Technology news

Apple is being accused of using facial recognition software in its Apple Stores to arrest the wrong person for theft — a New York student who’s now suing Apple for $1 billion. And while Apple tells The Verge it doesn’t use facial recognition technology in its stores, the case is weird enough, and there’s enough wiggle room, that it’s not clear if that’s the whole truth.
Ousmane Bah, 18, claims in a lawsuit that he was incorrectly identified as the robber in s

Twitter’sco-founder and CEO historically doesn’t have the most discerning tastes when it comes to who he decides to engage with. Fresh off the podcast circuit, today a thoroughly beardy Jack Dorsey sat down with President Trump for his most high-profile tête-à-tête yet.
Unlike his recent amble onto the Joe Rogan show, Dorsey’s 30-minute meeting with Trump happened behind closed doors. Motherboard reported the meeting just before Trump tweeted about it.
Great

Postmatesis expanding like crazy ahead of an initial public offering expected later this year. The food delivery business has launched in 1,000 new cities since December, the company announced today.
San Francisco-based Postmates now operates its on-demand delivery platform, powered by a network of local gig economy workers, in 3,500 cities across all 50 states. Postmates does not yet operate in any international markets aside from Mexico City.
“We want to enable anyone to have anything de

Aebi Schmidt, a European manufacturing giant with operations in the U.S., has been hit by a ransomware attack, TechCrunch has learned.
The Switzerland-based maker of airport maintenance and road cleaning vehicles had operations disrupted Tuesday following the malware infection, according to a source with knowledge of the incident.
Systems went down across the company’s international network, including its U.S. subsidiaries, but much of the damage was in the company’s European base. A

Sarah McMillian ContributorShare on Twitter Sarah McMillian leads sales at Temboo. She has been recognized as a leader in diversity and inclusion by MIT, her alma mater, Complex and The Root, and advises tech companies on how to become more diverse and inclusive.In the early 2000s, Hasbro revived its “My Little Pony” toy franchise. Of all the colorful creatures in Ponyville, my favorite were the unicorn ponies.
Unicorn ponies were magical, whimsical and, most importantly, rare. I id

SalesWhale, a Singapore-based startup that uses AI to help marketers and salespeople generate leads, has announced a Series A round worth $5.3 million.
The investment is led by Monk’s Hill Ventures — the Southeast Asia-focused firm that led SalesWhale’s seed round in 2017 — with participation from existing backers GREE Ventures, Wavemaker Partners and Y Combinator. That’s right, SalesWhale is one a select few Southeast Asian startups to have been through YC, it grad

Better late than never, Tumblr has rolled out HTTPS across its entire site.
In a brief post on Tumblr’s engineering page, the company said all Tumblr sites will now have the web encryption setting enabled by default, though it admitted the move was “long-overdue.”
Tumblr, which like TechCrunch is owned by Verizon, has 464 million users and at the time of writing ranks in at 44 of the top 100 sites based on Alexa traffic data. Until the HTTPS switchover, it was the highest ranke

We’re incredibly proud of the programming we put together for this year’s TC Sessions: Robotics + AI. It’s my personal favorite TechCrunch event and I think this year’s way easily our best.
We had top names in the industry like Marc Raibert, Claire Delaunay, Colin Angle, Anthony Levondowski and Melonee Wise join us onstage. But a robotics event is nothing without actual robots, and this year’s demo lineup was every bit as stacked as our speaker list.
It was an excit

Snap is heading in the right direction again. The company revealed in its earnings release today that its daily user base has grown by 4 million people globally. It now has 190 million daily active users, up from the 186 million people who had consistently been using the platform for the last two quarters. This updated number is still 1 million people short of Snapchat’s peak user base since it went public in 2017, but this is still good news for Snap.Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel said in pre

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey met with President Donald Trump on Tuesday, according to a new report from Motherboard. The meeting was prompted by the White House in emails first obtained by Motherboard and reported earlier today.These emails said that the meeting would last 30 minutes meeting and take place behind closed doors. A Twitter spokesperson told The Verge, “Jack had a constructive meeting with the President of the United States today at the president’s invitation. They discussed

