Technology news

A tweet thread from Vox host Carlos Maza outlining several instances of right-wing YouTube commentator Steven Crowder making homophobic and racist comments about him has prompted an investigation by YouTube, the company confirmed to The Verge.
Maza is the host of Vox’s Strikethrough series — a show about media, politics, and technology. (Disclosure: Vox is a publication of Vox Media, which also owns The Verge.) Strikethrough often catches the attention of Crowder, who has published

Motorola hasn’t been competing in the flagship Android arena for a couple of years now, not since the Moto Z2 days. Instead, the company has put its focus on its Moto Mods initiative and the midrange and budget models in its Moto Z and Moto G lines.But some fans may have been holding out hope for a revival of the Force line, the high-end variant of the Moto Z that hasn’t seen a proper release since 2017. Unfortunately, Motorola is outright squashing hopes for a Moto Z4 Force, after

This summer marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission (July 20th, specifically, for the actual date of the Moon landing itself), and Lego is already gearing up to celebrate with a new Apollo 11 Eagle lunar lander set, developed together with NASA.
The set isn’t the first lunar lander from Lego — the company released one in 2003 in partnership with the Discovery Channel — but the new model is much larger, more accurate, and features over twice as many pieces for a mor

Google introduced its confidential mode for Gmail in 2018, a setting that allows people with personal accounts to send messages that can expire, and that prevents recipients from copying their contents, forwarding them to others, or downloading them.It’s in the news again since G Suite users who use Gmail at work will have the ability to use confidential mode starting on June 25th. This feature will be switched on automatically; managers will have the ability to switch it off if they want

While Apple has made some movement toward limiting ad tracking for its apps, the process isn’t foolproof. This can be especially troubling when it comes to kids, who are more vulnerable to advertising and more likely to volunteer sensitive information. According to an article in The Wall Street Journal, Apple is planning to announce new limitations to third-party tracking for kids’ apps, and the obvious opportunity for that is at Monday’s 2019 Worldwide Developers Conference (

Nintendo revealed today it was adding Labo VR support for Smash Bros. Now don’t go getting all lathered up yet. It’s not as extensive as you think — though it’s still pretty nifty for those who want to join two of Nintendo‘s most interesting toys together. The Smash Bros Ultimate patch, which rolled out today, adds support for Labo VR goggles among a few other general improvements. In order to access this feature, you’ll need to update the game and

Today, NASA announced that it has selected three commercial companies to send the first round of robotic landers to the Moon as part of the agency’s overall goal of returning humans to the lunar surface. The three US companies — Astrobotic, Orbit Beyond, and Intuitive Machines — are tasked with developing small spacecraft that can safely carry NASA payloads and instruments to the lunar surface and study the Moon in more detail. Their landers are expected to fly in 2020 and 202

HBO’s biting tech industry satire Silicon Valley is coming to an end with its sixth season slated to air later this year, according to Variety.The show follows the borderline absurd struggles and occasional successes of a group of startup employees trying to maneuver the world of tech, secure funding, and beat out rival products from the giant, soulless corporations trying to crush them. It’s aired since April of 2014, and it was conceived by Beavis and Butt-Head creator and King of

A new Google gadget just appeared under an FCC filing that... well, it’s kind of unclear what exactly it’s supposed to be. The filing identifies the product as a “media device” under model number H2B, which, as noted by Droid Life, fits into the naming scheme of Google’s Home (now Nest) line of products. The original Google Home, Google Home Max, Google Home Hub, and the Google Nest Hub Max were designated H0A, H0B, H1A, and H2A, respectively.
The FCC documents als

There’s a whole lot of ocean on this planet, and we don’t have much of an idea what’s at the bottom of most of it. That could change with the craft and techniques created during the Ocean Discovery Xprize, which had teams competing to map the sea floor quickly, precisely and autonomously. The winner just took home $4 million.
A map of the ocean would be valuable in and of itself, of course, but any technology used to do so could be applied in many other ways, and who knows what

