Technology

Taco Bell, the restaurant known for having ground beef that’s utterly indescribable, reportedly told Beyond Meat that its version of carne asada wasn’t good enough to serve. According to Bloomberg, the chain canceled a test product that featured Beyond’s plant-based steak after samples failed to live up to its standards. Beyond Meat denies the report — Shira Zackai, head of communications at the company told The Verge in an email that “the test between Beyond Meat and Taco Bell was not canceled. Our partnership is strong, and we are actively working together to create a plant-based protein that’s completely new to the national QSR (quick serve restaurant) space. We look forward to sharing more details on what Beyond Meat and Taco Bell have planned in the coming months.” The report do...

Apple’s short, stout HomePod Mini usually costs $99.99, but Best Buy is offering a $20 discount today on the smart speaker. You can snag one for $79.99, which is the retailer’s lowest price yet, in addition to one of the best deals we’ve seen for it. If you’re in Apple’s ecosystem of products, there aren’t many other choices for buying a smart speaker that’s fully compatible with the Siri voice assistant, or HomeKit, for commanding certain smart home tech via the speaker. Still, it’s a great speaker that offers good sound quality for its size, and unlike the discontinued HomePod, this one’s compact enough to fit almost anywhere near a wall outlet. This deal is available on most of Apple’s vibrant colorways for the HomePod Mini, including blue, white, and black, but excluding yellow and ora...

For years, people with disabilities have been promised that autonomous vehicles are right around the corner. Self-driving cars will open up new possibilities for people with vision, hearing, and mobility impairments. Help was on the way. But Haben Girma is tired of waiting. “People with disabilities stand to benefit the most from self-driving cars, but developers are not making accessibility enough of a priority,” said the author and deafblind disability justice lawyer. “Waiting until a product is ‘finished’ to start thinking about accessibility is like completing construction of a skyscraper and then tearing part of it down to install an elevator.” “People with disabilities stand to benefit the most from self-driving cars, but developers are not making accessibility enough of a priority” ...

The Ford Mustang Mach-E is hitting the streets of New York City as the latest electric vehicle to join the ranks of the city’s iconic yellow taxi fleet. The Mustang Mach-E, with its fresh coat of Rally Yellow paint and classic taxi iconography, is being operated by Gravity Technologies, a startup focused on EV fleets and charging infrastructure. This is the first time that Ford’s new, mass-market EV is being deployed as a taxi. But it won’t be the last — Gravity says it hopes to eventually operate a fleet of 50 electric vehicles comprised of both Mustang Mach-Es and Tesla Model Ys. “I think the Mustang and the Model Y are kind of like the ideal taxi vehicles that are available today,” Moshe Cohen, founder and CEO of Gravity, told The Verge. “I think the Mustang and the Model Y are kind of ...

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri confirmed over the weekend that the social media giant is working on creating features that incorporate non-fungible tokens (NFTs), while responding to a Q&A posted to Stories on his personal Instagram account. “Nothing to announce yet but we are definitely actively exploring NFTs and how we can make them more accessible to a wider audience,” Mosseri said in the video on Saturday. “I think it’s an interesting place that we can play…and also a way to hopefully help creators,” he added. Reports relating to Instagram’s interest in NFTs first circulated earlier this year, when app developer Alessandro Paluzzi shared details about the Meta-owned social media platform’s plans on Twitter in July. Though unconfirmed, Paluzzi’s tweets featured a new “Collectible” labe...

After throwing a fourth-quarter interception to seal a 9-0 loss against the Saints on Sunday night, Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady managed to connect with a Microsoft Surface tablet, absolutely destroying it. The defeat was Brady’s first shutout in 15 years, according to CBS Sports. Brady joins an illustrious group of Surface abusers that include Aaron Rogers, Johnny Manziel, and former boss Bill “I just can’t take it anymore” Belichick, to name just a few. Surface tablets have suffered regular abuse since their introduction in the 2014 NFL season after Microsoft became the official provider of tablet-based image reviews for teams during games, replacing the black-and-white photographs that had been in use for decades. The tablets were frequently called “iPads” in early post-game intervie...

