Technology

If you opened your Reddit app today and noticed a new video button next to the search bar, you could be a tap away from experiencing the forum platform’s take on TikTok. TechCrunch writes that the video feed, which pulls content from subreddits you follow along with some you don’t, started rolling out to iOS users on Friday. Loading up the feed on my own Reddit iOS app, the experience is unavoidably TikTok-like. You can scroll through a vertical, perpetual list of videos featuring content from the wide world of Reddit. Interaction options include upvoting and downvoting, along with commenting, “awarding” (using Reddit’s in-app currency to purchase medals and reactions), and sharing. The video feed in the Reddit iOS app looks a lot like TikTok. The Reddit video feed allows you to upvote, do...

July 2021 was officially the hottest month humans have ever recorded. This July narrowly beat out three previous months in 2016, 2019, and 2020 that had tied for the previous title. The fact that all of this has happened so recently just screams climate change. The fact that all of this has happened so recently just screams climate change. “In this case, first place is the worst place to be,” Rick Spinrad, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said in a statement. NOAA confirmed the new temperature record today, which Spinrad said, “adds to the disturbing and disruptive path that climate change has set for the globe.” Scientists have more evidence than ever that links climate change to more extreme weather, especially when it comes to heat. By burning...

Google has infringed upon Sonos’ patents, according to an initial ruling from a US International Trade Commission judge. Sonos has been locked in a legal battle with Google after it sued the search giant, claiming that it had infringed on five of its patents relating to smart speakers. In a statement to The Verge, Sonos says that the ruling “is only a first step in a lengthy battle” but calls it an “important milestone in the ongoing effort to defend Sonos’ technology against Google.” The suit began in January of 2020, with Sonos alleging that Google stole technology it had access to as part of a partnership between the two companies. In the lawsuit, Sonos says that Google used that tech in its own products and undercut Sonos. As part of its suit, Sonos asked for a sales ban on tons of Goo...

Lamborghini unveiled its revamped Countach supercar at Pebble Beach this week, and as predicted, it’s rocking a little lightning under the hood. The limited edition supercar is called the Countach LPI 800-4, with LPI standing for Longitudinale Posteriore Ibrido, or Longitudinal Posterior Hybrid; 800 referring to the rounding down of the engine’s 814cv maximum combined power; and 4 to its permanent four-wheel drive transmission. The automaker is releasing the revamped version in honor of the 50th anniversary of the original release. The revived Countach will have an aspirated V12 engine with a 48V electric motor — meaning the supercar will retain its familiar engine growl while also receiving some of its power from electrons. According to Lamborghini, the thermal unit will have an output of...

A $1,300 soundbar doesn’t have much room for compromises. You can spend a fraction of that on a perfectly competent Vizio soundbar, and even premium options like the Sonos Arc cost hundreds less. There will always be people that balk at the notion of spending so much money and not putting it toward a traditional surround sound system — and that’s especially true (and a fair argument) when you reach this price level. So when designing its latest flagship 7.1.2-channel Dolby Atmos soundbar, the HT-A7000, Sony knew it couldn’t settle and had to throw in the entire kitchen sink to justify the steep investment. And that’s exactly what the company tried to do. The HT-A7000, which starts shipping in September, embraces gamers with two HDMI 2.1 passthrough inputs capable of 8K, 4K at 120Hz, and Do...

Immunocompromised people should get a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention committee recommended today. After taking only a standard, two-dose series of the Pfizer / BioNTech or Moderna vaccine, patients may not generate enough antibodies against the coronavirus. “I have known of patients who are immunocompromised and in the hospital, they did all the right things. They’re just suffering from a lack of good vaccine protection,” says Camille Kotton, clinical director of transplant and immunocompromised host infectious diseases at the Massachusetts General Hospital, during the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting today. The decision follows the Food and Drug Administration’s announcement late Thursday night that it has am...

