Technology news

Photo by Gotham/GC Images A day after lighting up the internet by announcing she’d joined Twitch and was looking for streamers to play the breakout hit Among Us with, New York congressional Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is playing Among Us with Hasan “HasanAbi” Piker and Imane “Pokimane” Anys, two of the biggest personalities on Twitch.The stream already had 240,000 concurrent viewers before they started playing.Piker is a popular progressive streamer, fo

Photo by Gotham/GC Images A day after lighting up the internet by announcing she’d joined Twitch and was looking for streamers to play the breakout hit Among Us with, New York congressional Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has plans to play Among Us with Hasan “HasanAbi” Piker and Imane “Pokimane” Anys, two of the biggest personalities on Twitch.
Join me, @pokimanelol, @hasanthehun, & more on Twitch TONIGHT as we help folks make a voting plan at https://

Intel is selling its SSD business to SK Hynix in a deal worth $9 billion, which will see the chipmaker almost completely exit the flash memory and storage business — except for Intel’s high-end Optane memory technology, which it’ll still be hanging onto. The deal includes Intel’s former NAND SSD, component, and wafer businesses, along with the company’s NAND factory in Dalian, China.“For Intel, this transaction will allow us to further prioritize our investmen

Synthetaic is a startup working to create data — specifically images — that can be used to train artificial intelligence.
Founder and CEO Corey Jaskolski’s experience includes work with both National Geographic (where he was recently named Explorer of the Year) and a 3D media startup. In fact, he told me that his time with National Geographic made him aware of the need for more data sets in conservation.
Sound like an odd match? Well, Jaskolski said that he was working on a pro

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Snapchat’s anime filter was used more than 3 billion times in the first week after it was released, Snap said today, confirming what we already knew: it was a huge hit.
The filter, which morphs its subject into an anime character, is just the latest in a line of fun AR lenses from Snapchat that have gone viral and helped drive usage on the platform. During its third quarter, Snapchat had 249 million daily users, up from 238 million last quarter.

VidCon, an annual convention focused on digital creators, is tentatively planning to return to Anaheim, California next summer if conditions allow, but organizers are preparing to let people attend digitally for the first time.The new digital option will allow people to purchase tickets for a number of live-streaming and “key fan-focused sessions” for those who don’t or can’t travel to the actual convention. The move comes after VidCon saw success in many of the digital s

Illustration by William Joel / T Facebook moderators located in India were pressured by their employer, third-party contracting firm Genpact, to return to the office despite safety concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report from nonprofit publication Rest of World.Genpact, one of many firms Facebook outsources moderation to around the world, employs roughly 1,600 moderators in India, where employees analyze offensive and disturbing content posted in large volumes to Facebook

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix’s business soared during the pandemic, but as it heads into 2021 and faces a potential shortage of films and movies, the company will have to prove it can continue performing.Netflix reported its third quarter earnings today, and although Netflix is acknowledging slower growth, the company is still adding subscribers. The company added 2.2 million net subscribers in Q3, compared with the company’s 2.5m guidance. The company saw $6.44 b

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Netflix is planning to host a two-day promotional event in December, allowing non-members to access the streaming giant’s robust catalog of movies and TV shows, Protocol reports.
Code in the latest version of Netflix’s Android app, uncovered by XDA-Developers editor-in-chief Mishaal Rahman, indicates that the streaming giant plans to hold a two-day event under the name “StreamFest,” according to the outlet. The event will repor

Amazon’s Luna streaming service has arrived, with the company rolling out early access to a limited set of customers today. It’s starting with a library of 50 games and support for Mac, PC, Fire TV, and, in a first for a major streaming service, iOS devices — because Amazon has a web app that circumvents Apple’s controversial App Store rules. Luna starts at $5.99 a month.
We’ve spent a couple of hours streaming games with Luna. Here’s what it’s like so f

In the spring, while the pandemic was surging and people were moving into home offices, it was nearly impossible to find a webcam to help secure your home or provide a better Zoom experience. As a result, camera manufacturers began issuing software that would enable camera owners to convert their tech into a working webcam. And while the webcam famine has abated somewhat, it could still be a good idea to convert your older phone or camera into a webcam — not only will you be saving a bit o

