Technology news

Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images Uber and Lyft are committing wage theft by misclassifying drivers as independent contractors, California’s labor commissioner alleges in separate lawsuits against the companies. The classification of drivers as freelance workers has deprived them of “a host of legal protections in violation of California labor law,” the lawsuits say.
“The Uber and Lyft business model rests on the misclassification of drivers as independent contractors,&rd

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A few weeks ago, Intel teased that “something big”is happening on September 2nd. Now, thanks to the event calendar on the company’s own investor relations site (and eagle-eyed Twitter user @SteakisGood for spotting it), we have confirmation that this is when Intel plans to talk more about its 10nm 11th Gen Tiger Lake CPUs, the ones featuring its anticipated Xe graphics.Acer has already promised machines that feature the new processor, so

The opposition to a giant mine in the heart of Alaska's Bristol Bay — a land teeming with fat bears and the world's largest run of sockeye salmon — is formidable.
Ecologists, bear biologists, Bristol Bay locals, tribes, the majority of Alaskans, and the Obama Administration's EPA have opposed the plan to build a colossal mining district in the region's watershed. They've now been joined by an odd bedfellow, the conservative, left-bashing Donald Trump Jr., who recently posted a mislea

Photo by Michael Reaves / Getty Images The Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the California home of YouTube star Jake Paul this morning, according to TMZ and CBSLA. There are no details yet on why his home was raided or what the bureau was searching for, but ABC7 spotted agents removing several objects that looked like firearms from the house.
An FBI spokesperson confirmed that a “federal search warrant was executed” this morning. The FBI declined to comment on the evidence sou

Photo by Michael Reaves / Getty Images The Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the California home of YouTube star Jake Paul this morning, according to TMZ and CBSLA. There are no details yet on why his home was raided or what the bureau was searching for, but ABC7 spotted agents removing several objects that looked like firearms from the house.
An FBI spokesperson confirmed that a “federal search warrant was executed” this morning. The FBI declined to comment on the evidence sou

Krisp’ssmart noise suppression tech, which silences ambient sounds and isolates your voice for calls, arrived just in time. The company got out in front of the global shift to virtual presence, turning early niche traction into real customers and attracting a shiny new $5 million Series A funding round to expand and diversify its timely offering.
We first met Krisp back in 2018 when it emerged from UC Berkeley’s Skydeck accelerator. The company was an early one in the big surge of AI

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram has disabled its “related hashtags” feature after a bug restricted the feature for select phrases across the platform. Related hashtags did not appear on the tens of thousands of hashtag pages affected by the bug, potentially restricting available information to any user who tapped on one as it appeared in photo or video captions or sought it out via search.The issue came to light after a Tech Transparency Project (TTP) report, furth

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Google Play Music as a service will begin its staggered, region-based shutdown starting next month, but Wear OS users have only a few weeks left to use the smartwatch app before it’s rendered unusable. That latter detail went unmentioned during Google’s announcement that put a December expiration date on the service, and it went unnoticed — until Android Police picked up on a recent post that details its upcoming sunsetting on Google’s W

Microsoft is now allowing Windows 10 users to run Android apps side by side with Windows applications on a PC. It’s part of a new feature in Your Phone, and it builds upon the mirroring that Microsoft’s Your Phone app already provides. You can now access a list of Android apps in Microsoft’s Your Phone app and launch these mobile apps accordingly. These will run in a separate window outside of the Your Phone app, mirrored from your phone.
This new Android app support also allow

Image: Harry Potter/Warner Brothers The tangled journey of the streaming rights for the Harry Potter films just got even more confusing, as Peacock has announced that it’ll be offering the series starting in October. The Potter films are currently streaming on HBO Max but are set to leave the service on August 25th.When Harry Potter arrives on Peacock, it’ll be available for at least a month, according to Vulture, before heading to NBCUniversal’s linear broadcast and cable TV

If you've ever had a furious debate about the ungodly act of microwaving your cup of tea and how "it's the same" as boiling the kettle, you're about to lose — not only to Britain but to science.
Researchers have explained the process your zapped cuppa goes through in a new study published in the American Institute of Physics' peer-reviewed online journal AIP Advances, and why you might not be getting the best results from making it this way over the traditional kettle/stove method.
The stu

