Technology

Phoebe Waller-Bridge is joining the as-yet-untitled fifth Indiana Jones film, co-starring as an as-yet-announced character opposite Harrison Ford (who’ll be returning as the titular adventurer, of course). Also set to return is John Williams, who has scored the previous four films and whose “Raiders March” theme is indelibly associated with the character. Disney hasn’t announced details on who Waller-Bridge (best known for her award-winning series Fleabag, along with appearances in Solo and the upcoming No Time to Die) will be playing, although in a 2019 interview with The Sun, franchise creator Steven Spielberg did acknowledge that it might be time for a female iteration of the character. Using the fifth film to pass the torch from the 78-year-old Ford to Waller-Bridge could be a good way...

Google has officially announced a new Pixel phone, the Pixel 5A 5G. It’s done so in the same way it has announced a lot of recent Pixel phones: by reacting to a rumor. This time is a little less fun than usual, though, because the rumor in question is that the phone had been canceled entirely. In response, a Google spokesperson sent along the following statement: Pixel 5a 5G is not cancelled. It will be available later this year in the U.S. and Japan and announced in line with when last year’s a-series phone was introduced. Earlier today, Android Central cited two independent sources claiming the Pixel 5A had been canceled, following a tweet from Jon Prosser claiming it was due to chip shortages. It does appear that the chip shortages are real, however, as Google is only planning to releas...

In its first budget proposal to Congress on Friday, the White House called for new funding to fight the ongoing semiconductor shortage. Among other measures, the White House’s budget request includes $150 million to fund two new manufacturing programs, including one targeting domestic semiconductor manufacturing. It’s the latest effort from the White House to address the ongoing semiconductor shortage, which has stalled supply for consumer items like the PlayStation 5 and halted production at Ford assembly lines. The “American Jobs Plan,” the sweeping $2 trillion infrastructure package unveiled in March, also included new funding to build domestic chip manufacturing capacity, allocating over $50 billion for investment in the sector. In February, President Biden signed an executive order ca...

To whom it may concern at The Walt Disney Company and / or Lucasfilm: Show me the damn lightsaber. I know you have a real one now. And it’s time to fess up. Let’s backtrack a bit. Yesterday, at a seemingly routine press event for the upcoming launch of Disneyland’s new Avengers Campus area on June 4th, Josh D’Amaro, the chairman of Disney parks, ended his presentation with a surprise reveal of a new lightsaber. According to tweets from theme park reporter Carlye Wisel, who attended the press conference, the lightsaber was not the typical IRL lightsaber of “a giant light up stick attached to a neat-looking hilt.” In fact, it was the holy grail of replica sabers: one that can fully extend and retract its blade, just like the “real” lightsabers in the films. I just attended a virtual press co...

A flight from the UK to Spain took off with more than a metric ton of unexpected weight after a software error classified female passengers using the title “Miss” as children. This led to the flight’s load sheet estimating the weight of 38 female passengers as 38 kg or 77 pounds each, the standard weight for children, instead of 69 kg or 152 pounds, the standard weight used for female adults. The error was classified as a “serious incident” by the UK’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) but did not affect the flight’s safety. Despite a discrepancy of 1,244 kg (2,743 pounds) between the expected and actual mass of the aircraft, the thrust used in takeoff by the pilot was only “marginally less” than what was required. “This meant the safe operation of the aircraft was not compromised,...

Samsung Electronics is close to ordering millions of OLED TV panels from LG Display, according to new reports from MTN, ETNews, and Seoul Economic Daily. Officials reportedly met recently to agree to the deal, which would see 1 million panels supplied to Samsung in the second half of this year, rising to 4 million panels next year. If the deal is finalized, it would be the first time Samsung has bought OLED panels from its South Korean rival and market leader. TVs with LG’s OLED panels consistently rate amongst the best in professional reviews. Samsung exited the OLED TV market over half a decade ago. Today, LG Display supplies OLED panels to a variety of TV manufacturers including Sony, Vizio, and Hisense, as well as LG Electronics. Last year LG Display announced an expansion of its OLED ...

