Technology

After over a year of indoor living, people are finally able to go out and enjoy the outdoors: beaches, sports, hiking, camping, bird-watching, bicycling, picnics… you name it. We asked some of our colleagues from The Verge what they were planning to take with them in their outdoor escapes. Here are some of their recommendations, including outdoor tech, camera gear, rugged footwear, and gadgets that help you take it easy. Outdoor tech Twelve months predominantly spent indoors did wonders for my battery anxiety. Not only was I using my phone less, thanks to having constant easy access to a tablet and laptop, but even when my phone got close to running out, my trusty charger was never far out of reach. However, I know that’s going to change this summer, and I’ll be confronted by the fact that...

Earlier this year, I spent a month covering the trial for a dispute between Apple and Epic. The case was one of the biggest antitrust suits in recent memory, and it brought to light revelations about both companies and the larger tech industry, often in the form of legal filings. I (and other reporters) try to pick out the most relevant details from these filings for readers. But sometimes, the documents are worth checking out in their own right. A site called CourtListener makes that easier than it might sound — if you know how to look. US federal court documents are supposed to be publicly available through the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system. But as somebody who frequently uses PACER, I can confirm it’s a really frustrating system. Signing up is a hassle, it cos...

A court in Amsterdam ruled that privacy litigation against Facebook in the Netherlands can proceed, rejecting the social network’s bid to have the lawsuit from two non-profit groups thrown out. As TechCrunch reported, the Amsterdam-based Data Privacy Foundation and Dutch consumer advocacy organization Consumentenbond are suing Facebook on behalf of users over what they claim are violations of European Union privacy law. The lawsuit says Facebook has not provided enough details about the information it gathers from users, including what it does with the data, and therefore doesn’t have a legal basis to process the information. Facebook tried to block the lawsuit claiming that the Amsterdam court doesn’t have jurisdiction over its European business, which it argues is subject to Irish law. T...

The Boring Company, Elon Musk’s tunneling venture, pitched an underground transit system to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the town’s mayor said in a tweet. It’s the latest city to become transfixed by Musk’s quixotic “Tesla in a tunnel” concept. It’s not a done deal, but Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis called it “an innovative and unprecedented approach to addressing traffic congestion and transit needs.” Trantalis said the project, which would be called the “Las Ollas Loop,” would connect Fort Lauderdale’s downtown to the beach. Fort Lauderdale has received a proposal from Elon Musk’s The Boring Co. to build an underground transit loop between downtown and the beach. Called “The Las Olas Loop,” this represents an innovative and unprecedented approach to addressing traffic congestio...

NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock will stream every remaining 2021 Stanley Cup Final match, just as the service’s parent company will stream the games on broadcast NBC. The service announced this week that the matches would kick off with a stream of Game 3 between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Montreal Canadiens. The streaming coverage will cover up to five games and will be available through Peacock’s premium tiers, which cost $5 per month with ads or $10 per month to go ad-free. The announcement marks a noticeable push by NBCUniversal to round out the sports programming on its marquee streaming service. In addition to coverage of Tour de France and Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, among other sporting events, the service is also the exclusive home of WWE Network events, including the...

After a security vulnerability led to some WD NAS owners having their data wiped, a new vulnerability has been discovered in more of WD’s devices (via KrebsOnSecurity). The vulnerability, discovered by security researchers Pedro Ribeiro and Radek Domanski, is seemingly present on Cloud OS 3 devices and not on the newer Cloud OS 5, which WD recently released as an update. The problem is that, according to Ribeiro and Domanski, many of WD’s users don’t like the new version. That’s because it’s missing certain functions and features that were available in Cloud OS 3. WD has said it won’t be updating Cloud OS 3 with security patches. There’s also the possibility that some users won’t be able to upgrade to Cloud OS 5. According to WD’s supported devices page, the updated software isn’t availabl...

In March, Sony received widespread backlash for announcing plans to shut down the PS3 and Vita stores and remove the ability to purchase PSP games from both storefronts. The criticism led Sony to reverse course in part, promising to keep the PS3 and Vita stores open, but the company stayed committed to ending “PSP commerce functionality” on July 2nd. While it was unclear exactly what that meant at the time, Sony has shed a little more light on the situation: you’ll still be able to buy new PSP games on the PS3 and Vita stores, but you won’t be able to buy new DLC, according to the company’s UK and US support pages (via Kotaku). Here are the three new updates Sony made to clarify things, including that it will remove the ability to make searches or download DLC from the PSP store on July 6t...

Just in time to ruin the holiday weekend, ransomware attackers have apparently used Kaseya — a software platform designed to help manage IT services remotely — to deliver their payload. Sophos director and ethical hacker Mark Loman tweeted about the attack earlier today, and now reports that affected systems will demand $44,999 to be unlocked. A note on Kaseya’s website implores customers to shut off their VSA servers for now “because one of the first things the attacker does is shutoff administrative access to the VSA.” News Flash: cybercriminals are a$$holes. Keep all the Incident Response teams in mind this holiday weekend as they’re in the thick of it…again. If you use Kaseya VSA, shut it down *now* until told to reactivate and initiate IR. Here’s the binary: https://...

A California Highway Patrol officer stopped a Toyota Prius on Friday that had what looks like a Starlink dish fastened to its hood, the agency said in a Facebook post. The “visual obstruction,” sitting right smack in the middle of the car’s hood, landed the driver a ticket. “Sir I stopped you today for that visual obstruction on your hood. Does it not block your view while driving?” an officer said, quoted in a post on CHP Antelope Valley’s Facebook page. The driver replied: “Only when I make right turns…” The driver told the CHP officer that they were using the antenna to have Wi-Fi for a business they run out of their car, the agency told CNBC, which first reported on the traffic stop. “Yes, it is in fact illegal to mount a satellite dish to the hood of your vehicle,” CHP’s Faceboo...

Following last month’s announcement that OnePlus was integrating with Oppo, effectively becoming a sub-brand of the phone manufacturer, the company announced on Friday that it’s also merging OxygenOS with Oppo’s ColorOS operating system (via 9to5Google). Both companies’ software will remain separate and continue to serve their individual regions (OxygenOS for OnePlus phones globally, ColorOS on OnePlus and Oppo devices in China) but share a common codebase, which OnePlus says should standardize its software experience and streamline the development process for future OxygenOS updates. OnePlus says the change will also allow the company to guarantee better Android update support going forward, something Samsung has also tried to improve on in the last few years. OnePlus lays out the life sp...

The US Federal Trade Commission has sued chip maker Broadcom for allegedly abusing a monopoly on semiconductor components. A newly issued complaint accuses Broadcom of threatening to charge higher prices, refuse technical support, or cut off chip sales if its customers bought other products from competing companies. Starting in 2016, Broadcom allegedly struck “exclusive or near-exclusive” deals with at least 10 companies manufacturing video set-top boxes and broadband devices like modems. It allegedly required these “strategic” partners to use a variety of Broadcom components even if they weren’t the best or cheapest option for a given device. Nonexclusive “tactical” partners were charged higher prices for slower product delivery and customer support. When manufacturers bid to have cable a...

The Department of Justice has opened an investigation into troubled electric vehicle startup Lordstown Motors, which is backed by General Motors and went public late last year but has yet to get its pickup — the Endurance — into production, according to The Wall Street Journal. It’s the second official probe into the startup, as the Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation earlier this year into Lordstown Motors executives’ misleading claims about how many preorders it had logged for the Endurance. The new investigation, which is being run by the US Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York, comes just weeks after Lordstown Motors’ CEO and founder was pushed out following a law firm’s probe into those misleading claims. The startup’s chief financial officer a...