Technology news

Photo: 100 Thieves Apparel drops from 100 Thieves, a lifestyle and esports organization, are notoriously hard to get in on. Whenever the company releases a new hoodie or jersey, it sells out almost immediately. But there’s a new way to get some 100 Thieves gear, and it’s not only easy, but cheap: download it in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Today, the company released virtual versions of every single piece they’ve released to date, spanning three years. As with all user-creat

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Google released an update for the Pixel 4 today requiring users to have their eyes open when using face unlock to open the phone.
The update introduces a “require eyes to be open” feature, which is enabled by default. It offers an extra security measure, but you have the option to disable it in the Pixel 4’s face unlock settings.The lack of an open-eye detection feature was one of the biggest criticisms of the Pixel 4 at launch. The

Photo by BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images Hospitals in Cincinnati are furloughing and cutting hours for nurses and other health care workers. Nurses at a New York City hospital struggled to get tested for COVID-19. A Minnesota health center considered closing because it didn’t have enough face masks.A new report from the Office of Inspector General (OIG) at the Department of Health and Human Services, which is tasked with overseeing the agency, makes it clear that those reports aren&rs

New York City is empty these days. The streets have quieted; the normal pedestrian bustle is nonexistent, and the noise of traffic has turned mostly into near-constant ambulance sirens. Most of us are hunkered down, hibernating until this season of plague shifts into something new. One person who’s not is Miekii, a New York City bike messenger who’s still out and about delivering food to people across Manhattan for Uber Eats.I happened across his IRL stream this afternoon. It’s

The cast of CBS drama All Rise (presumably before social distancing went into effect) | CBS CBS drama series All Rise will produce a “virtual” episode themed on the COVID-19 pandemic, shooting footage in the actors’ homes and using VFX to create backgrounds. It’s the first episode of a primetime scripted series to be produced while practicing social distancing by using remote programs like FaceTime, WebEx, and Zoom.
The episode of the freshman courthouse drama based in L

A number of bands and artists are coming together to put on a virtual benefit concert in Minecraft to raise money for coronavirus research.Chiptune band Anamanaguchi is teaming up with iconic emo band American Football, electronic artist Baths, and a number of other musicians for the free show. The benefit, called “Nether Meant,” will occur in a fictional space called Elsewither, which is based on the popular Brooklyn bar Elsewhere. The concert will take place in Minecraft in an area

TechCrunch confirmed today that BounceX (the firm is rebranding this year) has executed layoffs and salary cuts in the wake of recent COVID-19-led economic disruptions.
Many startups are undergoing staff cuts as the domestic and global economies slow, making individual reductions less newsworthy as the layoff tally rises. However, as BounceX is a company we’ve recently highlighted for its growth and capital efficiency, its own cuts are worth noting.
Reductions
TechCrunch was tipped concern

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Mobile video app Quibi, which just launched today, experienced a one-hour outage this afternoon, the company confirmed. Quibi first announced on Twitter that there were problems at 2:07PM ET and said it was fixed at 3:07PM ET.
While the outage was going on, one Verge staffer saw the below error screen. I saw this same error screen and couldn’t browse anything in the app, but while writing this story, videos started working again. Another staffer was

Autonomous shuttles are being used to move COVID-19 tests from a Jacksonville, Florida testing site to a nearby Mayo Clinic processing location, in what the medical nonprofit is calling a “first” for the US. But as is often the case with autonomous vehicle pilot programs, there’s a catch: during each run made to and from the clinic, the self-driving shuttles are being trailed by an SUV driven by a human.The SUV can be spotted in a video released by the Mayo Clinic (seen above),

Bose is bringing an end to the long-running saga of complaints regarding noise cancellation issues with its Quiet Comfort 35 and Quiet Comfort 35 II Bluetooth headphones. After spending months looking into reports of reduced NC performance — something many customers have blamed on firmware updates — Bose has concluded that firmware isn’t responsible for the perceived drop in noise cancellation effectiveness. But it’s going to let QC35 owners downgrade back to older firmwa

