Wednesday, 30 September 2020

Twitter removed 130 Iran-linked accounts during last night's debate

Twitter has removed 130 accounts that appeared to originate from Iran and were attempting to disrupt public conversation around the 2020 US Presidential debate. The social network’s Support account has revealed the deletion on the platform. It also p...

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Google just gave away the Pixel 4a India launch date


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Google's 'Hold for Me' Assistant feature appears first on new Pixel phones

When the Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G arrive, they’ll include an early preview of Google’s new feature for the Phone app, the Duplex-powered “Hold for Me.” Mentioned during the Launch Night presentation and explained in a blog post, it lets Google Assista...

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Chromecast with Google TV vs the “old” Chromecast series


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Google says the Pixel’s Soli radar and Motion Sense will return

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Google’s $799 Pixel 4 had built-in radar. The new $699 Pixel 5 does not — it ditches the sensor-laden forehead of its predecessor entirely in favor of thinner bezels and a hole-punch camera, like the $349 Pixel 4a before it. The result is more screen, but Google’s “Motion Sense” gestures and its answer to Apple’s Face ID are totally gone.

But Google hardware boss Rick Osterloh tells The Verge that the Project Soli radar and gestures will return. “They’ll be used in the future,” he says. They were just too expensive for the phone that Google wanted to build this time.

(He didn’t say whether they’d appear in a new phone, specifically; a recent FCC filing suggests they might come to a new Nest thermostat as well.)

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The just-announced Pixel 5 has somehow already been unboxed

The Pixel 5, Google’s latest Android flagship, was just announced today, and someone on YouTube has already posted an unboxing video of the new device ahead of its release (via 9to5Google).

What’s in the box is fairly standard — there’s the phone itself, as well as a charger, a USB-C to USB-C cable, and a USB-C to USB-A converter. The YouTube user who has the phone, who goes by the name Sergiu, does power it on, giving us a look at the phone’s 6-inch 2340 x 1080 OLED screen and 8-megapixel hole-punch selfie camera. Sergiu doesn’t use the phone all that much in the video, though, sticking mostly to the phone’s home screen.

Sergiu also zooms in on back of the Pixel 5, showing the phone’s aluminum back, fingerprint sensor, and square...

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Facebook has removed more than 6,500 militia groups and pages

Facebook has removed more than 6,500 pages and groups associated with “militarized social movements,” since the company announced it would crack down on QAnon and militia movements on its platform last month. Under the new rules, Facebook said it wou...

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Seattle law will force Uber and Lyft to pay drivers a minimum hourly wage

Seattle’s city council has unanimously approved a minimum wage for Uber and Lyft drivers, joining New York as the second major US city to do so (via the New York Times). The law will require ride-hailing companies to pay drivers at least $0.56 per mi...

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AirVPN review: Good speeds and full of stats


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Huawei Mate 40 Pro: Everything we know so far and what we want to see (Update)


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Why Coinbase will struggle to ban politics from the workplace

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

Programming note: There’s a presidential debate tonight! Here’s how to watch it online. And here’s Politico’s handy “pre-bunk” of 10 lies you’re likely to hear at the debate.

If there is a manager in your life, there is a good chance that they are miserable right now.

They are miserable for the reasons everyone is miserable: the pandemic; quarantine; the challenges of working from home while raising children; the steady erosion of American democracy. But unlike us working stiffs, managers are miserable for another reason: their employees are miserable, too — and worse, they expect the managers to do something about it.

In July I wrote about how a surge of employee activism inside tech companies was beginning to remake the relationship...

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Twitter will add voice tweet transcriptions following criticism over accessibility

When Twitter introduced voice tweets earlier this summer as a way to send more personalized messages, it caught a lot of flack for not including accessibility features. Now, the company said it will add transcriptions for voice tweets as part of an i...

