Technology

The Amazon Music mobile app is getting a new feature to make it a little bit easier to use while driving. Car Mode is a simplified version of Amazon Music’s interface, featuring larger buttons, suggested playlists and albums, and easy access to Alexa. Once enabled, Car Mode is divided into two sections. The upper part near the top of your phone is devoted to playback controls like play, pause, and skip, while the bottom section features a collection of music suggestions which you can switch between with a swipe or a tap. If a hands-free experience sounds better (and it probably should if you’re trying to drive safely) you can trigger Alexa in the bottom right corner with a tap or by using an Alexa voice command (“Hey Alexa, play Elton John”). Car Mode doesn’t add any new functionality to A...

Jon Stewart is heading back to TV with a new Apple TV Plus show, The Problem with Jon Stewart, which will debut this fall, Apple announced on Wednesday. “‘The Problem with Jon Stewart’ is a multiple season, one-hour, single-issue series which will explore topics that are currently part of the national conversation and his advocacy work,” Apple said in a press release. “Each season of the series will be further explored in a companion podcast to continue the discussion.” Apple didn’t specify how many episodes will be included in each season or how many seasons the show will run. The iPhone maker says this is the first project of a multiyear partnership with the popular political commentator, so it sounds like we could see more shows with Stewart’s involvement on Apple TV Plus in the future....

When I watch CodeMiko, I think a lot about unreality — though not for the obvious reasons. While Miko is a virtual creation, a punkish motion-captured digital avatar with a knack for performing her personality, I find myself more interested in the nature of her performance itself; she’s just magnetic, and I’m not sure I can describe why. I could tell you that her streams are a combination of interviews with big-name streamers, fiddling with motion capture software, and bizarre interactions with chat. I could mention that since her start last March, Miko’s channel has amassed 640,000 followers and that she now streams to more than 7,000 viewers at any given moment she’s live. But I’m not convinced any of that contains the true nature of her gonzo appeal. What I am sure of is that Miko is he...

Google’s I/O developer event is returning this year after being canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and like many other tech events that have taken place during the pandemic, it will be entirely virtual. The event will take place from May 18th through the 20th and will be free to attend, according to 9to5Google, which revealed the date after solving Google’s cryptic I/O puzzle. Typically, Google uses I/O to show off significant updates to its products, new hardware (in 2019, the company revealed the Pixel 3A and the Nest Hub Max smart display), and occasionally, big initiatives like the AI-powered reservation service Google Duplex. It seems likely that Google will show off more of Android 12 during this year’s conference, but beyond that, we’ll have to wait to see what’s in stor...

Uber and Lyft have a driver shortage problem. With the number of US-based drivers for both apps down around 40 percent, the two companies are pledging to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to lure people back into the driver seat. Uber announced Wednesday that it was launching a $250 million “stimulus” for drivers in the hopes of speeding their return to the platform. “In 2020, many drivers stopped driving because they couldn’t count on getting enough trips to make it worth their time,” Dennis Cinelli, Uber’s vice president for mobility in the US and Canada, wrote in a blog post. “In 2021, there are more riders requesting trips than there are drivers available to give them—making it a great time to be a driver.” “a great time to be a driver” Lyft, meanwhile, is covering the cost of rent...

DJI’s unannounced Air 2S drone has leaked in a series of images posted by TechnikNews and WinFuture’s Roland Quandt. The images come after the drone was listed in an FCC filing last month, suggesting that a launch can’t be far away. The DJI Air 2S is expected to be an upgraded version of last year’s Mavic Air 2, with an improved camera and compatibility with new DJI accessories like its V2 Goggles and Motion Controller. Let’s start with the camera sensor. The new renders, as well as a teaser trailer shared earlier in the week by reliable leaker OsitaLV, show a drone with a 1-inch, 20-megapixel sensor. Although that’s lower resolution than the 48-megapixel 1/2-inch sensor found in the Mavic Air 2, its larger physical size should have big performance benefits, especially in low light. The se...

