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Panasonic’s Lumix mirrorless cameras are widely regarded as the best choice for anyone looking to create beautiful video within a mortal’s budget. The company is today pushing that reputation up into a higher price, quality, and resolution bracket with the announcement of $4,000 the Lumix S1H , a full-frame shooter capable of recording 6K video at 24fps. It’s a fresh iteration of the Lumix S1, which made its debut at Photokina last year and which I’ve recently tried and been delighted by. The upcoming Lumix S1H, scheduled to launch in the fall, comes with the claim of being the world’s first full-frame camera to do 6K/24p at a 3:2 aspect ratio or 5.9K/30p at 16:9. Aside from being cool in its own right, this bump in resolution capability... Continue reading…

DJI is the leading name in drones , and we’ve liked their prosumer Phantom and Mavic lines quite a bit — but it looks like the company has also quietly built a professional cinematography drone that’s so high-end, it’s not even for sale. You’ll hire DJI to send out a fancy van with a dedicated team of professionals, presumably to fly the drone for you. As DroneDJ notes , the DJI Storm was quietly revealed in a YouTube video that seems to have flown under the radar (so to speak), and we’ve confirmed it exists on DJI’s Chinese site as well. It sure sounds like a beast: an eight-rotor aircraft that can carry up to an 18.5kg (40.8lb) payload. That’s enough to carry an sizeable filmmaker’s rig like an Arri Alexa LF camera, complete with lens,... Continue reading…

Google may soon face an antitrust investigation from the US Department of Justice pertaining to its search business and potentially other aspects of the company’s sprawling software and services empire, according to a late Friday evening report from The Wall Street Journal . The DOJ is said to have spent the past few weeks preparing for the probe. Following publication of the WSJ ’s story, The Washington Post , The New York Times , and Bloomberg are confirming an imminent antitrust probe as well. Citing anonymous sources, the WSJ says the Federal Trade Commission, which works alongside the DOJ to bring federal antitrust cases, will defer to the Justice Department in this case. Prior to this, the FTC brought a case against the company in... Continue reading…

All of the news, first looks, and more Continue reading…

Twilight heartthrob-turned-arthouse darling Robert Pattinson is Warner Bros.’ next Batman. Variety reported on Friday that Pattinson would play the vigilante in a planned standalone movie called The Batman , helmed by War for the Planet of the Apes and Cloverfield director Matt Reeves. An additional report from Deadline suggested that Pattinson was Reeves’ preferred choice, but Warner Bros. executives weren’t entirely sold. The “studio was torn between him and Nicholas Hoult,” according to Deadline. Batman is a crucial franchise for Warner Bros., and the studio didn’t want to jeopardize it. There is a chance that The Batman could turn into a mini-franchise of its own, according to Deadline , with the supposed contract set to “include... Continue reading…

This week on The Vergecast , Nilay Patel, Dieter Bohn, and Paul Miller discuss all the new laptops revealed at Computex 2019, the new processor chips from Intel and AMD, and what we’re expecting at Apple’s WWDC next week. In between all of that, we give you updates on the T-Mobile and Sprint merger, 5G connectivity, and Paul’s weekly segment “ATX? more like late-TX,” so keep listening to stay informed. Stories discussed this week: Laptops are getting weird and wonderful Twin River is Intel’s attempt to build a dual-screen laptop out of fabric Did Intel just nail the dual-screen gaming laptop? Asus put two 4K screens on its extravagant ZenBook Pro Duo laptop Intel, AMD, and ARM each see our computing future differently AMD’s flagship... Continue reading…

On the App Store, Apple is legislator, judge, jury, and executioner. Apple makes the rules. It has the final say about which apps you can officially purchase, download, and use on your iPhone or iPad. And importantly, Apple can change its mind at any time and make an app disappear — even to promote Apple’s own apps at the expense of a competitor and even if that competitor is a small business that relies on the App Store for its very existence. As the world takes a closer look at the power Silicon Valley wields, that status quo is facing new scrutiny. Presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) actually believes Apple should be broken up: “Either they run the platform or they play in the store,” she told The Verge in March . The... Continue reading…

