Technology

Say you want to buy an early printing of the US Constitution, but you’ve only got a couple of bucks. Normally, you’d be out of luck, but maybe not today: over the last week, a collective has formed to raise enough money to buy a rare early printing of the Constitution at auction, raising money from anyone who wants to chip in online. The document is expected to sell at Sotheby’s for as high as $20 million — what would seem to be an insurmountable price for a crowdfunding initiative. And yet, somehow, the collective has raised $27 million to date. And they still have more than 24 hours to go. There’s a lot going on here, so I’m just going to break it down piece by piece: The document being purchased is one of 13 remaining copies of the Official Edition of the Constitution, a final draft cre...

Say you want to buy an early printing of the US Constitution, but you’ve only got a couple of bucks. Normally, you’d be out of luck, but maybe not today: over the last week, a collective has formed to raise enough money to buy a rare early printing of the Constitution at auction, raising money from anyone who wants to chip in online. The document is expected to sell at Sotheby’s for as high as $20 million — what would seem to be an insurmountable price for a crowdfunding initiative. And yet, somehow, the collective has raised $27 million to date. And they still have more than 24 hours to go. There’s a lot going on here, so I’m just going to break it down piece by piece: The document being purchased is one of 13 remaining copies of the Official Edition of the Constitution, a final draft cre...

Here are some facts. Mattel promoted a new toy Barbie car on Wednesday by showing off a full-size mockup at the 2021 LA Auto Show. The mockup was, according to Roadshow, based on an all-electric Fiat 500e. Not long after, Mattel’s stock pared back early-morning losses and finished the day’s trading slightly in the green. Now, are those things related? Probably not. But weirder things have happened, especially lately. Hertz announced a deal with Tesla and hired Tom Brady to make commercials, and then Elon Musk said the deal wasn’t done. Rivian passed every automaker in market cap except for Toyota and Tesla despite only shipping a few electric pickup trucks. Startups like Faraday Future, Canoo, and Lordstown Motors have collectively raised billions of dollars even though they won’t sell car...

Here are some facts. Mattel promoted a new toy Barbie car on Wednesday by showing off a full-size mockup at the 2021 LA Auto Show. The mockup was, according to Roadshow, based on an all-electric Fiat 500e. Not long after, Mattel’s stock pared back early-morning losses and finished the day’s trading slightly in the green. Now, are those things related? Probably not. But weirder things have happened, especially lately. Hertz announced a deal with Tesla and hired Tom Brady to make commercials, and then Elon Musk said the deal wasn’t done. Rivian passed every automaker in market cap except for Toyota and Tesla despite only shipping a few electric pickup trucks. Startups like Faraday Future, Canoo, and Lordstown Motors have collectively raised billions of dollars even though they won’t sell car...

The Kyle Rittenhouse trial in Kenosha, Wisconsin has once again gone off track because of basic technology problems: Rittenhouse’s defense attorneys today requested a mistrial because prosecutors sent them a drone video via email, which compressed the video in size. This is after earlier arguments about what pinch-to-zoom does or does not do, and the judge struggling with the screenshot features on his Galaxy S20. Rittenhouse faces five felony charges for shooting three men and killing two of them last year during a protest in Kenosha. CNN reports the motion for a mistrial is focused on when and how defense attorneys received a copy of a drone video showing the shootings that was shown to the jury in open court. Rittenhouse’s lawyers say they only received a copy of the drone video on Nove...

Streamlabs has promised to remove “OBS” from the name of its livestreaming software, Streamlabs OBS, following backlash from streamers and the open-source livestreaming platform OBS Studio. OBS Studio says it asked Streamlabs not to use its name, which stands for “Open Broadcaster Software,” only to have the company do so anyway. Streamlabs has also been accused of copying the website of another broadcasting software, with all the drama hashed out on Twitter. The controversy started when Lightstream, another livestreaming app maker, tweeted out screenshots of its website right beside Streamlabs’, saying, “Hey, can I copy your homework?” suggesting that Streamlabs copied Lightstream. Stu Grubbs, the CEO of Lightstream, later retweeted the image, stating, “The team at @streamlabs should be a...

