Technology

Google has announced that a built-in screen recorder is coming to Chrome OS in March. Google hopes the tool will make it easier for students and teachers to record virtual lessons. “Teachers have long recorded lessons to help students do homework and study for tests, but in the past year it’s become downright critical for virtual learning,” reads Google’s blog post. It looks pretty simple. Once you’ve pressed the appropriate button on your Chromebook, you’ll see a countdown in the center of your screen. While your Chromebook is recording, a red circle will appear on the right side of the shelf. A few other tools for Chromebook learners are in the works as well, and some have already arrived. Chrome OS’s screen reader, ChromeVox, has some new features: The voice now changes based on the lan...

Google removed former president Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign app from Google’s Play Store earlier Wednesday. It wasn’t removed for any of the many other reasons that Trump has been removed from the world’s largest platforms, but rather because it just didn’t work, Android Police reports. Prior to its suspension, the app provided campaign news, an event schedule, and ways to donate to the campaign, but at some point, it stopped working, prompting Google to take it down. Android Police confirmed that the app was non-functional before Google removed it. When Android Police tested the app, it was “unable to load content, reporting a network error or simply spinning a loading ‘T’ circle endlessly.” The iOS version of the app is still on the Apple App Store and still working, however. The ...

Some new data reported by PCMag indicates that the iPhone 12 Pro Max, 12 Pro, and 12 are already the three top-selling 5G phones in the US. That the phones are just four months old speaks to the continued popularity of the iPhone in the US and just how big of a role it will play in driving 5G adoption in this country. These reports come from research firm M Science’s sales data and information gathered from Ookla Speedtest users. M Science tracks cumulative sales of 5G phones in the US. This data set includes sales as of the week of January 23rd and notably does not include Galaxy S21-series phones, which hadn’t started shipping at that point. These are third-party reports, so they should be taken with a grain of salt, but M Science’s findings line up with previous reports of strong 12 Pro...

With orders for new shows, specials, and movies from some of Cartoon Network’s biggest franchises — including Ben 10, Teen Titans Go!, and The Amazing World of Gumball — HBO Max is leaning hard into kids’ and family content in an effort to compete with top players like Netflix and Disney Plus. At the center of WarnerMedia’s plans to make HBO Max a must-have streaming service for families in the way that Disney Plus and Netflix have is “unveiling” Cartoon Network as the core family brand at WarnerMedia. The new series and specials ordered for HBO Max will join a library of shows and movies that make up 3,000 hours of content. Branding is important — and hard — but it’s what works for a studio like Disney. Disney Plus is built around its biggest franchises, including Pixar, which makes it an...

AMC Theatres has announced another extension for subscribers of its Stubs A-List membership who are mulling over when to reactivate. Now, existing members of the MoviePass-style plan can wait until July to decide whether they’d like their plan to resume or whether they’ll cancel instead. Previously, AMC said in November it would give subscribers a deadline of March 1st to reactivate or cancel their membership. Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, AMC Theatres has allowed its A-List members to keep their plans but pause payments due to widespread theater closures and a severely constricted pipeline of new Hollywood releases. AMC launched A-List in 2018, following MoviePass’ meteoric rise and prior to its disastrous crash. The service, an extension of the AMC Stubs rewards progra...

PC case and peripheral maker NZXT has recalled its H1 mini-ITX case due to the possibility of a fire hazard under normal use (via Tom’s Hardware). If you used the metal screws included with the $350 case to secure your graphics card or other PCIe device to the riser, there was a chance you’d create sparks, or a fire, if it came into contact with a trace in the printed circuit board. NZXT seemed to know this in late 2020 when it opted to send out nylon plastic screw kits for H1 owners (upon request) to use in place of the metal ones. But it didn’t issue a full recall at that point, instead opting to resume selling the case. It initially stated that the issue affected “fewer than ten H1 cases,” but more recently YouTube channel Gamers Nexus argued that the nylon screws don’t solve the root p...

