Technology news

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube has changed its rules around community contributions after the feature was misused for a harassment campaign. Under the new rules, contributed translations won’t be published to YouTube until the channel owner has manually approved them, making it harder for trolls to sneak abusive or self-promoting translations onto a popular channel.
Community translations were envisioned as a way for channels with active fanbases to crowdsource translatio

Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images On Sunday, champion boxer Manny Pacquiao announced the launch of his own cryptocurrency before a crowd of fans in Manila. The currency — dubbed the “pac” — is less of a currency than a kind of fan marketplace, giving fans a chance to buy merchandise and interact with Pacquiao in a manner similar to the Jeremy Renner app and similar fanbase projects. But while the value of the Pac is backed by demand from Pacquiao’s sizable fan bas

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is close to releasing Android 10, and as spotted by 9to5Google, two Canadian mobile carriers have leaked dates saying the OS is coming to Pixel phones on September 3rd.
Carriers Rogers and Telus both posted the incoming updates on their support forums. Rogers has since removed the date, but the information is still available on Telus’ site, which says “Android Q + security update” is scheduled for all Pixel phones tomorrow.
While

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple is reportedly working on sleep tracking for its range of Apple Watch wearables. 9to5Mac reports that the feature could be unveiled as early as next week, and is called “Time in Bed tracking.” Codenamed Burrito internally, the Apple Watch sleep tracking is said to track quality of sleep, movement, heart rate, and noises. Like most Apple Watch data, sleep tracking will be available in the Health app and a new Sleep app for the watch.
Apple Watch

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Nokia-branded phones are getting updated to new versions of Android significantly faster than phones from Samsung, LG, Xiaomi, Huawei, or any other major smartphone manufacturer, according to a new study.
Counterpoint Research found that 96 percent of Nokia phones sold since the release of Android Pie have either shipped with or been updated to the latest iteration of Android. Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei each have figures in the 80-plus percent range, but

Speed, especially extremely high speeds, can get pretty abstract. I don’t know about you, but I find it difficult to wrap my head around anything faster than 150 mph, which is the speed most commercial airplanes reach when they take off. So when Bugatti announced today that its Chiron hypercar has smashed through the 300 mph barrier, my brain just found it difficult to accept that such a thing was possible.Fortunately there’s video! Here’s Andy Wallace, Le Mans winner and Bugat

Image: Netflix Netflix has released the first teaser for Rhythm + Flow, the platform’s first music competition series. Rhythm + Flow features Cardi B, Chance the Rapper, and TI as judges looking for the next breakout hip-hop star. It’s set to debut on October 9th.
Rhythm + Flow was first announced in 2018 as a series that would bring together some of music’s biggest names in order to “find fresh talent and help undiscovered hip-hop artists pursue their dreams.”
Net

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook might start testing whether it should begin hiding public-facing like counts.
App researcher Jane Manchun Wong found code inside Facebook’s Android app that hides the exact amount of likes on a post from everyone but the original poster. Other users will just see a few reaction emoji and a note that it was liked by “[a friend] and others” instead of a specific number of other people.
Facebook confirmed to TechCrunch that it&rsqu

Okomotive It can be difficult to find time to finish a video game, especially if you only have a few hours a week to play. In our biweekly column Short Play we suggest video games that can be started and finished in a weekend.
Starting a game with a cold open — no title screen, no options — is risky. It’s something that could very likely be confusing. But in Far: Lone Sails, it sets the expectation that you, the player, are the impetus for everything. Nothing will happen unles

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Animal activists rejoice: the interior of the Tesla Model 3 is now 100 percent leather-free.On Saturday, Tesla announced that the Model 3 is now totally free of leather, including the steering wheel. The company has also vowed that its forthcoming Model Y will also be fully vegan when it debuts in 2020.Model 3 interior is now 100% leather-free pic.twitter.com/2F47zp8A4T— Tesla (@Tesla) August 31, 2019Animal rights groups have been urging the automaker to

Images: Parrot Parrot’s latest iteration on its flagship Anafi drone is all about immersion. The new Anafi FPV (for first person view) is being sold as a package with a headset that puts pilots in their drone’s perspective. But instead of a dedicated screen inside the goggles, Parrot’s approach is to have users slot a smartphone in, similar to headsets like the Samsung Gear VR or Google Cardboard.
The Anafi FPV package will cost $799 when it goes on sale later this month. It w

Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge While Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress holds the crown as the biggest mobile show, it’s Berlin’s IFA that’s Europe’s biggest tech show overall. However, much like CES, its broad focus can make it hard to predict what we’ll see from one year to the next. Some years the show seems to be just as dominated by phones as MWC, but other years wearables or TV announcements often emerge to steal the show.
This year is no different. Whi

India’s Oyo said on Monday it has acquired Copenhagen-based data science firm Danamica as the fast-growing lodging startup works to expand its business in Europe.
Neither of the parties disclosed financial terms of the deal, but a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch that Oyo paid about $10 million to acquire the Danish firm.
Danamica, which was founded in 2016, has built machine learning tools and “business intelligence capabilities” to specialize in dynamic pricing

Image: Kerf By now you’ve probably heard that storing your fancy new Apple Card in leather risks discoloring it. That rules out carrying the card around in a traditional wallet or purse, so why not carry around a small wooden case for your card instead? That’s what Kerf is suggesting, and it’s produced a dead-tree vessel that’s meant to hold precisely one Apple Card. Prices start at $39 for a simple box made out of maple, jumping to $139 if you want a case made of &ldquo

