Technology

Sonos has filed another patent lawsuit against Google, alleging that the search giant is infringing five wireless audio patents across the entire line of Nest and Chromecast products. The move comes on the eve of Google’s fall hardware event on September 30th, where it is expected to announce a new Chromecast and Nest smart speaker alongside new Pixel phones. Sonos filed its first patent lawsuits against Google in January in California federal court and with the International Trade Commission; the federal case has been put on hold while the ITC reaches a decision on whether to block Google’s allegedly infringing products from market. The new case is filed only in the federal court for the Western District of Texas — an emerging patent lawsuit hotspot — and represents a more aggressive appr...

HBO Max hasn’t been available on Roku devices since the new streaming service launched at the end of May, but with Roku soon adding support for Apple AirPlay 2 to many of its 4K devices and TVs, there will be a workaround. People with an Apple device (iPhone, iPad, Mac) will be able to use AirPlay 2 to stream HBO Max on their Roku devices even though an official app is not yet live, the company confirmed to The Verge. AirPlay 2 support is supposed to roll out by the end of the year to most recent 4K Roku players and Roku TVs, so it’s possible Roku and HBO parent company, WarnerMedia, could reach a deal before then, making the AirPlay workaround unnecessary. If they don’t, however, using AirPlay 2 will be one of the only options Roku owners will have to watch HBO Max. This isn’t the first t...

Oscar winner Barry Jenkins has agreed to direct the next installment in the Lion King story, according to an exclusive in Deadline. Jenkins is taking over for Jon Favreau, whose “live-action” — photorealistic CGI — update to the classic Disney franchise earned $1.6 billion globally just last year. The sequel also promises to be something of a prequel: according to Deadline, the movie will delve into the characters’ origin stories. As you may recall, that remake starred Beyoncé Knowles (Nala), Donald Glover (Simba), Seth Rogen (Pumbaa), and James Earl Jones (Mufasa), among other massive stars. Though the film has neither a release date nor any actors confirmed to star in its cast, it’s hard to imagine that some of the bigger names on Favreau’s roster won’t be coming back. You can’t make a L...

Hype manof the century When Chinese millionaire Justin Sun acquired BitTorrent, was he tryingto skirt the trade war? Or fly right in the face of it, no matter the cost? By Chris Harland-Dunaway | Sep 29, 2020, 10:00am EDTPhoto by Calvin Sit/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesIllustrations by Alex Castro/The Verge When Chinese millionaire Justin Sun acquired BitTorrent, was he trying to skirt the trade war? Or fly right in the face of it, no matter the cost? By Chris Harland-DunawaySep 29, 2020, 10:00am EDTPhoto by Calvin Sit/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesIllustrations by Alex Castro/The Verge Hype manof the century If Silicon Valley operated under the idea that companies should move fast and break things, then BitTorrent had become an exception. Employees enjoyed patiently tinkering with creative proje...

Yale’s Smart Delivery Box, which was first announced at CES earlier this year, is now available for purchase. The box, which is designed to sit on your porch as a safe place for packages to wait for you until you retrieve them, is available in two different designs ranging in price from $229.99 to $329.99, depending on whether you want Yale’s smart keypad. The idea behind the box is to prevent theft — the dreaded porch pirate — or to prevent damage to your deliveries from rain, snow, or other inclement weather. Yale is also offering an insert to help keep perishables cold in the box. I’ve been testing the Smart Delivery Box on my own porch for the past five days and while I appreciate what it is trying to do, I don’t think it’s currently worth the price of admission. The box is manufacture...

Elon Musk wants everyone to get brain surgery. Specifically, he wants everyone to get a brain implant — the brain-machine interface created by his company, Neuralink. He says it will be able to solve any number of medical conditions — including paralysis, anxiety, and addiction. Machines that connect to the human brain and translate the electrical signals to a computer have been around since 2006. Since then, neuroscientists and engineers have made incremental improvements to that technology. Musk’s Neuralink slots into that work: the company developed a system of thin wires that snake into the brain, which may cause less damage than the usual rigid spikes. But Musk’s ambitions also go far beyond altering the architecture of machine-brain devices. Apart from treating brain-based medical co...

