Technology news

Twitter’sstock slid as much as 4% in after-hours trading as the company tried to swat down hackers that had taken over the accounts of multiple high-profile users.
Accounts belonging to Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Kanye West, Joe Biden, Warren Buffet, Apple and many others had their accounts compromised Wednesday afternoon, all posting tweets directing users to a Bitcoin scam. The scam directs the account’s followers to send a certain number of Bitcoin to a blockchain addres

In a set of new lawsuits, two Illinois residents argue that three tech giants violated state laws prohibiting the use of personal biometric data without permission. Illinois residents Steven Vance and Tim Janecyk allege that images of their faces appeared in IBM’s “Diversity in Faces” database without their consent and were used to train facial recognition systems at Amazon, Microsoft and Google’s parent company Alphabet.
While all three companies are based on the West Co

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before traveling to the Atlanta, Georgia area to visit the UPS Hapeville Airport Hub and deliver remarks on infrastructure. | Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images President Trump today gutted the National Environmental Policy Act, a move that many environmental advocates worry will make it harder for people to have a say in how major infrastructure projects would affect them. The new rules speed up permitting for larg

StackHawk, the Denver-based software startup offering service to detect and fix security bugs, is doubling down on its support for the popular open-source OWASP Zed Attack Proxy web app security scanner by bringing on board its founder, Simon Bennetts.
At StackHawk,Bennetts will continue to focus on the development of the open-source project, which the company said is among the world’s most frequently used security scanning tools.
StackHawk already uses the open-source project for its unde

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Twitter accounts of major companies and individuals have been compromised in one of the most widespread and confounding hacks the platform has ever seen, all in service of promoting a bitcoin scam that appears to be earning its creator quite a bit of money. We don’t know how it’s happened or even to what extent Twitter’s own systems may have been compromised. The hack is ongoing, with new tweets posting to verified accounts on a regu

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Twitter accounts of major companies and individuals have been compromised in one of the most widespread and confounding hacks the platform has ever seen, all in service of promoting a bitcoin scam that appears to be earning its creator quite a bit of money. We don’t know how it’s happened or even to what extent Twitter’s own systems may have been compromised. The hack is ongoing, with new tweets posting to verified accounts on a regu

Photo by Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Elon Musk’s Twitter account has seemingly been compromised by a hacker intent on using it to run a bitcoin scam. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates also had his account seemingly accessed by the same scammer, who posted a similar message with an identical bitcoin wallet address.The Tesla CEO’s account issued a mysterious tweet at 4:17PM ET this afternoon reading, “I‘m feeling generous because of Covid-19. I’ll doub

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Twitter accounts of major companies and individuals have been compromised in one of the most widespread and confounding hacks the platform has ever seen, all in service of promoting a bitcoin scam that appears to be earning its creator quite a bit of money.We don’t know how it’s happened or even to what extent Twitter’s own systems may have been compromised. The hack is ongoing, with new tweets posting to verified accounts on a regul

Photo by Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Elon Musk’s Twitter account has seemingly been compromised by a hacker intent on using it to run a bitcoin scam. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates also had his account seemingly accessed by the same scammer, who posted a similar message with an identical bitcoin wallet address.Both accounts are continuing to post new tweets promoting the scam almost as fast as they are deleted. Shortly after the initial wave of tweets, the accoutns of Ap

On the heels of nCino’s blockbuster debut, GoHealth’s public offering proved a more sedate affair, at least when comparing the two companies’ initial trading days.
GoHealthpriced above its anticipated IPO range, selling more shares than initially planned in the process. By vending 43.5 million shares at $21 apiece — $1 per share more than the top of its preceding $18 to $20 range, and four million shares more than its target of 39.5 million — the insurance technolog

A number of high-profile Twitteraccounts were simultaneously hacked on Wednesday by attackers who used the accounts — some with millions of followers — to spread a cryptocurrency scam.
Apple, Elon Musk and Joe Biden were among the accounts compromised in a broadly targeted hack that remained mysterious hours after taking place. Those accounts and many others posted a message promoting the address of a bitcoin wallet with the claim that the amount of any payments made to the address w

Virgin Galacticis shuffling its uppermost leadership ahead of the private space tourism company’s commercial service launch: It just announced Michael Colglazier, who had been president and managing director of Disney Parks International, will join as the new Virgin Galactic CEO, replacing George Whitesides, who will assume the newly created position of chief space officer.
Whitesides said on Twitter that the move is in anticipation of the company’s move to debut its commercial servi