Aurora CEO Chris Urmson stopped by The Vergecast to discuss the future of self-driving cars with Nilay Patel and Andrew Hawkins. They explore how the industry has evolved over the years and how long it will take before self-driving cars are commonly used on the road.
You can listen to the discussion in its entirety on The Vergecast right now. Below is a lightly edited excerpt from this interview regarding some of Urmson’s ideas about how he expects driverless cars to be rolled out in the

As eBaycontinues to work through a restructuring strategy, the e-commerce marketplace and online auction pioneer reported earnings for the first quarter of the year that should keep some of the more activist shareholders a little at bay. The company reported revenues of $2.6 billion and non-GAAP net income of $608 million, or diluted earnings per share of $0.67 ($0.57 EPS on a GAAP basis).
Both numbers, in fact, exceeded analysts’ estimates. On average, they had predicted eBay to report EP

I am about to do something we rarely do at The Verge — get excited for an audio product I’ve never actually touched, let alone listened to. But that’s because when it comes to wireless gaming headsets for an Xbox One, the bar is so very, very low that I can’t help thinking SteelSeries’ new dual-wireless Arctis 9X, announced today, will be a better option than what’s out there right now.
What do I mean about a low bar? Well, very few manufacturers even bother

Snapchat appears to have turned the corner after a year of flat or negative user growth thanks to a strong Q1 2019 earnings report. It reached 190 million daily active users, up 2 percent from 186 million in Q4 2018 when it plateaued, but still down from 191 million a year ago. Snap added as many users in Q1 as in the past five quarters combined in part thanks to its newly reengineered Android app. Snap saw $320 million in revenue and -$0.10 non-GAAP EPS, beating Zack’s consensus estimates

After a year of its user count shrinking or staying flat, Snapchat is finally growing again, and more growth is likely on the way. That’s because it’s finally completed the rollout of Project Mushroom, aka a backend overhaul of its Android app that’s 25 percent smaller and 20 percent faster. Designed for India and other emerging markets where iPhones are too expensive, Snapchat saw an immediate 6 percent increase in the number of people on low-end devices sending Snaps within t

Amazon and Kohl’s are expanding their partnership that allows customers of the former to return their items to the latter’s retail stores. Beginning in July, Kohl’s will take back items you’ve ordered from Amazon and want to return for a refund. You don’t need to pack them up in a box, either; the retailer will handle all aspects of shipping and get the items back to one of Amazon’s return centers on your behalf. And everything is completely free. Kohl’

Device addiction plagues us all — even Apple CEO Tim Cook. But children with phones and tablets are even more susceptible to the lures of apps and games, which often use psychological tricks to keep users logging in and regularly returning. A new PSA from Sesame Workshop and advocacy organization Common Sense aims to address kids’ unhealthy use of mobile devices by focusing on one particular problem: devices at the dinner table.
This is not the first time the #DeviceFreeDinner campai

Peter Rawlinson, the chief engineer of Tesla’s Model S sedan, has taken over as CEO of EV startup Lucid Motors, the company announced Tuesday. Rawlinson joined Lucid Motors from Tesla in 2013 as the chief technology officer, and he will retain that role going forward, the company says.Rawlinson replaces Sam Weng, who will retire, according to Lucid Motors. Weng co-founded the company back in 2007 as “Atieva,” with a focus on developing battery systems for electric cars. The co

Reddit is launching two new post types to all subreddits today, Variety reports. Moderators will be able to create event and collection posts, which will help users follow along with discussions centered around live events, breaking news, and TV shows.Event posts allow moderators to schedule posts ahead of time, as well as add time information like start and end time. Users can follow the post and get a notification when the event starts. It’s a useful feature for upcoming events, such as

Compared to most companies, Kerf takes a more sustainable approach to making phone accessories: it fashions them out of a wood casing of your choice. For a limited time, Kerf’s single-coiled wireless charging devices that support up to 10W of power are 20 percent off for readers of The Verge.
Starting at $39, the most affordable configuration of the wireless charging block is made with walnut wood (you can customize the wood grain to meet your taste and budget). It brings a nice accent to

