Technology news

Today, NASA rolled out the completed core section of its massive new rocket, the Space Launch System, which is designed to take people into deep space. The core stage, manufactured at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana, is now heading to Mississippi where it will undergo key testing before it can launch for the first time.
The Space Launch System, or SLS, is a critical part of NASA’s Artemis program, an initiative to return humans to the surface of the Moon by

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge In a letter to lawmakers about its security practices, Amazon’s Ring admitted that, over the past four years, it has fired four employees for abusing access to user video data (via CNET).
Ring’s letter was sent to five senators on Monday in response to a letter they sent to Ring in November with a number of questions about the company’s security practices.
Here is what the company said. (You can read in the full letter here.)
Over the last four

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Yesterday, Sonos filed two lawsuits against Google over its wireless speaker tech. The company alleges that Google infringed on patents for syncing a group of speakers over a local network, an idea that Sonos pioneered before Google followed up with products like the Home and Home Mini.
It’s not the first time Sonos has filed a lawsuit over patent infringement. But patents don’t look like the heart of the issue here. The real fight with Google is abo

Razer Blade Pro 17 | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge In addition to the iPad Air and MacBook Pro deals going on today, there are also a number of deals on gaming laptops available. Here are some of the offers we’ve rounded up.
The Lenovo Legion Y540 gaming laptop is $300 off at B&H Photo. It’s now on sale for $1,299. This laptop is 15 inches, has a dedicated Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card, and a six-core Intel Core i7 processor. It comes with 16GB of RAM and 1

When it comes to improving external SSDs, there are usually only two things that matter: making the drives faster and adding more storage. Samsung’s new T7 Touch external SSD, which was announced at CES 2020, is a bit more creative. It adds a built-in fingerprint reader to secure your files, in addition to the usual improvements to transfer feed.It’s a clever idea that gives you the option to protect your files with biometric security even if you’re using a laptop that doesn&rs

Image: Korg This week, Korg and JBL debuted new pro DJ headphones with active noise cancellation (ANC), Bluetooth, and a host of other smart options. These are not normal features to include with pro DJ headphones, but both companies bet that they’re things touring musicians want.
Most pro DJ headphones focus on performance needs: closed-ear comfort, durability, frequency response, sound isolation, and, in Pioneer DJ’s instance, wicking away sweat. But when it comes to ANC, most DJs

Photo by DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images Delta will spend more than $100,000 to offset the greenhouse gas emissions of every flight to and from Las Vegas, Nevada, this week. It’s an effort to reduce the environmental impact of people flying in for the Consumer Electronics Show that’s taking place, which is expected to bring in 170,000 people from 160 countries between January 7th and 10th.
To make those flights carbon neutral, Delta will put that money toward planting trees and hel

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Kuwait’s state news agency said its Twitter account was hacked and used to spread false information about US troops withdrawing from the country.In one of the earliest high-profile acts of misinformation about the military during heightened tensions between the United States and Iran, the news agency, KUNA, announced on Twitter that its account had been compromised. According to Reuters, the now-deleted report said Kuwait’s defense minister ha

Photo by Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images We lost the excellent Virgin America airline a few years back, and the virtual cellular network that owes its name to Sir Richard Branson may soon be on its way out too. Sprint announced today that it’s going to be shutting down Virgin Mobile USA starting on February 2nd, transferring existing customers to Boost Mobile instead.
Apparently, the brand will go back to its original owner, Virgin Group, which is trying to decide whether

Photo by Mike Pont/WireImage As of today, the venerable comedy concern CollegeHumor Media is mostly dead. In the words of Sam Reich, its chief commercial officer, IAC “has made the difficult decision to no longer finance us,” he wrote in a Twitter thread this afternoon. “Today, 100+ brilliant people lost their jobs, some of whom are my dear, dear friends.” That means the cuts hit every vertical: CollegeHumor, Dorkly, Drawfee, and Dropout — only five to 10 people ar

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Only a day after Sonos officially sued Google for stealing its tech designs, House antitrust leaders have invited the speaker company to air its grievances in an open hearing.The hearing, which is scheduled for January 17th, will be the fifth installment of the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust investigation into big tech companies like Facebook and Google. Since June of last year, the antitrust panel, led by Chairman David Cicilline (D-RI), has

Photo by Joe Klamar / AFP via Getty Images Chinese drone maker Ehang demonstrated its autonomous air taxi in the US for the first time. The all-electric two-seater took flight for five minutes above a test track south of Raleigh, North Carolina, on Tuesday afternoon, with approximately 100 people, including the state’s governor, Roy Cooper, looking on.It represents the first time that Ehang has received permission to fly from the US Federal Aviation Administration, and it helped set the s

