Technology news

It’s the one where the gang gets back together — and all it reportedly cost was $3 million for each main cast member.Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, and Matthew Perry will all return for a one-off special that’s set to debut along with HBO Max in May. The cast “will earn more than double their former per-episode fee for the reunion and be paid between $2.5 million and $3 million for the special,” according to The Hollywoo

If you're the person who blurts out "I'm a poet and I didn't even know it," whenever anything related to poetry pops up in conversation, or if you've ever uttered the even more brazen of the well-worn poetry phrases — "Poetry is dead" — keep reading. My non-poetic friends, this is a judgment free zone. 
But this should serve as a reminder that there are lots (and lots, and lots) of poets that you should be reading, whether you've read much poetry in the past or not. 
The po

They'll be there for you, like they've been there before.
HBO Max announced today that the cast of Friends will reunite for an untitled unscripted special, to debut on the streaming service when it launches in May 2020. Also available on that date will be all 236 episodes of the original series, which left Netflix at the end of 2019.
Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer are all set to show for the special. Such star power won't come cheap

Photo by RINGO CHIU/AFP via Getty Images Russia is interfering in the Democratic primary to help Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, US officials reportedly told the Sanders camp according to The Washington Post.
There are few details on what Russia did to advance Sanders’ campaign, according to the Post. The White House and lawmakers on Capitol Hill have also been briefed on Russia’s latest interference efforts.In a statement responding to the news, Sanders harshly cr

Fortnite introduced its Rick Astley-inspired emote just one week ago, and the company has already rolled out an update to let PC players mute the music in response to complaints: creators said they were getting copyright claims over the licensed track that plays when the emote is used.
When a player uses the “Never Gonna” emote, part of Astley’s famous song, “Never Gonna Give You Up,” begins to play and their character starts dancing along. The addition marked one o

Image: Nvidia Nvidia’s GeForce Now cloud gaming service has had a somewhat rocky launch since it exited beta earlier this month, and it’s getting even rockier. The company says it’s now losing games from major publisher Bethesda Softworks, which owns Bethesda Game Studios series like Fallout and The Elder Scrolls as well as id Software franchises like Doom. According to Nvidia, one title that will stick around is Wolfenstein: Youngblood, for reasons the company is not disclosi

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Ethos Capital, the company controversially buying the .org top-level domain, is trying to appease critics with a set of new rules. The legally binding agreements would ban steep fee increases for nonprofit domain holders, and they would establish an independent “stewardship council” that could veto attempts at censorship or inappropriate data use. The rules would kick in if Ethos successfully acquires Public Interest Registry (PIR), a nonprofi

It would seem that the corporate sponsors of the RSA security conference are no match for IRL viruses. 
Conference organizers announced Friday that Verizon has joined the growing ranks of companies bailing on the annual San Francisco cybersecurity event, which is slated to begin on Feb. 24. Following IBM and AT&T, Verizon is the latest company to pull out at the last minute, and, according to the RSA, the blame lies on the coronavirus — officially dubbed COVID-19. 
"We learne

Patreon might be the most fuzzy, feel-good creator platform out there. But whenever it tries to change things up in a way that might put more money in its pockets, its loyal but vocal users have something to say.
On Tuesday, Hot Pod first reported (and other outlets confirmed) that Patreon had quietly offered a new service to some creators called Patreon Capital. Essentially, it offered loans in the realm of $75,000, with the expectation that the creators would pay it back plus interest from the

If you're like me when traveling, you're high-maintenance as fuck.
You're gonna get your suitcase and pack that thing with every single item you think there's a slight chance that you maybe perhaps might potentially need/want (maybe). 
NEXT STORY:Maybe. Your once-strong vocabulary is now reduced to the word. Everything is maybe. That long-sleeve you wanna bring even though you're going to a tropical island? Maybe. You might get cold! Or what about that extra pair of sunglasses with the red

A Japanese food company has made sliced mayonnaise and folks, I'd like to give it the ol' college try. 
I'm not a huge mayo guy, but this idea intrigues me. Imagine: You effortlessly plop a square of floppy mayo onto a slice of bread, and presto, pal, you've got 100 percent condiment-coverage for your sandwich. Sure, you could squeeze a glop of mayo from a bottle then spread it carefully with a butter knife — live in the past, in other words — or you could drop a perfectly even

Fortnite is weird again — and I couldn’t be happier. The game’s latest season finally launched yesterday and, on the surface at least, it seems like a standard update. It has a new secret agent theme, with opposing factions and lots of new stealth gameplay options. But look beyond the well-tailored suits and you’ll find something even more notable: Fortnite’s offbeat personality is back in full force.
That’s something that was desperately missing from the prev

In Gentefied, everyone knows the score. That’s the dark joke about being a young person of color in the US, where access to information is more equitable than the power to use that information. It’s easy to know exactly how you’re being shut out of opportunity and hard to do anything about it. For the Mexican family at the heart of Gentefied, the game is clearly rigged, and winning it might cost more than it’s worth.
Netflix’s new half-hour dramedy from producer Ame

Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images for Fortune Spend enough time on Twitter and you’ll start to discern patterns in the scrolling chaos that feels a little like the internet’s id: the grudges, the feuds, the wet-brained political chatter, and the general flatulences tooted out by otherwise smart people. In other words: the state of play on the board. (As the editor Willy Staley might point out: there is a type of tweet for every type of guy.)While much of Twitter’s utility i

