Technology

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge An Amazon support member trying to help a subscriber on Twitter was apparently not fully up to speed on world geography when they suggested to the user that Northern Ireland wasn’t part of the United Kingdom. Chris Jones was tweeting to the AmazonHelp account on Saturday, asking why he wasn’t able to view the Autumn Nations Cup, an international rugby tournament being live-streamed on Amazon Prime. After troubleshooting some possible technical issues, the helper believed they had found the problem: The match was only available to Prime Members in the UK. Northern Ireland is part of the UK. — Chris Jones (@_chrisjones_) November 14, 2020 As Jones notes in his reply, Northern Ireland is indeed part of the UK, which actually stands for… Continue r...

Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images Social media app Parler receives financial backing from conservative hedge-fund investor Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah, The Wall Street Journal reported. The app, founded as an alternative to Twitter and Facebook and bills itself as “viewpoint neutral” saw nearly 1 million new downloads in the days after the US presidential election, rocketing it to the top of the iOS and Google Play app stores. Parler turned into a kind of de facto home for conservatives’ protests against the election— including the persistent “Stop the Steal” campaign— after the race was called for former Vice President Joe Biden. Several high-profile conservative social media personalities encouraged people to abandon Twitter and Facebook because of their… Co...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Qualcomm has received permission from the US to sell 4G mobile chips to Huawei, an exemption to the Trump administration’s ban on doing business with the Chinese company, Reuters reported. Qualcomm didn’t specify which products it’s allowed to sell to Huawei, but told Reuters they were related to mobile devices. In May 2019, the White House issued an executive order barring US companies from doing business with Chinese companies like Huawei due to national security concerns. In May of this year, the Commerce Department tightened the restrictions to require any overseas semiconductor manufacturers to get a license from the US if they used US equipment or technology to make chips for Huawei. And effective in September, the US began… Continue read...

A worker administers a COVID-19 test at a drive through testing site in Texas | Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images This week, COVID-19 headlines were split between cautious optimism and abject despair. On the positive side, Monday morning brought us a scrap of hope — claims from Pfizer and BioNTech that their vaccine candidate was highly effective. Their tests so far showed that it has an efficacy of about 90 percent, though that number could change with time. And before we break out the bubbly, there are still plenty of caveats to the news. Among the downer highlights: the full data hasn’t been released yet, and this happened in a clinical trial where conditions were more controlled than they will be in the real world. It has to be delivered in two doses, weeks apart, and it’s more fragile ...

Netflix Netflix’s The Liberator almost didn’t get made. The four-episode miniseries, now streaming, was initially envisioned as an eight-episode drama for the History Channel. The story — both in that version and the one that exists now — was based on the true story of the “Thunderbirds” battalion, a group of US forces that spent 500 straight days in combat in 1943. Unfortunately, the production costs of staging a grand war epic proved prohibitive for the History Channel, which led to its eventual rebirth on Netflix as an animated series quite unlike anything you’ve seen before. The Liberator is disorienting to watch. Its animation — initially a cost-saving measure, created by the animation house Trioscope — combines live-action performances… Continue reading… You Deserve to M...

Uber autonomous vehicle | Uber Uber is in talks to sell its autonomous vehicle unit to startup competitor Aurora Innovation, TechCrunch reported. If it comes to pass, the sale of Uber Advanced Technologies Group (UberATG), would mark the end of a bumpy road for a division of Uber that was valued at $7.25 billion as recently as last July, but which has been plagued with ongoing problems. In March of 2019, Uber avoided criminal charges in the 2018 death of Elaine Herzberg in Tempe, Arizona, the first-ever death involving an autonomous car. Federal investigators found that Uber, the safety driver behind the wheel of the car, and the state of Arizona all shared a portion of the blame for the incident. The accident ended Uber’s test program in Tempe, but the company… Continue reading&hell...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Cyberattacks that originated in North Korea and Russia have been targeting companies conducting research for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, Microsoft said in a new blog post. The company says the attacks were aimed at seven leading pharmaceutical companies and researchers in the US, Canada, France, India, and South Korea. “Among the targets, the majority are vaccine makers that have COVID-19 vaccines in various stages of clinical trials,” according to the blog post by Tom Burt, Microsoft corporate vice president of customer security and trust. Microsoft didn’t name the companies, or provide details about what information may have been stolen or compromised, but said it had notified the organizations and offered help where the attacks… Contin...

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge The Sonos Move smart speaker is $100 off at retailers like Best Buy, B&H Photo and Amazon today only, bringing the cost from $400 to a more reasonable $300. You can save a little more at Wellbots on the speaker if you live outside of NY, as it doesn’t charge sales tax on purchases for all other US states. The Move serves as Sonos’ only speaker that can serve as a Wi-Fi or a Bluetooth speaker, meaning you can use it to bolster your arrangement of speakers for music and movies at home via Wi-Fi, or use it by itself to power the tunes when you’re on the go with Bluetooth. To switch between the modes, just tap a button on the back of the Move. It supports Alexa and Google Assistant voice assistants. My colleague Dan Seifert reviewed this… Continue rea...

Google is ending support for its Expeditions virtual reality app. The app, which offered educational VR tours, will be removed from iOS and Android app stores on June 30th, 2021. “The majority” of its tours will be migrated to Google’s separate Arts & Culture app, letting users view them via web or mobile device. Google published the news in a blog post that was spotted by 9to5Google, and it framed the decision around making Expeditions tours more accessible to students during the coronavirus pandemic. “We’ve heard and recognize that immersive experiences with VR headsets are not always accessible to all learners,” writes Jennifer Holland, Google’s director of education program management. “As Arts & Culture will offer many of the… Continue reading… You Deserve to Make...

Photo: Dan Seifert / The Verge Google is working on integrating its Chromecast streaming devices and Nest Audio speakers, according to a comment from a Google spokesperson in The Wall Street Journal, in a move that would give Google’s smart home and streaming gadgets a feature parity with Amazon and Apple. Being able to combine a streaming platform with a smart phone speaker makes a lot of sense for these companies. After all, customers already have all the hardware in their living room — why not repurpose those speakers to improve the sound of your Netflix movies? Plus, there’s the added bonus of inciting customers to stay within a company’s ecosystem. You’re more likely to buy a HomePod mini if it works with the Apple TV you already have. Just like Amazon and Apple … Continue readi...

HBO Max has arrived. Combining the vast content empire of AT&T’s WarnerMedia — HBO, Warner Bros., New Line Cinema, DC Entertainment, TBS, TNT, CNN, Cartoon Network, The CW, Crunchyroll, and Adult Swim — into a single streaming service already gives HBO Max one of the broadest streaming catalogs around. Additional licensed content, including the works of Studio Ghibli, titles from the Criterion Collection, shows from the BBC, and popular series like Friends and The Big Bang Theory, make it one of the most high-profile streaming services yet. And that’s in addition to original shows and movies that will be exclusive to HBO Max. But HBO Max is also one of the most expensive streaming services around, costing $14.99 per month — vastly more… Continue reading… You Deserve to Mak...

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