Technology news

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Late last week, privacy advocates warned that Apple was sending iOS user data to Chinese company Tencent, an alarming development for anyone who had taken the company’s privacy promises at face value. A note in iOS 13 mentioned that its Safari browser uses Tencent’s Safe Browsing system to help fight malicious webpages — but Tencent may log IP addresses in the process. While this has been true for months or even years, the news casts a h

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Fortnite’s black hole hasn’t gone anywhere, and it feels like everyone’s getting weird with it. Twitch itself is even getting in on the oddity: the company’s channel is showing the black hole, and it’s featuring randomly chosen Fortnite streams from around the platform to highlight. The largest Fortnite streamers are having fun, too — many of them have turned watching the hole into an event.
Last night, Tyler “Nin

At any given time, my Instagram Explore page offers me a mix of tattoo posts, fashion, memes, and the occasional micro-influencer. It’s trained to serve my interests based on data like posts I’ve liked, saved, or what friends have liked. Each swipe is a lottery spin: will this load show me some nice pants I might like to buy, or an ex?But for the last two weeks, Instagram has come up with a clever new method of torture. May I introduce to you, The Teeth? These Teeth? These?? Teeth??

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Over the weekend, Facebook ended up doing exactly what it didn’t want to do: openly feud with a presidential candidate on Twitter.The fight began after President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign flooded Facebook with ads spreading misinformation about Joe Biden, his son Hunter, and the Ukraine scandal that has dominated the news cycle over the past few weeks. Now, Democrats are firing back directly at the platforms and their rules, rather th

Image: Sony Music British band Bring Me the Horizon has launched a new merch line with a twist: a dedicated website that serves up personalized T-shirts to people based on their Spotify listening data.
The site, called “amo in colour” is a reference to the band’s most recent album, amo, which was released earlier this year. When you visit the website, you’re prompted to connect with your Spotify credentials and then pick your six favorite tracks from amo. It then takes y

Photo by Nick Statt / The Verge Microsoft is officially launching its Project xCloud preview today for Xbox users in the US, UK, and Korea. The software giant has started inviting people to participate in the beta, with game streaming limited to Gears 5, Halo 5: Guardians, Killer Instinct, and Sea of Thieves during the initial preview phase.
“Public preview is a critical phase in our multi-year ambition to deliver game streaming globally at the scale and quality of experience that the gam

Image: rozzzafly (YouTube) Allow me to bring a little nostalgia and cuteness to your Monday. Ten years ago today, an all-time classic video was posted to YouTube: “Surprised Kitty,” featuring an adorable little kitten looking surprised when its mom plays peekaboo. Look at this little snug bug!What reminded me to mention this? A cool website called YouTube Decade, made by Bennett Feely, which shows you the videos that have gotten the most views since the day they were uploaded 10 yea

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge Harley-Davidson has temporarily stopped making and shipping its first electric motorcycle, LiveWire, due to a problem with the bike’s charging equipment, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal. The company told the Journal that LiveWire bikes are still safe to ride, but it’s asking the first few customers to only charge the $30,000 electric motorcycle at dealerships, indicating that there may be a problem with plugging them into lower-vol

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge The news seems to be going from bad to worse for Facebook’s cryptocurrency project, as online travel company Booking Holdings has stepped away from the nonprofit Libra Association. As Bloomberg reports, that means seven of Libra’s original 28 members have exited the project.Seven of 28 founders are out
Facebook announced in June that it would launch Libra, an ambitious entry into the cryptocurrency business made with the support of major fina

Image: WinFuture Google is expected to announce a follow-up to 2017’s Google Home Mini at tomorrow’s hardware event. In keeping with the decision to brand its smart home products under Nest, the new speaker will be called the Google Nest Mini, and photos of the device have now been published by WinFuture.The Nest Mini looks identical to the Home Mini when on a table. The only signs that it’s a new product are on the bottom, where you can now see a wall mount hole and a differe

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Uber is making a third round of staff cuts this year, according to a company-wide email from CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, which was first reported by CNBC. The company is laying off about 350 employees, or around 1.5 percent of its workforce, with cuts affecting the self-driving and Uber Eats teams, among others. An undisclosed number of employees are also being asked to relocate, according to the email.
Uber laid off around 400 employees from its marketing tea

