Technology news

For many of us, calling a doctor’s office, an insurance carrier, customer support, or indeed any kind of administrative office has become an exercise in frustration — especially these days, when increased demand and cuts in staffing have made phone waits interminable. Yes, you can simply use speakerphone to monitor the line, but do you really want to listen to that awful music for over an hour?
A new Android feature called Hold for Me, which Google just announced, may just be able to

The markets are closed and the verdicts are in: investors liked what they saw in Palantir and Asana .
The two companies, which debuted this morning in dual (and duel) direct listings, continued to prove that enterprise tech companies without the brand recognition of Spotify (which conducted its own direct listing back in 2018) can make direct listings work. So far, the evidence is decent that the mechanism isn’t throwing off investors.
Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Asana closed

Photo: Google Google’s fall hardware event ended this afternoon after a breezy 30 minutes of rapid-fire product announcements, with the stars of the show being the new Pixel 5 and Pixel 4A with 5G. Google now has three primary smartphones; two midrange ones (one with 5G and one without) and one flagship. That’s a refreshingly simple lineup, compared with some of the messier, more bloated offerings from competitors.But that doesn’t mean choosing between the devices is necessari

It’s a big day for Asana, the work management tool that debuted on the NYSE this morning in a direct listing. Founded back in 2009 by Dustin Moskovitz and Justin Rosenstein, the company has assiduously grown over the years, taking in about $213 million in venture capital the past decade and reaching almost $100 million in subscription revenue for the first six months of 2020.
TechCrunch sat down this afternoon with CEO Moskovitz and Asana’shead of product Alex Hood at the tail end of

It’s been a month since Elon Musk and Neuralink trotted out a cyborg pig to show off the company’s progress toward a brain computer interface (BCI). I still see Gertrude in my nightmares. The big idea behind Neuralink is the development of a brain implant that will allow everybody to control computers with their minds. But more than this, Musk claims it will eventually allow computers to control our minds. He says the device will be capable of “curing” depression, Alzhei

Image: Verizon Verizon is getting an exclusive model of the Pixel 4A 5G: it comes in white, it supports Verizon-specific 5G bands, and it’s $100 more expensive. Verizon has dubbed this model the “Google Pixel 4A 5G UW” to highlight its support for the carrier’s “ultra wideband” 5G network.
If you’re on any other carrier, you’re not missing out. And if you’re on Verizon, this is probably a worse option than buying a standard Pixel 4A 5G at th

Google’s new $50 “Chromecast with Google TV” has supplanted the Chromecast Ultra in practically every way — so you probably won’t be surprised to hear Google is getting rid of its original 4K streaming device. The Chromecast Ultra is now out of stock at every major US retailer, including the Google Store, where its product page redirects to the new Chromecast.
It’s not formally “discontinued,” mind you: Google says it will still be available at &ld

Google today revealed at its Launch Night In event the Pixel 4a 5G, a souped-up version of its month-old budget phone. While it didn’t announce an exact release date, the phone is now available for pre-order. Introducing #Pixel4a5G! 6.2” OLED display. Ultrawide lens. A more powerful battery. And even a headphone jack. https://t.co/OH3Q4IKmFq #LaunchNightIn pic.twitter.com/RS02Et4nIR — Made By Google (@madebygoogle) September 30, 2020 As the name suggests, the biggest differenc

Google At today’s Google event, the company announced that its Recorder app, which is available for Pixel 2 or newer phones, is getting a nice update that should make it a lot easier to search through audio files. The update will allow you to select a snippet of audio from a recorded clip, which you can then either share or remove from the larger audio file.Additionally, you can search for specific words in a recorded transcript and delete them. So if you’re someone like me who tend

Tuning into hardware events these days feels like a surprise party someone has spoiled for you — fun, but you know what’s going to happen. So today, after endless leaks and rumors, Google today announced the Pixel 5. It costs $699 and will be available starting October 15. At first glance, the Pixel 5 looks a whole lot like the Pixel 4, at least from the rear. This time around, however, there is only one size of the model (with a 6.0″ display), and Google has abandoned th

After many weeks of delays due to faulty equipment and bad weather, the United Launch Alliance is set to launch its most powerful rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, lofting a classified spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. The mission is finally ready to fly a full month after the rocket’s first launch attempt, which was aborted just three seconds before liftoff.
The rocket going up on ULA’s mission is the Delta IV Heavy, a giant vehicle that consists of three rock

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge A number of Fox regional sports networks (RSNs) will no longer be available for YouTube TV subscribers beginning October 1st, the company announced.The move comes after YouTube and Fox first spoke publicly about Fox channels leaving YouTube TV in February, but the two companies came to an agreement to carry the rest of the MLB, NBA, and NHL seasons through 2020. As the NBA and NHL’s seasons come to an end, and with the MLB set to end around the end

