Technology

Update February 12th, 10:05AM ET: When this was written, Amazon and Walmart were selling the AirPods Pros for $180. While this deal is no longer available, B&H Photo and Best Buy are selling the devices at the lower price of $200. Also, be sure to check out our roundup of the best AirPods sales at any given time. When it comes to true wireless earbuds, Apple’s AirPods Pro are possibly the best option out there. If you have been holding off on buying the AirPods Pro, hoping for a decent price drop, your time has come: Apple’s flagship wireless earbuds are just $200 at B&H Photo and Best Buy right now. That’s $49 off the usual $249 price tag. While this is not the lowest price we have seen these earbuds go for, the AirPods Pro rarely gets marked down to anything lower than $190. Amon...

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and musician Jay-Z have pledged 500 bitcoin (around $23.3 million) toward ₿trust, an endowment to fund bitcoin development, Dorsey announced on Twitter today. The CEO said development will initially be focused on teams in Africa and India, but that he and Jay-Z plan to give “zero direction” to the plans. ₿trust is currently looking for three board members, with an application form noting its mission is to “make bitcoin the internet’s currency.” Africa and India are two interesting markets in which to focus bitcoin development. As TechCrunch notes, cryptocurrencies have grown increasingly popular throughout the African continent for making cross-border transactions cheaper, and in some cases being resistant to government control. Nigeria is reportedly second only to ...

Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast The Vergecast to discuss this week in Verge headlines. Here’s what The Verge’s Nilay Patel, Dieter Bohn, and Adi Robertson focus the episode on this week: Google’s mysterious lack of iOS app updates, the rumors around an Apple-made VR / AR headset, and the gadget headlines you may have missed. This week, users of the iOS versions of Google’s apps were shown a prompt claiming the software was “out of date” and suggesting updates to the current versions due to security risks. However, Google had not updated their apps yet and haven’t for several weeks now. The Vergecast crew discuss whether this is related to Apple’s new mandatory App Store privacy labels and what leverage Google might be trying to gain. Also, it’s another week of rumore...

In 2021, buying the best phone means looking for something that should last you a few years. Smartphones’ upgrade cycles are slowing down for a reason: even at lower prices, it’s getting harder and harder to buy a lemon. In other words, you don’t have to spend a huge amount to get something great, as a bunch of great smartphones are available for around $800. It’s harder than ever to decide between everything in that range, but for most people, our pick for the best phone is the Apple iPhone 12. Luckily, if you’re looking for a no-compromise smartphone at any price, the choices over a thousand dollars are much clearer. If you like Android, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is incredibly good. And if you want to get the best smartphone on a budget, you can find something really good for under $5...

Amazon has filed a lawsuit against the New York state attorney general’s office as a preemptive effort to prevent legal action over the company’s handling of COVID-19 conditions at a Staten Island warehouse last spring. Amazon is seeking an injunction preventing the attorney general’s office from trying to exercise “regulatory authority over workplace safety responses to COVID-19 and claims of retaliation against workers who protest working conditions.” Workers at Amazon’s JKF8 warehouse said last March that they didn’t have necessary protective equipment and were not informed when co-workers tested positive for the virus. Amazon fired several workers who protested the conditions, including Chris Smalls, who organized a walkout in March. The company said Smalls was fired for violating soci...

Six Days in Fallujah, a controversial third-person shooter set during the Iraq War, is back in development over a decade after being canceled following negative feedback and controversy surrounding the game’s premise. Originally announced in 2009 for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360, Six Days in Fallujah is a tactical shooter set during the Second Battle of Fallujah. The game’s original developer — a now-defunct studio called Atomic Games — said it was working with real US soldiers in order to create a more authentic experience. Following the initial announcement, several groups spoke out, criticizing the game’s concept. The negative reception eventually led Konami, the original publisher, to announce it would no longer publish it. ‘Six Days in Fallujah’ is slated to launch in 2021 The new developer ...

Unsurprisingly, there was much less autonomous vehicle testing in California in 2020 compared to years prior. The COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdowns forced many AVs off the road in the early part of the year. But companies licensed to operate AVs on public roads in California still logged nearly 2 million miles of testing, with two of the top operators, Waymo and Cruise, comprising the bulk of those miles thanks to what some safety drivers allege was a lax attitude toward safety. Autonomous vehicles registered in California traveled approximately 1.99 million miles in autonomous mode on public roads in 2020, a decrease of about 800,000 miles from the previous year, according to the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles. These mileage figures were reported as part of the state’s annual ...

When the first Mavic Mini was introduced, it was clearly created with one purpose: make a drone with an adequate camera that weighs under 250 grams. That number is the key spec because anything under it still doesn’t require FAA registration. The new DJI Mini 2 hits that same sub-250g target but with fewer compromises than the first Mini. Where the original was mostly targeting people who were thinking about making that first step into the drone world, the DJI Mini 2 aims to satisfy not only beginners but also experienced drone pilots, photographers, and videographers. As someone who spends a lot of his free time traversing the city with a camera, taking photos, I usually end up carrying more gear than I really need. It can become a tough call deciding if it’s worth bringing my drone with ...

It’s no secret the pandemic has taken a huge toll on the theater industry, but some chains are getting clever to offset some of these losses. BBC reports that CGV, the largest cinema company in South Korea, has been allowing gamers to rent its screens for two-hour chunks, costing $90 before 6PM, then going up to $135 later in the evening. That’s a lot of money, especially since gamers need to come bearing their own consoles, controllers, and games. But hey, where else can you play games on a screen that’s at least 20 feet long with bombastic sound quality? Given the opportunity, I’d bring my PS5 so I could play through the last few layers in Bloodborne’s Chalice Dungeons standing in my way of a platinum trophy (it’s a PS4 game, I know!). Destruction AllStars would probably look and sound f...

Microsoft has reportedly held talks with Pinterest in an attempt to acquire the social network. The Financial Times reports that the software giant approached Pinterest in recent months about a deal, but that the talks are “currently not active.” Had a deal taken place, it would have been Microsoft’s biggest to date, given Pinterest is valued at $51 billion. Microsoft’s potential interest in Pinterest could signal an emerging strategy for its continued cloud push, though. The Windows maker has been trying to convince more big online services to use its Azure cloud offerings. Amazon’s AWS dominates this part of the market, and big names like Pinterest could draw in additional Azure customers. Microsoft wanted a similar deal for TikTok It’s an approach we saw Microsoft attempt with TikTok. W...

Meme thieves rejoice! Discord’s latest update on iOS adds a new option to make it easier to save images from Twitter embeds, handy if you want to save memes from tweets dropped in the server. Or, as the changelog for version 60.0 of the iOS app puts it, “Meme-stealing powers are about to go super saiyan.” To use it, long press on the tweet in question, and then select “Save Image.” It’s a lot simpler than the workarounds people were previously forced to use. The changelog shown in Discord’s latest iOS version.Screenshot: Discord There’s no mention of the feature for the service’s Windows or Android apps, which both also received updates this week. However, on Android it already seems to be possible to save images from tweets by tapping the image to make it fullscreen, and then using the do...

Facebook-owned Instagram has permanently banned Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a prominent anti-vaccine activist who had over 800,000 followers on the platform, The Wall Street Journal reports. A spokesperson for the service said his account was removed “for repeatedly sharing debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines.” His account on Facebook, however, is still live, with Facebook telling Variety that it has no plan to remove the page “at this time.” Kennedy has been cited as one of the top spreaders of COVID-19 misinformation by the nonprofit organization Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), the WSJ notes. He also founded Children’s Health Defense, which CCDH calls a leading anti-vaccine charity. His Facebook and Twitter pages are still live Kennedy’s removal from the platform comes...