Technology news

Photo by David McNew/Getty Images Bill Gates has revealed that he thinks everyone would be using Windows Mobile right now if Microsoft hadn’t have been caught up in a US Justice Department antitrust investigation. Speaking at The New York Times’ DealBook Conference earlier today, Gates revealed his thoughts on Microsoft’s mobile mistakes.
“There’s no doubt that the antitrust lawsuit was bad for Microsoft, and we would have been more focused on creating the phone op

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Amazon has shared a long list of devices that will be discounted ahead of Black Friday. These deals will begin on Friday, November 22nd, with several waves of Amazon’s own products going on sale during the week that leads up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday.Like the other major retailers, Amazon usually goes big for the shopping season, so you can probably expect even more deals once Black Friday arrives. But for now, this is the info we have to go on. If

Photo credit should read MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images Uber drivers in New York City are suing the company for allegedly failing to repay taxes it deducted from their earnings. The suit was filed by the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, which is a vocal critic of Uber and the ride-hail industry.The plaintiffs seek to represent a class of 96,000-plus Uber drivers in New York City who worked for the company from 2013-2017 and who did not opt out of arbitration. The lawsuit claims Uber deducted

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Two former Twitter employees have been charged with spying on user accounts on behalf of the Saudi Arabian government, according to The Washington Post.One employee accessed more than 6,000 accounts
The Justice Department announced the charges today after one of the former employees was reportedly arrested. That suspect, Ahmad Abouammo, was charged with spying on three Twitter accounts for the government, according to the Post.Another former employee was

An actual slide from SoftBank’s earnings presentation. | Image: SoftBank SoftBank leader Masayoshi Son admitted that it was a mistake to have invested in WeWork, the beleaguered office space rental company that’s been in chaos ever since an attempt to go public revealed systemic mismanagement and ludicrous behavior by its founder and CEO.
During an earnings conference, Son said that WeWork’s troubles resulted in “quite a large impact” on SoftBank and its Vision Fun

Facebook Prineville Data Center | Photo: Vjeran Pavic When you try to return an item at Best Buy or Sephora, before deciding whether to take back the item, those businesses have apparently been secretly looking at something called your consumer score — a hidden rating based on data you didn’t even give them that determines how they treat you, according to Kashmir Hill’s recent expose for The New York Times. Apparently, your consumer score determines how long you’re kept

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge The new Apple AirPods Pro came out last week, and Amazon has already given them a temporary price cut. They’re normally $250, but you can buy them right now for $235.Currently, Amazon predicts that it won’t be able to ship your order for one to two weeks, but if saving a bit of money trumps getting them immediately, this deal is worth jumping on. Of course, if you discover them cheaper elsewhere before your order ships, you can simply cancel your ord

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Valve might be working on a new cloud gaming service for Steam, as potentially revealed by code buried in the company’s own website.
Steam Database, which actively tracks changes to Steam and to Valve’s games, noticed new code on Valve’s website for partners that asks them to agree to the “Steam Cloud Gaming Addendum.” If you want to see this for yourself, you can see the code on Steam Database’s GitHub or on Valve&rsqu

“Cogito, ergo sum,” Rene Descartes. Translation: “I think, therefore I am.” What makes us, us? How is it that we’re able to look at a tree and see beauty, hear a song and feel moved, or take comfort in the smell of rain or the taste of coffee? How do we know we still exist when we close our eyes and lie in silence? To date, science doesn’t have an answer to those questions. In fact, it doesn’t even have a unified theory. And that’s because we can&

Twitter can be extremely useful for keeping up to date with the latest news around various topics, but to do so you have to follow specific users – often times people you might not even like. Starting November 13, Twitter it is rolling out a new feature that allows you to follow specific topics rather than accounts, as reported by The Verge. It gives you a birds-eye view of conversations around people, things, and events without having to read all the ramblings of a particular account. As

We finally know when we’ll learn more about Tesla’s pickup truck: November 21. The ‘Cybertruck,’ as Musk has previously dubbed it, is said to look like something straight out of Blade Runner. Indeed, Musk made his announcement with an allusion to the original film’s opening. Cybertruck unveil on Nov 21 in LA near SpaceX rocket factory — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2019 The date is strangely familiar …https://t.co/YZl5R1POJL — Elon Musk

Adobe is previewing a bunch of experimental features that could one day come to its apps, including several that use AI to manipulate images and audio.
The features were revealed during Adobe’s Sneaks event last night at the company’s annual Max creativity conference, and this year, the features made heavy use of the Adobe’s Sensei AI platform. Sneaks is where apps like Adobe Fresco and features like content-aware fill were first previewed, so there’s a good chance that s

Drinking! It’s something a lot of people do, and it’s also something a lot of people don’t do. If you like to enjoy a drink now and again, chances are you’ve been living through what’s probably best known as the “Cocktail Revival”: the global movement that’s put mixed drinks of various provenance into the hands of imbibers across the globe. (I’d locate its beginning around 2010, because, according to Food & Wine, that’s when the cas

On Wednesday, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said that Facebook has refused to comply with its subpoenas to provide more information regarding its investigation into the company’s alleged privacy violations, according to CNBC.In a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Becerra addressed California’s lawsuit against Facebook demanding that the company hand over any documents related to “privacy, disclosures, and third-party access to user data” like in the case

Photo by Julian Stratenschulte / Picture Alliance via Getty Images Electrifying transportation is one of the biggest keys to solving the looming climate crisis. With more electric vehicles on the road and fewer gas-guzzlers, drivers burn less fossil fuels and put out fewer planet-heating gases into the atmosphere. But as electric vehicles become more popular, they’re posing another environmental challenge: what to do with their batteries once they’re off the road.batteries are start

