Technology news

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is committing to spending more than $175 million on racial equity initiatives with a focus on financing black-owned businesses and supporting black entrepreneurs. The funding was announced by Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Wednesday alongside a number of other commitments and changes meant to fight anti-black racism and support black Google employees and their families.
The $175 million commitment is part of an “economic opportunity package&rdqu

Image: VWIDtalk Volkswagen’s first all-electric SUV, the ID 4, has broken cover thanks to leaked images from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology that were picked up by a VW fan forum.The ID 4 — which was previously known as the ID Crozz when it was still a concept — is the first vehicle from VW’s forthcoming ID lineup of electric vehicles that will be sold in the US. The ID 4 will also be sold in China and Europe. The German automaker is said to

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images The Department of Justice has released a proposal for changing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, urging Congress to pass a dramatic reduction in the law’s scope and expose services like apps and websites to greater legal liability. The proposal creates new categories of “egregious content” that wouldn’t be covered, makes it potentially easier to sue for content removal, and denies protection if a service “purposefully fa

Zynn is no longer paying users to watch videos and refer friends to the app, a practice that quickly rocketed the TikTok clone to the top of both Apple and Google’s app stores.
The payment feature is being replaced with a new rewards system called Zynncheers. Zynncheers still gives users points for watching videos (now in addition to commenting on and liking videos). The big distinction is that there are currently no rewards being offered in exchange for the points — not money or any

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is testing a new method of selling subscription services with select Android developers that will allow customers to buy a subscription from the Play Store, without even needing to install the app first. The news, reported today by TechCrunch, was first hinted at last week when Google announced the Google Play Billing Library Version 3, an updated set of developer tools for processing Play Store payments and handling purchases of digital goods that

Horizon Forbidden West — the sequel to 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn — won’t arrive on the PlayStation 5 until 2021, game director Mathijs de Jonge confirmed in a new video that offered further information on the upcoming title. According to de Jonge, Guerrilla Games is “aiming to release the game next year in 2021,” meaning that it won’t be out when the PS5 launches this holiday season.
While there’s no new footage of Horizon Forbidden West in the vide

Alex Castro Today, Twitch launches its proprietary streaming software, Twitch Studio, on Mac in open beta, according to a blog post on its website. It’s a smart move. The original version of the software was PC-only, and while PCs are somewhat easier to stream from for a variety of reasons — mostly having to do with software options — it makes sense that creators who aren’t PC users would want to get in on streaming, too. (The pandemic also definitely got more people int

Twitter is rolling out the ability to record audio snippets and attach them to your tweets. The new feature is available first on iOS and launching today for “a limited group of people,” according to the company. “Sometimes 280 characters aren’t enough and some conversational nuances are lost in translation. So starting today, we’re testing a new feature that will add a more human touch to the way we use Twitter — your very own voice,” Twitter’s Ma

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Google Assistant Smart Displays will be able to access AMP web articles starting later this summer, Google says. Alongside the AMP news, Google has also announced a number of improvements for its voice assistant, which it says will make interactions with it faster and more seamless and yield more accurate responses to queries.AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is Google’s instant article format, and it’s designed as a way to load webpages faster on mobil

Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP via Getty Images Over the last several weeks, social media has been filled with videos of police officers pepper-spraying, bludgeoning, and shooting protestors. They were captured by civilians, recording on smartphones — not by police body cameras. That changes how people understand the events on the video, helping protestors rather than police shape the narrative.Many people treat video footage, regardless of where it comes from, as objective evidence, says

Photo by Bradley Kappel for The Verge Lyft announced a plan on Wednesday to transition to “100 percent” electric or zero-emission vehicles by 2030. By working with automakers and rental car companies, as well as the millions of independent contractors who drive for Lyft every day, the ride-hailing company believes it can prevent “tens of millions of metric tons” of pollutants from entering the atmosphere.“Now more than ever, we need to work together to create clean

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Zoom says it will begin allowing users of its videoconferencing software to enable end-to-end encryption of calls starting with a beta next month, the company announced on Wednesday. The feature won’t be restricted to paid enterprise users, either. It’s coming to both free and paid users, Zoom says, and it will be a toggle switch any call admin can turn on or disable, in the event they want to allow traditional phone lines or older conference

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Lucid Motors has announced that it will reveal the production version of its first all-electric luxury sedan, the Air, in an online event on September 9th. The California startup says it will show off the Air’s final exterior and interior designs, and offer new details on the car’s specs, configurations, and pricing.But customers will now have to wait a little longer to get behind the wheel of their preordered Airs thanks to the COVID-19 p

Hikaru Nakamura in 2017. | Photo by Andrew Halseid-Budd / Getty Images One of the fastest-growing games on Twitch is also one of the oldest. Over the past few months, the ancient board game chess has become a mainstay on the streaming platform, thanks to a combination of popular streamers and big-name chess champions playing online. According to SullyGnome, a partner at analytics firm StreamElements, the hours watched on Twitch for chess have nearly doubled every month this year; in May, the nu

Google Calendar has added Juneteenth as a holiday in the United States.Juneteenth dates back to June 19th, 1865, when Union Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to read federal orders, freeing the last remaining slaves in the state. Celebrations of the holiday began as early as 1866 when freed slaves in Texas celebrated its first anniversary.Google Calendar is not the first major calendar app to recognize Juneteenth as a US holiday. In 2018, some users noticed Apple added the day as

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge More companies are vocalizing their support for an antitrust case against Apple filed in the EU yesterday. Both Match Group, the owner of dating apps like Tinder and Hinge, as well as Epic Games, which created Fortnite, issued statements last night in support.
“Apple is a partner, but also a dominant platform whose actions force the vast majority of consumers to pay more for third-party apps that Apple arbitrarily defines as ‘digital services,’&

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge AT&T has confirmed that it’s cutting thousands of jobs and closing hundreds of stores, Axios reports. While the company has not confirmed the total number of jobs affected, the cuts reportedly include 3,400 technician and clerical jobs as well as managerial and executive roles. And 250 retail locations will be closed, including both AT&T and Cricket Wireless branded stores, the Communication Workers of America confirmed — although AT&a

The Zendure SuperTank is loaded with ports, and its display shows the current battery level. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Zendure’s SuperTank portable battery that’s capable of delivering up to 100W of power to charge your laptop normally costs $129 at Amazon, but you can clip a coupon on its product page to save $10. Add it to your cart, then to get an additional 30 percent off the battery, add one of its $10 USB-C to Lightning cables or any other charger, hub, or