Technology

Uber announced that it will acquire Routematch, an Atlanta-based company that develops software for public transportation agencies. The news comes amid the ride-hail company’s broader push into public transit. Uber didn’t disclose the terms of the deal. Routematch, which was founded in 2000, sells software to public transit agencies for data management, dispatching, trip booking, and ticketing. Uber said the acquisition will help bolster its own efforts to integrate more public transportation services in its app, like route planning and ticket purchases. The news comes on the heels of Uber’s announcement that it would begin selling the software that powers its ride-hailing business to transit agencies, with California’s Marin County transportation agency as the first customer. But the deal...

Apple made waves at WWDC this year when it announced that it’d be making its own Mac chips, switching away from the Intel processors the company has used across its laptops and desktops since 2005. While Apple may be new to computer chips, it’s been making its own processors ever since the original iPad and the iPhone 4. In fact, it’s one of the biggest advantages to Apple’s approach to design: Apple builds the chips, Apple makes the software, and Apple designs the hardware — every part of the process is under Apple’s control. Now, Apple is potentially poised to bring those same benefits to its Macs. The switch to ARM — which the company refers to as “Apple silicon” — is the third major hardware platform for Macs. The most recent one was the 2005 transition from PowerPC chips to Intel, whi...

Leica has announced the latest variant of its M10 rangefinder, the M10-R. The M10-R is visually similar to the prior M10 and M10-P models, with the same overall design and handling. What’s different is under the hood, specifically the new 40.89-megapixel CMOS sensor. Similar to the 40-megapixel black-and-white sensor found in the M10 Monochrom, the new chip has a significant jump in resolution over the 24-megapixel sensor in the M10 and M10-P. The M10-R will be available in July in black or silver for $8,295. As it is still an M10 at its core, the M10-R has the same body, same touchscreen, same interface, same battery, same processor, and same quiet shutter as the M10-P. Its new sensor has an ISO range of 100 to 50,000, and Leica claims that it has one to two stops better dynamic range tha...

The White House has hinted at a timeframe for taking action against TikTok, the popular social video app owned by Chinese internet company ByteDance. Last week Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Trump administration was “certainly looking at” banning the app, and now Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows says a move could come within weeks. “There are a number of administration officials who are looking at the national security risk as it relates to TikTok, WeChat and other apps that have the potential for national security exposure, specifically as it relates to the gathering of information on American citizens by a foreign adversary,” Meadows told reporters traveling from Atlanta on Air Force One. “I dont think there’s any self-imposed deadline for action, but I think we are looking a...

Twitter has shed some light on the unprecedented attack on Wednesday that resulted in numerous takeovers of high-profile accounts including those of President Barack Obama, Democratic candidate Joe Biden, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. In a series of tweets posted this evening under its support channel, Twitter said that its internal systems were compromised by the hackers, confirming theories that the attack could not have been conducted without access to the company’s own tools and employee privileges. “We detected what we believe to be a coordinated social engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools,” the first tweet in a multi-tweet explainer thread reads. “We know they used this access to take control of many highly-...

For the first time in its three-year history, there won’t be an arena full of screaming fans to go along with the Overwatch League’s Grand Finals. As the league has shifted online for 2020 due to the ongoing pandemic, it has had to reimagine what its championship tournament will look like. And today Blizzard provided some details on the upcoming playoff format. Essentially, at the conclusion of the regular season, all of the 20 teams will face off in a playoff-style tournament kicking off on September 3rd, with seeding based on how they performed during the year. The format will be similar to the tournament structure the league adopted midway through 2020, with two competitions: one for teams based in Asia and another for North America. The top two teams from each of those tournaments will...

Amazon is extending its corporate work-from-home policy through January of next year. The company is also planning to continue restricting nonessential business travel through the end of the year. Amazon’s decision aligns with those of Facebook and Google, both of which have announced work-from-home policies that extend through 2020. Microsoft has plans to reopen its offices in phases starting this October, while Apple is currently deliberating keeping its offices closed through the end of the year, Bloomberg reported earlier this week. “We continue to prioritize the health of our employees and follow local government guidance. Employees who work in a role that can effectively be done from home are welcome to do so until January 8th,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement. “We have in...

Twitter completely disabled the ability for many accounts to send new tweets following a massive hack on the social media website on Wednesday afternoon, which has seen numerous popular accounts — including Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Joe Biden, and others — tweet out a bitcoin scam. As of 8:32PM ET, the ban appeared to have been lifted, and Twitter announced at 8:41PM ET that “most accounts should be able to tweet again.” Most accounts should be able to Tweet again. As we continue working on a fix, this functionality may come and go. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible. — Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 16, 2020 While Twitter didn’t confirm how the block worked, it appeared to only apply to accounts that have been verified by Twitter. Un...

You can’t say you didn’t see it coming. Whatever Twitter eventually comes to say about the events of July 15th, 2020, when it suffered the most catastrophic security breach in company history, it must be said that the events were set in motion years ago. Beginning in the spring of 2018, scammers began to impersonate noted cryptocurrency enthusiast Elon Musk. They would use his profile photo, select a user name similar to his, and tweet out an offer that was effective despite being too good to be true: send him a little cryptocurrency, and he’ll send you a lot back. Sometimes the scammer would reply to a connected, verified account — Musk-owned Space X, for example — giving it additional legitimacy. Scammers would also amplify the fake tweet via bot networks, for the same purpose. The event...

True to Google’s penchant for just announcing things right after they’ve leaked, the company has unveiled a grand redesign of Gmail for G Suite business users ahead of next week’s Google Cloud conference. The app isn’t so much “Gmail” anymore as it is a unified app for all of Google’s communication platforms: Gmail, Chat, Rooms, and Meet. It will be available as an “early access preview” to G Suite customers this week and roll out to all G Suite customers later this year. As for the consumer version of Gmail, it seems as though little will change in the short term. Google says that it is “actively thinking through how and when to bring this experience to the consumers who might want it.” Javier Soltero, who rolled in to Google last November with the mission of cleaning all of this up, char...

If a streaming service launches, but it’s not available on Roku or Fire TV, does it really launch at all? Technically, yes — but not for a large percentage of the United States streaming market that uses Roku and Amazon Fire TV products to stream their entertainment. Backroom negotiations between media conglomerates and tech giants have kept some of the biggest streaming services from landing on these platforms. WarnerMedia’s HBO Max is still missing both Roku and Fire TV apps, and this week, NBCUniversal’s Peacock launched without them as well. This means tens of millions of people are likely left confused about why they can’t stream these services on their core devices in their living room. It’s also a massive number of people that companies like NBCUniversal and WarnerMedia can’t reach....