There are so many streaming options available these days, and so many conflicting recommendations, that it’s hard to see through all the crap you could be watching. Each Friday, The Verge ’s Cut the Crap column simplifies the choice by sorting through the overwhelming multitude of movies and TV shows on subscription services and recommending a single perfect thing to watch this weekend. What to watch Swamp Thing , Wes Craven’s 1982 movie about DC’s Swamp Thing, a comic book character created in 1971 by writer Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson. The film stars Ray Wise as Alec Holland, a scientist whose covert, government-funded work on the untapped potential of plant life — as both a food source and a bioweapon — draws the attention of a... Continue reading…

My favorite phone of all time is the BlackBerry Bold 9000. Unlike the iPhone 3G, which touted a revolutionary design when it was announced just a month later in 2008, the BlackBerry Bold wasn’t super flashy. But it had one thing the iPhone 3G didn’t: BlackBerry Messenger. It became a defining characteristic on BlackBerry devices and forever changed how business and casual conversations were held by phone users. Today, after years of dwindling usage and financial woes from BlackBerry developer RIM , BlackBerry Messenger is going away for good. BlackBerry Messenger (better known as BBM) was one of the first instant messaging (IM) platforms that arrived on mobile devices in 2005 . People could choose to use a BBM account tied to their unique... Continue reading…

Nearly five years after all-electric racing series Formula E made a thrilling debut , the book is about to close on its fifth season. Crucially, this was also the first season with Formula E’s game-changing second-generation electric racecar , which is faster, lasts longer, and could help propel the series into more legitimate motorsport territory. In April, I drove one on a racetrack. I actually drove the series’s first-generation car back in 2017 , but I’ve had the urge to try the new one ever since it was announced in 2018 . Not only does it look totally bonkers, but it’s a significant upgrade in just about every way. The old car had a max power output of 200kW or about 268 horsepower. The second-generation car (or “Gen2 car,” as... Continue reading…

Chris Pratt (Star-Lord) and Tom Holland (Spider-Man) came out unscathed in Avengers: Endgame , and now they’re reuniting as elf brothers on a journey to discover if magic is still real in Pixar’s Onward . Onward stars Pratt as Barley Lightfoot and Holland as his younger, meeker brother Ian. They’re stuck in a suburban world where fantastical creatures roam. Dragons are kept as pets, trolls run the bridge toll booths, and garden gnomes have to take care of the lawns they’re standing on. The modern world has lost its magical pizzazz, and it’s up to Barley and Ian to find out if any still exists. Pratt and Holland are the two main characters in the film. Although they don’t carry the exact same energy as Spider-Man and Star-Lord on the... Continue reading…

Tinder’s beginning two tests today that might entice more people to pay for the dating app. The tests build on top of the app’s paid subscriptions — Tinder Gold and Tinder Plus — by offering some subscribers the ability to pay to view read receipts on chats, as well as the opportunity to break the algorithm and push their profile to the top of people’s potential match stacks. These premium users can pay to turn read receipts on for individual chat threads, so they’ll be able to see if and when a match read their message. Only the person who upgraded the chat will be able to view the read receipts, but both people will have the option to turn read receipts off. Read receipts will be turned on by default, however, so be sure to turn them... Continue reading…

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the latest flagship Nintendo Switch game to support virtual reality through the cardboard Labo headset . The game’s most recent update, which brings it up to version 3.1.0, adds VR support, though it’s naturally pretty limited. You can only play in single-player, and you’re limited to either fighting against AI opponents or simply taking in the view while computer-controlled characters duke it out. It’s not exactly the most exciting addition, especially given how poorly VR support for Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey turned out . Still, it’s a free update, and if you already own Labo VR, it’s probably worth checking out for the novelty factor. You can read the full patch notes right here . Continue reading…

