Technology

In the latest instance of iOS 14’s beta mode tattling on unexpected app behavior, some users reported that they were seeing the green “camera on” indicator while using Instagram when they were just scrolling through their feeds, not taking a photo or video. Casually browsing Instagram when suddenly the new iOS 14 camera/microphone indicator comes on. Then control panel ratted out the app behind it. This is going to change things. #iOS14 pic.twitter.com/EnTIRsqq3R — KevDoy (@KevDoy) July 17, 2020 An Instagram spokesperson said in an email to The Verge that the behavior was a bug and that it’s being fixed. The app’s Create Mode is accessible from the Instagram camera which could set off the camera indicator, and swiping into the app’s Camera from Feed may also trip it up. “We only access you...

On January 8th, I asked The Verge’s science team to keep an eye on early reports of a new virus that had recently emerged in China. When I dropped an article about that new virus from The Washington Post in Slack, someone joked that 2020 was off to a strong start, clearly jinxing the entire year for the rest of humanity. Whoops. Jokes aside, this past decade, year, six and a half months has featured a disturbing flood of terrible, horrible, no good, very bad news. More than half a year in and not only do we still not know when this will all end, we’re also seeing a tsunami of new cases in the US and record-high hospitalizations. There’s so much we still don’t know, but we do know that this is going to keep going for a long, long time. We’ve got to pace ourselves if we’re going to make it. ...

A congressional hearing with the chief executives of Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple has been rescheduled for noon Eastern time on Wednesday. Originally scheduled for Monday, the hearing was bumped back a few days to allow members of Congress to pay respects to the late Rep. John Lewis, who died July 17th. Lewis will lie in state at the US Capitol next week. The House Judiciary Committee hearing with Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, and Sundar Pichai will focus on the various antitrust issues each CEO’s company is dealing with. It’s part of a yearlong investigation into the tech sector’s anti-competitive behavior. The hearing will be conducted remotely to adhere to coronavirus social distancing guidelines. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is not expected to testify despite a push late las...

If you’ve ever wanted to build a real and working Windows 95 PC inside Minecraft, now is the time. A new VM Computers mod has been created for Minecraft that allows players to order computer parts from a satellite orbiting around a Minecraft world and build a computer that actually boots Windows 95 and a variety of other operating systems. The mod uses VirtualBox, free and open-source virtual machine software, to run operating systems like Windows 95. Within Minecraft you simply place a PC case block and then use it to create virtual hard drives to install operating systems from ISO files. Doom running on a Minecraft PC.uDrunkMate on Reddit Naturally, the Minecraft community has been experimenting with the VM Computers mod, and someone has managed to get Doom running within Minecraft as a ...

Earlier this week, we got our first look at what appeared to be a new Oculus Quest virtual reality headset thanks to an apparent marketing image shared on Twitter. Since then, more images — including ones of the device in the wild, and a rumored release date — have appeared online, indicating the headset could launch soon. The new images posted on Friday reinforce that this new Quest may look pretty similar to its successor but could come in a black-and-white color scheme. Take a look for yourself at these images shared on Reddit: Image: Tjtaco123 on Reddit The existence of these units, which appear to be some kind of testing devices, suggests the device could come out sooner rather than later. That sooner timeframe was reinforced by Twitter leaker WalkingCat, who shared the first marketin...

A tribute book for Satoru Iwata, the beloved president and CEO of Nintendo who died in 2015, is getting an English release this spring, publisher VIZ Media announced today. The book, Ask Iwata, is a translation of Iwata-San, which was first published in Japan last year. “In this motivational collection, Satoru Iwata addresses diverse subjects such as locating bottlenecks, how success breeds resistance to change, and why programmers should never say no,” according to a summary of the book that VIZ Media shared with The Verge. “Drawn from the ‘Iwata Asks’ series of interviews with key contributors to Nintendo games and hardware, and featuring conversations with renowned Mario franchise creator Shigeru Miyamoto and creator of Earthbound Shigesato Itoi, Ask Iwata offers game fans and business ...

