Technology news

Disney Plus has surpassed 50 million subscribers — up more than 22 million since the last time Disney disclosed numbers two months ago.Disney’s new subscriber numbers follow a series of rollouts in international territories, including the UK, India, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, and Switzerland. Although Disney Plus did delay the launch of its service in France due to government concern that it would put too much strain on bandwidth, the app is now available there, too. Disney prev

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge There’s a lot of music — and storytelling and news — on YouTube, and so it stands to reason that you’d want to be able to play it in the background on your mobile device while reading, texting, or doing other things. Unfortunately, unless you’re a subscriber to YouTube Premium ($11.99 a month) or YouTube Music ($9.99 a month), your ability to listen to a YouTube video in the background is limited — doable, but limited.

The Walt Disney Companyjust announced that its streaming service Disney+ has more than 50 million subscribers.
The service launched less than five months ago, and apparently had 28.6 million subscribers as of February 3.
These “paid subscriber” numbers include subscribers who are bringing in revenue for Disney but are not paying for the service themselves. (TechCrunch’s parent company Verizon is offering a year of free Disney+ to some customers.) It also includes 8 million subs

The aerospace market is evolving quickly and merging with other segments of tech, making it an exciting space for both startups and investors — but the complications of the global pandemic are being felt by both.
Bessemer Venture Partners investor Tess Hatchhas been helping guide companies in their portfolio through these strange times, and has been rolling with the punches herself.
Hatch recently spoke to us about the advice she’s been offering startups, which companies are being hi

Remote workers, meeters, streamers, and hangers-out, take note: Google’s Hangouts Meet is no longer called Hangouts Meet; it’s now called Google Meet.The rebrand was made apparent yesterday in a Google Cloud blog post written by two of Google’s directors of product management, Karthik Lakshminarayanan and Smita Hashim. The blog post lists a number of privacy measures that Google Meet employs to keep remote meetings from being hijacked, and also refers to the service as Google M

Quibi, the short-form, mobile-focused video service that Hollywood executive Jeffrey Katzenberg first hinted at in 2017, officially launched on Monday.
After years of star-studded content announcements, not to mention $1.75 billion in funding, it might have been impossible for Quibi to live up to expectations. And indeed, it divided the hosts of the Original Content podcast.
None of us was totally won over, but Anthony and Jordan saw something to admire in Quibi’sambition, and thought

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Trying to describe Quibi’s essence to people is difficult. There are shows where food explodes in chefs’ faces, series about flipping murder homes, and Chrissy Teigen presiding over a small claims court. Quibi’s best content operates on the belief that “the more ludicrous, the better,” but that’s easier to show than tell.Or it would be if people could share any of what they were watching. Quibi doesn’t allow

The U.K. government, like a number of other countries around the world such as the U.S., has stepped up its pace in providing relief in the form of loans for businesses being impacted by the coronavirus health crisis and the related shutdown that we’ve seen across the economy and life as we knew it. But startups in the U.K. are increasingly getting worried that they are being left behind.
An open letter to the Chancellor published today and signed by the U.K.’s biggest “scale-u

All major indices rose Wednesday, led by the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which increased 3.44% to close above 23,000 for the first time since March 13.
Investors seemed heartened by comments made by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, who said Wednesday that the U.S. death count from COVID-19 is lower than initially modeled. He warned that the death count will continue to climb even as new cases slow.
The action Wednesday followed rallies earlier this

NASAhas chosen a new lunar surface delivery partner from its list of Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) vendors to actually transport stuff on its behalf – Mojave’s Masten Space Systems, which is being tapped by the agency to take eight payloads, including non science and tech instruments, to the Moon’s South Pole in 2022.
Masten is the fourth company awarded a lunar delivery contract under CLPS, after NASA announced that three other companies would be tasked with taking

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Zoom’s latest update might help keep more meetings secure. The videoconferencing software now hides Meeting ID numbers from the title bar, meaning if you screenshot your meeting, your ID code won’t be in the shot.This happened to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. He took a screenshot of his remote Zoom meeting and exposed the meeting ID to a sensitive government call. Keeping that ID number private is essential to protecting yourself and other

Startups big and small, across all industries, are affected by the novel coronavirus pandemic. From Etsy to MongoDB, from Twilio to Foursquare, these companies are looking for ways to capitalize and ultimately thrive in what has become a survivalist landscape.
These companies also happen to be portfolio companies of one Albert Wenger.
We’re excited to have Union Square Ventures’Managing Director Albert Wenger join us for a live discussion on the impacts of COVID-19 on the firm, the a

Latin America’s leading legacy food delivery company iFood and Delivery Hero-owned Domicilios.com are merging in a bid to take on the food startup Rappi on its home turf.
The price of the transaction was undisclosed, but will result in iFood holding a 51% equity stake in the partnership, while Delivery Hero will hold the remaining 49%.
Domicilios, the Colombian online food ordering startup, raised $47.7 million before it exited to Berlin-headquartered Delivery Hero for an undisclosed price