Dropbox is increasing the amount of storage you get with its paid tiers, and it’s adding a trio of new features to its service. Plus users will now get 2TB of storage compared to the 1TB they had previously, while subscribers to the Professional and Business plans will see their storage increase to 3TB and 5TB, up from 2TB and 3TB, respectively. Plus users will see a small price hike with the change: their rates will increase by $2 a month to $11.99. Pricing for Dropbox’s other plans is unchanged. The company announced three new features alongside the storage increases. The first, Smart Sync, has technically been available for a little while, but it’s being upgraded. The feature allows you to mark files and folders as “online-only,” so... Continue reading…

”Can’t innovate anymore, my ass,” proclaimed Apple exec Phil Schiller when he introduced the redesigned Mac Pro back in 2013. It was meant to be “the future of the pro desktop,” but it certainly wasn’t. Four years later, Apple was forced to admit that the Mac Pro was a mess after some of Apple’s most loyal customers claimed the company had lost touch with its pro users and truly lost its way. If Apple is ready to unveil its new Mac Pro on Monday at WWDC, there can’t be any bravado about “ courage ” or innovation, it should be a time to prove the company has listened to those who have felt underserved and rejected. Apple doesn’t need to wow us with another innovative design, it needs to get back to the basics. Apple now has a chance to... Continue reading…

The trade tension between the United States and China looks set to intensify soon, as the latter country is taking steps to respond to the American ban on doing business with Huawei. Bloomberg reports that China has put preparations in place to restrict exports of rare earth minerals to the US, while also setting up its own “unreliable entities” blacklist for unfavorable foreign companies. At the same time, Japan’s SoftBank has announced it’ll be building its 5G network with equipment from Nokia and Ericsson, snubbing Huawei , which had been a 4G supplier for the large mobile carrier. The rare earths export restriction looks to be an act of saber rattling for now. The leadership in Beijing is signaling that it’s ready and willing to... Continue reading…

Target has issued a recall for 90,000 of its Heyday Lightning cables after it received over a dozen reports of the cables smoking, sparking, or igniting, MacRumors reports . According to a recall notice issued by the United State Consumer Product Safety Commission, there have been two reports of people suffering finger burns from the cables, and they can also pose a shock hazard. The recall is bad news for Heyday, Target’s first-ever consumer electronics brand. Speaking to Forbes last year, Target’s executive vice president and chief merchandising officer Mark Tritton said that the “disruptor” brand had been designed and developed internally at the retailer. The recall notice says that defective Lightning cables were sold as far back as... Continue reading…

Yesterday Twitter, in response to years of complaints about letting white nationalists use the platform even though they had already been banned, said that it plans to conduct academic research on the subject . At HuffPost , Luke O’Brien took the occasion to note just how many white nationalists are using the platform : The white supremacist accused of murdering 51 people in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March was also on Twitter, where he spread Islamophobia, white supremacist propaganda and articles about terrorist attacks. He tweeted pictures of his weapons and posted links to a disturbing manifesto he wrote, apparently in anticipation of the deadly rampage. Only after he was charged in a mass murder did Twitter act. The shooter may... Continue reading…

Tesla has started taking preorders of Model 3 cars produced at its new Gigafactory in Shanghai, China. Bloomberg reports that the cars, which are available to order exclusively in China, will have a base price of 328,000 yuan ($47,510), 13 percent cheaper than the model imported from the US for a price 377,000 yuan ($54,616). The Model 3s being produced in China are the Standard Plus versions of the vehicle with a range of 460km (286 miles). Tesla says that it expects to start making deliveries from the Shanghai factory in the next six to 10 months. Tesla started making Model 3 deliveries in China back in March . These locally produced cars will allow the company to avoid import duties, which are becoming more of a problem as the Trump... Continue reading…

