Technology

Google has become the latest manufacturer to partner with DIY repair specialists iFixit to offer spare parts for its devices, the search giant announced today. It’s a deal that should make it far easier for the average customer to get parts to repair their own Pixel smartphone if it breaks. Parts like batteries, displays, and cameras will be available to purchase in the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, and other European countries where the phones are sold. Parts will be available to purchase “later this year,” Google says. Spare parts will be available for an impressive range of Pixel phones, including the latest Pixel 6 devices and going all the way back to 2017’s Pixel 2. That means parts should be available for the kinds of aging phones people might actually want to repair this year. In ...

This morning, SpaceX successfully launched a new crew of four astronauts to orbit on the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft — a group that includes three customers who have reportedly paid millions for their seats. The four private flyers, riding to space with a commercial aerospace company called Axiom Space, are now en route to the International Space Station after launching from Cape Canaveral, Florida. When they dock with the ISS tomorrow morning, they’ll become the first entirely private crew of astronauts to visit and live on the orbiting lab. The crew is slated to spend roughly eight days on the ISS, where they’ll conduct a total of 25 science experiments lasting a cumulative 100 hours. Ax-1 is the first in a series of four missions Their mission, called Ax-1, is the first in a series...

Back in 2019, Microsoft finally got its own system for managing Android notifications from Windows. Since then, it has been possible to see notifications from your Android phone on your Windows 10 or 11 PC as they arrive and to pull up your entire SMS history along with any pending notifications on demand. You can even reply to messages and compose new texts right from your computer. Previously called Your Phone, the Windows app has recently (and appropriately) been renamed Phone Link. Here’s how to get started. (These directions assume you’ve updated your PC to Windows 11, but the process will be similar for Windows 10.) You’re going to be going back and forth from your computer to your phone, so get set. First, on your Windows computer, make sure you have the latest version of the Your P...

Fiido, maker of cheap direct-to-consumer electric bikes, has suspended sales of its Fiido X and is preparing a recall after discovering a fault that could cause the folding e-bike to break in two. Fiido spokesperson Jennifer Sun confirmed the issue to The Verge and says the company will release more details by April 12th. The recall was first reported by Electrek. When The Verge reviewed the $999 Fiido D11 e-bike in 2020 we concluded that you get what you pay for. The followup $1,298 Fiido X, though, was an improvement in nearly every way, leaving us optimistic about the late-stage prototype we tested ahead of its launch on Indiegogo. Welp. The pre-production Fiido X tested by The Verge.Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge A closer look at the Fiido X hinge.Photo by Thomas Ricker / The Verge...

Coke recently announced that it was making a limited-edition soda, called Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Byte. The flavor, according to the company, was “born in the metaverse” and “inspired by the playfulness of pixels, rooted in the experiences that gaming makes possible.” It’s hard to imagine better bait for The Verge, so I asked Coke if it could send me a can. And it delivered. The can for Coke Byte (as I’ll be calling it for brevity’s sake) is a fun purple color, and has a sort of retro-game aesthetic — it says “recycle me to play again” on the side, and it is adorned with cubes meant to represent pixels. I stuck it in the fridge until my wife Becky got home, and we cracked it open to finally discover what pixels taste like. Check out that retro aesthetic. Honestly, we’re still not quite sure. ...

Robinhood’s cryptocurrency wallet, which lets users spend and trade select digital currencies including Bitcoin and Ethereum, is being made available to “all eligible customers’’ on its waitlist, the company has announced. That amounts to over two million people, although the company cautions that the wallet won’t be available in Hawaii, Nevada, or New York due to “local regulations.” The wallet was initially launched as a limited test last year. Although Robinhood has allowed customers to buy cryptocurrency on its platform, you couldn’t easily spend the cryptocurrency — it just sits in your account as a speculative asset until you decide to sell it. In contrast, Robinhood says its wallet gives customers “full access to their crypto” and the ability to “participate in the crypto ecosystem ...

An unofficial Apple Museum is opening in Poland, offering the most complete collection of some of Apple’s greatest hits alongside rarities that many have never seen before. Opening in mid-April, Apple Muzeum Polska’s collection includes over 1,600 exhibits in a space of more than 3,400 square feet, which will also house interactive screens showing over 100 hours of video footage to better help explain the exhibits on show. [embedded content] Everything from software, hardware, peripherals, prototypes, and multimedia to promotional and information forms illustrating the company’s history are on display alongside classic Apple machines. Notably, the museum has the Apple 1 from 1976, ’84’s Macintosh 128k, the 20th-anniversary Macintosh from 1997, and the boundary-breaking iMac G3 from 1998, f...

Logan Paul continues to take his passion for collectibles to a whole new level with his new company, Liquid Marketplace. His new venture recently raised $8 million USD in funding, drawing both skepticism and interest from those watching from afar. Paul’s career as a YouTuber has quickly took a turn when he began training to fight professionally. He has since made his debut on WWE, where he debuted the most expensive Pokémon card at WrestleMania 38. With Liquid Marketplace, Paul is showing off his entrepreneurial side, announcing on Twitter that his new company will aim to “fractionalize expensive assets.” The company hopes to become a platform where people can sell, buy, own as well as trade shares of rare and expensive collectibles on the blockchain. The platform utilizes cryptocurrency a...

Tomorrow morning, SpaceX is set to launch yet another crew of four to the International Space Station from Florida — but unlike most of the company’s passenger flights, this new crop of flyers won’t include any current NASA astronauts. All four members of the crew are civilians, flying with a commercial aerospace company called Axiom Space. Their flight will mark the first time a completely private crew has visited the ISS. It’s a new type of human spaceflight mission and one that comes with a hefty price tag for its participants. Three of the four flyers have each paid a reported $55 million for their seats on SpaceX’s crew capsule, called the Crew Dragon. The trio of novice spacefarers includes Canadian investor Mark Pathy, American real estate investor Larry Connor, and former Israeli A...