Technology news

Minecraft may be having a moment again thanks to newfound interest from popular YouTubers and an uptick in nostalgia-induced playing, but even the world-building crafting game can’t compete with Roblox.Roblox, a popular digital playground similar to communities like Habbo Hotel and games like Second Life, has hit a new milestone — 100 million monthly active users. The company celebrated by released an exclusive, limited-edition accessory for players, which can be redeemed for free.&l

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images On Friday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) put out a new bill that would give the United States’s antitrust enforcers the ability to seek fines over anti-competitive behavior, something that, if approved, could scare big companies into following the law because there would be clear punishments for violations.
Right now, the federal government has its hands tied when it comes to punishing anti-competitive behavior. In most cases, the FTC opts to settle with comp

Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images Epic’s first year of competitive Fortnite wrapped on Sunday with the World Cup in New York, but the developer has certainly been keeping busy. The battle royale hit’s tenth season launched just yesterday, and today the developer has released details about the title’s e-sports future. Starting August 17th, Epic will be hosting the Champion Series, a new online tournament circuit designed to replace its the season model it experimented with start

Photo: Ryan Hadji/Red Bull Content Pool Tyler “Ninja” Blevins — the Fortnite livestreamer and all-around entertainer — had his first exclusive broadcast on Microsoft’s Mixer platform; in the moments before his broadcast officially began, the number of people watching his stream crossed 50,000 and 60,000 people to land, in its first moments, somewhere around 76,000 sets of eyes. (It grew to 80,000 just after Blevins’s first victory.)
Mixer competes with Twitch

Samsung appears to have a new Windows laptop on the way with a design that seems to have taken some inspiration from Microsoft. The Galaxy Book S, which was leaked this afternoon by reporter Evan Blass, has a very square, mono-color keyboard and trackpad layout that very much resembles the design of Microsoft’s Surface Laptop, minus the Surface’s trademark fabric covering.
The reset of the computer is more of a departure, though. From the side, it still looks a lot like a Samsung lap

Philipp Plein Ferrari doesn’t like what German fashion designer Philipp Plein is doing with its Italian luxury cars. In a series of Instagram posts this week, Plein claims that Ferrari is threatening to sue him because he posted images of his sneakers on the hood of his own personal supercar. Ferrari says Plein’s behavior “tarnishes the reputation of Ferrari’s brands and causes Ferrari further material damage.”Ferrari’s letter to Plein also says he using Ferr

Nearly three years ago, TechCrunch reported on suspected fraud committed by Mike Rothenberg, a self-described “millennial venture capitalist” who’d made a name for himself not only by eponymously branding his venture firm but for spending lavishly to woo startup founders, including on Napa Valley wine tours, at luxury boxes at Golden State Warriors games and, most famously, hosting an annual “founder field day” at the San Francisco Giants’ baseball stadium tha

In an era of massive data breaches, most recently the Capital One fiasco, the risk of a cyberattack and the costly consequences are the top existential threat to corporations big and small. At TechCrunch’s first-ever enterprise-focused event (p.s. early-bird sales end August 9), that topic will be front and center throughout the day.
That’s why we’re delighted to announce United’s chief information security officer Emily Heath will join TC Sessions: Enterprise in San Fran

Nyca Partners, a firm with investments in financial technology businesses including PayRange, Trellis, Affirm and Acorns, has collected another $210 million for its third venture capital fund.
Located in New York, Nyca’s debut fund closed on $31 million in 2014. Its second fund, a similarly focused fintech effort, raised $125 million in 2017.
Venture capital investment in fintech is poised to reach new heights in 2019, according to PitchBook. So far this year, investors have bet $8.6 billi

Photo by Avishek Das/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Chinese startup ByteDance, which owns the popular short-form video app TikTok, clarified that its smartphone will not be launching in the US, Forbes reports. According to a ByteDance spokesperson, reports from earlier this week that the company was planning to produce a smartphone through a deal with device maker Smartisan were misunderstood.Earlier this year, ByteDance acquired a number of Smartisan’s patents and brought over

Northrop Grumman is going to be working on the U.S. Army’s long-planned drone-killing lasers.
The Army wants to mount 50 kilowatt laser systems on top of its General Dynamics-designed Stryker vehicle as part of its U.S. Army Maneuver Short Range Air Defense (M-SHORAD) directed energy prototyping initiative.
Basically, the army wants to use these lasers to protect frontline combat troops against drone attacks.
The initiative includes integrating a directed energy weapon system on a Stryker

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1. Apple suspends Siri response grading after privacy concerns
After The Guardian ran a story last week about how Sirirecordings are used for quality control, Applesays it’s suspending the program worldwide while it reviews the process.
The practice, known as grading, involves sharing audio

Here are five words you’ll never hear spring from the mouth of an early-stage startupper. “I don’t mind paying more.” We feel you, and that’s why we’re letting you know that the price of admission to TC Sessions Enterprise 2019, which takes place on September 5, goes up next week.
Our $249 early-bird ticket price remains in play until 11:59 p.m. (PT) on August 9. Buy your ticket now and save $100.
Now that you’ve scored the best possible price, get ready

