Technology

Microsoft has been testing deeper Gmail and Google Calendar integrations in Outlook on the web for months, and part of that is arriving for Outlook business users today. Outlook on the web users will be able to add their personal Outlook.com or Google Calendar accounts to an Outlook work account so that you see a better view of your availability when scheduling work appointments. This new feature is rolling out now to all Microsoft 365 users with a work account, but there’s no news on when Outlook.com users will be able to add Gmail and Google Calendar accounts. Microsoft has been testing this functionality for months now, with it briefly appearing in some Outlook.com accounts. Outlook’s Google Calendar integration. Alongside the Google Calendar integration, Outlook on the web is also gett...

We’re all tired. Every day runs together, an endless tangle of hours and screens and occasional bursts of daylight to recharge. Old routines take on new wrinkles: meetings via webcam, masks to maintain and wear before outings, communal activities retrofitted to be done in isolation. Maybe we’re not in a literal time loop, but it sure feels like one; a long, endless stretch of days where little changes and we’re burned out all the time. Enter Palm Springs, a movie for 2020’s burnout state of mind. At first blush, Palm Springs is another take on Groundhog Day: Nyles (Andy Samberg) is a dude with the terrible misfortune of having to relive an acquaintance’s wedding day over and over again. But what makes Palm Springs stand out is how little it’s concerned with its own premise. Of course, the ...

The best Chromebooks aren’t just laptops that run a few Android apps anymore. Chromebooks can cover a wide variety of computing needs now, and a good Chromebook can be more useful than a mediocre Windows laptop. The message that many people actually want good Chromebooks — rather than just cheap ones — has gotten through to manufacturers. Many of the best Chromebooks are around $500 or $600, though there are good options in the higher and lower ranges as well. The extra money goes a long way toward getting something you’ll be happy with. For the first time, the quality of Chromebooks in this range has been consistent. There are so many similarities between the offerings from Asus, Lenovo, Google, HP, Dell, and Samsung that a conspiracy-minded person might suggest they’re all sourcing their...

I. Last week I wrote about some of the forces putting the squeeze on TikTok — and, uncharacteristically for me when I write about TikTok, the course of events did not immediately reverse and put TikTok into a stronger position. Instead, by several measures, the situation for ByteDance’s popular video app got significantly worse. For starters, Peter Navarro, an adviser to the president, said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday that he expects President Trump will take “strong action” against TikTok and a fellow Chinese-made social app, WeChat. Worse from ByteDance’s perspective is that Navarro said the United States will not back down even if TikTok is sold to an American buyer. Here’s Bloomberg: The Trump administration is “just getting started” with the two apps, and he would not rule...

Google is turning on new security features in its Google Meet video chat service for meetings held by education subscribers, the company has announced. The changes, which are due to go into effect over the next 15 days, will mean that anonymous users won’t be able to join meetings organized by G Suite for Education or G Suite Enterprise for Education subscribers. An anonymous user is anyone not signed into a Google account, the company says. The new features appear to be designed to prevent “zoombombing,” where unauthorized users connect to meetings and disrupt them by broadcasting shock videos, or hurling insults. ZDNet notes that as school lessons have moved online due to the pandemic, some students have shared links to their classes and have asked pranksters to disrupt them in the hope ...

Huawei’s networking equipment is to be be phased out of the UK’s 5G networks, the government announced today. Telecoms operators will not be allowed to buy new 5G telecoms equipment from the Chinese firm from January next year, and will have seven years to remove its existing technology from their 5G infrastructure at an expected cost of £2 billion. The announcement follows a new report about Huawei’s role in the UK’s national infrastructure from the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre. The decision marks a U-turn from the government’s previous position, announced in January, which allowed Huawei’s equipment to be used in the country’s 5G infrastructure, with certain limitations. Under that position, Huawei would be limited to a 35 percent market share, and its equipment couldn’t be used i...

