Technology

TikTok is testing out a new feature that allows users to send creators tips. Creators can apply for the feature and once approved, can receive tips directly on their profile. The app already has a different feature where users can send gifts in the form of virtual icons that represent small but varying amounts. Creators can cash the icons in for the app’s “diamonds,” which can be redeemed for a monetary reward, though TikTok takes a 50 percent cut of all gifts. To be considered for approval for this new feature, applicants must have at least 100,000 followers and meet a certain age requirement. They also have to agree to the app’s terms and conditions. One TikTok user, who was ultimately approved, posted a series of videos on her discovery of the feature and the process of applying. @jera....

Amy Hennig, a former creative director at Naughty Dog who currently leads Skydance New Media, will be working on a new Marvel video game. Skydance describes the game, which is its first, as a “narrative-driven, blockbuster action-adventure game, featuring a completely original story and take on the Marvel Universe” but hasn’t said which superheroes will be featured in the game. The studio also hasn’t shared a release date (or even a release timeframe) and hasn’t said which platforms the game will be available on. Despite how little we actually know about the game, Hennig’s involvement in a story-driven Marvel project is an intriguing proposition. Hennig served as a writer and creative director for the first three Uncharted games, so hopefully, this new Marvel game will similarly blend acti...

Don’t you love standards? I do, for the most part, particularly when they’re fixing things, and the new VESA Embedded DisplayPort 1.5 (or eDP 1.5 for short) looks likely to do that in future fancy-screened laptops. It’s promising more power savings with adaptive-sync screens, OLED panels, and displays that come with their own embedded memory for the battery saving Panel Self-Refresh (PSR) feature. eDP is the standard for cables and ribbons that connect your high-res screen to the rest of your laptop or tablet, and technically it’s supported all those things before — but they haven’t necessarily played nicely together. For example, I had to turn off PSR when I reviewed the OLED-equipped Dell XPS 15 in 2019 because the screen was constantly flickering, even though manufacturers have had a de...

Google’s Project Jacquard touch-sensitive fabric technology, first revealed at Google I/O in 2015, now has a way for interested third-party developers to integrate the tech with their own software via the new Jacquard SDK. Previously only a handful of companies signed up for Jacquard, including Levi’s, Samsonite, and Yves Saint Laurent. Now developers can use the SDK to integrate the Jacquard tag, connecting its sensors with their apps to communicate touch and motion data. Samsonite’s Konnect-i backpack is one of very few products to integrate the touch-sensitive fibers.Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge Google’s ATAP (Advanced Technology and Projects) team announced its first partnership with Levi’s in 2015, and put Jacquard technology into customers’ sleeves two years later with the 2...

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...