Technology

President Donald Trump has nominated longtime telecom lawyer Nathan Simington to be the Federal Communications Commission’s next commissioner, as reported by Law360. Last week, The Verge first reported that Simington had emerged as a leading candidate to replace current Republican Commissioner Mike O’Rielly. Simington, a senior adviser at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), played a significant role in drafting a petition required under the Trump administration’s social media executive order issued over the summer. The order instructs the FCC, after receiving NTIA’s petition, to reinterpret Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The order was issued in May after Twitter fact-checked two of Trump’s tweets that made false statements about mail-in vo...

Nintendo has announced the next round of games to be added to the ever-growing Nintendo Switch Online retro library. The headliner is Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest, the 1995 sequel to the original Donkey Kong Country that was added to Nintendo Switch Online back in July. I will be straight with you and admit that I am not a Donkey Kong Country fan. But I am a Picross fan, so I’m excited for the next addition: Mario’s Super Picross, a 1995 SNES game that has never been released in the US. (It did see release on the Wii and Wii U Virtual Console in PAL regions, though.) If you’re not a Picross player already, Nintendo has posted a tutorial for Mario’s Super Picross here: [embedded content] The other additions this month are Jaleco’s 1993 SNES beat-em-up The Peace Keepers and Nats...

During today’s “Time Flies” event, Apple explained why it has decided to stop including a power adapter in the box with the latest Apple Watch Series 6 and Apple Watch SE, portraying the move as a big step toward meeting the company’s environmental goals. But it turns out this change doesn’t apply to every new Apple Watch; the most expensive models will still come with a 5-watt charger. Both the titanium Apple Watch Edition and high-fashion Apple Watch Hermès will include a power adapter in the box, according to Apple’s website. (Credit to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman for spotting this.) Apple sells far fewer Edition and Hermès Watches than it does the more mainstream models, so it follows that the reduced volume makes for less waste. But isn’t it also relatively safe to assume that anyone spen...

Photo: Tina Tyrell for New York Magazine. Set design by Eric Mestman. Photography assistance by Matt Shrier. This article was featured in One Great Story, New York’s reading recommendation newsletter. Sign up here to get it nightly. My mother’s ex-husband, Jim (who, until I turned 8, I’d thought was my uncle), had Google alerts set for me. Every time my name appeared in the news — if you can call gossip websites “news” — he was notified immediately via email. Jim was well meaning but an alarmist; he wished to maintain a relationship with me, and these alerts provided him with perfect opportunities to reach out. I was walking through Tompkins Square Park with a friend and her dog and sipping a coffee when Jim’s name lit up my phone. “See you’re getting sued. My advice …” he began. Jim was a...

Apple launched new Apple Watch bands today that have no buckles or clasps, called the Solo Loop and the Braided Solo Loop. They look nice, but because you won’t be able to adjust the length of the band, you’ll have to measure your wrist in some way when you’re buying one to make sure you’re picking the right size. And that problem becomes trickier due to the fact that there are 12 total Loop sizes to pick from. Apple has a few solutions to help you pick a good fit, however. The company has a printable measuring cutout on its website that you can use to figure out which Loop band you should buy. Alternatively, if you’re able to measure your wrist in some other way (perhaps with measuring tape, for example), you can plug in your measurements on Apple’s online store for a recommendation on wh...

A viral phishing scheme is targeting people across the country with scammy text messages claiming to be from the United States Postal Service (USPS). Now, QAnon conspiracy theorists have jumped into the fray, falsely claiming the scheme is tied to human trafficking, as reported by Insider. There’s no evidence to suggest this is true. The rumor has spread on Facebook and Instagram, echoing the Wayfair conspiracy theory that went viral earlier this summer. Unlike the Wayfair conspiracy, however, the USPS myth is obfuscating a real phishing threat. The scam involves text messages that claim to have information about a USPS delivery. To find out more, people have to click a link. On Twitter, security researcher Eric Ellason said the link goes to the domain m9sxv.info, which then redirects to j...

