Technology news

An artistic rendering of what a future Artemis lunar lander could look like | Image: NASA NASA is now officially accepting proposals for lunar lander designs that can carry humans to the surface of the Moon. The space agency issued a final call to the commercial space industry today, with proposals due November 1st.Human lunar landers are a critical component of NASA’s Artemis program, an initiative to send people back to the Moon’s surface in less than five years. These landers are

Nerd City/YouTube A new investigation from a coalition of YouTube creators and researchers is accusing YouTube of relying on a system of “bigoted bots” to determine whether certain content should be demonetized, specifically LGBTQ videos.
The investigation was conducted by three people: Sealow, the CEO of research firm Ocelot AI; YouTube creator Andrew who operates the YouTube Analyzed channel; and Een of popular YouTube commentary and investigative channel Nerd City.The investigati

Microsoft today announced that its OneDrive Personal Vault security feature is nowavailable to all OneDrive consumer accounts worldwide. Personal Vault, first announced back in June, provides a more secure storage folder for your OneDrive account that’s protected by a second layer of identity verification, like a fingerprint, PIN, or a code sent to you via SMS or a mobile authenticator app. Initially, Personal Vault was only available to OneDrive users in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada

Photo by Steve Dietl / Netflix A young hero must learn to use his exceptional powers to stop a terrible threat and save his friends, family, and possibly the entire world. It’s a pretty typical setup for a superhero origin story, but Netflix’s new series Raising Dion, which launches its nine-episode first season on October 4th, changes things up by making its hero a seven-year-old. Splicing family drama with comic-book action produces some engaging story beats, but the friction betw

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images Amazon might be slowing down the expansion of its own Amazon Go locations, but the company is in talks to license out the technology that powers those cashierless stores to other retailers. Per a new report from CNBC, Amazon has discussed the possibility with Cineworld, which owns Regal Cinemas, and OTG, which operates mini-grocery stores at some airports.Concession stands at stadiums and baseball parks are another area of interest, according to CNBC, with Am

Project A, the Berlin-based VC, just raised a new $200 million fund (€180 million) to continue backing European startups at Seed and Series A stage.
In addition, the firm — whose investments include WorldRemit,Catawiki, Voi and Uberall — announced it will now have a presence in London and Stockholm in order to put people on the ground in what it says are “two of its favorite ecosystems.”
What better time, therefore, to catch up with the team at Project A,where we tal

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit has revised its policies to make cracking down on abuse easier. An administrator posted the new rules earlier today, saying that the “narrowness” of the earlier policy had reduced its effectiveness. These new changes broaden the definition of threats, harassment, and bullying, and they allow bystanders (not just victims) to report violations of the rules. Like previous changes, this gives Reddit greater leeway to police its platform, bu

Image: Halide Halide has released a massive iOS update that offers extended support for the multi-lens camera systems on the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro.The most important new feature is the “Tactile Lens Switcher,” which lets you switch between the three lenses of the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max at will. This feature can be summoned by long-pressing the camera switcher next to the shutter button, then releasing when you hover over your desired lens. Image: Halide
This lens

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Investors weren’t interested in Tosh Velaga’s idea when he started pitching it this summer.Facial recognition software for retail stores to catch shoplifters made sense in theory, but people were skeptical it would work. So Velaga and his co-founder Igor Nefedov did what entrepreneurs do best: they pivoted.“We were like, ‘what if we repurposed this for something stupid, like AI that could detect the faces of investors?’&rdquo

Instagram Instagram might soon allow brands to set up reminder notifications about merch drops. Thecompany announced today that it’s partnering with around 20 brands in the US to start, including Adidas, Highsnobiety, Chinatown Market, Revolve, and Huda Beauty.The reminder works similarly to one users can already set for more general launches in Stories, although this new sticker brands and creators can use is more specific and launches Instagram’s in-app shopping feature. The remin

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple is continuing to update iOS 13 at a breakneck pace. On Friday, the company pushed out iOS 13.1.1 with a few bug fixes — and iOS 13.1 had only just launched on September 24th. Fast-forward to today, and Apple is already rolling out iOS 13.1.2 and iPadOS 13.1.2. It’s getting a little hard to keep these things straight.The newest update addresses a handful of issues impacting iCloud backups, the camera (“fixes an issue where camer

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge At Google I/O in May, Google showed off an impressive new accessibility feature coming to Android 10: Live Caption, which can automatically transcribe spoken audio from videos or audio playing on your phone. My colleague Dieter Bohn spent some time with Live Caption when it was announced and found it to be one of the most exciting features coming to Android 10. It’s not just about accessibility, either; think of the moments where you’ve wanted to kn

Netflix has renewed its incredibly popular series Stranger Things for a fourth season, and it’s now teasing a world beyond the setting of Hawkins, Indiana, which fans have gotten to know very well.
The company made the announcement today on Twitter in a brief teaser video. Stranger Things not set in Hawkins might sound strange, but after three seasons, it’s probably time to explore other areas of the show’s world. The last time Stranger Things tried to do this, however, people

Levi’s is announcing new jackets with Google’s Project Jacquard technology, which turns a portion of the fabric on the sleeve into a touch-sensitive remote control for phones. Both versions are less expensive and much more like the original versions of the Levi’s jackets they’re based on than the first Jacquard Commuter Trucker Jacket, which Levi’s released two years ago.The standard Trucker Jacket will be $198, and a Sherpa Jacket, which adds insulation for colder

