Technology

Marshall has officially released its new compact Willen speaker, the British manufacturer’s smallest speaker ever. Built with one 2’’ full-range driver and two passive radiators, the speaker boasts Marshall’s signature mighty sound in a miniature palm-sized frame. Designed to go “everywhere with you,” the speakers come with top-of-class IP67 dust and water-resistance rating with 15+ hours of portable playtime on a single charge. The rugged black/white/gold casing takes a sustainable approach featuring a PVC-free build with 60% of the plastic recycled from used electronics. Additional details include a rubber back-mounted strap for flexible positioning, a built-in microphone for voice commands, a front-mounted control knob for simple controls, app integration, and a stack mode function for ...

On Monday, the Biden administration announced a new partnership with 20 broadband providers, including AT&T and Verizon, to improve their subsidized high-speed internet plans made available to low-income Americans. The move bolsters the Federal Communications Commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program, which provides a $30 per month subsidy to cover the cost Americans pay for internet service ($75 per month on tribal lands). The program was finalized last November as part of Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law and the $65 billion investment it made to increase connectivity across the country. “Access to the internet is essential for success” “In the 21st century, access to the internet is essential for success. Every person in our nation, no matter how much they earn, should be abl...

Apple is giving engineers based in China more responsibility in managing its hardware manufacturing processes, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. Before the pandemic, Apple frequently sent US-based engineers to the country to help oversee development, but the report says the company now leans more on China-based engineers given increased border restrictions due to COVID-19. However, Apple’s US-based engineers are still involved with overseas development efforts remotely, according to The Wall Street Journal’s report: The iPhone maker has also adopted some technology, including live-streaming, that helps staff based at its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., remotely follow what’s happening on China’s factory floors, the people said. Apple has used iPads to communicate a...

Facebook is discontinuing several services that tracked your real-time location — including Nearby Friends, weather alerts, location history, and background location — due to “low usage,” as spotted by 9to5Mac. In a notification sent to people who’ve used the feature in the past, Facebook says it will stop collecting data associated with these features on May 31st and will wipe any stored data on August 1st. Facebook parent company Meta confirmed the news to The Verge. “While we’re deprecating some location-based features on Facebook due to low usage, people can still use Location Services to manage how their location information is collected and used,” spokesperson Emil Vazquez said in an emailed statement. This doesn’t mean that Facebook will stop collecting location data altogether This...

If you’ve been paying attention to the latest Sonos rumors, then you already know about its upcoming “Ray” soundbar and plans to launch a voice assistant that prioritizes speed and privacy. While we wait for official confirmation on those, you can add another rumor to the list: posters on the Sonos subreddit have reason to believe they’ll see new colors of the Sonos Roam speaker revealed this week, and now one of our readers points out that a Chilean reseller may have leaked which colors are on the way. Emails sent to subscribers said “something colorful” is on the way with a countdown. Any doubt about what that something may be was eliminated once posters noticed the URL in the email includes “roamcolors_teaser_owners.” As you can see from the photo above, the retail shop Music World is a...

People will say all kinds of things about what Bitcoin is: digital gold, the successor to the dollar as a reserve currency, the future of money, whatever. The thing about Bitcoin, though, is that it’s volatile — and thus, risky. And right now, the market is feeling risk-averse. Bitcoin’s price in dollars has fallen by more than a third since January 1st. A drop this dramatic doesn’t have just one cause, though it probably didn’t help that we’ve been exiting zero interest rate policy (ZIRP). For a while, the US central bank had set interest rates quite close to zero in order to stimulate the economy. In that environment, it doesn’t make sense to keep money in your savings account — your savings won’t earn enough interest to keep up with inflation. Less-risky assets — bonds, treasury bills —...

In the wake of a massive ransomware attack on the Costa Rican government in April, the US government issued a notice last week declaring a bounty potentially worth millions of dollars on people involved with the Conti ransomware used in the hack. Rodrigo Chaves Robles, Costa Rica’s recently sworn-in president, declared a national emergency due to the attack, according to CyberScoop. According to BleepingComputer, the ransomware attack affected Costa Rica’s ministries of finance and Labor and Social Security, as well as the country’s Social Development and Family Allowances Fund, among other entities. The report also says that the attack affected some services from the country’s treasury starting on April 18th. Hackers not only took down some of the government’s systems, but they’re also le...

Match Group, the company behind popular dating apps such as Tinder, Match, and OkCupid, is suing Google over its restrictive billing policies on the Play Store. In its complaint, Match Group claims Google “illegally monopolized the market for distributing apps” on Android by forcing apps to use Google’s own billing system and then taking a cut of the payments. Match Group’s complaint plays off an earlier lawsuit Epic Games filed against Apple in 2020, alleging that Apple engaged in “anti-competitive” behavior by demanding a 30 percent commission on in-app purchases in the iOS app store, among other charges. Although the final ruling was mixed, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rodgers was particularly skeptical of the payment monopoly claims, saying that Apple has the right to license its intellectual...

HBO’s puzzle-filled robot show that always packed extra sides of hedonism and murder is close to making its return, as fans apparently dug up a teaser trailer for season four of Westworld before its scheduled debut. You can watch it right here on HBO’s YouTube channel (via Reddit), to see that many of our android friends, foes, and friends who didn’t know they were androids will continue to have roles to play. I’d go more into the potential plot lines revealed in the flashes and scenes, but even after sticking around for seasons one and two, I don’t really remember watching season three of this show. Launching roughly two months ahead of the debut of HBO Max and squarely in the center of early coronavirus pandemic lockdowns here in the US on March 15th, 2020, the third season didn’t quite ...

Facial recognition surveillance company Clearview AI has agreed to permanently ban most private companies from using its service under a court settlement. The agreement, filed in Illinois court today, would settle a 2020 American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit that alleged the company had built its business on facial recognition data taken without user consent. The agreement formalizes measures Clearview had already taken and shields the company from further ACLU suits under Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). As part of the settlement, Clearview agrees to a permanent nationwide injunction restricting its sale (or free distribution) of access to a vast database of face photographs — many of which were originally scraped from social networks like Facebook. The injunction bars...

While Tesla’s operating system is known for having tons of built-in features (including the ability to play AAA video games), there’s one capability that’s notably missing: support for Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. Michał Gapiński, however, has figured out a way to hack support for both into Teslas, using a web browser, two Raspberry Pis, a handful of add-ons and cables, and Android. Gapiński calls it the Android Tesla Project (h/t to MacRumors for bringing it to our attention), and it does what its name implies: provides an Android Auto interface that you can access through the car’s built-in web browser. (Shout out to open web standards, putting in the work as always.) While this isn’t the first time we’ve seen a project like this — another developer got Android Auto working in the car’...

The company employing a group of BioWare contractors trying to unionize has reversed a policy requiring the workers to return to the office, according to an internal email viewed by The Verge. The return to office policy was one of the key reasons the contractors, who are based in Edmonton, Canada, and employed by development support company Keywords Studios, had begun organizing. Full-time BioWare staffers are being offered a hybrid work from home option, Keywords Studios employees told The Verge. Previously, the Keywords Studios employees that worked at BioWare’s Edmonton office had been expected to return to the office today, May 9th. But in an email sent on Friday, they were informed that “until further notice please maintain working from home.” Keywords Studios didn’t immediately repl...