Technology

Apple is reportedly planning to begin ending mask requirements for customers at some of its US retail stores as early as Friday (via Bloomberg). The company told employees about the change in an internal memo on Thursday, Bloomberg reported, saying the decision was based on a decline in coronavirus cases and a rise in vaccination rates. Like many companies with multiple locations, Apple has changed its masking requirements for customers more than once since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic last year. In March 2020, the company closed most of its retail stores as the virus spread. It began reopening some US stores in May 2020, with many offering only curbside service and not allowing customers inside. Most stores that did open to customers conducted temperature checks and required ...

GoPro says the global chip and other supply chain shortages won’t affect its holiday sales this year, meaning the action camera company is poised to finish one of its best years in recent memory in strong fashion. “Despite supply chain constraints that are affecting many industries, we have successfully partnered with our suppliers to produce inventory to support our fourth-quarter revenue expectations,” CEO Nick Woodman said while discussing the company’s third-quarter financial results on Thursday. “GoPro.com and our retail partners will be stocked and ready for shoppers this holiday season.” That’s especially good news for GoPro’s bottom line because the new Hero10 Black is selling incredibly well despite the higher $499 price tag. GoPro said Thursday that 98 percent of the roughly 800,...

Taika Waititi is set to co-write and direct an adaptation of The Incal, the sci-fi graphic novel from writer Alejandro Jodorowsky with art by Jean Giraud, better known as Moebius, according to a report from The Hollywood Reporter. Jodorowsky’s name has been a popular one in Hollywood recently due to the release of the latest incarnation of Dune earlier this year. Jodorowsky was famously working on a surreal and bizarre adaptation of the novel (alongside Moebius and H.R. Giger), but unfortunately was never able to get any major studios to take the risk on his idea. The journey of that process has since been the subject of its own documentary, Jodorowsky’s Dune. The Incal is also just the first work in a series of connected comics that Jodorowsky wrote (referred to as the Jodoverse), which c...

EV startup Rivian’s former sales and marketing vice president has sued the Amazon-backed company for discrimination, claiming it has a “toxic bro culture that marginalizes women.” The suit, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, comes just days before Rivian is set to become a publicly traded company, and a few weeks after it started delivering its first electric vehicles to customers. Laura Schwab, the former VP, says she was fired last month after alerting a human resources executive about discrimination. She sued the company Thursday in Orange County Superior Court, according to the WSJ, though the complaint was not publicly available at the time this article was published. Scwhab also published a blog post Thursday titled “Life Outside the Boys Club: Why I Spoke Up About Rivian’s T...

A new Alphabet company will use artificial intelligence methods for drug discovery, Google’s parent company announced Thursday. It’ll build off of the work done by DeepMind, another Alphabet subsidiary that has done groundbreaking work using AI to predict the structure of proteins. The new company, called Isomorphic Laboratories, will leverage that success to build tools that can help identify new pharmaceuticals. DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis will also serve as the CEO for Isomorphic, but the two companies will stay separate and collaborate occasionally, a spokesperson said. For years, experts have pointed to AI as a way to make it faster and cheaper to find new medications to treat various conditions. AI could help scan through databases of potential molecules to find some that best fit a ...

Microsoft has started warning Windows 11 users that certain features in the operating system are failing to load due to an expired certificate. The certificate expired on October 31st, and Microsoft warns that some Windows 11 users aren’t able to open apps like the Snipping Tool, touch keyboard, or emoji panel. A patch is available to fix some of the issues, but it’s currently in preview, meaning you have to install it manually from Windows Update. The patch, KB4006746, will fix the touch keyboard, voice typing, emoji panel, and issues with the getting started and tips sections of Windows 11. You’ll be able to find this patch by checking for updates in the Windows Update section of Settings in Windows 11. Microsoft still needs to fix the Snipping Tool Microsoft’s patch doesn’t address the ...

One of the defining features of the Apple Watch is the vast number of bands you can buy to make it fit your needs and style. That can be particularly useful for workouts. You might not want to wear a leather band during a long run, but you can easily swap in bands made of other materials that can better withstand sweat. If you’ve been looking for a full-on wrist sweatband to use alongside your Apple Watch, though, accessories maker Twelve South now has you covered with the ActionBand for Apple Watch. The ActionBand is a terry cotton band that sits tight on your wrist and has a frame for you to slot in the watch part of your Apple Watch. The frame is designed in such a way to let you access the Digital Crown and the watch’s side button, so you won’t have to rely entirely on the touchscreen ...

The Federal Trade Commission will send out more than $60 million to drivers for Amazon’s Flex program, representing tip money that the commission says was illegally withheld. According to the official announcement, the FTC is preparing 139,501 checks and 1,621 PayPal payments to drivers who had more than $5 in withheld tips. The highest back payout going to a single driver is more than $28,000, while the average repayment is $422. Nearly 20,000 drivers will receive checks for more than $600, the FTC said. Drivers are expected to receive their tips before January 7th, 2022. “The highest back payout going to a single driver is more than $28,000” Earlier this year, the FTC sued Amazon for withholding tips in its Flex program between the years 2016 and 2019. Amazon continued to collect portion...

If you’re in need of an affordable 4K TV that punches above its price class before the Black Friday shopping craze begins, Insignia’s F50 QLED 4K TV might be exactly what you’re after. Normally $650, it’s just $400 at Best Buy and Amazon. The F50 is one of the company’s latest models, and it’s a big upgrade over its previous Fire TV Edition models. The F50 still features Amazon’s Fire TV software built in, with the ever-helpful Alexa just a button press and ping word away, but it has slimmer bezels, and its panel supports quantum dot HDR technology. With it, the TV should provide better color accuracy, more vivid contrast, and more realistic lighting. Insignia F50 55-inch 4K TV $400 $650 39% off This 55-inch QLED TV from Insignia features 4K resolution and a 60Hz refresh rate. This model u...

You may have read on the site that Verge executive editor Dieter Bohn has been working on a documentary called Springboard: the secret history of the first real smartphone. It’s about a company called Handspring working on, you guessed it, a very early smartphone. It’s a story that I think will resonate with the Decoder audience, so I wanted to sit down with Dieter and talk about it. He even brought an exclusive clip that didn’t make it into the film. That documentary is streaming now on The Verge’s new streaming apps that you can get on your TV or set-top box. We have them for Android, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, and Apple TV. We’ve been working on these for a long time. It’s a little more complicated than you might think to make these apps, make them good, and distribute them on everyone’s app...

The Biden administration on Thursday announced a rule that requires private businesses with 100 or more employees to ensure their workers are either vaccinated or tested for COVID-19 on at least a weekly basis. This new push to bump vaccination rates comes after the White House set a rule requiring federal contractors to establish plans ensuring their employees are vaccinated against COVID-19. The new rule (PDF) was drafted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a government subagency under the US Department of Labor that covers about 84 million private-sector employers and workers. It requires that employers provide paid time for employees to go get vaccinated and ensure all unvaccinated workers wear a face mask at work. Two thirds of all US workers will be covered by vacci...