Image: Netflix Welcome to Cheat Sheet, our breakdown-style reviews of festival films, VR previews, and other special event releases. This review comes from the 2019 Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas.
One of the chief joys of the time travel subgenre is strictly mechanical: it’s all about the ways nonlinear characters let creators deconstruct a standard narrative, bringing different segments of the story together in unexpected ways. Construction-oriented movies like Timecrimes or Predestinat

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Tesla’s new “Smart Summon” feature is already causing confusion — and some minor fender benders. It’s another example of the real-world complications that arise from Tesla’s willingness to beta test features using customers.Smart Summon is the new name for Tesla’s autonomous parking feature, which enables a Tesla vehicle to leave a parking space and navigate around obstacles to its owner. Tesla owners who purchased the

WeWork’s parent organization The We Companyjust announced that it’s withdrawing the S-1 filing for its IPO.
The co-working company has had a turbulent month since the filing went public, around both the general state of its finances and the behavior of co-founder/CEO Adam Neumann.
As a result, Neumann stepped down down as CEO last week (he will continue to serve as non-executive chairman). In addition, the company is looking to focus on its core co-working business, wh

Verizon Communications has acquired all software and technology as well as “certain other assets,” from augmented reality company Jaunt XR. Jaunt, formerly a virtual reality startup, announced the news today. Notably, it didn’t say that Verizon was actually acquiring Jaunt, and the company didn’t confirm whether it will keep operating separately.
Jaunt was founded in 2013 with the purpose of creating VR video. It released a 360-degree camera and worked on some of the best

Image: Amazon YouTube TV, Google’s paid TV streaming service, is now available on Amazon’s Fire TV platform. In a blog post, Amazon announced that the service is available now on a wide range of its streaming sticks and streaming boxes, and it can also be found on “Fire TV Edition” smart TVs, which have the Fire TV operating system built in. After a price hike that Google announced back in April, YouTube TV now costs $50 a month.
The reason it’s taken so long for Y

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Earlier this summer, Apple announced a host of changes to its Maps app as part of the upcoming iOS 13 update. Now that the new operating system is finally here, the tech giant is beginning to gradually roll out those changes in the US. It started with California and Texas, and, as of this week, now includes the US Northeast.
Some of the new features are on par with what Google Maps offers, while others still lag behind. For example, Apple Maps offers

Instagram is launching a new branded account today called @creators, which is meant to encourage wannabe influencers and content makers to keep creating for Instagram. The account page says it’ll address “tips, tricks, updates, IGTV, BTS (behind-the-scenes), access, insights, and tutorials.” Instagram-chosen creators, including dancer Susie Meoww and comedian Adam Waheed, will walk people through their process for creating content and offer advice that ranges from the equipment

In today’s digital age, it sometimes feels like hardware has taken a back seat to the software that drives our devices. Button of the Month is a monthly look at what some of those buttons and switches are like on devices old and new, and it aims to appreciate how we interact with our devices on a physical, tactile level.
I think a lot about power buttons these days. With modern devices — especially smartphones — we don’t really use them as power buttons, because our phone

Image: HP HP’s Spectre x360 13 has undergone a fairly drastic makeover for 2019. It’s still very much a Spectre: the premium 2-in-1 has glossy edges, a cleverly placed power button, and one USB-C port embedded into its two diagonally cut corners. But HP has cut away a lot of the excess from the old design, making its latest version smaller. Still, somehow, it feels bigger when you use it.That effect is achieved in part by its significantly trimmed-down top and bottom bezels, giving

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Microsoft is holding a big Surface hardware event in New York City on Wednesday, October 2nd. The company has been teasing this event continually on Twitter, and is even inviting Surface fans to attend. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will be in attendance, alongside Surface chief Panos Panay. It seems like we’re on the cusp on a significant event, perhaps as big or bigger than the Surface 2015 event when the Surface Book, Microsoft Band 2, Surface Pro 4, and t

Image: HyperX HyperX’s first wireless gaming mouse, the PulseFire Dart, is now available to buy. As well as supporting charging via a USB cable, the mouse can also be wirelessly charged via the Qi wireless standard. HyperX is also shipping its Qi wireless charging pad, the ChargePlay Base, which is able to charge up to two devices simultaneously at 10W.The advantage of using the the common Qi standard is that you can charge the PulseFire Dart using any existing Qi chargers you might own,

With the barely believable Mi Mix Alpha and its wraparound display dominating attention last week, you could have been forgiven for not noticing the other phone Xiaomi announced at its event, the Mi 9 Pro 5G. Xiaomi has released a lot of phones that look and feel very similar this year, and frankly it’s getting hard to keep up.
Another Xiaomi phone that I’ve been using in recent weeks, the Mi 9T Pro, very much falls into that category. Nothing about its spec sheet particularly stands

Nintendo has announced a new Brain Age game, bringing the brain-training series to the Switch for the first time. The phenomenally popular Brain Age games for Nintendo DS starred Japanese neuroscientist Dr. Ryuta Kawashima and featured various simple puzzles designed to help keep your brain active. Also sudoku.
The latest entry has only been confirmed in Japan so far, where it’s called “Train Your Brain: Nintendo Switch Training for Adults,” which is the same title as the origi

Amboss, the Berlin-based “medtech” startup that originally offered a learning app for students but has since pivoted to a knowledge platform for medical professionals, has raised €30 million in Series B funding.
The round is led by Partech’sgrowth fund, with Target Global acting as a co-investor. Existing investors Cherry Ventures, Wellington Partners and Holtzbrinck Digital, also participated.
Launched in 2014 as a study platform for medical students, Amboss has since evo