Image: Blizzard Game developer Blizzard found itself faced with a seemingly impossible task: how do you develop a sequel to something that’s never supposed to end? It’s a predicament that’s becoming increasingly common in the game industry. Some of the most popular titles today are created to be living entities that exist for months or years and change over time, but hardly ever into something resembling a brand-new product.That’s the predicament the studio found itself

People are desperate for holiday cheer.
We want the days to be perfect, are deep in our feelings, and wonder if all of our problems could be solved by some cookies, champagne, and mistletoe. It’s why Hallmark is making millions of dollars, and why Netflix is now doubling down on the fun. After a hiatus, rom-coms are once again making a comeback, so the timing is perfect for another joyful silly holiday romance fest.
It gives me no pleasure to be a grinch and announce that Last Christmas, s

Brace yourself for the most epic Target run of the year.
The retailer has released its 2019 Black Friday ad scan, announcing exclusive deals on gaming bundles, smart home devices, Dyson vacuums, an Instant Pot, and even the newest iPhone and Samsung Galaxy models. It is, as the kids say, extremely lit.
All of Target's Black Friday deals will be available Thanksgiving morning (Nov. 28) on Target.com, according to a press release, so if you plan on becoming one with your couch after eating too man

Signal is reportedly becoming popular in the sports world. 
While the free iOS and Android app—which enables encrypted texts, phone calls, and video chats between users as well as other security features like disappearing messages—has been a great tool for many journalists and human rights activists, its usage in the sports world is a tad more nefarious. 
That's according to a new report from Yahoo! Sports that looks at how Signal, once a favorite app of the Trump White Hou

Target has released its Black Friday ad, and there are plenty of deals on 4K TVs, headphones, gaming consoles, smart speakers, and more. The most notable offer, so far at least, is an $80 discount on the seventh-generation iPad. It’s also offering the best price we’ve seen on the Xbox One X, and it’s including a gift card with the purchase. There are a bunch of other great deals to check out, too.
As far as when you’ll be able to get in on these deals, Target will open it

Airbnb intends to verify every single listing on its platform by the end of next year, a major policy shift meant to increase trust and safety following a shooting at a rental that killed five and a report about scammers taking advantage of renters.
Brian Chesky, Airbnb’s CEO, said the company is making plans to be “100 percent verified” by the end of 2020. All hosts and listings will be reviewed as part of the process, with the goal of making sure that hosts are who they say t

Photo: Film Frame / Marvel Studios Avengers: Endgame will land on Disney+ one month earlier than expected, moving from December 11th to November 12th in the United States. The date change makes Endgame a launch title.During a call with investors in May, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that Endgame would be available on Disney+ on December 11th. Iger noted that Endgame’s placement would come “just a month after we launch the service.” That date was later reiterated by Marvel Stud

Yubico is showing off an upgraded security key that requires your fingerprint to activate the device.
The YubiKey Bio marks the first time the company will offer a security key with built-in fingerprint authentication. Yubico has been previewing the device at Microsoft's Ignite conference as a way for enterprise customers to unlock access to their Azure Active Directory accounts.
Although security keys are pricey ($20 to $50), they offer the best protection to stop hackers from hijacking your on

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge San Francisco will ban the sale of e-cigarettes entirely starting in 2020, after the resounding defeat of a proposition designed to thwart the restrictions. The ballot measure was the last hurdle for the proposed ban, which was passed into law in June.Early results from the city’s Department of Elections show that slightly more than 80 percent of voters opposed Proposition C, which would have overturned the ban and paved the way for looser regulatio

A New York man allegedly ran a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme by claiming it was tied to a United Nations affiliate promoting international development through sports, according to an indictment released this week by the Department of Justice.
A digital coin called IGOBIT
According to the department, 47-year-old Asa Saint Clair sold investors on a digital coin called IGOBIT, offering them guaranteed returns and a stake in the cryptocurrency. The funding, he allegedly told investors, would go t

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Google’s new Nest Mini and Nest Wifi have ultrasonic sensing so they can light up when you’re nearby. Now, Google is rolling out ultrasonic sensing to its Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max smart displays, letting them show you information depending on how close you are (via Android Police).Engadget got an early look at the feature in October. Apparently, when the smart displays detect that you’re nearby, they’ll pull up information like timers, y

Image: Mondadori via Getty Images James Dean is making his return to the big screen more than 60 years after dying in a car crash, thanks to two VFX companies.Finding Jack is a movie set within the Vietnam-era that is “based on the existence and abandonment of more than 10,000 military dogs at the end of the Vietnam War,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. Dean isn’t the leading role, but his performance as “Rogan” is “considered a secondary lead role,&rdqu

Image: Tumblr Tumblr is launching a new group messaging feature that will allow different fandoms on the site to chat more easily with each other instead of replying on re-blogs.The “group chats” are public spaces, meaning that anyone can find and read them, though only approved members can send messages. People should notice a new group chat icon in the upper right-hand corner of Tumblr’s app starting today.
Group chats aren’t meant for private DM sessions with Tumblr p

Founded in 2006, The Sketchbook Project is a continually-growing, crowd-sourced library housing over 46,000 books from over 100 different companies. Located in the Brooklyn Art Library, the collection is open to the public and anyone can contribute (as long as the sketchbook follows the guidelines).  Read more...More about Mashable Video, Library, Standalone Featured, Mashable Originals, and The Sketchbook Project