Technology

Microsoft announced a new effort today to reduce pollution coming from some of its employees’ flights. It plans to buy credits for sustainable aviation fuel to cover travel on the commercial flight routes most frequented by its employees during business trips. It will buy the credits from Dutch company SkyNRG, which will then supply cleaner-burning fuel to Alaska Airlines. The less-polluting flights will be operated by Alaska Airlines for travel between Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (near Microsoft’s corporate headquarters) and San Francisco, San Jose, and Los Angeles international airports. The fuel could emit 80 percent fewer CO2 emissions The fuel that SkyNRG provides would be made in the US with used cooking oil or other plant oils. When it’s burned, the fuel could emit 75 perce...

Ubisoft is merging its loyalty program, Ubisoft Club, and desktop app Uplay into Ubisoft Connect, the developer announced. In addition to a rewards program, it will introduce crossplay and cross-progression in games such as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Watch Dogs: Legion. The new hub will be available for free, but it requires a Ubisoft account. Ubisoft Connect “aims at giving the best environment for all players to enjoy their games and connect with each others whatever the device,” Ubisoft said. Players who use the service will be able to earn Ubisoft Connect XP for playing games and completing in-game challenges. Gaining XP will allow players to level up their Ubisoft Connect accounts, which will award a second currency, Units, that can be used to unlock various rewards for different g...

Tesla sent out the first “Full Self-Driving” beta software update to a select group of customers this week, CEO Elon Musk tweeted Tuesday. On an earnings call Wednesday, Musk said more Tesla owners would get the update as the weeks progress, with the goal of a “wide release” by the end of the year. Only those customers in Tesla’s Early Access Program will receive the software update, that will enable drivers to access Autopilot’s partially automated driver assist system on city streets. The early access program is used as a testing platform to help iron out software bugs. FSD beta rollout happening tonight. Will be extremely slow & cautious, as it should. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 20, 2020 Musk said that Tesla was approaching this software update “very cautiously” because the “wo...

Facebook Dating, the social network’s competitor to Tinder and other dating apps, launches today in Europe after a long delay from its planned Valentine’s Day debut. The dating service offers the same features in Europe as it does in the US, using the existing profile you’ve created on Facebook to find potential matches. Facebook tailors these matches with your preferences, Facebook activity, and, if you opt in, groups and events. Facebook originally planned to launch its dating service in Europe back in February While the service still only appears as a tab in Facebook’s mobile app, it’s deeply integrated with the rest of the social giant’s products. Your profile can pull stories and photos from Instagram, you can initiate Messenger video calls from chats, and the splashy Secret Crush fea...

NASA shared astonishing images of its OSIRIS-REx spacecraft touching an asteroid yesterday, revealing how the vehicle stirred up rocks and debris on the object’s surface when it made contact. The goal of the tap was to collect a sample of material from the asteroid, but the engineers behind the spacecraft say they won’t for sure if they collected anything until this weekend, when they spin the vehicle and measure how much material is inside. “the sampling event went really well, as good as we could have imagined.” However, the OSIRIS-REx team feels confident that they got something. “Bottom line is from analysis of the images that we’ve gotten down so far, is that the sampling event went really well, as good as we could have imagined it would,” Dante Lauretta, the principal investigator of...

National security officials announced Wednesday that Iran and Russia obtained voter registration information that could support efforts to interfere in the 2020 presidential election. The officials also confirmed that Iran sent threatening emails designed to intimidate voters. “Iran and Russia have taken specific actions to influence public opinion relating to our election. Some voter registration information has been obtained by Iran and separately by Russia,” Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said in a press conference Wednesday evening. “This data can be used by foreign actors to attempt to convey misinformation.” “Do not allow these efforts to have their intended effect” Voter registration information is often publicly available, so there’s no indication that either Iran...

