Technology

Bismuth is a heavy, brittle metal that forms colorful geometric crystals when melted and then slowly cooled. It’s most commonly known as a main ingredient in Pepto Bismol — less commonly known as bismuth subsalicylate. And someday soon, it might be used to help power your electronics. Scientists like Robert Hoye, a lecturer in the department of materials at Imperial College London, are using bismuth-based compounds in photovoltaics — materials that convert light into energy. Bismuth has unique electronic properties that not only make it a good candidate for solar cells, but make it great for indoor use — a place where traditional photovoltaics don’t perform too well. That means it might one day replace the need for batteries in billions of indoor electronics, like home sensors and health m...

The amount of heat trapped by Earth’s land, ocean, and atmosphere doubled over the course of just 14 years, a new study shows. To figure out how much heat the earth was trapping, researchers looked at NASA satellite measurements that tracked how much of the Sun’s energy was entering Earth’s atmosphere and how much was being bounced back into space. They compared this with data from NOAA buoys that tracked ocean temperatures — which gives them an idea of how much heat is getting absorbed into the ocean. The difference between the amount of heat absorbed by Earth, and the amount reflected back into space is called an energy imbalance. In this case, they found that from 2005 to 2019, the amount of heat absorbed by Earth was going up. Their results were published in Geophysical Research Letter...

Texas’ energy grid, which failed spectacularly over the winter during a stretch of historically cold weather, will be put to the test again this weekend, as temperatures across much of the state are forecast to be in the upper 90s. Despite assurances from Gov. Greg Abbott that “everything that needed to be done was done to fix the power grid in Texas,” earlier this week the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) urged customers to adjust thermostats to 78 degrees or higher and cut back on electricity use for several days. Texas residents with smart thermostats are eligible for a number of programs, sweepstakes, and discounts which effectively allow energy providers to adjust their thermostats remotely during periods of high energy demand. Known as demand-response programs, some Texa...

Tesla’s been talking up its Model S Plaid as “the quickest production car ever” claiming it can go from 0-60 in a blistering 1.99 seconds. It’s a claim that’s drawn a lot of raised eyebrows from car enthusiasts and experts. Can it really go that fast? Turns out, it can. But only under some incredibly specific Tesla-dictated conditions. That’s what Motor Trend found when it got an exclusive chance to test out the Model S Plaid. Instead of letting the publication put the car through its paces on its usual test track, Tesla’s PR insisted that their drivers use a specific test track, and drive that track in a particular way. Under Tesla’s conditions, Motor Trend went 0-60 in 1.98 seconds, running a quarter-mile in just 9.25 seconds. The entire review is definitely worth a read. But a key takea...

Seeing a laptop with an OLED screen at a sub-$1,000 price point is wild. Not too long ago, finding that display technology under $2,000 would’ve been unthinkable. But if there’s anyone I’d trust to make sub-$1,000 OLED happen, it’s Asus, one of the masters of affordable, portable laptops. And if there’s any combination of companies I’d trust to make sub-$1,000 OLED happen without a battery life disaster, it’s Asus and AMD. That’s about what we got from the Asus ZenBook 13 OLED. Asus hasn’t finalized pricing on all units yet, but it gave me a range of $750 to $1,000. The unit I have — which includes AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800U, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage, in addition to the 13.3-inch OLED FHD display — will presumably be at the top of that range. The base model, which would be $750, comes with...

Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where co-hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories. In this episode, the show is split into three sections. First, Nilay and Dieter talk to Verge senior editor Tom Warren about this week in Microsoft: leaks of the Windows 11 UI, announcements from E3 2021, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella doubling as the company’s chairman. In section two of the show, Verge politics reporter Makena Kelly returns to explain the continuing push by the US government to enact antitrust legislation on tech monopolies — this week, five new bills were introduced and the Senate confirmed a new commissioner of the FTC. In part 3, Verge managing editor Alex Cranz joi...

