Technology news

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Verizon quietly introduced a new email marketing feature yesterday that it ominously calls “View Time Optimization,” which is a fancy euphemism for a tracking tool that alerts advertisers to the moment you’re looking at your email inbox. Why? So they can send you an ad, of course.The service is part of Verizon’s suite of email and web advertising properties, which includes AOL and Yahoo, and well-known programmer David Heinemeier H

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Verizon quietly introduced a new email marketing feature yesterday that it calls “View Time Optimization,” which the company says automatically times advertisements to the moment you’re looking at your email inbox so that the ad arrives at the very top as a new message.The service is part of Verizon’s suite of email and web advertising properties, which includes AOL and Yahoo, and well-known programmer David Heinemeier Hansson (the

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Verizon quietly introduced a new email marketing feature yesterday that it calls “View Time Optimization,” which the company says automatically times advertisements to the moment you’re looking at your email inbox so that the ad arrives at the very top as a new message.The service is part of Verizon’s suite of email and web advertising properties, which includes AOL and Yahoo, and well-known programmer David Heinemeier Hansson (the

Ann Marie Mehlum ContributorShare on Twitter Ann Marie Mehlum serves on several boards, including Summit Bank,and is a senior advisor at FS Vector, Fenway Summer’s advisory affiliate. Previously, she was associate administrator of Capital Access at SBA.Javier Saade ContributorShare on Twitter Javier Saade serves on several boards, is venture partner at Fenway Summer and is a senior advisor at FS Vector, Fenway Summer’s advisory affiliate. Previously, he was associate administrator an

‘Digital wellbeing,’ the movement to limit our times on devices so we can focus on other things, has been one of the biggest tech buzzwords in the past year or two. The concept has permeated so far that now even Facebook is trying to get you to stop using Facebook. The company recently announced a new feature called ‘Quiet Mode,’ which does pretty much what you’d expect: limit notifications and the time you spend on the app. Facebook says the feature “mutes m

Following The Lion King, Mulan, and Aladdin, to name a few, Disney’s 1973 classic animated film Robin Hood is the latest movie to get a live-action remake. This one, however, is going straight to Disney Plus.Much like The Lion King, the new version of Robin Hood will “feature the characters as anthropomorphic, this time in a live-action/CG hybrid format,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. The movie will also be a musical. The original version famously portrayed the noble thi

The newly launched Quibi is a streaming service with shows meant to be watched in short bursts wherever you are — and, today at least, that includes inside of Fortnite. Today sees a limited time promotion where the Quibi reboot of the prank show Punk’d, hosted by Chance the Rapper, will be airing hourly at Risky Reels, the drive-in theater on Fortnite’s island. (Though it doesn’t appear that you can rotate the screen, a core feature of Quibi.)
It’s a strange bit of

Earlier this week TechCrunch caught up with Union Square Ventures‘ (USV) Albert Wenger. Wenger, a managing partner at the venture firm, is well-known in the New York startup scene. USV has invested in former startups like Twitter, Twilio, Etsy and Cloudflare.
TechCrunch is touching base with a number of investors during the COVID-19-driven economic slowdown. Everyone is already at home, in front of a computer, so why not get them on the phone? (Follow @TechCrunch for updates, we’re k

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft’s Xbox Live service is currently experiencing issues affecting online multiplayer, the company has confirmed. “We’re aware that some users may have trouble joining parties or playing online multiplayer & our teams are investigating,” Microsoft said in a tweet. Xbox Live’s status page shows that “Social and Gaming” and joining parties on Xbox One are affected at the moment. Down Detector indicated a s

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft’s Xbox Live service experienced issues affecting online multiplayer earlier today. “We’re aware that some users may have trouble joining parties or playing online multiplayer & our teams are investigating,” Microsoft said in a 2:38PM ET tweet about the issues. Down Detector indicated a spike in user-reported problems shortly before 2PM ET. Microsoft said the issues should be resolved in a 4:53PM ET tweet.It was the th

Pangea.app, a Providence, Rhode Island-based startup has raised a $400,000 pre-seed round, it told TechCrunch this week. The company’s new capital, raised as a post-money SAFE, comes from PJC, a Boston-based venture capital firm and Underdog Labs. Previously, Pangea.app raised money from angel investors.
The company links “remote college freelancers,” per its website, to businesses around the country. College students want paid work and resume-building experience, while busines