Workplace messaging powerhouse Slackfiled an amended S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday weeks ahead of a direct listing expected June 20.
In the document, Slack included an updated look at its path to profitability, posting first-quarter revenues of $134.8 million on losses of $31.8 million. Slack’s Q1 revenues represent a 67% increase from the same period last year when the company lost $24.8 million on $80.9 million in revenue.
For the fiscal year ending Janua

Microsoft revealed a major Windows security vulnerability earlier this month, that could see a widespread “wormable” attack that spreads from one vulnerable computer to the next. We saw a similar flaw back in 2017 which led to the WannaCry malware causing mayhem for thousands of machines.While Microsoft has released patches for Windows systems, even for older server and Windows XP machines, recent reports have revealed there are at least 1 million systems connected to the internet t

We here at TNW have long recognized the fact that you don’t need the most expensive phones to get impressive performance. This was true years ago, and its doubly true today, as diminishing returns make the differences between mid-tier devices and top-of-the-line phones increasingly negligible. Case in point: Meizu’s new 16Xs checks off almost everything you’d want in a flagship phone in a device that starts around $245 USD. Some of the notable specs (some of which beat more ex

MidBoss, the company behind 2064: Read Only Memories, is kicking off its Summer of Pride gaming celebration to coincide with Pride Month. The event features a myriad of gaming personalities from the LGBTQIA+ community streaming queer-friendly games on Twitch all month long. Participation is simple. All you’ll need is a web browser or the Twitch app to watch – you can sign up for a Twitch account here if you don’t already have one. The festivities begin at 12PM Pacific (UTC-8)

Facial recognition startup Kairos,founded by Brian Brackeen, has settled its lawsuit with Brackeen following his ouster from the company late last year. In addition to forcing him out of the company he founded, Kairos sued Brackeen, alleging the misappropriation of corporate funds and misleading shareholders. In response, Brackeen countersued Kairos, alleging the company and its CEO Melissa Doval intentionally destroyed his reputation through fraudulent conduct.
Now, both Kairos and Brackeen are

Spotify appears to be testing a new feature called Social Listening, which would let multiple users add songs to a queue in real time, somewhat like the defunct social media platform Turntable.fm (minus the chat and open invite policy). The feature, unearthed by reverse-engineering expert Jane Manchun Wong and reported on this morning by TechCrunch, is just a test right now. There’s no indication that it would ever make its way to the consumer version of Spotify.But the screenshots Wong w

The shot clock on serious savings is running out. You have just 72 hours left to sign up for the mailing list to receive €200 off the super early-bird price on any pass to Disrupt Berlin 2019. The official registration opens in three days, and once that happens, the clock runs out. Sad!
Here’s how our pre-registration deal works. Simply sign up for the Disrupt Berlin mailing list before registration officially opens and we’ll email you a discount code to use when it’s time

Over the past year, trade relations between the United States and China have continued to strain under increased tariffs imposed by the Trump administration. Now, President Trump is shifting his focus toward Mexico, another of the US’s top trade partners, and consumer tech groups are worried.On Thursday, Trump announced that he plans to impose a 5 percent tariff on all imported goods from Mexico as a direct response to the number of unauthorized immigrants who are arriving in the United S

The Trump administration implemented a new policy today that will require most visa applicants to provide information about their social media accounts
the ACLU called plan “ineffective and deeply problematic”
The Hill first reported the news. A State Department spokesperson confirmed to The Verge that the new forms requiring accounts were put into use today.
The spokesperson said the policy will require both temporary and permanent travelers to list their accounts when sending an a

When serial entrepreneur Eric Lefkofskygrows a company, he puts the pedal to the metal. When in 2011 his last company, the Chicago-based coupons site Groupon, raised $950 million from investors, it was the largest amount raised by a startup ever. It was just over three years old at the time, and it went public later that same year.
Lefkofsky seems to be stealing a page from the same playbook for his newest company, Tempus. The Chicago-based genomic testing and data analysis company was founded a

