Technology

Apple’s AirPods are among the most popular headphones on the market. They’re compact, easy to pair with your devices, and they offer reliable connectivity, which can sometimes be a problem with truly wireless earphones. So there’s a chance that you might be looking for a deal on them. Surprisingly, they’re no stranger to the occasional price cut — even the more expensive AirPods Pro that offer noise cancellation and better sound than the standard second-generation model is commonly around $20 off its usual price. We’ll run through all three of the current models below, including the second-generation AirPods, the more expensive second-generation AirPods that include a wireless charging case, and finally, the AirPods Pro. You can currently find the best price on Apple’s most affordable AirP...

Facebook will add messaging to its News Feed and Instagram’s feed to encourage people to wear face masks, the company said on Thursday. An alert will appear at the top of News Feeds on Facebook that directs users to the COVID-19 Information Center, and they will have links to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more information. Instagram will include a similar prompt with CDC links. The company says the move is in response to the increase in COVID-19 cases in the US. On Wednesday, the US set a single-day record, adding 50,000 new cases, as many states began reconsidering their June reopening plans. As of Thursday, the US has more than 2.7 million cases of COVID-19, and more than 128,000 people have died. The current CDC recommendation is for people to wear masks in public s...

Amazon is making a new Fallout TV series based on the popular post-apocalyptic RPG games from Bethesda. There are virtually no details on the project, except that it’ll be an Amazon Prime original produced by Kilter Films. A report from The Hollywood Reporter adds that the project is coming from Westworld creators Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan as part of their overall deal with Amazon. Bethesda Game Studios’ Todd Howard and Bethesda Softworks’ James Altman will also serve as executive producers on the project, which is still in the development stages. “Fallout is one of the greatest game series of all time,” Joy and Nolan said in a statement to THR. “Each chapter of this insanely imaginative story has cost us countless hours we could have spent with family and friends. So we’re incredibly ex...

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has signed a deal with Anduril, the “virtual border wall” startup launched by Oculus founder Palmer Luckey. The Washington Post reports that the agency awarded Anduril a five-year contract to deploy portable surveillance towers meant to detect moving vehicles and human figures across the US border. The deal will see CBP purchase 140 towers in 2021 and 2022, supplementing 60 towers that were already part of a pilot program. A company executive told the Post that the deal was worth “several hundred million dollars.” Anduril has been working with CBP since 2018, and it’s secured additional contracts with groups like the US Marine Corps and UK Royal Navy. Its sentry towers use a variety of sensors, including LIDAR, to capture data. An AI system called Lat...

Twitter engineers have been working since January on an internal effort to replace problematic yet commonplace programming language like “master” and “slave,” CNET reported. It’s part of a larger effort among open-source developers who have been working to remove references to slavery from the programming community. Microsoft-owned GitHub made a similar move last month when CEO Nat Friedman said the company was replacing the term “master” with more neutral language. Regynald Augustin was one of the programmers who spearheaded the effort. Twitter eng recently shared that we would be making the language in our code, docs, and configs more inclusive. I want to speak on how we got here and what we’ve done so far.https://t.co/87RybaAiYA — Regynald (@negroprogrammer) July 2, 2020 As ZDNet notes,...

Facebook will pin a box with information about voter registration on the top of the News Feed for every US user who is of voting age starting tomorrow, July 3rd, the company announced today. The box, once it’s live, will show you information about how to register to vote, including a link to your state’s registration website or to a nonpartisan partner if your state doesn’t have voter information readily available online. Here’s what you can expect it to look like on your phone: Image: Facebook Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of global affairs and communications, first announced the voting boxes would be showing up on top of the News Feed in an open letter published on Wednesday. Facebook says it will host more registration drives on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger this summer. Th...

Tesla said on Thursday that it was able to deliver 90,650 vehicles during the last quarter, despite its Fremont, California factory being partially shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. Wall Street analysts had expected the electric automaker to only deliver about 72,000 vehicles during the last three months, according to CNBC. This was the second consecutive quarter of better-than-expected delivery numbers from Tesla. The company delivered 88,400 vehicles in Q1 of 2020, down from the fourth quarter of 2019, when Tesla shipped around 112,000 vehicles. This was the second consecutive quarter of better-than-expected delivery numbers Tesla said it delivered 80,050 of its Models 3 and Y vehicles and 10,600 of its Models S and X vehicles. “While our main factory in Fremont was shut down fo...

For over a year, a mystery shopper known only as “John Smith” has been creating confusion across the web. He’s repeatedly visited numerous online stores, ranging from auto supply shops to home goods merchants, placed single items in multiple shopping baskets, and then left without buying anything. The Wall Street Journal has the story of the mysterious shopper, and it’s well worth reading to get to the bottom of what’s been happening. The remarkable thing about John Smith is just how relentless his online shopping seems to have been. On a recent Wednesday, he went on a spree lasting a total of 48 hours. One screenshot shared by FinnBinn, an online store that sells boxes for newborns to sleep in, shows 17 abandoned shopping carts from a period of just three days in April. It perplexed the c...

Congratulations! The world is falling apart (or at least feels like it’s falling apart), and you’ve decided to do something about it. That’s a commendable urge. Here’s where I tell you that you’ve also decided to do something very hard. Hosting a charity stream (on Twitch, YouTube, or on any other platform) is much more difficult than hosting a regular live stream, mostly because charity streams involve more moving parts — there’s the charity, the donation flow, guests, and, obviously, anything else you’re doing to make the experience special for your viewers. And it will be! More than anything, charity streams are about sharing a moment with the people who tune in. You will be overwhelmed, and it will be glorious. The other beautiful thing about charity streams is that they’re infectious;...

One day after YouTube TV announced a $15 price hike that had customers crying out “enough already,” Dish’s Sling TV service is promising that it won’t raise prices on existing customers until at least August 2021. The company seems keen on using the frustration toward YouTube to help boost its own subscriptions; this offer is extended to anyone who signs up for Sling by August 1st and maintains service. (That, of course, leaves open the possibility that new customers who come on board after August 1st will start off with higher pricing…) Right now, Sling’s two channel tiers, Sling Blue and Sling Orange, each cost $30. You can get them individually if only one covers the channels you want, or get both for $45 monthly for maximum programming options. Sling also takes a shot at YouTube ...

With traditional trade shows like E3 and Gamescom cancelled in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Microsoft is planning to bring a slice of the show floor experience to your living room. As part of Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest, Microsoft will make dozens of demos for upcoming Xbox One games available to download for a week. In a blog post, Microsoft’s Glenn Gregory cautions that the demos won’t always be representative of the final product, since many of the games are some way off their release. That’s standard practice for show floor demos, of course, but it’s unusual for a major gaming platform to make unfinished games available to such a wide audience. There’ll be more than 60 demos available, and while the list is still being finalized, Gregory says it should include “somewhere...

YouTube TV announced yesterday that it’d be raising its prices by 30 percent to $65 per month. FuboTV followed shortly after, announcing increases of its own that put the lowest tier of the service at $60. The first era of internet-streamed TV — the one of cheap, innovative cable alternatives — is over, and what comes next is going to look a whole lot more like the traditional cable services it promised to replace… with prices to match. Over-the-top internet TV services were supposed to save us from the limited bundles and expensive prices of traditional cable. Big internet companies like Google, PlayStation, and Hulu swooped in to rescue consumers from the archaic TV services of Comcast and AT&T, with better apps and rock-bottom pricing that seemed almost too good to be true. Turns ou...