Technology news

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter has been experiencing an outage that began in the early evening on Thursday, with some users reporting problems sending tweets and refreshing their timelines starting shortly after 5:30PM ET. Just after 7PM ET, tweets began to cross our timelines, so things may be returning to normal.“We have no evidence of a security breach or hack, and we’re currently investigating internal causes,” a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement to

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter is experiencing an outrage that began in the early evening on Thursday, with some users reporting problems sending tweets and refreshing their timelines starting shortly after 5:30PM ET. We have seen no new tweets cross our timelines since then.
User-generated reports on Downdetector.com are skyrocketing as well, but there’s no communication from the company itself as to the nature of the outrage. Twitter’s last major outage, occurring

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter is experiencing an outage that began in the early evening on Thursday, with some users reporting problems sending tweets and refreshing their timelines starting shortly after 5:30PM ET. We have seen no new tweets cross our timelines since then, though we were able to find a tweet sent as late as 5:40PM ET using Twitter’s search tool.
User-generated reports on Downdetector.com are skyrocketing as well, but there’s no communication from

Photo by Dondi Tawatao/Getty Images Amazon extended its work-from-home policy into 2021 for corporate employees, but call center workers in the Philippines contracted by the company’s Ring subsidiary continue to work in person with increased risk of COVID-19 infection, as detailed in a report for NBC News by Olivia Solon and April Glaser.Employees of Teleperformance — contracted by Ring in the Philippines — describe little to no support in making their workplace safer during t

Chances are, the cougars aren’t after you. 
But you would have been hard-pressed to tell that to Kyle Burgess on Saturday, when he came face to face with a cougar while on a run in Utah’s Slate Canyon. The animal followed him for nearly six minutes, at times appearing to pounce aggressively towards him. Burgess filmed the entire encounter, which has since gone viral. The video has over 4 million views on YouTube, was covered by a local TV network, and has spread across social me

In Y Combinator’searly days, founders would move to Palo Alto, split a two-bedroom with five others to save money and trade notes around the clock with their new, like-minded roommates.
Now, as remote work continues and the pandemic persists, scores of entrepreneurs are working from home around the world. Y Combinator isn’t requiring its recent cohorts to relocate and collaboration is a screen-to-screen affair.
Now that they can work from literally anywhere, many entrepreneurs are f

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Facebook says a “small number” of customers have been locked out of their new Oculus Quest 2 headsets, following a string of reports that buyers were unable to use the virtual reality headsets because their Facebook accounts were suspended. On Twitter, it urged users to contact Oculus if they had problems.
As UploadVR reported yesterday, users complained that they had been suspended for unclear reasons while they were trying to set up the

Photo by Don Arnold / WireImage On March 22nd, former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott did something seemingly innocuous: he posted a picture of his boarding pass to Instagram. That post was the beginning of a convoluted six-month saga for hacker Alex Hope.In a blog post, Hope details how they were sent Abbott’s post by a friend and asked if it would be possible to “hack this man” with only the information on the boarding pass. Upon realizing they were indeed able to find

Simone Giertz, like many of us, is spending quarantine by working on her passion projects. 
For the YouTuber and inventor, that project happens to be a photo booth for her dog. 
Dubbed the "Queen of Shitty Robots," Simone Giertz is known for her innovative, but less than useful technical creations. Her work includes an alarm clock that slaps her awake, a Tesla hacked into a pickup truck, and most recently, a photo booth that Pavlov'd her dog into taking selfies built completely out of

Googletoday offered an update on the status of Duplex, its AI technology that uses natural conversations to get things done — like making restaurant reservations, booking appointments or updating a Google Business listing, for example. When the pandemic began, Google expanded its use of Duplex for business updates to eight countries, and has since made more than 3 million updates to business listings — including pharmacies, restaurants and grocery stores.
These updates have been seen

FCCChairman Ajit Pai has announced his intention to pursue a reform of Section 230 of the Communications Act, which among other things limits the liability of internet platforms for content they host. Commissioner Rosenworcel described the timing — immediately after Conservative outrage at Twitter and Facebook limiting the reach of an article relating to Hunter Biden — as “absurd.” But it’s not necessarily the crackdown the Trump administration clearly desires.
In a

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google detailed a host of new improvements at its “Search On” event that it will make to its foundational Google search service in the coming weeks and months. The changes are largely focused on using new AI and machine learning techniques to provide better search results for users. Chief among them: a new spell checking tool that Google promises will help identify even the most poorly spelled queries.According to Prabhakar Raghavan, Google&rs

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A judge in San Francisco said Thursday she’s not likely to lift a temporary block on the US government’s attempts to ban WeChat. US Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler responded to the Trump administration’s request for a stay of her September 20th preliminary injunction, which prevents the government from halting new downloads of WeChat in the US and from blocking transactions related to the app.Beeler did not issue a ruling Thursday but sai