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.
1. Once poised to kill the mouse and keyboard, Leap Motion plays its final hand
Leap Motionraised nearly $94 million for its mind-bending demos of hand-tracking technology, but the company was ultimately unable to find a sizable customer base. Even as it pivoted into the niche VR industry, the st

How much value do online publishers derive from behaviorally targeted advertising that uses privacy-hostile tracking technologies to determine which advert to show a website user?
A new piece of research suggests publishers make just 4% more vs if they were to serve a non-targeted ad.
It’s a finding that sheds suggestive light on why so many newsroom budgets are shrinking and journalists finding themselves out of work — even as adtech giants continue stuffing their coffers with massi

Jumia may be the first startup you’ve heard of from Africa. But the e-commerce venture that recently listed on the NYSE is definitely not the first or last word in African tech.
The continent has an expansive digital innovation scene, the components of which are intersecting rapidly across Africa’s 54 countries and 1.2 billion people.
When measured by monetary values, Africa’s tech ecosystem is tiny by Shenzen or Silicon Valley standards.
But when you look at volumes and year o

After a decade in the peculiar world of venture capital, Andreessen Horowitz managing director Scott Kupor has seen it all when it comes to the dos and don’ts for dealing with Valley VCs and company building. In his new book Secrets of Sand Hill Road (available on June 3), Scott offers up an updated guide on what VCs actually do, how they think and how founders should engage with them.
TechCrunch’s Silicon Valley editor Connie Loizos will be sitting down with Scott for an exclusive c

Amazonjust announced that it’s acquiring Sizmek’s ad serving and dynamic content optimization businesses.
“Sizmek and Amazon Advertising have many mutual customers, so we know how valued these proven solutions are to their customer base,” Amazon said. “Sizmek has been searching for a buyer for Sizmek Ad Server and Sizmek DCO, and we are both committed to continuing serving their customers at the high standards they’ve come to expect.”
The company added t

Twilight heartthrob-turned-arthouse darling Robert Pattinson is Warner Bros.’ next Batman.
Variety reported on Friday that Pattinson would play the vigilante in a planned standalone movie called The Batman, helmed by War for the Planet of the Apes and Cloverfield director Matt Reeves. An additional report from Deadline suggested that Pattinson was Reeves’ preferred choice, but Warner Bros. executives weren’t entirely sold. The “studio was torn between him and Nicholas Ho

This week on The Vergecast, Nilay Patel, Dieter Bohn, and Paul Miller discuss all the new laptops revealed at Computex 2019, the new processor chips from Intel and AMD, and what we’re expecting at Apple’s WWDC next week.
In between all of that, we give you updates on the T-Mobile and Sprint merger, 5G connectivity, and Paul’s weekly segment “ATX? more like late-TX,” so keep listening to stay informed.
Stories discussed this week:
Laptops are getting weird and wonde

According to the startups at Factory Berlin, it’s not just another co-working space. After all, the company took its name from Andy Warhol’s famous factory in New York City, and it describes itself as “Europe’s largest club for startups.”
Late last year, we toured Factory Berlin’sfive-story, 14,000-square-meter location in Görlitzer Park. Yes, it’s a building where startups can rent workspace, but as part of the tour, we had a chance to talk to seve

On the App Store, Apple is legislator, judge, jury, and executioner. Apple makes the rules. It has the final say about which apps you can officially purchase, download, and use on your iPhone or iPad. And importantly, Apple can change its mind at any time and make an app disappear — even to promote Apple’s own apps at the expense of a competitor and even if that competitor is a small business that relies on the App Store for its very existence.
As the world takes a closer look at th

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
Swamp Thing, Wes Craven’s 1982 movie about DC’s Swamp Thing, a comic boo

My favorite phone of all time is the BlackBerry Bold 9000. Unlike the iPhone 3G, which touted a revolutionary design when it was announced just a month later in 2008, the BlackBerry Bold wasn’t super flashy. But it had one thing the iPhone 3G didn’t: BlackBerry Messenger. It became a defining characteristic on BlackBerry devices and forever changed how business and casual conversations were held by phone users. Today, after years of dwindling usage and financial woes from BlackBerry