Online mattress seller Casper made a notable entrance into the smart home market earlier this year with the Glow, a smartphone-controlled bedside light with some nifty dimming features and gesture controls. For a company that had never made a consumer electronics device before, it was a surprisingly high-quality gadget. Unfortunately, it’s now much more expensive. Casper has quietly raised the price of the Glow by nearly 50 percent: it’s now $129 for a single unit, up from $89.
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When it comes to working with journalists, so many people are, frankly, idiots. I have seen reporters yank stories because founders are assholes, play unfairly, or have PR firms that use ridiculous pressure tactics when they have already committed to a story.
There is so much bad behavior that I thought that it might be time to write up a list of “DON’Ts” on how not to work with journalists.
I compiled this list by polling TechCrunch’s entire writing staff for their pet p

Startup growth comes from many places, but one option is through “earned media” — stories and mentions in the press. Earned media is great, because the channel is nominally free, and it often can get many more of the right eyeballs than advertising. Minus some sleazy behavior in the journalism world, you should never have to pay a dime to get a story into print other than the work it takes to manage PR (and yes, of course, that can be very expensive, although it doesn’t h

Squarespaceis announcing its first acquisition today, a 13-year-old company called Acuity Scheduling that allows businesses to manage their online appointments.
Squarespace CEO Anthony Casalena noted that the company has been expanding beyond website building already — he said he now wants to provide tools around online presence (i.e. building a website), commerce and marketing.
To do that, Squarespace has been building its own products, but in this case, Casalena said it made more sense t

NASA’s InSight lander, which has been sitting on the surface of Mars since November, just detected its first possible quake on the Red Planet. It’s a big first in the spacecraft’s ongoing mission to listen for rumblings coming from inside the planet. Unfortunately, the so-called “marsquake” was too small to help scientists learn more about Mars’ structure. But the event proves that Mars is seismically active and that InSight might be able to pick up more quak

Group Nine Media has hired Brian Lee as its first executive vice president of commerce.
Lee held a similar role at Maker Studios before its acquisition by Disney, and he also founded the New York-based accelerator SKIG. Group Nine — which was created by the merger of Thrillist, NowThis Media, The Dodo and Discovery-owned Seeker — says Lee’s job will include licensing, merchandising, affiliate advertising and direct-to-consumer products.
“Group Nine has some of the most lo

In February, former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly announced his decision to run for the US Senate in Arizona — a move that he had been thinking about for the last couple of months. As the husband of former US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), Kelly is no stranger to politics. If elected, he will join a very small group of astronauts who have transitioned from an orbital office to one on Capitol Hill.
The Verge spoke to Kelly about his path from astronaut to Senate candidate and how he plans to

Google Voice is one of those services of which people tend to say, “Is that still around? Does anyone still use it?” But don’t be fooled by its longevity: people do still use it — and it’s possible that you may want to as well.
Originally called GrandCentral before it was bought by Google in 2009 and only intermittently updated since, Voice is a telecommunications service that works in conjunction with your existing phone service and offers a free secondary phone n

The RealReal, an online retailer for authenticated luxury consignment, has authorized the sale of up to $70 million in new shares, per a Delaware stock authorization filing discovered by the Prime Unicorn Index. If the company raises the entire amount, it would reach a valuation of $1.06 billion, cementing its status as the newest e-commerce unicorn.
The filing doesn’t guarantee The RealReal will sell the full amount of authorized shares. The company declined to comment on its fundraising

Apple CEO Tim Cook suggested today that for the average person to have their data privacy protected, technology needs to be regulated by the government. “We all have to be intellectually honest, and we have to admit that what we’re doing isn’t working,” Cook said at the Time 100 Summit today in New York where The Verge was in attendance. “Technology needs to be regulated. There are now too many examples where the no rails have resulted in a great damage to society.

In lieu of building out its own full-blown streaming TV subscription service, Verizon is instead putting its weight behind YouTube TV. On Tuesday, the company confirmed that it plans to directly offer YouTube TV to both its broadband and mobile customers. For now, there are zero details on exactly when Verizon will begin selling YouTube TV subscriptions or whether its customers can expect a discount versus just paying for it alone. Verizon says there will be promotions for its customers, but I

Warehouse automation is all the rage in robotics these days. No surprise then, that another emerging player just got a healthy slice of venture funding. Massachusetts-based Locus Roboticsthis week announced that it has secured a $26 million Series C. The round, led by Zebra Ventures and Scale Venture Partners, brings the startup’s total funding to around $66 million.
The five-year-old company produces robotic shelving designed to transfer bins inside of warehouses. Founder Bruce E. Welty w

