Technology

Twitter is introducing aliases for participants in its Birdwatch moderation tool so they don’t have to include their usernames in notes they leave on others’ tweets, the company announced in a blog post Monday. The social media platform launched the pilot of Birdwatch in January as a way to crowdsource fact-checking on tweets that might contain misleading or inaccurate information. But the company said contributors in the pilot Birdwatch program “overwhelmingly voiced a preference for contributing under aliases. This preference was strongest for women and Black contributors.” Introducing Birdwatch aliases! We want everyone to feel comfortable contributing to Birdwatch, and aliases let you write and rate notes without sharing your Twitter username. pic.twitter.com/ROlbpYvT7u — Birdwatch (@b...

Last year, it seemed like the Oura Ring was everywhere. Researchers were studying whether the smart ring (and other wearables) could one day detect illness, and right on cue, the NBA announced it bought 2,000 Oura Rings to monitor athletes. Prince Harry has been a fan for years, and celebrities like Jennifer Aniston and Kim Kardashian West have also been spotted wearing the sleep tracker. That’s already a lot of buzz for a niche gadget, but the third-generation Oura Ring also adds ambitious new features like period prediction and blood oxygen. The question is whether it’s worth committing to a $299 smart ring that now requires a monthly subscription. Verge Score 7.5 out of 10 Good Stuff Emphasizes rest and recovery Comfortable to wear all day Ambitious health tracking features Bad Stuff Se...

New video footage from NASA‘s Perseverance Mars rover of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter‘s 13th flight on September 4 provides “the most detailed look yet of the rotorcraft in action,” NASA said in a statement. Ingenuity’s 160.5-second Flight 13 stands out as one of the rotorcraft’s most complicated fights to date, as the helicopter flew into varied terrain within the “Séítah” geological feature and captured images of an outcrop from several different angles for the rover team. Taken from 26 feet in the air, the new images supplement previous photos captured during Flight 12. The video of the flight, which was captured by the rover’s two-camera Mastcam-Z, provides two angles of the rotorcraft’s movement. The first shows the four-pound helicopter’s large-scale flight profile, while the second...

Roku serves as a gateway to access various streaming services, but now, a report from The Wall Street Journal reveals that the service wants to develop over 50 original series in the next two years, expanding the original content that it already has on its free Roku Channel. As noted by the WSJ, 155 million people have access to Roku devices, and about half tune into the Roku Channel, a hub for ad-supported TV shows, movies, and live news. The service added Roku Originals to the Roku Channel earlier this year, a large portion of which actually come from Quibi, the short-lived streaming service that shut down last year. Apparently, the set of 50 new shows also include some that the service acquired from Quibi that never premiered. Roku could spend $500,000 to $5 million for scripted episode...

Analogue Pocket preorders will start shipping on December 13th. In a brief blog post, Analogue, manufacturers of the retro handheld Pocket, wrote, “Due to unprecedented shipping congestion, your order will ship and be delivered between December 14th – December 30th.” If you’re unable to accept delivery during that window, the company also outlined steps you can take to defer shipping until after January 3rd, 2022. Customers who preordered the Pocket will receive an email with more information. The Analogue Pocket, which has the ability to play cartridges from the Game Boy family and the Sega Game Gear, was delayed numerous times due to global electronics component shortages brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Other handhelds like the Steam Deck and the Playdate faced similar dela...

Uber is partnering with a cannabis retailer in Canada to allow cannabis purchases via its Uber Eats food delivery platform. The arrangement does not include delivery of weed orders, however, but makes it possible for users in Ontario to order products from Tokyo Smoke in a dedicated section on the Uber Eats app. For customers in Ontario, in the Uber Eats app, select either the “cannabis” category or search for “Tokyo Smoke.” After confirming their age, the customer is directed to the menu of a Tokyo Smoke store in the area to place their order, which Uber says will be filled within an hour. The consumer then picks up their order at the Tokyo Smoke store. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in April that the company would take a look at cannabis delivery “when the road is clear.” In February, t...

TikTok is expanding its presence on TV screens in a major way. After initially launching in North America on Amazon’s Fire TV platform, the TikTok TV app is today available on Samsung and LG smart TVs — plus Android TV devices, including the Chromecast with Google TV. Whereas the massively popular mobile app is intended for “little bursts of joy,” TikTok says its big-screen software is optimized for “a TV home-viewing experience, making it easy to watch content from our For You and Following feeds on the big screen. This includes the most liked and viewed videos across a huge range of categories, from gaming and comedy to food and animals.” There’s a Discover section in the TV app, as well. TikTok videos can be up to three minutes in length. Beyond North America, TikTok has been available ...

With more Moon missions planned for the near future, NASA is now hoping to construct a nuclear power plant on the natural satellite in order to sustain human life. According to reports, the American space agency will be partnering with the U.S. Department of Energy’s top nuclear research facility in Idaho to develop plans to build a nuclear reactor that it can send up to the Moon by the end of the decade. The team is now inviting submissions for ideas on how to create this power plant, and NASA says that the plans should include everything from a uranium-fueled reactor core and a way to harness that into usable energy to a thermal management system and a distribution system that can provide no less than 40kW of electric power for at least 10 years. “Providing a reliable, high-power system ...

Meta has now announced the delay of full end-to-end encryption for both Facebook and Instagram‘s messaging service, pushing back the launch of a feature currently already being used by its other instant messaging program WhatsApp. “We’re taking our time to get this right and we don’t plan to finish the global rollout of end-to-end encryption by default across all our messaging services until sometime in 2023,” Meta’s head of safety Antigone Davis told the Sunday Telegraph. “As a company that connects billions of people around the world and has built industry-leading technology, we’re determined to protect people’s private communications and keep people safe online.” The delay comes following pressure from certain government officials and organizations that argue encryption would be the “fr...

Bobby Kotick is still the CEO of Activision Blizzard, despite a Wall Street Journal report that detailed Kotick’s history of harassment and abusive behavior while also saying he knew about allegations and incidents of abuse within the company for years. The WSJ claims that some employees asked in meetings if Kotick would step down Kotick has reportedly told executives that he may consider stepping down if the company can’t fix its toxic work environment “with speed,” according to the WSJ. Sources close to the situation told the WSJ that Kotick met with Activision Publishing and Blizzard Entertainment leaders last week. His status as CEO was addressed, as executives said some employees won’t “be satisfied” until Kotick hands in his resignation. During the meeting, Kotick allegedly expressed...

One of the biggest esports events in the world will be spread across four North American cities next year. Riot Games has announced that the 2022 edition of the League of Legends World Championship will take place in New York, Toronto, Mexico City, and San Francisco. The announcement was made ahead of an NBA match between the Warriors and Raptors at the Chase Center in San Francisco. Riot says this will be the first-ever multi-country edition of its annual competition; it’s also the first to take place in North America since 2016. Things will start out with the play-ins portion of the event in Mexico City (the Liga Latinoamerica competition arena), followed by the group stage and quarterfinals in New York (the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden), semifinals in Toronto (Scotiabank Arena)...