Technology

Google will require anyone going to one of its US offices or facilities to have received a negative molecular test for COVID-19, the company informed employees Thursday in a memo obtained by CNBC. Workers going to the office regularly will have to get tested weekly, chief health officer Karen DeSalvo said in the memo, and employees have been asked to report their vaccination status and wear surgical-grade masks indoors. Google spokesperson Lora Lee Erickson confirmed to The Verge that a new temporary COVID-19 policy is now being implemented, one where “anyone accessing our sites in the US are expected to obtain a recent negative COVID-19 molecular test before coming onsite” and that it’s offering various kinds of tests at no cost. Google offers at-home tests for employees Google offers fre...

Microsoft is making its Walkie Talkie feature of Microsoft Teams generally available to all users of its communications app today. Walkie Talkie lets Microsoft Teams users turn smartphones or tablets into a walkie-talkie that works over cellular data or Wi-FI. It was originally announced two years ago and has been available mostly in preview ever since. The feature launched widely on Android in September of 2020, but now Microsoft says it’s available for Zebra mobile devices as well as iPhones and iPads. Microsoft has primarily pitched this at frontline workers, employees who are customer-facing and run day-to-day operations inside companies. The software maker’s collaboration with Zebra Technologies makes it work with a dedicated push-to-talk button for quick and secure communications. Th...

With many people working from home than they used to, owning a good pair of noise-canceling headphones has become more appealing than ever. However, they can be expensive and difficult to shop for due to the range of available models, many of which cater to different lifestyles and priorities. Some are better suited for long-haul flights, while others are ideal for multitasking and marathon listening sessions. That’s why we’ve curated this list of the best deals on noise-canceling headphones. Here, you’ll find sales on all kinds of on-ear and over-ear headphones, all of which are designed to eliminate outside noise but come with their own strengths and weaknesses. And if you want to do even more research before making a buying decision, we’ve put together a guide to the best noise-cancelin...

HYPEBEAST will return for another installment of its HYPETALKS panel series on Monday, January 17, on Twitter Spaces. Hosted by HYPEBEAST Senior News Editor Rosie Perper, the upcoming session is titled “In Web3 and Beyond” and enlists the creators of community-driven NFT project Doodles, including founders Evan Keast, Jordan Castro and artist Burnt Toast (Scott Martin), to discuss art in web3. Since launching in October, Doodles’ animated pastel NFTs have racked up a floor price of 11 ETH, which is valued at over $35,000 USD. The founders will provide their insight on their experience of building out a successful NFT project and takeaways on the role of art in web3. The Doodles team will be joined by Todd Kramer and Jihan Zencirli. Kramer is an NFT collector and the owner of New York’s Ros...

Netflix is raising prices across all of its plans in the US today. The company’s standard plan will rise to $15.50 per month from $14, while the 4K plan will rise to $20 per month from $18. The basic plan, which doesn’t include HD, is also rising to $10 per month from $9. Prices are rising in Canada as well. The price hikes go into effect immediately for new subscribers. For existing subscribers, the changes will be rolled out “gradually,” with Netflix promising to email members 30 days before the price hike goes into effect. Prices for a Netflix plan have steadily gone up in recent years. The standard plan went to $14 per month from $13 in late 2020, after previously rising to $13 from from $11 in 2019. Prior to that, Netflix raised prices in 2017 and 2015. When Netflix announced its firs...

The US Federal Trade Commission and at least three states are investigating Meta for antitrust violations in its virtual reality division, according to Bloomberg. The report says the FTC and attorneys general from New York, Tennessee, and North Carolina began speaking last year with third-party VR developers who have concerns about Meta’s business practices. It’s one of multiple probes into Meta’s dominance in the small but growing market of VR. The Bloomberg report references well-known controversies around Meta (formerly Facebook) and its VR division (formerly Oculus). Regulators have reportedly asked developers if the Oculus app store discriminates against third-party apps whose features overlap with its own offerings, and they’ve apparently questioned Meta’s strategy of selling the Met...