Photo: Walt Disney Company Disney’s foray into an online streaming subscription service, Disney+, is set to launch globally on November 12th, and the company has released its full US launch lineup.
The company used a massive Twitter thread — more than 300 tweets in total — to make the announcement. The thread included obvious titles like Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Frozen, alongside older titles like Three Men and a Baby, Three Musketeers, Swiss Family Robinson, and Fanta

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge One of President Donald Trump’s most prolific supporters and meme creators, known online as Carpe Donktum, was briefly suspended from Twitter Monday after a video depicting the president killing off journalists and critics, created by people connected to him, surfaced over the weekend.
The New York Times reported that the video was played at a pro-Trump event in Florida over the weekend, causing significant uproar among the press, many of whom saw i

Photo by Stefan Etienne / The Verge A few of Nvidia’s powerful, ray tracing-enabled desktop graphics cards are far cheaper than usual today at Best Buy. Nvidia’s Founders Edition variations of the RTX 2080 and RTX 2070 are significantly discounted, resulting in prices that, while still fairly expensive, are a bit easier to swallow.
The RTX 2080 is available at $599.99, a $200 discount from its usual cost. It comes with a download code for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, which you can

In August, Nvidia said it would bring its GeForce Now game streaming service to Android phones, and now, that rollout has begun. GeForce Now is available for Android users in South Korea (via 9to5Google). If you live elsewhere and want to try the app now, the APK is available on APKMirror, so you can try sideloading it onto your device.
The GeForce Now Android app works similarly to the experience on PC, Mac, and Nvidia Shield, according to a hands-on from XDA Developers. You sign in to your GeF

Image: Google Last August, Google released its first two Titan security keys, which can be used as ultra secure methods of two-factor authentication for some online services over USB-A, NFC, or Bluetooth. Now, Google says it’s adding a new USB-C key to the lineup, which will be available tomorrow from the Google Store for $40.
The USB-C key appears to have similar functionality to Google’s USB-A key and Bluetooth keys, all of which are built to the FIDO standard. A spokesperson conf

An artistic rendering of Northrop Grumman’s MEV 1 satellite attached to Intelsat 901. | Image: Northrop Grumman / Space Logistics Services Next year, the long-held dream of repairing satellites already in orbit around Earth will come a little closer to reality. Two new missions — from military contractor Northrop Grumman and a startup called Astroscale — will send spacecraft into orbit to rendezvous with other vehicles zooming around Earth to see if it’s possible for two

Cambridge, UK-based biotech startup Mogrify, which is working on systematizing the development of novel cell therapies in areas such as regenerative medicine, has closed an initial $16 million Series A.
The raise from investors Ahren Innovation Capital, Parkwalk and 24Haymarket follows a $4M seed in February — taking its total raised to date to $20M.
Put simply, Mogrify’sapproach entails analysis of vast amounts of genomic data in order to identify the specific en

Photo by Niko Tavernise / Warner Bros. Director Todd Phillips has called Joker, his grimy reinterpretation of Batman’s iconic nemesis, “a way to sneak a real movie in the studio system under the guise of a comic book film.” That’s a pretty accurate description. Joker is a comic book story channeling the narratives and aesthetics of several critically acclaimed “real” movies — particularly Martin Scorsese’s 1982 film The King of Comedy and David Fi

Surface Book 2. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Microsoft’s recent firmware updates for the Surface Book 2 seem to have fixed a big issue that, for the past few months, has prevented some users from being able to update to the latest version of Windows 10.The problems started following the release of Microsoft’s May 2019 Update. Some users reported that their high-end Surface Book 2 configurations no longer detected their dedicated Nvidia graphics card in the device ma

Photo by Jon Porter / The Verge Conspicuously absent from last week’s OnePlus 7T Pro announcement was any mention of a new 5G device from OnePlus. The company announced two versions of the 7T Pro (including a new McLaren Edition of the device) as well as European pricing and release information for the 7T, but all three of these phones were 4G LTE only, with no sign of a 5G follow-up to the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G that the company released earlier this year.
It was an odd omission, especially si

The Salt Lake City-based PelionVenture Partners is opening an outpost in Southern California and has added Jeff Kearl as a managing director to head up operations in the region.
Kearl was the chief executive officer of Stance, a direct-to-consumer retailer selling socks and clothing basics, and has a long history of investing in startup companies throughout Southern California, according to a statement.
In addition to Stance,Kearl serves on the board of directors for Domo, a cloud software compa

