Technology

A Hollywood union representing tens of thousands of production workers will soon decide whether to ratify agreements that will, among other labor protections, enforce better pay from streaming services. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) announced Tuesday that it reached a tentative three-year “area standards” agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) that “delivers our members a fairer deal on streaming,” according to the union’s international president Matthew Loeb. AMPTP represents major Hollywood studios that include, among others, Netflix, Apple, Amazon, Disney, Paramount, and Warner Bros. A spokesperson for the union told The Verge that lawyers are still working out details of the agreement, which could “take a few da...

Apple’s App Privacy Report, announced at WWDC 2021, has made its way onto iPhones with the first release of the iOS 15.2 beta, according to MacRumors. The new screen in Settings gives users an overview of what information their apps have access to and what they’re sharing. According to Apple’s WWDC announcement, the feature will show you what permissions apps have and how often they accessed them over the past week (for example, it could show that your weather app accesses your location every hour). The report will also show you which other web domains the app contacted and let you compare that with the sites you visited directly in the app to give you a better idea of who could be seeing your data. Apple’s Safari Privacy Report, which shows similar data but for the websites you visit inst...

One of the new features that iOS 15 has promised to offer is the ability to share your iPhone and iPad screen during FaceTime sessions so that you can enjoy films, music, and other media along with friends and family. While this new feature, called SharePlay, did not ship with the first version of iOS 15, it has been included in iOS 15.1 and can now be enjoyed — to a limited extent. Currently, you can share content from Apple TV and Apple Music — assuming both of you are subscribers — and a few other apps. I had no problem sharing a YouTube video, for example; other apps that are supported include HBO Max, Hulu, and Disney Plus (but not Netflix). It can be presumed that the list of shareable apps will continue to expand. It’s quite easy to use the new SharePlay feature, once you’ve install...

Alienware’s new Aurora R13 gaming desktop comes with Intel’s newly released 12th Gen Alder Lake chip and a brand-new design. You can choose anything from the Core i5-12600KF up to an i9-1200KF, as well as a range of Nvidia graphics cards. Photo by Alienware The R13 also shows off Alienware’s redesigned Legend 2.0 chassis, which comes with an increased amount of internal space that’s supposed to promote better airflow. It also offers the option of a clear side panel that tacks on an extra $70 to your purchase. You can still open the case without any tools, making it easy to upgrade components or start customizing. On the AMD side of things, Alienware introduced the Aurora Ryzen Edition R14 that ships with up to an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X chip — but the processor isn’t the only thing that’s differ...

Spotify’s Car Thing has amassed a waitlist of more than 2 million people, CNET reported. The first piece of hardware from Spotify, the gadget is designed to make the streaming service easier to navigate in cars, including those with dated dashboard systems. The device was launched for free in April to a limited number of Premium subscribers. The waitlist to purchase Car Thing, now priced at $80 USD, in the United States opened up shortly after. As of right now, you still have to be a Premium subscriber to both purchase and use it, and orders are capped to one per person. Car Thing essentially looks and operates similarly to an iPhone, though it also has a large dial. Users can play music by tapping on the touch-screen or by directing it with voice commands. The dial functions as another me...

The European Commission has opened a formal competition investigation into Nvidia’s acquisition of chip designer Arm. The deal, which would see Nvidia purchase the UK-based company from SoftBank for $40 billion, was announced in September 2020. In a press release, the EU’s Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager said that Nvidia buying Arm could make it harder for other manufacturers to access Arm’s technology, hurting much of the semiconductor industry (which is already facing supply problems). At the heart of concerns is Arm’s neutrality. Arm licenses its chip designs to a broad range of companies including Apple, Samsung, and Qualcomm, many of which compete with one another and Nvidia. There are fears that having Nvidia control Arm may result in Nvidia’s competitors being put at a d...

If you need to elevate the audio experience for your second guest bedroom’s Roku TV, TCL’s new soundbar may be the one for you. The Roku TV Wireless Soundbar (announced at CES 2021 as the Alto R1) is TCL’s vision of a simple and easy audio drop-in solution for $179.99 that only works with Roku TVs but not any other Roku streaming box. As far as soundbars go, the unit is bare bones with no HDMI or audio ports. TCL is saying this is by design for a clutter-free entertainment center where the only cable you need to route is the power cable — all other functions are wireless using Wi-Fi 802.11ac. A part of the “Roku TV Ready” lineup of products the company is putting out, this soundbar uses the existing Roku TV remote and lets you pair the soundbar wirelessly through the Roku TV setup menus. N...

California startup Future Motion has revealed two new versions of its funky self-balancing electric rideable it calls Onewheel, with more range, power, and better ergonomics. The most capable of the two is the new $2,200 Onewheel GT, which Future Motion says was “completely redesigned from the ground up.” It employs a higher-voltage control system that pushes more power to the motor — Future Motion says the GT is the “first 3 horsepower Onewheel.” The GT is pulling that power from a battery pack made up of 21700 lithium-ion batteries (the same size cell that powers many of Tesla’s current vehicles), which give it a whopping 32 miles of range on a full charge. Performance aside, Future Motion says the Onewheel GT now has concave footpads for better board feel, brighter headlights, a sturdie...

After a rollercoaster of a year on the stock market fueled by WallStreetBets retail trading, GameStop is going full meme and looking to build a “Web3” platform, according to a flurry of job listings posted to its careers site on Monday. One of those ads, discovered by CoinDesk, is a LinkedIn listing for a “Head of Web3 Gaming” in which the company says it’s looking for someone to “accelerate the future of gaming and commerce” based on blockchains. If you’re lucky enough to have never heard the phrase “Web3,” it’s often used to describe a decentralized, crypto-based internet. That tracks with the other job listings, which indicate that GameStop is developing some sort of NFT platform, likely based on Ethereum. While sometimes job listings are just job listings, in this case, it may be...

Apple Music has launched on the PlayStation 5. Beginning today, PS5 users with a subscription to the service can stream music, as well as music videos and Apple Music Radio, right on their console. Users have the option of either starting the Apple Music app before gaming or accessing it during gameplay. The latter is readily available through the control center, which can be opened by pressing the PS button on the controller. The app is specially integrated with PS5 so that users can listen to music in the background during gameplay sessions. Subscribers can also see music recommendations for the game they are currently playing and other Apple Music-curated playlists made for gaming. To get started, PS5 owners can download the Apple Music app from the console’s Media space. From there, th...

Have you ever really wondered about Buzz Lightyear’s origin story? Not the action figure, which helped make Toy Story so beloved, but the actual space ranger? Well, Disney and Pixar sure are hoping so with the upcoming feature Lightyear. It’s described as “the definitive origin story of Buzz Lightyear” and the first trailer makes it look like a Star Wars-style sci-fi adventure, complete with cool spaceships and futuristic alien worlds. The movie even casts an action movie star, with Chris Evans handling Buzz’s voice. Angus MacLane, who co-directed Finding Dory, is serving as director. Lightyear was actually first announced last year, but you’d be forgiven for forgetting about it: the reveal was part of a massive wave of more than 50 updates from Disney. It certainly marks a shift in tone f...