Apple’s next major software upgrades for the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple TV are almost ready. At today’s “Time Flies” event, the company announced that iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, along with the latest watchOS and tvOS updates, will start rolling out on Wednesday, September 16th. As of today’s event, app developers hadn’t yet received the completed golden master (GM) builds of these updates, so Apple’s software release schedule seems oddly rushed. But hey, new features are coming. iOS 14 brings widgets to the iPhone home screen for the first time, gathers all of your apps into a new App Library, and adds picture-in-picture mode (which had already been available on iPads). There’s also a new Translation app. iPadOS 14 won’t let you put widgets anywhere you want on the home screen, but it...

Apple revealed that it has sold more than 500 million iPads over the last 10 years. The announcement was made by CEO Tim Cook during Apple’s “Time Flies” live stream event, in which the company revealed a pair of new Apple Watch devices and an updated base model iPad and new iPad Air. This is the first time Apple has disclosed how many iPads it’s sold after the company said in November 2018 it would no longer reveal unit sales of iPhones, iPads, and Macs in its quarterly earnings reports. The new eight-generation base model iPad announced today sports a 10.2-inch screen and an A12 chipset, first seen in the iPad Air and iPad mini models released last year. The new iPad Air announced today comes with the new A14 Bionic chip and design more closely resembling that of the iPad Pro. You Deserv...

Apple announced two new Apple Watch models at its “Time Flies” online event today: the high-end $399 Series 6 and the more affordable $279 Apple Watch SE, which serves a step up from the $199 Series 3. Both will release this Friday, September 18th, and if you’re interested in buying one of them, you can place a preorder starting today. The Series 6 comes in a few new colorways and finishes, and it has more power with its S6 processor and an improved always-on display. Apple noted that this Watch is 20 percent faster than the Series 5 Watch, and it has more sensors than previous models. Notably, it can detect the blood oxygen levels in your body. The Apple Watch SE is a more affordable option that looks similar to the Series 6, but it doesn’t have brand-new sensors or features. It’s simply ...

Apple announced a new iteration of its popular baseline iPad, now in its eighth generation. It’s $329 and ships with the A12 Bionic processor. You can preorder that model today, and it will ship this Friday, September 18th. In terms of spec upgrades, the bump from the A10 with last year’s model to the A12 Bionic is a significant leap in speed. If you held out from buying the seventh-gen version, this new iPad seems fast considering its $329 price tag. It still ships with a minuscule 32GB of storage, and for $100 more, you can increase it to 128GB. You might also want to preorder the new Apple iPad Air. The one that looks more like an iPad Pro that features USB-C charging and is the first Apple product to ship with the A14 Bionic processor. It’s going to cost $599 when it launches sometime ...

Fortnite will hold its next in-game concert on Saturday, September 19th, with Anderson .Paak set to perform, Epic Games announced today. The show is the latest in its Spotlight concert series. Epic built a soundstage specifically for its series, the first of which took place last week with Dominic Fike. While Anderson .Paak will be performing live at the Party Royale Spotlight soundstage in Los Angeles, players can watch the concert in the game’s Party Royale social space. The live show will kick off at 5PM ET, with replays later that night at 11PM ET and on Sunday, September 20th at 1PM ET. Anderson .Paak is the latest in a growing lineup of artists who’ve performed in Fortnite, including Travis Scott and Marshmello. Epic plans to announce its next artist later this month, with more artis...

The next generation of game consoles is on the way, but the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X / S might not just be bringing better graphics and more advanced technology. The new consoles could also usher in a higher price for games themselves, with the $60 norm that’s been a standard since 2005 potentially going away. That’s not necessarily a problem, according to Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick, who defended the idea of a next-generation price increase in an interview with Protocol. “The bottom line is that we haven’t seen a front-line price increase for nearly 15 years, and production costs have gone up 200 to 300 percent. But more to the point since no one really cares what your production costs are, what consumers are able to do with the product has completely changed,” said Ze...