Technology

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge As school districts across the country struggle to figure out how — or if— to safely reopen schools to teachers and students, the number of coronavirus cases in the US passed 5 million on Sunday, according to the Coronavirus Research Center at Johns Hopkins University. And according to a Washington Post analysis, the US hit the 5 million mark just 17 days after passing 4 million cases. The US leads the world in the number of coronavirus cases, accounting for nearly a quarter of the 19.7 million cases worldwide. As of Sunday, Brazil was second with just over 3 million cases, followed by India at 2.1 million cases. And the US is at the top of another grim coronavirus list, according to Johns Hopkins, with more than 162,000 deaths. While… Continue...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon has had talks with Simon Property Group about converting some of its mall spaces into fulfillment centers, The Wall Street Journal reported. The conversations started before the coronavirus pandemic, and before the latest wave of bankruptcy filings by mall stalwarts like Lord & Taylor, JCPenney, and Nieman Marcus. It’s a bit of an on-the-nose example of how e-commerce is overtaking the traditional brick-and-mortar retail establishments that used to be at the center of the shopping mall experience. Simon is the biggest mall owner in the US, and looking to fill empty retail spaces, particularly those left behind by former anchor tenants like Sears and JCPenney. Having its fulfillment center warehouses closer to residential areas… Conti...

Toshiba quietly exited the laptop business once and for all last week, ending a 35-year run by transferring its remaining minority stake in its PC business to Sharp. Two years ago, Toshiba sold an 80.1 percent stake of its PC business to Sharp for $36 million, and Sharp renamed the division Dynabook. Sharp exercised its right to buy the remaining 19.1 percent of shares back in June, and Toshiba released a statement August 4th that the deal was completed “As a result of this transfer, Dynabook has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Sharp,” Toshiba said in a statement. The company made the first PC laptop in 1985: The T1100 boasted internal rechargeable batteries, a 3.5-inch floppy drive, and 256K of memory. ComputerWorld’s 20-year… Continue reading… You Deserve to Make Money E...

Apple has filed a notice of opposition against a meal prep company because it claims the Prepear app’s cartoon fruit logo— in this case, a pear— is too close to Apple’s own trademarked logo which is, of course, an apple (via MacRumors and iPhone in Canada). The company claims the pear logo would “cause dilution of the distinctiveness” of the Apple logo, and make it difficult for consumers to distinguish between Prepear and Apple’s goods and services, which it argues is a violation of the Lanham Act. The dustup started when parent company Super Healthy Kids filed to register a trademark for the Prepear logo. The Prepear app lets users store and organize recipes, and create custom meal plans. The logo is in the shape of a pear, with a leaf… Continue reading… You Deserve to Make ...

IBM Frances Allen, whose work on computer compiling helped establish a foundation for much of modern computer programming, died on August 4th, her 88th birthday. She was the first woman to win the Turing Award, and the first female IBM fellow. Allen was determined to make the tedious compiling process — converting software programs into ones and zeroes— more efficient. The work became a hallmark of her career. After receiving a master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Michigan, Allen took a job with IBM Research in Poughkeepsie, NY, in 1957, intending only to stay until she had her student loan debt paid off. She taught IBM employees the basics of its new Fortran language, later becoming one of three designers for the company’s… Continue reading… You Deserve to Ma...

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge Huawei, the world’s biggest smartphone vendor, says it’s running out of processor chips because of US sanctions against the company, The Associated Press reported. And according to Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei’s consumer business unit, as of next month the Chinese phone manufacturer will no longer be able to make its own Kirin chipsets due to the ongoing economic pressure from the US. “Unfortunately, in the second round of U.S. sanctions, our chip producers only accepted orders until May 15. Production will close on Sept. 15,” Yu said at a conference August 7th. “This year may be the last generation of Huawei Kirin high-end chips.” Huawei’s upcoming Mate 40 phone, scheduled for release in September, could be the last phone with a Kirin… Continue ...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter has had preliminary discussions about a “combination” with TikTok, the Wall Street Journal reported, making the social media platform the latest possible suitor for the popular video-sharing app. As the WSJ notes, it’s not clear whether Twitter would pursue a possible acquisition of TikTok, and any such deal would have big obstacles. The biggest challenge to any deal is the Trump administration’s executive order from August 6th, which bars TikTok parent company ByteDance from handling transactions in the US. The order takes effect within 45 days. The administration considers the Chinese-owned app a potential security threat, despite no evidence indicating ByteDance or TikTok has ever shared Americans’ data with the Chinese… Continue rea...

Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images An agreement between the US government and Kodak to develop generic drug ingredients appears to be on hold, after the US International Development Finance Corporation tweeted that “recent allegations of wrongdoing raise serious concerns.” “We will not proceed any further unless these allegations are cleared,” the agency tweeted, without specifying what the allegations were. Kodak said Friday it was conducting an internal review of recent activity by the company in connection with a $765 million loan it would receive under the Defense Production Act to produce pharmaceuticals. The company’s stock price surged in the days before the deal was announced, CBS News reported, leading Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) to call for the Securities and… Con...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In a move that may forever change what it means to be ratio’d, Twitter is testing some new language on tweet metrics, making quotes (also known as retweets with comments) visible on each tweet, the company confirmed Saturday. “A few months ago, we’ve made Retweets with Comments more visible when you tap to see Retweets on a Tweet,” a Twitter spokesperson wrote in an email to The Verge. “This is available to everyone. Now, we’re testing making Retweets with Comments accessible directly on the Tweet and new language (Quotes) to see if this makes them easier to access and more understandable.” A Verge reader tipped us to the feature’s new name, which lists the number of times a tweet is quoted alongside likes and retweets: In… Continue reading&hel...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge TikTok plans to sue the Trump administration over the president’s executive order banning the app in the US, and the company may file the lawsuit as early as Tuesday, NPR reported. According to NPR, the lawsuit will argue the president’s action is unconstitutional because TikTok did not have time to respond. The lawsuit also will allege that the president’s justification for the ban— that the company is a threat to US national security— is baseless, NPR reported. Under the executive order the president signed Thursday, the US will block all transactions with TikTok parent company ByteDance within 45 days, in order to “address the national emergency with respect to the information and communication technology supply chain.” “The United… Continue...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge New Jersey’s Essex County Prosecutor’s Office is moving to dismiss the harassment charges against five people who tweeted or retweeted a police officer’s photo. Asbury Park Press reported the news on Friday afternoon, quoting spokesperson Katherine Carter saying that “after reviewing the cases, we concluded there was insufficient evidence to sustain our burden of proof.” The Nutley Police Department filed a criminal complaint in July against protester Kevin Alfaro, who tweeted a photograph of Detective Peter Sandomenico during a Nutley For Black Lives demonstration in June. Alfaro’s tweet asked “if anyone knows who this bitch is throw his info under this tweet,” something Sandomenico said caused him to fear for the safety of his family…. Contin...