Technology

Amazon is adding a new streaming option to its Luna cloud gaming platform that will cap resolution at 720p to help improve stability for players on slower internet connections. Right now, Luna streams only at 1080p, with 4K coming at some point in the future. Yet even at 1080p, internet connections that struggle to keep up with the high bandwidth demands of cloud gaming might result in latency, lag, and audio issues for the player when using a service like Luna. Now, Amazon says those using Luna in its early access beta — the platform has yet to release to the public — can toggle on the 720p streaming mode in the settings panel to help with performance. “One of the most requested features is the ability to play at lower resolutions to match unique internet connection speeds and bandwidth d...

On May 3rd, Fortnite publisher Epic Games will finally have its day in court, forcing Apple to defend kicking Fortnite off the iOS App Store last year. Epic’s antitrust lawsuit is bigger than a single game; it’s a direct challenge to the App Store model, the most significant legal challenge Apple has faced since the Xerox days. Last night, both sides filed a document called a “proposed findings of fact,” essentially laying out every factual claim they’ll rely on in their arguments. The documents run more than 650 pages in total, giving a detailed roadmap of how each side sees the case — from the early days of the iPhone to Epic’s specific preparations for picking this fight with Apple. But the filings also bring the case into focus, raising three questions that will be central to the trial...

Facebook is adding additional labels to posts from Pages that appear in users’ News Feeds in a bid to reduce confusion about their origin. These labels will include “public official,” “fan page,” and “satire page.” The company says it’s already started testing the deployment of these labels in the US, and will gradually add them to more posts. Facebook hasn’t offered any explanation as to why it’s adding these labels, but identifying satire seems particularly important. Take a look at the social shares for any news articles written by well-known satirical sites like The Onion or The Babylon Bee and you’ll find plenty of people taking these stories at face value. In such a context these posts are essentially a type of misinformation, even if their creators did not intend this. Even high pro...

Last month during its virtual GDC presentation Intel announced Bleep, a new AI-powered tool that it hopes will cut down on the amount of toxicity gamers have to experience in voice chat. According to Intel, the app “uses AI to detect and redact audio based on user preferences.” The filter works on incoming audio, acting as an additional user-controlled layer of moderation on top of what a platform or service already offers. It’s a noble effort, but there’s something bleakly funny about Bleep’s interface, which lists in minute detail all of the different categories of abuse that people might encounter online, paired with sliders to control the quantity of mistreatment users want to hear. Categories range anywhere from “Aggression” to “LGBTQ+ Hate,” “Misogyny,” “Racism and Xenophobia,” and “...

Lenovo’s next gaming phone leaked earlier this week, but now the company is officially sharing details about the new device, called the Legion Phone Duel 2. It’s a beast in every way — with a 6.92-inch screen, this is a gigantic phone that houses two batteries, two USB-C ports, and two actual spinning fans, as well as a camera bump that makes us slightly regret we already used the “that’s no moon; it’s a space station” joke on the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra. Some of its features are carryovers from Lenovo’s original Android gaming phone, the Legion Phone Duel, including the twin USB-C ports and a pop-up selfie camera designed for streamers. Like the original Duel, Lenovo also maintains the unusual choice of centering the phone’s other two cameras around back, but now that raised camera bump houses...

Samsung’s Galaxy SmartTag Plus, the souped-up version of the company’s Tile-like SmartTag Bluetooth tracker (which was released earlier this year), now has a release date: it’ll be out on April 16th for $39.99. That’s a $10 price increase over the standard SmartTag, which runs for $29.99 — but the SmartTag Plus has one notable improvement. It features an ultra-wideband (UWB) radio, allowing users to track it more accurately when it’s nearby than the standard Bluetooth setup. The UWB radio actually enables a new AR mode, which can help show users exactly where their missing tag is. To use the new UWB mode, you’ll need both a Galaxy SmartTag Plus and a compatible UWB-equipped Galaxy phone, a list that currently includes the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, Galaxy S21 Plus, Galaxy S21 Ultra, and the Gal...