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge If a streaming service launches, but it’s not available on Roku or Fire TV, does it really launch at all?
Technically, yes — but not for a large percentage of the United States streaming market that uses Roku and Amazon Fire TV products to stream their entertainment. Backroom negotiations between media conglomerates and tech giants have kept some of the biggest streaming services from landing on these platforms. WarnerMedia’s HBO Max is

Navistarand TuSimpledeepened their two-year relationship on Wednesday, announcing plans to develop and begin producing autonomous semi trucks by 2024.
The strategic partnership includes Navistar taking an undisclosed stake in self-driving trucks startup TuSimple. The plan is to move away from retrofitting the Navistar International commercial trucks that TuSimple currently uses and instead develop semi trucks specifically designed for autonomous operations.
“Autonomous technology is enteri

Game publisher Tilting Point announced today that it has made its third acquisition in eight months, buying games, key employees and “most of the assets” from FTX Games and Plamee Studios — both previously owned by Playtech, which will be focusing on its gaming and sports betting software moving forward.
Plamee previously developed Narcos: Cartel Wars, which has supposedly made $60 million in revenue since launch. FTX published Cartel Wars, as well as The Walking Dead: Free Cas

What if you could mix and match different tracks from your favorite artists, or create new ones on your own with their voices?
This could become a reality sooner than later, as AI models similar to the ones used to create computer-generated art images and embed deepfakes in videos are being increasingly applied to music.
The use of algorithms to create music is not new. Researchers used computer programs to generate piano sheet music as far back as the 1950s, and musicians from that era such as

Googleis launching a major update to its G Suite productivity tools today that will see a deep integration of Gmail, Chat, Meet and Rooms on the web and on mobile, as well as other tools like Calendar, Docs, Sheets and Slides. This integration will become available in the G Suite early adopter program, with a wider roll-out coming at a later time.
The G Suite team has been working on this project for about a year, though it fast-tracked the Gmail/Meet integration, which was originally scheduled

Amazonis giving live streamers a new way to earn commissions on purchases of products showcased in their streams. The company is today adding live streaming to its existing Amazon Influencer Program, which before today, allowed social media influencers to earn money by pointing fans to their favorite Amazon products through posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
The Influencer Program quietly debuted in 2017 as a way for Amazon to capitalize on the growing trend of influencer marketi

True to Google’s penchant for just announcing things right after they’ve leaked, the company has unveiled a grand redesign of Gmail for G Suite business users ahead of next week’s Google Cloud conference. The app isn’t so much “Gmail” anymore as it is a unified app for all of Google’s communication platforms: Gmail, Chat, Rooms, and Meet.It will be available as an “early access preview” to G Suite customers this week and roll out to all G Sui

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon is extending its corporate work-from-home policy through January of next year. The company is also planning to continue restricting nonessential business travel through the end of the year. Amazon’s decision aligns with those of Facebook and Google, both of which have announced work-from-home policies that extend through 2020. Microsoft has plans to reopen its offices in phases starting this October, while Apple is currently deliberating keep

Snap debuted its developer platform two years ago, and though it has amassed several hundred integrations inside third-party apps, the company is still looking to scale deeper relationships with the developers on Snap Kit.
Today, the social media company announced Yellow Collabs. The remote 13-week program allows companies to dive deeper into integrating their apps with Snap Kit with a number of instruction paths based on their interests in specific elements of the platform. Companies can choose

What are the most important things to get right about remote work? What needs to be prioritized?
With more and more teams being thrown headfirst into remote work, I spent a few weeks talking with some of the people who know the topic better than just about anyone: the founders and execs who’ve put countless hours into making remote work … work.
Some of these companies — like GitLab, Doist, Zapier, Mattermost, FlexJobs and YouNeedABudget — have been working fully remote s

Arvind Gupta,the founder and head of IndieBio, is leaving the accelerator whose portfolio he helped build into a $3.2 billion life sciences powerhouse, to join the venture capital fund Mayfield.
The move is a signal both of Mayfield’s increasing commitment to invest in a thesis around human and planetary health, and of the growing importance of bio-engineering in the world of emerging technologies.
“This goes with the focus at Mayfield on conscious capitalism and mending the planet a

