Technology

For the first time ever, Huawei has shipped more smartphones worldwide over a quarter than any other company, according to a new report from analyst firm Canalys. Huawei has long harbored ambitions to overtake Samsung as the world’s biggest smartphone seller, and going by the numbers from Canalys, that’s just what happened during the April-June period this year. That doesn’t mean Huawei will hold onto the top spot for long, as the results were clearly influenced by the ongoing pandemic. Canalys’ figure of 55.8 million Huawei smartphones shipped is actually down 5 percent year-on-year, while Samsung slid 30 percent to 53.7 million. More than 70 percent of Huawei’s devices are now sold in China, which hasn’t been hit as hard by COVID-19 as many of Samsung’s major markets. Samsung, meanwhile,...

During Wednesday’s tech antitrust hearing, Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) tore into Google CEO Sundar Pichai over the company’s dominance in search and its use of data to monitor would-be competitors. “It is Google’s business model that is the problem,” Cicilline said, alleging a pattern of anti-competitive behavior that allowed Google to grow while smaller businesses were crushed. “Our documents show that Google evolved from a turnstile to the rest of the web to a walled garden that increasingly keeps users within its sites.” Cicilline cited specific emails from “over a decade ago” between Google employees discussing sites that were growing and traffic. Employees “started to fear competition from certain websites [and] web pages that could divert search traffic and revenue from Google,” Cici...

A car with a masked driver rolls down the street, windows open, bass thumping, dystopian chorus blasting into the summer air: Do you have the antibodieeees? Do you want to be with me? It’s the new song of this pandemic summer thanks to, uh, the guy who played Cousin Greg in Succession. Historically, it’s taken time for apocalypses like climate change to become summer bops. But hey, if nothing else, 2020 is moving fast. The song got its start in May when actor Nicholas Braun (aka Cousin Greg) was quarantining with friends, according to Rolling Stone, where the song premiered today. “My friends are a couple and they’ve been together for years, but I was back there sort of being like, ‘Man, I wish I had somebody right now to go through this with,’” Braun told Rolling Stone. “And so this girl ...

The 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards will be an all-virtual event due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a representative confirmed to The Verge, and it sounds like the new format could lead to peeks inside the lives of some of your favorite television stars, according to a letter from the executive producers (and host Jimmy Kimmel) that was published by Variety. USA Today also obtained a copy of the letter. “We are assembling a top notch team of technicians, producers and writers to work closely with Jimmy Kimmel and with you and your team to make sure that we can film with you (and loved ones or whomever else you choose to be with) at your home, or another location of your choice,” reads part of the letter, which was reportedly sent to nominees yesterday. Producers are still deciding what parts air liv...

Spread the word: Netflix has secured the rights to stream some of the best Black sitcoms from the 90s and 2000s — including my personal favorites Moesha, Sister Sister, and The Parkers, all of which I fondly remember watching as a little girl. I still remember running to my room to turn on the TV, singing the R&B theme songs for each show (they were so energetic and catchy that I memorized the lyrics word by word), and how amazing it was to see TV sitcoms targeted to my demographic. There weren’t a ton of black TV shows, with black female leads taking charge, that focused on things I personally struggled with growing up. I was pretty young when these three shows had their initial runs (I was born in 1995), but thanks to reruns throughout the 2000s, I got to experience these shows and w...

During Wednesday’s antitrust hearing, Amazon and its CEO Jeff Bezos came under fire by lawmakers over the company’s alleged use of third-party seller data in developing its own products. Earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon employees have accessed sales data from independent sellers on its marketplace to help the company develop competing products for its private-label. Amazon has a policy barring the practice, but lawmakers like Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) focused in on the company’s enforcement of that policy. “Let me ask you, Mr. Bezos, does Amazon ever access and use seller data when making business decisions?” Jayapal asked. “I can’t guarantee you that that policy has never been violated.” Bezos highlighted the company’s policy banning the practice, but said...

Riot has come under fire after the League of Legends European Championship (LEC), one of the most popular esports leagues in the world, announced a sponsorship deal with the controversial Saudi Arabian megacity Neom. The developer announced today that the city would become one of the “main sponsors” for the league, joining the likes of Kit Kat and Kia. The announcement was met with instant criticism, given the Saudi government’s long history of human rights abuse, which extends to the creation of Neom, pitched as a futuristic playground. In its announcement, Riot explained that the city “will be championing the development of esports across the world.” Fans noted their displeasure with the deal on Twitter; the timing is especially egregious, given that the LEC’s Twitter avatar currently fe...

Amazon has long been accused of undercutting its rivals with its Echo smart speakers, allegedly keeping competitors like Sonos from getting a foothold in the market — but Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says that at their full retail price, the company isn’t taking a loss on these products. During the big antitrust hearing today where Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg are also facing down lawmaker questions, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) asked a pointed question about whether Amazon was pricing its Echo devices below cost. This is possibly referring to the theory of predatory pricing where a company tries to drive its rivals out of business by selling products at a loss, something Amazon specifically has been accused of, most notably with Diapers.com. Amazon’s...

Qualcomm’s Q3 earnings report might indicate a delay for Apple’s upcoming 5G iPhones, with the company highlighting a “partial impact from the delay of a global 5G flagship phone launch” for its fourth quarter projections (which covers July, August, and September earnings). Looking at the calendar of upcoming phone releases, it’s hard to imagine that Qualcomm is talking about any device other than the upcoming 5G iPhones, which are expected to arrive this fall. Typically, Apple releases its new iPhone in September, and it’s one of the few upcoming devices that would sell in large enough numbers that Qualcomm might need to disclose the material impact on an earnings call. There are already rumors circulating of delays for Apple’s 5G lineup due to production slowdowns caused by the COVID-19 ...

The CEOs of Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon are testifying in Congress today — trying to convince the House Judiciary Committee that their business practices don’t amount to anti-competitive monopolies. It’s one of the biggest tech oversight moments in recent years, part of a long-running antitrust investigation that has mustered hundreds of hours of interviews and over a million documents from the companies in question. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Apple’s Tim Cook, and Google / Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai have all laid out their defense strategies in published testimony. They make the case that their companies are providing beneficial products in a landscape filled with competition and that their massive scale simply makes their services better. As the hearing progre...

The US has filed new and expanded charges against two former Twitter employees and a third individual for allegedly spying on behalf of the government of Saudi Arabia. The three men have now been charged with acting as agents of a foreign government, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and wire fraud. One individual, former Twitter employee Ahmad Abouammo, was also charged with three counts of money laundering and falsification of records to obstruct the investigation. These new charges are part of a superseding indictment, meaning they’ll replace the charges that were already in place. They come shortly after US prosecutors recommended to have earlier charges dropped. The Twitter employees allegedly accessed private information about Twitter accounts critical of the Saudi government The Twit...

General Motors is now set to unveil the all-electric Hummer truck sometime in the fourth quarter of this year, after scratching the original May 20th reveal due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But in the meantime, the company (and the GMC brand, under which the resurrected Hummer will be sold) is teasing a side profile of the truck — along with a more traditional SUV version without a pickup bed. The Hummer silhouettes appeared in a new ad that GMC released on Wednesday shortly after parent company GM announced its financial results for the second quarter of 2020. GM posted a nearly $800 million loss for the quarter, which was better than expected considering the company — like others — went through a weeks-long pandemic-related production shutdown. GM announced earlier this year that it was rev...