Google announced a bunch of products at its big hardware event. As expected, we saw the Google Pixel 5, its new $699 flagship 5G-ready phone. We also saw a more affordable Pixel 4A with 5G support that costs $499. In the US, only the Pixel 5 is available for preorder with a release date for October 15th. The Pixel 4A 5G is coming to most countries in November and you can join a waitlist through the link below (it’s coming to Japan first on October 15th).
If you were interested the new Chro

Google is starting to roll out a new editing mode for Google Photos on Android, which adds machine learning-powered automatic suggestions, and improved tools for more granular manual controls to help make your photos look even better.The biggest change is a new “Suggestions” tab in the photo editing menu, which will offer recommendations for edits for the specific photo you’re currently looking at, automatically adjusting things like “brightness, contrast, and portrait ef

Photo: Google Google just wrapped up its fall hardware event where it debuted the Pixel 5, the less expensive Pixel 4A 5G, the oft-rumored Chromecast with Google TV software built in, as well as the Nest Audio smart speaker. It’s a lot of good news for people who like new hardware. All said, the quick half-hour event contained mostly announcements we expected, but there were a few unexpected surprises. Here’s everything you might have missed at Google’s event.
Google’s P

Image: Google Google’s new Chromecast with Google TV will support a lot of the streaming services most people would want, although Apple TV Plus appears to be a notable holdout. Those sorts of gaps are fairly normal for a new platform, but the new Chromecast does have one very strange omission: Google’s own game streaming service, Stadia. At launch, the new Chromecast with Google TV won’t support it. Google says support will come sometime in the first half of 2021.
That said,

Along with the launch of the new Chromecast with Google TV, which we’ve just reviewed, Google is changing the name of the Google Play Movies & TV app to Google TV. The rename is happening on Android phones to start, though you can expect it to change on other platforms eventually as well.The app is Google’s store for renting and buying movies and TV, and in truth Google is following Apple’s lead here. Apple uses its Apple TV app as the hub for all its video offerings as wel

The new Chromecast | Google After seven years on the market, Google is finally giving the Chromecast its most-requested feature: a remote control. Today, the company is announcing the launch of a new Chromecast that also runs new software. And its official name is the somewhat awkward “Chromecast with Google TV.” The company is resurrecting the Google TV as an interface layer that runs on top of the actual OS powering the new Chromecast, Android TV.The Chromecast with Google TV will

Google today introduced the Nest Audio, its latest smart speaker. The company is promising major audio improvements over the original Google Home speaker at a price of $100. The device is covered in a classy-looking (and potentially cat-attracting) fabric, although it is made of 70% recycled materials, with a metal chassis on the inside. Key to the audio improvements are a new 19mm tweeter and 75mm mid-woofer. Combined with optimized software, Google says it can provide 50% more bass and 75% mo

Photo: google Google today announced the Pixel 4A with 5G, a variant of the budget phone it released back in August that supports 5G networks, during its “Launch Night In” fall hardware event. The device costs $499, a $150 jump over the standard 4A, but the 5G variant comes with a few notable hardware differences beyond its upgraded cellular modem.The Pixel 4A 5G’s OLED screen is larger, for one, at 6.2 inches and a resolution of 2340 x 1080 over the standard 4A’s 5.8-in

Google has officially taken the wraps off of the $699 Pixel 5, its latest Android flagship. Compared to last year’s Pixel 4, Google is focusing less on dramatic new technology — like the much-hyped Motion Sense gestures on last year’s model — and emphasizing instead the unique features that already help set the Pixel apart, like its stand-out camera software.
The Pixel 5 will feature a Snapdragon 765G processor — notably not the top-tier Snapdragon 865 or 865 Plus &

Google’s new Chromecast has leaked so extensively that people have already been buying it at stores, but today the company made it official. Featuring ‘Google TV,’ a new variant of Android TV, the device supports 4K HDR, includes a remote control, and retails for just $50. Google TV is essentially a smarter version of Android TV. There’s an emphasis on allowing you to access shows from across a variety of services all in one place, and there’s a new watchlist featu

Google Nest Audio Google has officially announced the new Nest Audio smart speaker, the latest in its line of smart speakers powered by the Google Assistant. The Nest Audio replaces the original Google Home from 2016 as Google’s midrange smart speaker, slotting above the Nest Mini and below the Nest Max in the lineup. It costs $99.99 and will be available starting October 5th in 21 countries. You can preorder it right now.
Unlike the Google Home’s air freshener aesthetic, the Nest A

