Technology

1Password, one of the most popular password management services, has been updated for macOS Big Sur today, adding several new features that take advantage of the new capabilities of the operating system. Chief among those is the option to use your Apple Watch to unlock 1Password: if enabled, you’ll get a pop-up on your watch when you open the app, which you can then unlock by double clicking the side button on the smartwatch. The Apple Watch feature doesn’t interfere with the usual Touch ID option for Macs that offer it — customers will be able to use either method to unlock their passwords. (That said, Touch ID will still be considered the “default” method.) The new update for 1Password also increases its integration into Safari on Big… Continue reading… You Deserve to Make M...

The Verge’s resident Ravens fan, Taylor Lyles, forced me to use this screenshot Last month, the National Football League announced it would cancel the 2021 Pro Bowl game — news that went largely unnoticed, since very few football fans care about it. But today, first reported by CNBC, the NFL announced it will resurrect the Pro Bowl as a weeklong digital event with players competing in EA’s Madden NFL 21 instead. Details are scant, outside of the promise of “celebrities, NFL Legends, current players, and streamers,” according to an EA press release. Even the exact date is still to come. (Pinning one down will depend on if the NFL season is extended into an 18th week, the rumored solution if COVID cases mess with the schedule further.) Still, it’s a fun, inevitable solution to what has often...

Image: Verizon Verizon just launched an updated version of its Stream TV streaming box, with a new feature for finding lost remotes and built-in support for Amazon Prime and Netflix (unlike its predecessor). The new Stream TV features an updated rectangular design and a big button on the top for powering on the device and finding the Google Assistant-enabled remote. You locate the remote by pressing the power button twice; the remote will beep until you press any of its buttons, hopefully making your dig through the couch that much shorter. The previous Stream TV’s biggest missing features were access to Netflix and Amazon Prime, two apps that 9to5Google said took months to finally arrive. This new version launches with both apps built in, along with… Continue reading… You Des...

United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks at the United Nations (UN) Climate Action Summit on September 23, 2019 in New York City.  | Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images The United Kingdom will ban the sale of new combustion-engine vehicles by 2030, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced today. It will also ban the sale of new hybrid cars by 2035. Johnson made the announcement tonight as part of a new ten-point plan for a “green industrial revolution.” This is the second time Johnson has moved up the deadline. The original plan was to stop sales of petrol and diesel-powered vehicles by 2040. Back in February, Johnson moved the target to 2035. He’s come under increasing pressure to crack down on gas-guzzling cars in order to meet the UK’s broader goal of eliminating emissions ...

Photo: GitHub GitHub has reinstated an open-source tool for downloading YouTube videos, and it’s changed its policies to make similar copyright-related takedowns less likely. Yesterday, the Microsoft-owned software repository reversed its removal of YouTube-dl, which lets users save local copies of streaming videos from YouTube and many other sites. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) demanded that GitHub remove YouTube-dl in late October. It alleged that the tool “was designed and is marketed” for illegally saving copyrighted music, violating Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. GitHub initially agreed, but its decision drew criticism from journalists and software developers. As TechDirt chronicled, YouTube-dl is… Continue reading… You Deserv...

One year ago, Google Stadia charged three ways to try its new cloud gaming service: you had to buy $130 worth of hardware, pay $10 a month for the service, and buy many of its games. But starting on November 19th — Stadia’s anniversary — Google will let you play Destiny 2 without paying a cent. It might be the single-biggest test for Stadia yet. Don’t expect much, and you might be impressed Destiny 2 is already a free-to-play game on consoles and Windows PCs, so it’s not like Google is handing out free copies of a full-priced game. If you get invested, you’ll still need to buy the expansions yourself. You won’t be able to play with your friends on other platforms because Stadia’s copy of Destiny 2 doesn’t support cross-platform… Continue reading… You Deserve to Make Money Even...

Photo by DAVID GANNON/AFP via Getty Images Tesla, Uber, Rivian, Lucid Motors, and others have joined forces to create a new lobbying group for electric vehicles on Capitol Hill. The group, which is called the Zero Emission Transportation Association (ZETA), says its mission is that 100 percent of new car sales are electric by 2030. Some states are already moving in that direction. California recently announced its plans to ban the sale of combustion-engine vehicles by 2035. New Jersey has said it is interested in doing the same. However, the new industry group won’t push states to require its residents to only purchase EVs, but rather it supports policies to incentivize their sale. “point-of-sale consumer incentives” One of its five missions outlined in its announcement is… Continue ...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is wrapping up 2020 with what it claims are major performance enhancements to the company’s Google Chrome browser. “This month’s update represents the largest gain in Chrome performance in years,” Matt Waddell, Chrome’s director of product, wrote in a blog post. Sounds pretty exciting on the surface, no? Waddell says a slew of under-the-hood changes and optimizations have led to boosts to Chrome on several fronts. The first has to do with tabs. Chrome now will prioritize your active tab over the others in the background, “reducing CPU usage by up to 5x and extending battery life by up to 1.25 hours (based on our internal benchmarks).” Google goes into greater detail on just what it’s doing to keep tabs in check (hint: it involves… Contin...

An interview with Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy Continue reading… You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Online. So we reimagined what a dating should be. It begins with giving you back power. Get to meet Beautiful people, chat and make money in the process. Earn rewards by chatting, sharing photos, blogging and help give users back their fair share of Internet revenue.

Image: Instacart Electronics retailer Best Buy and on-demand delivery platform Instacart announced a partnership on Tuesday that will see Instacart power same-day delivery of Best Buy in every state in the US, covering nearly every Best Buy location throughout the country. The partnership is a big deal for Instacart, which has gradually expanded beyond its initial grocery delivery ambitions to include delivery of all manner of goods from many types of different retailers. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for delivery of everything from home supplies to groceries to hot meals has skyrocketed, giving Instacart and its rivals huge revenue boosts and the means to continue expanding. For Best Buy, it’s a way to tap into the ease of on-demand delivery… Continue reading… You Dese...

The holidays are approaching — and the retailers are in tight competition for your dollars. In order to convince you that they’re the place to buy from, they are not just dropping prices on their products; they’re making it a lot easier to have those products shipped and to return them if the person you bought the laptop or gaming console or phone for doesn’t like it. In fact, most retailers are offering special holiday season policies for shipping and returns, recognizing that a) most shoppers are spending a great deal right now and wouldn’t mind saving a bit on shipping, b) many people will start getting nervous about getting their packages before the holidays so faster shipping is better (and free faster shipping is better yet), and… Continue reading… You Deserve to Make Mo...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Nothing is more frustrating than buying a new computer, phone, game console, or backpack and finding out that you could have gotten it for a lot cheaper somewhere else. In order to keep customers happy — and prevent them from going elsewhere — many retailers offer price-matching policies where they promise to match a lower price that you’ve found elsewhere. They will also sometimes match themselves if you buy something that goes down in price a week later. What follows are the price-matching policies for a variety of major retailers. There are a few things to make note of here. First, all price-matching policies have a number of rules attached to them. We’ve summarized some of the rules here, but you’d be advised to go to the links that… Co...