The White House has announced that people will be able to order free COVID-19 tests from COVIDTests.gov starting on Wednesday, January 19th. This follows a promise that the government would be setting up a website to distribute 500 million tests, which President Joe Biden announced in December. You’ll only have to put in two pieces of info to get a test shipped to you — your name and address. In its announcement, the White House said the tests will ship through the US Postal Service “within 7–12 days of ordering.” Currently, the limit is four tests per residential address. To order their tests, the only two things people will need are their name and residential mailing address. Tests will typically ship through the mail within 7-12 days of ordering, and be delivered First Class through the...

Google is in the process of releasing a much-anticipated update for Pixel 6 phones. Earlier today, Android expert Mishaal Rahman noted that Google posted OTA and factory images to its developer site for the January 2022 patch. That means anyone can sideload the update to their Pixel 6 or Pixel 6 Pro now, and the official over-the-air update has already arrived on some devices (including some owned by Verge staff). In an email, Google confirmed the rollout has begun, and that the software will automatically roll out over the next week, depending on your device and wireless carrier. Using the phones’ built-in checker may start the process now, and if it doesn’t, sideloading is still an option. However, waiting for the regular rollout instead of doing a manual install may be the best way to g...

Elon Musk took to Twitter on Friday to announce that Tesla merchandise will now be available to purchase using Dogecoin, leading to a sizable surge in the price of the cryptocurrency. The price of Dogecoin jumped more than 15% on Friday, according to figures via CNBC. The coin reached a price of $0.20 USD at roughly 1:19 a.m. ET before settling at a price of $0.18 USD after 7 a.m. ET this morning. “Tesla merch buyable with Dogecoin,” the CEO wrote on Twitter. Tesla merch buyable with Dogecoin — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 14, 2022 Only select items are currently buyable with the cryptocurrency: the company’s commemorative Giga Texas Belt Buckle, the Cyberwhistle, which resembles the shape of the automaker’s Cybertruck, and the Cyberquad for Kids. Tesla has planned to accept Dogecoin as a...

Russia’s domestic security service, the FSB, has arrested numerous members of the REvil hacking group at the request of the US government, the FSB said on Friday. The move, which marks an unusual degree of cooperation between Russian and US agencies, comes amid increasingly aggressive Russian military activity on the Ukrainian border and tense diplomacy as the United States attempts to prevent armed conflict. Reporting by the Russian Interfax news agency claimed that the FSB seized 426 million rubles ($5.6 million) in a raid against 14 members of the group, along with more than $600,000 worth of cryptocurrency and 20 luxury cars. The FSB told Interfax that it was acting at the request of US authorities and had informed them of the results of the operation. The operation effectively dismant...

Rumors have swirled for years about Apple releasing some kind of virtual reality / augmented reality headset. While reports had pegged a possible 2022 release for the company’s first mixed reality headset, the device is hitting some development snags and may not release until 2023, according to Bloomberg. Apple planned to reveal the headset at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, but “development challenges related to overheating, cameras and software have made it harder to stay on track,” Bloomberg reports. The issues mean the reveal may happen at the end of the year — or even later — with the headset going on sale in 2023. And Apple had apparently, at one point, planned to reveal the device even earlier; Bloomberg reports the company wanted to announce it in 2021 and ship it in 2...

Warner Bros. went out of its way to make sure that James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad wasn’t exactly looked at as a direct sequel to David Ayer’s Suicide Squad even though that’s what it was. In the case of HBO Max’s new Peacemaker spinoff series, though, the studio’s taking a much different approach to addressing the connections between its rather messy cinematic universe. It’s become commonplace for spinoff superhero series informed by the events of big superhero movies — Marvel’s latest batch of Disney Plus series all come to mind — to dance around the specific details of how they fit into the larger picture until about halfway through the season. Though you can usually infer that these sorts of shows are set after the events of the features that preceded them, they tend to feel as if you’r...