Technology

While Google has already shared a lot about its upcoming Pixel 6 Pro flagship, including its bold exterior design, two new videos posted to YouTube reveal what Google will probably never show us: what it looks like on the inside, how to put it together, and how to take it apart. The two videos, which appear to be used for training purposes of some kind, show how to assemble and disassemble the Pixel 6 Pro. It seems unlikely that these were intended to be released publicly, as they are extremely focused on showing specific steps for how to put together and take apart the phone, don’t include any voiceover, and have a mishmash of low-quality graphics, text, and music. That being said, the videos are still worth checking out, as they are a fascinating step-by-step look at how a smartphone act...

Google Reader is still defunct, but its spirit lives on in a “follow button” for Chrome that Google first started experimenting with in May. The RSS tracking feature was limited to the experimental Canary versions of Chrome on Android, but today the company has started enabling it on stable versions of the browser, according to Adrienne Porter Felt, a director of engineering on Chrome. You can follow a site through the browser’s three-dot menu to subscribe to its RSS feed and have it update in your Chrome app. Sites you’re following will appear in a tab called “following,” which sits along Google’s “for you” tab of recommended articles. The feature isn’t out yet on iOS, so I’m not able to check it out on my phone, but Felt shared some screenshots of what it looks like on Android so you can...

With potentially billions of dollars and some control over the App Store at stake, Apple has filed for an appeal of the ruling in its major trial against Epic. While Apple largely won that case (the company went so far as to call the ruling a “resounding victory”) with Judge Gonzalez Rogers ruling in favor of Apple in nine of the ten claims Epic brought against the company, it did lose in one important way: the judge found that Apple violated California’s anti-steering rules, and demanded that Apple let developers link to outside payment systems. That policy would have taken over in December, but it may be pushed out beyond that — and it seems that’s the point. As part of the appeal, Apple is asking for a stay to prevent the company from having to implement the new anti-steering rules, arg...

One of the best features on the Apple Watch Series 7 is its newly added fast charging system, which Apple claims is 33 percent and capable of charging the watch to about 80 percent charge in about 45 minutes. But if you want to take advantage of the fast charging, you’ll need to make sure to use the charger that comes with the Series 7, which is a brand new “Apple Watch Magnetic Fast Charger” that’s different from the old model (which doesn’t offer similar charging speeds). The old USB-C charger and the new model look identical from the outside, but only the new cable can charge the Series 7 at full speed (assuming you’ve got a USB-C charger that can put out the proper wattage, that is — Apple recommends its own 20W USB-C charger, of course). Make sure to actually use the cable that comes ...

Facebook says it has fixed an outage that lasted for about two hours across some of its services on Friday. The outage, which Facebook says was caused by a configuration change, impacted Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Workplace and affected people around the world. “We’re so sorry if you weren’t able to access our products during the last couple of hours,” Facebook said on Twitter. “We know how much you depend on us to communicate with one another. We fixed the issue — thanks again for your patience this week.” The outage follows a massive one on Monday, which took down Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Oculus for nearly six hours. In an explanation posted the day after, Facebook said the backbone connecting the company’s data centers around the world was inadvertently shu...

Did you know you can sell land on Facebook Marketplace? No? Neither did I. Did you know people were trying to sell land in the Amazon rainforest on Marketplace? Again, neither did I! Selling land in ecological conservation areas is typically illegal and can have negative impacts on the flora, fauna, and people living there, so Facebook announced Friday that it’s changing its commerce policies to explicitly prohibit the sale of protected land on Facebook and its Instagram and WhatsApp platforms. Facebook’s announcement comes after a February BBC investigation into its Marketplace that found people illegally sold large plots of land in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest on Facebook’s Craigslist alternative. The plots were frequently sold without an official land title designating ownership, dri...

