Technology news

EventGeekwas a Y Combinator-backed startup that offered tools to help large enterprises manage the logistics of their events. So with the COVID-19 pandemic essentially eliminating large-scale conferences, at least in-person, it’s not exactly surprising that the company had to reinvent itself.
Today, EventGeek relaunched as Circa, with a new focus on virtual events. Founder and CEO Alex Patriquin said that Circa is reusing some pieces of EventGeek’s existing technology, but he estimat

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter said that the Federal Trade Commission may soon fine it up to $250 million for improper use of users’ phone numbers and email addresses. The potential fines would come for violations of Twitter’s 2011 agreement with the FTC to no longer mislead consumers about how it protects their personal information.
Between 2013 and 2019, Twitter used phone numbers and email addresses provided “for safety and security purposes” to help

Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images for TurboTax Intuit’s $7.1 billion purchase of Credit Karma earlier this year is now subjected to review by the US Department of Justice. The department is concerned about possible antitrust issues if Intuit — owner of TurboTax, QuickBooks, and Mint — is allowed to take over a former rival that offered free tax preparation tools that were directly in competition with Intuit’s own offering, according to a report from ProPublica.
In a m

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The New York and California attorneys general, along with the Federal Trade Commission, plan to investigate Amazon’s online Marketplace platform, Bloomberg News reported on Monday. The agencies are going to interview witnesses jointly on conference calls over the next few weeks, in what Bloomberg suggests may be the beginnings of a formal antitrust enforcement action following last week’s landmark Big Tech antitrust hearing.
The news comes aft

Microsoft is preparing to launch its xCloud game streaming service as part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate next month, and we’re now starting to get some more details on how touch controls will work with the service. Microsoft initially detailed touch controls last year, but the company has now been working with Xbox Game Studios developers like The Coalition and Ninja Theory to bring these controls to Xbox games.
During a Microsoft Game Stack stream today, Jarret Bradley, senior gameplay produ

Image: Google Backing up your Android phone is always smart — and backing it up to the cloud makes it easy to reload your data even if your phone is lost, stolen, or broken. And now you can back up some of that data to Google’s cloud storage service, Google One, even if you aren’t on one of the company’s paid plans, which start at $1.99 for 100GB of storage. If you’ve got a personal Google account (not a G Suite account), you can get up to 15GB of storage for backi

In one of the crazier news stories (and in 2020, that is saying something), President Donald Trump said today during a media availability event that in order for the U.S. government to sign off on a potential Microsoft/TikTok deal, “a very substantial portion of that price is going to have to come into the Treasury of the United States,” based on my colleague Alex Wilhelm’s rough transcript.Trump calls TikTok a hot brand, demands a chunk of its sale priceThat seems nearly impos

We’ve got a great Extra Crunch Live chat coming up on Thursday, August 4, that you won’t want to miss. The one and only Max Levchin,is Silicon Valley icon and entrepreneur extraordinaire, is joining us to talk all things tech and fintech. You might know him as the CEO of Affirm, one of the hottest finance startups around right now, but he’s actually been a significant figure in tech in the Valley — and globally — for decades, making his name back in the first dot-co

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Android’s real-time captions feature, Live Caption, is gaining the ability to work with voice and video calls, Google announced on Monday. Previously, Live Caption only worked with media that played on your phone, like a YouTube video, but this new functionality means you’ll soon be able to have a phone call with someone and get captions of what they’re saying as they say it.
If you want to see Live Caption with calls in action, check ou

Based on wallpaper by Michael Gillett (Wallpaper Hub) President Donald Trump claims that TikTok will “be out of business in the United States” on September 15th if its Chinese parent company ByteDance doesn’t sell it and provide the US Treasury Department with “a lot of money,” backing off an earlier claim that he planned to “ban” the app over the weekend. This follows reports that Microsoft negotiated a 45-day window to acquire the company, something i

Square Enix’s Avengers game will arrive this fall, and it’ll bring back console-exclusive content in a big way: the company announced that PlayStation players will get exclusive access to a playable Spider-Man character sometime in 2021.Frankly, that sucks. It’s not clear whether Sony paid Square Enix extra for the exclusive character or if this is simply an extension of the movie rights that Sony has long since held to the character. But the fact is that PlayStation 4 and Play

Few challenges have excited technologists more than building tools to help people who are blind or visually impaired. It was Silicon Valley legend Ray Kurzweil, for example, who in 1976 launched the first commercially available text-to-speech reading device. He unveiled the $50,000 Kurzweil Reading Machine, a boxy device that covered a tabletop, at a press conference hosted by the National Federation of the Blind. 
The early work of Kurzweil and many others has rippled across the commerce a

