
Sunday, 28 February 2021
OnePlus Watch: All the rumors and what we want to see (Updated: Mar. 1)

The Redmi Note 10 series macro camera might actually be great. Here’s how.

Lime says it will spend $50 million on a huge e-bike expansion

Lime is getting back to its roots. The scooter company formerly known as LimeBike says it will invest $50 million to grow its shared electric bicycle network, including adding a new model of bike and doubling the number of cities in which it operates.
Lime got its start with shared bikes, only to quickly pivot after Bird first introduced the concept of dockless electric scooters in 2017. The company dropped the “bike” from its name and started phasing out its bikes in 2019. But the following year, Lime acquired bike-share company Jump from Uber, and suddenly, bikes were back on the menu.
Now, the company is doubling down on shared electric bikes, with plans to launch in “a dozen” new cities in North...
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Lime's latest e-bike can borrow batteries from scooters
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2021 Golden Globes: Netflix dominates the night, Nomadland takes top honor
In a year of ongoing movie delays and stalled television productions, it’s no surprise that this year’s Golden Globes winners were dominated by streaming services — in particular, Netflix.
However, before getting into the winners of the evening, it’s impossible to ignore that this year’s Golden Globes were surrounded by a number of important controversies. Last week the Los Angeles Times published an in-depth feature investigation into the questionable ethics involving all 87 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the voting body that selects Golden Globe winners every year. Some members were flown to Paris and put up in expensive hotels on Netflix’s dollar for on-set visits to Emily in Paris, which was nominated for...
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Oppo Find X3 Pro launch date (and some key specs) finally confirmed

Cybersecurity firm says social media bots hyped GameStop during trading frenzy
A cybersecurity firm found that bots were promoting GameStop stock on social media before and after the stock’s frenzied rise last month, Reuters reported. Massachusetts-based PiiQ Media says social media bots promoted Dogecoin, GameStop, and other “meme” stocks in posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. The firm estimated that tens of thousands of bots participated, but it’s still unclear how much influence they had or didn’t have on the rise and fall of GME and other stocks.
Shares in GME skyrocketed in January as Reddit users on r/wallstreetbets rallied around the stock in an attempt to squeeze hedge funds that had bet against the video game company. PiiQ told Reuters it detected “patterns of artificial behavior” in...
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Minneapolis hiring social media influencers for former police officers’ trials
Minneapolis is hiring social media influencers to share “city-generated and approved messages” during the trials of four former city police officers charged in the May 2020 killing of George Floyd, according to the Minnesota Reformer. The Minneapolis city council approved the plan on Friday, which calls for six influencers to be paid about $2,000 each to spread the city’s messages with Black, Native American, Hmong, and Latino communities.
The goal is to “address/dispel incorrect information” by using “trusted messengers,” part of a program the city refers to as its Joint Information System to share “timely and relevant information” with the public during the trials.
“Through the Communications and Neighborhood and Community Relations...
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Lordstown Motors' electric race truck is (mostly) ready for off-roading
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New AI ‘Deep Nostalgia’ brings old photos, including very old ones, to life
An AI-powered service called Deep Nostalgia that animates still photos has become the main character on Twitter this fine Sunday, as people try to create the creepiest fake “video” possible, apparently.
The Deep Nostalgia service, offered by online genealogy company MyHeritage, uses AI licensed from D-ID to create the effect that a still photo is moving. It’s kinda like the iOS Live Photos feature, which adds a few seconds of video to help smartphone photographers find the best shot.
But Deep Nostalgia can take photos from any camera and bring them to “life.” The program uses pre-recorded driver videos of facial movements and applies the one that works best for the still photo in question. Its intended purpose is to allow you to upload...
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Scientists sequence 64 human genomes to better reflect genetic diversity
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How to watch the 2021 Golden Globes online
Awards season in Hollywood begins Sunday, February 28th, with the 78th Golden Globe Awards, hosted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The Golden Globes, usually considered a harbinger of who may take home awards at other shows like the Oscars, will look a bit different this year thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. The hosts and presenters will be in different locations in the US and around the world.
Streaming services have finally come into their own at the Globes, with Netflix leading the pack of with 20 total nominations for its television shows; Hulu has six total nominations, Apple TV Plus has two, and Disney Plus has one. In the motion picture categories (the Globes honor films and TV shows), Netflix leads the way with 22...
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Social media bots may have fuelled the GameStop stock frenzy
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The best Michael Kors smartwatches you can buy: Bradshaw 2, MKGO, and more

