most prolific maker and seller of hybrid vehicles in the world, with about

Marvel’s latest superhero flick, Captain Marvel, just crossed a big milestone: it’s earned more than $1 billion at the global box office, according to Variety. The film is the seventh in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to hit that mark, joining the likes of Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War.After being teased in last year’s Infinity War, fans were eagerly anticipating the film and its titular character to arrive in a standalone spot, given Captain Marvel’s expected

Facebook app developers left hundreds of millions of user records exposed on publicly visible cloud servers, researchers from security firm UpGuard said today.The researchers said the larger of the two data sets came from a Mexican media company called Cultura Colectiva. A 146GB data set with information like Facebook user activity, account names, and IDs was found that included more than 540 million records, the researchers said. A similar data set was also found for an app called “At th

The Food and Drug Administration just issued a special announcement about a new health risk that they worry may be linked to e-cigarettes: seizures.Since June 2018, the agency received what it called “a recent uptick” in reports where users describe having seizures that may be connected with their e-cigarette use. The FDA collects information about vape safety risks through their Safety Reporting Portal, where people who use e-cigarettes can share their experiences. Between reports

The comprehensively named Anker PowerCore Fusion Power Delivery Battery and Charger is now available on Apple’s online store. This is one of the new generation gallium nitride chargers, which use the power of science and clever engineering to shrink the charging tech down to much tinier proportions, which in the case of this gadget has allowed Anker to also fit a portable battery inside. What you get is a 42W charger — with a 30W USB-C output for juicing up your laptop or more deman

Managed by Q, the office management platform based out of New York, has today been acquired by The We Company, formerly known as WeWork.
Financial terms were not disclosed. The WSJ reports that it was a cash and stock deal. Managed by Q, which has 500 employees, will remain as a wholly owned separate entity and CEO Dan Teran will remain following the acquisition to join WeWork leadership.
Upon its latest financing in January, Managed by Q was valued at $249 million, according to PitchBook.
Here&

The first crewed test flight of Boeing’s new Starliner spacecraft will no longer be a quick trip to the International Space Station, but will last for months — just like a full-fledged mission. But don’t expect it to happen for a while. NASA announced today that the company is now targeting August for Starliner’s first uncrewed flight test, with the longer crewed flight happening sometime in late 2019.
The new target dates, which have already been reported, represent a s

Hometalk, a DIY community site with just under 10 million monthly users and more than 21 million monthly visits, today announced that it has raised a $15 million growth round led by NFX, with participation from WeWork founder and CEO Adam Neumann and Altair Capital.
If you’re not familiar with Hometalk,you can think of the site as kind of a DIY-centric Houzz, with a focus on visuals and step-by-step guides for doing projects inside your home. Those user-written guides cover everything from

A couple of weeks after Apple shipped its second-generation AirPods, the company’s Beats division is finally making its own entrance into the true wireless earbuds market. The new $249.95 Powerbeats Pro ship in May and are Beats’ most significant product in years. I get the feeling that, for many people, these are going to prove even more compelling than AirPods. They offer longer battery life, they seal fully in your ears without letting in outside noise, they include the same Appl

Last week, I forgot to write a Vergecast post for the site.
Also last week, The Verge all got together to see what part of capitalism Apple can disrupt next. As you may have guessed from reading the site in the past week, it was credit cards, television, and news.Our faithful tech luminaries and hosts of The Vergecast Nilay Patel, Dieter Bohn, and Paul Miller brought in resident home television expert Chris Welch to the show to analyze these Apple announcements and what they mean for the future

April showers bring Game of Thrones back for its final season on the 14th on HBO and HBO Now. We’re anticipating large CGI dragons, final face-offs between rivals for the throne, more political intrigue and outmaneuvering, and likely, all-out war. At the very least, we get to see how the entire saga comes to an end.
If you’re someone who has never really caught up on Game of Thrones episodes and have no desire to, there are plenty of other shows and films to catch this month. Hulu h

Verizon today announced that it has officially deployed its 5G mobile service in certain parts of Chicago and Minneapolis, which are the first two of 30 cities where it plans to bring its 5G wireless network this year. The surprise launch is one week earlier than the date the company initially announced, with the company noting that customers can expect average download speeds of 450 Mbps, and peak speeds could reach “nearly 1 Gbps.”
To use Verizon’s 5G network, customers will

AI researchers from Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and a number of top universities have called on Amazon to stop selling its facial recognition technology to law enforcement.
In an open letter published today, researchers say studies have repeatedly shown that Amazon’s algorithms are flawed, with higher error rates for darker-skinned and female faces. The researchers say that if such technology is adopted by the police, it has the potential to amplify racial discrimination, create cases of

We’re thrilled to announce that The Verge is nominated for three Webby Awards in 2019, and you can help us win. We’ve been nominated for our Verge Science channel on YouTube, The Vergecast, and Why’d You Push That Button?You can vote for each program to win the People’s Voice Award by following the links below.Start here to vote for Verge Science for the best science and education video channel. And subscribe to Verge Science on YouTube, if you haven’t already.Then

Huawei has patched a bug in some of its MateBook laptops that could have allowed an attacker to take control of the system. The bug was discovered by Microsoft and patched by Huawei back in January. Ars Technica notes that the issue was related to the company’s PCManager software, which appeared to be using a technique devised by the National Security Agency that was subsequently leaked and used in malware attacks.
A cybersecurity expert quoted by the BBC said that “the fact that it

We have only 36 days left until TNW2019, our tech conference in Amsterdam! Here are some fun facts about the number 36: It appears in the title of Wu-Tang Clan’s album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) +36 is the area code of Hungary It’s the number of gallons in a beer barrel There will be lots of beer at TNW Conference on May 9 and 10 – and no one will go Hungary, thanks to our many food trucks. We’ll also definitely play some Wu-Tang at our afterparty. So, with only 36