Google is adding a new “hum to search” feature to its search tools today that will let you hum (or whistle, or sing) the annoying song that’s stuck in your head, and then use machine learning techniques to try to identify it.The new feature is available today in the Google app on both iOS and Android, or in Google Assistant — just ask Google “What’s the song” or tap the newly added “search a song” button, and then hum your earworm. Google wil

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Google Chat, the messaging service previously only available to customers who pay for Google Workspace (the recent rebranding of G Suite), will become a free service that’s available inside of Gmail and in a standalone app, and you’ll be able to bring over your Hangouts data to Chat sometime in the first half of next year. Whether you view this transition as optional will depend on which Hangouts features you use, because some of them are also g

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Google will officially transition users from Google Hangouts to Google Chat starting next year. As part of the change, Chat, a messaging service previously only available to customers who pay for Google Workspace (the recent rebranding of G Suite), will become a free service that’s available inside of Gmail and in a standalone app. And some Hangouts features will be going away ahead of its disappearance.
The transition from Hangouts to Chat will begin

Googlehas added a new feature that lets you figure out which song is stuck in your head by humming, whistling or singing — a much more useful version of the kind of song-matching audio feature that it and competitors like Apple’s Shazam have offered previously. As of today, users will be able to open either the latest version of the mobile Google app, or the Google Search widget, and then tap the microphone icon, and either verbally ask to search a song or hit the “Search a son

Image: Nintendo Talk to any of my friends that have played Super Smash Bros. with me, and they will tell you that I have a consistent (and probably predictable) fighting style. I love to rush at my opponents, get in their faces with a flurry of attacks, dodge out of the way, and then go back in for another barrage. I do this over and over. But when playing as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s new Minecraft character, I can’t fall back on that approach. Instead, I find myself doing a lot

Knowable, the Andreessen Horowitz-backed startup focused on audio learning, is switching business models.
When the company launched last year, it charged users on a per-class basis. Starting today, it’s shifting entirely to a subscription model, where listeners pay $50 annually or $9.99 per month for unlimited access to the Knowable library.
“This gets us closer to our mission of daily, actionable learning,” co-founder and CEO Warren Shaeffer told me. In other words, the subscr

Googletoday announced a number of improvements to its core search engine, with a strong focus on how the company is using AI to help its users. These include the ability to better answer questions with very specific answers, very broad questions and a new algorithm to better handle the typos in your queries. The company also announced updates to Google Lens and other Search-related tools.
Most of these are meant to be useful, but some are also just fun. You will now be able to hum a song and the

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Verizon has agreed to pull 5G advertisements claiming its new network was “built for” firefighters and first responders, after the National Advertising Division and the Better Business Bureau began looking into the ads following complaints they were misleading.The decision, first reported by Ars Technica, follows Verizon’s announcement earlier this week that it would be expanding its low-band 5G coverage to tens of millions more customer

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images On Thursday, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said that the agency will seek to regulate social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter at the behest of the Trump administration’s executive order signed earlier this year.“Members of all three branches of the federal government have expressed serious concerns about the prevailing interpretation of the immunity set for in Section 230 of the Communications Act. There is bipartisan su

In Soul, life starts before a person’s arrival on Earth. The film’s latest trailer offers a colorful look at “The Great Before,” a place where souls get their personalities before they enjoy their time on Earth.
Soul will premiere December 25th on Disney Plus. The Pixar-made film stars Jamie Foxx as the voice of Joe, a jazz-loving teacher from New York, and Tina Fey as the voice of 22, a soul who guides him. Pete Docter, known for his work on Inside Out and Up, is directi

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge GameStop and Microsoft have entered into a multiyear agreement that gives the video game retailer a cut of every digital purchase made on any Xbox consoles it directly sells going forward, Ars Technica reports.The new revenue sharing deal is said to give GameStop a percentage of any digital sales made on those Xbox consoles, including digital downloads of full games and DLC, in-game microtransactions, and any subscriptions (which would seem to include things like

It’s a difficult time for small businesses — to put it mildly. And Fivestars CEO Victor Ho said that many of the big digital platforms aren’t really helping.
Ho argued that those platforms (whether they offer delivery services, user reviews or marketing tools) all have the same underlying model: “They seek to take over a small business’ customer base and then charge them a tax to start reaching those customers.”
Superficially, a company like Fiv

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast (now on Twitter!), where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.
The whole crew was back today, with Natasha and Danny and I gathered to parse over what was really a blast of news. Lots of startups are raising. Lots of VCs are raising. And some unicorns are shooting to go public. It’s a lot to get through, but we’re here to catch you up.
Here’s what we got into:A Media Roundup: The Ju

