Technology

Yesterday, the Department of Justice and 11 states sued Google for violating antitrust law. The complaint argued that Google had become “the unchallenged gateway to the internet for billions of users worldwide,” but that its success depends on unfair and monopolistic behavior. In some ways, the case is an obvious and long-awaited move. But it’s also an early test of how American antitrust law will handle the coming decade’s tech giants. Since the late 1970s, antitrust cases have typically focused on demonstrating consumer harm, like a company cornering the market on oil and jacking up gas prices with its power. This can be less straightforward with free services like Google search, but it’s hardly impossible. The landmark Microsoft antitrust case — which this complaint is modeled on — star...

This evening, three astronauts who have been living on board the International Space Station for the last six months will return back to Earth in a Russian Soyuz capsule, landing in the middle of the Kazakhstan desert. The trio have lived in space for nearly the entirety of the COVID-19 pandemic and are now returning as cases are rising again across the world. NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Ivan Vagner and Anatoly Ivanishin launched to the ISS on the Soyuz back in early April, nearly a month after the World Health Organization had declared that the COVID-19 outbreak had become a pandemic. Thanks to the outbreak, the crew underwent a stricter quarantine than usual before they took off. Cassidy said he remained mostly isolated when he first arrived in Russia’s Star City ...

Cruise, the self-driving car company owned by General Motors, is doubling down on the Origin, its steering wheel-and-pedal-less autonomous people mover introduced late last year. With the COVID-19 pandemic discouraging many people from using shared ride services, the company unveiled new safety protocols intended to keep people socially distant during trips and the vehicle sanitized between fares. Cruise is also applying for permission from the federal government to mass-produce the Origin. The vehicle’s lack of traditional human controls means that the company will need an exemption from the federal government’s motor vehicle safety standards, which require vehicles to have a steering wheel and pedals. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) only grants 2,500 such exemp...

Acer has announced a fleet of new gaming monitors in its Predator and Nitro lineups. As with the company’s laptops, the Predator line offers more high-end, feature-packed options whereas the Nitro line is value-focused and thus less expensive. Each of the monitors has minimal bezels, so they should work well with a multi-monitor setup if you want to put two or more of them side by side. Starting with the most interesting, the Predator X34 GS (shown on the left in the image above) is a 34-inch ultrawide curved QHD (3440 x 1440) IPS panel. This isn’t Acer’s first ultrawide gaming monitor, but it’s a little bit more affordable than some of the company’s previous models: it is expected to cost $1,100 when it launches in the US in December. The Predator X34 GS is G-Sync compatible and can be ov...

Acer has announced the $109 Halo smart speaker at its October hardware event. It’s a 360-degree speaker that has the Google Assistant built in to handle queries and tasks, and Acer says it’s one of the first smart speakers to have DTS sound. With that, it should be especially suited to offer a cinematic sound. It’s relatively easy to see what stands out about this device; it has an RGB base that changes color and lighting patterns, and its LEDs can show the weather and other images. Honestly, I think the Halo looks like an oil diffuser, but I’ll take Acer’s word that it’s actually a speaker. This device will release in Q1 2021. Acer hasn’t divulged other specs or product details about the Halo, but we’ll likely hear more soon. At $109, it’s just $10 more than Google’s new Nest Audio smart ...

While many of us moved to home offices when companies sought to avoid COVID-19 infection, for some people, working at home is the norm. One of those people is Sam Byford, Asia editor for The Verge, who works out of a home office in Tokyo, Japan. We talked to Sam to find out how he has equipped his own home office and to see whether it matters these days if your remote desk is five miles away or about 6,700 miles away from your organization’s main office. Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do at The Verge. I’m from the UK, and I’ve been based in Japan since 2008 — first in Osaka, now in Tokyo, where I live with my wife and our dog and our bunny. I came on board The Verge just as the site launched in 2011. I am now The Verge’s Asia editor, which means two things really. I handle much ...