Apple iPad Air | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Even though we’re past the holidays, there are still some good deals available on relatively new and popular devices, like the 16-inch MacBook Pro and the 10-inch iPad Air.
B&H Photo is currently offering the best deal we’ve seen on select cellular-enabled models of the early-2019 10.5-inch iPad Air. Here are the configurations on sale:The 64GB model in gold is $519 (originally $629)
The 256GB model in gold is $619 (originally $

Smart home tech could someday be updated with software that makes it easier for people with speech-related medical conditions to communicate with their devices. At CES, the Israeli startup Voiceitt said that it was incorporating its nonstandard speech recognition program into voice-activated devices. The addition could allow people who struggle to communicate to direct and use those systems.“All indicators are pointing towards voice technology continuing to grow, so the accessibility compo

Image: 1More Whether it’s Audio-Technica, 1More, Panasonic, or Klipsch, at times, it felt like every headphone manufacturer at CES 2020 had a pair of wireless earbuds to announce. It’s not been long since most of these companies were getting into true wireless in the first place, but many of this year’s models arrived with a new feature: active noise cancellation, which is quickly becoming impossible to leave out of a pair of premium earbuds, just months after Apple added the

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Last year, at CES 2019, Google introduced interpreter mode for Google Assistant, which lets you say something in one language and have it translated in another. At CES 2020, American Airlines announced what could be a very practical application of the feature: the airline is testing interpreter mode in airport lounges to help American Airlines employees better communicate with travelers who speak a different language.American Airlines says that its Premiu

Amazon executive Dave Limp | Grant Hindsley / AFP via Getty Images Yesterday morning, The New York Times broke the news that Sonos is suing Google. Under the belief that Google stole its technology and has slowly been trying to “squeeze” Sonos’ business with its own lineup of less expensive smart speakers, the Times reported that Sonos CEO “couldn’t take it anymore” and made the call to square off against Google in court. Sonos is even bringing its case to th

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Speaking today at a CES event in Las Vegas, Twitter’s director of product management, Suzanne Xie, unveiled some new changes that are coming to the platform this year, focusing specifically on conversations.Xie says Twitter is adding a new setting for “conversation participants” right on the compose screen. It has four options: “Global, Group, Panel, and Statement.” Global lets anybody reply, Group is for people you follow an

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Speaking today at a CES event in Las Vegas, Twitter’s Suzanne Xie unveiled some new changes that are coming to the platform this year, focusing specifically on conversations.Xie says Twitter is adding a new setting for “conversation participants” right on the compose screen. It has four options: “Global, Group, Panel, and Statement.” Global lets anybody reply, Group is for people you follow and mention, and Panel is people yo

A fundraiser by Australian comedian and actor Celeste Barber has raised more than $32 million (about $46 million AUS) to support fire companies fighting the massive bushfires in Australia, setting a global record for Facebook’s fundraising platform.Barber started the fundraiser on January 3rd, bringing in donations from around the world. The funds will go to the PayPal Giving Fund, which will distribute the money to The Trustee for NSW Rural Fire Service & Brigades Donations Fund. Norm

A fundraiser by Australian comedian and actor Celeste Barber has raised more than $32 million (about $46 million AUS) to support fire companies fighting the massive bushfires in Australia, setting a global record for Facebook’s fundraising platform.Barber started the fundraiser on January 3rd, bringing in donations from around the world. The funds will go to the PayPal Giving Fund, which will distribute the money to The Trustee for NSW Rural Fire Service & Brigades Donations Fund. Norm

Over a year ago, images and videos of an electric scooter with enormous wheels and a slanted, off-center frame began popping up online. The self-balancing scooter concept, made by a US-based company called Stator, went viral, but wasn’t available for purchase at the time. Well, now it is.
Stator says it has finally lined up a manufacturing partner, making it now available for preorder. The scooter will be produced and delivered by a company called NantMobility, a subsidiary of NantWorks, w

Image: Samsung Samsung’s new Galaxy XCover Pro is a rugged smartphone that features a removable battery, a feature that’s almost unheard of in a modern phone. So, if you’re prepared enough, you can easily swap out the phone’s 4,050mAh battery with a fully charged spare when its power runs dry. The device was technically launched last week in Finland, but Samsung did it so quietly that at least one report had it pegged as an unannounced handset.
Away from its removable ba