On a live YouTube stream on Wednesday, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan apologized to users for a string of security lapses that have rocked the app in recent weeks. Speaking to viewers for more than two hours, Yuan touted the company’s recent privacy updates and pledged to take any lapses seriously.
“Clearly we have a lot of work to do to ensure the security of all these new consumer use cases,” Yuan said on the call. “But what I can promise you is that we take these issues very, very

In the ongoing quest to one day reuse its rockets after launch, Rocket Lab has successfully tested out a way to catch a rocket falling out of the sky using a pair of helicopters. A few weeks ago, the company dropped a dummy rocket from one helicopter and caught the falling vehicle in midair with another helicopter, shown in a new video released by Rocket Lab today.
The air show, done “several weeks” ago, before quarantine restrictions started taking effect, was meant to demonstrate a

As more companies find their workflows upended by remote work in the pandemic crisis, there are plenty of SaaS startups aiming to sell them a new path to streamlining processes. Tonkean is an SF startup selling a no-code automation platform to do just that, and it’s in the fortunate position of just having closed a hefty Series A.
The company closed a $24 million round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners,Tonkean’steam tells TechCrunch. Lightspeed’s Raviraj Jain is joining Tonkea

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is issuing a ban on the use of the Zoom teleconferencing platform for employees. The company is citing security concerns with the app that have arisen since Zoom became one of the most popular services for free video chatting during the COVID-19 pandemic. The news was first reported by BuzzFeed News earlier today.Google emailed employees last week about the ban, telling workers who had the Zoom app installed on their Google-provided machines that t

LinkedInhas no plans to make COVID-related layoffs until at least the end of June 2020, the professional network has confirmed to TechCrunch. This announcements comes after Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff’s pledge last month to have no significant layoffs for the next 90 days.
Other business leaders such as Bank of America’s CEO Brian Moynihan and Morgan Stanley’s CEO James Gorman have also agreed to pause any potential layoffs until the end of 2020.
Layoffs are trickling down to a

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Oakland-based band Thao & The Get Down Stay Down had a problem. Their plan to shoot a music video for their single “Phenom” was abruptly canceled as shelter-in-place orders rolled in. The band, crew, and dancers could no longer meet up in person, and they were faced with a decision: put everything on hold or figure out a way to make the music video remotely. “At first we didn’t know if we would even release the song because it&rsqu

Image: Riot Games Riot’s new video game, Valorant, is both a breath of fresh air and completely unoriginal at the same time. The first-person shooter opened its closed beta on Tuesday to gargantuan Twitch viewership, thanks in part to Riot’s deal with the platform that let popular streamers gift access keys to its beta while they played the game live.After watching many hours of the game and playing quite a few myself, it’s clear that Valorant is a hyper-competitive game cater

Motherly CEO Jill Koziol admits that it was a tough pitch when she and her co-founder Liz Tenety first tried to get investors on-board in 2015.
“We wanted to create a brand first and foremost,” Koziol told me. “We did not want to go and build a media company or a [direct-to-consumer] company or Facebook for moms — because, spoiler alert, it’s called Facebook.”
Instead, she described Motherlyas a company that sits at the “intersection” of all three

Microsoftannounced its latest Windows 10 preview build today, and, while that is a pretty routine affair these days, the company also used today’s announcement to launch the beta version of a new news consumption experience that anybody on a Windows 10 device can try out today. The Microsoft News Bar aggregates news from the 4,500 publishers in the Microsoft News network and then displays those as a semi-persistent bar on any side of your screen.
Windows 10 has long featured the Microsoft

Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images Fiat Chrysler is recalling more than 365,000 vehicles in North America after discovering that the video feed from their backup cameras can sometimes stay on for more than 10 seconds after the driver shifts out of reverse. The company says it’s unaware of any injuries or crashes related to the issue.
Vehicles included in the recall are the 2019 and 2020 Ram pickup trucks, Chrysler Pacifica minivan, Dodge Durango, Jeep Grand Che

Public markets around the world have been tanking for the past few weeks, and many companies simply can’t operate during a lockdown. Sheltering in place has had some terrible economic consequences, with a record number of Americans getting laid off, including many startup employees.
But what is happening in Europe? You might also be wondering whether European tech startups have to lay off a significant chunk of their workforce and whether financial capital has become scarce.That’s wh

Every computer I’ve called my own for work or personal use has been a laptop. I love the portability of a laptop. It’s great to do work while lounging in my favorite chair or at a coffee shop (when we could still do that). But it’s really hard for me to put in a full workday hunched over one. To fix that, I’ve found that plugging my laptop to an external monitor on my desk is essential for me to be productive. Now I can’t imagine working without one.
If you’re