Twitter’s already building a competitor to the hot social audio app Clubhouse, but apparently, it’s discussed outright acquiring the company, too. Bloomberg reports today that Twitter held discussions with Clubhouse about purchasing the app for around $4 billion. These conversations have reportedly stalled, and it’s unclear why. It’s also unclear whether Twitter or Clubhouse approached the other first, which could speak to how either platform is feeling about the competition in the social audio space. Bloomberg also reported yesterday that Clubhouse is now looking to raise money at a $4 billion valuation; it’s possible that number came out of these Twitter discussions, or that Clubhouse is shopping that figure around. Clubhouse launched last year and popularized the idea of hosting live au...

Apple has not been spared the effects of the ongoing global component shortage, according to a new report in Nikkei. The publication says that some production of MacBooks and iPads has been delayed, with “a portion of component orders” pushed back to the second half of 2021. The issue with MacBooks is said to be related to the ability to mount certain components on circuit boards ahead of the device’s assembly. Delayed iPad production, meanwhile, is apparently because of a shortage of displays and display components. Bloomberg reported earlier this week on how the squeezed supply of display drivers is causing a bottleneck across the entire tech industry. Nikkei didn’t state which MacBook or iPad models would be affected, nor whether the postponed production was for existing devices or yet-...

Adidas has a new version of its Ultraboost DNA running shoes with a unique twist — the company’s iconic three-stripe logo is now made of real plastic Lego bricks, allowing for a pair of more customizable kicks. Officially known as the Adidas Ultraboost DNA X Lego Plates shoes, the new $200 brick sneakers feature transparent plastic slots on the side in the shape of flat two-by-six Lego plates: enough to fit three two-by-two Lego plates in each stripe. The shoes also feature a few other Lego homages, including a Lego logo on the tongue and brick-style detailing on the top and sole of the shoes. The interior lining is also done up in a bright Lego yellow. And while the shoes do come with a collection of bricks in primary colors, there’s presumably nothing stopping you from swapping in your o...

A number of OnePlus 9 Pro owners say they’re getting persistent overheating warnings, often with use of the camera app. Android Police spotted the mounting number of reports, many of which are collected in a thread on OnePlus’ support forum and often mention use of the camera app in connection with the warnings. OnePlus tells The Verge this is a known issue and that a fix will be coming via software updates “over the next few weeks.” Some 9 Pro owners reporting the problem say that the warning appears even with light use of the phone’s still photo or video recording capabilities, and in some cases the phone will prohibit any more photo taking until it cools back down. Others mention the problem arising around or soon after initial setup. We didn’t encounter the issue while testing the OneP...

Facebook is responding to the recent news that data from 533 million accounts leaked online for free, but perhaps not in the way users might have hoped: the company doesn’t plan to notify the users whose data was exposed online, a Facebook spokesperson told Reuters. In the dataset, there’s apparently a lot of information that you might not want floating around the internet — including birthdays, locations, full names, and phone numbers — so it’s disappointing to hear that Facebook doesn’t plan to notify users that might be affected. The company cited two reasons to Reuters as to why it’s not telling users proactively: it says it’s not confident it would know which users would need to be notified, and that users wouldn’t be able to do anything about the data being online. On Tuesday Faceboo...

LG has announced a pledge to issue future Android OS updates to many of its smartphones despite confirming earlier this week that it’ll be leaving the phone business altogether. The Velvet, Wing, and G- and V- series phones from 2019 or later should be getting three Android updates from their year of release, and “certain 2020 models such as LG Stylo and K series” will get two updates. For example, the Velvet came out last year with Android 10, and its Android 11 rollout is currently in progress. That means that it should also be getting Android 12 and 13 at some point, assuming Google continues its yearly cadence. LG variously describes this announcement as a “three-year pledge” and a “three-OS-update guarantee.” The announcement is a little surprising because LG phones generally wouldn’t...