Google Nest Audio Google has officially announced the new Nest Audio smart speaker, the latest in its line of smart speakers powered by the Google Assistant. The Nest Audio replaces the original Google Home from 2016 as Google’s midrange smart speaker, slotting above the Nest Mini and below the Nest Max in the lineup. It costs $99 and will be available starting October 5th in 21 countries.
Unlike the Google Home’s air freshener aesthetic, the Nest Audio’s soft rounded corners

Golden is announcing that it has raised $14.5 million in Series A funding. The round was led by previous investor Andreessen Horowitz, with the firm’s co-founder Marc Andreessen joining the startup’s board of directors.
When Golden launched last year, founder and CEO Jude Gomila told me that his goal was to create a knowledge base focused on areas where Wikipedia’s coverage is often spotty, particularly emerging technology and startups.
Gomila told me this week that &ldquo

While Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystems are still young compared to those in China or India, it has matured over the last five years. Unicorns like Grab, Gojek and Garena are continuing to grow, and more competitive startups are emerging in sectors like fintech, e-commerce and logistics. That leads to the question: Will consolidation start to pick up?
The consensus by investors interviewed by Extra Crunch is: Yes, but slowly at first. In the meantime, there are still roadblocks to merger

Biden-Harris campaign On Wednesday, the Biden for President team will release a new Snapchat lens encouraging supporters to vote early in key swing states ahead of the US presidential election.The Biden team will be the first campaign to employ Snapchat’s Marker technology. If users decide to use the lens in selfie mode, they will be covered in aviators and Biden-Harris merchandise, including a T-shirt, hat, and button. Once users flip the camera, they’re directed to aim it at a Uni

Sony has revealed that Spider-Man Remastered will have one major change from the original: the character model for Peter Parker looks completely different. He now closely resembles Tom Holland, who currently portrays movie Spider-Man.
Insomniac Games says that the change is because the new face model, Ben Jordan, is a “better match” for Peter Parker/Spider-Man voice actor Yuri Lowenthal’s facial capture. But given the huge popularity of Holland’s portrayal of the spidey s

A predictive policing system used in the Netherlands discriminates against Eastern Europeans and treats people as “human guinea pigs under mass surveillance,” new research by Amnesty International has revealed. The “Sensing Project” uses cameras and sensors to collect data on vehicles driving in and around Roermond, a small city in the southeastern Netherlands. An algorithm then purportedly calculates the probability that the driver and

Through the lens of a lot of popular fiction, the story of organized crime in America is the story of American immigration. From The Godfather to Scarface to American Me and Gangs of New York, gangster dramas chronicle the stories of those who arrive on these shores to find they are immediately the underclass, denied the privilege and goodwill held by those already here and blamed for society’s ills. Shut out from earning the American Dream, they decide to take it, banding together with th

A COVID-19 test.| Photo by Niels Wenstedt/BSR Agency/Getty Images If you go to see a doctor with flu-like symptoms this flu season, chances are you’re going to get swabbed for two tests: one for the flu, and one for COVID-19. Unlike flu seasons when there isn’t a pandemic, doctors can’t be confident that someone with body aches and a fever has the flu. That’ll change the diagnostic process for both diseases.“This year, if it looks and smells like flu, it could be f

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Earlier this month, we caught wind that Microsoft was preparing a new, smaller Surface Laptop for later this year, reportedly with a 12.5-inch display. And now, two typically reliable sources are suggesting Microsoft will announce it tomorrow, October 1st.It’s called the Surface Laptop Go, according to WinFuture’s Roland Quandt, who spotted one listing with Windows 10 Pro that cost as little as €649 (roughly $750 USD), which sounds a

Two direct listings in one day. Lots to talk about.
Asanastarted trading just a bit after noon Eastern today, quickly zooming to roughly about $29 a share in early trading this afternoon. Meanwhile, Palantir is running like a herd of bulls straight out of the gate, jumping to almost $11 a share in the first trades — a first day jump of nearly 50%.
Asana’s reference price was revealed yesterday by the NYSE, and it was set for $21 a share. The company had roughly 150 million shares of

Did you know Python is known as an all-rounder programming language? Yes, it is, though it shouldn’t be used on every single project, You can use it to create desktop applications, games, mobile apps, websites, and system software. It’s even the most suitable language for the implementation of artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms. So, I spent the last few weeks collecting unique project ideas for any Python developer. These proje

Steam Valve and tabletop company Auroch Digital will host an online festival next month for “games that cross between physical and digital.” Called the Steam Digital Tabletop Fest, the event will be streamed live from October 21st to the 26th.
The festival will showcase speakers like prolific designer Steve Jackson (creator of the GURPS roleplaying system, as well as many individual roleplaying games), Call of Cthulhu RPG designer Sandy Petersen, and Games Workshop co-founder Ian Li