If the first trailer for Raya and the Last Dragon, the next film out of Walt Disney Animation Studios (the same studio behind Frozen and Moana), gives you serious Legend of Korra vibes, you’re not alone. Disney debuted the first trailer for its new animated feature today, introducing people to Raya, a young girl on the hunt for the last dragon in order to restore peace to her divided world. The trailer follows Raya as she makes her way through a cave of sorts alongside her armadillo pal, TukTuk. Using martial arts skills she’s spent years practicing, Raya encounters a mysterious villain she’s forced to fight in her quest. Raya and the Last Dragon is currently slated to hit theaters in March, but like nearly every movie this year, that date could change. Although more theaters are beginning...

Vivo, one of the largest smartphone brands in the world, is expanding its operations in Europe. The company will now sell phones and accessories in six new markets: the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain. Vivo is kicking things off with the X51 5G flagship phone, essentially a rebranded version of the X50 that launched earlier in the year. Its headline feature is a “gimbal-style” camera system that is claimed to offer much-improved image stabilization. The X51’s other features include ultrawide, 2x, and 5x telephoto cameras, a Snapdragon 765 processor, a 90Hz 6.56-inch 1080p OLED screen, 256GB of storage, a 4,315mAh battery, and 33W fast charging. It’ll cost £749 ($972) in the UK and go on sale on October 29th. The company will also be selling the Y70, Y20s and Y11s, cheaper phon...

Fortnite’s annual Halloween event is back, and this year’s edition sounds like the most ambitious yet. Today, Epic Games revealed the return of “Fortnitemares,” and like past events, it will add some spooky elements to the battle royale island. But there’s a twist: Halloween night will also feature a virtual concert from reggaeton star J Balvin. First, the in-game element. In the past, Fortnitemares has included special game modes and zombies infesting the main island, but this year’s version sounds very different. Here’s how Epic describes it: Shadow Midas has taken over The Authority with his reawakened Henchmen. Stop him before you turn into a Shadow yourself. After being eliminated in solo, duos, or squads, return to battle as a Shadow for your shot at a Shadow Royale. Join fellow Shad...

Amazon Prime subscribers now get free one-hour grocery pickup at all of Whole Foods’ 487 US stores, Amazon announced today. The news marks an expansion of Whole Foods’ existing pickup service, which was previously only available at select stores, according to CNBC. Orders costing $35 or more are eligible, and thousands of items including fresh produce, meat and seafood, and other staples are available for pickup. Pickups have become increasingly popular during the pandemic as people attempt to social distance. Businesses ranging from electronics retailers like Best Buy to local restaurants have relied on them to allow people to shop safely. But Amazon says it expects the trend to continue even after the worst of the pandemic has passed, citing research that suggests that almost 68 percent ...

A day after lighting up the internet by announcing she’d joined Twitch and was looking for streamers to play the breakout hit Among Us with, New York congressional Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is playing Among Us with Hasan “HasanAbi” Piker and Imane “Pokimane” Anys, two of the biggest personalities on Twitch. The stream already had 240,000 concurrent viewers before they started playing. [embedded content] Piker is a popular progressive streamer, formerly of The Young Turks. (If you’ve tried to watch a political debate on Twitch this year, you’ve probably seen his stream.) Anys, on the other hand, is less explicitly political but is one of the most famous people on Twitch, with 6 million followers on the site. The idea for the AOC Among Us stream is, naturally, to get out the vo...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) made her Twitch debut tonight to play Among Us and encourage viewers to vote. She also, very quickly, became one of the platform’s biggest broadcasters: her stream peaked at 435,000 viewers around the time of her first match, according to Twitch. (The stream is still going as of this writing, but it had dipped to around 350,000 viewers after about two hours of playing.) That peak viewership puts her broadcast among the 20 biggest streams ever, according to the third-party metrics site TwitchTracker, and much higher if you’re only looking at broadcasts from individual streamers. Ninja holds the record for an individual streamer, with more than 600,000 viewers during a Fortnite match with Drake in 2018. TwitchTracker’s metrics suggest that AOC’s stream co...