So it has come to this. I haven’t set foot outside my apartment for a week and a half. YouTube yoga has been a kind of lifesaver, and I happened to have a largely untouched 30-pound kettlebell lying around. My Apple Watch has been mostly untouched, however. The stark realities of woefully underperforming exercise minutes and step counts are just too much on top of everything else.Honestly, I scoffed a bit when a friend initially recommended an under-desk elliptical. But those were better d

Image: Activision Call of Duty: Warzone, the new battle royale (BR) mode from developer Infinity Ward, now has more than 50 million players, publisher Activision announced on Friday. The milestone, which Warzone reached just one month after its release, makes the game one of the fastest-growing free-to-play titles in the game industry. Warzone previously hit 30 million players just under two weeks after launch.Unlike Activision’s previous lackluster attempt at a battle royale title, Black

Celebrities, they’re just like us: stuck at home and watching old movies to help pass the time while social distancing. Although, if you’re Taika Waititi and you’re choosing to rewatch Thor: Ragnarok with pals Mark Ruffalo and Tessa Thompson, it’s a bit more elaborate.Waititi hosted an Instagram Live watch party of Ragnarok on Thursday night, intent on providing commentary about the 2017 Marvel film he directed. Instead, Waititi’s stream turned into an impromptu Q&a

Arvind Krishnais not the only CEO to step into a new job this week, but he is the only one charged with helping turn around one of the world’s most iconic companies. Adding to the degree of difficulty, he took the role in the midst of a global pandemic and economic crisis. No pressure or anything.
IBMhas struggled in recent years to find its identity as technology has evolved rapidly. While Krishna’s predecessor Ginni Rometty left a complex legacy as she worked to bring IBM into the

Apple and Google today announced they were partnering up on a contact tracing system that works on both iOS and Android that alerts people when they’ve had contact with someone who’s contracted coronavirus. This collaboration between the two big smartphone companies would help health officials effectively track the spread of the disease while (ideally) not violating users’ privacy. To help public health officials slow the spread of #COVID19, Google & @Apple are working on

Sam Altman,former president of Y Combinator and CEO of OpenAI, tweeted out his goal to secure 1 billion masks in 180 days. People just need to crowdfund those masks, first.
Altman, along with his brother Max Altman, an employee at Rippling; Radu Spineanu, the co-founder of Two Tap; Tinnei Pang, a designer at Mercari US; and others, are all working with suppliers in China to get 1 billion single-use masks to help the broader U.S. population, from service workers to those in hospitals but not dire

Photo by Nilay Patel / The Verge Apple’s 2019 Mac Pro, the world’s most expensive cheese grater — if you were going to use it for that, which you shouldn’t — is now available on Apple’s online refurb store, MacRumors reports. That means savings of around 15 percent, which is a ton when you consider the base price of a new Pro is $5,999.According to MacRumors, the cheapest available refurbished model is a base configuration ($5,999) with upgraded RAM ($300), w

Photo by Jason Redmond / AFP via Getty Images During an infectious disease outbreak, one of the best tools public health experts have is old-school detective work: finding each sick person and then figuring out who they recently interacted with. The technique, called contact tracing, helps get outbreaks of diseases like COVID-19 under control.Contract tracing is based on an obvious idea: People in close contact with someone who has COVID-19 are at risk of getting sick
In order to lift social di

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Chat service Discord is adding a new noise suppression feature in beta as part of a partnership with Krisp.ai, according to a company blog post.The feature, which rolls out to all Discord desktop users today, detects and removes background noises so voices can be heard more clearly. “Have a vacuum running in the background; slam a door; ruffle a bag of chips; keep using your really loud keyboard your friends complain about. They won’t be able

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Google is making changes to search results to make it easier for people to find virtual health care options, the company said in a blog post published today. The changes, which will be rolling out “over the coming week,” appear to make it easier to find telehealth services, which have seen a surge in demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Health care providers that offer virtual care options will be able to add a link to their virtual care website

YouTube has updated its desktop site to make it more touchscreen-friendly. The updated site makes tweaks to the three-dot menu and enlarges icons to make it easier to use the site from a touchscreen.If you head to the YouTube desktop site now using a tablet or laptop with a touchscreen, you will notice the “three-dot” menu option is visible under all of the thumbnails of YouTube videos. Previously, you had to move a cursor over the video title for the “three-dot” option t

