Technology news

After a wave of bad press involving police partnerships, hacking, and other privacy violations, Amazon's Ring doorbell has released an update. 
On Friday, the smart device's mobile app rolled out a new control center that grants users more authority over their privacy and security settings. You'll now be able to add and remove shared users on an account, restrict third-party access, view two-factor authentication settings, and (perhaps, most importantly) opt out of all video request notific

It's time to re-purpose Nintendo's old "Now you're playing with power!" tagline.
There's a new custom-made add-on for the Xbox Adaptive Controller that allows people to use their power wheelchair controls to play games. This so-called "Freedom Wing Adapter" came out of a partnership between the AbleGamers charity organization and ATMakers.
That latter group, founded by a man named Bill Binko, describes itself as "an experiment in solving problems in Assistive Technology using the skills and tool

It's the song taking over the Tri-State Area.
On Friday, a Phineas and Ferb fan shared video of show co-creator Dan Povenmire belting out Billie Eilish's smash hit "Bad Guy" for Twitter. 
Povenmire, who voices series villain Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, rewrote the song to fit his character's treacherous ways and later performed it at the Disney Channel Holiday Party. Fans just catching on to Doofenshmirtz's burgeoning music career were elated.
Take a listen:The lyrics, as Povenmire has written

The other shoe is about to drop for wireless carriers that violated customer privacy. 
On Friday, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission Ajit Pai, a Donald Trump appointee, informed the House of Representatives that an investigation into the unauthorized sale of users' real-time location data had concluded. The inquiry, which began in early 2019 following numerous investigative reports into the matter, found at least one carrier broke federal law.
“Following our longsta

The Fugitive is back with a modern twist. Though the trailer for Quibi's upcoming series looks like a present-day reboot of the Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones movie (and the 1960s TV series that inspired it), stars Boyd Holbrook and Kiefer Sutherland will play all-new characters engaged in a similar game of cat-and-mouse... with a 21st century twist.
Holbrook plays Mike, a father and husband suspected of bombing the Los Angeles subway system who then has to fight for his life, family, and inn

Voters struggling to get to the polls can look to Lyft.
On Friday, the ride share service announced that it would be expanding its free and discounted ride program throughout the primary calendar and general election. Part of the company's LyftUp initiative — a charitable effort that helps in-need riders of all kinds — the Voting Access Program will start with the Iowa caucus on Monday. 
"Every citizen who wants to exercise their fundamental right to vote should have reliable, a

Most animals might be deterred by a chain link fence, but not the scrappy dog in this new video. The pup in question comes up against a fence, and instead of turning around and heading home with his tail between his legs, our intrepid explorer scales the fence. 
Not only does the dog skillfully climb all the way to the top, but he lands successfully after leaping/falling several feet (are we sure this dog isn't part-cat?). This is either the smartest, best pup, or the beginning of some kind

Shortly after Roku warned its customers that Fox channels would stop streaming right before Super Bowl LIV, an updated agreement has kept the deal between the two companies going. What that means for Roku users is that the Super Bowl will once again be streaming.
Roku tweeted the update Friday night:We are delighted that we reached an agreement with FOX to distribute FOX channels on the Roku platformRoku customers can stream the Super Bowl through FOX Now, Fox Sports and NFL in addition to other

Less than a week after the helicopter crash that resulted in the deaths of Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna, the Los Angeles Lakers played again at the Staples Center, where Bryant played in and attended so many games over the years. Friday's game between the Lakers and the Portland Trail Blazers began with a pre-game tribute to Bryant, Gianna, and fellow victims Alyssa Altobelli, John Altobelli, Keri Altobelli, Payton Chester, Sarah Chester, Christina Mauser, and Ara Zobayan.
The Lakers all

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Super Bowl 2020 will broadcast tomorrow on Fox Sports, and kickoff will happen at 6:30PM ET. Whether you like American football or not, the occasion presents a chance to save on Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K and Fire TV Cube. And if you want to watch the game in 4K HDR, these are the only devices that will get the high-fidelity stream through the Fox Sports app.
For a quick breakdown of the prices, the Fire TV Stick 4K is $34.99, which is $15 less than its us

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple is no longer just closing one store in China over coronavirus worries — Apple is closing them all. The company is shutting down all its corporate offices, stores, and contact centers in mainland China through February 9th, according to a statement provided to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
Apple is closing ALL stores, corporate offices, and contact centers in China due to Coronavirus through Feb. 9, company says in statement. https://t.co/E5xG

