Technology

Aurora, the startup founded by former lead engineer for Google’s self-driving project Chris Urmson, is bringing its fleet of test vehicles to Texas. It’s the latest company to shift resources to the Lone Star State, which has quickly become a hotbed of autonomous vehicle testing. Aurora says it is bringing a “small” fleet of vehicles to the Dallas-Fort Worth area within the next few weeks. The company tests out its autonomous vehicle hardware and software in both Chrysler Pacifica minivans — also popular with Urmson’s former employers at Waymo (née Google) — and Class 8 tractor trailers. Aurora says its first commercial service will be in trucking “where the market is largest today, the unit economics are best, and the level of service requirements is most accommodating.” Trucking is “wher...

The cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase said that it stopped around 1,100 customers from sending bitcoin to hackers who gained access to high-profile Twitter accounts last week. Last Wednesday, over 100 Twitter accounts, some belonging to major companies like Apple and high-profile people like Vice President Joe Biden and Bill Gates, were hacked as part of a massive coordinated bitcoin scam. According to Twitter, the hackers were able to convince some of the company’s employees to use internal systems and tools to access the accounts and help the hackers defraud users into sending them bitcoin. According to Forbes, Coinbase and other cryptocurrency exchanges were able to stop some customers from sending bitcoin to the hackers by blacklisting the hackers’ wallet address. Specifically, Coinbase...

Has Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg cut a secret deal with President Donald Trump, turning a blind eye to his lies and incendiary posts in the hope that the social media giant won’t become the president’s next target? Rumors of this sort have been swirling for months, but Zuckerberg himself has now denied it, telling Axios that no such deal exists. “I’ve heard this speculation, too, so let me be clear: There’s no deal of any kind,” said Zuckerberg. “Actually, the whole idea of a deal is pretty ridiculous.” As Trump has stoked tensions, Zuckerberg has remained cordial with the president The comments come in response to mounting concern over Zuckerberg’s relationship with the president, which has remained cordial despite worries about the president’s use of social media. NBC News reported last ...

Marc Levoy, the researcher who used software to turn Google’s Pixel camera into a powerhouse, has joined Adobe to build a universal camera app, Adobe announced today. Levoy headed up the team that developed the impressive computational photography technology used in Google’s Pixel smartphones, including features like Night Sight, Portrait Mode, and HDR+. His work also helped Pixels take great photos without requiring as much hardware as competing phones — the Pixel line famously only needed a single camera to stay competitive with Apple’s iPhones, until a desire for sharper zoom images pushed Google to add a second, telephoto lens with last year’s Pixel 4. (The first iPhone with a second lens, the iPhone 7 Plus, came out in 2016.) Levoy’s efforts arguably inspired Apple, Samsung, and other...

Microsoft’s Windows 10X operating system, originally planned for dual-screen devices, might not appear until 2021. The software giant revealed earlier this year that Windows 10X is being reworked for single-screen devices, rather than hardware like the Surface Neo. These changes mean Microsoft won’t be releasing Windows 10X like it had planned to do so later this year. ZDNet reports that single-screen devices running Windows 10X, designed for education and business use, are expected to arrive in spring 2021. A year later, Microsoft is rumored to be launching dual-screen hardware running Windows 10X. If accurate, this is a significant delay to Microsoft’s original launch plans. Microsoft’s Surface Neo might not arrive until 2022.Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Microsoft cited th...

Shin Megami Tensei V will launch exclusively for the Nintendo Switch in 2021 as a simultaneous global release, Nintendo announced today. The news arrived alongside a teaser for the game, where “order itself has crumbled and chaos reigns over all.” Atlus’ SMT series is known for mixing RPG elements with a Pokémon-like demon capture system; its popular Persona series is a spinoff. The last main entry in the series, Shin Megami Tensei IV, launched in 2013 for Nintendo 3DS. Atlus will also release an HD version of PlayStation 2 hit Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne in spring 2021 for Switch and PlayStation 4. [embedded content] Nintendo also announced three new DLC packs for Cadence of Hyrule – Crypt of the NecroDancer Featuring The Legend of Zelda — which will add new characters, melodies, and...

