Technology

In case you weren’t watching the live-streamed event, Sony showed off a slate of games, including a few exclusives, coming to the PlayStation 5. The wait for details on next-gen games has been long, but the good news is that there seems to be plenty in the pipeline coming this holiday when the PS5 launches, and shortly thereafter in 2021. What came as a surprise during the event was that we got a closer look at the DualSense controller and the actual console itself, which had yet to be revealed to the public. We know you want to get quickly caught up, so we’re going to fill you in on the biggest announcements that made a rumble at the event. [embedded content] Sony showed off the actual PS5 console At the very end of the showcase, Sony finally pulled the veil from its PlayStation 5 console...

T-Mobile’s new CEO tweeted “Bye-bye Tucker Carlson” multiple times this week and said his company will no longer sponsor Carlson’s Fox News show after Carlson made racist comments Monday evening. Sievert’s tone in these tweets appears to be an attempt to emulate the famously-brash tone of John Legere, his predecessor. In response to multiple angry customers on Twitter, T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert tweeted that his company wasn’t currently running ads on the show and wouldn’t be moving forward. Here’s one example: Same. We aren’t running ads on that show and we won’t be running ads on that show in the future. Bye-bye, Tucker Carlson! — Mike Sievert (@MikeSievert) June 10, 2020 T-Mobile clarified further, saying the company hasn’t run ads on Carlson’s show since May and that it has cancelled “a...

Over on Reddit (and as highlighted by Android Police and 9to5Google), someone has posted a simple way of watching YouTube videos in a web browser without any ads. In the URL for whatever video you want to view, you just need to add an extra period after the dot com in the YouTube link. This works as described for me when pasting a video URL into an incognito browser window with the added period. In addition to removing pre-roll ads, it also eliminates mid-roll interruptions for videos as well. By the time you’ve copied, pasted, and altered the video URL, I’m not sure how much time you’re really saving over just waiting for the “skip ad” button to appear — but it does indeed work. As for why something so trivial is successfully getting around YouTube’s advertising machine, here’s what Reddi...

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel told employees that it would keep its diversity numbers private because they might perpetuate the belief that Silicon Valley companies aren’t diverse, Business Insider reported. Spiegel made the comments at a company all-hands meeting earlier this week, where he said Snap’s diversity is close to other tech firms, which skew largely white and male, according to BI. A Snap spokesperson disputed BI’s interpretation of Spiegel’s comments, made during a Q&A portion of the all-hands meeting. But a partial transcript of the Q&A that Snap provided to The Verge appears to confirm that Spiegel has concerns about publicly releasing the figures and how the metrics would make the company, and the industry at large, appear. “Snapchat looks like most other technology compani...

Sony finally unveiled the design of the PlayStation 5 today and it certainly… stands out. You won’t be able to miss it next to your TV or your on your desk. Whether or not that’s a good thing or a bad thing is up to you. (At least there’s no way that people will get the PS5 confused with a fridge.) Twitter, of course, immediately had opinions, and the memes are already flowing strong. Here are some of our favorites. The PS5 as a router The PS5 as a desktop computer The PS5 as an aircraft carrier Make-your-own PS5 The PS5 as a BMW The PS5 as a face The PS5 as Sauron’s tower The PS5 as a Destiny character The PS5’s popped collar The PS5 as an overly-modern building the ps5 looks like a new expensive campus performing arts center that replaced three academic arts departments and cost $6...

Volkswagen is delaying the release of certain versions of the all-electric ID 3 because the car’s software isn’t ready, confirming months of reports from German outlets like Sueddeutsche Zeitung and Manager Magazine about the company’s struggle to bring its first mass-produced electric vehicle to market. People who preordered the “limited edition” version of the electric car will start receiving them as early as next week, according to VW. But customers buying the more widely-available (and more affordable) versions of the ID 3 will have to wait a few months longer. VW will ship some ID 3s in September, but the company’s App Connect infotainment system and the car’s heads-up display won’t be activated until a software update arrives. And VW says it won’t start shipping full-featured versio...

Google has countersued Sonos for patent infringement, following Sonos originally filing a patent lawsuit against Google in January. The lawsuit alleges that Sonos is infringing five Google patents covering mesh networking, echo cancellation, DRM, content notifications, and personalized search. Google’s suit seems to serve a few purposes. One is obviously to countersue Sonos with its own patents. Another is for Google to show how it has been aggrieved after what it sees as helpful support for Sonos’ product development efforts. “While Google rarely sues other companies for patent infringement, it must assert its intellectual property rights here,” the company says in its lawsuit. It characterizes the work it’s done to provide Google’s music services and Assistant voice assistant technology ...

Notifications that pop up on the corner of your Mac’s screen can be really helpful, like when they remind you about a meeting you have coming up. But when you’ve got a deadline or are in the middle of something, notifications for every message or email can be distracting or even annoying. The good news is that you can easily adjust your settings so that you’re only getting notifications from the apps you want when you want them — and none from those you don’t want. You can also pause notifications whenever you want. Here’s how. To temporarily pause notifications Click the icon in the far right corner of the menu bar (the one that looks like a bulleted list) to access the Notification Center Scroll up, and toggle on “Do Not Disturb” at the top of the sidebar. This will pause notifications u...

The co-creators of indie hit Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP are back after nearly a decade with a new game, called Jett: The Far Shore, coming to Sony’s PlayStation 5 this holiday season. Little is known about the title save for an atmospheric teaser trailer showing a spaceship of some sort traveling in space and then through an almost isometric-looking overworld design on an alien planet. It will feature music by artist SCNTFC and is being co-created with a company called Pine Scented. Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, developed in partnership with indie developer Capybara Games, was an early and wildly successful mobile hit, arriving first on the iOS platform exclusively for iPad in 2011. It later came to the iPhone and then to other platforms, like Steam and traditional co...

Google is adding its Voice Match and default speaker selection features to all Google Assistant-compatible devices, the company announced Thursday. Google product manager Praveen Chandran wrote in a blog post that the additions are part of the company’s efforts “to support an open ecosystem and bring Google Assistant features to everyone globally.” Voice Match allows the Assistant to tell which member of a household is speaking, to personalize responses, and the default speaker selection allows users to choose a preferred option among several devices. In addition, Google will expand its hot word sensitivity setting to make a device more or less sensitive to the activation phrase “Hey Google.” Google said in the blog post that it will be rolling out the features to all Assistant-enabled dev...

Space robotics company Astrobotic will carry a water-hunting rover to the Moon in late 2023, NASA announced today. Which rocket will launch the commercial mission is still being decided, but the golf-cart sized rover will head down to the Moon’s surface using an Astrobotic lunar lander. NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, will hunt for water ice at the lunar south pole and try to figure out how much water is lurking in permanently shadowed craters in the region. NASA wants to map out where water is, in the hopes that it could extract water for future missions. Astrobotic was chosen from a pool of other commercial providers as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. CLPS is designed to help NASA send payloads to the Moon in support of t...

The US Environmental Protection Agency has ordered Amazon and eBay to stop selling pesticides that falsely claim to kill the novel coronavirus. The order applies to some products the EPA has already declared illegal, like a supposed disinfectant called “Virus Shut Out,” as well as chemicals like methylene chloride, which is hazardous and partially banned in the US. In addition to coronavirus claims, the order applies to inflated safety claims and other false advertising. The orders are based on consumer tips dating back to 2018, and they follow an earlier EPA settlement with Amazon, which was found to be distributing illegal pesticides. Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and other retailers met with the EPA in April to discuss fraudulent and restricted disinfectant sales, but an agency press release c...