Technology news

Sony today announced it was making a change to its PlayStation downloads in the US, mirroring a similar change in Europe earlier this week. Namely, it’s going to slow down or delay gameplay downloads in an attempt to help manage traffic during this time of social isolation. Since we’re all spending more time inside, working from home, and perhaps playing video games more than average (all day Doom Eternal binges in my house), we’re putting a strain on our internet. So mul

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of hopping on Zoom with betaworks’ John Borthwickand Matt Hartman to discuss the tech world’s adaptation to this new locked-down world, the future of new media and answer questions from the audience.
We discussed whether new media companies can raise capital right now, and touched on emerging trends around audio, voice, AR, live events, travel-related companies and many other topics.
It was a delight, and I’m excited to do more of these in the futu

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft says it will no longer invest in third-party facial recognition companies following a controversy around its funding of Israeli startup AnyVision, which critics and human rights activists say powered a surveillance program in the West Bank following an NBC News report about the company’s relationship with the Israeli government.Microsoft now says an independent investigation led by former US Attorney General Eric Holder and his team at int

One of the newer companies attempting to join the rarified group of private space launch startups actually flying payloads to orbit has redirected its entire UK-based manufacturing capacity towards COVID-19 response. Skyrora, which is based in Edinburgh, Scotland, is answering the call of the UK government and the NHS to manufacturers to do what they can to provide much-needed healthcare equipment for frontline responders amid the coronavirus crisis.
Skyrorarysays that the entirety of its UK ope

With shortages of N95 face masks persisting nationwide, healthcare facilities are scrambling to find ways to clean and treat the masks for reuse to protect doctors and nurses most at risk of exposure to COVID-19.
Duke Universitythinks it has found a solution using vaporized hydrogen peroxide to decontaminate the masks.
The process uses specialized equipment to vaporize hydrogen peroxide, which can then infuse all the layers of the mask to kill germs (including viruses) without degrading mask mat

As a growing list of states order “nonessential” businesses closed to slow the spread of COVID-19, Amazon is giving warehouse and delivery workers letters to carry saying that they are engaged in essential work.“This letter is provided as evidence that the carrier of this letter is an Amazon employee and, as such, an employee of an essential business,” reads a letter given to fulfillment center workers. “This employee is providing essential work to support Amazon&rs

Irene DeNigris ContributorShare on Twitter Irene DeNigris, chief people officer of iCIMS, has a passion for cultivating a highly engaged, high-performance culture.When looking for answers, where do people first turn? For many, it’s Google.
During the first half of March, we saw Google searches for “work from home” reach a 12-month high, garnering at least 50% more search interest than the anticipated peak, which usually occurs within the first week of January. This number will

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge One week after Tesla said it would keep up “normal” operations at the Gigafactory in Nevada, the company now plans to scale back the workforce there by “more than 75 percent” as the state shelters in place to fight the novel coronavirus. Panasonic, which helps make Tesla’s batteries in a section of the Gigafactory, suspended its operations there last week. Legacy automakers have also halted manufacturing operations in the United S

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge One week after Tesla said it would keep up “normal” operations at the Gigafactory in Nevada, the company now plans to scale back the workforce there by “more than 75 percent” as the state shelters in place to fight the novel coronavirus. Panasonic, which helps make Tesla’s batteries in a section of the Gigafactory, suspended its operations there last week. Legacy automakers have also halted manufacturing operations in the United S

Photo by Avijit Ghosh/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images The COVID-19 pandemic is on the verge of colliding with another public health threat: extreme heat, which kills more people in the US each year than any other weather-related event. Public health officials usually recommend that people without air conditioning head to places like malls and libraries where they can cool off, but that’s not an option for a lot of people sheltering at home.The problem could soon begin to affect I

President Donald Trump signed Friday a presidential directive ordering GM to produce ventilators and to prioritize federal contracts, just hours after the automaker announced plans to manufacture the critical medical equipment needed for patients suffering from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
The order, made under the Defense Production Act, marks a sudden reversal by Trump, who has touted the efforts by GM and other manufacturers to try to ramp up production of ventilators and

Photo By Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images After weeks of negotiations, Congress approved its $2 trillion coronavirus relief package on Friday. But that measure’s final approval was threatened by the same virus that made it necessary.
Over the past few weeks, more than 30 lawmakers have been exposed to the novel coronavirus or showed some degree of symptoms that have led them to self-quarantine. But so far, only three have tested positive for the virus, including Reps. Mario

Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service Disney originally aimed to reopen its various theme parks by April 1st, but in light of the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus and recommendations from both local authorities and health experts, Disneyland and Disney World will remain closed until further notice.
“While there is still much uncertainty with respect to the impacts of COVID-19, the safety and well-being of our guests and employees remains The Walt Disney Company’s to

