Technology news

Adam Sandler hasn’t acted in many dramas, but those he stars in tend to exceed expectations. Uncut Gems is no different.Josh and Benny Safdie’s critically acclaimed independent film, which stars Sandler as Howard Ratner, New York City jeweler with a gambling addiction who risks it all on a rare stone, Kevin Garnett, and a 2012 Celtics game, is now streaming on Netflix in the United States. The streamer is a co-producer of the film alongside indie hit maker, A24. Uncut Gems was availa

Virgin Orbit’s 747 Cosmic Girl and rocket LauncherOne | Image: Virgin Orbit Update May 25th, 4:05PM ET: Virgin Orbit’s test flight ended in failure shortly after LauncherOne dropped from under the company’s carrier 747 airplane. Virgin Orbit confirmed that the drop was successful, but that the mission “terminated shortly into the flight.” No further details have been provided yet, though the company says no one was hurt during the test.
Original Story: Small satell

Photo by Avery White for The Verge A new version of the Motorola Razr foldable could launch this year, and it might have 5G, a bigger battery, and improved cameras (via 9to5Google). Those could address some of the many criticisms of the original model, which came out in February.
Surprisingly, this apparent new version of the Razr may have been revealed by an executive from Lenovo, which is owned by Motorola, reports Android Authority. Lenovo’s South Africa general manager Thibault Dousso

Photo: Amazon Amazon’s Lab126, the hardware group responsible for developing the company’s Kindle e-reader and its Echo smart speaker, is hiring engineers to work on its COVID-19 testing initiative, according to job listings first reported by GeekWire on Monday. As of right now, Amazon is contracting with existing labs to process nasal swabs and saliva samples to test its workforce for the novel coronavirus. But Amazon’s ultimate goal is to build a robust testing network with

A screenshot of Project Challenge, a project management simulator. | Thinking Tools Popular “simulation games” like SimCity aren’t literally training players to run something like a city. But what would happen if they did? In the 1990s, SimCity studio Maxis tried to find out.
In an exhaustively researched essay at The Obscuritory, librarian and writer Phil Salvador recounts the fascinating history of Maxis Business Simulations — a short-lived studio that designed simulat

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Zoom has temporarily disabled the integration of GIF platform Giphy in its chat feature, the company said in a blog post. “Once additional technical and security measures have been deployed, we will re-enable the feature.” Zoom didn’t offer any specifics beyond that on Giphy’s removal.The company mentioned the change as part of its latest list of security updates to the platform, which also includes limits on screen sharing, change

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Wikipedia plans to crack down on harassment and other “toxic” behavior with a new code of conduct. The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees, which oversees Wikipedia among other projects, voted on Friday to adopt a more formal moderation process. The foundation will draft the details of that process by the end of 2020, and until then, it’s tasked with enforcing stopgap anti-harassment policies.
“Harassment, toxic behavior, and in

Virgin Orbit’s 747 Cosmic Girl and rocket LauncherOne | Image: Virgin Orbit Small satellite launcher Virgin Orbit — the sibling company to Richard Branson’s space tourism venture Virgin Galactic — plans to conduct the first test launch of its rocket today. The company has been developing and testing its vehicles for the last six years, but now it’s ready to finally send a rocket to orbit.
Virgin Orbit’s primary rocket is called LauncherOne, capable of launchi

The last time a rocket launched from US soil, nearly one million people gathered to watch | Photo by Carla Cioffi/NASA via Getty Images Ahead of this week’s launch of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, NASA is working to keep the enduring threat of COVID-19 at bay during the historic launch. To protect its astronauts, ground crew, and potential visitors, NASA has adjusted their approach to this highly anticipated event. If successful, the launch will not only break the US’s nine

Renders of the Note 20 Plus come from leaked CAD drawings.| Credit: @OnLeaks / Pigtou Last year’s Galaxy Note 10 Plus was truly a thing of beauty, with an amazing screen and superlative industrial design. And, judging by some high-quality (and completely unofficial) renders of the Galaxy Note 20 Plus, it looks like Samsung won’t be changing too much in 2020. The only major difference is a new, bulkier camera module on the rear of the device.These renders come from noted leaker @OnLe

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge If your iPhone or iPad has dozens of apps needing unexpected updates, don’t worry: you’re not alone. For some reason, Apple appears to be reissuing recently-published app updates, resulting in users having to reinstall the latest version of some apps.Among the Verge team, the number of unexpected updates ranged from less than twenty to nearly 100, with updates dating back to the beginning of the month resurfacing from the depths of the App

Realme’s explosive performance in India has made it one of the fastest growing smartphone brands in the world, and today the company is expanding into the nebulous “lifestyle tech” market with products in new categories.First up is Realme’s first smartwatch, imaginatively called the Realme Watch. It has a square design with a 1.4-inch 320x320 LCD display and runs what appears to be a custom version of Android. It can display notifications, control music, hang up phone cal

Image: Sony Sony’s new flagship smartphone, the Xperia 1 II (pronounced “mark two”), will ship in the US starting July 24th for $1,199, the company announced. Pre-orders start on June 1st. And if you pre-order by June 28th, you’ll get a free pair of Sony WF-1000XM3 noise canceling earbuds.
A major feature of the Xperia 1 II is its 12-megapixel triple-camera array, which Sony says can shoot up 20 fps in burst mode, make AF/AE calculations up to 60 times per second, and au