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YoSmart YoLink Hub review: A robust, long-range solution for smart home control


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3 ways gaming phones excel: You don't get this in an iPhone or Galaxy


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Last minute Pixel 5 images hint at a departure from huge flagships


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Realme 7 series is heading to Europe with one key difference


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Amazon starts offering virtual classes and sightseeing tours via new Explore platform

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Amazon has launched Explore, a new platform which it promises will let you “explore anything from lessons to landmarks.” It works via a video stream, with tour guides, instructors, and personal shoppers providing one-on-one sessions. Amazon says the video is one-way, meaning only the host is on camera during the virtual experience, but the audio is two-way so you can ask questions and make requests.

The Explore page provides an idea of the range of experiences on offer. These include relatively cheap sessions like a $10, 40-minute virtual shopping experience in Ridgeland, USA, to a 45-minute virtual tour of a mansion in Lima, Peru for $70, or a $129 bagel cooking class. In some cases Amazon lists ingredients and supplies to buy before a...

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Ford makes the 2021 Mustang Mach-E a little cheaper

Ford is hoping to take the edge off some of the sticker shock when you buy a new Mustang Mach-E. Autoblog is reporting on a leaked memo, published on the Mach-E Forum, that purports to have been sent to Ford dealerships in the US. The instructions fr...

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Amazfit Neo is a budget smartwatch in a retro body (Update: India launch!)


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The FCC's new anti-robocall rules prevent surprise charges for consumers

Back in March, the FCC ordered all carriers and phone companies to adopt the STIR/SHAKEN protocol by June 30th, 2021 as an effort to combat robocalls. Now, the commission has announced new rules to clarify carriers’ obligations regarding the technolo...

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Report: US could sue Google for search, advertising dominance


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The Poco X3 makes a big trade-off in India, but is it for the best?


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Tuesday, 29 September 2020

Google Meet's 60-minute limit on free calls won't kick in until 2021

Google expanded Meet’s availability earlier this year to give more people access to the video chat service in the midst of coronavirus-related lockdowns. The tech giant didn’t just make it available to everyone with a Gmail account, though, it also m...

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What's on TV: 'Super Mario,' 'Star Wars: Squadrons' and 'Walking Dead'

After the debates, there are some entertaining things to put on your TV this week. In case you missed it, we’re adding another new service to the mix with AMC+, which launches Thursday and will feature new episodes of The Walking Dead and its newest...

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911 outages have become a fact of life — are we even fixing this?

911

In 2014, after what we described as “frequent failures,” a previous administration’s FCC attempted to change how the United States’ emergency 911 system works, including making it clear who’s responsible when multiple states inexplicably lose the ability to dial 911 at once.

Some of that accountability might have come in handy this week — because we still don’t know what caused yesterday’s 911 outage. And it’s not clear anything would change even if we knew.

Yesterday, 911 services reportedly disappeared in at least 14 states nationwide, some for as long as an hour and a half. Police departments and public safety agencies across the country had to hand out alternative numbers to call — and in some cases, warn residents not to dial 911...

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Apple outage affects App Store, Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, iCloud, Photos and more

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Many Apple services were hit by outages Tuesday evening, including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, and Apple Arcade, according to Apple’s system status page. For all of the affected services, Apple vaguely says that “some users are affected.” However, as we were writing this article, some of the services were upgraded from being affected by an “issue” to having a full-on “outage.”

Here is the full list of affected services:

  • Find My
  • Game Center
  • iCloud Account & Sign In
  • iCloud Backup
  • iCloud Calendar
  • iCloud Contacts
  • iCloud Mail
  • iCloud Web Apps (iCloud.com)
  • iWork for iCloud
  • Photos
  • Apple Arcade
  • Apple Music
  • Apple Music radio
  • Apple TV Plus
  • Radio
  • App Store
  • Apple Books

Apple didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

Apple...