SpaceX’sStarlink service appears to be getting very close, as the company sent out requests for specific address information to anyone who has registered interest in its beta program this week. Now, a leak initially discovered via the Starlink subreddit (via Business Insider) has provided an early look at how the beta program will operate, and what is expected by SpaceX of anyone who takes part.
The hardware
Starlink service will require use of specialized hardware for reception and transm

Photo by Hunter Martin / Getty Images For the first time in its three-year history, there won’t be an arena full of screaming fans to go along with the Overwatch League’s Grand Finals. As the league has shifted online for 2020 due to the ongoing pandemic, it has had to reimagine what its championship tournament will look like. And today Blizzard provided some details on the upcoming playoff format.
Essentially, at the conclusion of the regular season, all of the 20 teams will face o

Microsoft’s Outlook email app for Windows is crashing at launch for a large number of users around the world. Office 365 business users are reporting that Outlook launches and then crashes immediately, seemingly after a recent update. “We’re investigating whether a recently deployed update could be the source of this issue,” explains Microsoft in a Twitter status update. “As a workaround, users can utilize Outlook on the web or their mobile clients.”
Affected

Microsoft’s Outlook email app for Windows started crashing at launch for a large number of users around the world today. Office 365 business users reported that Outlook launched and then crashed immediately, seemingly after a recent update. “We’re investigating whether a recently deployed update could be the source of this issue,” explained Microsoft initially in a Twitter status update.
“Our teams have begun to roll out a mitigation for an issue affecting user acce

Apple Apple is launching its own daily podcast. The company announced the show today along with other news about audio stories coming to Apple News and curated local Apple News collections, as well as the release of iOS 13.6. The show, called Apple News Today, will be hosted by Apple News editors Shumita Basu and Duarte Geraldino. New episodes, which will be seven to eight minutes long, will be released Monday through Friday, and the show will exclusively be available through Apple News and App

TC Early Stage is kicking off on July 21 & 22, which is just a few short days away, and we’re excited to be able to gather the most prominent experts in marketing, contract building, hiring and funding to help early-stage founders succeed. Consider it our version of a founder masterclass, where you can arm yourself with the tools and perspective to keep your business growing. We are going to hit capacity soon and many of our most popular sessions are filling up. Register today to secur

Image: Tahin Rahman Google seemingly has a big Gmail redesign in the works that could let you collaborate with colleagues, work on Google Docs, and talk over Google Meet all without leaving Gmail. Leaked images of the redesign were spotted on Google’s website for the Google Cloud Next ‘20: OnAir event by Twitter user Tahin Rahman (via Android Police).In the redesign, there are now tabs for Mail, Chat, Rooms, and Meet. The Chat tab looks to take you to your conversations with people,

In North America and Europe, people usually spend about 90 percent of their time indoors.All that time inside affects our health and happiness, but how?Journalist Emily Anthes, author of the new book The Great Indoors tries to answer that question. It’s a fascinating read — especially at a time when the ongoing pandemic has changed how we spend our time inside. With restaurant dining off the table in many regions with coronavirus-induced lockdowns, people are spending more time cooki

AppleNews is getting a significant upgrade. The news aggregation app, which ships preinstalled on Apple devices, is introducing several new features for readers and premium subscribers, including audio stories, a daily audio briefing called “Apple News Today” and expanded local coverage.
The audio briefing is somewhat of a competitor to Alexa’s Flash Briefing, which has become a popular way to catch up on the top news headlines. But in Apple’s case, the briefing is hosted

Until now, if you wanted to include more than one image in a single post on Reddit, it’s been a chore. Most users, especially on mobile, had to drop links to external photo-sharing sites like Imgur into a post or reply. But today, Reddit is adding a new feature called Image Gallery, which lets you combine multiple images or GIFs into a single post, even if you’re on mobile.
Previously, redditors had one way to upload multiple images directly to the site if they were using a desktop c

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook has released its latest annual diversity report, which suggests the company isslowly increasing representation across its workforce. According to Facebook, the representation of women and Black and Hispanic people among its employees increased across all of its tracked categories. But the social network has yet to hit its long-term goals, such as 50 percent of its workforce being from an underrepresented background by 2024. That figure now stands

Photo illustration byJakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images You may be switching jobs, or maybe you’ve decided to stop using a specific email account, or maybe you just want a copy of all your email just in case. Whatever your reasons, it’s not a bad idea to back up and export your Gmail and other Google accounts using Google’s Takeout feature. In fact, you can set your accounts to back up regularly, which is a good practice in general.One note: if you’re backing up a