Grab popcorn. As internet fights go, this one deserves your full attention — because the fight is over your attention. Your eyeballs and the creepy ads that trade data on you to try to swivel ’em.In the blue corner, the Internet Advertising Association’s CEO, Randall Rothenberg,who has been taking to Twitter increasingly loudly in recent days to savage Europe’s privacy framework, the GDPR, and bleat dire warnings about California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) &mdash

Tess Hatch Contributor Tess Hatch is an investor at Bessemer Venture Partners, where she invests in frontier technology, specifically commercial space, quantum computing and drones. More posts by this contributorSpace is open for business
Imagine a world where drones deliver emergency medical supplies to people in need. Or shuttle commuters from place to place avoiding ground traffic and breaking down the geographical divide between cities and suburbs.
Autonomous drones could spray pesticides o

In Google’s quest to dark mode everything, Google Fit users can now switch to dark theme to see their rings fill up in even more vivid contrast. In addition to dark theme, the Google Fit app is also being updated to track sleep patterns by pairing it to apps or fitness trackers you use that also offer that tool.
Sleep patterns will now be displayed over time with purple bars that show you how many hours, and between which hours, you’re asleep. It doesn’t seem to show specific d

Photo by Nick Statt / The Verge Electric scooter companies like to tout their green credentials, frequently reminding riders that every two-wheeled trip they take can help reduce carbon emissions and fight climate change — but the truth is much more complicated.A new study from North Carolina State University found that shared e-scooters may be more environmentally friendly than most cars, but they can be less green than several other options, including bicycles, walking, and certain mode

Image: Tested Adam Savage is a bit of a fan of Ridley Scott’s film Alien. He spent years constructing his own replica of Kane’s space suit from the film, visited the sets of Alien: Covenant to check out the props, and wandered around San Diego Comic-Con with a space suit from the same film. Now, he has a new suit in his collection: one that a group of high school students constructed for their stage adaptation of the film.Back in March, the students of North Bergen High School in Ne

Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple announced this week that iPhones now make up less than half of its business for the first time since 2012. Does this move its services business to the forefront? Well, this week on The Vergecast, Nilay Patel, Dieter Bohn, and Paul Miller speculate.In the second half of the show, senior reporter Adi Robertson joins the crew to discuss Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-MO) bill, which tackles tech companies’ “addiction” problems by limiting features that

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Online retailer eBay has sued three Amazon managers for allegedly infiltrating eBay’s platform to poach sellers. The lawsuit, filed earlier this week in California, claims Amazon employees signed up for eBay under false names and pretenses. Then, they would allegedly send private messages inviting sellers to Amazon, actively circumventing eBay’s rules and filters.
eBay has accused Amazon of poaching before. It sent a cease and desist letter la

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge We’re seeing the first big uptick in deals today since Amazon Prime Day in mid-July. Most of them are happening at Best Buy, which is having a three-day sale on Amazon products, like Kindles, Echo Dot smart speakers, and smart home tech. It also has plenty of other things discounted, like Beats headphones, the iPad Air, and more. Of course, I’ve included deals that you should know about from other retailers, too.
Several Kindle models are deeply dis

Image: Hello Games The next major expansion for No Man’s Sky, Beyond, is launching on August 14th. In a blog post announcing the release date, the game’s director, Sean Murray, said that the free expansion will contain three major updates rolled into one. Beyond will be available for the game across PS4, Xbox One, and PC.Notably, the expansion builds virtual reality support into the PS4 and PC versions of the game. In this mode, you move around the game’s universe by teleporti

Photo: Netflix 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
The first episode of Derry Girls, a sitcom created by Northern Irish

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge TikTok stars wanted to be taken seriously in 2018. Now, one year after Musical.ly became TikTok and skyrocketed its creators into mainstream fame, they want to start earning money for the videos they produce.“On YouTube, you get money from the views you get, but on TikTok you don’t get money from views right now,” Javi Luna, a TikTok creator with 4 million followers, told the BBC.
For the most part, TikTok doesn’t offer creators a

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Last year, Amazon cut a deal with Apple to bring direct iPhone sales to its platform for the first time. Now, that deal is coming under scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission, The Verge has learned.The deal was first announced last fall, ostensibly as a way for Apple to sell on Amazon in an official capacity and cut down on counterfeit or misleadingly marketed products. However, it had the effect of kicking off hundreds of legitimate sellers that were

Ubiquitilink’s payload attached to a Cygnus cargo capsule in February | Image: NASA The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched to the International Space Station last week carried a tiny package that could eventually lead to the smartphone you have in your pocket getting cell service from space. If it works, the instrument could be a precursor to a giant constellation of thousands of mini-satellites that function as cell towers circulating all over the globe.
The package is the product of a

Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Verizon has (rather confusingly) offered three different types of “unlimited” data plans for the past two years, but today, the carrier is looking to clear up that confusion by replacing them with four unlimited plans. Sorry, did I say “clear up”? I meant “make everything even more confusing.”Three “unlimited” plans turned into four
The changes aren’t that sweeping: there are $5 pr