Illustration by Alex Castro In Dragon Ball Z, the popular anime series of the late ‘80s / early ‘90s, they have this thing called — hand to God — the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. Go into the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and you’ll experience a whole year’s time in a single day. On the show, friendly but aggressively jacked warriors essentially used it to cram for exams, squeezing in a few years’ worth of training into a weekend. That used to be a sweet idea to m

Today the president appeared to bless the budding Microsoft-TikTok deal, continuing his evolution on a possible transaction. After stating last Friday that he’d rather see TikTokbanned than sold to a U.S.-based company, Trump changed his tune over the weekend. TikTok is owned by China-based company ByteDance, which owns a portfolio of apps and services.
A weekend phone call between Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, and the American premier appeared to change his mind, leading to the sof

When BigCommerce, the Texas-based Shopify competitor, first announced an IPO price range, the numbers looked a little light.
With a range of just $18 to $20 per share, it appeared that the firm was targeting a valuation of around $1.18 billion to $1.31 billion. Given that BigCommercehad revenue of “between $35.5 million and $35.8 million” in Q2 2020, up a little over 30% from the year-ago period (and better margins than Shopify) its implied revenue multiple that its IPO price range i

SaaS investing has been on fire the past decade and the returns have been gushing in, with IPOs like Datadog,direct listings like Slack and acquisitions like Qualtrics (which is now being spun back out) creating billions of wealth and VC returns. Dozens more SaaS startups are on deck to head toward their exits in the same way, and many VC funds — particularly those with deep portfolios in the SaaS space — are going to perform well.
Yet, the gargantuan returns we are seeing today for

Tim Porter ContributorShare on Twitter Tim Porter is a managing director at Madrona Venture Group and invests in the areas of intelligent applications and SaaS, cloud native software, ML and data analytics and security.Elisa La Cava ContributorShare on Twitter Elisa La Cava is a senior associate at Madrona Venture Group, focused on intelligent applications, cloud-native software and the future of work.From working with our 90+ portfolio companies and their customers, as well as from frequent con

There’s no better way to expose your early-stage startup to global opportunities — we’re talking thousands of potential investors, customers, tech journalists and other mighty influencers — than by exhibiting in Digital Startup Alley at Disrupt 2020. The Alley may be virtual this year, but the benefits of exhibiting are very real. More on those in a minute.
And, because supporting early-stage startup founders is our main jam, we’re offering an exclusive series of we

Google is expanding its plans to offer digital banking services in the U.S. The company announced today it’s partnering with half a dozen more banks to offer digital checking and savings accounts to Google Pay users in the U.S., starting sometime next year. The new partners include Bank Mobile, BBVA USA, BMO Harris, Coastal Community Bank, First Independence Bank and SEFCU. They join Google’s existing partners Citi and SFCU, announced earlier, for a total of now eight banks lined up

ESPN and many other Disney channels are now live on FuboTV, according to a FuboTV support document. You should now be able to watch ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPN 3, ABC, ABC News Live, FX, FXX, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD, Freeform, National Geographic, and more on the over-the-top live TV streaming service following a deal struck with Disney on June 24th.
The new additions to FuboTV come on the heels of a recent price hike, however — FuboTV announced in July that it would be increasing

Calling all Extra Crunch annual and two-year members! Did you know that as a part of your membership plan, you can get a 20% discount on a Disrupt 2020 pass?
Disrupt is our largest and most ambitious event of the year. While it’s typically held in San Francisco, this year the event will be held online from September 14-18.
During the five-day event, you’ll experience non-stop online programming with two big focuses: founders and investors shaping the future of disruptive technology,

Image: Microsoft Microsoft has announced a significant overhaul of its digital store for Xbox, and the end result is a much faster browsing experience and more straightforward navigation. “Far more than a typical app update, we’ve rebuilt the experience from the ground up to be faster, safer and easier to use than ever before,” wrote the Xbox team’s Cody Bird in a blog post.The new Microsoft Store app for Xbox will roll out to some Xbox insiders on August 5th before expa

Snapchat will soon let you add music to the videos you record, making it the latest social app to take on TikTok by offering the ability to embed popular songs. The announcement comes as President Trump threatens to crack down on TikTok and Instagram plans to unveil its own TikTok competitor in the coming weeks.
Snap said it would launch the feature to English-language users this fall, with it rolling out first in New Zealand and Australia starting today. The feature could let Snapchat gain some

Inteland Boeing, two of the pillars of American industry.
Intel makes some of the most impressive chips in the world and has for decades, driving high-performance computing to its limits while supporting a company with a market cap today of $200 billion and supporting more than 110,000 employees. Meanwhile, Boeingremains a global leader in aviation despite retiring the 747, with $66 billion in revenue backing a market cap of $90 billion and hosting more than 153,000 workers.
Like pillars of clas

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is getting into mobile banking through a new partnership announced on Monday with a total of eight US-based banks, including the US division of the Bank of Montreal (BMO) and BBVA. The bank accounts will exist entirely within Google Pay, with customers able to access checking accounts handled digitally on the front end by Google while partner banks handle the infrastructure, FDIC insurance, and other backend technology.It’s unclear at this ti

