Technology

It’s a fundamental rule of the road: driver picks the music. And yet, in a brazen challenge to the immutable laws of the universe, Spotify has chosen to meddle with this golden rule by expanding its Group Session beta to cars. Starting today, up to six people in the car can all control music at the same time, starting with the Android Automotive-powered Polestar 2. “We all know that sometimes the driver doesn’t have the best taste in music and my family tends to agree. The addition of Group Sessions Beta from Spotify is a great way for others in the vehicle to influence the playlist and enjoy their favorite tracks,” commented Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath, a man who clearly cannot be trusted with playlist powers. Group Session rolled out last year as a beta and is limited to Spotify premiu...

Facebook introduced Stories to its platform four years ago, mostly as a way to encourage people to post content that wasn’t highly produced or necessarily photogenic. Now, it’s giving some users a chance to make money through that content. The company announced a test today that’ll allow some creators to place ads that look like stickers into their stories and receive a cut of the resulting revenue. The initial test is “very small,” Facebook says, but it hopes to expand it “soon” and then apply the technology to all short-form videos on Facebook. In a chat with The Verge, Yoav Arnstein, director of product management, says he can’t share creator or advertiser partners because the test is still in the early conceptual phase. He said the broader idea, though, is to give advertisers a natural...

Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Series S consoles are some of the most sought-after consoles to buy right now. Those looking for another shot to get either console can buy one right now at Target. You will have the option to pay for either console in full or through Xbox All Access, allowing you to get either console upfront at no cost. Similar to the PS5 restocks that went up earlier this morning, Target is limiting the purchase of these next-gen consoles to in-store pickup only. Not every store has the next-gen Xbox hardware in stock and the ones that do have a very limited supply. Xbox Series X / S Prices taken at time of publishing. The Xbox Series X is Microsoft’s flagship console, serving as its most powerful (and biggest) option that costs $499.99. While the $299.99 Series S is aimed ...

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic closed most offices, more and more official papers were being turned into PDF documents. (PDF stands for Portable Document Format; it is a standard created by Adobe in the early 1990s that allows paper documents to be turned into exact digital copies.) These days, hard copy paperwork is fast becoming the exception rather than the rule. However, even digital documents have to be signed. You can do it the long way — print those documents out, sign them, and then scan them back into your computer — or you can create a digital signature and place it directly on the PDF. Unfortunately, while Windows doesn’t offer a built-in PDF signing feature the way a Mac does, there are third-party apps you can download that will give you the same ability. In this case, I’m ...

Modern fashion is fraught with wasted product, so some designers are thinking about ways to transform these unwanted goods into artistic pieces meant for the runway. One of those is FRISKMEGOOD, a futuristic brand that creates upcycled high fashion and editorial pieces out of used or deadstock sneakers and other secondhand finds. Owner and designer Cierra Boyd found success on her Depop shop when her signature designs — corsets and bodysuits made from old or unused shoes — were featured on its Explore page. Now, her brand’s ballooning popularity has enabled Boyd to pursue opportunities beyond her online shop. Boyd, based in Cleveland, Ohio, now lives and works in her studio apartment after three years of growing her business and creativity from her mom’s house. While she hopes to eventuall...

Jay “Sinatraa” Won, one of the biggest names in competitive Valorant, has been suspended from the game and by his team following accusations of sexual assault. In a statement posted on Tuesday, Cleo Hernandez posted a lengthy account of her nine-month-long relationship with Won, detailing a disturbing history of physical and emotional abuse, supported by audio recordings and screenshots of messages. “I have avoided talking about any aspects of me and Jay’s relationship for over a year,” Hernandez wrote. “I never spoke about it mostly because this is horrifying, and also because I’ve seen the way women in our community are treated when they try to talk about being hurt by prominent figures.” Won is a former Overwatch League MVP who made the switch to Valorant last year. Since Hernandez’s ac...

NASA has released an audio recording of its Perseverance rover firing lasers on the martian surface. The strikes, which sound like a series of small clicks, are designed to help scientists analyze the rocks around the rover. In this case the target was a rock called “Máaz,” which scientists were able to discover was basaltic, BBC News reports, meaning it contains a lot of magnesium and iron. According to NASA’s site, the laser is fired by Perseverance’s “SuperCam,” and allows the rover to “zap and study areas on a rock as small as the period at the end of this sentence” from a distance of 20 feet (7 meters) away. Once the laser has fired at a rock, it uses its camera and spectrometer to analyze the hot gas the rock is vaporized into. The sound the laser creates offers additional data on th...

So this was a weird one: depending on the browser you’re using, your space bar may not have worked in the YouTube.com search bar for a little while today. Pressing it would make absolutely nothing happen, so your YouTube searches ended up being one long string of words. The bug seemed to be around for an hour, based on when people started sounding off about it on Twitter, but as of 3:50PM ET, the site appeared to be working correctly again on all browsers. The bug affected the desktop site, but only browsers that aren’t based on Chrome. Firefox wouldn’t take spaces in Windows, macOS, or even Android if you requested the desktop version of the website. Safari on iPhones worked as normal, but the problems showed up on Safari on iPad — probably because iPads request the desktop site, too. Ask...

We have a very clear picture of what the upcoming OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro will look like thanks to WinFuture — the site has published a whole bunch of official press renders of the upcoming phones well ahead of the March 23rd launch. We got our first official look at the upcoming flagship in a teaser video from OnePlus earlier this week, but this latest leak features both regular and Pro models from multiple angles in a variety of colors. These renders align with what OnePlus has already shared, and they also resemble an alleged prototype device that was leaked late last year. It appears that the OnePlus 9 Pro will come with a slightly curved 6.7-inch display, and the OnePlus 9 will feature a flat 6.5-inch screen. That’s about the extent of the spec details in this leak; WinFuture speculates t...

Our pick for the best gaming laptop of 2021 is the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15. It can handle the most demanding games on the market today and also makes a great daily driver. The early days of mobile gaming were largely desktop replacements — clunky chassis, multiple power bricks, and RGB lighting galore. But the top gaming laptops now are different. Manufacturers are finally putting powerful specs in sleeker, more portable, and more professional builds. They have excellent, fast refreshing screens that are necessary for a great gaming experience. These laptops aren’t just great for gaming, but for everyday work as well. We’ll be updating this page regularly as new gaming laptop models hit shelves throughout this year. Some exciting updates are on the way. AMD and Nvidia have announced their ne...

GameStop stock (GME) soared in value on Wednesday, peaking at $348.50 per share. Then, in an event that’s definitely not cause for concern, minutes later it lost fully half its value by plummeting to $172, Bloomberg reports. Yes, “stonks” are back, and GameStop is once again in the crosshairs of online amateur investors. Wednesday’s drama ultimately ended with the price settling back down to $265 per share, but it’s hard to not feel déjà vu. It seems like it was only yesterday when everyone was watching in a mixture of shock, amusement, and general concern as GME crested $483 per share. The rise and fall doesn’t quite compare, but the losses for anyone who sold during Wednesday’s dip in price are likely huge. GME’s journey from being worth $17 in January, to $260+ in March. Note the peaks ...