From flocks of birds to fish schools in the sea, or towering termite mounds, many social groups in nature exist together to survive and thrive. This cooperative behavior can be used by engineers as “bio-inspiration” to solve practical human problems, and by computer scientists studying swarm intelligence. “Swarm robotics” took off in the early 2000s, an early example being the “s-bot” (short for swarm-bot). This is a fully autonomous robot that can perform ba

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies might have had a good week so far, but it’s not quite enough to make up for this Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency mining firm‘s 2018 losses. In its 2018 financial report, released yesterday, cryptocurrency mining firm Riot Blockchain posted a $58 million loss. According to the report, the firm generated $7.7 million in mining revenue, earning 1,081 Bitcoin (including conversions from Bitcoin Cash) and 3,023 Litecoin. This was done at its facility in Ok

Adobe’s After Effects now has the power of Photoshop’s content-aware fill for video, as introduced in today’s Spring update. The feature lets users remove unwanted objects videos, and it uses Adobe Sensei’s machine learning platform to replace the tediousness of having to edit frame by frame.While content-aware fill in Photoshop can remove unwanted objects from still images, today’s feature is impressive because it can automatically track objects in moving scenes a

When everyone always tells you “yes,” you can become a monster. Leaders especially need honest feedback to grow. “If you look at rich people like Donald Trump and you neglect them, you get more Donald Trumps,” says Torch co-founder and CEO Cameron Yarbrough about our gruff president. His app wants to make executive coaching (a polite word for therapy) part of even the busiest executive’s schedule. Torch conducts a 360-degree interview with a client and their employe

Warner Bros. has released the first trailer for Joker, its upcoming origin story for the classic Batman villain. It’s directed by Todd Phillips, and it stars Joaquin Phoenix as the titular character.The trailer gives us our first look at Phoenix’s depiction of the character, a clown and comedian from Gotham named Arthur who seems to have fallen on hard times. He’s beaten up and humiliated on the streets and in the subway, and he muses, “Is it just me, or is it getting cr

TNW took a trip to the Maker Faire in Lille to find the weirdest and wackiest devices around – and we discovered just that. We’re releasing a new video every couple of days and this is where you can find them all. If you’re unfamiliar with the Maker Faire, it’s a worldwide event where people come to share their inventions. These can be anything from furniture made out of old oil drums, all the way through to DIY drone racing. Basically, it’s a hotbed of creati

Google is starting to expand the availability of Duplex, its automated calling service for booking restaurant reservations. The service launched on Google’s Pixel 3 and 3 XL in December, and it expanded to all Pixel phones in March. At the time, Google said it would also roll out Duplex to iOS devices and other Android phones, and it looks like that’s now starting to happen.
XDA-Developers reports seeing Duplex work on Samsung’s Galaxy S10 Plus. We haven’t seen reports o

This video is part of our series on Lille’s Maker Faire. To stay up-to-date on releases (and to find out more), check out our master post here. Sometimes an idea is so simple and pure, you’re shocked that no one has done it before. This is not one of those ideas. So, welcome one and all, to the world of musical pineapples. This concept comes from Playtronica, a company that aims to educate people through the use of – as they put it – audio experiences. And, well, it&rsqu

Using your smartphone or tablet's built-in speakers should only ever be a last resort if you want to listen to your favourite playlists. With many Bluetooth speakers out there, it's the perfect time to invest in a great device for a superior listening experience. You don't even have to worry about buying a bulky unit that's tied into a power supply.
Plenty of portable Bluetooth speakers are high quality, while also offering the flexibility of a great battery life and added convenience. These are

After much anticipation, Lyft stock hit the public markets last week, with a nearly 10% pop on its first day of trading. However, concerns over the company’s lofty valuation, deep losses and uncertain path to profitability have caused the stock to fall flat in the days since.
TechCrunch’s resident transportation expert Kirsten Korosec and venture capital ax Kate Clark have been on the case, closely following the market’s reaction and the evolving theses around Lyft&rs

Parker Conrad’s last startup, Zenefits, drowned in busy work. Now with Rippling, he wants to boil that ocean. Instead of trying to nail one thing then expand, “very counter to conventional wisdom, we took on something that’s a lot broader and more ambitious.” That meant spending two years with 40 engineers working in stealth to build integrations with nearly every popular business tool to combine HR, IT and single-sign on services. The result is that when you hire an empl

The flood of free porn online has made things hard for professionals who are looking to make a living. For every video-on-demand service, there are dozens of free alternatives and outright pirated films to choose from. Facing the new reality of their industry, many pornographers have gotten creative about how they bring in the bucks, enlisting crowdfunding sites like Indiegogo and Patreon as a new way to make money in the porn business.
Over the past 14 years, Pink and White Productions has est

Reading platform Scribd is launching a new original content program called Scribd Originals today, a long-form content experiment featuring notable authors such as Roxane Gay and Garrett Graff. Stories will be exclusively available to Scribd subscribers as ebooks and as audiobooks.The company’s first offering will launch today: Mueller’s War by Graff. He’s known for books such as The Threat Matrix: The FBI at War, which looked at then-FBI director Robert Mueller’s tenure

Tel Aviv’s Run.AI, a startup that is building a new virtualization and acceleration platform for deep learning, is coming out of stealth today. As a part of this announcement, the company also announced that it has now raised a total of $13 million. This includes a $3 million seed round from TLV Partners and a $10 million Series A round led by Haim Sadger’s S Capital and TLV Partners.
It’s no secret that building deep learning models take a hefty amount of GPU power or access t