Technology news

Illustration by James Bareham / The Verge Facebook says politicians don’t have to follow its normal posting guidelines, unless they’re running an ad. The company clarified the rules around politicians’ content today, saying that “it is not our role to intervene when politicians speak.” However, they may still have posts removed if the content could “lead to real world violence and harm.”
The rule echoes a similar policy from Twitter, and it builds on pr

Amazon Some Amazon employees and their families in Seattle now have access to a new app called Amazon Care, a program that provides users with access to health professionals over video chat and text. The move comes as Amazon has sought to cut internal health costs even as it’s continued to muscle into the growing health care market.Amazon is partnering with a Washington state-based company called Oasis Medical Group to provide the telemedicine service to its employees in Seattle, but ther

Sony hosted a State of Play conference today, where it unveiled a release date for Wattam, the next game from the creator of Katamari Damacy, and offered a deeper look at Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s campaign. And as we expected from the hints dropped by Sony over the past week, we have a new The Last of Us Part II trailer and, notably, a release date.
Here are the biggest announcements and trailers from today’s State of Play:The Last of Us: Part II releases February 21st, 2020
The

The next installment in Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us series is coming in February 2020. Sony hosted a State of Play conference today, where it unveiled a release date for Wattam, the next game from the creator of Katamari Damacy, and offered a deeper look at Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s campaign. And as we expected from the hints dropped by Sony over the past week, we have a new The Last of Us Part II trailer and, notably, a release date.
Here are the biggest announcements and tra

Civilization VI, the popular civilization-building game, is coming to the PS4 and Xbox One on November 22nd, marking latest major console port after the Switch launch last year.Civilization VI first launched back in 2016, but Firaxis Games has continued to keep things new since then, with the aforementioned Switch port, an iPad port, and a variety of both DLC and free updates (including an improbable battle royale mode a few weeks ago). Aspyr Media will handle the port for both consoles.Accordin

Death Stranding is this year’s big PlayStation 4 exclusive, and that means one thing: a limited edition console. Today, Sony revealed a new version of the PS4 Pro that comes in a basic shade of white that’s covered in dark handprints, which seems to be a theme in Hideo Kojima’s new game. The real standout feature, though, is the DualShock 4 controller. It’s designed to look like a BB pod, those disturbing baby carriers that Norman Reedus carries around in the game. It has

The long-awaited sequel to The Last of Us finally has a release date. Today, Sony revealed that The Last of Us Part II will be launching on the PS4 on February 21st, 2020. Sony also announced that the original game will be available to PlayStation Plus subscribers in October.
Meanwhile, a new trailer provided a better look at the game, which included scenes on horseback and in a boat, along with terrifying new monsters and human survivors you probably don’t want to be around. And yes, Joel

Photo by Mike Pont/Getty Images for AWXII Comscore, the influential analytics firm that measures web traffic, has been formally accused of falsely reporting its own revenue and customer numbers. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Comscore and its former CEO Serge Matta with fraud today. Matta and Comscore agreed to settle the case for a total of $5.7 million without admitting wrongdoing.
The SEC writes that between 2014 and 2016, Comscore padded its public revenue filings w

Today’s release of iOS 13.1 doesn’t just have bug fixes and some features that missed iOS 13.0 — it also brings updates to the designs of 24 emoji, according to Emojipedia, including changes to make a few of the animals anatomically accurate.
The most significant change is probably the squid emoji. Last December, the Monterey Bay Aquarium eloquently noted that Apple’s squid emoji has a “siphon” on the front — but apparently, the siphon is actually suppos

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple rolled out iOS 13.1 and iPadOS earlier today, which should fix some of the bugs found in the pretty rocky iOS 13.0 release. But the company is already warning customers about another bug it hasn’t gotten around to resolving just yet.As detailed in this support article, Apple says that third-party keyboards installed on iOS 13 and iPadOS might be able to gain “full access” even if you haven’t authorized this. Keyboards wit

