Technology

Microsoft saw some big growth in Microsoft Teams at the beginning of the pandemic, and it has kept accelerating over the past six months. During an earnings call with investors today, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella reveled Microsoft Teams now has 115 million daily active users. That’s a more than 50 percent rise from the 75 million that Microsoft reported almost six months ago. It’s difficult to compare Microsoft’s numbers to its rivals, though. Both Zoom and Google report daily active participants, which means a single user could be counted multiple times through different meetings during a day. Google revealed it has 100 million daily active participants earlier this year, and Zoom said it had 300 million daily active participants. Slack also saw some growth earlier this year. Microsoft has...

Record-setting wildfires in Colorado are wreaking havoc on forests that have already been devastated by outbreaks of another kind: infestations of beetles that burrow beneath tree bark and eventually kill their hosts. State officials last week mentioned that the East Troublesome Fire was burning through an abundance of “beetle-killed” pine trees, boosted by dangerous weather conditions. That fire grew to become the second largest fire in Colorado’s history and was only 20 percent contained as of Tuesday. Three of the largest wildfires on record in the state have burned this year, and they’ve preyed on forests hard-hit by beetle infestations. But researchers warn against blaming the beetles for the unprecedented fire season Colorado is having. There’s growing evidence that beetles play a ne...

Microsoft has been slowly weaning users off its legacy Internet Explorer browser for a very long time, recently going so far as to use a forced Windows update to install its new Chromium Edge browser on your Windows PC. But next month, Microsoft’s planning to force your computer to automatically launch some 1,156 websites in Edge, too — if you try to launch an “incompatible” site in IE. That’s the report from ZDNet, which also recorded a video showing how it works: There’s a lot of big-name sites on the automatically-launch-in-Edge list, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, a number of Google products, Microsoft Teams, and quite a few banks and other big brands. According to a Microsoft FAQ, the change will roll out in Microsoft Edge version 87, which is set to arrive the week ...

Just yesterday, we found FCC filings for a new Anker PowerWave wireless charging pad that mentioned an unannounced second generation of Echo Buds with wireless charging right in the name. That charger has since leaked in full in a Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) listing spotted by GizmoChina. The now-pulled WPC listing included the render of the product at the top of this post that gives us a few hints about what the Echo Buds’ case might look like and some of the features of the pad. The charger appears to have an oblong indentation for the Echo Buds’ wireless charging case to rest in, indicating the case will have a much different shape than more rectangular one used with the original Echo Buds. (We observed a similar oblong shape in a diagram of the pad included with the FCC filings.) T...

Audible is turning into more of a podcast app. The company announced today that its catalog now contains 100,000 free podcasts that are already available on other streaming platforms, including Pod Save America, This American Life, and Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend. The shows are now available through the app and will soon show up on Audible’s podcast landing page. Listeners won’t need a subscription to access these shows. This move sets Audible up to compete more earnestly against Spotify and Apple Podcasts, the two biggest names in the space, as well as other, smaller competitors. Audible, which is owned by Amazon, launched a new subscription plan called Audible Plus in August, which gives listeners access to Audible’s original audio content at a cheaper monthly cost. The catch is that th...

Microsoft posted the first quarter of its 2021 financial results today, reporting revenue of $37.2 billion and a net income of $13.9 billion. Revenue is up 12 percent, and net income has increased by 30 percent. While the ongoing pandemic continues to force many to work remotely during an economic downturn, Microsoft is benefiting from the shift in the way people are now working, playing games more, and connecting to others through videoconferencing. Cloud services are the biggest boost to Microsoft’s revenues from the pandemic shift in behavior. Both Office commercial and consumer are up, with Office 365 Commercial revenue growth up by 21 percent. Server products and cloud services revenue has also increased 22 percent as more businesses rely on cloud services for remote working. Azure re...

