Technology

The iPhone 12 has just barely launched, but we already have some idea what next year’s lineup could look like — according to TFI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple’s 2021 iPhones will keep the new form factor and screen sizes introduced with the iPhone 12 line, but offer an improved ultrawide camera on the high-end Pro and Pro Max models (via MacRumors). Kuo predicted the iPhone 12 line and now seems set to reveal what to expect from the 2021 models nearly a year before they launch. This time, Kuo says the ultrawide camera of the Pro and Pro Max will be upgraded from the current f/2.4, five-element lens setup to an f/1.8, six-element lens with autofocus. The larger aperture should let in more light, potentially enhancing low-light shots, and we’re curious to see if the autofocus and an...

Gray wolves came out on top in a nail-biting Colorado state election that could be a boon for the species across the US. A ballot measure to reintroduce the species in Colorado, Proposition 114, won Tuesday’s election with a narrow lead. The wolves are native to the state but were completely wiped out there by the mid-1940s. Millions of gray wolves once called North America their home, but they were shot, trapped, and poisoned to near-extinction to make way for western development and livestock. There’s a long road ahead to ensure the species’ survival The passage of Prop 114 is the latest win in a decades-long push to destigmatize “the big, bad wolf” and bring their numbers back. Now the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission needs to craft a plan to bring the wolves back to regions west ...

Disney’s live-action adaptation of Mulan, one of the company’s biggest streaming titles this year, will finally be available on physical media next week. You’ll be able to get it on 4K UHD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on November 10th. Mulan’s physical media launch marks the end of a whirlwind release schedule brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The movie was originally set to premiere in theaters on March 27th, but was delayed to July 24th due to pandemic-related theater closures. As the year wore on, closures forced another delay to August 21st, which then was followed by another — and indefinite — delay. In early August, Disney made the notable call to have Mulan exclusively premiere on Disney Plus on September 4th, though subscribers had to pay $30 to watch the movie, on top of the $6.99...

Google Photos is a superb photo management and editing app. As it has grown in popularity, Google has made the occasional attempt to monetize Photos — most recently by launching a subscription service where customers receive a selection of 10 printed shots every month. But now, according to XDA Developers (and also highlighted by Android Police), Google might be planning to reserve certain editing tricks — some that were previously available for free — for Google One subscribers. That’s one way to start ruining a beloved service, Google. Maybe rethink this. Inside the code for the latest update to Google Photos, there are strings that clearly point to the app moving in this direction: As a Google One member, you get access to extra editing features. Get extra editing features with a Google...

If you’re still unsure of what Paramount Plus is, don’t worry — you’ll learn soon, because ViacomCBS is going to spend a good portion of 2021 trying to get you to sign up for it. Paramount Plus is ViacomCBS’s rebrand of its current streaming service, CBS All Access. The revamped streamer will carry live sports (including NFL games that air on CBS), live news, and thousands of films and TV shows from its networks. Those include Nickelodeon, MTV, BET, Comedy Central, and both current and library programming from CBS. As the company prepares to end 2020 with “at least” 19 million paid subscribers in the United States, and plans to expand in 2021, executives used their time on an earnings call today to try and convince skeptical investors and analysts they know what they’re doing — ironic cons...

In the wake of a Facebook ban and dimming electoral hopes for President Trump, the “Stop the Steal” movement is finding a home on smaller platforms and in-person rallies. A movement supporting Trump’s false claims of election fraud and hoping to halt the ongoing vote-certification process, Stop the Steal groups are currently promoting pro-Trump rallies in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Georgia, and organizing through platforms like Parler and Discord. “President Trump has the votes,” wrote Marjorie Taylor Greene, a QAnon supporter newly elected to Congress, on Parler. “But the Democrats, Big Tech, and the Fake News Media are trying to STEAL this election. You and I cannot let that happen! This is the biggest VOTER FRAUD operation in American history…STOP THE STEAL.” Greene has 16...

Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag made his name in Call of Duty. He started his career as a professional player before shifting to become a YouTube star and, eventually, co-owner of gaming lifestyle brand 100 Thieves. But when the new Call of Duty League launched earlier this year, 100 Thieves didn’t field a team, despite much success in the now-defunct CWL. In a heartfelt video posted last year, Haag cited the high costs associated with the franchised league as one reason. But that’s going to change in 2021: the CDL’s latest team is the Los Angeles Thieves. “For the last year, we’ve just felt a gap, or a hole, at the core of our community,” Haag tells The Verge. “It didn’t feel right, after winning two major championships, to be not a part of Call of Duty in some way. We had to get back. The opport...

While eyes were on the presidential election, the United States reached a devastating milestone in the COVID-19 pandemic: on November 5th, there were 121,504 reported cases of the disease, according to The New York Times. That marked two straight days with over 100,000 reported cases. This isn’t a peak; it’s another step on a steady climb. That daily case number will likely continue to grow. “We are in big trouble,” wrote global health experts Abraar Karan and Ranu Dhillon on WBUR. In the spring, the center of the pandemic in the US was in the Northeast. Over the summer, Southern states were hit the hardest. Now, the virus is everywhere — there’s no particular hotspot, and things are bleak across the country. Cases are climbing in nearly every state, and hospitalizations are following clos...

As many predicted it would, the outcome of the 2020 election is taking many days to determine. A surge of misinformation on social networks, led by President Trump and his family, has challenged social networks’ content policies and drawn fresh attention to their enforcement capabilities. It’s too early to answer whether the platforms have risen fully to the 2020 challenge. Given the bellicose nature of the Trumps’ pronouncements this week, their hardest work is very likely still ahead of them. But in the meantime, I think it’s not too early to ask a related question: how did platforms handle the 2016 challenge in 2020? After all, it was the aftermath of Trump’s election win that reshaped public opinion about tech platforms, drew broad regulatory scrutiny around the world, and spurred the ...

I’ve developed an incredibly annoying habit while playing Astro’s Playroom. It’s a game that comes bundled with every PlayStation 5, and it’s designed to show off the new console’s DualSense controller. Most notably, it takes advantage of the gamepad’s incredibly subtle vibrations. And every time I felt something new I just had to share. I’d pass the controller to whoever was nearest and ask, “Can you feel those raindrops?” “What about the crunching sand as you walk on the beach?” “Hey, jump on that platform: doesn’t that feel like shattered glass?” The novelty still hasn’t worn off. Astro’s Playroom could easily have been a simple tech demo, and in a way it is that. Its main function is to demonstrate the possibilities of the DualSense. You can see the ways the controller can further imme...

In a lot of ways, the latest Spider-Man game is similar to the PS4 hit from 2018. That game managed to capture the joy of being a webslinger just about perfectly: swinging through the streets of New York, using webs to dispatch criminals, and clinging to a ceiling as you sneak through a villain’s base. Few games captured the sense of being a specific superhero the way Spider-Man did. The new spin-off, which launches alongside the PS5 next week, offers all of those same elements, but in a refreshed way — and it’s all thanks to a new lead. There are key differences between Peter Parker and Miles Morales as characters, and this is a game that really understands that. Yes, it’s a spinoff that’s slightly smaller in scale. But it also presents an interesting twist on an already great game. It’s ...