For a moment, it looked Roku owners would be losing the highest-quality way to stream the Super Bowl for free, when the set-top box maker announced Thursday that it would abruptly pull Fox’s apps off the platform a day ahead of the game. But that won’t actually be happening. Late Friday, Roku and Fox announced that they’ve reached a new agreement that will ensure the Fox apps keep on working without pause — and they’ll be restored to the Roku app store this weekend

For a moment, it looked Roku owners would be losing the highest-quality way to stream the Super Bowl for free, when the set-top box maker announced Thursday that it would abruptly pull Fox’s apps off the platform a day ahead of the game. But that won’t actually be happening.Late Friday, Roku and Fox announced that they’ve reached a new agreement that will ensure the Fox apps keep on working without pause — and they’ll be restored to the Roku app store this weekend a

Phones are rounded rectangles now. Have been for years — ever since the iPhone killed the QWERTY slider dead. They’re getting rounder and rounder, in fact, as manufacturers continue to figure out how to bend OLED screens and raw metals to their will. They’re far too samey, unless you count an array of sci-fi inspired foldables that are basically just recreating the flip phone.
I want something edgier to exist in the world. And now, just as Tesla’s Cybertruck shook up the

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter says it has permanently suspended markets blog Zero Hedge’s Twitter account, @zerohedge, for violating the company’s platform manipulation policy. On Wednesday, Zero Hedge posted a blog that doxxed a Chinese scientist and strongly suggested without evidence that the scientist created the strain of coronavirus that’s currently spreading around the world.
That blog lists a name, photo, email, and phone number that are reportedly ti

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge In our review of the Amazon Echo Show 5 smart display, Dan called it the “smart alarm clock to get.” But I think I might move mine to the kitchen, right next to the garbage can.That’s partly because Amazon has just added the ability for the Echo Show 5 and Echo Show 8’s camera to scan barcodes, and automatically add those items to your shopping list (via VentureBeat). I might do that when I’ve got an empty package I’m about to

Elon Musk, DJ, rocket man. Elon Musk is on a roll. Tesla stock is on a rocket ship and the Model Y SUV is coming early. Now, to share the good times, he’s released a song on SoundCloud titled “Don’t Doubt Ur Vibe.” Seriously. The track is also available on Spotify.
Musk has been teasing the track for several hours on Twitter. Now you can listen to it yourself, courtesy of “Emo G” Records (say it out loud and you’ll catch the pun):The track is a followup

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge A California man has pled guilty to hacking Nintendo’s servers to steal confidential files, including taking information about the Nintendo Switch months before it was announced, the US Department of Justice revealed today.
According to the DOJ, Ryan Hernandez, 21, and an associate phished a Nintendo employee in 2016 to get access to and steal confidential information from the company. In October 2017, the FBI contacted Hernandez and his parents to ask h

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Twitter announced a subtle design change to its iOS app today that may go a long way in both making conversations easier to parse and to join. The change, which looks like it’s a change on Twitter’s end that does not require an update, is to the threading feature in the Twitter timeline, which currently does a poor job of differentiating between standard tweets and replies.The update now draws a concrete line between a parent tweet and the

Sophia Wood ContributorShare on Twitter Sophia Wood is a principal at Magma Partners, a Latin America-focused seed-stage VC firm with offices in Latin America, Asia and the U.S. Sophia is also the co-founder of LatAm List, an English-language Latin American tech news source. More posts by this contributorLatin America Roundup: XP’s chart-topping IPO, Wildlife becomes a unicorn, SoftBank backs Konfio Latin America roundup: Neobanks raise $205M+; Softbank backs VTEX
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Disney Randy Freer is stepping down from his role as Hulu CEO as Disney moves to consolidate it’s direct-to-consumer business under its own executives. Part of the decision to roll Hulu’s business operations into Disney’s direct-to-consumer division is to help “rapidly grow our presence outside the US,” according to a company press release put out Friday.Disney hasn’t shied away from its plans to roll out Hulu in various international territories, along with

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge The Department of Justice is taking a new approach to robocalls, seeking approval to hold telecommunications companies responsible for calls on their networks instead of just going after the often-overseas criminals who actually do the dialing.
The companies identified by the DOJ allowed two groups with ties to India and US offices in Arizona and New York to make hundreds of millions of calls per month, according to Jody Hunt of the DOJ’s civil division. T