Technology

Tesla launched a pilot project in the Netherlands this week in which non-Tesla electric vehicles will be allowed to use its Supercharger network, representing the first time that the automaker is opening up its proprietary charging stations to EVs from other companies. Tesla’s Supercharger network is often held up as the best possible example of an EV charging network: fast, reliable, and plentiful. But Tesla’s network is also exclusive to Tesla owners, meaning someone driving a Volkswagen or Ford EV wouldn’t be able to use it. But that’s now starting to change. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has, for years, talked about opening up his company’s vast Supercharger network to other electric vehicles. And over this past summer, he started revealing key details about how it would actually work. Now the c...

Snapchat’s newly signed deal with NBCUniversal will bring audio from The Office, Bridesmaids, Parks and Recreation, Saturday Night Live, and more to the platform (via The Hollywood Reporter). Users can add the audio clips to their snaps — just like TikTok — and then send them to their friends. Anyone who receives a clip with audio from an NBC title can swipe up to view more information about the content. Tapping the Play This Sound button will show users which streaming services they can use to watch the show or movie. Ben Schwerin, Snapchat’s senior vice president of content and partnerships, said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter: “NBCUniversal has an iconic catalog and we know Snapchatters will love adding quotes from their favorite movies and series to their Snaps to help perfec...

When Tim Cook took the stage at a September 2014 event to announce the hotly anticipated, long-rumored Apple Watch, he described it as a “comprehensive health and fitness device.” The announcement set the foundation for what the company thought smartwatches and wearable devices would be — not just for fun, not just for notifications, but for your health. It was a big promise for a new, unproven product, made at a time when no one was quite sure what smartwatches were for or what they might be able to do. In the years before the Apple Watch launched, similar devices were steadily flooding the market. “It looked like the world would soon be awash in smartwatches. Samsung, Sony, LG, Asus, Motorola, Pebble, Meta — companies big and small attempted to find out what people want their wrists to d...

The Vergecast has gone through many changes over the past 10 years — different studios, different platforms, different crews — but I am always surprised to see how many fans of the show have been around since the beginning. At every live event we’ve done — most recently at On The Verge in October — I’ve seen lines of people waiting to see the show in person, crowds around our hosts, and chuckles at inside jokes that haven’t been mentioned on the show in years. It’s still very wild to see, even after working on the show for almost six years. When I started at The Verge as a podcast producer, we were at the tail end of our run of the live video version of The Vergecast, which we produced every week on YouTube before tossing the audio from that into the podcast feed. It’s funny that we still ...

iPhone 5 I’ve owned a lot of iPhones in the last 10 years, but the iPhone 5 was the first. Not only was it my first iPhone, it was the first phone that I went out and voluntarily spent money on, period. Until then, I subsisted on carrier-subsidized Razr flip phones and inherited, indestructible Nokia candy bars.  The iPhone 5 isn’t even that notable in the history of the iPhone, offering a marginally taller display from the 3.5-inch panel previous iPhone models had offered. There wasn’t any big jump in processor, hardware design, or display density (as with the iPhone 4) or new software features like Siri (on the iPhone 4S). Touch ID wouldn’t arrive until the iPhone 5S a year later, and the truly big screen sizes of modern iPhones wouldn’t come until the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus two years ...

By Kwame Opam | March 14th, 2016 It was around the time of CES 2016 that I got tapped to write The Verge’s Michelle Obama feature. I forget when exactly the discussions with her team in Washington started, but I distinctly remember sitting in that trailer in Las Vegas, going over what we could do, what we should do, how fast we needed to get it done, and how big of a deal it was. If you can recall anything about 2016 other than that election, you’ll remember that Vine was in full flower at that point. The former First Lady had made a splash on it — something about turnips — and her team was trying to attract youthful eyes to her initiatives. It was certainly a bit fluffy, but it mattered. After all, here was someone in the public eye trying to meet young people where they were an...