The Los Angeles Police Department requested access to Amazon Ring footage while investigating vandalism during last summer’s anti-racism and police brutality protests, according to newly released emails. The Electronic Frontier Foundation calls it the first evidence of police trying to identify protest attendees with home surveillance cameras — although it’s part of a much longer relationship between Amazon and law enforcement. The EFF published a string of redacted emails between the LAPD and an Amazon representative. The document includes copies of several requests to Ring customers, asking for surveillance footage from their camera-equipped doorbells. Many of the forms are heavily redacted, but on June 16th, Amazon submitted a request clearly related to the protests. “During the recent ...

Brydge has announced a new firmware update for its Pro Plus iPad keyboards that promises to hugely improve the trackpad experience. The update brings “native” multitouch to the trackpads, meaning you can use the same kind of multi-finger gestures on a Brydge device as Apple’s own Magic Keyboard. The Brydge Pro Plus was the victim of unfortunate timing. It was originally announced as a power-user product designed to support Apple’s experimental cursor feature, but then Apple turned that into consumer-level functionality with iOS 13.4 and released its own keyboard/trackpad accessory, the expensive but excellent Magic Keyboard. At launch, the Pro Plus’ trackpad was usable for basic tasks, but it didn’t have full gesture support and couldn’t compete with the smoothness of Apple’s own hardware....

Microsoft is launching a new FPS Boost feature for its latest Xbox Series X and Series S consoles that’s designed to make existing games run better. While Microsoft has previously focused on improving frame rates with backward compatibility for its latest Xbox consoles, FPS Boost is specifically designed to improve older games without developers having to put in any additional work. Some games will nearly double frame rates, and Microsoft says it has seen a few instances where backward-compatible titles even quadruple in frame rates. The first games to support FPS Boost are Far Cry 4, New Super Lucky’s Tale, Sniper Elite 4, UFC 4, and Watch Dogs 2. The improvements vary across games, with New Super Lucky’s Tale now running at up to 120fps, and UFC 4 includes 60fps performance on the Xbox S...

The Justice Department unsealed charges Wednesday for three North Korean computer programmers accused of conspiring to extort over $1.3 billion from banks and other businesses across the globe, as first reported by The Washington Post. In 2018, the Justice Department brought charges against one North Korean operative, Park Jin Hyok, for their involvement in the infamous Sony Pictures hack in 2014, as well as the devastating 2017 WannaCry ransomware attack. In Wednesday’s unsealed indictment, Park and others are accused of participating in a sweeping conspiracy to hack into banks and crypto exchanges as well as creating the WannaCry virus. “North Korea’s operatives, using keyboards rather than guns, stealing digital wallets of cryptocurrency instead of stacks of cash, are the world’s leadin...

It seems like the days of free apps are slowly grinding to a halt. Just recently, password manager LastPass announced that it was drastically limiting the usefulness of its free app, and now, Google has sent out emails reaffirming that it is ending its free unlimited photo storage policy: Starting June 1, 2021, all new photos and videos backed up in High quality and Express quality* will count toward the free 15 GB of storage that comes with your Google account or any additional storage you may have purchased, the same way other Google services like Google Drive and Gmail already do. While this isn’t a surprise — Google announced its new policy back in November 2020 — it is still depressing to be reminded of the upcoming storage crunch. Of course, until June 1st, you can still add as many ...

Super73, the Southern California e-bike company popular among YouTubers and film celebrities, announced that it has raised an impressive $20 million from investors, making it the latest company to benefit from growing venture capital interest after a record year of e-bike sales. The funding round is Super73’s first and was led by equity firm Volition Capital, which was an early investor in Chewy before its acquisition by PetSmart for $3.35 billion in 2017. With these new funds, the direct-to-consumer e-bike company plans on growing its 75-person staff, improving its customer service operation, and expanding its product lineup, said Super73 co-founder and CEO LeGrand Crewse. Super73 helped popularize a retro, mini-bike style of e-bike “It was never about bikes, it was never about transporta...