Alienware’s M15 R3 is a solid gaming laptop to introduce, or reintroduce, yourself to what the Dell-owned company is capable of these days. It’s a big improvement over the design of the original M15 released a few years ago, brushing away some of the try-hard LEDs and angular design for a thinner and more sophisticated look. Don’t get me wrong, this is still very much a Gaming Laptop, clad with backlit keys, honeycomb-shaped air intakes, and a strip of LEDs surrounding its rear fan outtakes. Essentially, it’s a slimmed-down version of the humongous, modular Area-51M. But it’s built to attract gamers that want a slightly more refined and minimal look than what Alienware has been known to produce. With this, and support for high-end specs like a 300Hz refresh rate display, Dell shows that it...

Minnesota-based power sports outfit Polaris is teaming up with Zero Motorcycles to co-develop electric vehicles, including ATVs and snowmobiles. The two companies have signed an “exclusive, 10-year agreement,” which Polaris said will help kick off an effort to have an electric version of every vehicle type the company offers by 2025. Polaris makes a variety of off-road vehicles, including the popular RZR lineup as well as garish three-wheelers like the Slingshot. It also owns Indian Motorcycle, which it acquired in 2011. California-based Zero, which was founded in 2006, currently has nine electric motorcycles in its product lineup, including the recently released SR/S. Both companies hope to seize upon what they think has been an overlooked market for electrification, starting with off-roa...

A new browser app which you can download directly from the App Store provides a relatively simple way to play Google Stadia on iPhones and iPads, Engadget reports. Apple’s rules currently mean that game streaming services like Stadia, xCloud, and GeForce Now are not yet officially available on iOS or iPadOS. The app, Stadium, isn’t the first workaround that’s managed to get Stadia running on Apple’s mobile devices, but it makes the whole process a lot simpler. Its developer, u/zmknox, outlines how the process works in a Reddit post here. It’s as easy as downloading the app, entering a few details, and logging into your Google account. Other Reddit users have previously reported being able to use existing browsers to achieve the same thing, but Stadium streamlines the whole process. A scree...

Today let’s talk about Facebook’s Oversight Board, the “real” Oversight Board, and what it means for the 2020 election. Last week I wrote about how Facebook’s vast size and monarchic corporate structure had contributed to a steady stream of controversies all summer. When every decision on which posts to remove comes down to the judgment of one person, that person will be subject to enormous pressure to take one side or another. Facebook’s proposed solution to this is the Oversight Board, an independent group that will serve as a kind of Supreme Court for content moderation. When it’s up and running, the board will hear appeals from users who believe their posts have been removed in error, and will either uphold Facebook’s original call or reverse it. Inevitably, the board will take some ac...

Lenovo has announced a ThinkPad like no ThinkPad you’ve ever seen before: the ThinkPad X1 Fold. Think Samsung’s Galaxy Fold, but a 13-inch OLED laptop screen. It’s available for preorder now, starting at $2,499. The idea is that you can use the Fold like a large tablet when it’s fully unfolded (or divide the screen into two adjacent displays). You can prop the Fold up horizontally to use it like a full 13-inch notebook, with an optional detachable keyboard and easel stand. You can fold the thing up 90 degrees, turn it vertically, and use it like a miniature laptop (a touchscreen keyboard pops up on the bottom half). You can turn it horizontally and use it like a book, with an optional stylus. Or you can fold the whole thing up, and easily carry it around without it taking up much space in ...

Hyper, a gadget maker known best for its small and ultra-fast gallium nitride (GaN) chargers under the HyperJuice brand, is back on Kickstarter with a new plug that’s even more impressive than its last: a stackable GaN charger that can support an eye-popping 1600W of passthrough power. This follows Hyper’s first 100W GaN charger released via Kickstarter last fall and made available for purchase back in July. The charger, which comes in a 65W option with three plugs (two USB-C and one USB-A) and a 100W option with four plugs (three USB-C and one USB-A), has a built-in plug of its own rated at 1500W, so the charger can be plugged into a second unit to multiply the passthrough power available and double the ports. (Or in the event you just don’t want to lose an outlet.) Hyper says you can act...