Technology news

Image: Samsung / 4KFilme Samsung may have a new, groundbreaking type of television to show off at CES in Las Vegas next week: a completely bezel-less, 8K QLED model. Dubbed by some reports as the Samsung “Zero Bezel” TV and reportedly carrying model numbers of Q900T and Q950T, this TV is believed to have bezels so tiny that the screen edge effectively disappears when viewed from a distance. On Tuesday, German website 4KFilme says it has its hands on a pair of leaked renders showing

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge TikTok released its first transparency report yesterday, showing which countries have submitted requests for content removal as well as access to user data. China is notably absent from the report—the video sharing app, owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, claims it did not receive a single takedown request from Communist Party of China in the first half of 2019.
The news comes after a difficult year for the social media startup, which faced growi

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The era of Google using a pair of controversial loopholes to save billions of dollars in taxes on overseas ad revenue is coming to a close, according to a new report from Reuters. In 2020, the company will no longer take advantage of the so-called “Double Irish” and “Dutch sandwich” loopholes, which allowed it and countless other corporations to shift money from Ireland to the Netherlands and Bermuda, sheltering billions from taxes

Image: USPTO Apple has just been granted a patent — concerning virtual positioning of audio — that could eventually lay the groundwork for new, more immersive audio applications. It builds on a previous patent Apple filed last month that enabled users to hear where people are physically located in a room through special headphone tech. Today’s patent does exactly the same thing, but with built-in MacBook speakers.
According to 9to5Mac, it’s a virtual acoustic system that

For people who want to check in on their gaming achievements in Steam or stay up to date with the latest sales, this Apple Watch app has you covered.Smoke gives Apple Watch users access to their Steam account, but that doesn’t mean people have the ability to play games from their wrist. The app exists to let you stay up to date on gaming news and to see what friends are playing while you might be away from your PC. There’s an ability to save news articles that come up in the Apple Wa

Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images United States Army soldiers can no longer use TikTok on government-owned phones following a decision to ban the app. The move comes amidst ongoing worries that the video app owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance could compromise national security or be used to influence or surveil Americans.“It is considered a cyber threat,” Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Robin Ochoa told Military.com, which broke the news on December 30th. The army reportedly used TikTok

Vizio says LeEco has breached the settlement the two companies agreed to last year in the $60 million lawsuit over their failed merger, and claims the Chinese tech conglomerate still owes a “substantial amount of money,” according to a new motion filed in California’s central district court on Monday.LeEco, which was once considered to be the “Netflix of China,” tried to buy Vizio in 2016 for $2 billion as part of its effort to expand its business beyond streaming.

Photo credit should read DON EMMERT/AFP via Getty Images Times Square revelers will ring in the New Year to a theme of existential crisis tonight. Science teachers and students taking on the climate crisis will push the crystal button to trigger the ball drop in Times Square. Organizers of the annual New Year’s Eve celebration in New York City choose a theme each year based on the biggest issues in the news, and this year that theme is climate change.
“[You’d] have to have a s

Image: Netflix Netflix released its list of the most popular movies and TV shows of 2019 and, with the exception of Disney Pixar’s Incredibles 2, every title on the list is a Netflix original.Most notable is Adam Sandler’s Murder Mystery, which Netflix declared as the most watched title in 2019. The Sandler and Jennifer Aniston-starring comedy broke records when it first hit Netflix back in June, generating more than 30 million account views within its first three days. It marked th

The Witcher has everything it needs to be Netflix’s next success: popular source material, a massive marketing campaign, a well-received performance by Henry Cavill, and an iconic meme in the form of the hit song “Toss A Coin To Your Witcher.” Yet, while certainly popular, it doesn’t seem like The Witcher is going to become “must see” television like other recent hits, such as The Mandalorian on Disney+ or Watchmen on HBO. At least part of the reason why is ho

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The California Consumer Privacy Act goes into effect January 1st, and it doesn’t look like anyone, even the state of California itself, is totally ready. Draft regulations for enforcing the law are still being finalized at the state level, and questions about specific aspects of the most sweeping privacy regulation since the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are still not clear.“If you thought the GDPR was bumpy,

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The global hacking campaign known as “Cloud Hopper” perpetrated by government-sponsored Chinese hackers was much worse than originally reported, according to an investigation by the Wall Street Journal you should read in full.The report says that “at least a dozen cloud providers” were affected, but focuses on HP to illustrate the severity of the intrusions and the tactics used to attack and defend.”The Journal found that Hew

Townew automatically seals the bag when full and pulls a new bag into place. | GIF: Townew Until there’s a Roomba that takes out the trash, this self-sealing bin from Townew is as close as we’ll get to an automated garbage experience.Townew is fitted with a Refill Ring that contains enough recyclable material to create 25 trash bags. Its touchless design opens the lid with a wave of the hand. When full, a button press on the front seals the bag, opens the top assembly for bag remova

The Uncharted movie, based on the massively popular Indiana Jones-like game series, has lost another director, according to Deadline. Its release date has also been pushed back.
Deadline says Travis Knight, who most recently directed Transformers spinoff Bumblebee, had to drop from the Uncharted movie because of scheduling difficulties. The movie is set to star Tom Holland as protagonist Nathan Drake. Holland, however, is also committed to playing Spider-Man in the next Marvel iteration of serie