Technology

After weeks of speculation, Hyundai and subsidiary Kia have again sought to downplay rumors and reporting that they are working with Apple on an autonomous electric car project. The companies say they are no longer in talks, according to Reuters and Bloomberg, though that doesn’t mean the discussions won’t reopen later. Hyundai’s comments as reported by Bloomberg are essentially the same as what the company said last month in a statement that mentioned Apple before being confusingly walked back. The carmaker says it’s been discussing potential autonomous electric car projects with various partners but is yet to reach a decision. Bloomberg reported last week that the talks with Apple had “paused.” Renowned Apple analyst Ming-chi Kuo believes that the company does indeed plan to use Hyundai’...

You could have been forgiven for missing Reddit’s Super Bowl ad tonight — it was only five seconds long. The ad mostly consisted of a text message that would’ve been pretty difficult to read in the moment, claiming that the company spent its “entire marketing budget on five seconds of airtime.” “One thing we learned from our communities last week is that underdogs can accomplish anything when they come together around a common idea,” Reddit says by way of explanation, in a clear nod to the GameStop stocks saga that was driven by posters on the r/WallStreetBets subreddit. “Who knows, maybe you’ll be the reason finance textbooks have to add a chapter on ‘tendies.’” You can watch the ad above, but here’s the full text in case it’s too small on your phone screen: Wow, this actually worked. If ...

We had an inkling that there might be big movie news during the Super Bowl and there was: Marvel released a new trailer for The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, a six-episode series that debuts on Disney Plus March 19th. The show takes place after the events of Avengers: Endgame. Steve Rogers has retired from as Captain America, in an attempt to live a simple life in an alternate reality with his love, Peggy Carter. Sam Wilson (Falcon) has picked up the Captain’s shield. [embedded content] The show had been delayed a few times, and fans have only been able to see a brief, 30-second teaser before now. Filming shut down in March because of the pandemic, Disney said at the time, and was forced to remain shut down until a couple of months ago. The trailer opens with our heroes being interviewed ...

CBS All Access app appeared to be having problems as users tried to watch Super Bowl LV on Sunday. Users reported seeing an error message that read the app was “experiencing technical difficulties” and that “an error has occurred.” Down Detector showed a spike in complaints for CBS All Access at around 6PM ET Sunday. Numerous users were complaining on Twitter that they could not see the game at all. Todd Spangler of Variety reported shortly after 7PM ET that CBS was telling subscribers the issues were resolved and to restart the app. CBS All Access crashed right around #SuperBowl kickoff time, it’s now telling subscribers “The reported technical issues with the service have been resolved, please restart your CBS All Access app and you can now return to streaming.” — Todd ...

So I watched the latest episode of Servant and can’t decide whether it’s the slow pacing or the suspension of disbelief (how long can Julian and Sean keep up the plot’s central ruse before they do real damage to Dorothy?) keeping it from being genuinely frightening. I won’t spoil the latest episode, but it feels like for all the disconcerting camera angles and Dorothy’s bizarre behavior, this week’s episode didn’t move the needle all that much. I’m hanging in there, but I think the show needs M. Night Shyamalan to ramp up the scary a li’l bit. This week’s trailers include a little sci-fi, some teen empowerment, and the third in the Pacific Rim franchise, this time an anime flick. [embedded content] The Nevers A group of women in Victorian-era London develop special powers and fight the for...

When my colleague Andrew Webster reviewed the PlayStation 5, he explained how Sony’s next-generation of video games is something you can’t see — you have to touch. Part of that is how the amazing DualSense controller’s clever motorized triggers and intensely precise vibrations can recreate the crunching sensation of strutting across a sandy beach or the pitter-patter of rain. Another part: the 40,000 tiny PlayStation symbols you’ll feel when you pick up the PS5’s new gamepad. As an Easter egg for its fans, the company decided to apply a microtexture to the DualSense controller’s entire lower shell that makes it Sony’s most grippable gamepad yet, because of the thousands upon thousands of tiny squares, triangles, circles and crosses literally at your fingertips. <div class="c-images...

