Technology

Avatar has once again retaken its crown as the most lucrative movie of all time, with James Cameron’s 2009 film reaching a new all-time box office high to beat out 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, which took the top spot with its $2.7902 billion take that year. But thanks to a re-release of Avatar in China, Deadline reports that Avatar has already grossed enough to push its box office total to $2.798 billion, which edges out Earth’s Mightiest Heroes once again for largest worldwide total. The surge in Avatar ticket sales comes as China theaters are re-opening in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has seen a rush of theatergoers eager to return to theaters. And seeing as most major Western film studios have yet to release new titles (given that most of the world has very limited theatrical c...

A federal judge has blocked the US Department of Defense from placing restrictions on Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi that were set to take effect next week. Just before former President Trump left office in January, the DoD designated Xiaomi as a “Chinese Communist military company,” (CCMC) making it subject to Trump’s executive order banning the US from investing in such companies. But late Friday, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras issued a preliminary injunction to prevent what he called “irreparable harm” to Xiaomi, saying the designation was “arbitrary and capricious.” Xiaomi said in court filings it would suffer “extreme and irreversible damage” to its business and reputation if the restrictions took effect, and has maintained it operates “in compliance with the relevant laws and...

After it reopened in defiance of health department orders last May, Tesla’s plant in Fremont, California saw 450 cases of COVID-19 through December 2020, new data from legal website PlainSite shows (via The Washington Post). Last March public health officials in Alameda County, where the Fremont plant is located, restricted all but “essential” businesses from remaining open as coronavirus cases surged across the country. Tesla fought the order but eventually shut down the plant on March 23rd. But a few days later, Tesla restarted production at the Fremont plant, even though it was in violation of the public health order. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter at the time that he planned to be on the factory floor with Fremont workers and taunted local officials to arrest him. Tesla’s reopenin...

Last week everyone was fixated on the “Right Up Our Alley” drone video that made us all nostalgic for bowling alleys. On Friday night, a VP at drone company DJI tweeted this video of a drone flight through a mostly-empty movie theater in Minnesota, and I don’t know about you but I really miss going to the movies. This video makes that longing about 100 times worse. [embedded content] According to its YouTube page the video is by SkyCandy, and is a one-take fly-through of Mann theaters’ Plymouth Grand in Plymouth, Minnesota. It was filmed using a DJI Air Unit and Rotor Riot Cinewhoop. The video is just over a minute long, but the drone takes us through the lobby — after being welcomed through the front doors by a masked theater employee— where people are deciding what to see, and buying tic...

A public health authority has ordered Amazon to close one of its fulfillment centers in Canada for two weeks because of an uptick in the rate of COVID-19 infections at the facility. A public health investigation found that while the rate of COVID-19 infections has been decreasing in the area, the rate inside the Brampton facility, near Toronto, “has been increasing significantly.” Dr. Lawrence C. Loh, the medical officer of health for the Peel region where the facility is located, said the temporary closure was necessary to help stop the spread of the virus. “This Amazon facility is in a vulnerable community and employs thousands of people. Immediate action must be taken to protect these essential workers and the community where they live,” Loh said in a statement. Amazon did not immediate...

An update to Overwatch’s Public Test Region (PTR) is bringing Nvida’s latency-reduction tech, called Reflex, to the popular esports title (via Engadget). The tech aims to help reduce the amount of time between when you click your mouse, and when you see the resulting action on screen, making the game feel more responsive. The fact that it’s coming to Overwatch was announced back in January, but it’s now available to players who can access the PTR, and who have the latest Nvidia drivers. If you haven’t been able to get your hands on one of Nvidia’s latest graphics cards, there’s still hope that you’ll be able to try Reflex out for yourself in Overwatch — the tech was announced alongside the 30-series graphics cards, but works on cards going back to the GTX 900-series. Nvidia has an incredib...

Google says in a new blog post that it will now allow third-party developers to create custom Tiles for Wear OS. It first introduced Tiles in 2019, widgets that users could glance at and swipe among to get information about weather, calendar notifications, or stats like heart rate. All of the Tiles used to be directly from Google or the device’s manufacturer. Its Jetpack Tiles library for third-party developers is now in alpha. Google notes in the blog post: Tiles can be designed for many use cases, like tracking the user’s daily activity progress, quick-starting a workout, starting a recently played song, or sending a message to a favorite contact. While apps can be immersive, Tiles are fast-loading and focus on the user’s immediate needs. If the user would like more information, Tiles ca...

Billions of dollars have been spent fighting the pandemic, with a huge proportion of that money going towards vaccine development. Other areas of research have also gotten a big boost during the pandemic — and the results could make a huge difference to public health in the future. Here are some of the big winners in the pandemic-inspired funding race. mRNA Vaccines — The astounding success of both the Pfizer / BioNtech and Moderna vaccines has set the stage for the development of other highly-customizable vaccines in the future. The beauty of the vaccines is that they are basically blueprints — they use a genetic code to tell the body to build tiny molecular targets. The body’s immune system then goes to town on target practice and builds up immunity so that if a real threat — like the co...

If you missed Target’s PS5 restocks Thursday, you may be in luck. Best Buy has the PS5 Digital Edition and PS5 models up for purchase. According to the product listing, Best Buy will only allow you to pick up your newly purchased PS5 at a local Best Buy store. No home delivery is available for either model. Sony PlayStation 5 Prices taken at time of publishing. Sony’s flagship next-gen console, starting at $399.99. The biggest difference between both models is the Digital Edition can only play digital games, while the $500 PS5 includes a disc drive, allowing you to play both digital and physical games. Once you get your hands on a PS5, there are a few items you’re going to want to pick up for your console. Some of the most popular PS5 exclusives right now include Demon’s Souls Remake by Bl...

Amazon is updating its Prime Video app to include a new feature: the ability to play episodes of a show on shuffle (via Android Central). This feature could make it easier for people who just want to watch a sitcom without having to actually pick an episode. Clicking the button should just start playing episodes in a random order. The feature seems to initially be somewhat limited though — according to Android Police, it doesn’t let you shuffle through the entire show, only one particular season. At the moment, it’s only been spotted on Android. Amazon may be trying to race Netflix to rolling out a shuffle function: according to Variety, Netflix has announced that it will be rolling out a a shuffle button to users sometime in the first half of 2021. Finally, I’ll be able to be even more co...

Many of us here at The Verge are big fans of emoji reactions in Slack, and today we noticed that our newsroom’s Slack now groups emoji reactions with different skin tones into one mass reaction. The feature is now rolling out to everyone, the company tells The Verge. Here’s how it works. Let’s say that your colleague dropped a Simpsons-yellow Flexed Biceps emoji on a Slack message celebrating someone’s huge accomplishment. If your default skin tone for emoji in Slack is a dark skin tone, and you mash that Simpsons-yellow Flexed Biceps emoji reaction, a dark skin tone emoji will show up alongside the yellow one and your reaction will be added to the total count. My editors have allowed me to post this highly secretive message from our internal Slack so you can get an idea of how the grouped...

Apple is discontinuing the original, full-size HomePod and will now focus its speaker efforts on the HomePod mini, the company told TechCrunch on Friday evening. Here is what Apple said in a statement to TechCrunch: HomePod mini has been a hit since its debut last fall, offering customers amazing sound, an intelligent assistant, and smart home control all for just $99. We are focusing our efforts on HomePod mini. We are discontinuing the original HomePod, it will continue to be available while supplies last through the Apple Online Store, Apple Retail Stores, and Apple Authorized Resellers. Apple will provide HomePod customers with software updates and service and support through Apple Care. The Space Grey model of the full-size HomePod is already sold out on Apple’s online store. The full...