E-bikes can be roughly placed along two sides of a spectrum. On one end, you have models that are basically normal bicycles with motors, encouraging you to pedal while providing you with a boost when you need it. Others are more like modern mopeds, encouraging you to pump the throttle and cruise comfortably at city speeds. The upcoming Scorpion by Juiced Bikes takes the ‘modern moped’ concept to heart. With a cushy seat, fat tires, dual suspension, and a massive headlamp, it’d

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge About 80 tech contractors working for Google in Pittsburgh will join the United Steelworkers union after a majority voted for unionization, in the latest effort by the tech industry’s massive “shadow” workforce to secure improved wages and benefits.80 tech contractors joining
Google uses contractors from a company called HCL Technologies, and last month, HCL tech workers at a Google office in the city announced their plan to unionize. Th

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Lyft, a company that makes almost all of its money through car trips, is redesigning its app in the hopes that people take fewer car trips. The new app, which is live today in every city where Lyft operates, will make it easier for customers to switch back and forth between different modes of travel like scooters, bike-share, public transit, and car rentals.Right now, non-car options like bike-share and transit appear at the bottom of a list of “nea

Boston Dynamics today launched its first commercial robot. Well, sort of. A select list of developers will be given the opportunity to lease one or more of the company’s ‘Spot’ units as part of an ongoing development plan. While that means you can’t purchase your own 4-legged robot to keep as a pet (this thing is not designed to interact with humans in the wild), it also means the era of robot co-workers has truly begun. Unlike traditional automation systems and most ind

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge One year after becoming a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange, Chinese EV startup NIO appears to be in dire straits. The company reported early Tuesday morning that it lost $479 million during the second quarter of 2019, and only generated $220 million in revenue, thanks to a major dip in sales of its flagship ES8 electric SUV.What’s more, NIO had just $503 million in the bank at the end of June, which helps explain why the company bor

Microsoft is joining Sony on the efforts to combat climate change by switching things up on the console front. In the former’s case, it’s starting a pilot project to make 825,000 Xboxes carbon neutral. As part of the UN’s Playing for the Planet alliance, Microsoft joins several other game companies pledging to do what they can to help climate change. According to the United Nations Environmental Program, the promised changes from these companies could make a big impact: &ldquo

Image: Apple The new entry-level iPad, now with a 10.2-inch display, will start shipping out tomorrow. In a press release coinciding with the release of iPadOS, Apple noted that the iPad will also be available at the company’s retail stores later this week. Apple had previously indicated a September 30th release date, so this is slightly earlier than expected — just like the moved-up launch of iPadOS and iOS 13.1. The seventh-gen iPad starts at $329 for Wi-Fi models or $499 for thos

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Amazon’s Ring was working on a feature that would automatically activate cameras on nearby Ring doorbells so that they would begin recording and streaming video when someone called 911, according to emails seen by CNET. These recordings could, in theory, then be used by law enforcement to help with investigations. This feature doesn’t appear to be something the company is pursuing right now, however, according to a Ring comment provided to CNET.Ring

Launched in 2005, Webkinz was one of the first children’s toys to bridge the physical and digital world. The stuffed animals were sold with codes that allowed you to bring your pet to life and care for it in the cartoon-style Webkinz World online. The half-physical, half-virtual pets lined the shelves at Target and Limited Too retail stores for years, providing a safe, online space for kids to play and learn.
But nearly 15 years after launch, many of those virtual pets may have only days l

Photo by Michael Kovac/Getty Images for WeWork WeWork founder Adam Neumann is stepping down as CEO of The We Company, The New York Times is reporting. Neumann is expected to remain with the shared office startup as chairman, but he will reportedly give up majority control of the company, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Neumann is leaving his post after a roller-coaster summer where his startup went from being one of the most highly valued companies on the planet to shelving plans for an i

