Technology news

Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge Huawei will release an improved version of its Mate X folding smartphone next year, with a better hinge, tougher screen, and faster processor. The details come from Richard Yu, leader of Huawei’s consumer business, who spoke to Frandroid during a trip to Huawei’s headquarters. Huawei also intends to bring the current Mate X to Europe, seemingly in the first quarter of 2020.
The Mate X only came out last month, going on sale in China for $2,400. Half o

Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge Huawei will release an improved version of its Mate X folding smartphone next year, with a better hinge, tougher screen, and faster processor. The details come from Richard Yu, leader of Huawei’s consumer business, who spoke to Frandroid during a trip to Huawei’s headquarters. Huawei also intends to bring the current Mate X to Europe, seemingly in the first quarter of 2020.
The Mate X only came out last month, going on sale in China for $2,400. Half o

Photo credit should read JORG CARSTENSEN/DPA/AFP via Getty Images Edward Snowden is not entitled to any profits from the sales of his memoir and the United States government can instead claim the proceeds, a federal judge found in a decision yesterday.
“the contractual language is clear”
The National Security Agency leaker published the book, called Permanent Record, in September, but the Justice Department immediately stepped in with a lawsuit. Usually, intelligence agencies submit

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Spotify is testing a new feature, Tastebuds, that lets users discover new music through their friends, TechCrunch reports. The feature was first discovered by app researcher Jane Manchun Wong, who found the prototype on the web version of Spotify through reverse-engineering.While not much is known about the feature yet, a dummy landing page that explains, “Now you can discover music through friends whose taste you trust,” can be found here. Cl

Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images Share Now, the car-sharing service formerly known as Car2Go, is leaving North America. Daimler and BMW, the two global automakers that share ownership of Share Now, said it would cease service on February 29th, 2020. Share Now currently operates in New York City, Montreal, Seattle, Washington, DC, and Vancouver.The decision was based on “two complicated realities,” Daimler and BMW said in a joint statement: the “volatile state of the global mo

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge AT&T announced on Wednesday that it has turned on call validation displays for certain Android phones. That way, you can easily determine if you’re getting a spoofed robocall or a call from a spammer.If you’re using a Samsung Galaxy S10, Galaxy S10+, or an LG V40 ThinQ and you get a call from a number that AT&T has authenticated, you’ll now see a green check mark to the right of that number and a message saying that it’

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Gaming peripherals manufacturer Corsair has acquired Scuf Gaming, which makes a very popular line of high-end e-sports controllers. While the terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, the transaction is expected to be completed by the end of this month.Scuf’s controllers are modular and highly customizable; the company holds more than 100 patents related to their improvements on traditional controllers. They’ll mostly be quality-of-life improvement

Image: Denon Denon DJ has announced an industry first for DJ gear: starting today, a new software update allows its Prime 4 standalone player and its SC5000 and SC5000M media players to directly connect to the internet via Ethernet or built-in Wi-Fi. The feature was first beta tested a few months ago, but is now available for all and allows Denon’s devices to play music straight from streaming services. The company’s first partner is Tidal, and it plans to integrate SoundCloud, Beat

Amazon Amazon introduced its second Echo Wall Clock in one week today. This time, it’s partnering with Disney to launch a wall clock featuring Mickey Mouse that, like other Echo Wall Clocks, complements the Alexa experience.The clock doesn’t have a speaker or microphone built-in. Instead, it uses LEDs to visually represent the timers people set on their Alexa-enabled devices. (The device only passed through the Federal Communications Commission last month.) It tracks alarms, reminde

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon is expanding its free return policy for the holiday season to include millions of products not previously eligible, including electronics, household items, and kitchen appliances. The products must be sold and fulfilled by Amazon, and they must weigh under 50 pounds.The new policy kicks in retroactively, so it applies to any products purchased on Amazon starting November 1st and remains active for any product purchased up until December 31st. Custo

