Technology

Two Coinbase employees have managed to find a heartwarming use for NFTs by incorporating them into their wedding, exchanging the digital tokens as part of the ceremony. Rebecca Rose and Peter Kacherginsky say that alongside their traditional Jewish ceremony, the couple also sent each other digital tokens as “virtual rings” to each other. In a Twitter thread about the wedding, Rose said that their virtual rings now exist on the blockchain “for all to see as proof of our commitment to each other.” Normally, a wedding picture with the couple at the altar using their phones would be, to put it mildly, kind of depressing. But with the context that they’re basically exchanging rings, albeit in an untraditional way, it makes it kind of cute. It also helps that you can actually see the exchange fo...

Google will soon be more selective about which apps on the Play Store can see all of the other apps you have installed (via XDA-Developers). As Ars Technica points out, your list of installed apps, innocent as it seems, can communicate to developers personal traits like dating preferences and political affiliations. So starting on May 5th, 2021, developers will have to provide a very good reason for why Google should let you access info like that. Android 11 apps that currently request the “QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES” permission can see the full list of apps you have stored on your device. But Google recently updated its Developer Program Policy and now considers that info to be “personal and sensitive user data,” restricting which apps are allowed to use it. Once the change goes into effect in Ma...

A pressure vessel from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage fell on a man’s farm in Washington State last week, leaving a “4-inch dent in the soil,” the local sheriff’s office said Friday. The black Composite-Overwrapped Pressure Vessel, or COPV, was a remnant from the alien invasion-looking breakup of a Falcon 9 second stage over Oregon and Washington on March 26, local officials said. The stage reentered the atmosphere in an unusual spot in the sky after sending a payload of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites to orbit. A Grant County, Washington property owner, who told authorities he didn’t want to be identified, found the errant COPV — roughly the size and shape of a hefty punching bag — sitting on his farm one morning last weekend. He reported it to the Grant County Sheriff’s Office, GCSO spokesm...

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are big business now, at least for the moment. Everything from one of Creepy Chan’s first Myspace posts to a New York Times article has been put up for sale. (The Times piece went for the Ether equivalent of $560,000.) But they weren’t always a speculative, suspiciously scammy garden. In fact, according to Glitch CEO Anil Dash in a new piece in The Atlantic, the whole thing started as a project kludged together for a hackathon that brought artists and technologists together. It all started in May 2014, Dash writes, when he was paired up with the digital artist Kevin McCoy. “This was around the peak of Tumblr culture, when a raucous, wildly inspiring community of millions of artists and fans was sharing images and videos completely devoid of attribution, compensat...

Bruno Mars is the latest celebrity to jump into the virtual world of Fortnite. Today, developer Epic Games announced that the battle royale game would be getting a new Mars emote — essentially an in-game dance — set to the singer’s song “Leave the Door Open.” Players will be able to buy it starting at 8PM ET tonight. Fortnite is steadily becoming a place filled with real-world stars, whether it’s streamers like Tyler “Ninja” Blevins or the upcoming appearance of Brazilian soccer star Neymar. Music, in particular, has been a big focal point for the game. Marshmello and Travis Scott both held massive in-game concerts with millions of virtual attendees, BTS debuted a music video, and Epic even created its own soundstage to host shows from the likes of Dominic Fike, J Balvin, and Anderson .Paa...

Until recently, the default voice for Apple’s Siri assistant has been stereotypically female-sounding. However, studies have found that having AI assistants default to female-sounding voices can reinforce harmful stereotypes, so Apple has tried to fix that in its upcoming iOS 14.5, which is now in beta. When you update your phone to iOS 14.5, you’ll be prompted to pick a default voice for Siri — and Apple is including two new voice options. However, if you’ve changed your mind and want to use a different voice (or are using the 14.5 beta and weren’t prompted), this guide will show you how to change the voice after setup. It’s a reasonably simple process. First, go to the Settings app, then to Siri & Search, and tap Siri Voice. There, you’ll be presented with the list of options. Tap Si...

