Technology

Square employees will be able to work from home even after the COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders end, Jack Dorsey told workers. The indefinite extension of the company’s remote work policy echoes a similar announcement from Twitter last week. Dorsey is CEO of both companies. “We want employees to be able to work where they feel most creative and productive,” a company spokesperson told The Verge. “Moving forward, Squares will be able to work from home permanently, even once offices begin to reopen. Over the past several weeks, we’ve learned a lot about what it takes for people to effectively perform roles outside of an office, and we will continue to learn as we go.” The new policy will apply to teams that are able to do their jobs remotely. Those that need to come into the office, like sec...

Apple’s upcoming iOS 14 could have a new augmented reality app that can read Apple-branded QR codes and might have new features baked into the Find My app, according iOS 14 files obtained by former TechCrunch reporter Josh Constine. That new AR app, called Gobi in these files, could be able to read both more traditional-looking QR codes and an interesting new circular design for QR codes, reports Constine. Constine also shared images of what those QR codes may look like: Image: Josh Constine “Files in Gobi included QRs that opened the Mac Pro and Apple Watch websites, the Star Wars: Rogue One movie in the iTunes Store, and one that opens the Starbucks Card sign-up flow,” says Constine. Code in the files also apparently suggests the Gobi app could use location data to let customers claim di...

Instagram is launching a new Guides feature today that lets creators curate content together in a single location, with the first ones set to focus on wellness content in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the first Guides include one from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention called “Mental Health and COVID-19,” which collects the group’s content into a single, easy-to-find place. Heads Together, a mental health group, has similar Guides that collect Instagram posts reminding viewers to be kind to each other, practice self care, and talk about how they feel. Starting today, you can check out Guides – a new way to discover recommendations on Instagram. We know people are struggling due to COVID-19, so the first Guides focus on wellness content from respected organizat...

One of HBO Max’s big advantages is WarnerMedia’s massive catalog of classic movies, and today, it’s unveiling the full list of titles. Between Warner Bros. classics, Criterion Collection titles, and licensed classics from third-party studios (including Studio Ghibli), HBO Max will play home to hundreds of beloved movies, ranging from The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, and Citizen Kane to Point Blank and King Kong. Not all of the classics landing on Max will be available day one, but most will, according to the company. HBO Max launches on May 27th for $14.99 a month. HBO Max is set to launch with more than 700 movies. Some of those movies will be Warner Bros. blockbusters, like films from the DC Universe (The Dark Knight, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Aquaman, Shazam to name a few...

Comcast is introducing new data plans for its Xfinity Mobile customers that add free 5G service, the company announced on Monday. 5G access will be included on Xfinity’s new unlimited and gig-based plans, and existing customers will have the option to opt in to a 5G plan. Xfinity Mobile is an MVNO that relies on Verizon’s network for service; its 5G plans will similarly rely on Verizon’s own 5G network. Verizon’s network only offers support for mmWave 5G, which has faster speeds than the sub-6GHz version of 5G but with less range. Other carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile offer a combination of mmWave and sub-6GHz 5G depending on the area. Xfinity Mobile currently has two 5G phones on its network (the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus and Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra), and the company says additional de...

Adobe is releasing a new update to Premiere Pro this week that includes hardware acceleration for Nvidia GPUs. The 14.2 update includes GPU-accelerated encoding using Nvidia’s hardware encoder for the company’s Quadro and GeForce graphics cards, with the promise that video editors will be able to export high-resolution videos up to 5 times faster than by just using the CPU. The changes also apply to Adobe’s Media Encoder, Affect Effects, and Audition apps. Premiere Pro has long supported Nvidia’s CUDA cores for accelerating video effects and even improving export times, but this new update optimizes the app to use the separate hardware encoder on Nvidia’s GPUs. It will improve export times for H.264 or H.265 / HEVC codecs. “These improvements are the result of years of collaboration betwee...