Starting today, Google Maps can show you directions using rented bikes from docked bike-share schemes like Citi Bike in New York City or Santander Cycles in London. It works by giving walking directions to get to a nearby dock, cycling directions to get from one dock to another, and finally walking directions once more to get from the dock to your destination. It’s similar to what Google started offering for Lime’s dockless scooters and bikes back in 2018, but for the many docked bike-hire schemes that are available in cities around the world. The new functionality comes as cities are promoting cycling as a means for people to get around in an environmentally friendly and socially distanced way during the COVID-19 pandemic. Google says that since February, it has seen a 69 percent increase...

Logic doesn’t like the internet — specifically social media: the masses who send hateful messages about him, the unmoderated horde of people who feel empowered to say “go kill yourself” to someone they deem big enough to be faceless. And Logic, better known offstage as Sir Robert Bryson Hall II, isn’t a stranger to the churn of comments that power social media; it’s how he made his name, he tells me, reaching people where they were by putting out his music for free online. “I was at the birth of the modern internet. I was at the birth of social media,” he says when we talk on the phone. Because he’s sold millions of records and is, by many people’s measure, one of the biggest artists in the world right now, he’s become one of those faceless people. And he knows how famous he is, though it ...

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 20, the step-down model from the top-of-the-line Note 20 Ultra, has leaked in a new 360-degree render thanks to tipster Evan Blass. The render shows off a handset with a much flatter screen than what we’re expecting from the Ultra, and the rear camera module also appears to lack the Ultra’s fourth sensor, which is speculated to be either a 3D ToF sensor or a laser autofocus. Although we’ve heard a lot about the Note 20 Ultra thanks to numerous leaks, including one from Samsung’s own website as well as an early video of the handset itself, relatively little had been revealed about the standard Note 20. We’ve seen still images and a diagram of its camera layout from leaker Ice Universe, but this render from Blass gives us a much better idea of its overall design. I feel...

A new leak has given us the best look yet at the soon to be launched true wireless earbuds from OnePlus. Several images were extracted from the OnePlus Buds APK by both 9to5Google and Max Weinbach of XDA Developers. While we don’t have a price yet, OnePlus did tease the buds on Instagram for “$XX.XX” suggesting they’ll retail for less than $100. The APK has images of the OnePlus Buds in black, blue, and white. These appear to be the same earbuds worn by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei when discussing the new Nord handset design with Marques Brownlee. 9to5Google also discovered code that suggests they’ll support Dolby Atmos, as well as the ability to locate your lost buds through a “Find my Device” option. Illustrations found in the APK suggest fast pairing, touch controls, and an automatic pau...

A leaked and extremely blurry photo of what appears to be Samsung’s Galaxy Fold 2 has appeared online. Phone leaker Ice Universe has published two photos of the device, revealing that the successor to the Galaxy Fold will likely arrive in a gold model and with some camera upgrades. It’s not clear exactly what the camera array consists of at the rear, but rumors have suggested the Galaxy Fold 2 will adopt the same camera as the Galaxy S20 Plus — which includes a 64-megapixel telephoto camera. The leaked image also shows the cover display on the front of the Galaxy Fold 2, but it doesn’t provide any clues as to whether this has been upgraded. Samsung’s original Fold had a 4.6-inch front display, with comically large bezels. The Fold’s main 7.3-inch display folded out, and there are persisten...

Nintendo’s schedule of upcoming Switch games for the rest of the year is almost entirely bare, but that could change very soon; the company just announced a Direct broadcast for 10AM ET Monday morning. As in, today. Nintendo is describing the broadcast as “the first Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase, a new series focused on titles from our development and publishing partners.” It’ll be about 10 minutes long and provide updates on a “small group” of previously announced games for the Switch. While there aren’t many Switch games with release dates set, there are quite a few that have been announced that might conceivably qualify for this broadcast. Here are some examples: Metroid Prime 4 — now being developed by Retro Studios, a Nintendo subsidiary that describes itself as a “partner” B...