Technology

It’s a decision that may seem like a no-brainer. You’ve got a new job, and they’ve just given you a brand-new ThinkPad. Perfect, you think to yourself. It’s about time I got rid of that 10-year-old MacBook Air. I’ve been there. Surveys have shown that over half of workers use work-issued devices for personal tasks — whether sending personal messages, shopping online, accessing social media, or reading the news. The prospect of using your work laptop as your only laptop — not just for work, but also for Netflixing, group chat messaging, reading fanfiction, paying bills, and emailing recipes to your mom — is understandably tempting, especially for folks who work from home. Keeping work tasks and personal tasks in one place may feel like an easy way to simplify your life, and it might save sp...

With the announcement and impending release of the new iPad Mini and its revamped design, it might be all too easy to stan the new model and completely write off its predecessor. While the new model has a lot to offer — namely a larger screen, faster processor, refined design akin to the 2020 iPad Air, and a USB-C port — it also has a quality that is not so desirable: a higher introductory price. The iPad Mini line has been notoriously discount-immune over the years, possibly because of its specialized position in the market and lack of competition. The outgoing iPad Mini only recently started receiving significant discounts, falling to $300 soon before the new model was announced, but it started at $399 from the get-go. The new iPad Mini starts at $499 before you add anything further, lik...

Pokémon Go developer Niantic is shutting down its augmented reality game Catan: World Explorers, the company announced on Friday (via Protocol). An AR adaptation of the popular board game Catan announced in 2019, World Explorers was the company’s latest attempt to recreate the magic of Pokémon Go, but soon it’s all coming to an end. After a year of early access, the game will not be playable after November 18th and Niantic says later today it “will be taking the game down from the App Store and removing real-money purchases from the Shop.” For the players that stick around, the company says it will increase in-game bonuses for the remaining weeks the game is live. Surely something other than Pokémon can catch on It’s not entirely clear what’s to blame for the shutdown, though the developer...

It was a brief orbital talent show. “Hayley is a champ at spinning,” Sian Proctor, one of the four private citizens currently orbiting Earth inside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, said of her crew mate Hayley Arceneaux, who was somersaulting in the weightlessness of space on camera. “She’s been spinning ever since we got on orbit.” Hayley Arceneaux spinning inside Crew Dragon.SpaceX Christopher Sembroski, another crew mate, whipped out a ukulele and threatened to play it live on camera to over 55,000 viewers on SpaceX’s live YouTube stream — “You can turn your volume down if you wish, but I’ll give it a shot.” He did a little riff while Arceneaux was holding the mic, and it wasn’t half bad. “It’s still before coffee, so it’ll get better before the day goes on.” Proctor showed off a drawing s...

Remember when gadget vendors Aukey, Mpow, RavPower, Vava, TaoTronics and Choetech started mysteriously disappearing from Amazon’s online storefront, and it turned out Amazon had intentionally yanked them while vaguely gesturing to the sanctity of its user reviews? Turns out they were just the tip of the iceberg. Amazon has now permanently banned over 600 Chinese brands across 3,000 different seller accounts, the company confirms to The Verge. Amazon says that’s the grand tally after five months of its global crackdown, and it’s no longer being shy about why: a spokesperson tells us these 600 brands were banned for knowingly, repeatedly and significantly violating Amazon’s policies, especially the ones around review abuse. The South China Morning Post reported the numbers earlier, citing an...

Today, we had the first direct link between the problems in Theranos’ labs and Elizabeth Holmes. Former manager of assay systems Surekha Gangakhedkar’s job was preparing blood tests for use in patients. The system was unreliable; describing herself as “stressed and unhappy and concerned with the way the launch was going,” Gangakhedkar quit. Gangakhedkar met with Holmes to explain why she was resigning: she didn’t think the Edisons were good enough for patient use. Holmes told her Theranos had “promised to deliver to the customers and didn’t have much of a choice,” except to go ahead with the launch, Gangakhedkar testified. “I was worried about the launch.” Holmes, who is standing trial for wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, hadn’t been directly linked to lab inadequacies in th...

