Technology

The European Commission has opened a formal antitrust investigation into Google over whether the search giant unfairly favors its own online display advertising technology over competitors, the EU announced today. The investigation will also explore whether Google is unfairly limiting access to user data to its competitors. It’s an important investigation because it covers Google’s core online advertising business, which Reuters notes generated $147 billion in revenue for the company last year. Bloomberg reports it’s the first time the EU has investigated Google’s online display advertising business, where it serves as an intermediary between advertisers and publishers to fill ad space on web pages and apps. “Google collects data to be used for targeted advertising purposes, it sells adver...

Many of the best Amazon Prime Day deals may have already sold out or expired, but Prime Day is a two-day shopping affair, and many discounts will continue until 12AM PT / 3AM ET tonight. Yesterday, we saw some of our favorite devices hit an all-time low, from the Bose Noise Canceling Headphone 700 and the OnePlus 8 to popular Amazon products like the Kindle Paperwhite and fourth-gen Echo Dot (both still available). Other retailers — specifically, Walmart, Target, and Best Buy — are still offering a range of anti-Prime Day deals, too, with sales on the last-gen Apple TV 4K and Vizio’s 55-inch OLED leading the pack. To make your purchase a bit easier, we’ve sifted through thousands of deals to bring you the Day 2 highlights below, all of which have a higher likelihood to sell out in the fina...

After months of speculation and rumors, Amazon Prime Day 2021 has finally arrived, kicking off the summer season with a great batch of tech deals. The retail behemoth’s two-day event starts today and concludes Wednesday morning at 3:00AM ET, meaning you have two days to take advantage of your Amazon Prime membership and capitalize on exclusive discounts on headphones, 4K TVs, gaming accessories, and a host of other technology that rarely sees a discount outside of holiday shopping season. Below, we’ve highlighted the best Prime Day deals happening now, many of which are receiving a more sizable discount than they typically do. We’ve also rounded up the best anti-Prime Day deals, if you’re looking for the best deals at competing retailers such as Walmart, Target, and Best Buy, all of which ...

Amazon Prime Day 2021 is finally here, and it’s a good time to find discounts if you’re trying to buy a laptop. If you’re a budget shopper with your eye on one of the best Chromebooks, best gaming laptops, or best student laptops, you can likely find something that will strike your fancy. We’ve listed the best Prime Day deals on laptops below. If you’re signed up for Amazon Prime and are online at the right time, you should be able to take advantage of these deals alongside many others we’ve curated in our guide to the best Prime Day deals. The best productivity laptop deals for Prime Day The Acer Aspire 5 has long been considered one of the best budget laptops you can buy, with a sturdy build, a large 15-inch screen, and capable hardware. If you’re looking for something with better specs ...

If you’ve had a monitor upgrade on your wishlist, Prime Day has a few contributions when it comes to stellar deals that you might want to know about. Given how much monitors can vary in shape, size, panel type, and features, the deals probably won’t please everyone. But we’re adding every compelling deal that we find — at Amazon and beyond — to the list below to help get you set up with a great monitor. Also, if you’re looking for additional discounts, we’ve rounded up the best Prime Day deals happening across multiple categories, including gaming and computing. The best 1080p monitor deals for Prime Day The best QHD / 4K monitor deals for Prime Day LG’s 27-inch 27UL500 4K IPS Monitor $280 $350 20% off LG’s 27UL500 is an entry-level 4K panel to make note of, one that supports HDR10 and Fre...

Amazon Prime Day is an event — understandably — dedicated to all things Amazon, with substantial discounts on a range of Echo, Fire TV, and Kindle devices, as well as a time-sensitive smorgasbord of deals from both well- and little-known manufacturers. Apple is one of them, and while the company still charges a premium, Prime Day 2021 is a chance to save on an Apple Watch, a new MacBook, or a pair of AirPods, among other products. Below, we’ve gathered the best Apple deals available for Prime Day, some of which come from retailers running their own anti-Prime Day deals. If you’re open to other, non-Apple discounts, we’ve also put together a guide highlighting the best Prime Day deals in a variety of categories, including laptops, TVs, and gaming. The best AirPods deals for Prime Day Apple ...

