Technology news

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon has begun restricting the types of sellers on its third-party Marketplace platform that can sell health and sanitation products like face masks, hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes and sprays, and isopropyl alcohol, among other products. The decision, revealed in a note sent to sellers on Wednesday and reviewed by The Verge, is a notable escalation in Amazon’s fight against price gouging and deceptive marketing on its e-commerce platform due t

An international team of researchers spread out over three labs in Switzerland, Italy, and the UK have successfully joined artificial neurons and an organic neuron to form the first operational biological-artificial hybrid neural network. They’ve made a cyborg. The team set out to recreate a classic experiment showing how neurons can “learn” by transferring information through synapses. In a classic neural network, various neurons “light up” in response to stimulus

As the coronavirus outbreak worsens, late night is going staff and guests only.
On Wednesday, multiple New York-based productions — including The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah — announced they would begin taping without live audiences starting March 16Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, set to film this evening, will do the same effective immediately. 
Local officials are currently

Welcome to TNW Basics, a collection of tips, guides, and advice on how to easily get the most out of your gadgets, apps, and other stuff. The Epic Games store now has a new feature that’s been long-awaited by fans: wishlists. Now, you can keep a list of games you’d like to purchase and track when they go on sale — for such a simple feature, you’d be surprised how used to it you’d get. Gamers often complain that one of the downsides of shopping on the Epic Game

Superpeer is giving YouTube creators and other experts a new way to make money.
The startup announced today that it has raised $2 million in pre-seed funding led by Eniac Ventures,with participation from angel investors including Steven Schlafman, Ankur Nagpal, Julia Lipton, Patrick Finnegan, Justin De Guzman, Chris Lu, Paul Yacoubian Cheryl Sew Hoy and Chris Messina. It also launched on ProductHunt.
The idea is that if you’re watching a video to learn how to paint, or how to code, or abou

When we covered an extensive hands-on video of the Pixel 4a yesterday, we lamented that one of the only things we don’t know about the new phone at this point is its price. Well, that’s now been checked off the list, if images posted leaker Evan Blass is to be believed — and he has an unimpeachable track record. Blass shared a few images of what appear to be billboard ad mockups for the new device. Notably, one of them shows the device price at $399. This isn’t a huge su

Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeAmazon will give all employees diagnosed with the novel coronavirus or put into quarantine up to two weeks of pay, the company announced today. That includes the company’s part-time warehouse workers, according to The Wall Street Journal. The move follows Amazon’s decision to pay hourly workers who support its campuses even if they’re asked not to come to work due to coronavirus through the end of March, which the company announced last F

Google has launched a new Chrome tool that allows developers to mimic visual impairments like color blindness to help them fix accessibility issues on their sites.Developers can use this feature by launching Google Chrome and heading to the browser’s developer tools. There’s a new section titled “emulate vision deficiencies,” which features a drop-down menu of vision limitations. Selecting one, such as tritanopia (a condition where a person cannot distinguish the colors b

Image: 9to5Mac Earlier leaks have already revealed a lot of the bigger changes rumored to be coming to watchOS 7 and the Apple Watch Series 6, including sleep tracking and watchface sharing, but a new report from 9to5Mac has revealed another new feature: a new “International” watchface.
But unlike the original leak (which 9to5Mac also noted would feature a new “Infograph Pro” face), the International leak actually had images found in iOS 14 that show off what it’ll

Photo by JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty Images EvergreenHealth hospital in Kirkland, Washington, is at the center of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, due to the fact that the state is home to the largest cluster of COVID-19 patients in the country. At least 65 patients have arrived at the hospital for treatment, and 15 have died — a number that accounts for half of the death toll in the US so far.
The New York Times has an inside look at how EvergreenHealth has had to rapidly a

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The crown jewel of Quibi’s forthcoming short form video streaming service is a piece of technology the company refers to as “Turnstyle,” which seamlessly switches between landscape and portrait video orientations depending on how you hold your phone. A new lawsuit filed on Tuesday from interactive video developer Eko alleges that Quibi stole the technology after Eko demoed it to employees of the company, including founder and chairman Je

Montblanc Montblanc has unveiled its first set of headphones: the wireless, noise-canceling MB 01 Smart Headphones. They’re built for luxury and long flights, and are predictably expensive compared to other popular models, costing $595.It’s easy to strike down a newcomer (and a bold one, at that) to such a crowded and competitive market, but there are a few reasons to believe these might be worth checking out. Montblanc tells Engadget that it built them under advisement from Alex Ro

Photo: Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment. The Overwatch League is going on hiatus amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. Today, Blizzard announced that the league was canceling all events scheduled for March and April. The league says it’s still working on determining when and where those games will be made up in the future.
“We are working hand-in-hand with our teams to see that all matches are played when it’s safe and logistically feasible, staying as close to our origin