Last season, one of the more curious additions to Fortnite was Guggimon, a terrifying-looking rabbit creature that also happened to be a virtual influencer with millions of followers on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Guggimon was created by a company called Superplastic — which has previously worked with the likes of the Gorillaz — and now it’s bringing another one of its characters to the battle royale: Janky, a streetwear cat (I think?) that’s available in the Fortnite item shop starting tonight. It may seem like an odd fit, but Fortnite’s ever-growing metaverse has steadily been spreading to just about every facet of pop culture, from sports to music to superheroes. With all that going on, some CG characters that partner with Gucci and do Christie’s NFT drops don’t feel all that o...

Sony subsidiary Nextorage has released an SSD that’s perfect for the PS5 (via Tom’s Hardware): it has a heatsink (which Sony says is a requirement), is fast enough to well surpass Sony’s recommendations, and comes in 1TB and 2TB varieties, which gives you plenty of storage for your games. The catch? It’s kinda expensive, isn’t available in the US, and doesn’t seem to have an official “PlayStation approved” stamp despite its maker’s affiliation with Sony. Nextorage describes itself as a “Sony group company specializing in the memory storage solutions business,” and its NEM-PA SSD ticks all the boxes for PlayStation 5 compatibility. When news of the drive first broke, it seemed like the solution to the confusion that can currently come with expanding your PS5’s storage. Indeed, Nextorage’s d...

SpaceX‘s Inspiration4 on Friday shared the first images from day one of their historic first-ever all-civilian space trip. The photos shared to Twitter show the crew floating in zero gravity inside the capsule and admiring the view of Earth through the Crew Dragon cupola window. While orbiting Earth, the crew, which consists of mission commander Jared Isaacman, medical officer Hayley Arceneaux, mission specialist Chris Sembroski and mission pilot Sian Proctor, spoke to patients from St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital and answered their questions from the capsule. “The crew of Inspiration4 had an incredible first day in space,” the tweet reads. “They’ve completed more than 15 orbits around planet Earth since liftoff and made full use of the Dragon cupola.” The crew of #Inspiration4 had...

Your iPhone’s aging lithium-ion batteries will eventually start to lose their ability to retain a charge — and that can be highly frustrating, especially if you’re out and about all day. If that is happening to you, there are several solutions: you can switch over to the latest iPhone, start carrying a battery charger around with you, or — simply replace the battery. To first identify whether your battery is ready for a change, you can check to see what the current health of your battery is by going to “Settings” > “Battery” > “Battery Health.” This is where you can find out your battery’s current maximum capacity. A small notice at the very top may appear if your iPhone’s battery is ready for a swap. The “Battery” page in your iPhone’s settings has info about your battery usage. The...

Clubhouse appears to be working on a new way to invite people to audio rooms in its app, based on screenshots shared by researcher Jane Manchum Wong. The invite feature, called “Waves,” is focused on the more casual, social side of Clubhouse, rather than the creator-focused live shows that have had the company’s attention. Based off the screenshots Wong shared, Waves lets you wave at friends —with a button identical to the hand in Clubhouse’s logo — to invite them to chat. If they reply, they automatically get added to an audio room so you can talk. A spokesperson declined to comment on Wong’s discovery, but it seems likely that the feature is intended for Clubhouse’s social rooms (one of several audio room types the company offers). Clubhouse is working on Waves, so that you can slowly fo...

With new iPhones come new features. And starting next week, Apple HomeKit users will get plenty courtesy of iOS 15, HomePod 15, tvOS 15, and watchOS 8 software updates. Apple has confirmed that these will all be available on the same day, September 20th. So, if you’ve been excited about unlimited HomeKit Secure Video cameras, the HomePod Mini as a speaker for your Apple TV 4K, or the chance to see your doorbell on your Apple Watch, you’re in luck. Here’s a look at all the new HomeKit and HomeKit-related features that will be dropping on Monday. A new software update will let you pair a single or pair of HomePod Minis to your Apple TV 4K.Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Control your Apple TV with Siri Finally, you’ll be able to use Siri to turn your Apple TV on and off, start a specific sho...