Lego and Nintendo are teaming up for a new Lego set that assembles into a blocky model of Nintendo’s 8-bit gaming console, the Nintendo Entertainment System, along with an interactive TV displaying Super Mario Bros. The two companies collaborated earlier this year to create interactive Super Mario-themed sets. Designed for adult builders, this new set contains 2,646 pieces that combine to create Nintendo’s first home console as well as an NES controller, a game cartridge that can fit into the console, and a miniature retro TV. The TV displays Mario traversing through a stage from the 1985 classic, and a crank located on the left side of the TV lets you move the mustached plumber up and down between platforms. Image: Lego Like the earlier Super Mario sets, the Nintendo Entertainment System ...

Grant Imahara, the engineer who co-hosted Mythbusters for Discovery and White Rabbit Project on Netflix, has suddenly died at the age of 49. “We are heartbroken to hear this sad news about Grant,” Discovery said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. “He was an important part of our Discovery family and a really wonderful man. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.” Imahara died from a brain aneurysm, according to The Hollywood Reporter. After a career as an engineer at Lucasfilm’s THX and ILM divisions, Imahara joined Mythbusters in the show’s third season, and left in 2014 alongside co-hosts Kari Byron and Tory Belleci; the trio reunited for Netflix’s White Rabbit Project in 2016. He was also active in the robot combat community, regularly appearing on BattleBots i...

Amazon is expanding its real-world footprint with another unconventional physical product: a shopping cart. While it certainly looks like an aesthetic upgrade to your standard grocery store cart, the Dash Cart, as it’s called, is in fact a smart version of the tried-and-true food transport vehicle. It’s equipped with a touchscreen and other various hardware components to automatically detect what items you’re placing inside and even how many of those items you’ve picked off the shelf. When you’re done shopping, you’re allowed to take the cart through a special lane that checks you out digitally without requiring a human cashier to ring you up. The idea builds on Amazon’s approach of trying to take the convenience it’s mastered in the digital realm and bring it into the real world. For year...

If you’ve been eagerly awaiting the day when self-flying drone startup Skydio becomes a true competitor to DJI, you might taken today’s announcement poorly. You might have assumed that after two impressive drones that didn’t quite fulfill their full potential, Skydio’s decision to build its next flying flagship camera exclusively for the enterprise and military markets meant it was done with consumers entirely. But Skydio CEO Adam Bry tells The Verge he’s just getting started — there are more consumer drones on the way. “We have more products coming in that market that we’re excited about,” reveals Bry, saying the timing was simply right to expand into the enterprise market, too. In both markets, he says, the goal isn’t to try to beat DJI by copying DJI, but rather to build drones that can...

EV startup Fisker Inc. wants to power its first SUV with Volkswagen’s mass-manufactured modular electric vehicle platform, or “MEB,” and it says it is in talks with the German automaker to do just that. In fact, the prototype SUV that Fisker Inc. revealed at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show was built on the MEB platform. Fisker Inc. laid all of this out in an investor presentation that was assembled ahead of its push to become a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange, which the startup formally announced on Monday. The presentation was one of many pages of documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by the publicly listed company Fisker Inc. plans to merge with, Spartan Energy Acquisition Corporation, which was formed by investment firm Apollo Global Manag...

Twitch has unbanned President Donald Trump, two weeks after suspending his account for “hateful conduct.” Trump’s account, which was used to broadcast new and past campaign rallies, was banned for racist comments made by the president on two occasions. Twitch pointed to remarks at his recent rally in Tulsa, where he referred to criminals as “hombre[s],” and remarks from a rebroadcast of the 2015 event announcing his candidacy, when he called Mexican immigrants criminals and “rapists.” The ban came days after Twitch swore it would crack down on harassment, as streamers began sharing stories of harassment and assault within the industry. By banning Trump, Twitch seemed to indicate that no one is above the rules. The question now is how much longer Trump can last on Twitch. Should his campaig...