On Easter Sunday, in the wake of devastating attacks that killed over 300 people, Sri Lanka shut down a large portion of its internet. President’s secretary Udaya Seneviratne said officials had decided to “temporarily block” sites and apps like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, and Viber until investigations concluded — something they claimed was a precautionary measure to curb misinformation. In a statement, Seneviratne said that they “decided to temporarily

Dell’s XPS line has some of the best, most well-rounded Windows laptops you can buy, and the 15-inch variant is about to get even more versatile. Alongside announcements of new models in its gaming-oriented G-Series line and from its Alienware subsidiary, Dell is also revealing that a new XPS 15 is on the way, and it will come with improved graphics that let it double as an entry-level gaming laptop.Even better: the new XPS 15 will also finally get the proper webcam design fix that we saw

Apple is now conducting repairs of MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro keyboards on-site at its stores, and it’s promising a next-day turnaround for pickup in many cases, according to MacRumors. The company previously sent machines out to its repair depot, but it’s now telling its Genius Bar employees to handle “most” keyboard-related repairs at the store “until further notice.” The company wrote in a service memo that “additional service parts have b

The rise of AI-powered surveillance is extremely worrying. The ability of governments to track and identify citizens en masse could spell an end to public anonymity. But as researchers have shown time and time again, there are ways to trick such systems.The latest example comes from a group of engineers from the university of KU Leuven in Belgium. In a paper shared last week on the preprint server arXiv, these students show how simple printed patterns can fool an AI system that’s designed

Today’s best deals include the Apple Watch Series 3 dropping back down to its lowest price of $199, and RavPower’s slim fast-charging 60W USB-C wall charger is also discounted for readers of The Verge. The weeklong sale on Amazon’s Echo Dot smart speakers has come to an end, but we found a deal that still includes a free speaker with the purchase of a smart lighting kit.
The 38mm Apple Watch Series 3 with GPS connectivity is $199 at Amazon. This matches the best deal that we&r

Wing, the Alphabet-owned startup, has become the first drone delivery company to gain the Federal Aviation Administration’s approval to make commercial deliveries in the US. Bloomberg reports that the company was granted the regulator’s blessing after fulfilling many of the safety requirements of a traditional airline.Gaining the FAA’s approval as an airline was necessary for the way Wing wants to operate its drone deliveries. Current FAA regulations prevent a drone from being

Extra Crunch offers members the opportunity to tune into conference calls led and moderated by the TechCrunch writers you read every day. This week, TechCrunch’s Brian Heater and Lucas Matney shared their key takeaways from our Robotics + AI Sessions event at UC Berkeley last week.
The event was filled with panels, demos and intimate discussions with key robotics and deep learning founders, executives and technologists. Brian and Lucas discuss which companies excited them most, as well as

Despite the growing alarm about the harmful effects of sitting too much, Americans are sitting more than in the past — in part because people are spending more leisure time in front of the computers.The association between lots of sitting and bad health is now well-established, but there hasn’t been a lot of data on how sedentary Americans actually are, says Yin Cao, a cancer epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis and co-author of a study published today in the Journal

Seven Dreamers, the Japanese company behind the AI-powered laundry-folding robot Laundroid, has filed for bankruptcy. The company is now in the process of selling and transferring its business, it announced on its website today, which was spotted by Bloomberg editor Gearoid Reidy.Backed by companies like Panasonic and Daiwa House, Laundroid had ambitious dreams to be the ultimate wardrobe organizer for the entire household. It had multiple cameras and robotic arms to scan a load of laundry, and

Nvidia’s announcement of its new GTX 1660 Ti and 1650 mobile graphics cards claimed that over 80 laptops would soon include them, and we’re hearing about a few of those laptops today. Asus, Acer, Lenovo, and other vendors are stepping to the plate with upcoming machines that support these Nvidia GPUs. Either card will bring sizable performance gains if you haven’t upgraded your laptop in a while.As is always the case with gaming laptops, prices vary wildly depending on the con

Starting today, Amazon Prime members in the US can have their packages delivered directly to their garages. Key for Garage, which Amazon first announced back in January, is an expansion of the company’s existing Amazon Key service, which already lets Amazon’s drivers deliver packages directly into your home or the trunk of your car. It’s a compromise between the invasiveness of letting a driver into your home and the risk of leaving a package vulnerable to the elements, not to