An artistic rendering of SpaceX’s proposed Dragon XL cargo spacecraft | Image: SpaceX Despite the worsening coronavirus pandemic in the US, NASA is still looking ahead to its long-term goal of sending humans back to the lunar surface and is now asking SpaceX to start doing cargo runs to the Moon in the near future. NASA awarded the aerospace company with a new contract this afternoon, tasking SpaceX with sending cargo and supplies to a space station that NASA wants to build in the Moon&rs

More than a decade after announcing that it would keep Polaroid’s abandoned instant film alive, The Impossible Project has done the… improbable: It has officially become the brand it set out to save. And to commemorate the occasion, there’s a new camera, the Polaroid Now.
The convergence of the two brands has been in the works for years, and in fact Impossible Project products were already Polaroid-branded. But this marks a final and satisfying shift in one of the stranger rel

We had a great time hosting noted immigration attorney Sophie Alcorn on a live conference call with Extra Crunch members earlier this week.
Sophie writes our “Dear Sophie” column, where she answers questions about immigration status, particularly for founders and others in the tech ecosystem who want to work in the United States.Dear Sophie: How is COVID-19 affecting immigration?In our conference call, we talked about the changes happening to H-1B visas, what COVID-19 is doing to the

On Thursday, the FDA amended their emergency policy around diagnostic testing for SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Following on a change made March 16, the agency opened the door for a number of specific private entities and labs to develop and distribute tests that can provide results on the spot in as little as 15 minutes — but there are some pretty big caveats to keep in mind as you hear about more of these coming to market.
The tests, which are “serological

Image: Nvidia Nvidia says its GeForce Now cloud gaming service will start getting new games every Thursday, starting with Remedy Entertainment’s sci-fi action title Control.The announcement is a bit of good news for the controversial platform, which has seen high-profile game publishers like Activision Blizzard, Bethesda Softworks, and 2K Games pull their entire libraries since it exited beta in early February. Part of the deal means Control can also be played on GeForce Now using Nvidia&

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Bird is laying off about 30 percent of its staff in response to the financial uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic. The layoffs, which were first reported by TechCrunch, are the first major staff cuts by a scooter startup since the pandemic first hit — but they are likely not to be the last.The news comes after most of the major scooter sharing startups have said they would reduce or eliminate service in most major markets in response to the

Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images Zoom is an easy-to-use videoconferencing tool with a generous free tier. With people around the world isolating indoors to protect themselves against the spread of the coronavirus, it has never been more popular.
But its popularity has also attracted trolls. The phenomenon of “Zoombombing,” in which an uninvited guest uses Zoom’s screen-sharing feature to broadcast porn and shock videos, has been on the rise. Most Zoom meeti

Photo by Karen Ducey/Getty Images Only around half of the residents of one Washington nursing home overwhelmed by COVID-19 had symptoms when they tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a new report.
King County, Washington, was the first coronavirus hotspot in the United States. Multiple nursing homes in the area had cases, including the Life Care facility where two-thirds of the residents were found to have the virus that has been linked to 37 deaths.The Centers for Disease Control

Earlier this year, Microsoftmade waves in the corporate community by coming out with one of the most ambitious and wide-ranging strategies to reduce carbon emissions from the company’s operations.
Part of that plan was a $1 billion fund that would invest in climate change mitigation technologies — specifically focused on decarbonization. At the time, details were scarce, but it looks like the strategy is becoming a little more clear, with details beginning to emerge about who will be

Russ Heddleston ContributorShare on Twitter Russ is the co-founder and CEO of DocSend. He was previously a product manager at Facebook, where he arrived via the acquisition of his startup Pursuit.com, and has held roles at Dropbox, Greystripe, and Trulia. Follow him here: @rheddleston and @docsendMore posts by this contributorNow might be the perfect time to rethink your fundraising approach What to expect when pitching European VCs
No one wants to prepare for their fundraising round to fail. Ma

An Instacart shopper walks past empty shelves at a supermarket in California on March 19th. | Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images Instacart shoppers are organizing a work stoppage Monday because they say the grocery delivery company has not done enough to ensure their safety during the coronavirus outbreak, as first reported by Vice.The workers say they will refuse to accept new orders through the Instacart app until the company adds a $5-per-order hazard payment, expands its paid s

Photo by Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images A viral coronavirus rumor says taking ibuprofen, which is marketed by GlaxoSmithKline as Advil, could make COVID-19 symptoms worse. The message is spreading through text messages and over Twitter, and it claims to be coming from a Vienna laboratory studying COVID-19.The problem is: there isn’t any evidence that it’s true. There hasn’t been enough research on ibuprofen in COVID-19 patients to determine whether it is actu

