Technology

Zoom will be lifting its 40-minute meeting limit for free accounts globally in recognition of several upcoming holidays, the company confirmed to The Verge. The limits will be removed in recognition of Hanukkah, Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, and Kwanzaa. The company similarly lifted its 40-minute limit last month for Thanksgiving Day. Here’s exactly when Zoom will be removing the 40-minute limit: 10AM ET Thursday, December 17th, to 6AM ET Saturday, December 19th, for the end of Hanukkah 10AM ET Wednesday, December 23rd, to 6AM ET Saturday, December 26th, for Christmas Eve and Christmas 10AM ET on Wednesday, December 30th, to 6AM ET on Saturday, January 2nd, for New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, and the end of Kwanzaa Normally, meetings with three or more people ho...

Twitter will no longer automatically show the quote tweet prompt when you try to retweet something starting on Wednesday, the company announced. The change to the way retweets worked was first implemented in October ahead of the 2020 US presidential election. Twitter’s aim with the change was to encourage people to tweet and amplify information more thoughtfully. “We don’t believe that this happened, in practice,” Twitter said in a series of tweets. “The use of Quote Tweets increased, but 45 percent of them included single-word affirmations and 70 percent had less than 25 characters.” Twitter also saw a 20 percent decrease in retweets and quote tweets while the automatic quote tweet prompt was in place. The increase in Quote Tweets was also offset by an overall 20% decrease in sharing thro...

The Lizzie McGuire Disney Plus series is officially dead, according to an Instagram post from Hilary Duff. The series was reportedly going to feature an adult Duff reprising her role as Lizzie in her 30s, navigating a career in New York, and dealing with more “adult” themes. “It’s been an honor to have Lizzie in my life,” Duff wrote. “I know the efforts and conversations have been everywhere trying to make work, but sadly and despite everyone’s best efforts [the reboot] isn’t going to happen.” The new Lizzie McGuire series’ original showrunner Terri Minsky was fired by Disney over “differences” in creative direction only two episodes into production, Variety reports. Following Minsky’s removal, work on the show was halted completely in January 2020, with the future of it unknown. Disney ha...

Apple has responded to Facebook’s critiques of its upcoming privacy changes by saying that is “standing up for our users,” in a statement shared with The Verge. Facebook has been criticizing the company ahead of a future iOS update that will require users to give their permission for apps to collect data about them. Facebook took out full-page newspaper ads today attacking Apple, claiming that the changes will “limit businesses’ ability to run personalized ads and reach their customers effectively.” Here is Apple’s full statement: We believe that this is a simple matter of standing up for our users. Users should know when their data is being collected and shared across other apps and websites — and they should have the choice to allow that or not. App Tracking Transparency in iOS 14 does n...

One of the biggest hurdles facing HBO Max is no longer a problem: the streaming service will finally be coming to Roku devices, starting December 17th. The move comes just after after WarnerMedia announced that it will simultaneously release its 2021 movies on HBO Max the same day they debut in theaters. The move follows Wonder Woman 1984 debuting on HBO Max the same day as its released in theaters on December 25th. Wonder Woman 1984 and many of Warner Bros.’ 2021 slate are the types of movies that will drive subscribers to HBO Max, so it’s a win-win for both parties to have a deal by then. Roku can reap some of the reward from those signups, and HBO Max is now available to tens of millions of people who use Roku devices. Once available, Roku users will be able to simply install the HBO Ma...

Sony on Wednesday announced that HBO Max is finally available for its next-gen console. Support for the app, revealed in a tweet from the official PlayStation account, should be great news if you managed to get a PS5 and were planning to use it as an entertainment hub for movies in addition to games, as HBO Max was the last major streaming service absent from the console. If you’re still on the PS4, this update likely won’t mean much to you, as that device has had the app for a while now. But it does mean any PlayStation fans should now be able to watch Wonder Woman 1984, which will be available in 4K HDR for PS5 owners with supported TVs and other Warner Bros. movies coming out next year on HBO’s new streaming service. (Xbox Series X / S owners have had access to the app since the console...

