Technology

Spotify has announced plans to acquire the audiobook services and distribution company Findaway for an undisclosed price. The company operates multiple businesses, including distributing audiobooks to various platforms and offering audiobook creation services under its business Findaway Voices. The company pairs authors with narrators, which could become a new and valuable source of revenue for Spotify. It also makes Spotify both a commercial bookseller and a publisher of audiobooks, a title the company has been hesitant to accept for its podcasting efforts. “With this acquisition, we’re going to be able to accelerate the addition of an audiobook catalog onto the platform so that users can effectively get all of the audio content that they want all on one platform,” says Nir Zicherman, hea...

Besides its European expansion, DoorDash is reaching into new areas within the United States via an expanded partnership with Dollar General that’s already available via 9,000 locations. Gig economy services initially proliferated in urban areas, using venture capital money to push the convenience of getting everything from cold medicine to a single candy bar hand-delivered within the hour. However, if you don’t live around tall buildings, the services become fewer and farther between, and so do the shops that work with them. Now the two promise same-day delivery with no time slot or minimum order size required. A pilot program started this summer with 600 Dollar General locations, and a press release states that more than 10,000 will appear in DoorDash listings by December. The arrangemen...

Patreon is building a video hosting solution and native player. CEO Jack Conte confirmed the project to The Verge, alongside news that he is joining many executives before him in launching a podcast called The Creator Economy. “We already host podcasts, and now we’re starting to host video, as well,” he says. “We’re building a video product … So in terms of how we’ve approached our strategy, and what exactly it is that we’re building, we’re building the horizontal architecture for any creator, no matter their medium, or no matter the upload format, to be able to build a business around their work.” Conte didn’t share more details on the product, but it’s presumably a way for creators to host and share video without leaving the platform. It’s still unclear when it might launch or how ...

The Hummer has been resurrected as an electric vehicle, and now its military counterpart may be as well. General Motors is making a prototype vehicle for the US military that is based on the forthcoming Hummer EV in 2022, CNBC reports. The so-called “electric Light Reconnaissance Vehicle,” or eLRV, will use modified versions of the Hummer EV’s frame, electric motors, and GM’s new Ultium battery pack, though it may not look exactly like the consumer version. GM resurrected its defense unit in 2017 and said last year that it believes there’s a $25 billion market for creating new vehicles for the military, including EVs. It has already nabbed a $214 million contract to build infantry squad vehicles for the Army, including one version that uses parts from the Chevy Bolt EV. A 2019 study from B...

On Monday, Discord CEO Jason Citron struck fear (or joy) into the hearts of Discord fans by tweeting a screenshot of what appeared to be crypto wallets in the app, but Wednesday evening, he said the company doesn’t actually plan to ship what he was showing off. “Thanks for all the perspectives everyone,” Citron said. “We have no current plans to ship this internal concept. For now we’re focused on protecting users from spam, scams and fraud. Web3 has lots of good but also lots of problems we need to work through at our scale. More soon.” Discord told The Verge this week that the image was from an internal hackfest. Thanks for all the perspectives everyone. We have no current plans to ship this internal concept. For now we’re focused on protecting users from spam, scams and fraud. Web...

A new update for Apple’s iCloud Windows app has added a password generator, as well as support for Apple’s ProRaw and ProRes photo and video formats to the cloud storage utility. The update, which was first spotted by MacRumors, also adds the ability for participants of a shared iCloud Drive file or folder to add or remove other users. The addition of a password generator makes Apple’s iCloud keychain a much more viable cross-platform password manager. It follows an update in August which allowed Windows users to access (but not generate) passwords from their iCloud account. Together with the Chrome iCloud extension Apple released at the beginning of the year, Windows iCloud users now have access to basic password management features when they’re away from their Apple device. Plus new opti...

iOS 15.2’s latest beta adds an Apple Communication Safety feature to the Messages app, MacRumors reports. The opt-in feature is designed to protect children from inappropriate imagery by scanning incoming and outgoing pictures for “sexually explicit” material. Any images meeting this description are blurred, and the child will be warned about its contents and told it’s ok not to view it. The feature, which ties into Apple’s existing Family Sharing system, is also designed to offer resources to affected children for them to get help. The version of the feature that’s released in iOS 15.2’s latest beta has one crucial difference from what Apple originally announced in August: it won’t send notifications to parents if a child decides to view a sexually explicit image. Critics like Harvard Cyb...

Microsoft will finally allow Windows users to install PC games from the Microsoft Store or Xbox Game Pass for PC to any folder of their choice with unrestricted access. The move will allow PC gamers to access the folders of games and mod them freely, or let Windows users move games freely to any folders or drives of their choice. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge that the changes are part of an Xbox app update for Windows that’s currently being tested internally. The Xbox app update will finally address a big pain point of installing games from Xbox Game Pass for PC, where players would run into issues with the Microsoft Store, the restricted WindowsApps folder, or just the inability to fully control where games were installed. Microsoft won’t block you getting access ...

After almost two years, the Withings ScanWatch is now available to purchase in the US after its announcement back at the beginning of 2020. The ScanWatch was waiting for clearance from the Food and Drug Administration, which it had received in October for its EKG and blood oxygen measurement features. Unlike its competitors Apple Watch and Fitbit, both of whom can track blood oxygen and have EKG technology, Withings is claiming that the hybrid watch can detect sleep apnea, a sleep disorder charactered by disrupted breathing patterns. The ScanWatch is still a part of an ongoing clinical study for this claim. Unlike Apple and Fitbit’s devices, the Withings ScanWatch also requires medical review. Users are required to gain medical clearance to fully access the EKG feature, Withings says. Afte...

Sony is struggling to make PlayStation 5 consoles and has internally lowered its production forecast for the current financial year, according to a report in Bloomberg. While the company was expecting to assemble 16 million units between April 2021 and March 2022, that figure is reportedly now at around 15 million. Sony had publicly predicted that it would sell 14.8 million PS5 consoles this financial year, so while this isn’t a large downward revision, it shows just how tight the supply is likely to be for the foreseeable future. The figure of 16 million units would have allowed Sony to meet that goal while securing additional stock for the following year. Sony is said to be having trouble with logistics as well as the supply of components, as the world grapples with an unprecedented chip...

Google announced it’s updating the Gmail iOS widget with a new one that’s actually useful, showing you the subjects and senders of the emails sitting in your inbox. The company says the new widget will be “launching in the next few weeks,” to replace the previous version that wasn’t particularly well-received. This also means that, as 9to5Google points out, this means that Gmail’s iOS widget will have the same functionality as the current Android one. When the first version of the Gmail widget launched, we pointed out that it isn’t particularly helpful. It really only provides shortcuts to different screens on the app like your inbox and the email composer. Critically, it doesn’t actually show you much information about the emails you’ve received, though it does tell you how many are sitti...

Netflix now supports the AV1 codec when streaming to some TVs, the company announced on Tuesday. It’s only available on certain devices to start with, though that list includes any TV connected to the PS4 Pro, so if you have one of those, you can give AV1 Netflix streaming a shot. Netflix shared this lineup of supported devices with The Verge: Select Samsung 2020 UHD Smart TVs Select Samsung 2020 UHD QLED Smart TVs Select Samsung 2020 8K QLED Smart TVs Samsung The Frame 2020 Smart TVs Samsung The Serif 2020 Smart TVs Samsung The Terrace 2020 Smart TVs Any TV connected to a PS4 Pro streaming with the Netflix app Select Amazon Fire TV devices with Fire OS 7 and above Select Android TV devices with Android OS 10 and above Netflix noted in its blog that “we are working with external partners t...