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitch’s music problem has flared up again, with the company sending DMCA warning notices en masse to its massive population of streamers. The news was spotted by the indefatigable esports consultant Rod “Slasher” Breslau, who posted news of the impeding takedowns on Twitter.the Twitch DMCA bloodbath has begun, as hundreds of partnered streamers have received emails from Twitch as DMCA takedown notifications pic.twitter.com/zoIoI7Q7Xp&md

Amazon’s cloud gaming service, Luna, is entering early access today, the company announced. A small number of US-based customers will receive invitations to test out the service and even purchase Amazon’s game controller if they so choose (though it’s not required to play games on Luna).With early access, players will be able to access Luna, available across Fire TV, Mac, PC, and on web apps for iOS. An Android version is expected soon. Early access requires you to subscribe to

Willow is ready for his comeback, and he'll have some support from Jon M. Chu.
The Crazy Rich Asians director will helm the pilot of the once-rumored, now-confirmed Disney+ series. The series is set after the events of the 1988 film, bringing back star Warwick Davis as Willow Ufgood and Ron Howard, who directed the original, as an executive producer alongside Chu, Solo writer Jonathan Kasdan, and Arrow EP Wendy Mericle (the latter two also serve as showrunners).
Willow is a relatively obscure fa

Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images Holidays are around the corner. And with a pandemic raging around the US, it’s likely you’ll be doing at least some of your shopping online. If you’re worried about cards and packages being lost in the mail, don’t be — tracking your mail and reporting items missing is easy and can be done entirely online.Before you report a package missing, you’ll want to make sure you’ve used the carrier’s online tracking servi

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Apple’s HomePod smart speaker is getting some new capabilities thanks to a software update that’s available today as part of iOS 14.1. These were announced during the company’s event earlier this month, and some of the features — especially the intercom function — go a long way in helping the HomePod catch up with Amazon Echo and Google / Nest speakers.Intercom lets you record a message on one HomePod and send it to another (or se

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Google has provided a budgeting feature in its Play Store that allows Android users to establish a monthly maximum they want to spend on digital content. This applies to apps, games, movies, TV shows, music, ebooks, and so on. As you get close to reaching your budget limit, you’ll see an alert that you’re nearing it — or have gone over the amount you specified.You access it like this:Open the Play Store on your Android device, bring up the le

Unexpected mood swings. Quick to anger. Screaming at a loved one. If you've had any of these experiences lately, you're far from alone. 
In August, when the American Psychological Association surveyed 3,409 adults about their stress, half of the respondents reported that it had negatively affected their behavior. 
The results of the annual, nationally representative poll are no surprise. Many Americans are enduring the kind of suffering that feels unimaginable until it's reality, and t

This morning Root Insurance, a neoinsurance provider that has attracted ample private capital for its auto-insurance business, is targeting a valuation of as much as $6.34 billion in its pending IPO.
The former startup follows insurtech leader Lemonade to the public markets during a year in which IPOs have been well-received by investors focused more on growth than profitability. In the wake of Lemonade’s strong public offering and rich revenue multiples, it was not impossible to see anoth

Photo by Ian West - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images Borat will be on Twitch soon. The Amazon-owned streaming service announced that Sacha Baron Cohen’s iconic character will be facing off against Ben “DrLupo” Lupo at 6PM ET today.
It’s unclear what game they’ll be playing, though — and somewhat surprisingly, it appears it’s unclear to Lupo, too. “Honestly, I don’t even know,” Lupo said in an emailed statement. “[Borat’

Save $170: Buy a Rosetta Stone bonus pack bundle with lifetime online access, grammar guide, and dictionary for $149 at Amazon through Oct. 20 in this early Black Friday deal. While travel is not an option for most of us for the foreseeable future, that doesn't mean we can't experience other cultures. Learn a new language at home (if you're lucky enough to have free time) and you'll feel as if you're experiencing the outside world. And there are few ways that are better for learning languag

Windows running on Chrome OS. Google is bringing Windows app support to Chromebooks today through a partnership with Parallels. First announced earlier this year, Chrome OS will now boot a full version of Windows inside a virtual machine to gain access to existing desktop apps. It’s designed for businesses, which means only enterprise customers will be able to purchase the app for $69.99 per user.
Parallels Desktop for Chromebook Enterprise will launch a full copy of Windows, allowing Mic

