Technology

Researchers have identified a special group of polar bears described in a paper published today in the journal Science. The bears might have found a unique sort of refuge from the effects of climate change in Southeast Greenland, the authors write, where their group has become genetically distinct from other polar bears. Scientists are now pushing to recognize the bears as their own unique “subpopulation,” a move that could help keep them protected from potential threats like hunting and habitat loss. Over the past decade, the researchers surveyed polar bears across 1,800 miles of Greenland’s eastern coastline in an effort to better understand the animals’ health and movements. Although that’s a big range, they thought they were dealing with just one group of polar bears living up and down...

Approximately four months after Amazon incorporated Comixology into the Kindle app and kind of broke both in the process, it has outlined a number of plans to fix things. io9 noted that a thread was posted to the Comixology account on Twitter yesterday. “We understand that the current experience needs improvements, and want you to know that we’re working hard to get those out the door as quickly as possible,” the eleven-tweet thread begins. 1./ We’ve been combing through your feedback, and continue to be grateful for all the comics lovers out there. We understand that the current experience needs improvements, and want you to know that we’re working hard to get those out the door as quickly as possible. — Comixology (@comiXology) June 15, 2022 We (okay, me) wrote about how fundamentally br...

Elon Musk told Twitter employees on Thursday that the company needs to become more like WeChat and TikTok if it wants to achieve his goal of hitting 1 billion users. When asked how Twitter could grow its user base and increase engagement, Musk explained that the app should offer more utility and make sure “people are very entertained and informed,” according to employees who heard the remarks during his first internal all-hands. He drew a comparison to WeChat, the super app in China that mixes social media with payments, games, and even ride-hailing. “There’s no WeChat equivalent outside of China,” Musk said after dialing in 10 minutes late to the virtual meeting via his phone camera. “You basically live on WeChat in China. If we can recreate that with Twitter, we’ll be a great success.” “...

Netflix’s Dead End: Paranormal Park is an animated adaptation of Hamish Steele’s DeadEndia graphic novel series, but the new show’s first season is also a shining example of the magic queer creators can work when given the resources and freedom to tell their own stories. Though Dead End’s tale about wayward teens finding themselves as they’re sucked into the paranormal happenings of a haunted theme park is distinctly its own, its existence is a testament to the impact that other recent progressively minded cartoons have had on modern animation. Without shows like Steven Universe, She-Re and the Princesses of Power, and The Owl House, Netflix’s Dead End likely wouldn’t exist or be anywhere near as able to be the big-hearted, emotionally intelligent, all-ages romp that it is. The creative te...

This week, for the first time ever, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released data on crashes involving cars equipped with advanced driver-assist systems and automated driving technology. A lot of headlines — including The Verge’s — focused on the number of Tesla vehicles that crashed, which is understandable because Tesla had a lot of crashes. But the numbers themselves don’t tell us the whole story. In fact, they don’t really tell us much of any story at all. Not yet. That’s because we’re still missing a lot of key details, like the number of vehicle miles driven or the prominence of advanced driver-assist technology in each manufacturer’s fleet. NHTSA receives the data through varying sources, including customer complaints and different telematics systems. Depending up...

Today, Discord is announcing widespread availability of AutoMod, an autonomous moderation tool built directly into the platform to take the strain off human moderators. Alongside the official launch of AutoMod, Discord is also letting more servers offer paid memberships to their users and is adding new features to manage these premium subscriptions. AutoMod is designed to scan servers for select words and phrases and can then automatically dole out responses like blocking messages, alerting admins, and timing out offending users. The feature has been available to a “small group of servers” for a couple of months but is now available on any Community Server across Discord. AutoMod comes with built-in word lists to filter.Image: Discord Admins can also set up custom filters.Image: Discord Di...

ISSUE You want to play music on multiple Sonos speakers in your home, but your phone — and the Sonos app you normally use to control everything — are out of reach. QUICK FIX Tap and hold the play / pause button on any idle Sonos speaker, and it will automatically be grouped with whatever other speakers are currently playing. THE FULL STORY Being able to envelop your entire living space in music is one of the best things about owning a Sonos system. Whether you’ve got speakers in every room or just a few strategically placed where they matter most, having the flexibility to get your whole system playing in harmony — or to send your TV’s audio to the Roam in your shower — is a huge convenience. A shortcut that all Sonos owners should know Some people might assume that the Sonos app is the on...

Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel, editor-at-large David Pierce, and managing editor Alex Cranz discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories. Right before the final deadline from the US government, Dish Network says they have finally launched their 5G service in America. The Vergecast dedicates some time on the show this week to analyze Dish’s press release and talk about the obstacles The Verge must go through to test out this service. Later in the show, the topic shifts to Google’s LaMDA model that was accused of being sentient by a Google engineer. The crew pushes back on the idea of a chatbot being sentient and discusses the way people humanize these models. The las...

With the official launch less than a month away, Nothing has offered the first glimpse at its highly-anticipated phone (1) to a private audience at Art Basel. Consistent with its prior offerings, the Nothing phone (1) features a transparent casing with a unique mechanical design composed of over 400 components. Its robust and lightweight exterior frame is made of 100% recycled aluminum and 50% of the phone’s plastic parts consist of bio-based or post-consumer recycled materials. Leading the design team behind the futuristic smartphone is former Dyson designer Adam Bates with inspiration taken from artists like Massimo Vignelli who designed New York’s subway map and made a complex system look like art. Side button layouts, flattened edges, and dual rear-facing cameras appear to be similar t...

Elon Musk continues to file for an appeal against a 2018 ruling where the court and the Securities and Exchange Commission agreed that lawyers would have to review some of his Tweets before they are sent out. Now, Musk is turning to the Court of Appeals to overturn the decision. The case stems from the 2018 incident where Musk tweeted to take Tesla private and the SEC charged Musk for securities fraud. While the case was settled and the company paid civil fines of $20 million USD, Musk has claimd that he was “forced” into the settlement. Musk is currently in the process of buying Twitter for $44 million USD. The deal is still on hold as Musk has threatened to back out due to the spam bot issues. There are no updates regarding the sale, however, it is not surprising if his interest in Twitt...

A cryptocurrency investor is officially suing Binance and its CEO for falsely advertising TerraUSD as a safe asset ahead of the alleged stablecoin’s collapse last month. Since stablecoin’s are pegged to the value of traditional assets such as the U.S. dollar, these coins are often seen less risky in comparison to others when there is a decline in the stock market. Utah resident Jeffrey Lockhart has now claimed that since Binance has not been registered on the U.S. securities exchange, the currency does not have to disclose information about the assets traded on the platform. A Binance spokesperson has refuted these claims stating that the exchange is in fact registered with the US Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and therefore complying with all applicable regulat...