Lordstown Motors,the one-year-old Ohio electric automaker that revealed a pickup truck prototype in June, has reached a deal to merge with special-purpose acquisition company DiamondPeak Holdings Corp., with a market value of $1.6 billion.
The agreement marks the latest company — and electric automaker — to become a publicly traded company through a merger agreement with a SPAC, or blank-check company. Electric automakers Nikola Motor and Fisker Inc. have also become public companies

As COVID-19 infections surge in parts of the U.S., many workplaces remain empty or are operating with skeleton crews.
Most agree that the decision to return to the office should involve a combination of business, government and medical officials and scientists who have a deep understanding of COVID-19 and infectious disease in general. The exact timing will depend on many factors, including the government’s willingness to open up, the experts’ view of current conditions, business lea

Image: Lordstown Motors One-year-old Lordstown Motors will become a publicly traded company in an effort to bring its commercial electric pickup truck, the Endurance, to market. And it will do this with more support from General Motors than was previously known, according to financial filings.
The startup plans to list on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker “RIDE” by combining with a special purpose acquisition company called DiamondPeak, shares of which already trade on the

Virgin Orbit’sfirst attempt at an orbital launch demo may not have gone entirely to plan (the LauncherOne rocket released as planned but its flight was cut short just after that), but it has booked a payload for its next try — 11 science satellites selected by NASA and primarily designed and built by U.S. universities. Virgin says that it will fly this second launch demo, complete with its cargo, sometime “before the end of the year.”
After the first attempt was cut short

I wanted to write an essay about Microsoft and TikTok today, because I was effectively a full-time reporter covering the software giant when it hired Satya Nadella in 2014. But, everyone else has already done that and, frankly, there’s a more pressing financial topic for us to parse.
Let’s take a minute to take stock of SPAC (special purpose acquisition companies), which have risen sharply to fresh prominence in recent months. Also known as blank-check companies, SPACS are firms that

Samsung’s next big product launch is right around the corner, taking place on August 5th at 10AM ET, though it’ll be a virtual event as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The main product reveal is almost certainly going to be the next phone in Samsung’s Galaxy Note series, its top-of-the-range smartphone lineup that pairs some of the most powerful phone hardware around with a big, beautiful screen and its signature S Pen stylus.But Samsung hasn’t been shy about t

Sophie Alcorn ContributorShare on Twitter Sophie Alcorn is the founder of Alcorn Immigration Law in Silicon Valley and 2019 Global Law Experts Awards’ “Law Firm of the Year in California for Entrepreneur Immigration Services.” She connects people with the businesses and opportunities that expand their lives. More posts by this contributorDear Sophie: How can I speed up getting a green card? Dear Sophie: How should I prepare for a green card interview?
In the wake of last week&r

Snapchat is taking aim at TikTok. The company announced today it will begin testing a new feature that lets Snapchat users set their Snaps to music, similar to TikTok’s app. The feature may allow Snapchat to capitalize on the fracturing of the TikTok audience, who have been exploring alternative apps as the Trump administration weighs a ban on Chinese tech companies over data privacy concerns.
Already, apps like Byte, Triller, Dubsmash, Likee and others have climbed the app store

Google has announced the Pixel 4A, its new midrange Android phone that packs in features similar to the Pixel 4, like an excellent camera and astrophotography mode, but at a much more affordable price. It will be available starting on August 20th for $349. Check out Dieter Bohn’s video review, embedded above, for everything you need to know or read his full review right here.
Preorders are up at a few places, including Google’s own store, Amazon, and Best Buy. Compared to shopping fo

Dish has acquired Ting Mobile, a small cell service provider, in its latest step toward becoming a major nationwide carrier. Ting launched in 2012 and had 286,000 subscribers as of July 2018, making it downright tiny. Since Ting relied on other carriers’ wireless networks, the acquisition really only gives Dish the branding and customers.
The bigger piece of this deal is something that most people won’t see: Ting’s parent company, the internet services company Tucows, will prov

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple’s second-generation AirPods that come with a wireless charging case are down to their cheapest price ever at Amazon. Normally $199, they’re just $140 right now. The previous best price was holding steady at $169, so this is a great time to invest. Interestingly, these are the same price as the model that doesn’t include a charging case that supports Qi chargers. Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
If you’re in the market fo

Riot’s shooter Valorant hasn’t been out long, but it’s already becoming known for its excellent character designs and weapon skins. Recently, that’s included a stylish German hacker with adorable robots, and guns that transform into dragons. Now the developer has revealed its “glitchpop” skin line, which basically turns your weapons into cyberpunk sticker books.
Really, the name says it all: all the weapon skins have a glitchy look out of a far-out dystopia bu