The Folio Society has released a limited-edition, four-volume set of Philip K. Dick’s collected short stories and I am seriously considering selling my plasma to buy a copy. Each volume is bound in fluorescent colors, with 2,560 pages of text containing some 118 stories. There are 24 illustrations by 24 different artists, and the set itself has a theme inspired by the symbols found on Zener cards — famously used throughout the 20th century to test for telepaths (mind-reading being a recurrent theme in Dick’s fiction). The collection is absolutely stunning, like so many special editions by The Folio Society, but has a hefty price-tag of £495 ($679). There are also only 750 copies available to buy and it looks like they’re selling out quick. [embedded content] Philip K. Dick is an undisputed...

Samsung has released a new website to give iPhone users “a little taste of Samsung” from their mobile browser. When visited on an iPhone, the site prompts users to add it to their phone’s home screen, after which it turns into a shortcut to a simulated Samsung Galaxy device. The site appears to be the work of Samsung New Zealand, MacRumors reports. The experience might be limited, but it’s a neatly designed bit of marketing. Open up the camera “app” and a video will automatically play featuring influencer Logan Dodds, who describes Samsung’s camera app features in the interface around him. Poke around the other “apps” in the home screen and Samsung happily markets its phone’s other features and accessories, while text messages and even a fake phone call outline others. A tooltip from the s...

Facebook and Instagram were down on Thursday afternoon. The outage appeared to start around 5:30PM ET, with several thousand people reporting outages on DownDetector. The outage is the second one in less than a month from the social media giant; an outage on March 19th took its sites offline for several hours. Facebook returned a “sorry something went wrong” error message: The company didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment from The Verge on the cause of the outage; it’s unclear at this time when service will be fully restored. The outage appeared to affect Facebook’s internal websites as well, first noted in a tweet from developer Jane Wong. Even Facebook’s outage dashboard appeared to be having problems. Shortly after 6PM ET, Facebook and Instagram appeared to be coming back fo...

Apple knows that iMessage’s blue bubbles are a big barrier to people switching to Android, which is why the service has never appeared on Google’s mobile operating system. That’s according to depositions and emails from Apple employees, including some high-ranking executives, revealed in a court filing from Epic Games as part of its legal dispute with the iPhone manufacturer. Epic argues that Apple consciously tries to lock customers into its ecosystem of devices, and that iMessage is one of the key services helping it to do so. It cites comments made by Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services Eddie Cue, senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi, and Apple Fellow Phil Schiller to support its argument. “The #1 most difficult [reason] to leave the ...

Nike and the internet collective MSCHF have settled their trademark dispute over a run of unofficially modified Satan-themed Nike sneakers. Neither company disclosed the terms of the deal. But it apparently includes an offer to let customers return their $1,018 “Satan Shoes” — or a pair of MSCHF’s earlier “Jesus Shoes” — for a full refund. In a statement to The Verge, MSCHF’s attorneys said they were “pleased” with the settlement over the shoes, which were designed in collaboration with rapper Lil Nas X. “With these Satan Shoes — which sold out in less than a minute — MSCHF intended to comment on the absurdity of the collaboration culture practiced by some brands, and about the perniciousness of intolerance,” the attorneys said. They said that the artistic message was also “powerfully” com...

After being delayed for almost a year because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Avengers Campus will finally open at Disneyland, specifically at the Disney’s California Adventure park in Anaheim, California on June 4th, according to the company (via CNBC). The new area will bring Marvel Cinematic Universe characters into the physical space. CNBC reported the Avengers Campus will include character meet-and-greets with Thor, Black Panther, Black Widow, and other MCU heroes (and villains). It’ll feature a new Spider-Man ride as well as the existing Guardians of the Galaxy rescue mission — plus the debut of the flying Spider-Man stunt double robot the company has been teasing for years. [embedded content] Here’s the company’s extremely brief video tour: [embedded content] “We’ve got the ultimat...