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Apple outage is causing iCloud, App Store, Music and TV+ problems

If you’re getting error messages instead of media across your Apple devices and services then you’re not alone. The company’s status page notes an outage that’s affecting many of its connected services that bring music, video and pictures to you. App...

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Twitter’s voice tweets are rolling out to more iOS users, and transcriptions are on the way

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter has just expanded its voice tweets feature, which lets you record a snippet of audio to include with a tweet, to more users on iOS. But perhaps more significantly, Twitter is now saying it plans to add transcriptions to voice tweets to improve accessibility, which could help address criticisms from the feature’s June 17th launch.

If you want to get an idea of how voice tweets work right now, just press play on the below tweet to hear a voice clip from my colleague Tom Warren. There’s currently no way to see captions or a transcription of what he’s saying. (Note: Tom is not actually sharing exclusive next-gen console news.)

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Cyberpunk 2077 dev breaks promise, will force employees to work six days a week

Image: CD Projekt Red

Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red has told employees that six-day workweeks will be mandatory ahead of the game’s November 19th release date, even though the studio has repeatedly and explicitly promised it would never do that, Bloomberg reports.

On two separate occasions in 2019, studio co-founder Marcin Iwiński told game journalist Jason Schreier how it would address crunch, once even saying that “we want to be more humane and treat people with respect.” It seemed pretty clear from excerpts like this that mandatory crunch was not going to be part of it!

Jason: If I’m a designer at CD Projekt Red and I say you know what I have kids, I have a family, I’m going to work from 10am to 6pm every day, and that’s it. Even until the...

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'Pokémon Go' will roll back some of its COVID-19-related changes

As the coronavirus pandemic spread in the spring and summer, Pokémon Go rolled out a series of changes that made it easier for players to keep participating. Now Niantic Labs has announced that while some of the temporary bonuses it added will remain...

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The first foldable PC is here: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold goes on preorder


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Lenovo ThinkBooks offer Intel or AMD CPUs and a few surprising features


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Lenovo starts taking pre-orders for the world’s first foldable PC


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Running Stadia on iOS gets a lot easier with Stadium workaround

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

A new browser app which you can download directly from the App Store provides a relatively simple way to play Google Stadia on iPhones and iPads, Engadget reports. Apple’s rules currently mean that game streaming services like Stadia, xCloud, and GeForce Now are not yet officially available on iOS or iPadOS.

The app, Stadium, isn’t the first workaround that’s managed to get Stadia running on Apple’s mobile devices, but it makes the whole process a lot simpler. Its developer, u/zmknox, outlines how the process works in a Reddit post here. It’s as easy as downloading the app, entering a few details, and logging into your Google account. Other Reddit users have previously reported being able to use existing browsers to achieve the same...

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Polaris and Zero Motorcycles are teaming up to make electric off-road vehicles and snowmobiles

CANADA-TORONTO-INTERNATIONAL SNOWMOBILE ATV & POWERSPORTS SHOW Xinhua/Zou Zheng via Getty Images

Minnesota-based power sports outfit Polaris is teaming up with Zero Motorcycles to co-develop electric vehicles, including ATVs and snowmobiles. The two companies have signed an “exclusive, 10-year agreement,” which Polaris said will help kick off an effort to have an electric version of every vehicle type the company offers by 2025.

Polaris makes a variety of off-road vehicles, including the popular RZR lineup as well as garish three-wheelers like the Slingshot. It also owns Indian Motorcycle, which it acquired in 2011. California-based Zero, which was founded in 2006, currently has nine electric motorcycles in its product lineup, including the recently released SR/S. Both companies hope to seize upon what they think has been an...

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Amazon One lets you pay with your palm

Amazon One reader. | Amazon

Amazon is unveiling its own palm recognition technology today that will be used initially to turn your hand into a personal credit card inside the company’s physical retail stores. Amazon One uses the palm of your hand to identify you, using a combination of surface-area details like lines and ridges, alongside vein patterns to create a “palm signature.”

