Technology

Razer claims to have made the world’s smartest mask: its new reusable N95 respirator called Project Hazel. It’s a concept design with a glossy outside shell made of waterproof and scratch-resistant recycled plastic, which is transparent to allow for lip-reading and seeing facial cues when you chat with people. Currently, there isn’t a price or release date attached. Razer refers to Project Hazel as a surgical N95, but it hasn’t yet earned any of the necessary approvals and certifications from the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or Occupational Safety and Health Administration. In a statement to The Verge, Razer said it is working with a team of medical experts and scientists who are helping to develop the mask. The main features of this mask li...

Sonos will help customers get more longevity out of its $399 Sonos Move wireless speaker by offering a new battery replacement kit. The Move is Sonos’ first battery-powered speaker, whereas the company’s other products all plug into the wall. The kit costs $69 and includes the battery, a couple tools that help remove the old one, and a pair of replacement screws. “The new replacement battery kit was designed so customers can continue to enjoy extended battery life for their speaker even after years of use, without needing to replace the speaker altogether,” Sonos says. The company has previously mentioned that the Move’s battery can be swapped out, but it hasn’t offered the standalone battery until now. You can order it from the Sonos website. The Move’s battery is estimated to last around...

Uber Green, the feature that allows customers to request rides in electric vehicles, is coming to more cities. After initially launching in 15 cities last September, the ride-hail company is bringing the feature to 1,400 additional cities and towns in North America. The new markets include Austin, Calgary, Houston, Miami, New York City, Tucson, Winnipeg, Washington, DC, and hundreds more. Uber claims that “100 percent” of rides on its platform will take place in electric vehicles by 2030 in the US, Canada, and Europe, and by 2040 for the rest of the world. But rather than pay drivers directly to trade their gas-burning vehicles for electric ones, the company will impose an extra fee on trips completed in an electric vehicle to incentivize drivers to make the switch. For a dollar extra, rid...

The past week has seen the US government thrown into crisis after an unprecedented attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob — all part of a messy attempt to overturn the election, egged on by President Donald Trump himself. Yesterday, the House of Representatives introduced an article of impeachment against Trump for incitement of insurrection. This is a turning point for the American experiment. Part of that turning point is the role of internet platform companies. My guest today is Professor Daphne Keller, director of the Program on Platform Regulation at Stanford’s Cyber Policy Center, and we’re talking about a big problem: how to moderate what happens on the internet. In the aftermath of the attack on the Capitol, both Twitter and Facebook banned Trump, as did a host of smaller platfor...

General Motors announced Tuesday it will be spinning out a new delivery and logistics business called BrightDrop, the first products of which will be an electrified pallet and delivery van. Both vehicles, which will be powered by GM’s Ultium battery platform, are slated for release this year. The announcement of the new logistics business comes as GM is undergoing a massive, $27 billion pivot to the business of designing and manufacturing electric vehicles. For example, the company, which is the largest automaker in North America, just unveiled a new logo as part of an overall brand redesign. GM has been nipping at the heels of Tesla and other EV makers as it attempts to convince its investors that it has a firm grasp on the future of electric-powered transportation. GM has been nipping at...

Twitter has permanently suspended over 70,000 accounts since Friday in an attempt to clamp down on QAnon-fueled conspiracies on its service, the company has announced. It says the accounts were “engaged in sharing harmful QAnon-associated content at scale and were primarily dedicated to the propagation of this conspiracy theory across the service.” At the same time, prominent conservative voices on Twitter complained about lost followers. Twitter began suspending accounts on Friday afternoon, two days after President Trump incited a mob that broke into the US Capitol building. Twitter categorized the suspensions as part of an attempt to “protect the conversation on [its] service from attempts to incite violence, organize attacks, and share deliberately misleading information about the elec...

LG teased its Rollable phone yesterday at the Consumer Electronics Show, and now the company is confirming it’s a real product that will be available in 2021. The LG Rollable has what the company calls a “unique resizable screen” that extends from a phone into a small tablet display. The screen slides in and out of place to provide a bigger screen area. “Our management wanted to show that it is a real product, as there were many rumors around the rollable phone,” says an LG spokesperson in a statement to Nikkei. “As it is released at CES 2021, I can tell that it will be launched this year.” Nikkei also reports that LG is working with China’s BOE Technology Group on the rollable screen technology. LG has not yet confirmed what display tech the Rollable is using, or any details on the differ...

For people who use cannabis for medicinal purposes, such as pain management, anxiety, and sleep, vaping the drug can be a bit of a trial-and-error process since you can’t be totally sure of the exact dose you’re getting like you can with a standard edible or pill. The makers of the Mode smart cannabis device say it solves the dosing problem, using a high-res pressure sensor to determine how much a user is inhaling and a prediction algorithm that determines how many micromilligrams a user is getting per puff based on the cartridge. The company says it’s run hundreds of cannabis cartridges through its testing machines to identify each one’s unique characteristics, and the device has an accuracy rate of over 75 percent even without letting the app know which cartridge you’re using. (It’s in t...

PopSockets is announcing that it’s making its iconic phone holders compatible with MagSafe. When Apple announced that accessories would be able to attach to the iPhone 12 with MagSafe, many people immediately thought of PopSockets — including the company itself, which announced it was working on adding compatibility. Now, it’s finally at the point where it’s putting out an announcement and a release window. PopSockets is planning on bringing MagSafe to quite a few of its products, but first, of course, is the famous PopGrip. Now, if you want to charge your phone wirelessly, you won’t have to buy PopSockets’ specialized wireless charger. The MagSafe version will have a larger base than many PopSockets users may be used to, which is probably to provide space for the “no-slip” rubber bottom. ...

Sony’s new line of Bravia XR television sets will allow customers to watch and stream movies at some of the highest quality available in the consumer market through its new Bravia Core platform, according to the company. Bravia XR owners will be able to choose from a number of Sony Pictures titles and watch them using Sony’s “Pure Stream” technology, which achieves “near lossless” ultra high-definition, Blu-ray disc quality, according to Sony. Pure Stream also allows for streaming of up to 80 megabits per second. To compare, most streaming services recommend maintaining an internet speed between 15 and 25 megabits per second to achieve proper 4K Ultra HD streaming quality. If Sony’s numbers are accurate, that’s better than a lot of the competition. The platform comes preloaded on all new B...

It’s the second week of 2021. Last week began with an insurrection, siege of the US Capitol building, and rejection of democracy, and it ended with all major social media companies banning the one-time impeached 45th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump. One of those companies was Twitter. On the Donald.win forum, Trump supporters announced a plan to show their discontent by protesting in front of the San Francisco headquarters earlier today. The building was empty, with Twitter employees working from home to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but there was still a heavy police presence to protect against mob violence. What happened instead was a fairly quiet event, with just a single pro-Trump protester in evidence — and two counter-protesters there to applaud Twitter’s decision t...

Last week was a cacophony of horrible Trump-related news, but this is the one that hit home hardest for me: a manatee with his name scraped into its back was found in the headwaters of Florida’s Homosassa river (via Citrus County Chronicle). At the moment it’s unclear whether the animal was actually injured, or if the name was just scraped into the algae on its back, but it’s a crime either way. While US Fish and Wildlife officials told the Chronicle that they “[could not] comment on a current, ongoing investigation”, they’re asking anyone who may have information about who did this to reach out to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The Center for Biological Diversity is also offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to a conviction. An investigation could be ...