Last Wednesday, Facebook announced that it would begin testing ads inside of Oculus Quest apps and said that the paid title Blaston from Resolution Games and apps from “a couple other developers” would be the first to include them. For many fans of Blaston, that wasn’t welcome news, leading to a wave of negative reviews criticizing Resolution Games for planning to test ads in a game that they paid money for. Now, following the blowback, the studio has reversed course, saying that it actually won’t test ads inside of Blaston (via UploadVR). “We appreciate all of the feedback and thoughts on the Oculus ad test for Blaston and other games that was announced last week,” Resolution Games CEO Tommy Palm said in a statement shared with The Verge. “Some good points have been made, and we realize t...

Univision will launch a Spanish-language streaming service next year that sounds like a bit of a hybrid of Peacock and Netflix, with both a free tier as well as a paid plan that will focus on premium originals. The new service will comprise a “vast content scope, expansive library and more Spanish-language originals than any other streaming service,” Univision said in a press release on Monday. The tiered streaming service will effectively pluck the “best” parts of its existing services, PrendeTV, VIX, and Univision NOW and combine them with the company’s latest content haul gobbled up by way of its acquisition of Televisa, an IP and production grab for which Univision agreed to pay $5 billion. The company previously acquired VIX, another free and ad-supported streaming platform for Spanis...

Microsoft is promising to show off the “next generation” of Windows at a June 24th event at 11AM ET / 8AM PT. The update, which will likely be called Windows 11, is expected to have a revamped look for the operating system as well as updates to the platform’s built-in store. We’ve already gotten a look at the upcoming OS ahead of the announcement, as it leaked in a somewhat useable state. From what we’ve seen, 11 will be a big visual overhaul, taking inspiration from the unreleased Windows 10X, with a redesigned taskbar and Start menu and overall cleaner look throughout, including places like File Explorer and the Windows Store. Despite the leak, there are still some things we’ll have to wait for Microsoft to show off — for example, widgets appear to be back but aren’t functioning in the l...

Amazon owns a robotaxi company, is experimenting with delivery robots that drive on the sidewalk, and now is considering acquiring a big stake in a robot trucking startup. According to Bloomberg, the e-commerce giant recently placed an order for 1,000 autonomous driving systems from Plus.ai, a California-based company working on driverless trucking technology. Amazon is also considering buying a 20 percent stake in Plus — a move that could have serious implications for how the company moves its products around the world. Amazon is thinking about buying as much as 20 percent of Plus Amazon is thinking about buying as much as 20 percent of Plus, which recently announced plans to go public via a reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. The company plans to merge wit...

Samsung and Google’s new upcoming smartwatch platform — which will merge Wear OS and Tizen together — might get its first preview at MWC 2021 at Samsung’s virtual presentation, which the company announced will focus on the Galaxy ecosystem, its new watch experience, and mobile security. The event will be streamed on June 28th from 1:15 – 2 pm ET. The official MWC event page explains that Samsung is “reimagining smartwatches, creating new opportunities for both developers and consumers,” which seems to indicate at least some sort of first look at the future of Samsung’s smartwatches. Announced at Google I/O earlier this year, the new smartwatch operating system is a big moment for the two companies. Samsung’s smartwatches are considered the high-water mark for Android wearables, but they’ve...

Clubhouse — which inadvertently sent every other tech platform from Spotify to Facebook scrambling to build out copycat functionality — seems to be taking its first steps away from pure live audio experiences. How do we know this? The company appears to have accidentally leaked a messaging feature, called Backchannel, to some users late last week. Based on several tweets circulating on Friday (including the below screen recording), Backchannel is an apparent means for users to chat via text instead of audio. Apparently the feature was not referenced whatsoever in the app’s release notes of the version, and what was rolled out looks blatantly unfinished. It’s not clear how long this version of Backchannel existed out in the wild, but Clubhouse seemingly removed it in a hurry. Wow looks like...