At first, this palm signature will be used in Amazon’s own Go stores in Seattle, and the company also plans to add Amazon One to other Amazon stores in the coming months. Amazon One usage will eventually extend beyond just palm-based payments. “We believe Amazon One has broad applicability beyond our retail stores, so we also plan to offer the service to third parties like retailers,...

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Scientists find evidence of multiple underground lakes on Mars

Scientists believe they’ve found more evidence confirming the presence of a large reservoir of liquid water under the surface of Mars first discovered back in 2018. In fact, they believe they’ve found three more subsurface saltwater lakes surrounding...

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Xiaomi Mi Band 5 review: Taking the fight to Fitbit


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Everything Xiaomi announced at its Smarter Living event


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Xiaomi’s new India products include a speaker, a soap dispenser, and shoes

Xiaomi has announced a wide range of new products for India under the tagline “smarter living,” further pushing the devices in its ecosystem beyond smartphones. Some of them have already gone on sale in China in altered form, but they’re all new for India.

First up is the Mi Watch Revolve, which looks very similar to a product sold in China as the Mi Watch Color, which was itself almost identical to the Amazfit GTR. The Revolve has a 1.39-inch round OLED screen with 326 ppi, and Xiaomi is claiming up to a week’s battery life.

It’s not clear what software the Revolve is running, but in screenshots it looks similar to what ships on Amazfit watches like the T-rex, and it certainly isn’t Wear OS. Amazfit is part of Xiaomi’s ecosystem, so...

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Noise cancellation comes to Google Meet on Android and iOS

Google Meet has introduced noise cancellation for mobile devices on Android and iOS, matching what it can already do on the desktop. The feature will be useful for folks working from home in a noisy environment who prefer to use Meet on a smartphone....

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Nissan's Re-Leaf prototype is a mobile power supply for disaster response

When a natural disaster strikes, one of the biggest challenges is getting power to the disaster site. Nissan may have a way to change that. The company has developed an all-electric emergency response vehicle concept. Dubbed the Re-Leaf, the prototyp...

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Xiaomi launches massive 82-inch 8K TV with mini-LED tech, 5G connectivity


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When will your phone get the Android 11 update? (Updated September 29)


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Monday, 28 September 2020

Adobe Lightroom is getting cinema-style color grading

Adobe is adding a new advanced color grading feature to Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, and Camera Raw, bringing a tool more commonly associated with cinema editing to its pro photography apps.

Lightroom will now have a new color grading panel similar to the Lumetri panel from Adobe’s Premiere Pro video editor, letting you separate out midtones from shadows and highlights with a new three-wheel system. There’s also a global luminance wheel and a blending slider.

Adobe hasn’t said when the new color grading features will be available, but in the video above, Pei Ketron from Adobe’s Lightroom team says there’ll be more information at the company’s virtual Adobe Max conference beginning October 20th.

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NASA schedules the first Crew Dragon operational flight for Halloween

NASA and SpaceX have set a new launch date for Crew Dragon’s first crewed operational flight: October 31st. The SpaceX Crew-1 mission follows the company’s successful Demo—2 test flight, which flew astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the ISS. I...

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It’s official: We’re not getting a OnePlus 8T Pro


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Hyundai's new studio hopes to develop a 'transformer-class' vehicle

At CES 2019 Hyundai showed off something straight out of a sci-fi movie: the Elevate Ultimate Mobility Vehicle. With each wheel attached to an extendable “leg” attached to each wheel, the concept could crawl over obstacles or pick up disabled passeng...

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Microsoft says it has resolved its Microsoft 365 service outage


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TCL rolls out new Roku Ready Alto sound bars with Dolby Atmos

If you’re looking for budget audio options beyond the Roku Streambar or Vizio’s soundbar lineup, TCL has unveiled several models for this fall that should pair well with its Roku-powered smart TVs. The Alto brand is expanding on last year’s lineup wi...

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