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon is expanding its free return policy to include millions of products not previously eligible, including electronics, household items, and kitchen appliances. The products must be sold and fulfilled by Amazon, and they must weigh under 50 pounds.For the holiday season, the new policy kicks in retroactively, so it applies to any products purchased on Amazon starting November 1st and remains active for any product purchased up until December 31st. Cust

Photo by Visual China Group via Getty Images/Visual China Group via Getty Images The Department of Justice has accused Faraday Future founder Jia Yueting of “engaging in dishonest behavior” during his Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, and it has filed a motion to appoint a new trustee to take control of the Chinese billionaire’s estate.The new motion, if approved, could dramatically change the course of Jia’s bankruptcy case, which involves billions of dollars of debt o

Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg is ending 2019 with a couple of major decisions: he plans to take a small break from YouTube in 2020, and he’s wiped out his popular Twitter account, losing its 19.3 million followers in the process. The news has generated headline after headline about why YouTube’s most followed creator is stepping away from the spotlight, but the attention just highlights how hard it is for many YouTubers to take time off at all.To be clear: Kjellberg isn&rsq

Image: Nuro Autonomous, light-duty trucks can now be used for commercial purposes on public roads in California. The state’s Department of Motor Vehicles announced the proposal Tuesday, which outlines a permitting process for companies wishing to test or deploy driverless trucks for commercial use.
The new rule, which was first proposed in April 2019, only applies to autonomous vehicles weighing less than 10,001 pounds. That means only Class 1 and 2 trucks — which include minivans,

Instagram Instagram is cracking down on influencers’ branded posts and the products they hawk. The company announced today that, although it’s always prohibited branded posts that advertise vapes, tobacco, and weapons, it’s going to start enforcing those rules more strictly. It’ll also start putting “special restrictions” around the promotion of other products, like alcohol and diet supplements. In these cases, the company says it’ll allow creators to r

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Hulu watchers will be able to use voice controls with their Chromecast and Google smart displays to surf their favorite streamable content. That also includes the Google Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max. To start watching on Hulu, users simply say “Hey Google, watch [name of the show].”
As noted by Android Police, users will be able to link Hulu to their Google Home app in the coming days. Hulu is one of the last big names to add voice controls, which are a

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Maybe you forgot to buy a holiday gift for someone, or you didn’t have time to order something ahead of a party and you don’t want to show up empty-handed. Whatever the reason, when you need to get a gift right away, digital gifts are an easy solution. In most cases, they’ll be delivered instantly to your email via a code, which is perfect if you don’t have time to wait around for something to ship. Here are several ideas for q

Image: Adidas Tyler “Ninja” Blevins and Adidas have announced their first sneaker together: a Ninja-themed Nite Jogger shoe, which you’ll be able to buy starting on December 31st.
The shoe is pretty recognizable as Ninja merch, with lots of his brand’s signature blue and yellow, the Ninja logo on the inside of the left shoe, and “Time In,” the catchphrase for the partnership, on the inside of the right shoe. Adidas’ iconic stripes are on the outside of

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The federal labor board ruled this week that employers can block workers from using email to organize, in a decision that companies, including Google, have asked for.The National Labor Relations Board said in the 3–1 decision that “employees have no statutory right to use employer equipment, including IT resources,” for union activity, giving management leeway to ban organizing on their work email systems. The decision undoes a previous

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge I have been playing a lot of Stadia lately — not because I think Google’s game streaming service is amazing, but because, in order to get anything out of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (about which I have many thoughts), you have to play a lot. It’s a long game.
I have put in enough hours in enough conditions to say that this is a beta product, and Google should have labeled it as such and launched it differently. Because even in the

It’s that time of year again: time don an ugly Christmas sweater, enjoy the snow, and open up some presents... in Fortnite. Today, Epic Games kicked off the now-annual “Winterfest” event in the battle royale game, which lasts for two weeks starting today. At the heart of the event is a new lodge area in the lobby where players are able to open up presents daily to unlock in-game items like skins, gliders, and emotes.
It’s surprisingly interactive; you can move around the

