Technology news

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit is testing out something that, if successful, could help it take on platforms like Twitch and YouTube — live-streaming. The company today announced its first broadcasting tool, which it’s calling the “Reddit Public Access Network.” The software will let eligible users live-stream to a new subreddit called r/pan.
Users who want to tune into broadcasts can do so directly from the subreddit, but top streams will appear on Reddi

It’s Gamescom, which means a slew of video game news is coming out of Germany this week. Already, we’ve learned that Cyberpunk 2077 is coming to Google Stadia, PUBG is getting cross-play support on console, and another big wave of indie games is on the way to the Nintendo Switch. Outside of those announcements, big game shows are also good for another thing: trailers. And so far, Gamescom has not disappointed.We got looks at Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, Cyberpunk 2077, Gears 5, and, of cou

A new study is putting U.S. wireless carriers on blast for slowing down online video traffic, even during periods where they claim they are not.
Research conducted by Northeastern University and the University of Massachusetts found that wireless companies — including the main four U.S. carriers: Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint, all slowed down video traffic from early 2018 to 2019. 
The resulting effect for consumers is delayed load times, buffering, and degradation in qualit

US aerospace startup Astrobotic — a company that wants to establish a delivery service to the Moon — says it will fly its very first lunar mission on top of the United Launch Alliance’s future rocket, named Vulcan. In fact, Astrobotic’s spacecraft, a lunar lander named Peregrine, will be Vulcan’s very first payload ever, scheduled for launch sometime in 2021. If everything stays on track, the mission could send the first private vehicle to the surface of the Moon.
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Image: Aston Martin July was the hottest month on record. Here’s some good news for rich people, though: if your home is in danger of flooding from sea level rise, Aston Martin is now in the business of building lairs for cars.
Yes, one of the first news items to break out of the auto industry’s biggest annual celebration of rare and fancy cars money, the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, is that Aston Martin is starting a service called “Aston Martin Automotive Gallerie

Gmail just gave you the perfect Monday gift: a legitimate excuse to ignore all of your boss's emails. 
According to Google, some users of the company's email service are unable to log into their accounts. The problems were first acknowledged by Google just before 12 p.m. PT today and while access for some people has since been restored, the issue is ongoing for others. 
"The affected users are unable to access Gmail," reads the latest status update (at the time of this writing) from Go

Twitter and Facebook have suspended accounts for running a state-sponsored propaganda campaign targeting Hong Kong protesters.
Twitter says it suspended 936 accounts that were "deliberately and specifically attempting to sow political discord in Hong Kong" as well as 200,000 more "spammy" accounts that were "proactively suspended before they were substantially active." 
The accounts in question targeted protesters in Hong Kong, who have been demonstrating for weeks.
Twitter described the ri

Image: Tesla Tesla has launched a new rental option for its solar panels in a bid to revive its slumping home solar business. The company is offering the new rental plan in six states — Arizona, California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New Mexico — and it will cost as low as $50 per month (plus tax) with no upfront installation costs or long-term contract. The monthly payment also includes support, maintenance, and any “other necessary hardware,” though re

Microsoft’s xCloud service, running Halo on a phone. | Photo by Nick Statt / The Verge See the photo above? That’s not Nvidia — it’s Microsoft’s xCloud, streaming Halo to an Android phone from remote internet servers powered by AMD GPUs. Google will also be bringing its Stadia cloud gaming service to Google Pixel phones from AMD-powered servers, and you’ll be able to try both this fall.
That’s probably why AMD rival Nvidia isn’t sitting still. The

Ad Content from IPVanishNine out of ten Americans feel like they have lost control of how their personal information is collected and used, according to the Pew Research Center. And while precautions exist to safeguard sensitive data, most users feel like they should be doing moreUsually we try to push our concerns to the side. But doing nothing is the online equivalent of handing out flyers on the street corner with your credit card numbers, medical history, and a photo of your driver’s l

T-shirts and other merchandise inspired by convicted sex criminal and financier Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide are challenging online platforms’ moderation policies. Some eBay listings, which were live as recently as this morning, depicted a painting Epstein reportedly kept in his home. Sellers listed shirts and mugs with prints of artist Petrina Ryan-Kleid’s Bill Clinton painting, in which Clinton wears a blue dress and red heels that’s vaguely reminiscent of the outfit Monic

Sony has announced that it’ll be acquiring Insomniac Games, the game development studio behind the Ratchet & Clank series and, most recently, Marvel’s Spider-Man for the PS4.The news isn’t totally surprising: Insomniac has long had a close relationship with Sony, developing PlayStation-exclusive titles like Spyro the Dragon, Resistance, and the aforementioned Ratchet & Clank and Spider-Man, so bringing Insomniac in-house as a first-party studio makes a lot of sense. Tha

Graphic by Michele Doying / The Verge The 2019 Hugo Awards were held on August 18th at the Dublin World Science Fiction Convention (also known as Worldcon) to honor the best science fiction and fantasy works from the last year.
As has been the welcome trend for the past few years, women once again almost completely swept the Hugos. Mary Robinette Kowal’s The Calculating Stars (the first in her Lady Astronaut series) won Best Novel; Artificial Condition by Martha Wells took home Best Novel

We’ve found a few deals that you should know about today, including Vizio’s 65-inch P-Series Quantum 4K HDR TV going on sale for less than $1K for the first time, rare discounts on Nerf guns and accessories, and a few reader-exclusive deals.
The 65-inch Vizio P-Series Quantum 4K HDR TV, which usually hovers around $1,100 or more, is currently $998 at Amazon. This might be a good fit for your home if you want OLED-like picture quality from a less expensive LED TV. No LED TV can curren

