Technology

The White House is expected to announce Friday that the US is reopening its land and air borders to vaccinated foreign nationals on November 8th, Reuters reported. As part of COVID-19 restrictions, non-essential travelers from more than 30 countries have been barred from entering the US since March 2020. This latest news comes as the White House announced Tuesday that the US was ending restrictions at the borders and ferry crossings with Mexico and Canada for foreign nationals vaccinated against COVID-19. Canada began allowing vaccinated US visitors into the country for non-essential travel in August. Travelers seeking to enter Canada will be required to fill out a questionnaire using the ArriveCAN app and need to demonstrate a quarantine plan in case they don’t meet Canada’s requirements ...

Nintendo has announced the price and release for its upcoming Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription tier, which adds Nintendo 64 games, Sega Genesis games, and bundled access to the new paid Animal Crossing: New Horizons — Happy Home Paradise DLC. It’ll cost $49.99 per year for an individual subscription or $79.99 for a shared family membership. The service will officially launch on October 25th. Those prices are a big jump from the regular Switch Online subscription, which costs $19.99 per year for a single membership or $34.99 per year for a family subscription. The Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription tier offers the same benefits as the standard Switch Online service — including online multiplayer, classic NES and SNES games, cloud saves, and other perks....

These days, it is way too easy to be pulled from your work by notifications and other distractions. In order to help you keep your attention where you want it, Apple has added new Focus features to iOS 15. The idea is to keep you “in the moment” by filtering out apps or notifications that you don’t want popping up during specific times. The nice thing is that you can create different profiles to keep you from being disturbed, depending on whether you’re at home, at work, getting ready for bed, driving, or for any other activity. When you first start to set Focus up, it can seem a little daunting. There are a lot of choices, and a lot of ways you can tweak it. In fact, it may take a while before you get the combination of settings that works best for your lifestyle. But in the end, it will ...

Roku has replaced its Streaming Stick Plus, long one of the top recommendations for an affordable 4K streaming player, with the new Streaming Stick 4K. The name is different, but the hardware looks practically identical on the outside — not that design has any significance in this case. Like its predecessor, the 2021 model plugs into an HDMI port behind your TV and is forever hidden away from everyone watching entertainment on the screen. What’s more important are its upgraded capabilities: the new device is faster, offers improved Wi-Fi performance, and adds support for Dolby Vision and HDR10 Plus. (The older stick was released before Vision settled into must-have status.) And it costs the same $49.99 as before. You can also buy the Streaming Stick 4K Plus, which bundles the same exact ha...

Nintendo is working to fix a bug in recently-released Metroid Dread that could halt your progression if you’re unlucky enough to encounter it, the company has announced. According to a support page the bug causes the error message “The software was closed because an error occurred,” forcing it to close unexpectedly. Nintendo says the patch will be released before the end of the month. Until this patch is released, however, players will need to avoid triggering the bug, which can apparently occur near the end of the game if the player “destroys a door while a map marker for that specific door is displayed on the map.” Thankfully, that means recovering from the crash when it occurs is fairly simple. Here’s what Nintendo says you should do if your game crashes: “Restart the game and, before p...

Smart lighting upstart Govee has added Light Bars to its newest Immersion TV LED Kit (model H605B) to harmoniously extend the backlight to the left and right of 55- to 65-inch TVs. The additions nearly double the illuminated area — and the price. The jump from $79.99 to $149.99 makes the new Immersion Kit a more considered purchase. But if you liked the older Immersion TV LED kit (model H6199) as much as I did, then you’re going to love the upgrade. Verge Score 8 out of 10 Good Stuff Extends backlighting to sides for deeper immersion Great value for money Works with any content on display unlike the Hue Play Box Bad Stuff Light Bars not wall mountable Adding stickers to your expensive TV is no fun Backlighting can be distracting for some I should first confess to my bias for responsive bia...

It’s no secret that Amazon owns a wealth of in-house brands that sell everything from affordable tech accessories (Amazon Basics) to e-readers (Kindle). But a new investigation from The Markup sheds new light on just how big this empire has gotten, and makes some troubling allegations about the advantages these brands seem to have over third-party competitors selling on Amazon. It’s a fascinating report that’s well worth a read. For starters, just working out how many brands Amazon owns is a process that required The Markup to analyse public records from the US Patent and Trademark office. According to its reporting, the ecommerce giant has registered or owns over 150 brands, including some where their connection to Amazon isn’t obvious. But more worrying is that some of these brands, as w...

Microsoft originally promised new 3D emoji for Windows 11 and various other products earlier this year. Now the company has gone for a 2D flat look instead, with the new emoji debuting in Dev Channel builds of Windows 11 this week. The style is a lot different to the 3D emoji that Microsoft promised in July, and even in recent tweets from the official Windows Twitter accounts. Microsoft appears to have changed its mind on going 3D inside Windows 11. “For Windows 11 we’re using the 2D versions,” says Brandon LeBlanc, a senior program manager on the Windows Insider team. LeBlanc also says Microsoft “used the wrong graphics” in recent tweets. Microsoft’s emoji was supposed to be more 3D. It’s not clear why Microsoft hasn’t adopted its 3D designs in Windows 11, despite promises to do so, but i...

Despite completing its first fully-manned spaceflight with founder Richard Branson on board back in July, Virgin Galactic has now officially delayed plans of its commercial spaceflights to late 2022. According to an announcement from the company, a recent test has “flagged a possible reduction in strength margins of certain materials used to modify specific joints” in its spacecraft which require “further physical inspection.” In light of this discovery, Virgin Galactic will begin a refurbishment process for both its spacecraft and carrier aircraft, which is expected to last until June to August of 2022, delaying its earliest commercial spaceflight to the fourth quarter of next year. “The re-sequencing of our enhancement period and the Unity 23 flight underscores our safety-first procedure...

After months of hearings and negotiations, pressure is growing in the Senate to pass new laws banning online platforms from giving preference to their own products and services over those of their competitors. On Thursday, a bipartisan group of senators announced plans to introduce a nondiscrimination bill that could reshape Amazon’s online marketplace. The American Choice and Innovation Online Act, led by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA), would prevent platforms like Amazon, Apple, and Google from using their dominance to disadvantage other companies and competitors that use their platforms. In June, House lawmakers voted out a bill sharing the same name from the Judiciary Committee. Klobuchar’s Senate version isn’t identical to the House’s, but shares similar language...

Apple has now extended its free repair service for the AirPods Pro from two years to three. The repair program was first introduced a year after the earbuds were originally released in 2019, just as its warranty expired, and offered free repairs or replacements for those experiencing issues with either static or the Active Noise Cancellation feature. More specifically, Apple says that you’ll be eligible if you experience “crackling or static sounds that increase in loud environments, with exercise or while talking on the phone” or “Active Noise Cancellation not working as expected, such as a loss of bass sound, or an increase in background sounds, such as street or airplane noise.” With the new extension, those who purchased the AirPods Pro at launch will have until October 2022 to repair ...