Today, Razer is releasing a new iteration of its Blade 15 Advanced gaming laptop with a few tweaks. The most notable difference between this and the one released earlier in 2019 is the new keyboard, which has mechanical switches that offer a clickier typing experience, as well as deeper travel — 50 percent more, in fact, at 1.7mm.Typing is one of those things that’s oh so subjective; but generally, more travel in the keys equates to a more satisfying typing experience. According to m

Sophos announced this morning that private equity firm Thoma Bravo, has agreed to buy the British company for £3.1 billion ($3.9 billion USD). The price is based on $7.40 USD per share and the company indicated that the board of directors will recommend that shareholders accept the offer.
SophosCEO Kris Hagerman, as you would expect, put the deal in the brightest possible light. “Sophos is actively driving the transition in next-generation cybersecurity solutions, leveraging advanced

Samsung’s Galaxy Buds. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge One of the most interesting and fastest-moving areas of personal technology over the past few years hasn’t been smartphones, tablets, or even smartwatches. Rather, the action and excitement have been around truly wireless headphones — earbuds like Apple’s AirPods that require no wires and don’t care if your phone has a headphone jack (because, odds are at this point, it doesn’t).
While a few

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a state-run firm that offers train ticketing and catering services in India, more than doubled on its first day of trading in what was the best public debut for a local firm in two years.
The firm sold 20.1 million shares, or a 12.5% stake on Monday, generating about $91.09 million for the Indian government. IRCTC is the fourth public company to come out of Indian Railways. The Indian government retains about 87.5% stake in the firm.
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Opendoor has named Gautam Gupta its chief financial officer and chief business offer, critical roles as the business continues to alter the way in which homes are bought and sold. Uber’s former head of finance, Gupta joined the $3.8 billion home-selling platform as its chief operating officer in 2017.
The company, which has raised more than $4 billion in debt and equity funding to date, is announcing several new hires this morning. Venrock’sTom Willerer has joined as the company&rsqu

Image: Porsche Porsche has announced the third entry in its debut all-electric car lineup, the Taycan 4S, joining the Taycan Turbo and Turbo S that were announced last month. Although its $103,800 starting price isn’t cheap, the 4S is almost $50,000 cheaper than the $150,900 Taycan Turbo, and Porsche is referring to it as the “entry-level model in the series.”
There are two versions of the Taycan 4S available: the Performance Battery and Performance Battery Plus. Both are less

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge In a new research report, noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts that prices for the rumored iPhone SE 2 will start at $399, MacRumors reports. Alongside the new pricing information, Kuo also used the report to re-iterate several of his previous predictions for the device, including that it will be powered by the iPhone 11’s A13 chip, will have 3GB of RAM, and will be released in the first quarter of next year.
Kuo also says that the new phone will be a

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Samsung has released Android 10 in beta for Galaxy S10 devices, featuring a revamped version of the One UI software that it debuted earlier this year. In a press release announcing the launch of the beta, Samsung says that the new version of Android includes redesigned smaller notifications, an “enhanced Dark Mode,” and other Android 10 features such as Focus Mode.
Samsung’s press release doesn’t say exactly which countries are getting

Meet Foodvisor, a startup that has built a mobile app that helps you log everything you eat in order to lose weight, follow a diet or get healthier. You can add data by capturing a photo of your plate before you eat.
“We’ve spent a little over two years doing research and development before we launched the app in 2018 in France,” co-founder and CMO Aurore Tran told me. Foodvisorhas raised $1.5 million so far (€1.4 million).
The company is using deep learning to enable imag

We dedicate this countdown post to all the early-stage startup founders who hunger for an opportunity to break new ground. This is the final week you can apply to be a TC Top Pick and exhibit your startup — for free — in Startup Alley at Disrupt Berlin 2019 on 11-12 December.
The application window remains open until this Friday, 18 October at 12 p.m. (PT). Don’t miss your shot at media attention, investor interest and plenty of exposure to potential customers and collabor

Porsche introduced Monday the Taycan 4S, a third version of its all-electric vehicle.
The 4S, which will offer a performance battery plus option, looks like the Taycan that Porsche unveiled in September. And indeed, inside all of the Taycans, including the 4S, are the same chassis and suspension, permanent magnet synchronous motors and other bits.
But this version is a little lighter, cheaper and a skosh slower than the high-end versions of the Taycan that were introduced just seven weeks ago.
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