Technology

Substack, the hot subscription newsletter startup, is building a reader app to help people manage all of their newsletters in a single place. That’s the word from Substack CEO Chris Best on this week’s episode of Decoder, The Verge’s new tech and business interview podcast. “Something that I really miss is proper reader apps, proper RSS readers. I think the death of Google Reader was a big, sad thing,” Best said. “Something that we think about a lot is readers tell us, ‘Hey, I’m subscribed to six different Substacks now, and I want to read them all, and it sucks that they’re in my email inbox along with all my other stuff,’” Best added. “‘Wouldn’t it be nice if there was one place where I could go and see all of these direct connections that I have, and that I’m paying for in many cases?’ ...

WhatsApp is introducing a new shopping carts feature that lets you order multiple items with a single message from businesses on the service. It works in conjunction with the service’s existing catalogs feature. Now, while browsing a business’s wares, you can add multiple items to your shopping cart and send the entire order in a single message, replacing the back-and-forth communication that needed to happen previously. The feature will be available globally starting today. Shopping might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the Facebook-owned messaging service, but it’s become an increasingly popular venue for small businesses around the world to sell their products. Over 175 million people used the service to message a WhatsApp Business account each day as of late...

Persona 5 Strikers, an action RPG follow-up to Persona 5, will head to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Steam on February 23rd. The game will be available four days early, on February 19th, for those who preorder the digital deluxe version. Developer Atlus confirmed the news today, just days after its release was leaked via YouTube trailer. Persona 5 launched worldwide in 2017; an enhanced version, Persona 5 Royal, had its wide release earlier this year. Unlike the original game, which features turn-based combat, Persona 5 Strikers is an action-oriented take on the series from Dynasty Warriors developer Omega Force. Strikers takes place after the events of the original story when the Phantom Thieves find their vacation interrupted by a new threat. Where Persona 5 took place strictly...

If you use Waze and ever needed to take your eyes off the road to control your music alongside your maps, a new update is starting to roll out that should let you spend more time driving and less time fiddling with that touchscreen. MacRumors is reporting that Waze has started rolling out Apple CarPlay Dashboard support, which will allow you to see directions on CarPlay’s home screen, alongside media controls, calendar events, and more. When I heard about it, I ran out to my car and sure enough, Waze’s directions showed up on the home screen. Your Waze directions and music controls, all on one screen. The company started beta testing the feature late last month, but CarPlay Dashboard has been around for Apple Maps users since the launch of iOS 13 (though it’s only been open to third-party ...

The Australian white supremacist who killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand was radicalized by YouTube, according to a 792-page report on the March 2019 shooting. “What particularly stood out was the statement that the terrorist made that he was ‘not a frequent commentator on extreme right-wing sites and YouTube was a significant source of information and inspiration’,” said Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s Prime Minister, according to The Guardian. “This is a point I plan to make directly to the leadership of YouTube.” This is not the first time YouTube has been linked to radicalization and white supremacist content. There has been an ongoing argument about whether YouTube’s algorithm pushes people toward more extreme views over time. Although this is not a universal co...

A text-messaging program to monitor any side effects from the COVID-19 vaccine may be open to manipulation, The Washington Post reports. Experts worry that the newly-developed system focuses more on ease of use than security. The program, called v-safe, is being developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to check in with people after they’ve received a COVID-19 vaccine. After getting a shot, they’ll be given a piece of paper with a QR code, which lets them sign up to receive texts. The texts will direct them to online surveys that ask questions about any symptoms someone experienced after receiving the vaccine. Other vaccine safety monitoring systems that have been in place for decades, including the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS), will also be used ...

Eight months ago, Deborah Birx of the White House Coronavirus Task Force praised Florida’s COVID-19 dashboard as an example of “the kind of knowledge and power we need to put into the hands of the American people.” That dashboard was built by Rebekah Jones. But in May, Jones was fired by the Florida Department of Health for reportedly refusing to manipulate that data to justify reopening the state — and now, Florida state police have raided her home and taken the equipment she was using to maintain a new, independent COVID-19 tracker of her own. Jones posted a series of tweets about the incident, including a video of police entering — with guns drawn. 1/There will be no update today. At 8:30 am this morning, state police came into my house and took all my hardware and tech. They were servi...

A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction that should keep the US Commerce Department from banning transactions with TikTok. The Trump administration issued an executive order on August 6th that would have blocked transactions between US companies and TikTok and WeChat’s Chinese parent companies, ByteDance and Tencent. Trump declared TikTok and WeChat a “national emergency,” citing privacy and security concerns. That order invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), a law that allows Trump to ban transactions between the US and foreign entities. “The government likely exceeded IEEPA’s express limitations.” However, in his opinion accompanying today’s decision, US district judge Carl Nichols said that “the government likely exceeded IEEPA’s express limitation...

From the very beginning, Google Stadia and YouTube were supposed to work together — thanks to the magic of cloud computing, you’d be able to click a YouTube ad to instantly begin playing a game, YouTubers would be able to invite their viewers to instantly join their game, and — perhaps most importantly — creators would be able to instantly, effortlessly be able to livestream their Stadia games to YouTube just by pressing a button on the controller. None of those things happened at Stadia’s launch last November, but the biggest one is apparently arriving tomorrow: every Stadia user will be able to livestream directly to YouTube starting tomorrow, a representative confirms to The Verge. This afternoon, 9to5Google noticed that the feature appeared to be rolling out, and we spotted the ability...

The Federal Communications Commission announced $9.2 billion in awards to companies providing broadband internet to rural areas across the US, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX was one of the biggest winners. The company will receive $886 million over the next 10 years for its Starlink satellite broadband project, under the Federal Communication Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. Starlink is SpaceX’s constellation of satellites that will fly at low altitudes around the Earth, providing internet on the ground below. SpaceX already has launched 900 of the planned 12,000 satellites needed for the Starlink system into low-Earth orbit. Musk has said the company needs 800 satellites in space to provide “significant operational capabilities.” SpaceX kicked off its Better Than Nothing Beta for Star...

Comcast is extending its COVID-19 support programs through June 30th, 2021, including the free Wi-Fi and educational resources it offers at local community centers throughout the US. The company says this is the third time it has extended its programs during the pandemic. Community centers that offer free Comcast internet access are called “Lift Zones” by the company, though what’s most important is how they’re meant to reach low-income students who might have inconsistent internet access at home. Switching to remote learning or a combination of in-person and online instruction has made internet access critical for students, so having a place to log on that’s theoretically close to home helps. Comcast is also extending its Internet Essentials service for low-income households free for 60 d...

Razer’s Blade 15 is one of the best 15-inch gaming laptops. It’s far from a budget purchase, but Razer has released the most affordable model you can buy. As of today, there’s a new Blade 15 Base model up for preorder that is just $1,499. It’ll ship on December 25th. The model includes a Core i7-10750H, 15.6-inch 120Hz screen, GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of SSD storage, plus an open M.2 slot. For ports, you’ll get two USB 3.2 Gen 2, two USB-C 3.2 Gen 1, and an HDMI 2.0. Note: these are almost the exact same specs as the $1,599 Blade 15 Base that you can already buy. The biggest difference is that more expensive model has a 144Hz display. As of this writing, that model is on sale for $1,499 on Razer’s website. That means there’s little reason to preorder the upcoming Base mo...