Twitch is more than just a game streaming platform, and Amazon wants to use it as such by bringing more sports matches to the platform.Today, the Women’s National Soccer League announced it would stream 24 of its games on Twitch as part of a three-year deal. The rest of the games will air on CBS, CBS Sports Network, and CBS All Access. The games made available for free to fans on Twitch are select matches from the 2020 NWSL regular season, according to a press release.Twitch will also serv

U.S. public health officials might be communicating less than clearly about what to do to prevent the spread of coronavirus. But at least Snap's Bitmojis are here to share the good word on proper pandemic hygiene!
Health-themed stickers appeared in the Bitmoji keyboard of popular images this week just as U.S. coronavirus cases topped 1,000. Alongside the usual Bitmoji stickers with phrases like "current mood" and "hump day," there are now stickers cheerily advising the reader to "Wash your hands

Photo by Aaron Lavinsky / Star Tribune via Getty Images Nearly everyone in the US will be affected in some way by the COVID-19 pandemic, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus — by stress and anxiety, event closures, or the illness itself. There’s cause for concern: the disease can be deadly, and the outbreak in the US is likely to continue to get worse.There’s still a lot that scientists and doctors don’t know about the new coronavirus and the illness it causes. Wi

Photo by Aaron Lavinsky / Star Tribune via Getty Images Nearly everyone in the US will be affected in some way by the COVID-19 pandemic, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus — by stress and anxiety, event closures, or the illness itself. There’s cause for concern: the disease can be deadly, and the outbreak in the US is likely to continue to get worse.There’s still a lot that scientists and doctors don’t know about the new coronavirus and the illness it causes. Wi

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Google has advised all employees in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa to work from home starting March 12th, expanding a recommendation sent Tuesday to North America-based employees to work from home until at least April 10th, Business Insider reported. Google confirmed to the The Verge that it has indeed sent this recommendation to its employees. Google had previously told employees in the San Francisco Bay Area, Dublin, and Seattle to work from home.Goo

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple is indefinitely closing all 17 of its Apple Store retail locations in Italy due to the ongoing spread of the coronavirus, according to notices posted on the company’s Italian website, as spotted by Bloomberg. The store closings are effectively a formality, though, given that the entire country of Italy has already been put on lockdown as of March 9th.Apple has yet to say when the stores will reopen, only noting that the stores “will rema

Photo by John Moore/Getty Images Washington state and San Francisco are banning large gatherings to help reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The bans are a way to create social distancing, which may help people avoid coming into contact with others who might be sick.
Gatherings of more than 250 people in the Seattle area are prohibited through the end of March, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced. Gatherings of more than 1,000 people will be banned in San Francisco for two weeks, accor

Although power chains like Starbucks are still going strong, juice bars are giving them a run for their money. With new locations seeming to pop up every day, ginger shots are becoming the new espresso shots. 
Think about it. You've probably seen signs for "cold-pressed juice" just as much as you see signs for "hot coffee." And you've definitely at least heard of someone drinking celery juice because apparently it's as powerful to celebrities like Jennifer Aniston and Kylie Jenner as spinac

Military research agency DARPA wants video game developers to help it develop AI fighter jets. The Pentagon’s so-called “mad science” wing is seeking their support for its Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program. ACE aims to build the trust of fighter pilots in automated combat by testing algorithms in close-range aerial battles — better known as dogfights. But before they’re dodging enemy jets for real, the algorithms need to be trialed in simulations. Read: Pentagon u

No matter what you do for a living, having sound knowledge of digital marketing is bound to get you ahead at work. And with around four in 10 Americans having side hustle, there’s more need than ever to sharpen up your digital and social media strategy and learn how to boost sales and build a successful brand.
But with so much work to do in your spare time, it’s unlikely you have the time to get another degree while working round the clock. Instead, online digital marketing courses c

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) announced today that E3, North America’s biggest gaming conference, is canceled. As effects from the coronavirus continue to ripple across the games industry, many developers are turning to streaming to solve their woes in the interim.
As part of its statement today, the ESA says it’s “exploring options with our members to coordinate an online experience to showcase industry announcements and news in June 2020.” Shortly after,

Tesla is looking for a place to build what CEO Elon Musk called "the most kick-ass of any pick-up truck," the Cybertruck. And we know at least one city that it's considering. 
Late Tuesday, Musk tweeted about the next Gigafactory, as Tesla car plants are called, with a general hint about where it would be based. Scouting locations for Cybertruck Gigafactory. Will be central USA.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 11, 2020A source familiar with the matter specified that Nashville is on