Microsoft is releasing its Windows 10 October 2020 Update to over a billion users today. Much like last year, this second Windows 10 update of 2020 is more of a Service Pack than a major release. Microsoft has, however, made some interesting tweaks, including a refreshed Start menu, some Alt Tab changes, and the bundling of the new Chromium-powered Microsoft Edge.
The biggest visual change is, of course, the updated Start menu. Microsoft’s new design kills off the solid color behind app lo

Adobe Photoshop is taking “photo credz” more seriously than ever before with its new content authenticity initiative tool. 
Made to track creator credits and editing activities, the new tool is intended to give appropriate credits and show how images came to be. It’s an optional tool in the prototype phase that Adobe hopes will help identify authentic versus altered images, and later on, deepfake videos.
The user simply has to toggle on the option for the attribution tool.

This afternoon, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will grab a small sample of rocks from the surface of an asteroid named Bennu zooming through space more than 200 million miles from Earth. It’s an ambitious task, but if it works, OSIRIS-REx may eventually return to Earth with the largest sample of material from another space body since NASA’s Apollo missions to the Moon.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has been circling Bennu for the last two years, mapping its surface and hunting for th

Fresh off celebrating her 27th birthday with a maskless party in Miami, Tiffany Trump hosted a "Trump Pride" event in Tampa, Florida, last Saturday. She arrived at the event, blowing kisses and shimmying to The Black Eyed Peas's 2009 hit "I Gotta Feeling."
"So let me just say how excited I am to be in this room with probably so many of my friends...I see a few of you already in here," Trump began, either doing an excellent Miley Cyrus impression or feeling a bit *cough* raspy *cough* from her bi

BUY A GIFT CARD, GET FREEBIES: Best Buy is running a pre-Black Friday deal where you'll get a free $20 voucher and four months each of Apple News+ and Apple Music for every $200 Apple gift card you purchase now through Oct. 22.From the iPhone 12 to the iPad Air, Apple has bushels of new devices planned for release ahead of the holiday shopping season — and if you're planning on picking one up (or placing a preorder ahead of time), you definitely don't want to miss the gift card deal B

Image: Google Google is launching a series of Stadia game demos that are truly free to play. Starting today, existing or new Stadia users will be able to play demos of Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and Hello Engineer. These will be available for a week and won’t require a Stadia Pro subscription or even a form of payment to play them.
All you’ll need to do is click a link, create a Stadia account, and then start playing the game demos streamed from Google

Your memories, as picked by an algorithm.| Image: Google If you’re someone who never prints out any of the photos you take with your smartphone, Google might have a good solution. For $6.99 a month, it’ll use machine learning to automatically select 10 of your best photos and send the prints right to your door.The company announced the service today, which it started trialing earlier this year. There don’t seem to be any differences between the trial and the newly announced &l

Microsoft’s portable data center. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft has created a portable data center to bring cloud computing to remote environments. The modular data center is essentially a big box of servers, designed for places where it’s difficult to supply reliable cloud connectivity. Microsoft is partnering with satellite operators for connectivity, allowing this Azure Modular Datacenter (MDC) to be used as a mobile command center, in humanitarian assistance, or even military mis

Signify, the company behind Philips Hue, is recalling power supplies that shipped with six outdoor lights due to concerns that they could shock owners. The power supplies may short-circuit due to water leakage “in very rare cases,” the company said, potentially hurting someone who were to touch the unit while it was still wet.
Power supplies are being recalled for the Lily and Lily XL spotlights, the Calla and Calla Large pedestal lights, Econic pedestal lights, and Impress pedestal

Image: Microsoft The Xbox Series X and Series S consoles are less than a month away from release, and ahead of launch, Microsoft is announcing that Halo: The Master Chief Collection will be fully optimized for its next-gen hardware.Halo: The Master Chief Collection on the Series X / S will run at 120 frames per second in both the campaign and multiplayer modes, Microsoft confirmed. Split-screen will also receive some improvements, and the game will get 4K support for the Series X.
The upgrade w

Save $150: The Google Nest Secure alarm system is on sale at Best Buy for $249.99 through Oct. 20 in an early Black Friday deal.Security cameras from companies like Arlo and Ring have seemed to blow up in the past few years, most likely due to everyone's desire to make their home as "smart" as possible. While the cameras are great for keeping an eye on your house, they don't exactly ensure that no one is getting in. 
If you want to let the bad guy know that not only do you see them but you'