Chinese face-swapping app Zao has blown up within days of launching, however, not without widespread concerns over privacy.
Allowing users to create an almost instant deepfake using their own face in place of a celebrity's, the app — created by social media platform developer Momo Inc. — has become incredibly popular since launching on Friday.
According to the South China Morning Post, posts with the hashtag #zao have seen more than 8 million views on Weibo, China’s version of

It’s Cheat Week at Mashable. Join us as we take a look at how liars, scammers, grifters, and everyday people take advantage of life's little loopholes in order to get ahead.Like gender reveal parties and painfully public engagements, seeing multi-level marketing scams pop up on your feed has become a social media milestone. At some point, you're sure to scroll past pink and blue balloons, watch vertical videos of couples shrieking at Disneyland, and receive the dreaded "Hey girl!" message

Has your Nintendo Switch console seen better days but don't want to wait for the lite model to come out? Lucky for you, Rakuten is offering 15% off sitewide, and you can snag yourself the latest model for $279.64 after code. This new model features a more efficient processor, resulting in better battery life. So you can game longer while on the road without worrying the battery going out.
Check out more of today's best deals from Amazon, Walmart, Rakuten, Home Depot, Adorama, and B&H Photo-V

Image: @AllanXia Zao, a free deepfake face-swapping app that’s able to to place your likeness into scenes from hundreds of movies and TV shows after uploading just a single photograph, has gone viral in China. Bloomberg reports that the app was released on Friday, and quickly reached the top of the free charts on the Chinese iOS App Store. And like the FaceApp aging app before it, the creators of Zao are now facing a backlash over a perceived threat to user privacy.
Twitter user Allan Xia

TL;DR: The reliable HP 14-inch laptop is on sale for £199.99 on Amazon, saving you 20% on list price.Despite what you may think, you don't actually need to spend thousands of pounds to get a quality laptop these days. There are devices out there that combine performance and reliability, for a fraction of the cost of more celebrated models.
The HP 14-inch laptop is currently on sale for just £199.99 on Amazon. This is down by 20% on list price, saving you £50. For this price, yo

TW: physical and emotional abuse. 
Nicki Minaj has penned a powerful thread about toxic relationships and how she learned to love herself. 
Posted on Sunday, the Grammy-nominated rapper's first tweet began with some advice for people who see women in toxic relationships. 
"Rather than laugh & say mean things, try to offer sound advice from your heart & root for her to learn her worth," wrote Minaj. When u see a woman in a toxic relationship, rather than laugh & sa

OK so the Amazon "End of Summer Sale" is over, but that doesn't mean that the deals just stop. No, there are still plenty of great opportunities to save. You just need to work a little harder to find the best offers.
Just kidding, you don't actually have to do anything, because we have lined up the best deals from across the web, with discounted TVs, speakers, electric toothbrushes, vacuum cleaners, and more on offer. You can save on top brands like Philips, LG, Oral-B, Sony, Bose, and more.
The

TL;DR: Grab the illuminating Nuovawhite True Teeth Whitening System for $20.40 in the Mashable Shop. It's typically $249, so you'll save more than 90% during this sale.Whether you're obsessed with coffee or red wine, we're willing to bet your formerly white teeth have paid the price. A teeth whitening treatment (like this one from Nuovawhite) could be exactly what you're looking for.
Nuovawhite is a complete whitening system with enough goods for two people: two sets of custom trays, blue LED ac

TL;DR: Score the NuMe bold hair dryer on sale today in the Mashable Shop: Use code SAVE15TODAY at checkout for an additional 15% off.No matter how hard you try, you just can't get your hair to look as good as it does when you leave the salon. We've got news for you: it's not you, it's your hair tool.
Most of us turn to our old beaten up hair dryer for styling, and that's our first mistake. This NuMe Bold Hair Dryer features integrated negative ion conditioning and far infrared heat, which helps

In his four years as Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau has spent much of that time building a rep as the dream leader of progressives around the world, being praised for his policies around immigration, climate change, and social and gender inequality. But now his crown is starting to slip — and not just because Jacinda Ardern's on the scene.
As Hasan Minhaj explains in the latest, Canada-focused episode of his Netflix show Patriot Act, Trudeau's approval rating has halved in the fac

Apple has acknowledged a flaw in certain Apple Watch models that could lead to the screen cracking, and has launched a replacement program for affected users. Apple or authorized service providers will replace the screen on eligible models free of charge.
“Apple has determined that, under very rare circumstances, a crack may form along the rounded edge of the screen in aluminum models of an Apple Watch Series 2 or Series 3,” the company says on its website. “The crack may begin

Huawei's next flagship phone is coming out on Sept. 19. 
The Huawei Mate 30 announced a launch event in Munich, Germany on Twitter, with a short teaser video that, unsurprisingly, points to the phone's camera as one of its most important features. 
Note that the teaser says "series," meaning that Huawei will launch more than one phone at the event, likely the Mate 30 and the Mate 30 Pro. Did you get it right? The countdown to #HuaweiMate30 starts now!
We're going full circle in Mu

Spotawheel, a startup operating in Greece and Poland with a car dealership model quite similar to Carvana in the U.S., has picked up €5 million in new funding. Backing the online used car dealership is VentureFriends, which led the round, with participation from Velocity Partners and unnamed “strategic” investors.
The investment includes both equity and debt financing, since part of Spotawheel’s business includes purchasing used cars upfront. It brings total raised by the