LG has announced what it’s calling its “first gaming laptop,” the UltraGear 17G90Q. The 17-inch laptop is powered by a combination of an 11th Gen Intel Tiger Lake H CPU and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Max-Q graphics card, and can be configured with up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage The company is no stranger to making laptops, but the focus of its previous models has generally been on office productivity rather than offering a top-of-the-line gaming experience. The LG Gram 17 we reviewed earlier this year, for example, was a great lightweight work machine, but its lack of a beefy dedicated GPU meant it definitely wasn’t a gaming machine. Four ports are hidden on the rear of the machine, including HDMI and Ethernet.Image: LG LG lists two laptops on its site equipped with Nvidia GPUs, but ...

Meta has now banned seven companies offering surveillance-for-hire services which have been used to target politicians, journalists, and human rights workers across more than 100 countries. The list of companies includes Israel’s Cobwebs Technologies, Black Cube, and Bluehawk, as well as Indian firm BellTroX, North Macedonian firm Cytrox, and a company in China. Since the ban, Meta has closed down roughly 1,500 Facebook and Instagram accounts related to those seven groups and also issued cease-and-desist warnings. More than 50,000 individuals believed to have been targeted were also alerted. “The ‘surveillance-for-hire’ entities we removed and described in this report violated multiple Community Standards and Terms of Service,” reads a report from the Meta. “Given the severity of their vio...

If you’re looking to find a gift for an audiophile this holiday season, you’re now in luck: Campfire Audio has just introduced its new Saber wired earphones that don’t only sound great but also look exceptional. Boasting a brand new hybrid design from the company, the in-ear model is wrapped beautifully by a Damascus steel housing to give it just that extra bit of flair. Three drivers sit inside including an 8mm hybrid beryllium polymer diaphragm dynamic driver, a 6mm nano titanium diaphragm driver, and a single balanced armature driver to round things out. The earphones are then completed with a Pure Copper cable with adjustable ear hooks and a neat canvas case to store the pair in. Limited to just 1,000 made, the new Damascus steel Saber earphones are now available over on Campfire Audio...

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has reached settlements with AT&T, Verizon, Intrado, and CenturyLink (which now goes by Lumen Technologies) over investigations into failed 911 calls that occurred during network outages in 2020. The companies will pay a total of $6 million combined and also agreed to ensure compliance with the FCC’s 911 availability rules going forward. AT&T will pay $460,000 to settle two different investigations regarding network outages that took place on September 28th, 2020. Both Lumen Technologies and Intrado agreed to resolve investigations into outages that occurred on that same day, with Lumen Technologies paying $3.8 million and Intrado paying $1.7 million. Verizon settled with the FCC over an investigation of an outage that took place on May 7...

Disney and YouTube TV have reached a deal today to put more than a dozen Disney-owned channels back on Google’s internet TV streaming service. The news follows a previous announcement late Friday that the two had failed to reach an agreement before their contract expired, and users were informed they would no longer have access to the channels, which included ESPN, Disney, FX, and other Disney-owned properties. “We are pleased to announce that after a brief disruption, we have reached a new distribution agreement with Google’s YouTube TV for continued carriage of our portfolio of networks,” Disney said in a statement. “We appreciate Google’s collaboration to reach fair terms that are consistent with the market, and we’re thrilled that our robust lineup of live sports and news plus kids, fa...

A trove of leaked images shows what Garmin’s upcoming 2022 smartwatch lineup may look like. A report by German technology site Winfuture shows the supposed images of the Garmin Fenix 7 series, Venu 2 Plus, Epix Gen2, and Instinct 2 series smartwatches. The post shows that the Fenix 7 series may consist of three models: the standard Fenix 7, 7S, and 7X, all of which are rumored to be made of both reinforced plastic and stainless steel. It may also have a built-in solar panel that charges the device while you’re wearing it, along with some familiar tracking features that the Fenix 6 originally came with (and possibly more). It appears that the base model will only come in black, while the Fenix 7S may have an all-white variation, as well as an option that has a rose gold frame with an off-wh...