Technology

Uber has 30 days to pay a $59 million fine to California’s Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) for failing to answer the regulator’s questions about a damning safety report released by the company in December 2019. If Uber doesn’t pay up and answer the outstanding questions, CPUC could suspend the company’s license to operate in the state, an administrative law judge ruled on Monday. It’s the latest development in Uber’s long history of trouble with violence and assault between its drivers and passengers — trouble that competitor Lyft shares, too. News of the fine was first reported by The San Francisco Chronicle. Regulators want to know more about Uber’s own damning safety report, released in 2019 The report, which Uber itself called “jarring” at the time, detailed thousands of sexual assa...

Apple has killed an upcoming Apple TV Plus show about Gawker, a now-defunct news organization, according to a report by the New York Times. The show, called Scraper, is one to add to the list of stories about Apple killing projects that touch things that are too sensitive or edgy for the company. When Tim Cook found out that Apple was working on the show, he reportedly sent an email saying that he was surprised to hear about it. He also mentioned he disliked Gawker. Although Apple has decided to kill the project, the show is back on the market, where another distributor could buy and finance it. This isn’t the first time Apple executives have stepped in to steer their TV service away from controversy This isn’t the first time Apple executives have stepped in to steer their TV service away ...

If you’ve been waiting until you could play all three SNES Donkey Kong Country games before picking up a Switch, you’re in luck. Nintendo has announced that the third game in the series, Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble, will be added to the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service this Friday. The original Donkey Kong Country game was added in July, while its sequel followed in September. Beyond Donkey Kong Country 3, Nintendo Switch Online is also getting some deeper cuts this week. SNES titles The Ignition Factor, Super Valis IV, and Tuff E Nuff are all coming on Friday alongside NES game Nightshade. A Nintendo Switch Online subscription is required to access the Switch’s library of NES and SNES games, as well as giving you cloud saves and the ability to play Switch...

Google has pushed back its return to the office until September, and will experiment with a hybrid model allowing some employees to work from home part of the week, the company said. First reported by The New York Times, Google CEO Sundar Pichai emailed employees Sunday about plans to test a flexible work week once conditions are safe for people to return. Google employees would work three days in the office and the rest of the week at home under the new plan. Pichai said the company is testing whether such a model would lead to greater productivity and employee well-being. “No company at our scale has ever created a fully hybrid work force model — though a few are starting to test it — so it will be interesting to try,” Pichai wrote. According to CNBC, however, Google’s hybrid work model ...

Pinterest is settling a gender discrimination lawsuit brought by former COO Françoise Brougher for $22.5 million. Pinterest and Brougher will also jointly contribute $2.5 million to philanthropies supporting women and underrepresented minorities in the tech industry. The remaining amount will be paid to Brougher and her attorneys. News of the agreement was first reported by The New York Times. The settlement is one of the largest in a publicly announced, individual gender discrimination lawsuit. Brougher’s lawyer told the Times that while private agreements can be bigger, they don’t hold companies accountable in the same way. The settlement is one of the largest in a publicly announced, individual gender discrimination lawsuit. In her complaint, which was filed in August, Brougher said she...

Google is no longer manufacturing the Google Home Max, its smart speaker designed with high-quality sound in mind, and it has sold out of the product on the Google Store, the company tells The Verge. And indeed, if you check the Google Home Max page on the Google Store, you’ll see that the white and black models are listed as out of stock. Even though Google is discontinuing the Google Home Max, the company still plans to support it with software updates and security fixes. “Existing Google Home Max users shouldn’t worry as they won’t see any change in their service,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement. “We’ll continue to offer software updates and security fixes to Google Home Max devices. We’re committed to delivering great sound and whole home audio features across all of our Ass...

The Food and Drug Administration has approved genetically engineered pigs for use in food and medical products. The pigs, developed by medical company Revivicor, could be used in the production of drugs, to provide organs and tissues for transplants, and to produce meat that’s safe to eat for people with meat allergies. “Today’s first-ever approval of an animal biotechnology product for both food and as a potential source for biomedical use represents a tremendous milestone for scientific innovation,” said FDA Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn in a press release. The pigs are called GalSafe pigs because they lack a molecule called alpha-gal sugar, which can trigger allergic reactions. Alpha-gal sugar is found in many mammals, but not usually in humans. Alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), which causes a s...

Working from home has its advantages, but one of the problems that many people have to face is trying to find enough space in a crowded environment. Jon Porter, who is the London-based news reporter for The Verge, has had to be especially resourceful in putting together a place where he could report, write, and review. We talked to Jon to find out how he’s managed to do such great reporting out of a small space. Tell me a little about yourself. What do you do at The Verge? I’m The Verge’s UK-based news reporter. I’ve lived in London basically my entire life, and I’ve been with the site for a little over two years now. Day-to-day, I’m responsible for covering any tech news that breaks during UK hours before the US wakes up. But once the East Coast is awake, I can get down to business review...

The OnePlus 9 likely won’t arrive until spring 2021, but thanks to some photos published by PhoneArena, we won’t have to wait that long for a glimpse of it. The images are of an alleged prototype device complete with unique pre-prod branding, and some software screengrabs reveal a little extra detail about the upcoming flagship. First up: the screen. It looks like OnePlus will stick with the flat screen format it used in the OnePlus 8 and 8T – the 9 has a flat 6.55-inch display with a hole punch camera in the upper left corner. The OnePlus 8 Pro’s screen features a design that curves around the edges of the phone, which we found lead to more accidental touches than occurred with the flat version. PhoneArena reports that the 9’s screen is a 2400 x 1080 panel with 120Hz refresh rate. The pre...

Facebook has publicly launched Collab, an experimental music-making app that first launched as an invite-only beta back in May, TechCrunch reports. The app allows users to create short-form music videos by combining up to three independent videos. So, for example, three musicians could each play a different part of a song and combine them into one video. But each video that’s created is also posted to a public “Collab” feed, where people can view and play along with it if they choose. So you could also record one part, then mix it with two other parts you find on the Collab feed that other people have recorded. Or you can just mix other people’s videos together — you don’t need to be a musician yourself. (Every user is properly credited for their contributions, according to Facebook.) You ...

Today in stories that make you go “Wait, what?”, Disney World is going to stop digitally adding masks to people who don’t have them in their on-ride pictures, according to a report from WDW News Today. Even if you’ve never been to a theme park, you’ve probably seen these kinds of photos: people on a roller coaster screaming or reacting in some funny way to whatever’s happening, captured by a camera built into the ride and sold at some crazy price. In the age of COVID-19, however, Disney has had to adapt to how it handles these pictures. For example, previously, if someone wasn’t wearing a mask on the ride, neither they nor anybody else in the picture would be able to download it in the Disney app or get it printed. It’s understandable how this could cause some annoyance — if you were weari...