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images Nevada’s Democratic caucuses take place this Saturday, and the state may not be ready. In the wake of Iowa’s disastrous caucuses, the Nevada Democratic Party has scrapped its plans to use a reporting app called Shadow, but the replacement system isn’t inspiring confidence.Over the past week, party officials have blasted social media requesting volunteers with a solid grasp on Google tools to help staff the caucuses as technical assistance. Acc

There are so many options these days for people who adore video games, have places to go, and money to burn.
Hardware is more portable than ever, for one. There are many more options than just "the portable from Nintendo" and "the portable from PlayStation" these days. You've got tablets, smartphones, powerful gaming laptops, and even options for carting your entire console around.
NEXT STORY:Gaming itself is also just more involved than it used to be. A lot of the most popular titles aim to est

Image: Arlo Arlo Pro 3 security cameras now support Apple’s HomeKit smart home platform, which lets you manage your gadgets (lights, cameras, etc.) through the Home app on your iOS device. The cameras originally launched last September without support for HomeKit, but it has now arrived.If you want to use your Pro 3 with HomeKit, you’ll need to have it connected to an Arlo SmartHub base station version VMB4540. If you’re not sure which SmartHub you have, you can check by using

Fact: Colors influence how we think and feel. Also fact: Standing in a misty room soaked in blue lighting will make you feel peaceful but curious, especially when the only thing you see is a reflective sphere suspended in mid-air. 
At least, that's how I felt when I saw such a scene in a small exhibition room inside Pantone’s first-ever immersive digital art installation for its color of the year.
It doesn't look any less weird in real life.
Image:Mike Benavides / Mashable
For the pas

SteamWorld Dig 2 Google’s streaming-based Stadia game service has had a rocky start since it launched last year, but Google has been trying to bolster that with more games. The latest are four titles from the SteamWorld series: SteamWorld Dig, SteamWorld Dig 2, SteamWorld Heist, and SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech.For those unfamiliar with the series, SteamWorld Dig and SteamWorld Dig 2 are more metroidvania-style exploration games that see players digging their way through a vast und

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Invitations to WhatsApp group chats are being indexed by Google, making the invite links —including links to private group chats — discoverable and available to anyone who wants to join, Motherboard reports.Journalist Jordan Wildon said on Twitter that he discovered that WhatsApp’s “Invite to Group Link” feature lets Google index groups, making them available across the internet since the links are being shared outside of

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge I have a love-hate relationship with my iPhone. I love the hardware, Apple’s attention to detail in iOS, and the quality of apps that developers have created. But I hate Apple’s walled garden that limits how I use my iPhone every day. I can’t change my default browser; every time I click an email address, I’m forced into an inferior iOS email client; and Apple’s tight OS restrictions mean customization and app features ar

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The Verge’s flagship podcast, The Vergecast, was split up into three parts this week: we cover the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip review, a streaming wars update, and the upcoming Android 11.In the first part of the show, executive editor Dieter Bohn discusses his review of Samsung’s new foldable phone and how it stacks up against other Android phones — especially with its specially developed “Ultra Thin Glass.”
Verge reporter and resident

Back in November, Tesla CEO Elon Musk set Twitter aflame with his company's bizarre new Cybertruck.
If you're the kind of person who wants a Cybertruck in your life but doesn't know if they actually need a gigantic truck that looks like a rejected Halo Warthog prototype, we've got great news. 
Mattel announced Friday morning that it's developing two remote-controlled Hot Wheels toys based on the Cybertruck. There's a tiny 1:64 scale model for $20 and a bigger 1:10 one for $400. Yes, you can

Photo by Martin Schutt/picture alliance via Getty Images Marcel Steeman, a regional councilor in the Netherlands, was playing Lego with his kids a few months ago when he noticed something strange.“There were Lego cyclists, but I wondered where they had to cycle,” he told DutchNews.nl. “If you are Dutch you are used to having cycling lanes.”
The streets in Lego’s city sets had space for cars, trains, even tiny storm drains but no designated space for zero-emission,

Image: Pixar Over the last decade, Pixar has added a new trick to its considerable list of talents: the missable blockbuster. A truly bad Pixar movie is still extremely rare, but a serviceable one that doesn’t necessarily feel like an event? They’re now a part of the studio’s repertoire, even if they feel odd every time. Onward is the latest and strangest of these: a Pixar movie that doesn’t quite look like a Pixar movie, even though it almost feels like one.Perhaps part

iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, the radio station company that’s pushed into podcasts, is now getting into the books business. The company announced yesterday that its Stuff You Should Know podcast series has signed a four-book deal with Flatiron Books. The first book, Stuff You Should Know: An Incomplete Compendium of Mostly Interesting Things, will be released this fall and will “answer all the questions readers didn’t know they wanted to ask.” Start thinking of those questio

DSP Concepts — a startup whose Audio Weaver software is used by companies as varied as Tesla, Porsche, GoPro and Braun Audio — is announcing that it has raised $14.5 million in Series B funding.
The startup goal, as explained to me by CEO Chin Beckmann and CTO Paul Beckmann (yep, they’re a husband-and-wife founding team), is to create the standard framework that companies use to develop their audio processing software.
To that end, Chin told me they were “picky about who