Apple is bringing Jon Stewart back to TV. Stewart will host a new series for Apple TV Plus that will feature focused looks at his advocacy work and “topics that are currently part of the national conversation,” Apple said in a press release announcing the series. The show sounds a bit like John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight: each episode will run for an hour and focus on a single topic. Apple refers to it as a “current affairs series.” There’ll also be a companion podcast, though Apple declined to say who would be hosting the audio show. Apple also signed a first-look deal with Stewart’s production company Stewart’s new series doesn’t currently have a name or a release date. The Hollywood Reporter says the show is expected to start next year, and it says the episodes won’t come out on a night...

Mophie is one of the oldest names in the business when it comes to smartphone battery packs, but its latest release puts a new spin on the approach. Instead of a battery case that can only be used with a single phone, the new Juice Pack Connect uses a modular system to clip a battery pack onto the back of your phone, where it can wirelessly charge it. It’s a creative solution that solves a lot of problems of both bespoke battery cases and more modern Qi battery packs. The Juice Pack Connect works with basically any phone that supports wireless charging, not just a single device. And the clip mechanism allows for Qi charging to be used even when out on the go, without resorting to solutions like a weird suction cup array to keep the charger and phone together. [embedded content] Plus, Mophi...

After years of anticipation, T-Mobile is finally getting into the live TV business with the launch of a new internet-based streaming service called TVision, launching on November 1st. To be clear: TVision isn’t using the fiber-optic-based IPTV technology that it acquired alongside Layer3 back in 2017. It’s a traditional over-the-top streaming service that simply streams live television over the internet, just like YouTube TV, Hulu’s live TV service, Fubo TV, Sling TV, or (in perhaps the closest analogy) AT&T TV. But what sets TVision apart is its pricing, which aims to offer lower costs and more flexibility than its competitors. Think of it as a T-Mobile’s take on YouTube TV or Sling To that end, TVision is broken up into a few different products. There’s the $40-per-month TVision Live...

Every Tuesday this month, Vergecast co-host Dieter Bohn will host a series of discussions diving deep into tech review season, each focusing on a specific product. This week, Dieter brings back Vergecast co-host Nilay Patel and Joanna Stern, a senior personal technology columnist at The Wall Street Journal, to discuss their reviews of Apple’s iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro. The reviews for the latest iteration of Apple’s flagship phone have been out for about a week now. Dieter reviewed the iPhone 12, Nilay reviewed the iPhone 12 Pro, and Joanna reviewed them both side by side. Dieter walks through what features Joanna and Nilay focused on in their reviews — Joanna’s 5G at a football stadium, Nilay’s Dolby Vision videos — and how significant the upgrades are for this year’s devices. The crew ...

As the high-profile disputes about what content you can play on your iPhone rage on between Apple, Epic Games, Google, and Microsoft, a company called BackBone is focusing instead on making sure you get the most out of the games that are currently available. Like Razer did with its Kishi controller for iOS, and as other companies have with snap-on controllers of their own, BackBone is introducing one for $100 that it calls the BackBone One. To buy it, you’ll first need to download the app and make the purchase from there. With the controller fully extended, it can fit any iPhone running iOS 13 or later, starting with the iPhone 6S and including the new iPhone 12 lineup. It’s great for Apple Arcade games that support controllers. Sky: Children of the Light and Call of Duty: Mobile play wond...

Fall Guys is getting a Godzilla skin soon, and it’s adorable. Just look at it! I want to give it a big hug. But I also have to admit that I want to use the Godzilla skin to channel my inner monster and annoy other players without regret. I am never that person who grapples players just inches from the finish line of a Fall Guys stage — that’s just rude. But dressed as Godzilla? Well, all bets are off. LOL I can’t explain how excited I am to let you know that GODZILLA will be coming to Fall Guys next week THE GODZILLA@TOHO_GODZILLA THE ACTUAL GODZILLA LITERALLY GODZILLA OFFICIAL GODZILLA Better start getting your crowns together now pic.twitter.com/cMgUdqHCgX — Fall Guys (@FallGuysGame) October 27, 2020 Fall Guys has been one of the biggest hits of the year, and a number of brands hav...