After months of trying, the FBI successfully broke into iPhones belonging to the gunman responsible for a deadly shooting at Pensacola Naval Air Station in December 2019, and it now claims he had associations with terrorist organization al-Qaeda. Investigators managed to do so without Apple’s help, but Attorney General William Barr and FBI director Christopher Wray both voiced strong frustration with the iPhone maker at a press conference on Monday morning. Both officials say that encryption on the gunman’s devices severely hampered the investigation. “Thanks to the great work of the FBI — and no thanks to Apple — we were able to unlock Alshamrani’s phones,” said Barr, who lamented the months and “large sums of tax-payer dollars” it took to get into devices of Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, wh...

Logitech is unveiling a new version of its Circle security camera today called the Circle View. Spec-wise, it’s nearly identical to its predecessor, the Circle 2, but the camera’s housing has been completely redesigned and it now relies on Apple’s smart home system to function. This generation of the security camera is a lot more straightforward, which means less flexibility overall, but it’s something that should be easier to just plug in and start using. The Circle View records 1080p video at a 180-degree field of view, and it can capture infrared footage at night up to 15 feet away. Those key specs are the same as the Circle 2, but Logitech says the camera’s night vision should be clearer this time around. (Weirdly enough, the Circle View drops support for 5GHz Wi-Fi; it’s 2.4GHz only.)...

Minecraft sales have officially topped 200 million, with 126 million people playing the game monthly. Microsoft is detailing the latest sales figures just as Mojang Studios celebrates 11 years since the first Minecraft alpha build was originally released. Microsoft has also seen a big increase in Minecraft usage during the pandemic. Minecraft saw a 25 percent increase in new players last month and a 40 percent spike in multiplayer sessions. Minecraft sales previously topped 100 million back in 2016, and the game hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down. A surge in interest from YouTubers and nostalgia-induced playing saw Minecraft remain king of YouTube viewership stats last year. One of Microsoft’s best acquisitions Microsoft acquired Minecraft maker Mojang nearly six years ago for $2.5 bil...

One of today’s best deals is on Microsoft’s Surface Pro X, a tech product that’s only seen small price cuts. At Amazon and Best Buy, you can get a big discount on the upgraded model with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It’s down to $900 (usually $1,299). For context, the base model launched at $999, so getting the version with more storage for $100 less than that reads as a good deal to me. The Surface Pro X has a 13-inch 3:2 aspect ratio display and features Microsoft’s custom SQ1 ARM-based processor and LTE compatibility. This model doesn’t include a Type Cover, and those currently cost an extra $100 or so at Amazon and the Microsoft Store. While this machine didn’t launch in the best state, mostly due to the many app incompatibility issues that Dieter Bohn encountered during his review...

Oculus is bringing the Quest’s experimental hand tracking system out of beta, making it an official feature of the VR headset. The Quest got hand tracking options late last year but only for the main Oculus menu and a few built-in applications. Now, it’s going to be appearing in third-party games and apps starting later this month. Three Quest experiences are getting the feature soon: the potion-mixing games Waltz of the Wizard and Elixir, plus puzzle game The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets. Animated VR films Gloomy Eyes and The Line will also launch for the first time — with hand tracking — on May 28th. Developers can start submitting hand-tracking projects on that day as well, so more titles should support it over the coming months. The Quest was released one year ago, and it’s gotten s...

The latest crop of startups backed by Samsung’s in-house incubator C-Labs includes SunnyFive, makers of an artificial window that supposedly delivers all the benefits of natural sunlight. The SunnyFive window looks to be similar in function to light therapy lamps marketed to sufferers of seasonal affective disorder (SAD). It outputs the full spectrum of natural light, and can be programmed to mimic the lighting effects of a real window. The light changes angle over the course of the day to mimic real sunlight The angle of the light will change throughout the day and incorporates various “sunlight scenarios” — aka sunrise, dawn, dusk, and sunset. A companion app lets users tweak color temperature and brightness, and it’s easy to imagine alarm clock functionality, too. According to Samsung, ...