I’m not going to pretend it makes obvious sense, but famed former Apple designer Jony Ive and his firm LoveFrom will soon be working for Airbnb. Yes, the company that primarily makes it easy for you to rent someone else’s home needs design help, and they’re going to the man best known for turning consumer tech on its head — as well as the occasional all-diamond diamond ring, a Christmas tree that is actually just a tree, and a magazine cover with no content. So if you’ve been been put off renting one of Airbnb’s recently introduced, exorbitantly priced Luxe accommodations because they have too many furnishings, perhaps this is just the ticket? Dude loves minimalism. A “multi-year relationship” Airbnb is calling the deal a “special collaboration” as well as a “multi-year relationship to des...

A state report on Foxconn’s Wisconsin factory depicts a project gone far off course. The report, issued this month by Wisconsin’s Division of Executive Budget and Finance and obtained through a records request, confirms that the company has not built the enormous Gen 10.5 LCD factory specified in its contract. It also says that the building the company claims is a smaller Gen 6 LCD factory shows no signs of manufacturing LCDs in the foreseeable future and “may be better suited for demonstration purposes.” The report notes that Foxconn received a permit to use its so-called “Fab” for storage, which The Verge first reported this week. Furthermore, according to an industry expert consulted by the state, Foxconn has not ordered the equipment that would be needed to make LCDs. If the building w...

Just when we thought the drama surrounding Zack Snyder’s Justice League couldn’t get any weirder, it seems Jared Leto’s…. controversial take on the Joker will be appearing in the director’s cut of the 2017 superhero team-up when it hits HBO Max next year. Leto, who infamously played the role of the Batman villain in 2016’s Suicide Squad, is reportedly joining the ongoing reshoots for the new Justice League cut, according to The Hollywood Reporter. It’s not entirely clear what role Leto’s Joker will play in the re-edited film. Despite the controversy over Leto’s edgy interpretation of the villain, the character has only had a minor role (at best) in the live-action DC films. Leto himself has only appeared in a few scenes in Suicide Squad (although there are reports that his role in th...

Artists on Twitter have a request: stop quote-tweeting their work. It’s all the more pressing now that Twitter has, temporarily at least, changed its retweet system to encourage users to quote tweets and add their own words on top, rather than simply boost someone else’s message. Artists say quote tweets take attention away from their profiles, making it harder for them to be discovered, while someone else gets the glory. “When you’re quote tweeting an artist, it’s almost like saying ‘I feel like what I have to say about this piece is more important than the actual piece,’” RadiantG, an artist, journalist, and indie game developer, told The Verge. Twitter made the change yesterday as part of an effort to “encourage more thoughtful consideration” of tweets — and presumably, to curb the spre...

The Verge used to have a fine tradition of cataloging all of the times when Eric Schmidt stuck his foot in his mouth, and today’s feels like a worthy addition: the former Google CEO and executive chairman has decided that social networks are “amplifiers for idiots.” The fuller quote, according to Bloomberg: “The context of social networks serving as amplifiers for idiots and crazy people is not what we intended.” Without knowing who “we” refers to, you might think he’s talking about how the entire tech industry has failed to keep sites like Facebook and Twitter from creating echo chambers and polarizing politics around the world (though some argue we can’t blame social networks alone). He’s certainly a member of the tech elite, one who had the ear of many other CEOs and even engaged in som...

Netflix executives love boasting about how many people are tuning into the streamer’s original movies and TV series, but co-CEO Ted Sarandos made a comment on the company’s earnings call last night that’s left a few people puzzled. Sarandos was talking about some of Netflix’s most popular movies, citing The Old Guard, Extraction, and basically any Adam Sandler movie Netflix releases. At one point, Sarandos said Netflix is getting “70, 80, 100 million folks turning out to watch [our] movies in their first 28 days,” and spending less on marketing than traditional studios, adding that it’s the equivalent to “a billion dollars of box office in terms of cultural impact.” There’s a lot to unpack here, but let’s start with the idea that The Old Guard, Enola Holmes, and Murder Mystery or Sandy Wex...