Technology news

TikTok, the viral video app beloved by Generation Z, had enough to worry about with the US government floating a possible ban.
Now it needs to worry about a patent infringement lawsuit from a rival competitor too.
Triller, a shortform viral video app similar to TikTok, is now suing its more popular competitor. The company alleges that TikTok has stolen one of the app’s proprietary features.
The lawsuit claims that TikTok infringed on Triller’s patent for “systems and methods fo

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple has confirmed it’s planning to launch its new iPhones a little later this year. “Last year we started selling new iPhones in late September, this year we expect supply to be available a few weeks later,” said Apple CFO Luca Maestri in an earnings call with investors today.
Maestri didn’t reveal why this year’s iPhone supply is delayed or constrained, but rumors of an iPhone delay have been circulating for months. Th

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple has confirmed it’s planning to launch its new iPhones a little later this year. “Last year we started selling new iPhones in late September, this year we expect supply to be available a few weeks later,” said Apple CFO Luca Maestri in an earnings call with investors today.
Maestri didn’t reveal why this year’s iPhone supply is delayed or constrained, but rumors of an iPhone delay have been circulating for months. Th

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos warned investors earlier this year that they’ll might want to take a seat and prepare for a possible loss in Q2, as the company planned to spend $4 billion — all of its expected Q2 operating profit — on COVID 19-related expenses. Amazon projected a potential loss of $1.5 billion this quarter. But with the end of Q2 now behind us, Amazon shared its quarterly results, and they’re quite the opposite of gloomy.Des

Before Android, before the iPhone, and before GoPro became a known brand, the Flip Video camcorder took the world by storm, allowing millions to shoot digital home videos one-handed and easily save, share, and upload them to a nascent YouTube, thanks to an iconic flip-out USB port.What you probably didn’t know: the Flip Video was almost a Google-branded camera, internal Google emails revealed by the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust sub-committee show. It would have been Google&r

Xinhua/Wang Ying via Getty Images Apple today reported extremely strong third quarter earnings, offering another look at how the company is shaking off the toll the COVID-19 pandemic is taking on its business. Analysts had been expecting around $52.3 billion in revenue and earnings per share of $2.07, but Apple crushed those predictions with $59.7 billion in revenue — up 11 percent from last year’s third quarter — and EPS of $2.58, up 18 percent. The company announced a four-f

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google parent company Alphabet warned in last quarter that it was expecting to see the impact of coronavirus in the second quarter results, and it was: the company saw its first revenue decline in its history. But it managed to beat Wall Street’s revenue expectations.
Total revenue for the quarter was $38.3 billion, versus the $37.4 billion expected, but that marks a 2 percent decline from the second quarter of 2019. Net income dropped from $9.9 bil

Illustration by James Bareham / The Verge The surge in Facebook usage during early shelter-in-place orders in the United States was not just a blip. Daily users of Facebook increased 12 percent year over year, to 1.79 billion. Monthly usage across its family of apps, which also include Instagram and WhatsApp, rose 14 percent, to 3.14 billion. And Facebook’s mostly ad-based based business rose along with them: the company’s revenue was up 11 percent year over year, to $18.69 billion.

Image: Ubisoft Ubisoft’s Hyper Scape, the studio’s new futuristic free-to-play battle royale shooter, will be released on August 11th for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. The game is currently in open beta on PC, but that beta runs for just a few more days, ending on August 2nd.Launch day marks the first time the game will be available on consoles. When it’s out, Ubisoft will also introduce a new weapon, new limited-time game modes, and a 100-tier battle pass, and more, accord

On Thursday, during a eulogy for the late Rep. John Lewis in Georgia, former President Barack Obama took aim at the current administration and criticized an ever-present threat to our democracy: voter suppression. 
"...there are those in power who are doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting, by closing polling locations, and targeting minorities and students with restrictive I.D. laws, and attacking our voting right with surgical precision, even undermining the postal service

Netflix and Ubisoft’s first project together is an animated adaptation of the gaming publisher’s Splinter Cell series, the company announced today.The streamer has ordered two seasons from the get-go, for a total of 16 episodes, according to Variety. John Wick writer Derek Kolstad is set to oversee the project. Details about the show remain under wraps, but the long-running video game franchise, based on Tom Clancy’s book series, follows former Navy SEAL Sam Fisher as he takes

Image: U.S. Army Esports / Facebook An amendment proposed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) that would ban the US military from recruiting on Twitch is now a potential amendment to the House Committee on Appropriations bill, which is part of the process in how the Pentagon’s annual budget is set.
“Children should not be targeted in general for many marketing purposes in addition to military service. Right now, currently, children on platforms such as Twitch are bombarded with

Photo by Graeme Jennings-Pool / Getty Images On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee held its last hearing as part of its year-long investigation into anti-competitive behavior in the tech industry. As part of that probe, lawmakers obtained around 1.3 million documents from Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google ahead of their final hearing featuring the chief executives of each of the companies. Dozens of these documents were released on Wednesday, including email threads between CEO Jeff Bez

