Technology

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) called Facebook a “cancer to democracy” in a tweet on Thursday shortly after the company announced that it was changing its corporate name to Meta to better represent its focus on building the metaverse. “Meta as in “we are a cancer to democracy metastasizing into a global surveillance and propaganda machine for boosting authoritarian regimes and destroying civil society… for profit!” said Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday. Meta as in “we are a cancer to democracy metastasizing into a global surveillance and propaganda machine for boosting authoritarian regimes and destroying civil society… for profit!” https://t.co/jzOcCFaWkJ — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 28, 2021 Ocasio-Cortez is one of Facebook’s loudest critics in Congress and has called the com...

Cricket Wireless suddenly has several more options if you’re looking for access to 5G on a prepaid wireless plan. That’s because starting today, it will offer nationwide 5G access across all of its plans, which launched a year ago with support for only one device and only on its more expensive unlimited plans. Cricket Wireless also revealed it’s added 2 million customers in the last two years and is now serving some 12.4 million subscribers. The other big change for Cricket Wireless is removing an 8Mbps speed cap on its cheaper $30, $40, and $55 plans. How much bandwidth Cricket Wireless can reliably provide — using AT&T’s network — after the caps go away is something we’ll only find out as people try it out. Reading the fine print at the bottom of the announcement points us to Cricket...

Google and Indian telecom company Jio Platforms finally unveiled their budget smartphone for India on Friday, the JioPhone Next. The phone is designed as an affordable 4G device to serve “the unique needs of the Indian consumer,” Android India engineering lead Ram Papatla said in a blog post. India won’t be getting Google’s new Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, and those phones’ premium prices put them out of reach of many smartphone consumers in the country. But Google and Jio have designed this new device as a more affordable 4G option. It’s priced at 1,999 Indian rupees, or $87, and is available at Jio Mart retailers in India or on Jio’s website. The JioPhone runs Pragati OS, which Google says is an optimized version of Android, and can access apps in the Play Store. The device has read-aloud and lang...

The Witcher’s second season has gotten its official, full-length, real trailer today, giving the best look yet at the monsters, magic, and mayhem that await Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), Ciri (Freya Allan), and Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra) when the show arrives on Netflix on December 17th. The new trailer teases a lot more about what to expect from the upcoming second season, including the upcoming war with the Nilfgaardian Empire, Ciri’s training to become a witcher, Geralt’s usual monster hunting, and the long-awaited return of everyone’s favorite bard, Jaskier (Joey Batey). It’s also the latest salvo in Netflix’s marketing bombardment for the show, which has so far included the teaser trailer, first look clips and behind-the-scene videos, brief Twitter teases, and the releas...

SpaceX is launching another crew to space this weekend, sending four astronauts to the International Space Station for a six-month-long stay in orbit. Traveling inside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, the crew will get an early start on their mission, with liftoff scheduled for 2:21AM ET on October 31st out of Cape Canaveral, Florida. The mission is called Crew-3, and it will carry NASA astronauts Thomas Marshburn, Raja Chari, and Kayla Barron, as well as European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer. This will be the first trip to space for Maurer, Barron, and Chari — the mission’s commander. For Marshburn, this will be his third flight to space, and for each of his missions, he’s flown on a different vehicle. His first flight was on the Space Shuttle and his second flight was on Russia...

Google is expanding several of its privacy and security features including Google Photos’ secure Locked Folder feature, the VPN offered alongside Google One, and the Pixel’s new centralized security hub. The plans were detailed in a blog post rounding up the company’s security initiatives. For starters, Google Photos’ Locked Folder feature, which currently lets Pixel owners hide sensitive photos and videos in a passcode- or biometric-protected folder, is coming to iOS “early next year.” The feature launched for the Pixel 3 and later in June, and in late September Google said it would be releasing for all Android phones “soon.” Now we have a timeframe for when Google Photos users on iOS will be able to protect sensitive images like nudes. The Pixel’s Security Hub is also planned for more An...

Parents take a lot of photos of their kids, but who wants to be constantly lingering on the fringes of family gatherings with their phone out? That’s the problem Canon’s new PowerShot PX is trying to solve. It’s essentially a home surveillance camera for happy memories. Stick it somewhere near you and it will automatically snap photos and videos, using built-in “subject recognition” to frame and select shots that you can browse later. It’s not exactly a new concept. Google promised similar functionality with its Clips camera in 2018 (though the company leaned more heavily than Canon on the promise of machine learning to select the right moment). But reactions were mixed, to say the least. Some thought Clips was creepy or invasive, while others said it was really no different, ethically spe...

LG’s 2020 and 2021 4K and 8K TVs can now turn on Filmmaker Mode automatically when you’re watching content from Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service, LG has announced. Filmmaker mode was launched in 2019 as a convenient way to turn off picture processing features like motion smoothing and image sharpening, which can create a horrid unnatural look often referred to as the “soap opera effect.” LG calls Prime Video’s ability to automatically trigger Filmmaker Mode an “industry first.” It delivers on a promise the company made when it first introduced the setting to its TVs back at CES 2020, when it said it would be offering an API to streaming apps to enable the mode automatically. Although it’s previously been possible to manually turn on the mode via a TV’s settings menu, automatic switch...

Microsoft is updating its PowerToys for Windows with new UI changes for Windows 11, a universal video conference mute, and a find my mouse feature. The software maker has been gradually improving PowerToys ahead of the Windows 11 launch, with a settings interface to match the OS and now changes to its PowerRename feature that better match the Windows 11 design improvements. PowerRename, a feature to make it easier to rename files, no longer looks like it has a dialog box from the Windows 7 era. Microsoft has updated PowerRename with a far more modern interface, and easier to find options for renaming files in bulk. Alongside the design tweaks, PowerToys is also getting two new features with this 0.49 version update. Video Conference Mute debuts with this release, a feature that lets you mu...

Following a historic announcement that Facebook‘s company name will change to Meta in order to better reflect the company’s goals of building out the metaverse, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth announced that the company will also be phasing out its Oculus branding. Virtual reality is currently the most immersive way for individuals to access the metaverse, and with ambitious goals of bringing 1 billion people into VR, Meta wants to make it clear that the Quest product line comes from them. Beginning 2022, the Oculus Quest line will be rebranded as Meta Quest, the Oculus App will be known as the Meta Quest App, and the Facebook Portal video device will be named Meta Portal. Bosworth also announced that the Meta Horizon brand will expand to encompass all first-party immersive social experiences, ad...

There’s good news in the latest version of the White House budget deal: the proposed federal tax credit for new electric bike purchases has survived the most recent round of Congressional bloodletting. Not only that, but it’s been restored to its former glory of 30 percent, after the House of Representatives slashed it to 15 percent. Still, it’s a hugely important proposal for a product that is still struggling to reach mass adoption. If the deal passes in its current form, e-bikes would become significantly cheaper for most Americans. In turn, that could mean a significant change in the transportation options for millions of people around the country. The legislation would offer Americans a refundable tax credit worth 30 percent of a new e-bike’s purchase price, capped at $1,500. All thre...

The company unveiled a new name and vision for the future in its keynote Contributors: Verge Staff Facebook held its virtual reality labs Connect event on Thursday, where CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company would be rebranding as Meta and showed off his vision of a metaverse that inspired the name change. During the prerecorded livestream, we saw the company’s plans for Oculus VR, which included a tease for a new high-end headset, the addition of a more customizable home space, and fitness-focused accessories, as well as a VR remake of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. We also got to see a lot of videos that involved virtual avatars going to concerts, playing ping-pong, and more. Since the stream ended, more details have come out about the company’s rebranding, including that the O...