A Facebook co-location map for the United States. It could help illustrate the likeliness of the disease to spread.| Facebook Facebook is expanding a program that grants researchers access to data about movement patterns in an effort to help improve our understanding of the spread of COVID-19, the company said today. Data for Good, which uses aggregated, anonymized data from Facebook’s apps to inform academic research, will now grant access to three new maps for forecasting the disease&rs

Photo by Andrej Sokolow/picture alliance via Getty Images Zoox, the ambitious self-driving startup said to be worth over $3 billion, laid off almost all of its contract workers last week, including its backup drivers who ride around in the company’s autonomous vehicles. Around 120 people are said to be out of work.
Zoox workers were informed in an email sent on Friday that their jobs were being terminated effective immediately. They were told that they were being locked out of the company

Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images The Call of Duty League is making its comeback very soon. Today, the league announced that play would resume on April 10th, several weeks after the schedule was put on hiatus due to the ongoing cornavirus pandemic. As was previously announced, upcoming CDL matches will be played online instead of at live events. “No one wants to be in this situation, but we are, and we’re thankful that Call of Duty League can forge ahead and deliver live competit

Photo by Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images The Federal Communications Commission will not pursue misinformation complaints against broadcasters who air President Trump’s daily press conferences, the commission announced today.The FCC’s announcement came in response to an emergency petition by the advocacy group Free Press, which had called on the commission to investigate “the spread of false COVID-19 information via broadcast outlets across the United States.” In particular,

This week, Square Enix is releasing Final Fantasy VII Remake — a complete retelling of the series’ most iconic game. The first episode, set in Midgar, blows out the world introduced in 1997; its huge, thrilling take makes the original game feel like an outline for what the developers originally envisioned.In 2017, our sister site, Polygon, published the definitive story of Final Fantasy VII’s creation: an oral history featuring interviews with more than 30 of the game’s o

Foursquare, the 10-year-old location platform based in New York City, has today announced its plan to merge with Factual.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed. The merged company will keep the Foursquaremoniker, and Foursquare CEO David Shim will remain at the helm, with Factual’s founder and now-former CEO Gil Elbaz joining Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley as a member of the board and executive team.
Shim confirmed to TechCrunch that this merger was in the works before the coronav

Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. | Image: Blue Origin Three Blue Origin employees have now tested positive for COVID-19 in Washington, according to emails from the company seen by The Verge. The cases, first reported by CNBC and GeekWire, were just announced over the weekend, days after Blue Origin management pressured employees to conduct an upcoming test launch of the company’s New Shepard rocket during a meeting.
“Over the weekend, we unfortunately had two more Blue Origin

Headspace is giving people free access to some of its mindfulness exercises, meditations, and sleep experiences. The company launched a new landing page today designed with New Yorkers, who are experiencing the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US, in mind. Headspace says the free offerings are the result of a partnership with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“From Buffalo to Long Island, Albany to the Lower East Side, this special NY collection of meditation, sleep, and movement exercises

Just in case Frozen 2 on Disney Plus isn’t enough to keep kids entertained while they’re stuck at home, Disney animator Hyrum Osmond and actor Josh Gad have teamed up to produce a new series of shorts available on YouTube.At Home with Olaf follows Gad’s beloved character from the Frozen movies as he gets into a series of hijinks around Arendelle. The first episode is written and voiced by Gad, who plays the snowman in both movies, and animated by Osmond, who oversees animation

Going anywhere during the coronavirus outbreak has risks, but a pharmacy is especially questionable. Even though sick people are instructed to not leave the house at all, some might still be hitting up the pharmacy to get medicine.
You want to avoid this. You still need essential toiletries, though. You can shop online at Walgreens or CVS, or you could shop independent brands that likely aren't as flooded by orders as the big-name, all-encompassing retailers. (P.S. If you haven't already set you

If you enjoy experimental video games and milling around art installations but find yourself stuck at home during the pandemic, one Pittsburgh arcade has swapped physical space for a little virtual world. LikeLike is a gallery dedicated to showcasing weird and creative indie games. Now, that’s now happening in LikeLike Online, which LikeLike calls “the tiniest MMORPG.”
LikeLike Online debuted on Friday, but it remains open to the public. The current show is built with the Bitsy

