Technology

Asus has taken the wraps off its new ZenBook S, a slim ultrabook that can be equipped with up to Intel’s Core i7-1065G7 processor, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of fast PCIe-based storage. Asus gave its flagship laptop a glow-up in the screen department, going from a 16:9 aspect ratio in last year’s model to a taller 3:2 aspect ratio for this year’s 3300 x 2200 touchscreen. What’s more, the bezels surrounding it are thin, and the display is Pantone-validated with 100 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut. The ZenBook S has plenty of other traits that might make it a worthy contender for your next laptop. It features two Thunderbolt 3 ports that can be used for fast data transfer, connecting to an external monitor, or charging its battery. Speaking of which, Asus claims the 67Wh battery within ...

If you’re serious about fighting games, 8BitDo has announced a mod-friendly, wireless arcade stick that may interest you. It’s designed to work with PC and Nintendo Switch, and you can easily toggle between two sets of controls depending on the platform you’re using. It costs $89.99 and ships October 20th, but preorders are open now from the company’s site and Amazon. Grid View The wireless arcade stick supports Bluetooth and 2.4GHz wireless via a receiver hidden in its underside, though you can wire it directly with a USB-C cable (which you’ll need to do on occasion to recharge its 1,000mAh built-in battery). 8BitDo claims that it can last 40 hours per charge while using the 2.4GHz wireless receiver or up to 30 hours via Bluetooth. Wireless range is over 30 feet. With PC software, you can...

On Thursday night in the Students For Markey’s Zoom phone bank, a group of prolific pro-Markey posters called @edsreplyguys rallied the troops. “Everyone here is absurdly attractive without exception cause they support Markey,” one person wrote in the Zoom chat under the handle “Shrek for Markey.” “PERIOODDDDD SHREK,” another replied under the name “harry styles stans for ed.” By the end of the night, around 70 members of the Markeyverse were able to make 96,000 calls over the course of three hours, all while hyping each other up in the Zoom chat and requesting that the Students For Markey group play their favorite songs as they hit the virtual dialers together. Team Markey hosts inspiring, energizing, nightly GOTV checkout calls and tonight @EdMarkey himself joined our dance party! He is ...

Some of Netflix’s original TV shows and movies, including the Oscar-nominated Two Popes and horror thriller Bird Box, are now available to watch for free without a subscription, Gadgets360 reports. The free content, which also includes the first episode of Stranger Things, can be found here, and is available globally. Netflix confirmed the promotion in a statement given to Gadgets360. “We’re looking at different marketing promotions to attract new members and give them a great Netflix experience,” a spokesperson said. The free content includes a selection of films that can be watched in their entirety, but for TV shows only the first episodes are available. Here’s a full list of the TV shows and films available to watch for free: Stranger Things Murder Mystery Elite The Boss Baby: Back in ...

This evening, SpaceX launched another rocket from Florida, but this vehicle took a very different kind of path than most flights from the East Coast. Rather than head eastward after launch as most Florida missions do, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket headed south after liftoff, skirting over Florida’s southeast coast and heading over Cuba. That’s because this mission was headed to what is known as a polar orbit — a path that runs mostly north-to-south over the Earth’s poles. It’s a type of mission you don’t normally see taking place from Florida. In fact, this will be the first time since 1969 that a rocket taking off from Florida heads southward. Up until now, most polar launches in the US have taken place from the southern coast of California. That way, the rockets fly over open ocean when they ...

After the sad news of Chadwick Boseman’s death, I planned a marathon of his movies this weekend. We’re still definitely planning to re-watch 42 and Get on Up, but so far we can’t stop watching Black Panther. Boseman is just so magnetic as T’Challa and everything about the movie is as stunning on the sixth or seventh watch as it was the first time— the acting, the cinematography, the music, the costumes, and of course the script— all amazing. If you have not seen it (honestly, why?) you should absolutely remedy that as soon as possible. In addition to four other trailers to check out this week, a bonus: [embedded content] Black Panther That’s the original Black Panther trailer from 2017. The movie went on to earn a Best Picture nomination and three Oscar wins, and grossed more than $1 billi...