Reuters is reporting something rather intriguing and inexplicable on its face: Amazon is interested in buying the Boost Mobile MVNO network from T-Mobile and Sprint, reportedly so that Amazon can have access T-Mobile’s wireless network for a number of years and even purchase some of T-Mobile’s spectrum. Here are a few of the background facts that make this so intriguing: T-Mobile doesn’t own Boost , and won’t even if its merger with Sprint is approved, because Sprint agreed to sell Boost as a condition of the deal . Since Boost runs on Sprint’s network, any new owner of Boost would theoretically get access to Sprint’s wireless network, not T-Mobile’s. Bloomberg recently reported that the Department of Justice doesn’t want the number of... Continue reading…

Uber is experimenting with increasing the cross-promotion of its Eats food delivery service and its ride-hailing offering inside the company’s app, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said Thursday. Khosrowshahi said he feels comfortable trying this after finding out that when customers use more than one of the company’s products, their engagement with Uber “more than doubles” overall. He also thinks it could help cement the company’s dominance in certain emerging markets. “Really what we’re looking to do is significantly increase the percentage of our MAPCs [monthly active platform consumers] that use both products,” said Khosrowshahi, on his first call with investors since Uber went public earlier this May . “Suffice it to say we are starting to... Continue reading…

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerbeg, like most ultra-rich members of society, has an extensive security detail that monitors him at all hours of the day, in addition to the litany of staff members responsible for cooking, cleaning, and managing Zuckerberg and his family’s personal affairs. Yet according to two former employees of Zuckerberg’s personal household and security staff, the chief executive’s personal head of security, a former Secret Service agent named Liam Booth who worked under President Barack Obama, committed sexual harassment and has made racist and other derogatory remarks about Zuckerberg’s wife, Priscilla Chan, and other staffers. The news was first reported this afternoon by Business Insider , and later confirmed by NBC News .... Continue reading…

A large group of developers who make parental control apps have banded together to demand that Apple come up with a technical solution that will allow them to continue to work on the iPhone. They’ve gone so far to create a website and propose a specification for an API that would give their apps enough access to track and limit usage of apps. The move is necessary because Apple had begun blocking many of these apps recently because they took advantage of the Mobile Device Management (MDM) features on the iPhone. Apple has set a policy that those features should only be used by companies. There were two ways to interpret that move. The first is that it was part of a larger review of MDM usage following what Apple saw as Facebook’s abuse... Continue reading…

In a marketing campaign idea that even the least savvy internet user could have told you was a terrible idea, the North Face decided to announce publicly earlier this week how it gamed Google Search results to promote its products by uploading photos of them to high-traffic Wikipedia entries . North Face even gloated about its success with a short, two-minute video detailing how shots of famous locales were swapped for similar-seeming photos featuring North Face product placement, inorganically juicing North Face visibility in Google results. The opening of the video showed a graphic of a Google Search bar filling up in real time with the words, “How can a brand be the first on google without paying anything for it?” Now, the brand is... Continue reading…

British Columbia yesterday passed an emissions law aimed at curbing the production and sale of fuel-burning cars in the Canadian province, marking North America’s most aggressive legislation to date, according to the CBC . The law mandates that 10 percent of all vehicles sold by 2025 be zero emission ones, while the sale of fuel-burning cars and trucks will be banned outright by 2040. Zero emission vehicles include battery electric, plug-in hybrids, and hydrogen fuel-cell models. The law, called the Zero-Emission Vehicles Act (ZEVA), is not without its critics. The CBC says opposition to the ZEVA mostly centers on the law’s potential ineffectiveness, with criticism aimed at the fact BC residents can simply purchase a vehicle in the... Continue reading…

Nreal’s augmented reality glasses — which impressed us at CES back in January — will cost a surprisingly low $499 and are supposed to start shipping this year. The Nreal Light glasses plug into a Snapdragon 855-powered smartphone over USB-C, and Nreal promises they’ll be available to consumers in “limited quantities” later this year, then ship in mass-market quantities next year. A $1,199 kit for developers will include the glasses, a controller, and a dedicated computing pack that can substitute for a phone. The Nreal Light glasses offer an experience that’s somewhere between a heads-up display and full-fledged, high-end mixed reality — while looking sort of like normal glasses. You can use them to watch video on virtual screens, but... Continue reading…