JMGO has just revealed its newest home projector — the U2. This ultra-short throw projector is capable of a 100-inch picture from just 9.44 inches away. It packs a 4K UHD tri-color laser engine that covers 114% BT.2020 color gamut, a lamp life of 50,000 hours, a Ricoh prime lens, low noise operation, five cooling fans, wireless casting, and two Dolby Audio and DTS-HD full-range Dynaudio speakers. Its clean design is also made to blend in with modern interiors and has an optional 100-inch ambient light rejecting (ALR) screen to bring out the best picture in your living space. Priced at $2,099 USD, the JMGO U2 4K Tri-Color Laser Projector can be found now over at Indiegogo. In other tech news, Nikon unveils its 45.7-megapixel flagship Z 9 mirrorless. Read Full Article

Nikon has just unveiled its latest flagship mirrorless camera: the Z 9. Built specifically for high-speed image capture, the new camera pairs the company’s very own EXPEED 7 processor with a 45.7-megapixel sensor to record high-resolution photographs at exceedingly quick speeds. 3D Tracking is paired with deep learning to allow for fast subject detection, while a High-Speed Frame Capture mode can push capturing speeds to up to 120 frames per second at 11 megapixels. For those looking for more defined files, you’ll also be able to shoot RAW images at 20 fps with an incredible 1,000+ image buffer. Other features rounding out the Z 9 include 8K video recording at 24p/30p or 4K at 24p/30p/60p/120p, a four-axis 3.2-inch LCD touchscreen, a 3.6 million dot OLED electric viewfinder, and a robust c...

Adding to its lineup, Beats now introduced the Beats Fit Pro earbuds. Serving as the most advanced earphones from the audio imprint, the Fit Pro earbuds are engineered for an active lifestyle with a focus on sonic performance. The Beats Fit Pro earbuds feature a secure flexible wingtip design that fit with any ear shape or size that works with the advanced internals to provide high-quality acoustic performance. An all-new compact custom transducer delivers robust sound while an innovative vent system minimizes treble distortion. The Active Noise Cancelling (ANC), Transparency and Adaptive EQ mode each work to deliver impressive dynamic range and clarity with spatial audio with dynamic head tracking elements. Class 1 Bluetooth® technology provides extended range and reliable connectivity wi...

A leaked image of what is apparently Meta‘s new smartwatch project has now surfaced, showing what the device’s first generation could look like. The image was first published by Bloomberg, which obtained it from an app developer who discovered it within the company’s controlling app used for Facebook‘s new smartglasses that it created in collaboration with Ray-Ban. As shown above, the device carries a squared watch face similar to that of the Apple Watch but with more defined curved edges and small lugs coming out of either end that secure detachable straps. Most noticeably, the screen’s lower bezel features a camera notch holding a front-facing camera, an industry first for smartwatches. While Meta itself has declined to comment on the leaked image, The Verge has previously reported ...

Following the popularity of the Powershot Pick — a similar experimental crowdfunded project available exclusively in Japan — Canon is now introducing the Powershot PX, a fully automatic smart home camera that’ll help you snap photos of your family and friends without the need of someone behind the viewfinder. Using an AI system with automatic subject recognition and focusing, the smart camera will help you record those perfect moments either in 11.7-megapixel stills or 1080p footage at 60 frames per second. Equipped with pan-and-tilt capabilities, the device can look around the room 340 degrees horizontally and 110 degrees vertically to frame those shots no matter where you are, and a 19-57mm focal length range gives it plenty to work with. Photographic performance aside, the Powershot PX ...

Reliable tech gadget leaker Evan Blass (@evleaks) on Sunday posted an image to Twitter that showed a 17-inch Lenovo ThinkBook Plus with a second screen to the right of the keyboard. The screen looks like it is being used to draw or write on a color image on the laptop’s main screen, and appears that the computer would include a full keyboard and a large trackpad along with an extra-wide display. The image also shows what looks like a pen or drawing stylus, giving further credence to the idea that it’s meant for drawing. There weren’t any further details about the image, which Blass posted as part of a thread of other leaked images. Lenovo announced its ThinkBook Plus Gen 2 at CES in January, which had a 12-inch E-ink panel on its lid. The company debuted the first ThinkBook Plus at CES 202...