Technology

No, this is not a Halloween decoration someone forgot. This robot — “Monster Wolf” — is actually a bear deterrent. The city of Takikawa, Japan, deployed these robowolves to prevent bear attacks. And yes, bear attacks were something of a problem: 157 people were attacked by bears in 2019. But since the Monster Wolves were installed, no attacks have occurred, The Guardian reports. Black bears’ recent attacks are probably due to a shortage of acorns in the Japanese wilderness, according to conservationists. Bears rely on acorns as part of their pre-hibernation diet, and without the high-calorie nut, they’ve started edging closer to cities to forage for food. Deforestation and growing cities have shrunk the barrier between bear and human homes. This leads to more bear-to-human contact, prompti...

United States hospitals were targeted by two major cybersecurity attacks this fall: the first taking down Universal Health Services, a chain of hundreds of hospitals, and the second by a group called UNC1878 threatening hundreds of individual health care facilities all around the country. Targeting health care institutions directly marks a new approach for cybercriminals. “We haven’t seen an incident of magnitude that actually has the potential to harm people, literally all the way up to the point of death,” says Caleb Barlow, CEO of cybersecurity consulting firm CynergisTek. “It crosses a line that I think the entire cybersecurity community just didn’t think was going to get crossed anytime soon.” Many large-scale cyberattacks on hospitals over the past few years have been incidental. A p...

Microsoft’s latest next-gen console, the Xbox Series X (along with its smaller cousin, the Xbox Series S), has arrived. And with it comes a whole bunch of internet con artists trying to meme people into believing the new console is plagued by terrible issues. You might, for example, have seen clips passed around the internet that showcased the Xbox Series X literally smoking. The posts would have you believe the blazing graphics of the Series X are so demanding they can cause an Xbox to catch fire, but the reality is much simpler than Xbox consoles spontaneously bursting into flame. What actually appears to be happening is that people are piping vape smoke into their new $500 consoles to give off the appearance of a fire to troll fans on social media. (Please note that it probably isn’t a ...

YouTube seems to be having issues loading videos right now. Several Verge staffers are having trouble watching videos, and YouTube has confirmed that something is going on: If you’re having trouble watching videos on YouTube right now, you’re not alone – our team is aware of the issue and working on a fix. We’ll follow up here with any updates. — TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) November 12, 2020 The issue appears to affect other services that use the YouTube infrastructure too, including YouTube TV and the movies and TV shows you’d purchase through Google TV (formerly known as Google Play Movies & TV). We couldn’t load them. In our testing so far, the YouTube website seems to load just fine, but videos themselves will continuously show the loading wheel. One Verge staffer got a video to loa...

Showtime’s Halo TV show is bringing back the original actress for Cortana, the series’s iconic AI. IGN reports that Natascha McElhone, the actress originally cast to play both Cortana and her creator, Dr. Catherine Halsey, is unable to finish her work as the AI due to the pandemic. Longtime Cortana actress Jen Taylor will instead take the role, which she’s voiced since the first game released in 2001. Showtime announced a Halo TV series back in 2018. It stars Pablo Schreiber, Bokeem Woodbine, Olive Gray, and David Sapani, though it’s unclear what shape the show’s story will take. McElhone is still set to play Halsey in the series. Taylor has voiced the role of both Cortana and Halsey in the series as well as Microsoft’s digital assistant Cortana. Production on the show was halted due to th...

A digital rights activist in Moscow was able to purchase access to the city’s extensive facial recognition system for just 16,000 rubles (approximately $200), as reported by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. After seeing ads for the service on Telegram, Anna Kuznetsova transferred the money along with a picture of herself to a seller. Two days later, she received an extensive report of her movements over the previous month, apparently pulled directly from the police system. Spanning more than 100,000 cameras across the city, Moscow’s facial recognition system is meant to be restricted to law enforcement. It’s unclear how the seller was able to secure access, whether through bribery or a digital intrusion. Two officers were placed under investigation in the wake of the incident, but Kuznetsov...

You can grab two unlocked OnePlus 8T phones for $1,124 on OnePlus’ website today only. It’s a deal worth highlighting: the OnePlus 8T usually costs $749, but if you buy two today, you’ll get them for $562 each. This deal also includes a set of OnePlus Buds wireless earbuds with each phone at no extra charge. For a phone that was released just a few weeks ago, this is a great deal. The OnePlus 8T is a solid update to the OnePlus 8, released earlier this year, as my colleague Jon Porter points out in his review. Unlike the OnePlus 8, the 8T offers the same 120Hz refresh rate display found on the 8 Pro. The biggest feature for the 8T is the 65W charging, allowing you to charge the phone super fast. There are a few things you may want to consider if you are going to take advantage of this deal...

Apple has finally introduced its first Macs with processors it designed itself: a 13-inch MacBook Air, a 13-inch MacBook Pro, and a Mac mini. Apple is promising significant performance benefits over Intel processors and, for the laptops, a huge increase in battery life. (To give you an idea of the level of improvement Apple is touting, Apple claims the new MacBook Pro can get up to 20 hours of battery life.) They’ll also be able to natively run iOS apps, meaning Macs will theoretically have a lot more software options right from the jump. But before you turn those exciting promises into a preorder, you should know there’s still a big question mark hanging over the new computers. A render of the Apple M1 embedded in a tiny MacBook motherboard.Image: Apple The reason they can natively run iO...

The Segway Max is probably a good fit for you if you’re looking for an electric scooter that can travel up to 40 miles per charge — far longer than most other models. The Max happens to be cheaper than ever at Wellbots, but just for readers of The Verge. The retailer is offering you a $100 discount, dropping the usual $799 price down to $699. Just enter the offer code THEVERGEMAX after the checkout screen to see the price drop further than we’ve seen before. We’ve highlighted more affordable Segway options in the past, but those are, frankly, small potatoes compared to this one. In addition to the Max’s longer 40-mile range (beating the likes of the Segway ES2’s 15.5-mile range and ES4’s 28-mile range), it tops out at 18.6mph, which is about three mph faster than the ES2. For context, the ...

Early on in HBO’s Industry, there’s an extremely familiar scene: a boss addresses a room of young recruits and tells them that only half of them will make it and that they should do whatever they can to be one of the last ones standing. And so another group of promising young people sets their lives ablaze in the service of an exploitative industry, with the promise of money as the light at the end of the tunnel. Industry — created by Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, with a pilot directed by Lena Dunham — is set in London’s world of high-stakes investment banking, and it follows a diverse group of fresh graduates who are the latest hires for the fictional Pierpoint & Co. Cliché abounds, especially in the way the young new hires are hazed and degraded by their superiors. The bottom line is t...