Technology news

All indications point to Google announcing its latest Chromecast during tomorrow’s hardware event. And I managed to buy one yesterday even before the “official” unveiling. So I can now confirm that, as the rumors and leaks have made clear over the last few weeks, this isn’t the Chromecast that most consumers are familiar with.Instead of a no-frills TV dongle that plays content sent over from the apps on your phone or computer, the new Chromecast finally has a proper menu

Spotify Spotify made major headlines last year when it announced an exclusive podcast deal with the Obamas’ production studio Higher Ground. Today, the company made a perplexing about-face. The company says it’ll be releasing the first season of The Michelle Obama Podcast on “a number” of other podcast listening platforms starting tomorrow, September 30th — two weeks after the show’s season 1 finale.The company hasn’t detailed which platforms will have

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Following multiple reports of third-party Nvidia RTX 3080 cards crashing, PC builders are now trying to figure out how many capacitors are in their new GPU.
That’s right: capacitors. On Friday, concerned buyers stumbled upon one theory for the crashes: a site called Igor’s Lab speculated that Nvidia’s partners were cheaping out on the capacitors used in their third-party RTX 3080s. And over the weekend, that theory spread: numerous outlets cited

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft’s Bing search engine has beaten out competitor DuckDuckGo and will now be offered as an option for Android users during setup in select European countries, according to the results of Google’s most recent default search engine auction. DuckDuckGo, previously the most frequently offered alternative, was not pleased, and the company slammed Google’s auction process as pay-to-play.“This EU antitrust remedy is only serving to

Photo by Paul Drinkwater/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images Sacha Baron Cohen’s sequel to Borat, his iconic and controversial 2006 satirical documentary, is coming to Amazon’s Prime Video at the end of next month, according to Deadline.Cohen filmed the movie in secret shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic began sweeping the US, and Collider reports the British comedian has screened it for select film industry figures. But given the current pandemic-induced shutdowns of movi

From left to right, NASA astronauts Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, and Mike Hopkins, along with Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi. | Image: NASA Up to four American astronauts plan to vote in the general election from orbit this year, continuing a long tradition of people casting their ballots from space.
The first astronaut slated to arrive at the ISS ahead of the election is Kate Rubins, who is launching on a Russian Soyuz rocket on October 14th along with two Russian cosmonauts. Rubins told

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Google is extending its policy that lets free Google Meet users host calls for longer than 60 minutes. The policy was set to expire after September 30th, but now free users can host those longer calls through March 2021.
“As we look ahead to a holiday season with less travel and important milestones like family reunions, PTA meetings and weddings hosted over video, we want to continue helping those who rely on Meet to stay in touch over the coming mon

Yesterday, we bought the new Google Chromecast, even though it hasn’t yet been announced. Weirdly, it didn’t come with Google Stadia — of the 12 streaming services prominently pictured on the front of the box, Google’s own cloud gaming service wasn’t one of them. We didn’t find it pre-installed on the device, either.
But we can confirm that Stadia absolutely does work on the new “Google TV” device. When The Verge’s Chris Welch sideloaded the

The first thing you see when you begin streaming Utopia on Amazon Prime is a disclaimer. It informs you that the show is a work of fiction not based on “actual, related, or current events.” How strange, you might wonder. What could that mean?In time, you will discover that, among other things, Utopia is about a conspiracy unfolding across a viral pandemic, after which the disclaimer changes to warn you that Utopia is “not based on an actual pandemic or related events.” It

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon’s warehouses with robots, which the company has claimed would help reduce worker injuries, actually have higher injury rates than warehouses without automation, according to internal Amazon records obtained by Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting. The stunning fact comes as part of a broader report investigating rising injury rates at Amazon warehouses across the country.
Amazon’s warehouse robots are apparently so efficie

Responders fighting wildfires in Washington are getting some extra help from SpaceX and the company’s internet-from-space Starlink initiative. SpaceX loaned the Washington Emergency Management Division a handful of user terminals that can tap into the company’s Starlink satellites, providing internet to rural areas where first responders are battling raging wildfires.
SpaceX is still at the very beginning of building out its Starlink constellation, which could consist of nearly 12,00

