Technology

TikTok is being sued by a voice actor who claims to be behind its viral text-to-speech feature, but says she never authorized TikTok — or just about anyone, really — to use her voice this way. The lawsuit, filed last week, says Bev Standing’s voice has been used to repeat “foul and offensive language” and that TikTok’s use will cause her “irreparable harm.” It’s unclear how Standing’s voice could have come to be used by TikTok, at least by the lawsuit’s telling. Standing says that she did voice recordings for a text-to-speech feature “several years ago” for a group called the Institute of Acoustics (IOA). Those recordings were meant to be used for translations of Chinese texts as part of a contract with an unnamed Chinese company, the lawsuit says. Standing says she did not authorize the I...

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Justice, Bloomberg reports, with officials who handle money laundering and tax offenses in particular taking a interest in Binance’s business. Founded in 2017, Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. It’s incorporated in the Cayman Islands and has an office in Singapore. According to Bloomberg, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has been investigating whether Binance allowed Americans to make illegal trades on its platform, by letting them buy derivatives linked to digital tokens. US residents can only purchase these kinds of products from firms registered with the CFTC. Binance has said in the past it does block Americans from conducting illegal ...

Netflix announced that it’s partnering with Tsuburaya Productions to create a new CG Ultraman movie, in the hopes of bringing the popular Japanese character to an even larger global audience. Ultraman’s never been a household name outside of Japan despite leaving a huge impression on popular culture — the original Ultraman series popularized the “giant man in a suit fights people dressed up as monsters in a model city” genre — but Netflix is hoping to change that. The new CG Ultraman film, besides leaving the franchise’s original live action format, will feature a different version of the character and what sounds like a slightly unusual setup for the plot — Ultraman has undergone “dadification”. Per Tsuburaya Productions’ synopsis: Baseball superstar Ken Sato returns to his home country o...

At the end of March, Netflix acquired the rights to two Knives Out sequels in a blockbuster deal reportedly worth more than $400 million, and the cast for the first sequel is quickly shaping up to be as epic as the one for the original movie. We got the first inkling about the new cast on Monday, when Deadline reported that Dave Bautista was joining the cast of the film. (He talked about his role with Polygon’s Tasha Robinson in an interview published on Tuesday.) Then, on Tuesday, Deadline had another scoop, reporting that Ed Norton has signed on as well. On Wednesday, The Hollywood Reporter said that musician and actress Janelle Monáe is joining the cast. And on Thursday, Deadline reported that Kathryn Hahn, who you might know from her excellent role in WandaVision, will be appearing in ...

People who are fully vaccinated can shed their masks and gather indoors or outdoors without worrying about social distancing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced today. “If you were fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic. We have all longed for this moment, when we can get back to some sense of normalcy,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky said in a press conference today. People are considered to be fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving their final dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. There are a few caveats. Vaccinated people who are immunocompromised should talk to their doctor before getting rid of their masks, Walensky said. Certain settings will still require a mask, including health care settings, public...

Elon Musk shouldn’t hold his breath waiting for bitcoin to become environmentally friendly enough for Tesla to take it as payment. Musk announced yesterday that Tesla was walking away from the cryptocurrency because of the fossil fuels used for bitcoin mining and transactions. In the announcement, he left the door open for Tesla to accept bitcoin again if mining the cryptocurrency eventually runs on “more sustainable energy.” But some experts caution that renewable energy is not a silver bullet for bitcoin’s sustainability problem. The Verge spoke with Alex de Vries, a digital currency economist who has consistently called out bitcoin’s growing greenhouse gas emissions. He runs the blog Digiconomist, which keeps a running tab on bitcoin’s estimated energy use and emissions. While some othe...

The Italian Competition Authority (ICA) handed Google an approximately $120 million (€100 million) fine today for not letting a third-party charging app on Android Auto in 2019 (via 9to5Google). The case started with a probe into the search giant’s automotive software business, which until October 2020 had limitations around what kinds of apps were allowed to be developed and released for use while driving. Enel Group, an Italian energy company, originally complained in 2019 that Google wouldn’t allow its Enel X Recharge app on Android Auto. The app can help find charging locations for electric cars, a feature Google first added to Google Maps in 2018. Today’s ICA fine is focused on Enel X JuicePass, which is the renamed version of the same app with the same EV features. Along with the fin...

Google said on Thursday that it signed a deal with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to use the space company’s growing satellite internet service, Starlink, with its cloud unit. SpaceX will install Starlink terminals at Google’s cloud data centers around the world, aiming to utilize the cloud for Starlink customers and enabling Google to use the satellite network’s speedy internet for its enterprise cloud customers. The Starlink-Google Cloud capabilities, which include secure data delivery to remote areas of the world, will be available to customers by the end of 2021, Google said in a press release Thursday morning. SpaceX will install the first Starlink terminal at Google’s New Albany, Ohio, data center, a spokesman said, adding more plans on the partnership will be shared in the coming months. SpaceX...

The need for a home / office printer has increased as more of us are working or schooling from home. You could be a parent who needs to print out workbooks for your child. Or you may find that it’s easier to make notes on a business report using a pen or pencil rather than a keyboard. Or you’ve suddenly discovered that a government office is demanding that you snail mail a form to them. Or you’re tired of trekking to your local office supply store for printing out occasional forms. Whatever the reason, if you find yourself in need of a printer, it’s not difficult to find one. Printers have not changed a lot over the past few years; they’ve just become more efficient and less expensive. You will still be choosing between laser and inkjet printers, color and black-ink-only printers, and prin...

Qualcomm has announced that it will skip Mobile World Congress’ in-person show in Barcelona this year, making it the latest major company to announce that it will miss the potential COVID-19 superspreader event in June in favor of an online presence at the show. “While we appreciate the health and safety measures being put into place by the GSMA for MWC Barcelona, we have decided that it is in the best interest of our employees and customers for Qualcomm’s participation to be virtual this year,” the company said in a statement obtained by TechCrunch. Qualcomm is by no means the only major company opting for a digital appearance at MWC this year: Google, Nokia, Ericsson, Sony, and Oracle have all pulled out of this year’s show entirely, while Samsung and Lenovo have announced that they will...