It was a striking moment. 
Former President Barack Obama, after delivering a powerful, pointed eulogy for Rep. John Lewis, slipped on a face mask. In the moment, it felt iconic — a sign of the strange times and a reminder of a U.S. leader willing to sacrifice a tiny bit for the well-being of others. 
At the conclusion of his tribute, the crowd delivering a standing ovation, Obama walked off the podium. Just before he got too close to a Secret Service agent to social distance, the

Usually when you open the Venmo (or PayPal) app, it's to send a payment to another user — like your roommate who ponied up for the pizza delivery. But starting in the fall, you'll be able to use those apps to pay with your phone at CVS Pharmacy stores across the U.S.
Even if you don't have digital payment systems like Apple, Google, or Samsung Pay set up on your smartphone, you probably have Venmo or PayPal since it works on most devices. After October, most standalone CVS drug stores will

The funeral of Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis took place on Thursday, and a crowd of mask-wearing family members, friends, and fellow change-makers were there to pay their respects.  
Former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton each made their way to the podiums to share kind words and memories of Lewis, but it was former president Barack Obama's heartfelt and impassioned eulogy that had the biggest impact.
Obama told the crowd that like so many others he "owed a great

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple hasn’t always known what public position to take on right-to-repair policies and legislation, according to recently published internal emails. The 2019 discussion, provided to Congress for its antitrust investigation, highlights the Apple PR team’s struggle to keep public messaging cohesive amid stories covering internal repair developments that seemingly open up Apple’s repair ecosystem.
The email exchanges are part of a trove of

Image: Google Google’s next budget phone, the Pixel 4A, is likely just days away from going on sale. The company has posted a teaser on its online store, saying that “the Google just what you’ve been waiting for phone” will be revealed on August 3rd. 9to5Google spotted the page.
Indeed, the wait for the sequel to last year’s Pixel 3A has gone longer than expected. In May, Google canceled its I/O developer conference, expected to mark the Pixel 4A’s announceme

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images The House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee has just released a huge trove of internal documents from Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google as part of its vast investigation into the tech industry. The documents reveal the internal machinations of companies that are typically highly secretive — and they even include a few buried emails from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, which we’ve shared below.
Two sets of emails discuss the decis

The latest electric vehicle startup to cash in on a new wave of hype and investment in the space is Li Auto, a five-year-old Chinese company that started trading on the Nasdaq on Thursday after raising $1.1 billion in an initial public offering. It’s the second Chinese EV startup to become a publicly traded company in the United States, following Nio’s 2018 IPO and subsequent listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Another, XPeng, will reportedly be next.
With Tesla recently becoming

Large gatherings are no easy logistical feat during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. 
Many have done their best to keep important traditions and events alive responsibly and safely, whether protesting or praying. One especially striking example of this has come from those starting the annual Muslim Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca. 
One of the world's largest annual religious gatherings, the five-day Hajj event is one of the five pillars of Islam. Usually, millions descend upon the holy citie

Photo illustration by William Joel | Photo by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images Newly released emails from April 2012 show Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other executives were frustrated by slow internal prototyping and weighed the benefits of quickly copying and iterating on smaller apps like Pinterest instead.
A chain of messages starts with Zuckerberg recounting a meeting with the founders of Chinese social networking app Renren. “In China there is this strong culture

Well, we had an antitrust hearing.
A long one, too. The House Judiciary Committee’s investigation into the market power of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google ran to nearly six hours, accounting for a handful of delays and intermissions. Alternating Democrats and Republicans asked the CEOs of those companies a combined 217 questions, ranging from pointed questions about how Facebook intimidates smaller competitors (from Rep. Pramila Jayapal) to comically self-interested inquiries into why m

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge During a hearing before the House antitrust subcommittee on Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook testified that “we apply the rules to all developers evenly” when it comes to the App Store. But documents revealed by the subcommittee’s investigation show Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue offered Amazon a unique deal in 2016: Apple would only take a 15 percent fee on subscriptions that signed up through the app, compared to the standard 30 per

Verizon Verizon has announced a new home internet service that uses its 4G LTE wireless network. The service will target rural communities that aren’t currently served by Verizon’s Fios or 5G Home options.The new “broadband” service is now available in Savannah, Georgia; Springfield, Missouri; and the Tri-Cities region of Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky. The plan will cost $40 per month for customers who already have a Verizon mobile plan and $60 for everyone else. (Yo

An online media company identified as “Russia state-controlled” on Facebook is now suing the social network over that very label.
Maffick LLC has filed a lawsuit against Facebook over the foreign-controlled label that the social media giant puts on all of its pages and posts. Maffick runs popular Facebook Pages and Instagram accounts for online news media outlets such as In the NOW, Waste-Ed, and Soapbox. 
You’ve probably come across Maffick’s Facebook page for &ldqu