Verizon support says you should turn off 5G to save your phone’s battery
Despite its relentless promotion of 5G phones and the fact that it spent more than $45 billion bidding on a new faster spectrum, Verizon support now is advising people on Twitter to turn off their phones’ 5G access to preserve battery life.
In a Sunday morning tweet, Verizon support helpfully suggested that “one way to help conserve battery life is to turn on LTE” if users found their batteries were “draining faster than normal.” That step would, of course, turn off 5G in a phone that has it available. It’s also worth pointing out that you don’t actually “turn on LTE” when doing this step — LTE is always enabled as a fallback for the 5G network. But Verizon is obviously being cautious so as not to actually tell its customers to “turn...
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Watch Rivian test its R1T electric truck in extreme cold weather
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Samsung’s shiny red Galaxy Chromebook 2 is now available at Best Buy
Samsung’s latest Chrome OS laptop, the Galaxy Chromebook 2, is now available for purchase at Best Buy. The Chromebook 2 was first announced at CES in January and features a new QLED display, 360-degree hinge, and a striking red paint job. It starts at $549.99 for a Celeron model and goes up to $699.99 for a Core i3 version, putting it at the higher end of Chromebooks.
That price is the most significant thing about the Chromebook 2 because it’s considerably less than the Galaxy Chromebook that debuted a year ago. The older Chromebook had an 4K OLED screen and came with a stylus — neither of which you’ll fine with the new model — but it also cost just under $1,000 when it came out. In our review, we found despite the gorgeous screen and...
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Disinformation experts aren’t happy about the trailer for HBO’s QAnon series
The teaser video for Q: Into the Storm, an upcoming documentary series from HBO about the QAnon conspiracy movement has a lot of deplatforming experts concerned; it looks more like a preview for a spy thriller than a careful examination of the umbrella group of conspiracy theories.
The breathless tone might be effective at building hype, but it has many disinformation experts concerned. Ben Collins, one of the leading journalists covering online radicalization, tweeted that the trailer was “being marketed in a way that could recruit more people.” Promoted by HBO as a series that “charts a labyrinthine journey to unmask the mastermind behind QAnon,” critics pointed out that the trailer felt a lot like “a recruitment video for Q.”
d...
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Saturday, 27 February 2021
Microsoft is testing 1080p Xbox Game Pass streaming
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The UK government will reportedly buy stakes in tech startups
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Microsoft’s unreleased Xbox Game Streaming app for Windows includes touch controls, gyro, and more
Microsoft is finalizing its Xbox Game Streaming app for Windows PCs, which includes access to streaming games from the company’s xCloud service. We’ve managed to get access to the latest version of the Xbox Game Streaming app for Windows, an unannounced and unreleased app. Once released, the app will let Windows users stream games from their Xbox Series S / X consoles, and from xCloud.
Currently, you can’t stream games from the new Xbox consoles to Windows PCs, as this is unsupported in the existing Xbox Console Companion app. This new app will solve that, and also bring xCloud streaming to Windows PCs for the first time. We first got a look at this xCloud app for Windows last year, and it has improved a lot since then.
scoop: here's...
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Judge approves $650 million Facebook privacy settlement over facial recognition feature
A federal judge on Friday gave final approval to a $650 million Facebook class action privacy settlement and ordered the 1.6 million members of the class in Illinois who submitted claims to be paid “as expeditiously as possible.”
Chicago attorney Jay Edelson sued Facebook in Cook County Circuit Court back in 2015, alleging that the platform’s use of facial recognition tagging was not allowed under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. The lawsuit claimed that Facebook’s Tag Suggestions tool, which scanned faces in users’ photos and offered suggestions about who the person might be, stored biometric data without users’ consent in violation of the Illinois law.
The case became a class action lawsuit in 2018. In 2019, Facebook m...
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Nissan's improved hybrid car system reduces CO2 emissions
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ICYMI: We check out Lenovo’s lightest ThinkPad yet
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Apple AirPods Max vs Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700: Who wears the crown?

So you want to start reading comics?

WandaVision’s first season is just about to end, but Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Black Widow, Loki, Justice League, Suicide Squad, The Batman, GCPD, and Peacemaker are just around the corner — and that doesn’t account for other series outside of the main Marvel and DC Universes like MODOK, Titans, or Harley Quinn.
There are more superhero TV series and films debuting in 2021 than seemingly ever before, and it might have some people wanting to dive into comics. WandaVision has led a few people on staff to dig into past Vision and Wanda Maximoff-centered storylines, for example. I’ve started reading Kieron Gillen’s Eternals run leading up to Marvel Studios’ film. Whatever reason people may have for wanting to begin reading comics,...
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Hitting the Books: The Brooksian revolution that led to rational robots
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OnePlus will reportedly launch its '9R' phone and watch in March
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The Morning After: MSI's latest gaming laptop targets the 1440p sweet spot
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Vaccine centers embrace stickers and selfie stations
The best picture I’ve seen this week was a selfie from my father-in-law who just got his first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Along with the shot, they gave him a sticker that says “I got vaccinated!”
As the vaccine rollout continues, clinics and distribution centers across the country are embracing things like stickers and even selfie stations decked out with colorful backgrounds to help people celebrate getting the shot.
The selfie stations are set up as colorful backgrounds, often with pro-vaccine messaging tiled with the name of the healthcare provider. It’s good branding. And hey, if social media-friendly backgrounds helped make some trendy restaurants popular, there’s no reason they couldn’t work for vaccine sites too.
This is a...
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Which manufacturer updates its phones the fastest: Android 11 edition