Tesla delivered nearly 185,000 cars in the first quarter of 2021, more than it produced over the three-month period, according to numbers the company shared on Friday. Tesla has been ramping up production capacity and just nearly missed CEO Elon Musk’s goal of delivering 500,000 cars in 2020. Of the cars Tesla delivered in Q1 2021, nearly 183,000 were Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, more than the 180,000 of those models produced in Q1. On top of the Model 3 and Model Y deliveries, the company also sold an additional 2,020 Model S cars that had been produced in previous quarters. Tesla could beat last year’s 500,000-car goal Tesla announced redesigns for the Model S and Model X in January 2021, which added new powertrains, higher range options, and the landscape in-car display from the more p...

Nomad’s well-designed Base Station Pro is a Qi wireless charger that can charge up to three devices simultaneously — perfect if you have a phone, watch, and earbuds. If its $200 price tag has been a stumbling block, Nomad is offering a 50 percent discount on the charger until Sunday, April 4th, at 2:59AM ET (Saturday at 11:59PM PT if you’re on the West Coast). To get this price, enter the code VOX at checkout. If you have an Apple Watch, you can also add the Apple Watch attachment for $5. Nomad Base Station Pro $100 $200 50% off Prices taken at time of publishing. Nomad’s Base Station Pro Qi wireless charger houses multiple Aira FreePower charging coils that allow for a thin design without compromising performance. Its design helps it waste less energy and generate less excess heat compare...

You may come across the occasional writer who will claim (wrongly) that they don’t need an editor, but you will seldom, if ever, meet a writer or editor who will say they don’t need a copy editor. The role of a copy editor is often misunderstood or underestimated by those not in the business. Kara Verlaney, senior copy editor for The Verge, when asked to explain the role of a copy editor, put it this way: “Copy editing is about maintaining consistency and accuracy, which is what gives sites like The Verge the authority to tell our audience about a subject. Beyond checking for grammatical errors and extolling the Oxford comma, copy editors also monitor things like sensitivity and tone, style, source diversity, and clarity. The Verge’s process has copy editors checking pieces right before pu...

This story is part of a group of stories called Only the best deals on Verge-approved gadgets get the Verge Deals stamp of approval, so if you’re looking for a deal on your next gadget or gift from major retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Target, and more, this is the place to be. Easter is on Sunday, and if you celebrate the holiday but won’t be able to visit your family this year, a Zoom call is a great substitute to ensure you can still connect with your loved ones. A few devices support Zoom, including Amazon’s Echo Show 8, which is on sale for $75 at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target. Normally, this device costs $130. Amazon Echo Show 8 $75 $130 43% off Prices taken at time of publishing. Amazon’s $130 smart display featuring a bright and sharp 8-inch display. Amazon is also d...

We already knew MLB The Show 21 would be the first entry in the Sony-published series to arrive on Xbox consoles. And today, Microsoft revealed the next entry in the long-running baseball franchise will also be available on Xbox Game Pass for consoles when the game releases on April 20th. According to the blog post, the Xbox One and Xbox Series X / S versions will be playable on Microsoft’s video game subscription service. The game will also be available on Android devices via xCloud, which is available at no additional cost if you are subscribed to the pricier Xbox Game Pass Ultimate tier. MLB The Show 21 is a huge win for Xbox owners. In the past, the series has been exclusive to PlayStation platforms, while competitors released for Xbox have never quite become true contenders to The Sho...

It sounds like something out of a children’s movie — after French police arrested three Polish thieves who attempted to steal toys in June 2020, specifically Lego sets. Now authorities are trying to address a growing trend of Lego robberies by warning business owners and parents, The Guardian reports. According to a report in Le Parisien, the thieves were part of a gang that would stay in hotels near Paris, drive around in an Audi, and “raid” toy stores for valuable Lego sets to resell in Poland. The thieves were caught robbing a PicWicToys toy store, after being spotted in 2019 and 2020 at two separate European toy stores, La Grande Récré and Maxi Toys. French police are reportedly “building a case” against the gang in response, The Guardian writes. The idea that plastic Lego bricks are w...