Walt Disney Pictures Oscar winner Barry Jenkins has agreed to direct the next installment in the Lion King story, according to an exclusive in Deadline. Jenkins is taking over for Jon Favreau, whose “live-action” — photorealistic CGI — update to the classic Disney franchise earned $1.6 billion globally just last year. The sequel also promises to be something of a prequel: according to Deadline, the movie will delve into the characters’ origin stories.As you may rec

HBO Max hasn’t been available on Roku devices since the new streaming service launched at the end of May, but with Roku soon adding support for Apple AirPlay 2 to many of its 4K devices and TVs, there will be a workaround.People with an Apple device (iPhone, iPad, Mac) will be able to use AirPlay 2 to stream HBO Max on their Roku devices even though an official app is not yet live, the company confirmed to The Verge. AirPlay 2 support is supposed to roll out by the end of the year to most

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Sonos has filed another patent lawsuit against Google, alleging that the search giant is infringing five wireless audio patents across the entire line of Nest and Chromecast products. The move comes on the eve of Google’s fall hardware event on September 30th, where it is expected to announce a new Chromecast and Nest smart speaker alongside new Pixel phones.
Sonos filed its first patent lawsuits against Google in January in California federal court and

Sir David Attenborough opens an art exhibition on January 10, 2020, in London, England. | Photo by Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images David Attenborough’s debut on Instagram last week landed him the Guinness World Record for the fastest time to reach 1 million followers. It only took the prolific broadcaster and naturalist 4 hours and 44 minutes to obliterate the record, previously held by Jennifer Aniston. Since then, his followers have more than quadrupled.Aniston set the previous Instagram rec

Facebook Facebook is making it easier for people to post across Facebook properties and pay for purchases they make on all its platforms. The company’s new Accounts Center, which it announced as a test today, will let people cross-post content across Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger.It will also save payment information to pay for purchases on both Facebook and Instagram, although the Facebook Pay feature is coming later this year, the company says. Although it’s not required, peo

Photo by Alix Diaconis / The Verge LG’s wild-looking Wing smartphone has gotten a US price and release date — it’ll cost $999 and be available October 15th, at least at Verizon, with preorders set to begin October 1st. The news confirms what many had already expected about the dual-screen device: it’s not going to be cheap.
As is usually the case with a new Verizon phone launch, there’s also a variety of trade-in offers and discounts to help cut down that price tag

A customer not using the QR code system. | Photo: Square Square is giving restaurants another way to operate through the pandemic: QR codes that customers can scan to pull up a menu, order, and pay. It’s not a unique feature by any means — other restaurant point-of-sale systems already offer this feature, and a lot of restaurants have been offering makeshift versions of this for months. However, it’s still a notable addition from one of the most popular and accessible checkout

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On Tuesday, September 29th at 9PM ET, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden will square off in the first presidential debate of 2020. The event will take place at the Sheila and Eric Samson Pavilion, part of a joint health campus between Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic. The Cleveland Clinic is also serving as the health security advisor for all four general election debates.
The debate will be broadcast by all

Vergecast co-host Dieter Bohn has been hosting a series of discussions diving deep into tech review season each Tuesday, with every episode focusing on a specific product announced this fall.This week, Dieter talks with Joanna Stern, a senior personal technology columnist at The Wall Street Journal and Verge alum, about her review of the Apple Watch Series 6.The big feature of the Series 6 is the addition of a blood oxygen sensor. Though Apple calls this feature a “wellness device” r

Save $80: Try out a month of online therapy from Talkspace for as low as $180. Thinking about therapy, but worried about the cost? Talkspace is one of several virtual therapy startups to enter the field in the past few years, and they're offering a deal on their services. 
SEE ALSO: 6 podcasts about mental health you should be listening to
As of Sept. 29, Talkspace is offering users $80 off a month of their services with the code "FALL80". Since their plans start at $65 per week, that

The Apple Watch Series 6 is officially out, with the latest entry to Apple’s smartwatch lineup adding new features like a blood oxygen sensor and a brighter display. But the company has once again punted on a long-overdue addition to the Apple Watch: support for the universal Qi wireless charging standard.
It’s an incredibly frustrating limitation to the product, one that ensures that you can only use Apple’s chargers to recharge the device. More importantly, it means that you