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge On January 6th, a post appeared on Reddit’s largest Android forum with alarming news: “Chinese spyware pre-installed on all Samsung phones.”
“I know the title is rather sensational,” the author explained, “however it couldn’t get any closer to the truth.”
The problem was a utility in Samsung’s Device Care application, a mandatory feature that comes preinstalled as part of Samsung’s Android im

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Chrome is cutting down on annoying browser notifications with its latest update. As part of this “quieter” new notification process for desktop and mobile, Chrome will automatically enable the new UI for users who tend to block notification requests as well as for sites with low opt-in rates. Users can also manually opt in to the less intrusive UI through the settings tab.
Google has been experimenting with less invasive prompts since last yea

Spotify Spotify is going to start using its copious amounts of user data to run targeted ads inside its exclusive podcasts. Targeted advertising remains new ground for podcasts, and the announcement sets Spotify up to potentially branch out beyond its own shows and begin placing ads in other networks’ content. If it catches on, Spotify could become a full-blown podcast ad network.
With technology it’s calling Streaming Ad Insertion, Spotify says it’ll begin inserting ads into

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Hype is important on Twitch. That’s why the company is gamifying it with a new feature called Hype Train, launching this week. If you donate enough to a partnered or affiliate channel, you’ll see a bar pop up above chat, which will give donators rewards as it fills.
Hype is what powers the biggest events on the site — like, for example, Awesome Games Done Quick, which raises an astonishing amount of money for a charity every year. (This

August has a new, smaller smart lock for the US market, and its parent company Yale is also releasing a few other new products. There’s a home safe, a tiny latch that can be used for cabinets or delivery boxes, and a new smart door lock for Europe and a few other parts of the world.
Let’s start with the door lock, because it actually solves the most interesting problem of the bunch. It’s named after Yale’s founder, so it’s called the Linus Smart Lock and looks like

Image: August August has announced the latest addition to its line of retrofit smart door locks: the Wi-Fi Smart Lock. The new lock is similar in appearance to the Smart Lock Pro, but it has a 45 percent smaller volume and is 20 percent slimmer than before. In addition, the new model doesn’t need a separate hub to connect to a Wi-Fi network, as it has the necessary hardware built right into it. It will be available this summer for a similar price as the Smart Lock Pro.
August partnered wi

Being able to take your music with you wherever you go is one of the great wonders of smartphone technology, and is improved by a portable Bluetooth speaker that can boost the sound quality. Ideally though, you want a Bluetooth speaker that's waterproof.
Besides protecting your beats from a sudden downpour, a waterproof Bluetooth speaker can come along to a pool party and you don't need to worry about a thing. Some portable Bluetooth speakers even float in the water, becoming a cool feature piec

There’s no shortage of gadgets at CES ready to invade the last bastion of privacy at home: the bathroom. The intruders aren’t just startups hoping to revolutionize the way we use the bathroom or even companies that manufacture the fixtures we need to get ready each morning. Brands that make personal hygiene products — like Bic, Oral-B, and Charmin — also want in on the action.These brands want to start collecting data as they get closeer to our crevices
These brands want

Microsoft officially unveiled Windows 10X last year, alongside its Surface Neo dual-screen device. Windows 10X is an ambitious effort to redesign the operating system for devices that have dual screens and even foldable displays. We’ve started to see some of this hardware at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, but it’s all lacking the key software element: Windows 10X.
While Microsoft has promised Windows 10X devices from Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Asus, most of the PC makers a

Segway’s newest self-balancing vehicle looks strange, but what’s new? Segways have always made riders look like technological fools. At least in Segway’s newest vehicle, the egg-shaped S-Pod wheelchair thing, you can wave at your haters from a comfortably seated position as you roll on by.And I’ll tell you what: looking cool was the last thing on my mind when I got to drive the S-Pod around at Segway-Ninebot’s booth at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show, because thi

The most buzzed-about company at CES 2020 doesn’t make a gadget you can see or touch. It doesn’t even have a product yet. But for reasons I’m still not entirely sure I grasp, the lead-up to this week’s show in Las Vegas was dominated by discussion of a project called Neon, which has emerged from a previously unknown Samsung subsidiary known as STAR Labs.What Neon has been promising is so ambitious that it’s easy to swing your expectations around full circle and assu

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google’s Project Zero cybersecurity team is trialling a new policy where it won’t make security vulnerabilities public early after a fix has been issued. “Full 90 days by default, regardless of when the bug is fixed,” is the team’s new policy, which it will trial for a year before deciding whether to adopt it permanently.
Under the old system, Project Zero’s researchers would give vendors 90 days to fix an issue before