Technology news

After Motorola's reborn Razr seemed to fail a recent durability test, the company fired back with a response and a test of its own.
The Razr broke after only 27,000 folds from FoldBot, a tool developed to literally fold and unfold devices to test its durability. CNET planned to put the device through 100,000 folds, a goal well below the Samsung Galaxy's record of 120,000 folds. The site tested it during what was supposed to be a 12-hour livestream, but it was cut short when the Razr's hinge got

A song from the musical Les Misérables is making the rounds on Chinese social media after the death of Li Wenliang, the doctor credited as the coronavirus whistleblower. 
The musical's "Can You Hear The People Sing?" has become rallying cry for pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong. In the musical and its 2012 movie adaptation, the song is sung to incite a civilian uprising against the oppressive French monarchy. As protests picked up again in June 2019, Chinese music streaming sites

It's been a week. Between the Iowa caucus disaster, the State of the Union, and Trump's inability to blend his orange makeup, we've been through a lot. We deserve a dash of wholesomeness, and actor Kumail Nanjiani's father is here to deliver.
Nanjuani made news in December after revealing his ripped look for his role of Kingo in Marvel's upcoming movie, The Eternals. His abs were a far cry from his everyman pudge he and his characters had rocked previously, so it was a Big Deal.
The internet wen

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Asana may get more attention than the average SaaS company due to the Facebook pedigrees and outspoken views of its founders, but in practice it’s a low-profile, cash-efficient machine. Today, the productivity toolmaker does not need to raise cash via a traditional IPO, as we explored this week following its filing for a direct listing, even though it hasn’t raised that muc

Some students in Colorado will soon be able to major in weed instead of just smoking it in their dorm rooms. 
Colorado State University-Pueblo just received approval for the state's first degree program focused on cannabis, the Denver Post reports. The program is called "Cannabis, Biology and Chemistry" and will be similar to a double major in biology and chemistry, dean of the university's College of Science and Mathematics David Lehmpuhl told the Post. The focus will be on learning the sc

Scott Bade ContributorShare on Twitter Scott Bade is a former speechwriter for Mike Bloomberg and co-author of "More Human: Designing a World Where People Come First." More posts by this contributorThe tech of giving back: an interview with Salesforce’s Chief Philanthropy Officer Omidyar Network CEO opens up about VC-influenced philanthropy
As founding executive director of Tech:NYC,Julie Samuels is one of the state’s most prominent advocates for the tech sector, both in Albany and a

The 2020 Razzie nominations got out ahead of Hollywood's annual Academy Awards ceremony on Feb. 9. 
For the uninitiated, the Razzies are basically a 180-degree twist on the Oscars, awarding movies and actors for worst performances of the year. Award "winners" in the past include our very own president, who won two in 2019, one for his "worst acting" in Death of a Nation and Fahrenheit 11/9, and another for "worst screen combo" with his self-perpetuating pettiness.
Trump does not show up amo

TVs this year will ship with a new feature called “filmmaker mode,” but unlike the last dozen things the display industry has tried to foist on consumers, this one actually matters. It doesn’t magically turn your living room into a movie theater, but it’s an important step in that direction.
This new setting arose out of concerns among filmmakers (hence the name) that users were getting a sub-par viewing experience of the media that creators had so painstakingly composed.

California’s new privacy law was years in the making.
The law, California’s Consumer Privacy Act — or CCPA — became law on January 1, allowing state residents to reclaim their right to access and control their personal data. Inspired by Europe’s GDPR, the CCPA is the largest statewide privacy law change in a generation. The new law lets users request a copy of the data that tech companies have on them, delete the data when they no longer want a company to have it, a

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the Extra Crunch series that recaps the latest OS news, the applications they support and the money that flows through it all.
The app industry is as hot as ever with a record 204 billion downloads in 2019 and $120 billion in consumer spending in 2019, according to App Annie’s recently released “State of Mobile” annual report. People are now spending 3 hours and 40 minutes per day using apps, rivaling TV. Apps aren’t just a way to p