ABC will show the 2018 movie Black Panther without commercials on Sunday night, followed by an ABC News special “Chadwick Boseman: A Tribute for a King.” The Walt Disney Co., which owns ABC, said in a statement that the special will “celebrate Boseman’s storied life, legacy and career,” and will “shine a light on the medical condition he privately battled.” Boseman died of colon cancer Friday at age 43, and according to a statement from his family, was first diagnosed with the disease in 2016. Tonight, ABC will celebrate the legacy of Chadwick Boseman with a special presentation of Marvel Studios’ Black Panther followed by the ABC News Special: Chadwick Boseman – A Tribute for a King. It all starts tonight at 8/7c on ABC. pic.twitter.com/LjtN9bTwzx — Disney (@Disney) August 30, 2020 ...

A Sunday tweet from Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) showing a video of activist Ady Barkan got a “manipulated media” label from Twitter. Barkan has ALS and speaks through voice assistance. In the video, a conversation between Barkan and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, Barkan asks “But do we agree that we can redirect some of the funding?” The version Scalise tweeted edits in the words “for police,” to the end of the question, words which Barkan says in a different context earlier in the video. A Twitter spokesperson confirmed in an email to The Verge that the tweet was labeled “based on our Synthetic and Manipulated Media policy.” The video was first noticed by Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel. In the original video, Barkan asks Biden about what he thinks could be done about polic...

Cloudflare was suffering an outage Sunday morning that appeared to be affecting multiple websites. The outage began early Sunday, and according to Cloudflare’s status page, it was seeing “an increased level of HTTP 5xx class errors,” such as 522 and 503, which indicates an issue with the server. In a later update Cloudflare said it had “identified an issue with a transit provider” as the cause of the issue, and that it was working on a fix. The outage was affecting all data centers that use the transit provider. Cloudflare is aware of network related issues caused by a third-party transit provider incident. We are working to mitigate the problem. Please follow the status page here: https://t.co/9DSYq0HIa7 — Cloudflare Help (@CloudflareHelp) August 30, 2020 Cloudflare’s services are meant t...

Tesla is pushing a software update that will let its vehicles’ Autopilot system detect speed limit signs using their cameras, Elektrek reported. When the camera detects a speed limit sign, it will be displayed on the driver visualization in the car and used to set a speed limit warning, according to the software release notes. The latest software update also adds to its traffic light and stop sign control features, and will sound a chime when your Tesla is sitting at a stoplight that turns green. It’s only intended as a notification so it’s up to the driver to decide whether and when to actually move the car forward. In April, Tesla rolled out a software update in beta for its newer cars to allow them to see and respond to stop signs and traffic lights at some intersections. The “Traffic L...

Plans for a TikTok sale may have a new obstacle, with China implementing new rules on AI technology exports, The New York Times reported. The new export control rules, which focus on technology the Chinese government considers sensitive, could mean that TikTok’s parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance, might need a license before it can sell TikTok to an American company. The updated regulations prohibit exporting technology including text analysis, voice recognition, and content suggestions without a license from the Chinese government. According to The Wall Street Journal, a Chinese government official told state-run Xinhua News Agency that ByteDance should “seriously and cautiously” consider halting talks for a sale of TikTok. Microsoft has been the front runner in talks to acquire TikT...

French game publisher Ubisoft is apologizing to fans after a video showing the opening sequence for Tom Clancy’s Elite Squad showed images of a raised black fist, which critics said was “insensitive” and appeared to connect the Black Lives Matter movement to a fictional terrorist organization in the game. The game’s opening sequence shows UMBRA, an anarchist group which the narrator explains is taking “advantage of escalating civil unrest” to “generate more chaos and weaken governments.” The black raised fist image was associated with UMBRA. [embedded content] After the video was uploaded, several fans criticized how the imagery, including the fist, appeared to cast the Black Lives Matter movement as a terrorist group. One Twitter user who is a senior programmer at Massive Entertainment, a...