Sony’s PlayStation Network experiencing outage Saturday
An outage of Sony’s PlayStation Network that began Friday afternoon appeared to be persisting on Saturday morning. According to an update on the status page timestamped 6:33PM (not clear what time zone that is) on February 26th, the affected platforms are PS Vita, PS3, PS4, and PS5.
“You might have difficulty launching games, apps, or network features. We’re working to resolve the issue as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience,” the update reads.
Engadget reported that the outage may be affecting some games but not others; Fortnite appeared to be accessible but Minecraft and Call of Duty: Warzone were not.
The PlayStation Network outage began a day after Microsoft’s Xbox Live service suffered a global outage for five hours. On...
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Here are this week’s best gadget deals all in one place
This week’s batch of deals runs the gamut of gadgets and games. Whether you’re a music fan who’s looking to outfit their tech repertoire with new headphones or a big, powerful Bluetooth speaker, or a gamer, this roundup is for you. There still aren’t any deals on hard-to-find graphics cards, but the good news is at least AMD’s powerful Zen 3 processors are in stock right now (but perhaps not for long).
If you aren’t finding what you’re looking for in today’s roundup, keep a lock on our Verge Deals coverage throughout the week and follow us on Twitter for the moment-to-moment deal alerts.
Get the best-ever price on Beats Solo Pro on-ear headphones
Beats Solo Pro noise-canceling headphones are still available for $150 through Woot. You...
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Xiaomi Mi 11 review: One cool customer, but is it a Galaxy S21 killer?

Volkswagen is using its electric ID.Buzz van to test self-driving tech
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Roku not working? Common Roku problems and how to fix them

Friday, 26 February 2021
Facebook's BARS is an experimental TikTok-like app for rappers
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A PlayStation Network outage is affecting certain games
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NASA’s Perseverance rover carried a family portrait of its robotic siblings to Mars
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Go read this report about how selling safe masks online is surprisingly hard
A new report from The New York Times’ Andrew Jacobs digs into how mask policies on tech platforms that have allowed novelty masks like scrunchie masks to flourish while some mask-makers making high-filtration masks have had trouble selling their wares.
Even if you’re vaccinated, wearing a mask is still recommended. It seems like a problem, then, that many masks widely advertised on Facebook, Instagram, and Amazon are novelty varieties that might be less safe than medical-grade N95s. Facebook and Amazon say they are following guidelines from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Facebook prevented mask sellers from advertising and selling masks to the masses early in the pandemic, when they were in short supply. The idea was to...
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'Terraria' will hit Stadia after all
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Report: PlayStation 5 to gain SSD expandable storage support this year

Apple forced to add iPhone and MacBook repairability scores to comply with French law
Apple has added iPhone and MacBook repairability scores to its online store in France to comply with a new French law that came into effect this year. MacGeneration reports that the rating takes into account features like how easily a device can be disassembled and the availability of repair manuals and spare parts. Links to each product’s final score, with details for how they were calculated, are available on this support page.
The ratings for Apple’s products vary between products and generations. Its iPhone 12 lineup all have scores of six out of 10 for example, while the previous year’s iPhone 11s are rated lower at between 4.5 and 4.6. The improvement, according to the detailed scoring assessment, is due to the newer iPhones being...
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PlayStation 5 SSD expansion will reportedly be unlocked this summer
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Sony will reportedly enable PS5 SSD expansion this summer
Sony will allow the PlayStation 5 to make use of expanded SSD storage from this summer, according to a report in Bloomberg. The functionality is said to be coming in a firmware update that will activate the PS5’s M.2 expansion slot, which is currently disabled. Sony told The Verge ahead of the PS5 launch that the feature was “reserved for a future update.”
Bloomberg’s sources say that the firmware update will allow for an increase in the speed of the PS5’s cooling fans. The PS5 has an extremely fast built-in SSD, and any compatible third-party drive will need to be equally fast in order to store and run PS5 games; that’s going to generate some extra heat.
The PS5 comes with an 825GB SSD right now, leaving users with only 667GB of usable...
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EA's upcoming Dragon Age game won't feature multiplayer after all
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Oculus Quest 2 and Portal devices now respond to 'Hey Facebook'
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