Nilay Patel / The Verge MacBook Air models with Retina displays may have issues with their anti-reflective coating, causing the laptop’s screen to look blotchy, according to MacRumors, which obtained an internal memo sent by Apple to its Authorized Service Providers.The anti-reflective coating, used to help cut out glare and make the display easier to see, is prone to wearing off due to pressure from the laptop’s keys and trackpad or the use of cleaning solutions, according to MacRu

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge April Fools’ Day is one of the most annoying internet traditions, but this year Google — infamous for its numerous elaborate pranks that typically touch on nearly every major product the company makes — won’t be participating due to the serious threat of the coronavirus that continues to impact the entire world.According to an internal email obtained by Business Insider, Google will “take the year off from that tradition out

COVID-19 and its resulting social distancing measures have inspired lots of people to live stream, so Facebook says it’s going to launch various features over the next couple weeks to make Facebook Live more accessible and easy to use, particularly for people who might not have a lot of mobile data. The updates will be global.The team is launching an audio-only mode, as well as automatic closed captions. It’s also giving people various ways to access a stream outside of Facebook, inc

Image: Valve Half-Life fans have gotten used to uncertainty over the fate of hero Gordon Freeman. Gordon last appeared in Half-Life 2: Episode Two, an extension of the 2004 game Half-Life 2. But the follow-up Episode Three was canceled. The newly released Half-Life: Alyx is set five years before Half-Life 2 and stars Gordon’s ally Alyx Vance, so it doesn’t majorly advance the story. Even so, the new game includes a big hint about Gordon’s future journey... especially if you pl

If you've been stuck at home for the past two weeks because of the coronavirus outbreak, chances are you've been giving your TV quite the workout. I mean, what else is there to do lately besides Tiger King and chill Zoom party?
Of course, engaging in social distancing means you technically have lots of time on your hands to, say, flip back and forth between your laptop (for YouTube videos) and your TV (for the streaming services you pay for and sports/news programming) depending on the type of c

Netflix/MAPPA This spring, more than 45 new shows are airing as anime season kicks off in Japan. To help you decide what to watch, we’ve put together a list of eight shows that stand out as being interesting for both newcomers and diehard fans. Thanks to streaming services like Amazon, Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Netflix, most of these shows are available for viewing internationally within a day of their original airdate.
One show from our winter season preview (Dorohedoro) should come t

The Bon Appétit Test Kitchen captured the internet's heart with their culinary YouTube videos. They're still making videos while social distancing — they're just doing it at home. 
Bon Appétit had "six to eight weeks" of content pre-filmed before New York City, where the magazine is based, issued a stay at home order. But the prepared videos felt out of place with the global pandemic keeping everyone inside. 
"Knowing that so many people all over the country are hom

Games Done Quick, an organization that holds speedrunning marathons for charity, will hold a special event to raise donations for those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Corona Relief Done Quick will take place April 17th-19th, with all proceeds going to humanitarian aid organization Direct Relief.
Direct Relief aids those affected by poverty and emergencies. In response to the coronavirus spread, the organization is working to provide crucial medical equipment, such as face masks and protectiv

In Crip Camp, the revolution begins at summer camp. The Netflix documentary, now available to stream, follows several young people who attended Camp Jened, a New York campground for people with disabilities. That alone is a wonderful subject: a story about what happens when a group of teens neglected by society finally discovers a place where they are treated as complete, whole people. But Crip Camp is going somewhere incredible, and a story about how a camp changed a group of teenagers’ l

H.E.B. In February, while the US government was still dithering and downplaying the potential impact that the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 might have, San Antonio-based grocery chain HEB was already running pandemic simulations and adapting the plans that helped it respond to the H1N1 outbreak in 2009.
Yes, that’s correct: a regional grocery chain arguably did better advance planning than our government did and is now better equipped to handle the coronavirus pandemic that has left more

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Over the last decade, some of the world’s biggest entertainment and telecom conglomerates bet on streaming entertainment. The last 10 years have ushered in a rapid progression of at-home entertainment as Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, HBO Now, and more rack up millions of subscribers. As more people are forced to stay at home to try to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, the concept of a bored, cable-cutting consumer searching for things to const

Photo by Bill Pugliano / Getty Images General Motors will manufacture ventilators that are crucial to fighting the worst symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. One thousand members of the automaker’s unionized workforce will build the equipment for ventilator company Ventec Life Systems at GM’s factory in Kokomo, Indiana, which has been shut down during the pandemic. The goal is to eventually make 10,000 ventilators per month, according to GM and Ventec,