Google is putting a new pair of restrictions on Chrome extensions meant to make the browser add-ons more considerate of users’ privacy. The major change is that all extensions will now be required to use the “minimum set of permissions necessary” when asking for access to data. So if a task can be accomplished through multiple routes, the extension will be required to take the one that requires access to the least-sensitive amount of data. On top of that, Google will also begin requiring more extensions to post privacy policies in the Chrome Web Store. This requirement is already in place for extensions that require “personal and sensitive user data,” but now it’s being expanded to extensions that need access to any kind of personal... Continue reading…

Stock Android software and good design doesn’t have to cost a lot Continue reading…

In a wide-ranging interview, Gaiman talks Jon Hamm, Tori Amos, and writing two days after Pratchett’s funeral Continue reading…

Sprint is launching its 5G network in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and Kansas City today, becoming the third major US operator to kick off the next era of mobile data. “This is probably going to be the largest initial 5G launch in terms of coverage and footprint,” Sprint CTO John Saw told reporters gathered in Dallas this morning. In this particular city, Sprint’s 5G launch footprint covers 575 square miles and approximately 1.6 million people. “This is just the beginning,” Saw said. Sprint is offering up a coverage map of where customers can expect 5G signal at launch, something that its competitors haven’t yet done. But for Sprint, 5G is about a lot more than coverage: it’s about dependability. Rivals Verizon and AT&T have concentrated... Continue reading…

The unofficial start of summer means it’s time for rumors to begin swirling for the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Note device, which is typically announced around August. Still, the news might not be what you want to hear: the 10th anniversary Galaxy Note might be the one where Samsung finally kills the headphone jack for the phablet line. According to Android Police , Samsung may be preparing to release two sizes for the Galaxy Note 10 — a regular and a smaller device (by the Note’s standard, anyway) — that won’t include the 3.5 mm headphone jack or physical buttons for power, volume, and Bixby. Instead, the devices are rumored to have capacitive or touch-sensitive areas that are textured, perhaps similar to how the power button / fingerprint... Continue reading…

Since it was announced in 2016, we’ve seen plenty of Death Stranding through trailers, including yesterday’s lengthy new footage . However, over that time it hasn’t been clear what exactly you’ll be doing in the game. And while we still have plenty of questions, the game’s official website has been updated to provide a better idea of what the moment-to-moment experience will be like. First, here’s the basic premise for Hideo Kojima’s post- Metal Gear Solid world: In the near future, mysterious explosions have rocked the globe, setting off a series of supernatural events known as the Death Stranding. With otherworldly creatures plaguing the landscape, and mass extinction imminent, it’s up to Sam Porter Bridges to travel across the ravaged... Continue reading…

By the end of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 , a lot had happened in the series, from nuclear devastation to a Russian invasion of the US. So when the developers at Infinity Ward started plotting out the next game in the series, they realized something — they needed a clean slate. “There were just so many things that made it bear no resemblance to the world we see today,” explains Jacob Minkoff, single-player design director on the new Modern Warfare . “To make a new Modern Warfare game in 2019, we had to put to bed that old storyline. But it’s still Modern Warfare .” That’s the reason why the next game in the series, announced today, is simply called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare , as opposed to Modern Warfare 4 . It’s not a sequel, but more... Continue reading…

After the slightly off-the-wall Black Ops 4 — which featured a time travel-themed zombie mode and Fortnite -style battle royale — Call of Duty is making the jump back to reality for its next release. Today, developer Infinity Ward officially announced Call of Duty: Modern Warfare , a reboot of the long-running sub series with an intense focus on gritty realism. Unlike BO4 , the new Modern Warfare will indeed have a single-player campaign, and it’s the main focus for the reveal today. As you might guess from the name, it’s not a direct sequel to 2011’s Modern Warfare 3 , but instead a soft reboot that kicks off a new storyline with a few familiar, returning characters. The campaign will be split into two halves: in one you’ll play as a Tier 1... Continue reading…