Late last year, Faraday Future was supposed to meet with a Middle East sovereign wealth fund to discuss an investment that could have helped pull the struggling EV startup out of its perpetual financial nosedive. But the wealth fund retracted the invite shortly after Faraday Future founder Jia Yueting filed for bankruptcy to resolve billions of dollars of personal debt, according to a previously unreported transcript of one of the Chinese tycoon’s Chapter 11 proceedings. “We were invited by a government entity to go to the Middle East to a sovereign fund, and the minute that we filed the Chapter 11 case and it became clear the financial issues, Faraday was uninvited,” Jia’s lawyer told a judge in December 2019. The lawyer for Jia who spoke during the hearing did not specify which Middle Ea...

Some users of Nest thermostats can no longer control the devices remotely, and the issue is forcing Google to replace the devices entirely if otherwise standard troubleshooting fails. The issue, which began popping up on Nest forums as early as last November and racking up more than 200 responses, is known as the “w5 error,” and it disables remote control of the company’s thermostats. Controlling the temperature of your home with your smartphone when you’re out of the house or away from the physical device is pretty much the sole selling point of the Nest thermostat. So that makes this a pretty serious issue, even if you still can manually adjust the temperature on the device itself. Google says it’s aware of the problem and that it’s now offering replacements to owners of the device who c...

Many iPhone and iPad models let you unlock your device with your face using Face ID, but on a Mac, you still need to type in your password, set up your Apple Watch to auto unlock your Mac, or, depending on what model of Mac you have, use your fingerprint with Touch ID. But code reportedly discovered in the latest beta of macOS Big Sur by 9to5Mac suggests that Face ID could be coming to Macs at some point in the future, too. The code in the beta apparently references Apple’s codename for the TrueDepth camera, according to 9to5Mac. The TrueDepth camera is what enables Face ID in Face ID-capable devices like the iPhone 11 and the iPad Pro, but no Macs currently available have one. The code reportedly also has snippets mentioning the terms “FaceDetect” and “BioCapture,” which seems to point to...

If you’re in the market for a new smartphone and prefer Android over Apple, look no further; you can purchase Samsung’s Galaxy S20 Plus for $950 again today on Amazon; $50 less than its smaller-screen sibling, the S20 5G. The Galaxy S20 Plus 5G usually retails for $1,200 and includes a 120Hz screen refresh rate plus 5G network support. My colleague Dieter Bohn pointed out in his dual review that despite 5G not justifying part of the phone’s retail price, he praised the phone’s large screen, while also pointing out his favorite feature was the screens on both devices. The Surface Laptop 3 comes in two different sizes: 13.5 and 15 inchesPhoto by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 3 has seen a big discount for the last several days. You can buy one at a discounted p...

Liking Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is a bit like being someone who is super into vinyl. Tell people it’s your favorite movie take on Batman, and you run the risk of sounding like an incredible snob; a contrarian that somehow feels the need to like something other than a bunch of very good live-action movies that lots of other people adore. Regardless, it’s a movie worth celebrating — not because it is better than its live-action siblings, but because it’s maybe the most complete take on Batman and Bruce Wayne on film. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, now on Netflix, was an attempt to leverage the Emmy-winning success of Batman: The Animated Series into a theatrical hit. It didn’t quite take, bombing at the box office despite critical acclaim — but like a lot of cult favorites, it gained a st...

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is using Microsoft Teams’ new Together Mode to place basketball fans courtside in a virtual experience during live games. Microsoft only just revealed Together Mode for Teams earlier this month, and it uses AI to segment your face and shoulders and place you together with other people in a virtual space. The NBA is using this new Microsoft Teams mode combined with 17-foot tall LED screens that will wrap around basketball arenas to put fans back next to players. Fans will be able to react in real time, and players will be able to see and hear those reactions. These virtual stands will include more than 300 fans using Together Mode to sit side by side with each other virtually in Microsoft Teams. Fans will be able to watch a live feed of the game wit...