You may think you’re familiar with The Lord of the Rings, but nothing can quite prepare you for an adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic fantasy text made in the Soviet Union. The made-for-TV film first aired on Leningrad Television in 1991 and was thought to be lost to time, as first reported by The Guardian. But the station’s successor, 5TV, recently unearthed a copy from its archives, and uploaded the entire work to YouTube in two parts. Low budget special effects and Soviet mood music With a running time of around 1 hour and 50 minutes, this adaptation focuses only on the first book of Tolkein’s trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring, and is a riot of low-budget special effects, bizarre camera work, and Soviet mood music. Rather than the epic Hollywood fantasy captured so well by Peter J...

Fujifilm has announced the newest addition to the Instax Mini line of instant cameras, the Mini 40. Much like the Instax Mini 11, which was released last March, the Mini 40 is an entry-level instant film camera with only two settings and two buttons. But what sets this camera apart is its vintage film camera look, complete with a plastic faux leather body and metallic-looking plastic rails. It’s a $100 toy camera that instantly creates printed memories — and of course, it’s a blast to play with. Beyond the vintage camera look, the Mini 40 has the same mechanics as the $70 Mini 11. Pushing the large silver button under the lens compartment will pop the lens out and turn the camera on. Selfie mode is activated by pulling the outermost part of the lens out about half an inch more. And when yo...

Swedish electric performance automaker Polestar says it will build the world’s first truly zero-emissions vehicle without relying on carbon offsets, which it described as a “cop-out.” The company, which was spun out of Volvo and Volvo’s parent company Geely, framed its effort to cut carbon emissions by changing the way its cars are made as a “moonshot goal” that would result in the world’s first carbon neutral vehicle by 2030. Carbon offsets, like tree planting, have become a standard way for car companies and other businesses to write off their carbon emissions by investing in renewable energy or conservation projects aimed at bolstering forests’ ability to naturally store carbon. But there’s growing evidence that offsets haven’t succeeded in slowing global warming and have instead given ...

Sennheiser is introducing some new mics for creators to use on consumer-level cameras and phones, including an update for its popular camera-mounted MKE 400 shotgun microphone and new phone-friendly lavaliere microphones. The updated MKE 400 shotgun microphone looks to be an upgrade in many ways from the previous version — it’s got a new design, which incorporates a windscreen (it also comes with a furry wind sock), a built-in headphone port, and, blessedly, can automatically turn on or off with your camera. It also now comes with a free wind blocker for when it gets really breezy. That should help reduce the number of times you finish recording, only to realize that you didn’t actually capture the audio you were hoping for (something I’ve absolutely done before). The updated MKE 400, with...

A pair of Microsoft support pages have appeared for the unannounced Surface Laptop 4, suggesting a launch may be imminent. One is a placeholder for an AMD version of the laptop, while the other is for an Intel model. Both were spotted by WalkingCat, an often reliable source of gadget leaks, who speculates that we might see them launched at a Surface event as soon as next week. The Microsoft support page doesn’t give many more details on the laptop, but a report from WinFuture last month fills in the details. The AMD processors used will reportedly be from its 4000 mobile series, and will include the Ryzen 5 4680U and the Ryzen 7 4980U. That’s a step up from the 3000-series chips used in 2019’s Surface Laptop 3, but anyone hoping to see AMD’s brand new Ryzen 5000 mobile processors here migh...

eBay has announced a new addition coming to its mobile app: soon, you’ll be able to scan trading cards from popular games like Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, and Yu-Gi-Oh! to more easily sell them on the online auction site. The new card scanning feature is set to arrive at the end of April, but it’ll only support Magic: The Gathering when it launches. Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! are planned to be added in May, with sports cards and “other collectible card games” on the docket for later in the year. Using the new scanning option, sellers will be able to just scan a card, at which point eBay will use the card’s details to help automatically build the listing. Sellers will still have to add additional information, like photos of the actual card, its condition, the price they wish to sell it for, a...