The highlight of my Friday so far has been the discovery of the @snlhostsintro Twitter account, which posts old clips of Saturday Night Live hosts introducing the musical guest. While the account isn’t new to everyone — it was created in September and already has more than 37,000 followers — I felt it was my duty to write about it because it posts some absolutely magical time capsules. Here’s a tame one to start, to give you an idea of the format: former US vice president Al Gore introducing Phish. But how about Sean Penn, with a casually-yet-confidently undone bow tie, introducing LL Cool J? Here’s Bernadette Peters introducing The Go-Go’s: And Christine Baranski enthusiastically introducing the notoriously downbeat band The Cure: I also love Nathan Lane doing perhaps the most metal SNL m...

Elon Musk‘s SpaceX is now reportedly worth $100 billion USD, making it the second-most valuable privately held company. Musk’s aerospace company has surpassed the $100 billion USD mark due to a sale of existing stock, according to CNBC. The agreement made between new and existing investors allowed SpaceX to sell up to $755 million USD in stock from insiders priced at $560 USD a share, which increased the company’s value to $100.3 billion USD. The new value is solely based on the secondary sale of existing shares and entails no new capital. In February of this year, SpaceX was valued at $74 billion USD at $419.99 USD a share. Therefore, the new valuation and showcases a 33% increase in share price. The company is now one of the rare “centicorn” companies in the world, which occurs when a st...

The beloved, intriguingly political, and mysterious sci-fi show The Expanse’s final season on Amazon is nigh. Season 6 is coming December 10th, and the company just dropped the final trailer at New York Comic Con and on YouTube (you can watch it immediately above). It’ll run for just six episodes, airing each Friday on Amazon Prime Video and ending on January 14th, 2022. If you’ve been devoutly following The Expanse, you know things are bad in the universe of the show. Earth’s on fire, beloved characters have died, and a mass murderer is gaining an awful lot of support. Here’s how Amazon describes season 6: The sixth and final season of The Expanse picks up with the solar system at war, as Marco Inaros and his Free Navy continue to launch devastating asteroid attacks on Earth and Mars. As ...

No matter how much Apple hypes Ceramic Shield — the special glass mixture introduced with the iPhone 12 — and the build quality of the metal and glass sandwich that is the modern iPhone, expensive phones need cases. Maybe you ordered one alongside your new iPhone 13, but if you didn’t, may I propose an exciting and undeniably useful option — a giant case that rockets hard candy into your mouth (via Gizmodo). YouTube creator and inventor Matty Benedetto is responsible for the DIY case, which he calls the Candy Catapult. It’s 3D printed from flexible TPU filament with a hard candy container back for your poison of choice, be it M&Ms, Skittles, or Reese Pieces (only sickos would mix all three). To actually launch the candy out of the case, Benedetto added a pinball machine-esque spring-lo...

The new Apple Watch Series 7 was announced alongside the iPhone 13, iPad, and iPad Mini, but it’s the final device of Apple’s new fall products to launch. This newer model sits atop Apple’s current lineup of smartwatches, which still includes the SE and Series 3 rounding out the line. Featuring a slightly revamped design and larger display, the Series 7 comes in either a 41mm (up from 40mm) configuration starting at $399 or a 45mm (up from 44mm) configuration — each with optional cellular radios if you want to pay for service with your carrier. After Apple’s initial announcement billed them for release “later this fall,” we now know the new models are set to release on October 15th, and you can preorder them now through Apple, Best Buy, Target, and Walmart. What’s new The Apple Watch Serie...

The all-electric Mercedes-Benz EQS is chock full of luxury and tech features. Now we know it will be competitive with some of its six-figure rivals in regards to range, as the official estimates are finally in from the Environmental Protection Agency. The agency says the rear-wheel-drive version should get around 350 miles on a full battery. Buyers of the all-wheel-drive version should expect a little less, around 340 miles. That’s roughly even with Tesla’s new triple-motor Model S Plaid, which the EPA says is good for about 348 miles on a full charge on 21-inch wheels. Tesla says the Model S Plaid on 19-inch wheels should get closer to 400 miles, but that claim hasn’t been evaluated by the EPA just yet. A dual-motor Long Range Model S is supposed to eclipse 400 miles, though that car has ...