Technology

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...

The world’s largest multidisciplinary scientific society has decided to take on systemic racism. The move by The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), publisher of the esteemed Science journals, comes after Black scientists came forward to protest racism within academia and the sciences, and organized a strike on June 10th, that AAAS joined. In a letter to its 120,000 members this month, AAAS CEO Sudip Parikh announced that the 172-year-old institution has come up with a plan to hold itself accountable for making itself and the sciences more diverse. By September, it will start sharing data on the diversity of its staff, fellows, and authors published in its journals. On Wednesday, June 10, AAAS and Science will be observing #ShutdownStem, listening to members of our ...

We’ve seen plenty of pictures of Samsung’s new bean-shaped earbuds, but an early update to Samsung’s Galaxy Buds companion app has confirmed nearly all the details about the upcoming headphones, including the official Galaxy Buds Live name and support for active noise cancellation. The app also shows a brief guide on how to wear the uniquely shaped earbuds and shows that the earbuds will have touch controls (set to toggle active noise cancellation by default), which can also be disabled if you don’t like touch controls. The app shows off a Find My Earbuds setting and equalizer options — standard features for headphones like this. The app marks the most official reveal yet for the Galaxy Buds Live, which have already popped up in a leaked marketing video that shows the earbuds in action, al...

Monday’s congressional hearing with the chief executives of Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple will “likely” be postponed as the late Rep. John Lewis will lie in state at the US Capitol next week. The House Judiciary Committee had initially scheduled the blockbuster hearing for Monday at noon, setting the stage for a dramatic public airing of the various antitrust concerns facing the companies. But a source familiar told The Verge Thursday that “it is highly likely that the House Judiciary Committee will reschedule Monday’s hearing to allow Members of Congress to pay their respects.” “It is highly likely that the House Judiciary Committee will reschedule” It’s still unclear when the hearing will ultimately take place, although the CEOs are expected to attend remotely, due to coronavirus c...

A pair of swords crosses on a rainswept battlefield. The fighters move gracefully, as if dancing. In between flashes of bloodshed, the pair argues about honor. It takes less than a minute for the viewer to understand the fraught, difficult relationship between these two brothers. It sounds like a scene out of a samurai movie, but it’s from the latest animated short from League of Legends. Developer Riot has crafted a gorgeous anime clip to officially reveal the game’s latest champion: Yone, a sort of demonic samurai character. These kinds of splashy, animated reveals aren’t new territory for Riot. But Yone’s cinematic — dubbed “Kin of the Stained Blade” — is longer and more ambitious than what the studio has attempted in the past. It clocks in at 10 minutes long and jumps back and forth be...

Verizon added 173,000 postpaid phone customers and 287,000 postpaid smartphone customers in the second quarter, even as it lost 81,000 consumer Fios TV subscribers, the company reported Friday. But it saw a net gain of 10,000 consumer Fios broadband subscribers, even though it had to suspend many in-home installations because of pandemic restrictions. The Keep Americans Connected Pledge — waiving late fees and promising not to cut off service for customers who couldn’t pay during the pandemic — ended on June 30th, but Verizon CFO Matt Ellis said a third of customers were current on their bills at the end of June, and 80 percent of its wireless customers have been making at least some payments. “We’re encouraged by what we’ve seen, and we expect the vast majority to be Verizon customers a y...

Garmin fitness devices have been left disconnected for nearly a day after the company suffered a major outage, possibly caused by a ransomware attack. The outage first reported by Garmin over 20 hours ago, as of this writing, affects Garmin wearables and apps, as well as Garmin call centers. “We are currently experiencing an outage that affects Garmin.com and Garmin Connect. This outage also affects our call centers, and we are currently unable to receive any calls, emails or online chats,” wrote the company on Twitter and its Garmin Connect website. The outage as seen from the Garmin Connect app. Garmin Connect is the service that allows owners of Garmin devices like Forerunner smartwatches to obsessively track their running performance, for example. ZDNET reports that flyGarmin, the navi...