Cher Scarlett, an Apple engineer who helped organize pay equity surveys and anti-harassment / discrimination campaigns at the company, will be leaving the company and requesting the withdrawal of a complaint she made to the National Labor Relations Board (or NLRB), according to a report from Bloomberg. The software engineer announced on Twitter that Friday would be her last day at Apple. Scarlett’s lawyers told The Verge that she had reached a private settlement with the company, but she declined to provide details about the terms when asked by Bloomberg. Scarlett is leaving voluntarily, according to Bloomberg, unlike some other organizers who were fired from the company after speaking out. During her time at Apple, she was reportedly accused of leaking information to the press by other em...

I have some terrible news: Disney has confirmed you’ll never get to try the “real” retractable lightsaber whose very existence, subsequent reveal, and patented design made us giddy back in April and May of this year. While the incredible disappearing lightsaber replica will indeed feature at Disney’s new Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser hotel — a Westworld-esque experience for the very wealthy where stays cost upwards of $4,800 and yet is already sold out for its first four months — GameSpot and IGN report that Disney won’t be letting you touch that lightsaber for yourself. “Unfortunately, that lightsaber isn’t for guests to use or purchase. It’s strictly for use by the performers,” writes IGN. “Trowbridge confirmed in a group interview that guests will never actually use that lightsaber, b...

Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced Wednesday that the social media platform has added two new features: “rage shake” and carousel deletion. The former allows users to report an issue by simply shaking their phone while the app is open. A pop-up prompt will then appear, asking, “Did something go wrong?” with a designated space for the user to report their problem. The feature will aid Instagram in improving its user experience by prioritizing bug fixes, according to Mosseri. “You can explain exactly what happened, how you ended up in that place, and all of the emotions and feels that you’ve got going on, and we’ll have someone take a look at it,” he said. Covering ✌️ this week:– Carousel Deletion (finally!)– Rage Shake Did you know about these ?s? Any other feat...

EV startup Fisker Inc. has revealed the production version of its first electric vehicle, the Ocean SUV, at the 2021 LA Auto Show. It’s largely similar to the first prototype that debuted at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show, though there are a few new standout features — including a 17.1-inch touchscreen that rotates from portrait to landscape orientation. “When you use your phone and type on it, you hold it like this, and when you take a picture or if you want to watch a movie, you turn the phone around,” Fisker Inc. founder and CEO Henrik Fisker said while miming a phone during a livestream of Wednesday’s event. “In our vehicle we have a screen, on a push of a button, it changes from portrait mode to landscape mode. It just rotates. That is a really cool feature.” Fisker didn’t elabora...

Instagram’s standalone messaging service Threads will cease to exist by the end of 2021, Meta has confirmed to TechCrunch. The app will display a notice prompting users to return to Instagram starting November 23rd. Threads was a similar idea to Facebook Messenger — it allowed users to send and receive Instagram DMs in a dedicated messaging interface outside of the main app. It had a collection of quirky features, including automatic statuses that the app could set for you based on what your phone was doing. All of those tools will be available in Instagram itself by the time Threads shuts down, the company said in a statement to TechCrunch. “We’re bringing the fun and unique features we had on Threads to the main Instagram app.” Meta is also in the process of consolidating its many messag...

Wyze has built a reputation for astonishingly affordable gadgets. Sure, they don’t always knock it out of the park: while the company’s $20 security cam put an entire industry on notice, we ultimately decided the barebones $20 Wyze Watch was too much a work-in-progress to give it a review. But this May, I took a chance on the new Wyze Buds Pro, a $74 pair of wireless earbuds, and couldn’t believe how good they are. They offer true active noise cancellation and wireless charging at a previously unheard-of price while also punching way above their weight in audio quality. I put them head-to-head against the $80 Jabra Elite 3, which we recently praised for nailing the essentials. It wasn’t even a competition: I’d pick the Wyze Buds Pro every time. Well, except for exercise. Verge Score 8 out ...