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker has refused to sign a law banning most government use of facial recognition. The Boston Globe reported last week that Baker sent an omnibus police reform bill back to state lawmakers, asking for changes that included striking the facial recognition rules. Massachusetts legislators passed the first major state-level facial recognition ban, following a model set by individual cities like Boston and San Francisco. The bill says public agencies, including police departments, can’t use or acquire biometric surveillance systems. It makes exceptions for running facial recognition searches against a motor vehicles registration database, as long as police obtain a warrant or demonstrate “immediate danger” that requires a search. It would help fill a gap left by fede...

Today, Neverware announced in an FAQ that it’s now part of Google. Neverware, based in New York City, makes a software application called CloudReady that allows you to convert a PC into a system that runs Chrome OS. In its FAQ, Neverware states that it and its CloudReady software are “officially part of Google and the Chrome OS team.” CloudReady offers a free version for personal use, as well as paid tiers for enterprise and education. The idea is that companies and schools (as well as individuals) can convert old, slow systems into Chromebooks rather than throwing them out — Chrome OS is a less demanding operating system for these machines to run than Windows 10 is. According to Neverware’s FAQ, not much is going to change for current CloudReady customers in the near future. The company’s...

Carbon dioxide coming from the buildings where we live and work set a new record in 2019. What’s more, those planet-heating emissions will probably keep rising after the pandemic, the authors of a new UN report warn. The report urges governments to make structures more energy efficient and speed up a transition to renewable energy. Doing that could be a great way to address both the climate crisis and the economic downturn caused by COVID-19. The building sector was responsible for a whopping 38 percent of carbon dioxide emissions globally in 2019, the report says. For comparison, all the planes, trains, automobiles, and other transportation in the world only pump out about 24 percent of global carbon emissions. Growing prosperity around the world, especially in developing nations that don...

Today, Discord is rolling out screensharing to its mobile users. It’s a smart move; earlier this summer, the company’s mobile app was hitting lifetime highs for downloads every day. Mobile screensharing means that you can just share your screen — and whatever you’re watching — with anyone in a voice channel. That means you can watch everything from TikTok to Twitch with any of your friends from anywhere in the world, in real time. While chatting. I saw a demo of the feature recently, and more than anything else, I found the simplicity astonishing. In our pandemic year, I’ve spent so much time socializing virtually — sometimes on Discord, sometimes not — and it’s underscored the importance of casual hangouts; spontaneity is one of the many things the pandemic has taken from everyday life. F...

Hours after announcing it would bring controversial horror game Devotion to its platform, CD Projekt Red’s digital storefront GOG has reneged on its release plans. The company’s social media account claims that “after receiving many messages from gamers, we have decided not to list the game in our store.” Devotion has been at the center of a censorship controversy since release last year, after players found in-game content that referred to Xi Jinping, the president of China, as a “Winnie-the-Pooh moron.” The Chinese leader is notoriously sensitive to the cartoon bear, to which memers have continuously compared him; the movie Christopher Robin did not get a Chinese release. Mentions of comedian John Oliver were outright censored on social media after a segment that mentioned the Winnie the...

Today, Amazon revealed the design of the antennas its customers will use to tap into the company’s upcoming massive satellite constellation, Project Kuiper, designed to provide broadband internet coverage from space. The antenna, which is a phased-array design, underwent development and testing this fall, according to the company. With a diameter of just 12 inches across, the antenna is “smaller and lighter than legacy antenna designs,” Amazon claims. Testing showed the antenna can provide “maximum throughput of up to 400 Mbps.” The company also notes that the antenna can be used to stream 4K-quality videos from geostationary satellites, spacecraft that are located about 22,000 miles above the Earth. Testing showed the antenna can provide “maximum throughput of up to 400 Mbps” Amazon Kuipe...