Technology

Netflix has never been one to slump during summer movie season, but it would be fair to say that the streaming studio’s been gearing up to make sure that you won’t be able to turn around without seeing one of its new feature-length projects this year. The good news is, more than a few of the new movies Netflix announced today sound like they might be worth tuning in to. The Adam Project Zoe Saldana as Laura and Ryan Reynolds as Big Adam.Netflix Director Shawn Levy’s (Free Guy) The Adam Project bucks conventional time-traveling wisdom with the story of Adam (Ryan Reynolds), a pilot who journeys into the past in order to save the future with the help of a younger version of himself and their father, who’s already died in the older Adam’s time. The Adam Project also stars Zoe Saldaña, Mark Ru...

The latest addition to the United States’ border force could be robot dogs. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released new details this week of trials of quadrupedal robots on the southern border. The machines are being tested in a variety of surveillance-focused roles, and although the DHS has shared no timeline for full-term deployment, it says trials were “successful” and that work with the machines will continue. “The southern border can be an inhospitable place for man and beast, and that is exactly why a machine may excel there,” said Brenda Long, a program manager for the DHS’ research and development arm, the Science & Technology directorate (S&T), in a blog post. “This S&T-led initiative focuses on Automated Ground Surveillance Vehicles, or what we call ‘AGSVs....

The United States Postal Service has been urged to reevaluate its plans to spend billions on a new fleet of gas-powered delivery trucks, the Washington Post reports. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and White House Council on Environmental Quality sent letters to the USPS this week, asking it to reconsider plans that could see just 10 percent of its up to 165,000 new vehicles powered by electricity rather than gasoline. “The Postal Service’s proposal as currently crafted represents a crucial lost opportunity to more rapidly reduce the carbon footprint of one of the largest government fleets in the world,” wrote the EPA’s associate administrator for policy, Vicki Arroyo. The USPS announced its plan last February to purchase the new vehicles from Wisconsin-based defense contractor O...

GameStop plans to launch its own marketplace for non-fungible tokens (or NFTs) and is co-creating an “up to $100 million” fund for game developers who use it. The marketplace will mark GameStop’s expansion from a popular meme stock to a company that dabbles in cryptocurrency and Web3 tech — although it may also provoke the wrath of gamers who are stridently opposed to NFTs. The new GameStop NFT marketplace is supposed to launch later this year. It’s built on Immutable X, a platform based on the popular Ethereum cryptocurrency blockchain. Designed by Immutable, the company behind the NFT trading card game Gods Unchained, Immutable X is intended to mitigate the biggest drawbacks of Ethereum: its massive energy consumption and the high associated “gas fees,” which can add exorbitant processin...

Valve is starting to let Steam users see the size of a game before they attempt to install it. Library pages of games will finally list the total space required for a game, without having to first click install to see the disk space details and estimated download time. It’s a minor change that’s rolling out as part of a beta update to Steam this week, meaning it should be live for all Steam users in the coming weeks. The change comes after Valve updated its downloads page to make it a lot more informative in September. The overhaul included an improved section for managing storage, as well as showing more details on download progress and installation progress. Valve redesigned its Steam libraries in 2019, making it easier to find games, see what friends are playing, and follow updates or n...

The Nintendo Switch had a relatively strong holiday quarter, with 10.67 million units shipped between October and December despite the global semiconductor shortage. That brings the system’s lifetime total to 103.54 million units shipped, meaning it took just under five years to overtake the Wii’s 101.63 million. Shipments were still down nearly eight percent year on year, but Nintendo was clearly less affected by the supply chain issues than some others. Sony, for example, announced yesterday that it only shipped 3.9 million PlayStation 5 consoles in the same period. Nintendo also launched the new OLED model of the Switch last quarter and says it “got off to a good start.” Nintendo did, however, further revise its forecast for Switch shipments down by one million units for the fiscal year...

Did you know that Google Maps has a nifty little trick that lets you adjust zoom with just one finger? Because I sure as hell didn’t until yesterday, when a tweet from Sketchfab CEO Alban Denoyel alerted me to its existence via a years-old YouTube video from 2013. The shortcut is simple: just double-tap the maps interface, but instead of lifting your finger after the second tap (the shortcut for zooming in), you leave it touching the screen. Then a swipe up zooms out, and a swipe down zooms in. Neat right? With this knowledge you can say goodbye to awkwardly holding the phone and trying to use two fingers to reposition the map to check your directions when your other hand is busy holding a dog leash, coffee cup, shopping bag, or whatever. Personally I’m looking forward to using it the next...

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel issued a proposal that could make it much harder for robocallers to leave “ringless” voicemails in your inbox without getting your permission first. Ringless voicemails are those annoying messages that appear in your voicemail inbox without your phone actually ringing first. Ringless voicemails are messages that appear on your phone without it ringing Rosenworcel says the technology behind ringless voicemails should be subject to the same rules laid out by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which is supposed to block robocallers from dialing your number without your consent. The TCPA sets a number of other rules as well, requiring telemarketing agencies to create and abide by a “Do Not Call” list and barring ...

Workers at a second Amazon warehouse on Staten Island in New York City have petitioned the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to join a union, according to the Amazon Labor Union. The group tweeted it had electronically filed a petition for election for workers at the LDJ5 warehouse. NLRB spokesperson Kayla Blado said Wednesday afternoon it had not yet received the petition, however. The ALU, which is made up of current and former Amazon workers, is also moving forward with unionization at the company’s JFK8 warehouse on Staten Island after the NLRB determined it had “reached a sufficient showing of interest” to hold an election. The NLRB has scheduled a hearing for February 16th and will then determine the date for the election. The ALU has been trying to organize Amazon workers in New...

If you’ve noticed cryptic new icons popping up on your phone next to the 5G logo, you’re not alone. Carriers are expanding their 5G networks in a big way this year, and those little “UW” and “UC” logos you’re suddenly seeing represent the different varieties of 5G you’re encountering in the wild. Like Pokémon, but way more confusing. Isn’t 5G just… 5G? Nope. There are low, mid, and high-band varieties of 5G spectrum. They all provide different levels of data speeds, and all major US carriers use all three. Naturally, they also have different names for them. Depending on your carrier, you may see abbreviations pop up next to the 5G symbol on your phone when you’re connected to the corresponding network. Here’s a quick guide to the different varieties of 5G in the US and the abbreviations ca...

Sony’s latest State of Play presentation offered a closer look at the cars, tracks, and game modes that Gran Turismo 7 will deliver when it launches on PS5 and PS4 on March 4th, 2022. Beyond offering a deep car simulator experience with a hefty amount of customization options for each car, there are some new and returning features that should give returning fans (or first-time players) plenty to do. Starting with some key highlights from the show, the game will offer over 400 cars on launch day, along with 34 racing locales and 90 track layouts. It’ll have two-player split-screen multiplayer (along with online play), and like most PS5 games, Gran Turismo 7 includes a frame rate mode for 60 frames per second performance or a ray tracing mode that caps at 30 frames per second. Sony didn’t sh...