Rocket Labis in the process of developing a way to recover the rockets it launches, despite their originally being designed as fully expendable launch vehicles. The company had a surprise announcement on Wednesday: It has already managed to successfully catch an Electron in mid-air, during a test meant to prove out the feasibility of that part of the operation.
The whole process involves Rocket Labemploying an onboard guidance system to orient an Electronfirst-stage to re-enter Earth’s at

Airbnbis tweaking its landing page and introducing new features all aimed at longer-term stays, as the online rental marketplace looks to capitalize on a growing segment of its business.
The changes are being rolled out just days after Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said the company had raised $1 billion and laid out plans to direct its attention and new funds toward three core products: hosts, long-term stays and Airbnb experiences. Airbnb raised the $1 billion in debt and equity from private equ

Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games Inc. via Getty Images League of Legends’ 2020 Championship Series (LCS) Spring Split Playoffs have a new home in the United States: ESPN.
The network announced today that five matches with air on ESPN2, the secondary network ESPN uses for much of its esports coverage, and through the ESPN app. Those matches will also be made available to replay directly after the games end within the ESPN app. The first match of the championship series will pit 100 Thieves aga

Netflixis launching a new series on Instagram that will focus on taking care of yourself and your mental health during the COVID-19 global pandemic. The series, which will begin airing on Instagram Live tomorrow at 7 PM PT, features the stars of some of Netflix’s top Young Adult shows and movies, including “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” “The Kissing Booth,” “Stranger Things,” “Cheer” and “13 Reasons Why.”
The series wi

Microsoft previously shipped a full Linux kernel in Windows 10, and now the company is planning to fully integrate Linux file access into the built-in File Explorer. A new Linux icon will be available in the left-hand navigation pane in File Explorer, providing access to the root file system for any distros that are installed in Windows 10.
The icon that will appear in File Explorer is the famous Tux, the penguin mascot for the Linux kernel. Microsoft is testing the Linux File Explorer integrati

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix now lets you protect your profile with a PIN, keeping other people on your account from accessing your home screen and personalized experiences. This new feature was announced as part of the service’s updated parental controls and should prevent young viewers from finding their way into a parent’s profile where mature content is accessible.But PIN protection can be used even if you don’t have kids and simply want to prevent someo

Ivan Vagner (left), Anatoly Ivanishin (center), and Chris Cassidy (right). | Image: NASA In the wee hours of the morning on April 9th, three astronauts are set to launch on a Russian Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan and journey to the International Space Station, where they’ll join three crew members already living and working in orbit. Because this flight is launching during a pandemic, tighter restrictions and protocols are in place to prevent the novel coronavirus from making its way to sp

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon is temporarily extending return windows due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company announced today. If you live in the US or Canada, most items ordered on Amazon between March 1st and April 30th can be returned until May 31st, 2020.Here’s Amazon’s full description of the new policies from its blog summarizing all of the company’s efforts to respond to the pandemic:
We’re temporarily extending return windows in light of the on

Photo by Loren Grush / The Verge Last week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged Americans to cover their faces in public, even if it’s with something as simple as a bandanna. Wearing a mask probably won’t stop you from catching the novel coronavirus, but a large percentage of infected people don’t show symptoms, and it might limit how much virus you shed if you’ve got COVID-19 without knowing it. As Nicole Wetsman writes, we can also think of this as

Riot’s latest game had a record-breaking day on Twitch — despite the fact that it isn’t even out yet. Yesterday the studio’s new shooter Valorant launch in a limited closed beta, and viewers flocked to watch streams of the game. According to Twitch, the game broke the“single-day hours watched record in a single game category” with 34 million hours watched. Meanwhile, the game hit a peak concurrent viewer total of 1.7 million, which is second only to the 2019 L

Earlier this week, the Equity crew caught up with Work-Bench investor Jon Lehr to get his take on the current market, and how his firm goes about making investment decisions.
The conversation was a treat, so we cut a piece of it off for everyone to listen to. The full audio and a loose transcript are also available after the jump.
What did Danny and Alex learn while talking to Lehr? A few things, including what Seed II-level investments need these days to be attractive (Hint: It’s not a ra

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter has removed a privacy feature that allowed all users to stop sharing some private information with advertisers. The setting prevented Twitter from sharing information like the ads you saw or interacted with and the tracking identifier for your phone. For most users, that information will now be shared by default and can’t be turned off.
The shared data is used to show the efficacy of advertising on Twitter, the company says. It helps Twitter

Image: Google Google is launching the free version of its Stadia game streaming service today. Anyone with a Gmail address can sign up, and Google is even providing a free two-month trial of Stadia Pro as part of the launch. It comes just two months after Google promised a free tier, and it will mean anyone can get access to nine titles, including GRID, Destiny 2: The Collection, and Thumper, free of charge.Even existing Stadia Pro customers will get two months of the service for free, as Googl