ASUS Asus has released its Chromebook Flip C436, a lightweight, premium laptop it previewed at CES in January. As expected, the new 13-inch Flip has a similar magnesium alloy body as its predecessor, the C434, and it weighs in at just 2.58 pounds, according to Asus.In addition to a 1080p touchscreen display, the C436 has 10th Gen Intel Core processor, with up to 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, with Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0. It has a fingerprint sensor, stylus support, and two USB-C ports as well as

How was your first weekend with Persona 5 Royal? Right now, I, for one, am pretty happy about having a new version of a game that is not only one of my favorite ever but also happens to be more than 100 hours long. If nothing else, it’s nice to be able to ride the Tokyo subway again, even if I’m technically not leaving my couch.
For all its tweaks and timeliness, though, Persona 5 Royal is essentially just Persona 5 all over again. I’m not saying I’m mad about playing thr

The Nintendo Switch has too many great games to afford buying them all at once. If you recently bought a Switch to play Animal Crossing: New Horizons or you just haven’t had a chance to pick up some of the Switch’s must-have games, now’s the time to add a few essentials to your collection. GameStop is offering $20 off a few worthwhile titles — and better yet, they’re digital copies, so you’ll be able to easily install them from home.
The Legend of Zelda: Breat

Photo by Jan Thijs / Amazon Studios Tales from the Loop is so pretty it breaks your heart. Based on the work of Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag, famous for his scenes of pastoral tranquility draped around uncanny sci-fi sights, Amazon’s newest drama is a collection of eight short stories where everyday rural life is tinged with the supernatural. But unlike, say, Stranger Things, where the otherworldly takes center stage, Tales from the Loop uses it as an excuse to dig deeper into the

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Peloton has announced that it will stop producing and airing live cycling and running classes until April 30th after an employee tested positive for COVID-19 late last week. The company originally planned to reopen its studios on Tuesday, April 7th, taking the weekend to deep clean its facilities.
“We have decided to pause live production at both our New York and London studios through Thursday, April 30th. In the interim, we will continue to mo

Good morning friends, and welcome back to TechCrunch’s Equity Monday, a short-form audio hit to kickstart your week.
Before we jump into today’s show, don’t forget that the long-form Equity that we’ve done for more than three years still drops on Friday. Last week’s was a particular delight, so make sure you’re caught up. Ready? Let’s go.
This weekend was busy, with Quibi launching, folks in the UK attacking 5G towers and Skype trying to steal

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Demand for ride-hailing in cities is down severely due to the coronavirus pandemic, and as such, drivers are struggling to find work. Uber is rolling out a new feature for drivers that is designed to help them find work during this crisis — even if that work is for a different company.Uber drivers received an email on Monday announcing a new feature in the driver app called the Work Hub designed to help drivers earn money with the company’s ot

TCL — best known for its well-received and wallet-friendly TVs — announced at CES earlier this year that it would be entering the mobile phone business. And now, we’ve finally got the full details on its first three phones — the TCL 10 Pro, 10L, and 10 5G — which will all cost under $500 when they’re released in Q2 this year.The most interesting of the three is the TCL 10 5G, which looks to fill an interesting niche as one of the first midrange 5G smartphones.

Image: Google Google has tweaked its Maps app to highlight restaurants that are offering takeout and delivery options during the COVID-19 pandemic, 9to5Google reports. When you open the Maps app, you’ll now find shortcuts on the home screen, and you can tap them to find relevant restaurants close to you. These include local restaurants as well as chains. In some cases, you’ll also be able to order food from within the app, but only if a restaurant supports Google’s functionali

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge It’s far too easy to make fun of Quibi. That’s the first problem. You can start with the name: an overly cute mashup of “quick bites.” It’s easy to say but difficult to attach meaning to — hence a bizarre Super Bowl ad campaign dedicated to explaining it. It’s Netflix, but only for your phone and mostly for those idle moments that are long enough to be felt, yet brief enough that you wouldn’t turn to an

He wants a fish, but let’s face it, he’s probably just gunna get another egg. | Image; Nintendo A new patch has been released for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and according to the patch notes it adjusts the amount of eggs that appear as part of the game’s Bunny Day event. Polygon reports that the amount of sky eggs appearing in the game seem to have fallen as a result of the patch, but that the amount of water eggs appear to be unchanged. Still, it’s great news for any