Photo by Amal KS/Hindustan Times via Getty Images The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to subpoena Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey today, after a controversial decision to block links to two New York Post articles about presidential candidate Joe Biden. Republican senators are calling on Dorsey to testify on October 23rd, calling his decision “election interference.” The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The New York Post articles contain email correspondence allegedly fro

Apple is taking another try at building a smart home speaker with the new HomePod mini, a smaller, less expensive version of its original HomePod.The original HomePod was a product that focused more on being a great speaker, rather than being a great smart speaker. The HomePod mini takes the opposite approach: it’s not just another avenue for Apple to put Apple Music or Siri into your home. It’s a way for Apple to vastly expand its HomeKit ecosystem to a much wider audience than ever

Brighteye Ventures, the European edtech venture capital firm, recently announced the $54 million first close of its second fund, bringing total assets under management above $112 million. Out of the new fund, the 2017-founded VC will invest in 15-20 companies over the next three years at the seed and Series A stage, writing checks up to $5 million.
Described as a thesis-driven fund investing in startups that “enhance learning” within the context of automation and other new technologi

Save up to 48%: Dell released its Black Friday ad on Oct. 15, 2020. Here are the best deals from the sneak peek that are live through Nov. 1:Dell Inspiron 14 5000 2-in-1 Laptop (i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $699.99 (save $80)
Dell XPS 15 Laptop (i7, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) — $1,549 (save $360.99)
Dell UltraSharp 32 4K USB-C Monitor (U3219Q) — $839.99 (save $210)
Less than 24 hours after the official end of a very oddly-timed Prime Day, Dell dropped its Black Friday 2020

EIKE SCHROTER/NETFLIX The Haunting of Bly Manor, which premiered last week on Netflix, makes me a little sad I’ve never seen a ghost. It’s the second series from The Haunting of Hill House creator Mike Flanagan. Like American Horror Story, the Haunting shows are anthology dramas, with each series telling a self-contained story. They’re not connected, in other words, other than by cast and aesthetic — each show is a drama first, horror show second, set largely in lush, sp

Proterra,the battery system technology developer for heavy-duty electric vehicles, said it has raised $200 million in a new round of funding.
The new cash comes from Cowen Sustainable Investment Advisors, which led the round, along with money from Soros Fund Management,Generation Investment Management and Broadscale Group.
Cowen took the bulk of the round, with $150 million, while Soros, Generation and Broadscale forked over the other $50 million.
This new capital infusion follows a year’s

Ayelet Noff ContributorShare on Twitter Ayelet Noff is the founder and CEO of SlicedBrand, a top global PR agency headquartered in
Berlin.A solid public relations team solves many issues within a company.
It helps spread important news announcements and topics integral to a company’s success. It communicates with the media in a timely manner to ensure accurate coverage and control the conversation. It builds a state of trust and engagement that propels a company’s vision and goals fo

Cruise,the self-driving car subsidiary of GM that also has backing from SoftBank Vision Fund, Honda and T. Rowe Price & Associates, has been issued a permit from California regulators that will allow it to test driverless vehicles on public roads in San Francisco.
The California DMV, the agency that regulates autonomous vehicle testing in the state, said the permit allows the company to test five autonomous vehicles without a driver behind the wheel on specified streets within San Francisco.

Nanoleaflaunched the next generation of its light panels in July. Called Shape, this new product looks like the company’s original offering, but sports better connectors, a simpler mounting solution, and most importantly, these panels can work with different shapes.
Today, Nanoleaf announced triangle panels, which join the hexagon shape that launched in July.
This is the first product line from Nanoleaf that can use two different shapes at the same time. The triangles are available in larg

Google’sstrategy around its messaging apps is nothing if not messy right now (hello Hangouts, Meet, Chat, Duo and Co.), but it looks like things will get a bit easier come next year. We already knew that Hangouts’ time was coming to an end and as Google announced today, the company will allow all current Hangouts users to migrate to Chat — which was originally meant to only be its Slack-like messaging service for business users — in the first half of 2021.
One interesting

Photo by Andrej Sokolow/picture alliance via Getty Images Cruise, the self-driving company owned by General Motors, approved to test its driverless cars on public roads in California. The company says it plans to test vehicles without a human safety driver behind the wheel before the end of 2020.Cruise is the fifth to receive a driverless permit from the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles, the others being Waymo, Nuro, Zoox, and AutoX. Currently, 60 companies have an active permit to te

Oxford scientists working out of the school’s Department of Physics have developed a new type of COVID-19 test that can detect SARS-CoV-2 with a high degree of accuracy, directly in samples taken from patients, using a machine learning-based approach that could help sidestep test supply limitations, and that also offers advantages when it comes to detecting actual virus particles, instead of antibodies or other signs of the presence of the virus which don’t necessarily correlate to a