Technology

Squid Game is officially coming back to Netflix for season two. According to a message from director Hwang Dong-hyuk, the second season will see the return of Gi-hun and the mysterious Front Man. The note also states “the man in the suit with ddakji might be back,” and that we’ll also get introduced to Cheol-su, Young-hee’s boyfriend. “It took 12 years to bring the first season of ‘Squid Game’ to life last year. But it took 12 days for ‘Squid Game’ to become the most popular Netflix series ever,” Hwang writes. “As the writer, director, and producer of ‘Squid Game,’ a huge shout out to fans around the world. Thank you for watching and loving our show… Join us once more for a whole new round.” The renewal occurs despite the shift in Netflix’s fortunes since the show originally debuted....

Google is set to pay $118 million to settle a class-action gender discrimination lawsuit that includes around 15,500 women (via Bloomberg). As noted in the settlement’s press release, Google is also required to have an independent labor economist evaluate its hiring practices and pay equity studies. The lawsuit first emerged in 2017 after three women filed a complaint accusing the company of underpaying female workers in violation of California’s Equal Pay Act, citing a wage gap of around $17,000. The complaint also alleges Google locks women into lower career tracks, leading to less pay and lower bonuses when compared to their male counterparts. The plaintiffs won class-action status last year. Google’s treatment of workers has been the target of scrutiny more than once. Last year, Google...

Hollow Knight: Silksong, the sequel to the 2017 indie side-scrolling action platformer Hollow Knight, is coming to Xbox, Microsoft announced during the Xbox and Bethesda Showcase on Sunday. It will be available on Xbox Game Pass the day it’s released. While there’s no official release date, Xbox exec Sarah Bond said during the showcase that all of the games shown during the event will be available in the next 12 months. So we at least have a window of time for when we can expect the game. Microsoft also debuted a new trailer with a bunch of new gameplay footage, which you can see at the top of this post. In addition to letting you play as an entirely different character, Hornet, Silksong has a new world to explore, new enemies to battle, and a new orchestral score. The game will also be av...

We got a look at what the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 could look like in a set of unofficial renders last month, but now we have leaked images of what appears to be the physical device shared by YouTuber TechTalkTV (via 9to5Google). The images match up with the earlier renders and give us a closer look at the device’s display crease, which looks almost nonexistent. One image shows the device’s display when it’s flipped open, and you can see a slight glare where the crease would typically appear. It looks hardly noticeable, but then again, it is a bit difficult to tell what the crease will look like when viewed from just one angle. Grid View You can pretty clearly see the Galaxy Z Flip 3’s crease when you tilt the phone the right way. As The Verge’s deputy editor Dan Seifert noted in his review...

Spider-Man: No Way Home is making its way back to theaters on September 2nd after it broke box office records and became one of the highest-grossing films. This time around, Marvel is sprinkling in some new and extended scenes to keep things fresh. Marvel calls the revamped film “The More Fun Stuff Version,” and says it’s releasing it in celebration of Spider-Man’s 60th anniversary in comics. Oh yeah, and it’s the 20th anniversary of Toby Maguire’s debut in the very first Spider-Man movie (feel old yet?). Spider-Man: No Way Home isn’t really like all of the other Spider-Man films in the franchise, namely because all three Spider-Men (Spider-Mans?) wind up crossing paths. This is why it makes sense for Marvel and Sony to re-release the movie on the occasion of Spider-Man’s anniversary — unl...

Welcome to the weekend! We’re kicking things off today with a rare deal on the superb Sonos Roam, which remains one of the best Bluetooth speakers we’ve ever tested. Regularly $179.99, you can currently buy it from Best Buy, B&H Photo, and Sonos for just $143.20, the speaker’s best price to date. That’s less than the typical cost of the cheaper Sonos Roam SL, which is essentially the same speaker but without the built-in microphone. The pint-sized, portable speaker sounds great and comes equipped with a number of useful features, including support for Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and Apple’s AirPlay 2. The Sonos speaker also integrates with the rest of the company’s ecosystem and comes with an IP67 dust and water resistance rating, which will come in handy when you’re lounging by th...

ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, is getting serious about entering the virtual reality (VR) space, according to a report from Protocol. A source close to the situation told the outlet that the company plans on investing “tons of money” to develop VR-related content. It looks like a large portion of ByteDance’s investment is going into hiring. As noted by Protocol, over 40 job listings have popped up for Pico, the Chinese VR headset maker ByteDance acquired last year. Most openings are for Pico Studios’ west coast-based branches in California and Washington, ranging from a head of VR game strategy to a game operation manager. Other open positions suggest an increased focus on Pico’s VR hardware, including an optical engineer and a systems design electrical engineer. Pico still has a...

Earlier this year, keyboard specialist Drop announced its new lineup of DCX keycaps. But rather than focusing on making flashy, colorful designs like most aftermarket keycaps, the first three sets to use the new DCX profile are relatively understated, with simple black-and-white designs or a small selection of primary colors. That’s because the focus here is on getting the tiniest details right in the hopes that Drop’s sets might be able to compete directly with GMK’s — a German manufacturer commonly seen as the producer of some of the best-quality keycaps around. GMK produces keycaps in the “Cherry” profile (which refers to the overall shape of the keycaps) while “DCX” refers to the profile of Drop’s keycaps. I’ve had the chance to compare Drop’s new black-on-white DCX keycaps directly wi...

Telegram will soon start putting some features behind a paywall (via TechCrunch). In a post on the platform, founder Pavel Durov announced that the messaging service is launching a paid Telegram Premium subscription later this month, giving users “additional features, speed and resources.” Durov hints at some of the features coming with the subscription, including early access to new features, the ability to upload larger files, and Premium-only stickers and reactions (which were recently previewed in a beta version of the app). But Durov also makes it clear that Telegram’s existing features will stay free, and that the paid features won’t affect the experience for free users on the app. Non-subscribers will still get to look at the larger files uploaded by Premium users, and will also get...

Apple announced on Friday that it’s once again updated its rules about how Dutch dating apps can use third-party payment systems, after the company had “productive conversations with the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM).” The updated rules give developers more flexibility about which payment systems they use, change the language users see when they go to pay, and remove other restrictions that the previous rules put in place. While the rules aren’t wide-reaching (again, they only apply to Dutch dating apps), they do show what Apple’s willing to do to comply with government regulation — which it could be facing a lot more of as the EU and US gear up to fight tech monopolies, and potentially even force the company to ditch the iPhone’s Lightning port. Dutch regulators ha...