Journalism is no easy feat, especially for on-air reporters. From being in the middle of a crime scene to speaking with bystanders on the street, they have to face fears many people have — and in front of a camera, no lessAustralian reporter Sarah Cawte had one of those experiences recently as a snake wrapped around her suddenly struck at her mic. 
"He just bit my microphone," Cawte gasped as the snake draped around her like Britney Spears's iconic VMA performance went for the head of

Facebook and Twitter are once again pretending there's nothing wrong with deceptive behavior in politics.
During Tuesday night's State of the Union, House speaker Nancy Pelosi upstaged Trump by ripping up his speech. It happened near the end of the evening, just as the president concluded his remarks. The moment predictably went viral, garnering a lot of chatter on social media and memes — including Pelosi later saying she "tore it up." 
The Trump administration also hopped on the mem

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Most of the deals that we publish at The Verge come and go before the weekend arrives. That’s just the way it works sometimes. However, some deals are still happening and they’re just as good as they were earlier this week.
Apple’s 16-inch MacBook Pro it introduced in late 2019 (shown above) is up to $200 off at Best Buy. The most affordable build costs $2,249 (usually $2,399), and it has a six-core Intel Core i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, AMD’s

Scape Technologies, the London-based computer vision startup working on location accuracy beyond the capabilities of GPS, has been acquired by Facebook, according to a regulatory filing.
Full terms of the deal remain as yet unknown, although a Companies House update reveals that Facebook Inc. now has majority control of the company (more than 75%). However by looking at other filings, including a recent share issue, I understand the price could be about $40 million.
Further filings show that Sca

Uberfacilitated 14 million rides a week in India last year, the American ride-hailing firm said as it claimed the tentpole position in the key overseas market.
In a report (PDF) published on the sidelines of its quarterly earnings Thursday afternoon, Uber said that it commanded over 50% of the ride-hailing market in India — among some other regions — and was the category leader.
The publicly listed company cited its internal estimations for the claim, it said. In comparison

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge We’re still not sure when you’ll actually be able to buy Motorola’s re-imagined flip phone in stores, but we do have a brand-new video of the folding screen Motorola Razr for you to watch — because Motorola was apparently so unhappy with CNET’s original fold test, it decided to share a video it’s calling “The real razr flip test.”The first thing you’ll probably notice is how slowly and surely Motorola’

Photo by Stefan Etienne / The Verge The world’s biggest mobile trade show just took another blow — graphics giant Nvidia, one of the conference’s sponsors, just announced it’s not sending employees to Mobile World Congress 2020 in Barcelona due to the “public health risks around the coronavirus” that have been putting off some other exhibitors and attendees too.Nvidia’s the fourth exhibitor to partially or fully drop out of MWC 2020, and the first US co

There’s this brilliant feeling on Fridays if you’re a reporter when you think that all the things you have to write about are complete. You kickstart some work for Monday. Maybe you tighten up a to-do list. Hell, you might even read some email.
But then on Fridays like today, something eye-catching happens and the Great Content Gods demand written sacrifice and here we are.
Facebook’sTwittermain page and Messenger were temporarily vandalized by a person or persons claiming to b

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Several of Facebook’s Twitter and Instagram accounts were hijacked this evening, and the group taking credit is the same one that said it hacked NFL and ESPN social media accounts last week.
A group calling itself OurMine has made multiple posts on Facebook’s Twitter account, as well as on its separate Messenger account. The Verge has observed the same tweet posted multiple times before being quickly deleted. Here is what the posts have looked

Donny Hall, the chief executive and co-founder of the used car certification service, SureSale, knows used cars. The serial entrepreneur built and sold a previous business, CarSure, which was an insurance plan for vehicle repairs.
After selling that business in 2017 to Innovative Aftermarket Systems, Hall decided that his next venture would be to take on the used car industry’s dominant source for historical information about a vehicle — Carfax .
His Santa Monica, Calif.-based SureSa

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images The Department of Justice has closed an antitrust investigation into Ford, Volkswagen, Honda, and BMW over a vehicle emissions deal with California that reportedly “enraged” President Trump, The New York Times reports. The DOJ ultimately came to the conclusion that no laws were violated, the report states.
Trump has spent almost his entire presidency unsuccessfully trying to roll back Obama-era standards meant to increase the average fuel econom