Technology

On May 25th, the police killed George Floyd, and in every state, protests against police brutality and anti-black racism have been ongoing ever since. For reasons that risk trivializing a serious moment in history, the brands have also decided to speak up, too, issuing statements of solidarity across social media platforms. This, for better or worse, is to be expected: we live in the age of the Brand Statement, and brands acknowledging people as more than just potential sales is better than pretending nothing is happening in the world. Video game companies, however, are uniquely bad at this. Most statements made by the makers and publishers of games are boilerplate: companies like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo decry racism, affirm the need for inclusion and equality, and often directly add...

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg released a lengthy statement on his personal page on Friday saying he supports the Black Lives Matter movement and will begin engaging in a series of reviews of company policy. Specifically, Zuckerberg says he and company leadership will review its controversial stance around “threats of state use of force,” following President Donald Trump’s statement about shooting protesters that sparked outrage and various levels of response from both Facebook and Twitter. The post largely repeated points Zuckerberg made in an all-hands meeting earlier this week, the details of which were reported in The Verge. “We’re going to review our policies allowing discussion and threats of state use of force to see if there are any amendments we should adopt. There are two specific ...

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos issued a public pledge of support to the Black Lives Matter movement on Friday. The chief executive did so in reply to a customer email criticizing his company’s response to the death of George Floyd and ongoing protests around the country against racism and systemic police brutality. Bezos posted his reply publicly on Instagram. Right now, Amazon.com has a prominent “Black Lives Matter” banner at the top of the page that links to a blog post describing actions the company is taking to support black communities and racial justice. The customer took issue with the banner, saying “it is quite disturbing to get on the AMAZON website and see ‘BLACK LIVES MATTER.’” The customer later said that “ALL LIVES MATTER,” a common right-wing refrain used to criticize the Black Live...

Mythical buses full of bloodthirsty antifa protestors are causing panic in rural counties throughout the country — even though there’s no evidence they exist. The Associated Press has catalogued at least five separate rural counties where locals have warned of imminent attacks, although none of the rumors have been substantiated. Notably, the rumors are often tailored to a specific local region, a “hyperlocal” approach sometime used to boost the spread of misinformation on social media platforms. NBC News first reported on the recent surge of antifa-related misinformation, some of which was promoted by white nationalist groups posing as antifa accounts. But even after the rumors were debunked, they continue to spread on Facebook, often inspiring real-life confrontations and instances of vi...

Lenovo has announced a new 11-inch Chromebook 3, which is now available on the company’s website for $229. The device joins a sizable lineup of budget Chrome OS products from Lenovo, including its $279 Chromebook Duet and its $359 Flex 5. The new model supersedes the existing 14-inch Chromebook 3, which was in turn a refresh of its Chromebook S340. That model sold for $249, but it’s not currently available on Lenovo’s store. You can unfold the Chromebook 3 at a 180-degree angle. Lenovo The 11’s screen is smaller, but a few of its specs are actually upgrades from those of the 14. The display is a bit brighter (rated for 250 nits, as opposed to the 14’s 220), and storage has been bumped from 32GB to 64GB. The extra storage should be a benefit for folks who want to download a lot of Android a...

Chinese EV startup Nio announced its first-quarter results last week and, by most accounts, the Tencent-backed company appears to have weathered the impact of COVID-19. That argument was further bolstered on Thursday when Nio released strong May delivery figures. But Nio also recently finalized a crucially-timed $1 billion bailout from a local government in China, and the price the company had to pay to survive is becoming increasingly apparent. Now Nio — which is billed as an independent startup with ambitions to sell cars in Europe and the US, and even has offices in London, Munich, and Silicon Valley — is more anchored to the whims of the Chinese government than before. And owners of Nio shares that trade on the New York Stock Exchange have had an extra layer of abstraction placed betwe...

Instacart is adjusting how it handles customer tips following the announcement last week of a congressional inquiry into the practice of tip-baiting, in which Instacart allows customers to promise big tips for shoppers only for those customers to later rescind the tip after the order is dropped off. Instacart now says it will shorten the window a customer can alter their tip from three days down to 24 hours. It’s also now requiring customers leave feedback for removing tips and pledging to deactivate any customer who “consistently and egregiously engages in this type of behavior.” The company claims “only 0.25 percent of orders had a tip adjusted after 24 hours,” and that, “less than 0.5 percent of orders have tips removed after delivery.” Instacart is also expanding its in-app cash-out fe...

SimRefinery, an all-but-forgotten oil refinery simulator from the studio behind SimCity, has been rediscovered and uploaded to the web as a playable game, ArsTechnica reports. The existence of the game came to light last month after it appeared in a wide-ranging report about Maxis’ little-known business simulations division. Now, however, an anonymous user has uploaded the game to the Internet Archive, where it’s actually playable in a browser thanks to a built-in DOSBox emulator. The game’s discovery came about after Ars covered a lengthy report about Maxis Business Simulations, the SimCity studio’s attempt at making business-focused simulators. Soon, one anonymous Ars commentor reported that they actually had a copy of SimRefinery, obtained via a chimerical engineering friend of theirs. ...

This week on The Verge’s flagship podcast The Vergecast, co-hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn welcome back senior science reporter Loren Grush and Silicon Valley editor Casey Newton to discuss their recent reporting on SpaceX and Facebook, respectively. Last Saturday, SpaceX successfully launched its first two people into orbit. Loren explains SpaceX’s mission, partnering with NASA, and what the future of spaceflight looks like going forward. In the second half of the show, Casey explains why Facebook employees are walking out in protest over posts by Donald Trump and how Facebook is handling the controversy in contrast to other social media companies like Twitter and Snap. Of course, our hosts are also able to fit in some gadget news at the end of the show. The Sonos Arc is now available ...

Sony is discounting the cost of its PS Plus online subscription and PS Now cloud game streaming service at Amazon, so now is the time to top off your account. Subscribing to one of these services usually costs $60 for a one-year subscription, but right now each one costs $42. You may know this already, but PS Plus is Sony’s subscription for PS4 that allows multiplayer gaming, and it provides free games and discounts to members. PS Now is its cloud streaming service that lets you stream and download some PS4, PS3, and PS2 games on your console, as well as on your computer — you don’t even need a PS4 to take advantage of this one. So, whether you just want one or both subscriptions, today is a good time to buy. Image: HBO Also happening at Amazon is a promotion that lets you buy two single s...

Whether you’re shopping for your first iPad or upgrading from a previous generation, figuring out which Apple-made tablet is best for you can be confusing. There are a bunch of models out there, which makes it hard, and a new version usually comes out each year. And since most of them look similar, it becomes even more difficult to shop with confidence. Let’s break it down. Currently, Apple sells five different models. In order of most affordable to most expensive, there’s the 10.2-inch iPad, the 7.9-inch iPad mini, the 10.5-inch iPad Air, the 11-inch iPad Pro, and the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. Thankfully, your odds at picking a good tablet are greater than 1 in 5. Each of them is a really good tablet in its own way, but it’s important to find the right tablet for you. What does the “right” tabl...

President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday allowing major infrastructure projects and energy projects to move forward without rigorous environmental review. Agencies would be able to waive provisions put in place by cornerstone environmental laws like the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). That would apply to projects like new mines, pipelines, and highways, reports The Washington Post. The move is aimed at spurring recovery from the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. An economic emergency, Trump claimed, gives the president authority to essentially suspend environmental laws. “Agencies should take all reasonable measures to speed infrastructure investments and to speed other actions in addition to such investments that will strength...