Technology news

YouTubers are on a mission to plant 20 million trees. Hundreds of YouTubers are calling on their audiences today to donate money to the nonprofit Arbor Day Foundation, with every dollar raised turning into a tree seedling in the ground. “We want to show that YouTube isn’t just a drama fest, that we actually have real influence and can make real change,” Jimmy Donaldson, who goes by MrBeast on YouTube and started the campaign dubbed #TeamTrees, said in a private video seen by Th

While FacebookCEO Mark Zuckerbergseemed cheerful and even jokey when he took the stage today in front of journalists and media executives (at one point, he described the event as “by far the best thing” he’d done this week), he acknowledged that there are reasons for the news industry to be skeptical.
Facebook, after all, has been one of the main forces creating a difficult economic reality for the industry over the past decade. And there are plenty of people (including our own

A fleet of electric, autonomous Hyundai Kona crossovers — equipped with a self-driving system from Chinese autonomous startup Pony .ai and Via’s ride-hailing platform, will start shuttling customers on public roads next week.
The robotaxi service called BotRide will operate on public roads in Irvine, California, beginning November 4. This isn’t a driverless service; there will be a human safety driver behind the wheel at all times. But it is one of the few ride-hailing pilots o

Photo by Tabatha Fireman/Getty ImagesWill.i.am’s technology company i.am+ is running out of money, according to current employees, company emails, and documents obtained by The Verge. As a result, two current employees of smart home platform Wink — which i.am+ acquired in 2017 — tell The Verge that workers haven’t been paid in seven weeks, and that their office in Schenectady, New York has been temporarily closed. Wink users have also reported on Reddit, Twitter, and Fac

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images The rise of streaming services could give cable companies an excuse to raise rates under a Federal Communications Commission order handed down on October 25th. The order, which comes in response to a petition by Charter, finds that AT&T’s TV Now streaming service qualifies as reasonable competition for conventional cable, opening the door to a massive deregulation in monopoly cable markets.
Under the Cable Act of 1992, local regulators are permit

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1. Facebook starts testing News, its new section for journalism
Facebook’snews section, which was previously reported to be imminent, is here: The company is rolling out Facebook News in a limited test in the U.S. as a home screen tab and bookmark in the main Facebook app.
Should publishers

MrBeast/YouTube More than 600 YouTubers are teaming up to take on one of the biggest fundraising challenges the platform has ever seen: raising $20 million by the end of the year to plant 20 million trees.The fundraising effort is being organized by YouTube’s favorite stunt philanthropist, Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson, who’s known for giving away huge sums of money. Major YouTubers — including Mark Rober (8.7M subscribers), Rhett & Link (4.5M), Marshmello (40.2M),

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitch stripped Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek of his verified partner badge and his channel stopped showing up in the site’s search after the popular streamer and former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro announced yesterday that he was leaving the platform for Mixer.In a vacuum, those two things wouldn’t necessarily mean much because a dormant channel doesn’t need to be promoted in search. Applied to a prominent streamer who l

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitch stripped Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek of his verified partner badge and hid his channel on the site’s search after the popular streamer and former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro announced yesterday that he was leaving the platform for Mixer.In a vacuum, those two things wouldn’t necessarily mean much because a dormant channel doesn’t need to be promoted in search. Applied to a prominent streamer who left the platfor

Image: Oral-B Today, Oral-B launched its $220 Oral-B Genius X electric toothbrush, which Oral-B says uses AI to help you brush better. I never thought AI would come for my teeth.
The toothbrush connects to an app on your phone over Bluetooth. When you start brushing, the app will show a timer of how long you’ve been brushing and guide you to where should brush next. That seems handy.Image: Oral-BAt least you get a phone charger with your $220 toothbrush.
Oral-B says the toothbrush uses se

Photo: Cinemax There are so many streaming options available these days, and so many conflicting recommendations, that it’s hard to see through all the crap you could be watching. Each Friday, The Verge’s Cut the Crap column simplifies the choice by sorting through the overwhelming multitude of movies and TV shows on subscription services, and recommending a single perfect thing to watch this weekend.
What to watch
“Morris Day and The Time,” an episode of Mike Judge Pres