Blade Runner was the first DVD I ever owned — not the movie, but Westwood Studios’ 1997 PC adventure game. Originally released on four CDs, the ambitious game was also bundled onto a single disc by Packard Bell as a way to demonstrate the powers of what would ultimately be our first family computer with a DVD drive.I have no idea where that disc is today. Until yesterday, though, it would have been the only legal way I had of playing Blade Runner, a game long thought lost to time due

2019 is coming to a close, and with it comes the end of the decade. Prestige TV has never been better. Marvel turned on-screen superheroes into the biggest (and most profitable) trend of the era. Streaming is the new battlefield for viewer eyeballs. To close out the 20-teens, Verge staffers break down their favorite moments, media, and what they believe was the most overlooked in entertainment from the last 10 years.
“Way back in days of old / there was a legend told / about a hero known a

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Apple, Google, and Amazon are teaming up to develop an open-source smart home standard that’s meant to ensure that devices work together, make the development of new devices easier, and keep everything secure in the process.
The project is meant to guarantee that any supported smart home device you buy will work in your home, regardless of which smartphone or voice assistant you’re using. If the group succeeds, “customers can be confident that

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Last year, Finland launched a free online crash course in artificial intelligence with the aim of educating its citizens about the new technology. Now, as a Christmas present to the world, the European nation is making the six week program available for anyone to take.
Strictly speaking, it’s a present for the European Union. Finland is relinquishing the EU’s rotating presidency at the end of the year, and decided to translate its course into

There is no multiplayer in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, but it certainly lends itself to being social. I have a running text thread with two friends about the game, and I have a couple more I message. Nicole and Christina send me Three Houses tweets and memes. Sarah chronicles her playthrough on the game’s toughest difficulty setting, “maddening,” which is proving appropriately named. Andrew has advice about “min/maxing” characters, though I haven’t had the hear

Lucasfilm Ltd. I thought a lot about Rey’s bread while I was watching Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The weird green food is a completely extraneous detail from Rey’s life as a desperate scavenger on the desert planet Jakku, where she began her journey in The Force Awakens, director J.J. Abrams’ first entry in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. But it’s the kind of memorable quirk that makes Star Wars feel like a fantastical world still inhabited by real human beings.
The

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The percentage of 12th graders who said they’d vaped marijuana at least once in the past 30 days nearly doubled between 2018 and 2019, according to new data from the Monitoring the Future survey. The increase, from 7.5 percent to 14 percent, was the second-largest jump in the use of any drug ever found on the annual survey, which has asked eighth, 10th, and 12th graders in the United States about their drug use and opinions for the past 45 years. (T

It’s been a big week for investigations here at The Interface. On Monday, we published my investigation into the mental health woes of content moderators for Google and YouTube who remove terrorist content from the web. And on Tuesday, Zoe published a follow-up investigation into the high-flying luggage company Away. There’s a lot in there: an OSHA complaint, failed heating and air conditioning systems, cockroaches and mice in stores, and the indelible phrase “these fumes got m

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Before this year’s blockbuster Superhuman scandal, in which the email app maker was caught providing a non-consensual read receipt feature to its users, there was the Unroll.me controversy.It erupted two years ago, when it was discovered the popular email cleanup tool was collecting information on user purchases and handing it over to its parent company, Slice Technologies, to sell as part of an analytics tool. Specifically, Unroll.me was caught sel

Remember when the organization in charge of .org domain names traditionally used by non-profits decided to sell itself to a for-profit company? It surprised everyone because up to that point, there was little indication that the Internet Society (ISOC) was shopping the Public Interest Registry (PIR) for sale. Among those surprised, it appears, was ICANN, the organization that oversees the internet’s top-level domains, which now says it is “uncomfortable” with the lack of transp