Sonos might be developing a voice assistant alternative to Alexa or Google Assistant for its speakers, according to a customer survey spotted by VoiceBot.ai. The survey, shared by a Sonos customer on Reddit, describes an on-device voice control system that would improve user privacy by not routing questions and commands through the cloud. In the survey (pictured below thanks to Reddit user EdmundFitzgerald29), Sonos writes that its “potential new product offering” would use the wake word “Hey Sonos” and let users control playback, search through songs, and move music to other speakers with their voice. The survey claims that the assistant can respond faster because it would be processing everything on device, rather than relying on an internet connection and sending queries to a server. So...

If you’re a gamer, Xbox Game Pass is one of the best deals in town. Microsoft’s popular subscription service — which touted more than 18 million subscribers earlier this year — has been dubbed the “Netflix of video games,” namely because it provides access to more than a hundred Xbox titles for a flat, monthly fee. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate takes things a step further, combining Xbox Game Pass with Xbox Live Gold, giving subscribers access to exclusive deals, online multiplayer, EA Play titles, and Microsoft’s cloud gaming service, xCloud, which is now widely available on iOS and PC. Typically, a three-month subscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate runs $45. And while Microsoft’s ongoing promotion will knock the price down to $1 for new subscribers, it’s not available for returning players. T...

The Samsung Galaxy A42 5G is a thoroughly decent midrange phone that doesn’t really need to exist. Taking it at face value, it’s fairly priced at $400 with a big 6.6-inch OLED screen, generous 5,000mAh battery, and a healthy support policy that will see it receiving security updates through the next few years. That’s a pretty good deal. In the context of Samsung’s Galaxy A lineup, it’s situated between the Galaxy A52 5G and the A32 5G, two very good options in their own price brackets. The $499 A52 5G offers a few more high-end bells and whistles than the A42 5G, like a fast refresh screen and an IP67 waterproof rating. At $279, the more basic A32 5G includes an LCD rather than OLED. Verge Score 6.5 out of 10 Good Stuff Excellent battery life Solid OS upgrade and security support timeline ...

In 2016, a team of young, scrappy Nigerian filmmakers made Ojukokoro (Yoruba for “greed”), a twisty crime thriller. They were convinced their little film was going to change Nollywood for the better. The chaotic Nigerian film industry, conveniently known as Nollywood — second only to India’s Bollywood in terms of volume of output — is famous for micro budget, melodramatic movies released direct to video. Adopting the dark humor, cinematic stylized violence, and multiple points of view associated with the work of elite directors like Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie, Ojukokoro premiered to strong word of mouth buzz at Nigeria’s premier film festival but bombed at the box office the next year. It wasn’t till 2021 that the film would find its biggest and most appreciative audience: Netflix. ...

Airbnb said Friday it will change its terms of service so that its arbitration provisions “will no longer apply to sexual assault or sexual harassment claims” by its hosts (the people who rent out their homes on the platform) and guests. The company said in a statement that “incidents of sexual assault are extremely rare on Airbnb,” and that the upcoming changes would “codify a practice we have already had in place.” Airbnb has not “asked a court fo force any of the very few cases involving sexual assault or sexual harassment claims by hosts or guests into arbitration” since January of 2019, and will continue to not enforce arbitration in such cases until the TOS are updated sometime in the fall. “We believe that survivors should be able to bring claims in whatever forum is best for them,”...

Research from Durham University in the United Kingdom has just revealed an interesting detail on how apes initiate interaction with one another. Much like how humans start a conversation with a “hello” and end with some sort of “goodbye,” apes were observed to initiate an interaction, or more accurately a commitment, where the two will then signal and decide when that obligation has been fulfilled. Raphaela Heesen of Durham University comments, “We were able to launch rockets and land on the moon because we have the ability to share our intentions, which allows us to achieve things so much bigger than a single individual can achieve alone. This ability has been suggested to be at the heart of human nature.” Indicating that joint commitment is no longer reserved for just humans, a total of ...