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Apple is in early discussions with United Airlines about helping upgrade the company’s San Francisco International Airport terminal, according to a report from Bloomberg.The reason: Apple pays United about $150 million a year for corporate travel, making it the airline’s top enterprise customer, and United’s terminal is apparently in need of some sprucing up if it’s to remain Apple’s official corporate airline. Among Apple&rsqu

Advertising and HBO aren’t usually thought of in the same sentence, but a new report suggests that AT&T’s upcoming streaming service, HBO Max, will become the first major HBO-branded project to incorporate commercials.
AT&T is exploring an ad-supported tier for HBO Max that would launch in 2021, according to Reuters. That’s one year after HBO Max is expected to launch as an ad-free subscription service. Reuters suggests that HBO Max is likely to cost more than HBO&rsquo

With cross-platform experiences like Fortnite and PUBG, in-game socializing environments, and subscription-based cloud gaming services from Playstation, Google, Amazon, and others, the gaming industry is entering a new era beyond mobile.
These days, the industry is at the center of social media and entertainment trends; gaming is expected to earn $152 billion in global revenue this year, up 9.6% year over year. 
Given my recent writing on Unity, the most-used game engine, and ongoing resear

Screenshot by Dani Deahl / The Verge The Recording Academy, the professional association that puts on the Grammy Awards, launched a new campaign today that it’s calling Behind the Record. It’s dedicated to helping spread awareness to various musicians, engineers, and other artists who contribute to popular music but often go unrecognized by the broader culture.As part of the campaign, the Recording Academy has enlisted popular artists like Anderson .Paak, Billie Eilish, and Diplo to

Googletoday announced one of the biggest updates to its search algorithm in recent years. By using new neural networking techniques to better understand the intentions behind queries, Google says it can now offer more relevant results for about one in 10 searches in the U.S. in English (with support for other languages and locales coming later). For featured snippets, the update is already live globally.
In the world of search updates, where algorithm changes are often far more subtle, an update

Hyundai will launch a free ride-hailing service with a fleet of autonomous electric cars in Irvine, California, starting on November 4th. The news comes after the South Korean automaker announced that it would invest $35 billion in autonomous and electric vehicle development over the next five years.Hyundai is partnering with AV startup Pony.ai and ride-hailing service Via for the free taxi service. Interested riders can hail a self-driving car via a smartphone app. The cars won’t be fully

ARM will continue to license its chip architectures to Huawei. The company’s legal team has reached the decision that ARM’s v8 and v9 architectures are “UK-origin technologies” and therefore not subject to the United States’ trade ban, which limits US companies from working with Huawei, per a report from Reuters. The ban was put in place over national security concerns regarding the Chinese telecommunications company.
“ARM can provide support to HiSilicon for

Photo by Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) proposed a plan that would provide car owners with “large discounts” if they trade in their polluting, gas-powered vehicles for “clean” electric ones. In an op-ed published in The New York Times, Schumer said the goal of his “cash-for-clunkers”-style plan is to ensure that every vehicle on the road is zero-emission by 2040.Schumer didn’t reveal the

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales This week on The Vergecast, Dieter Bohn, Nilay Patel, and Paul Miller discuss our Pixel 4 review and how its camera, battery life, software, and even advertising compares to other flagship phones from Apple and Samsung.
Verge reporter Julia Alexander joins the show to update us on the streaming wars (or as Julia calls it, the “streaming arms race”). The Apple TV app is now available on devices in preparation for the service’s launch next week, a

Image: Sony Sony is currently looking for a buyer of its PlayStation Vue TV streaming service, according to a new report published by The Information. The company has reportedly already approached one potential buyer, the sports-focused streaming service FuboTV, with a sale that would include the service’s approximately 500,000-strong subscriber base, alongside its underlying technology. That customer tally is substantially less than other subscription TV services, despite PlayStation Vue