Police in Minneapolis got a search warrant that ordered Google to provide account data on people who were near a protest that turned violent two days after the killing of George Floyd last year, TechCrunch reported. The search warrant required Google to provide account data for anyone “within the geographical region” of an AutoZone store on May 27th, 2020, to police, according to TechCrunch. Photos of a protest outside that store two days after Floyd’s death showed a man in a mask smashing the store windows with an umbrella. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported at the time that police believed the so-called “Umbrella Man” was actually a white supremacist trying to spark violence at the protest. According to TechCrunch, a police affidavit showed Minneapolis police were seeking information ...

Super Bowl 2021 — the 55th Super Bowl — is happening today. The championship game pits the Kansas City Chiefs, the defending Super Bowl champs, against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Eric Church and Jazmine Sullivan will sing the national anthem, while The Weeknd will perform in the halftime show. If you are planning to watch the football game, you have a few options, and many of them are free. Below, we have listed a few ways you can watch this year’s Super Bowl. Keep in mind that, due to production limits imposed by the pandemic, Super Bowl 2021 will not be streaming in 4K resolution. Where is the Super Bowl being played? Super Bowl 2021 will take place at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, the home field of the Buccaneers. What time will the Super Bowl start? The broadcast will begin a...

When Sunny Bonnell and her team at branding agency Motto started working with Ninjas In Pyjamas (NIP), a 20-year-old esports team in search of a new look, they did a lot of research. The team had never worked in gaming or esports before, and they wanted to understand the space. They talked to fans and people on the team, and sketched out hundreds of possible logo ideas over the course of more than a year. When NIP revealed their new visual identity last month, the reaction was immediate — and much of it was negative. “I don’t think we really knew at the time that the fans would have such a hard time with it,” says Bonnell. NIP was founded in 2000, and the Swedish organization currently operates teams in Valorant, FIFA, and Rainbow Six, though it’s most famous for its Counter-Strike squad. ...

Look I know this pandemic has been a long, depressing slog, and even if you’ve masked up, done the social distancing, and have managed to stay virus-free, we’re all good and frazzled at this point. So it’s understandable that now that we have vaccines available, everyone’s impatient to get one. But when you finally get the jab, resist the urge to post a humblebrag on Instagram or any other social media platform, because identity thieves may be watching. And, you don’t want to be the newly-vaccinated person whose selfie provides scammers with a template to make fake vaccination record cards (because if you think isn’t already happening, you would be mistaken). “Some of you are celebrating your second COVID-19 vaccination with the giddy enthusiasm that’s usually reserved for weddings, new ba...

The wonderful thing about bitcoin is many of its apparent benefits, like the ability to be anonymously owned and securely transferred, are also the things that often create situations like this: police in Germany have seized more than €50 million ($60 million) in bitcoin, but they can’t access any of it because, as Reuters reports, the person they took it from won’t tell them his password. The man in question was sentenced and has served his time in jail for covertly installing bitcoin mining software on people’s computers, but throughout the entire process, he never shared a peep about how German authorities should get in. “We asked him but he didn’t say” is the explanation Reuters was offered by a prosecutor. It presents a big, and probably obvious, question: can you really seize somethi...

The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau is investigating money transfer app Venmo over the way it handles collections, a new regulatory filing shows. First reported by The Wall Street Journal, the filing shows Venmo owner PayPal received a Civil Investigative Demand from the CFPB on January 21st, “related to Venmo’s unauthorized funds transfers and collections processes, and related matters.” PayPal said in a statement emailed to The Verge that it was working “productively with the CFPB to provide information, as requested, on our practices and processes.” The statement added that Venmo “remains deeply committed to its compliance obligations and the company works closely with regulators around the world.” A Venmo user’s account may be referred to collections if it becomes overdrawn; while m...