Photo by Billy H.C. Kwok/Getty Images Twitter and Facebook have uncovered and suspended a network of fake accounts that were believed to have been operated by the Chinese government. On Monday, both companies disclosed their investigations into the coordinated information operation, which was apparently intended to sow political discord around the protests taking place in Hong Kong.
According to Twitter, 936 accounts created within the People’s Republic of China were found to be “de

At long last, we can say for sure that dogs love the fine arts.
Earlier this month, a group of service dogs attended a theater performance of Billy Elliot at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, Canada. After the show, a photo of some of the dogs sitting up diligently in their seats made the rounds on Twitter. This makes sense: The photo is so cute that it does not even seem real.ICYMI: We had some pawsitivly adorable audience members from K-9 Country Inn Service Dogs during last weeks Relaxed Per

Maybe you've heard the dinner party fact that the Netherlands is the only country in the world that has more bicycles than people. (If not, go ahead and steal that for your next dinner party!) And here's another one: It only makes sense that the world's largest bicycle parking facility can be found in the country as well.
It just got even bigger.
Located in the city of Utrecht near Central Station, the 24/7 ride-in facility now features enough storage for a casual 12,500 bikes, including regular

Oh, hey, would you look at that — another article telling you to update something. However, in the case of the VLC Media Player installed on your computer, you really actually should. 
VideoLAN, the non-profit maker of the popular media player, issued a security bulletin announcing the update and clarified that this was not just about pushing out a fancy new digital skin or some feature-tweaking. Rather, the update addresses a host of security vulnerabilities that have the potential t

Image: HBO Westworld Awakening, a new video game developed by HBO and Sprint Vector studio Survios, was the first time in a long time I’ve felt actual fear while in virtual reality. I was embodying Kate, a recently self-aware android in the universe of the hit HBO show about artificial intelligence, and I was instructed by my human companion over voice com to start sprinting. If I didn’t, a murderous, deluded android — unaware that he was no longer tasked with playing his scri

Instagram is getting serious about rooting out third-party apps that break its rules.
The company announced a new bug bounty program specifically aimed at finding third-party apps that misuse Instagram data. Facebook put the program in place last spring, but it didn't apply to Instagram until now.
Instagram's new bug bounty program comes less than two weeks after Business Insider reported that HYP3R, once touted as one of the company's "preferred marketing partners," had scraped location data an

You know the feeling of instant regret when you get too far into a situation you don't know how to get out of? Imagine that, plus lions.
You don't have to travel across the world to go on a virtual safari with safariLIVE's YouTube livestreams and videos, which takes viewers on sunrise and sunset trips across the Greater Kruger National Park and Maasai Mara National Reserve. But Safari guide Steve might've wanted his latest trip to be virtual.
During a tour, Steve gets out of his truck to follow

OKRs, or Objectives and Key Results, are a popular planning method in Silicon Valley. Like most of those methods that make you fill in some form once every quarter, I’m pretty sure employees find them rather annoying and a waste of their time. Ally wants to change that and make the process more useful. The company today announced that it has raised an $8 million Series A round led by Accel Partners, with participation from Vulcan Capital, Founders Co-op and Lee Fixel. The company, which la

We can already hear the school bells ringing, drawing this summer to a close. While you might not be able to enjoy pool days and ice cream shop visits anymore, there are still some fun treats in store during this season. We're talking about back-to-school sales.
Brands like PhoneSoap, Tile, and Cratejoy are offering some sweet discounts to kick off the new school year. While these kinds of deals are nice, we're aware that you need actual school supplies as well.
Sales can crop up for random item

Mrs. Maisel is going on tour! The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel's Season 3 teaser is here to haunt you for the next four months as Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) gears up to go on tour with Shy Baldwin (Leroy McClain). 
Tour life is at once everything and nothing Midge and manager Susie (Alex Borstein) ever expected – especially not with that glimpse of Sterling K. Brown in the mix (also, Joel is still around. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯).
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 3 premieres Dec. 6 on Amazo

Summer is starting to wind down and fall is approaching faster than many of us realize, which means lower temperatures, less sun, and the beginning of hygge season. While you could sit around and let the end-of-summertime sadness get you down, you also could do something about it instead — like buy yourself a nice gift to distract you from the slowly fading sunshine.
SEE ALSO: 8 of the best laptops for kids in 2019
We’re here to help you get through the end of the best season of the

TL;DR: Get the powerful AirZeus 3-in-1 fast wireless charging pad for $39.99. It's usually priced at $99, so you'll be saving an impressive 59% off. It's been almost half a year since Apple announced that they've effectively killed the AirPower. With no immediate plans of kickstarting the project again, it's time to look elsewhere for your charging needs.
The AirZeus 3-in-1 fast wireless charging pad is one such option, and it's about a quarter of the price of big-name alternatives. Drawing

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge So far, the excellent Beats Powerbeats Pro true wireless earbuds have only been available in black, but the other colors announced several months ago — ivory (off-white), moss (green), and navy — are arriving by the end of this month. They’ll also cost $249.95.Apple tells me you’ll be able to order them online beginning on August 22nd at 12:01AM PT / 3:01AM ET. All three new Powerbeats Pro colors will start shipping on August 30th and sho