Emma McIntyre/Getty Images Fleabag creator, writer, and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge has signed an exclusive overall deal with Amazon Prime Video, Deadline reports. The deal is reportedly for three years and valued in the “mid-eight-figure range,” Deadline is reporting, indicating tens of millions of dollars.
The announcement comes just after an incredibly successful Emmys weekend for Waller-Bridge. Fleabag won three of the night’s most coveted awards in the comedy categories, in

I love a compact keyboard. Once I’ve got a cup of coffee, a glass of water, mouse, headphones, and a notebook open on my desk, I don’t want to dedicate any space to a bigger keyboard than what I need. But this approach comes with trade-offs. When you use a keyboard without a function row, for example, you have to get pretty used to holding down multiple keys just to perform fairly simple commands, and inputting a lot of numbers can be a chore.
The Chassepot Keyboard C1000 is an attem

Gemini Observatory/NSF/AURA The second interstellar comet detected in our Solar System now has an official name. Meet 2I/Borisov, the latest object to zoom into our cosmic neighborhood from somewhere very far away.The object formerly known as C/2019 Q4 was given its name on Tuesday by the International Astronomical Union, the organization that officially names just about anything in the Universe that isn’t on Earth. The 2I refers to the fact that researchers are now confident that this is

Kapwing is a laymen’s Adobe Creative Suite built for what people actually do on the internet: make memes and remix media. Need to resize a video? Add text or subtitles to a video? Trim or crop or loop or frame or rotate or soundtrack or… then you need Kapwing. The free web and mobile tool is built for everyone, not just designers. No software download or tutorials to slog through. Just efficient creativity.In a year since coming out of stealth with 100,000 users, Kapwing has grown 1

Apple is releasing iPadOS to all compatible iPads today. After moving the release date up from September 30th, iPadOS brings some highly anticipated features to Apple’s tablet line. The most obvious one is the addition of widgets to the home screen. These can be displayed alongside the regular app icons, and it allows for a little more customization on what was previously a very static iPad home screen.
This is the first iteration of iPadOS, and it naturally includes many of the iOS 13 fea

Vista Equity Partners, which likes to purchase undervalued tech companies and turn them around for a hefty profit, has purchased web content management and digital experience company Acquia in a deal valued at $1 billion.
Robert F. Smith, who is founder and chairman of Vista Equity Partners,says that increasingly brands understand that delivering a quality digital experience is essential to their success, and he sees Acquiaas well-positioned in the market to help deliver that. “Acquia unde

Photo by Marijan Murat / Getty Images Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler has been hit with an €870 million (roughly $960 million) fine as part of a settlement with German prosecutors over the automaker’s own diesel cheating scandal. The fine comes in at the lower end of what was expected earlier this year.
The news comes just about four years to the day after Volkswagen’s Dieselgate scandal was exposed by the Environmental Protection Agency and California’s Air Resource

The theory that underpins computer viruses was first made public in 1949, when computer pioneer John von Neumann presented a paper titled “Theory and Organization of Complicated Automata.” In the paper, von Neumann speculated that computer programs could reproduce themselves — effectively describing the most basic form of a malevolent virus you often hear about now. In the 70 years that have passed since then, viruses have (unfortunately) come a long way. Breaches and hacks ar

Image: Spotify Spotify is releasing a redesigned Spotify for Artists app that gives artists enhanced stats about their music and fans. The new app will display the total number of people who are listening to an artist’s tracks worldwide at any moment in time, and it will continue to display real-time listening stats for the first week after new releases go live. The redesigned app, which is rolling out this week on iOS and Android, also gives artists more information about milestones, lik

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Boston Dynamics is letting its first major robot out of the lab.Since June, the company has been talking about a public release for its Spot robot (formerly SpotMini), and today, it finally gave some details about what’s in store. The Spot isn’t going on sale exactly, but if you’re a company with a good idea (and some money), you’ll be able to get one. That also means, for the average person on the street, that the odds of seeing a Spot