“I am tired of bringing food to the Queen to justify my existence,” a poster writes. “When does it end? When can I have some of the food I bring home? When will I see the value of my labor?”
“You goddamn traitor,” reads the top comment. “BITE,” writes another user. “BITE BITE BITE,” writes another.“I am tired of bringing food to the queen to justify my existence”
“Someone just peed on my whole family,” says anoth

Appleand Google’s engineering teams have banded together to create a decentralized contact tracing tool that will help individuals determine whether they have been exposed to someone with COVID-19.
Contact tracing is a useful tool that helps public health authorities track the spread of the disease and inform the potentially exposed so that they can get tested. It does this by identifying and “following up with” people who have come into contact with a COVID-19-affected person.

Apple and Google announced a system for tracking the spread of the new coronavirus, allowing users to share data through Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) transmissions and approved apps from health organizations.
The new system, which is laid out in a series of white papers, would use short-range Bluetooth communications to establish a voluntary contact-tracing network, keeping extensive data on phones that have been in close proximity with each other. Official apps from public health authorities will

Teslais now producing and selling the long-range rear-wheel-drive version of its Model 3 electric vehicle at its Shanghai factory, a month after receiving approval from the Chinese government.
The move might not be a milestone, but it’s notable because Tesla discontinued production of the long-range RWD Model 3 in the U.S. and now only offers that variant as a dual-motor all-wheel drive. It also marks a shift from Tesla’s initial plan to sell a more basic version of the Model 3 in Ch

Image: Apple HBO has decided to continue supporting second- and third-generation Apple TV set-top boxes after initially saying that HBO Go and HBO Now would no longer work on them as of April 30th. The news comes from AppleInsider, which confirmed the change with an HBO spokesperson.The extension for HBO Now isn’t all that long; HBO will only keep that app working on older Apple TVs until May 15th. But the company has promised to keep HBO Go — the one you use if you receive HBO thro

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Consistent topics The Vergecast has covered in the past couple of months have been laptops and Quibi. This week is no different; however, this is finally the week when the mobile-only streaming service Quibi was released to the public and the first time we welcome The Verge’s new laptop reviewer Monica Chin on the show.There’s been a lot of laptop reviews on The Verge lately, so Nilay, Dieter, and Paul talk to Monica about which computers stand out i

The COVID-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on virtual care options as both doctors and patients try to reduce in-person visits for routine care as much as possible. Patients aren’t always aware of what’s available to them, though, so over the course of the next two weeks, Googlewill roll out new features in Search and Maps that will highlight telehealth options.
Hospitals, doctors and mental health professionals can now add details about their virtual care offerings to their Business

Photo by Cyrus McCrimmon / Denver Post Instacart workers are being wooed by orders with large tips only to find them dropped to zero after a delivery has been made, according to a new report by CNN. Instacart lets users set their own custom tip with each shopping request, but it also allows them to change it for up to three days after an order is completed to adjust for experience. Workers, however, claim that some users have been abusing this feature, baiting them with big tips to get their sh

Microsoft closed its physical stores on March 16th | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Like many other retailers, Microsoft shut down its physical stores around the world on March 16th. As much of the workforce has shifted suddenly to remote work amid the coronavirus pandemic, so too have some 2,000 Microsoft Store employees who have transitioned to serving customers remotely as part of the company’s Emergency Remote Operations plan, according to a company blog post.
The remote customer su

It’s been said that the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has given nature room to heal, but it’s also had an affect on the world’s billionaires: They’re fewer. There are 2,095 billionaires today, down from 2,153 in 2019, according to Forbes’ billionaire list for 2020 published this week. They’re also slightly poorer on average, with a combined net worth of $8 trillion — down from $8.7 trillion last year. A record 1,062 billionaires saw the

Image: CBS All Access One of the benefits of having a TV show on a streaming platform is something few actually take advantage of: you can more or less do anything. Freed from the shackles of broadcast ratings, once a streaming show is greenlit for a season, it’s basically guaranteed that season. The Good Fight, a legal drama on CBS All Access, has spent three years playing by no rules other than its own, upending everything you might expect from a legal drama to become one of the most sl