Technology

After years of zooming through deep space, a presumed leftover piece of a Chinese rocket slammed into the Moon today, just as space tracking experts expected it would. At least, it should have hit the Moon around 7:30AM ET this morning, as long as the law of gravity has not changed. The collision brings an end to the rocket’s life in space and likely leaves a fresh new crater on the Moon that may be up to 65 feet wide. The now-expired rocket has caused quite a buzz this past month. First of all, the vehicle was never intended to crash into the Moon, making it a rare piece of space debris to find its way to the lunar surface by accident. Additionally, there was some confusion over its identity, with various groups trying to nail down exactly where the rocket came from. finding its way to th...

If you’re in the market for some new headphones or earbuds, Bose has got you covered. Currently, you can find the Bose QuietComfort 45 headphones at Amazon or Best Buy for $279, matching their lowest price. The Verge staffer Chris Welch reviewed the QuietComfort 45 headphones for us and was generally impressed by the overall comfort and effective noise cancellation of these headphones. The Bose QuietComfort Earbuds are also on sale, discounted from their regular $279 price to $219.99 at Amazon and Best Buy. These earbuds have been available for as low as $199.99 before, but they haven’t been available for that price since early January. Chris Welch also reviewed these earbuds for us and praised their sound quality and noise-cancellation capabilities. Bose QuietComfort 45 headphones $279 $3...

Apple will begin phasing in its planned hybrid work pilot on April 11th, bringing employees back to the office one day a week to start, according to an email from CEO Tim Cook to Apple employees, which was seen by The Verge. Apple originally announced its plans for a hybrid work pilot in November. In the third week of the pilot, Cook writes, employees will come in twice a week, with the full hybrid pilot — where workers will come into the office on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday and work “flexibly” on Wednesday and Friday — would go into effect May 23rd. The timing may vary from office to office depending on local conditions, Cook added. “For many of you, I know that returning to the office represents a long-awaited milestone and a positive sign that we can engage more fully with the collea...

Prolific fantasy author Brandon Sanderson has just broken the Kickstarter record for the most successful crowdfunded project of all time, cracking the $20,338,986 milestone set by the Pebble Time all the way back in 2015. Sanderson’s achievement isn’t just notable for the sheer amount of money raised but for the speed. The project — for four new novels that the author wrote in secret over the course of the pandemic — was announced on Tuesday, March 1st and broke the record by early Friday morning, March 4th. The project’s original goal was to raise $1,000,000 in 30 days; Sanderson hit that number in around 35 minutes, according to The New York Times. The campaign currently exceeds 82,000 backers and still has 27 days to raise additional contributions. The Pebble Time ended its record-setti...

The BBC is resorting to broadcasting news bulletins over shortwave radio in Russia after the country blocked access to BBC websites, The Guardian reports. The BBC announced it was bringing back the WWII-era broadcasting technology in the region just hours before its sites were banned. News of the ban was also reported by Russian state news agency RIA. Shortwave radio uses frequencies that carry over long-distances and are accessible on portable sets. The BBC says its shortwave broadcasts will be available on frequencies of 15735 kHz from 6pm to 8pm and 5875 kHz from midnight to 2am, Ukraine time. News will be read in English, which the BBC says will be available in Kyiv as well as “parts of Russia.” Скачайте наше приложение в AppStore (https://t.co/JJJuK7Ol07) и GooglePlay (https://t.co/WJ...

Google has paused all ad sales in Russia in response to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. “In light of the extraordinary circumstances, we’re pausing Google ads in Russia,” a Google spokesperson told The Verge. “The situation is evolving quickly, and we will continue to share updates when appropriate.” It’s difficult to say what financial losses the company will incur as a result, but the move shows how the online world has become a subsidiary battleground between Russia and the West following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The pause by Google follows similar blanket bans on ads in Russia enacted by Twitter and Snapchat. Google also previously blocked Russian state media like Russia Today from monetizing their websites and YouTube channels using the company’s adtech. Small bans and blocks like...

The release of Samsung’s latest flagship smartphone means we’ve got another excellent iFixit teardown to enjoy, which offers a great look at the insides of the Galaxy S22 and S22 Ultra. The teardown gives us a look at how Samsung has gone about integrating its S Pen stylus into the Galaxy S22 Ultra, as well as the new vapor chamber for keeping the phone cool during use. But the most interesting discovery relates to the vibration motor inside the S22 devices, which iFixit notes is now built into the bottom speaker rather than the top. The speculation is that Samsung is trying to catch up to the performance of the iPhone’s Taptic Engine, but it’s doing so with a component that takes up less internal space. The changes Samsung has made to the vibration motor were actually picked up on by Marq...

Bowers & Wilkins has just launched its new Panorama 3 soundbar, designed to be your all-in-one home audio solution. Measuring around 48 inches long and just 2.5 inches tall, the new soundbar is the brand’s very first model to carry true Dolby Atmos upward-firing drive units renowned for providing exceptional spatial audio to create the perfect immersion you need whether you’re gaming on your consoles or kicking back and enjoying a movie. The entire body carries 13 drive units and twin subwoofers to add extra bass, all powered by a 400W output, making it equally apt for playing music as well. On top of support from the company’s own Bowers & Wilkins Music App, the soundbar also comes with connectivity with aptX Adaptive Bluetooth, Alexa, Spotify Connect, and AirPlay 2, giving you co...

Twitter has become the primary platform for crypto discussion on the internet, and internal data from the company reveals just how many people are joining the conversation. There have been over 1 billion tweets about crypto since 2020, with 299 million of them being tweets made this past year alone. The most retweeted tweets in that time include this Bitcoin giveaway from YouTuber Mr. Beast; this Super Bowl ad from crypto exchange FTX; this Christmas Ethereum giveaway from notwoways founder Callux; this Dogecoin rallying call from Dogecoin Rise; and this tweet from Elon Musk allowing buyers to pay for Teslas with Bitcoin. Since 2020, the top crypto co-mentioned topics include business and finance, investing, NFTs, Bitcoin, Ethereum, cryptocurrency exchanges, digital asset industry, Binance...

Major chip manufacturers Intel, AMD and ARM have now come together in agreement on a universal chiplet standard. Known aptly as Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCIe), the new coalition includes other tech giants such as Samsung, Microsoft, Meta, Google, Qualcomm and TSMC, and the shared design will enable these manufacturers to “mix and match” chiplets from each other to create the best system-on-chips without increased cost, time and effort from producing their own unique designs from scratch. They’ll also potentially perform more consistently, benefiting everything from smartphones to cloud servers. So far, the coalition has already ratified a UCIe 1.0 design, although Engadget points out that it could still be some time before consumers will be able to pick up a chip with t...

Sony and Honda are planning to form a new company to design and sell electric vehicles together. The venture hasn’t been finalized just yet, but the two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding that states their intent. The as-yet unnamed new company is expected to be formed this year, with sales of the first EV model planned for 2025. Honda will manufacture the first model, with the new company handing the vehicle’s design, development, and sales, and Sony set to develop a mobility service platform. The partnership is intended to combine Honda’s expertise in making and marketing cars with Sony’s capabilities in image sensors, telecommunications, and entertainment. “Sony’s purpose is to ‘fill the world with emotion through the power of creativity and technology,” Sony CEO Kenich...