Prime Day 2021 is kicking off in just a few days. Prime members will get to enjoy exclusive tech and gaming discounts on Amazon. In addition, other retailers like Best Buy, Walmart, and Target will each be having deals of their own that don’t require a subscription. We’ll be covering the deals in-depth starting Monday morning, June 21st, so join us then. We’re collecting the best early Prime Day deals right here, but here are a few more excellent deals to take us into the weekend. Through Sunday, people who sign up for a free My Best Buy account can get $150 off most of Apple’s last-gen iPad Pro in both the 11-inch and 12.9-inch sizes. This limited-time price cut results in the best prices we’ve seen for the Wi-Fi and LTE-connected tablets. To give you a sense of the prices, the base 11-in...

The Boring Company has been pitching potential clients on a much wider tunnel than any it has built so far, Bloomberg reported, which could be used to transport freight. Since its inception in 2016, the Elon Musk-helmed tunneling startup has been focused on tunnels that would transport passengers, with a goal to “solve the problem of soul-destroying traffic” in cities. But the new pitch deck Bloomberg obtained shows how wider tunnels could be used for transporting freight, something that would greatly expand Boring’s potential business. According to Bloomberg, the company’s new pitch includes tunnels that are 21 feet in diameter, nearly twice the size of the 12-foot tunnels the company has built so far, which could accommodate two shipping containers side by side. The company most recently...

Facebook is rolling out its v30 update to the Oculus Quest and Quest 2 VR headsets. As previewed earlier this week by Mark Zuckerberg, v30 includes a new multitasking interface for Infinite Office that lets you put multiple apps side by side, including the browser, Oculus TV, Oculus Move, the store, and so on. Like many new Oculus Quest features, it’ll be found in the Experimental section of the settings menu at first. Once multitasking is enabled, apps can be dragged up from the menu bar or the apps library and snapped into position. The v30 update also enables Air Link for the original Quest headset. Air Link came to the Quest 2 in April and allows you to stream VR games from your PC to your headset wirelessly, as opposed to Oculus Link which does the same thing over a USB-C cable. Origi...

Spotify has acquired Podz, a startup whose technology generates preview clips of podcasts, the streaming service has announced. Unlike other services podcasters can use to manually create clips, TechCrunch says Podz automates the process of finding key moments from episodes using machine learning trained on over 100,000 hours of audio. The acquisition is aimed at improving podcast discovery, letting users browse short clips rather than 30-minute plus podcast episodes. Spotify says this will make it “easier for listeners to find the content they want to listen to, and for creators to be discovered and build a fan base.” Podz tells TechCrunch that users on its platform typically follow up to 30 podcasts, up from an average of seven. Making it “easier for listeners to find the content they wa...

Massively popular battle royale game PUBG Mobile is returning to India after being banned in September 2020, TechCrunch writes. The app is available in early access on Google’s Play Store under a new name, Battlegrounds Mobile India, and with some changes to the game itself, like green blood and a new account system. PUBG Mobile was initially banned alongside hundreds of other apps because of connections to Chinese companies — in this game’s case, it was major video game investor Tencent. At the time of the ban, PUBG Studio (owned by the larger South Korean company Krafton) announced that it would relaunch in the region with new features customized for Indian gamers, including the color change to blood, and framing the game explicitly as a “virtual simulation training ground.” TechCrunch w...

Google Meet, Google’s answer to video calling services like Zoom, is getting a collection of helpful tweaks to its hand-raising feature as part of ongoing updates to Workspace. The new changes, spotted by 9to5Google, include a new hand-raising animation, notification sound, and adjustments to how hosts are made aware of raised hands. While the update is minor, for anyone who uses Google Meet in a large group setting or regularly attends webinars, the tweaks will be helpful — plus, the new animation really is nice. The new hand-raising animation.Image: Google Here’s Google’s breakdown of the changes you’ll notice as the update rolls out to Workspace users: An updated and improved visual icon and animation on the video tile The tiles of people with raised hands may be moved to be more visibl...