Duracell is trying to make its coin cell batteries a little less enticing to eat: the company is adding a new bitter coating to its 2032, 2025, and 2016 size lithium coin batteries, with the aim of discouraging young children from accidentally eating the otherwise (apparently) irresistible-looking batteries.The new batteries — which began rolling out in stores earlier this month — feature a coating on the bottom that reacts with saliva to release a bitter taste that will in turn disc

This poor child just wanted to scoot down a hill, to feel the breeze and the rumble of his wheels against pavement. Instead, he got chased down by a bird looking for a fight. 
The kid, apparently named Max, screamed and screamed as the bird dive-bombed him. Who knows what possessed that bird, but the child's screams really are fitting for 2020. 
According to ViralHog, where the video was published, the boy's father said this took place in Warilla, New South Wales, Australia.
"My son an

Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images Joe Biden’s campaign has denounced Facebook for allowing President Donald Trump to spread false information about voting, calling Facebook’s moderation a “regression” from promises it made earlier this month. Biden’s letter, first reported by Axios and obtained by The Verge, pushes CEO Mark Zuckerberg to remove posts where Trump baselessly cast doubt on mail-in ballots and encouraged citizens to vote twice.
“We we

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On Tuesday, TikTok plans to launch an in-app guide to the 2020 US election as part of its ongoing efforts to protect the platform from misinformation.The guide rolls out to users in the US today and is accessible on TikTok’s Discover page or landing pages for certain election-related search results. It will be available in English, Spanish, and “dozens of additional languages,” according to TikTok, and it will offer users information on

Spotify Spotify announced the first podcast that’ll come out of its exclusive DC Comics deal today: a new show called Batman Unburied. The narrative podcast will explore the “darker aspects of Bruce Wayne’s psychology.” It’ll debut in 2021, and for now, no other details are being released. David S. Goyer, the screenwriter behind Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, will executive produce the podcast. Goyer also came up with the idea behind the story.Although th

Don’t expect a follow-up to this year’s OnePlus 8 Pro (pictured). | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Don’t expect to see a OnePlus 8T Pro announced alongside the standard OnePlus 8T next month, Android Authority reports. OnePlus CEO Pete Lau (or Liu Zuohu as he’s known in China) confirmed the news via a post on Weibo, in which he said anyone looking for a Pro device can continue to buy the OnePlus 8 Pro released earlier this year. However, Lau added that the company sti

The 2020 election will massively shape the conditions of the world in which young people grow up, but those who are under 18 are in a unique position: Their future rests on the outcome of the election, yet they can't vote themselves.
"We have to save November to save our planet," Alexandria Villaseñor, a 15-year-old climate justice activist and the founder of Earth Uprising, says. "Climate change is the number one voting issue to young people, and it's because it's going to impact every a

Yesterday, Amazon announced that Prime Day 2020 is locked for October 13th and 14th. It’s usually in July, but the coronavirus pushed it back, now next-door neighbors to other shopping holidays like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Some early deals have already been released ahead of the big day, and even more are likely to trickle out before then, as they have today.
The new, ball-shaped Amazon Echo (fourth gen) that was unveiled last week is discounted if you purchase them in a two-pack. N

The first trailer for the second part of Pokémon Sword and Shield's expansion pass is bringing trainers to a chilly new area: The Crown Tundra.
Players will be able to explore the new area on an expedition that takes them through the snowy, icy environment and has them exploring a Pokémon Den, which have previously only acted as backdrops during Max Raid Battles. Judging by this trailer, there will be a ton of legendary Pokémon poking around this part of the world.
The Crown

The Yale Smart Delivery Box Yale’s Smart Delivery Box, which was first announced at CES earlier this year, is now available for purchase. The box, which is designed to sit on your porch as a safe place for packages to wait for you until you retrieve them, is available in two different designs ranging in price from $229.99 to $329.99, depending on whether you want Yale’s smart keypad.
The idea behind the box is to prevent theft — the dreaded porch pirate — or to prevent d