Samsung announced FDA clearance during today’s event.The Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 includes a heart-monitoring electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG) app, which has been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It’s the second smartwatch in the US with this feature; the Apple Watch received clearance for a similar app in 2018.“I’m excited to announce that we have just received the US FDA clearance for Samsung’s ECG monitoring app,” said Samsung SVP Federico

Samsung announced FDA clearance during today’s event.The Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 includes a heart-monitoring electrocardiogram (ECG) app, which has been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It’s the second smartwatch in the US with this feature; the Apple Watch received clearance for a similar app in 2018.“I’m excited to announce that we have just received the US FDA clearance for Samsung’s ECG monitoring app,” said Samsung SVP Federico Casale

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Last Friday, a 17-year-old Florida high school graduate, Graham Ivan Clark, was arrested and charged as the “mastermind” behind the massive bitcoin scam that ensnared the accounts of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Apple, and more — after he allegedly posed as a member of Twitter’s IT department and used Twitter’s own admin tools to break into those accounts.This morning, I woke up early to hear what he

Image: Samsung Samsung has opened its online reservation system for the new Galaxy Z Fold 2 foldable announced earlier today at its Unpacked event. For those unfamiliar with this approach, Samsung now occasionally uses reservations ahead of preorders for devices it expects to be in immediate high demand but for which there is still limited official information — like how much it might cost, for instance.Effectively, you reserve a spot now to preorder later, so that you’re guaranteed

Software valuations are bonkers, which means it’s a great time to go public. Asana, Monday.com, Wrike and every other gosh darn software company that is putting it off, pay attention. Heck, even service-y Palantir could excel in this market.
Let me explain.
Over the past few weeks, TechCrunch has tracked the filing, first pricing, rejiggered pricing range, and, today, the first day of trading for BigCommerce, a Texas-based e-commerce company. You can think of it as a comp with Shopify to a

Becca Farsace / The Verge Samsung is promising to “support three generations of Android updates” for Galaxy phones, but that won’t apply to all the phones it makes. Samsung says it will happen for phones from the Galaxy S10 and newer, but that some of its lower A-series phones may not be up to it. In a statement to The Verge, Samsung clarifies that the guarantee “applies to S, N and Z Series. A Series will support until hardware allows.”The original promise flew by

The court in Hillsborough, Florida apparently missed the Zoom-bombing memo. 
Early Wednesday morning, as officials digitally gathered to argue over bail for Graham Ivan Clark, the Florida teen accused of hacking Twitter late last month, the familiar but unexpected sound of pornography disrupted the proceedings. According to cybersecurity reporter Brian Krebs, who was watching the hearing in real time, whoever set up the Zoom call hadn't put in place protections against uninvited guests hija

YouTuber Jake Paul's house has been raided by the FBI, TMZ first reported on Wednesday. 
The gossip outlet reported that the feds were searching through Paul's Calabasas, California mansion and issued a search warrant to do so. 
It remains unclear why, exactly, the FBI were raiding Paul's home. A representative for the FBI's Los Angeles division told Insider that the warrant affidavit was sealed, meaning they could not provide comment on the investigation. The FBI told KABC in LA that

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft isn’t planning to rename Xbox Live or discontinue Xbox Live Gold. Rumors of an Xbox Live rename appeared this week, after Microsoft announced changes to its services agreement. The software giant started referring to Xbox Live as the “Xbox online service,” prompting some to assume Xbox Live was going away.
“The update to ‘Xbox online service’ in the Microsoft Services Agreement refers to the underlying Xbox se

Samsung announced FDA clearance during today’s event.The Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 includes a heart-monitoring electrocardiogram (ECG) app, which the company says has been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It’s the second smart watch in the US with this feature — the Apple Watch received clearance for a similar app in 2018.“I’m excited to announce that we have just received the US FDA clearance for Samsung’s ECG monitoring app,” said Sa

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge DoorDash on Wednesday announced the launch of a chain of virtual convenience stores the company is calling DashMart, which will sell snacks, groceries, and other food-related products from partner restaurants. These stores don’t have brick-and-mortar locations. Instead, they exist solely on the DoorDash app, kind of like a ghost kitchen if it were a CVS or 7-Eleven instead.Right now, the company says DashMart is available in eight cities in the US:

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Samsung and Microsoft announced at last year’s Galaxy Unpacked that they would be forming a closer partnership to help Android and Windows work better together. At today’s Galaxy Unpacked, the two companies revealed new integrations between their two ecosystems — including a way to run apps from your Galaxy Note 20 on your Windows 10 PC.
Here’s a GIF from Microsoft showing a Windows 10 PC running WhatsApp and Instagram side by side

Byju’s has acquired edtech startup WhiteHat Jr. for $300 million as the Indian online learning giant looks to expand its dominant reach in the country.
The all-cash deal makes 18-month-old Mumbai-headquartered WhiteHat Jr., which offers online coding classes to school-going students in India and the U.S., the fastest exit story at this size in the Indian startup ecosystem.
WhiteHat Jr., which had raised about $11 million from Omidyar Network, Owl Ventures and Nexus Venture Partners, claims

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge This week, Virginia plans to release a COVID-19 exposure notification app based on the specifications published by Apple and Google in April. The app, called COVIDWISE, is the first fully deployed implementation of Apple and Google’s system in the US, and was beta-tested by the state department of health.
The specification is designed to preserve patient privacy, particularly around their location and whether they have tested positive for COVID-19.

Samsung’s anticipated Unpacked 2020 event is all packed up. The Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra are now real things, as are the Galaxy Tab S7 tablet, the Galaxy Watch 3, and the Galaxy Buds Live (FKA “Beans”). Also, it announced the new Galaxy Z Fold 2. In case you missed out on the presentation or just want to see the main highlights of the show without having to watch through the show yourself, we’ve distilled them all into bite-size bits below.Becca Farsace / The Verg

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is updating its office software on mobile devices for G Suite users, adding new features to the Docs, Sheets, and Slides apps that should make it easier to get work done from your smartphone. The changes are mostly visual and include a link preview feature and new comment interface. Google is also bundling in the news that Dark Mode is available for Docs, Sheets, and Slides, though it announced that last month.The full changes are as follows:
Link

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is updating its office software on mobile devices for G Suite users, adding new features to the Docs, Sheets, and Slides apps that should make it easier to get work done from your smartphone. The changes are mostly visual and include a link preview feature and new comment interface. Google is also bundling in the news that Dark Mode is available for Docs, Sheets, and Slides, though it announced that last month.The full changes are as follows:
Link

Google Google has injected a new cinematic slideshow above the top row of apps in the Android TV interface to make it easier to find content you might like. It will contain curated TV show, movie, and app recommendations from Google, as well as sponsored content. Google says that “each source will be clearly labeled on the content, giving users transparency,” so that users can differentiate between curated recommendations and paid advertisements, and that it will contain only media

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Samsung has announced its new Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra phones at its Unpacked 2020 online event. The Verge’s Dieter Bohn has the full breakdown on everything you need to know about both devices above. I’m just here to tell you where you can preorder them. Oh, and if you’re curious about when you can preorder the new Galaxy Z Fold 2, that’s coming on September 1st.
Both Note 20 phones will release on Friday, August 21st, but preo

The latest craze on Twitch is Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, a game about squeaky little critters who compete in a series of challenges to be the last bean standing. It’s an adorable, madcap little game that feels like a mashup of battle royale and Nickelodeon Guts.
Each “show” begins with 60 players who have to beat various challenges to qualify for the next round and keep playing. It only took me a day to sample all of the game’s challenges, but there’s enough vari

Sewage pipes and water lines aren't the sexiest things in national parks. But they're critical.
The main water line in Grand Canyon National Park, a park considered a crown jewel of the conservation agency, breaks or sprouts leaks between five and 30 times a year. "The line is always breaking," said Jon Jarvis, the former director of the Park Service who stepped down in 2017.
The infamous water line is part of a now nearly $12 billion backlog in the agency's collection of busted roads, pipes, an

Fortnite has finally added cars to the game with its latest update: Joy Ride.The battle royale title has had plenty of vehicles come and go over past updates, including planes, helicopters, boats, golf carts, driftboards, and ATVs, but plain old cars are a new addition. Their introduction was teased back in the trailer for the Chapter 2: Season 3 launch that flooded the map, but are now available with the game’s latest update.So far there seem to be just four types of car available. There&