Call of Duty is the latest multiplayer game series looking to embrace cross-play. While today’s reveal of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is focused primarily on the game’s gritty single-player campaign, developer Infinity Ward did provide a few details about the multiplayer component. Most notably, the developer says that ”the team plans for Modern Warfare to be played together across PC and console through cross-play support.” When it’s implemented, Modern Warfare will join a growing list of cross-play games including Rocket League , Fortnite , and Minecraft . It also sounds like the multiplayer and single-player components of the experience will be closely linked, with progression shared between the two. “ Modern Warfare offers a unified... Continue reading…

Facebook filed a patent for an unusual drone that would use kites to stay aloft. The “dual-kite aerial vehicle” is composed of two kites tethered together and floating at different altitudes. Each kite could be directed independently, and the drone could generate its own energy to extend its flight time. As with all patents, we don’t know whether Facebook is building this system. But it indicates a continuing interest in experimental aerial vehicles, even after Facebook scaled back its earlier, well-publicized Aquila project . Facebook’s patent was filed in November of 2018. It claims the kite drone would improve on more plane- or helicopter-like designs by cutting down the weight, cost, and size required to keep an aircraft flying for... Continue reading…

Plotting out the future of big-screen computers Continue reading…

EE turned on the UK’s first 5G network today, across London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast, Birmingham, and Manchester. 5G connectivity is now available in limited parts of these cities, more than a month before rival Vodafone plans to launch its own 5G service . I took to the streets of London today to test out 5G, armed with a OnePlus 7 Pro 5G handset. I’m impressed with the early results. While 5G coverage has been extremely limited with Verizon’s 5G network in the US , it’s a whole different story in London. EE has focused its initial coverage on popular tourist destinations across London, including areas like St Paul’s, Covent Garden, Soho, The Strand, Tower Bridge, and London Bridge. I visited a number of different locations today and... Continue reading…

A recent article in The Washington Post by Geoffrey Fowler described the author’s shock when he discovered just how many of his iPhone apps were collecting and uploading information about his usage while he slept. As we all know by now, data is a huge commodity these days. If you use a phone, laptop, or any type of computing device (unless you’re a security expert or a high-end hacker with access to sophisticated blocking tools), you’re paying for your apps by contributing marketing and other info to the companies that supply them. As Fowler’s article demonstrates, iPhone users are not immune to this, no matter how much Apple assures its customers that it’s looking out for their privacy. But there are some simple ways to minimize the... Continue reading…

Google is launching a pair of interrelated features that are designed to make it easier to pick what to eat at restaurants. The first was originally announced by the company back at Google I/O , and it allows you to point your phone’s camera at a restaurant’s menu to see user reviews and photographs of the dishes. The feature is available through Google Lens, a piece of software that’s available as an app and is also built into the camera on Google Pixel devices. Google has confirmed that the feature is launching by the end of this week with support for menus in English, and it will expand to more languages in the future. In order to provide user reviews through Google Lens, you’ll need reviews of individual meals to start. Google is... Continue reading…

The first trailer has arrived for The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance , Netflix’s upcoming prequel to the 1982 Jim Henson / Frank Oz movie The Dark Crystal . It makes the 10-hour series look astonishingly faithful to the original film. The visuals have been updated for a digital age — now, instead of slogging through swamps and across fields full of strange puppet creatures, the characters are navigating immense, brightly colored imaginary spaces — but the film’s primary species, the diminutive elf-like Gelflings and the corrupted, bird-like Skeksis, look practically unchanged since 1982. The series, based on J.M. Lee’s recent Dark Crystal companion novels Shadows of the Dark Crystal and Song of the Dark Crystal , appears to take place in... