Technology

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 ...

No, that’s not a Duplo toy — what you see above (and in the renders below) is the design for a pickup truck from California electric vehicle startup Canoo. Revealed in a leak on Reddit on Wednesday, and then subsequently confirmed to Reuters, the head-turning EV truck is not due out until 2023. By that time, Tesla’s Cybertruck, the electric Hummer pickup, Ford’s electric F-150, and Rivian’s EV pickup should all be on the road. Canoo said it will start taking preorders for its pickup later this year, but did not release pricing details. The toyish truck shows just how far Canoo is willing to push the design of the microbus-style vehicle it first debuted back in 2019, which it originally planned to sell on a subscription-only basis. Canoo has undergone a lot of changes since it debuted that ...

If you’re on a basic Verizon plan, you’re going to be stuck with the company’s poor performing “nationwide” 5G network — even after critical C-band spectrum comes online. The company revealed in a presentation to investors and confirmed to The Verge that C-band frequencies, and their faster speeds, will only be available to customers on “premium” unlimited plans. Those on metered or the basic Start Unlimited plan will be relegated to slower, low-band 5G. Verizon confirms that to access C-Band you will need a premium unlimited plan like its Play More, Do More and Get More. If you have an older plan you’ll only have access to its DSS “nationwide” 5G, not this newer and faster flavor. https://t.co/JH1uTixZaI — Eli Blumenthal (@eliblumenthal) March 10, 2021 This is essentiall...

After selling Nyan Cat as an NFT, its creator, Chris Torres, has found himself working on an even bigger event: a week-long series of auctions where classic memes are being sold on the blockchain by their original creators. Torres calls the event Memeconomy, and he’s hoping it’ll bring both recognition to the meme creators, as well as to the NFT space. The memes involved should be recognizable if you were on the internet in the early 2010s. They include: There will also be an auction of a new meme: a crossover between Twerky Pepe (a popular NFT creator) and the classic Nyan Cat. (Have you ever wanted to see thicc Nyan Cat? Now you can.) The event is already under way, and so far the first meme, Bad Luck Brain, sold for just over $37,000. Coughing Cat is currently up for auction. While the ...

Apple has reportedly denied social media company Parler’s bid to reenter the iOS App Store, saying its platform hasn’t addressed problems with offensive content. Bloomberg reported the news earlier today, quoting a message reportedly sent on February 25th. According to Bloomberg, Apple said that Parler’s latest community guidelines still didn’t meet its standards. “Simple searches reveal highly objectionable content, including easily identified offensive uses of derogatory terms regarding race, religion and sexual orientation, as well as Nazi symbols,” it reportedly told Parler. “For these reasons your app cannot be returned to the App Store for distribution until it complies with the guidelines.” Parler’s guidelines ban threats, spam, and some other categories of content. However, the rig...

AMC Theaters reported another jarring but predictable loss in its fourth quarter earnings, but the company’s CEO is optimistic that the theater chain will make it out of the pandemic alright. Revenue was down 88 percent year over year, to $162.5 million. While beating expectations, that still led to a quarterly loss of $946 million (slightly better than the last quarter, though significantly worse than the $13.5 million loss AMC reported in its 2019 fourth quarter), but AMC also has more than $1 billion in cash on hand, according to CEO Adam Aron. On the tailwinds of announcements that New York City would start to allow theaters to open, and studios seemingly preparing to head back to theaters, Aron is trying to find the positives while acknowledging the “most challenging market conditions...

The glass vial used in the first US COVID-19 vaccination has been acquired by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. The museum also acquired related items including the scrubs and vaccination card of Sandra Lindsay, director of critical care nursing at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center who, on December 14th, 2020, became the first person in the US to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. “The urgent need for effective vaccines in the U.S. was met with unprecedented speed,” said Anthea M. Hartig, the museum’s Elizabeth MacMillan director, in a statement Tuesday. “These now historic artifacts document not only this remarkable scientific progress but represent the hope offered to millions living through the cascading crises brought on by COVID-19.” The announcement on Tuesday happe...

The Miami Heat has suspended Meyers Leonard indefinitely after he used an anti-Semitic slur during a Twitch stream on Monday. “The Miami Heat vehemently condemns the use of any form of hate speech,” the NBA team wrote in a Twitter statement on Tuesday evening. “The words used by Meyers Leonard were wrong and we will not tolerate hateful language from anyone associated with our franchise.” In a statement apologizing for his actions posted to Instagram, Leonard says he wasn’t aware of the meaning of the slur when he said it. “While I didn’t know what the word meant at the time, my ignorance about its history and how offensive it is to the Jewish community is absolutely not an excuse and I was just wrong,” he said. “I am now more aware of its meaning and I am committed to properly seeking out...

Kia has given its next electric vehicle a name and is getting ready to pull the cover off the new car sometime within the next few weeks. Dubbed “EV6,” it’ll be the first electric vehicle that Kia is building on the new platform it’s sharing with parent company Hyundai — the same platform that Apple was reportedly interested in using to power… whatever it’s building before talks with the Korean automakers broke down. Kia released a few images of the car viewed off-angle from the sides, which reveal that the EV6 has a sort of hatchback-style shape. There’s a close-up image of a taillight, which appears to run across the entire rear of the car — a choice that’s becoming quite common in electric vehicle designs. Kia also released a video with shots of the taillight illuminating, as well...

Facebook Gaming has announced a path to partnership for streamers in its Level Up creators program, which is the site’s equivalent of Twitch’s affiliates. It’s pretty grueling, and eligibility isn’t judged on the same metrics as its Level Up program, which allows streamers to start monetizing their broadcasts. Partners, however, get a slew of benefits, including a direct line to Facebook’s support team, a private Facebook Gaming community group, partner-only invites to Facebook Gaming events, a partner badge, and more. Streamers in the Level Up program, on the other hand, are able to monetize their streams with Facebook Stars, a site currency, and fan subscriptions; they also get features like high-quality transcoding (i.e., 1080p 60fps streams) and access to beta products and features. To...

Amazon is withholding ebook and audiobook versions of works it publishes through its in-house publishing arms from US libraries, according to a new report from The Washington Post. In fact, Amazon is the only major publisher that’s doing this, the report states. It’s doing so because the company thinks the terms involved with selling digital versions of books to libraries, which in turn make them available to local residents for free through ebook lending platforms like Libby, are unfavorable. “It’s not clear to us that current digital library lending models fairly balance the interests of authors and library patrons,” Mikyla Bruder, the global marketing chief at Amazon Publishing, told The Washington Post’s Geoffrey Fowler in an emailed statement. “We see this as an opportunity to invent ...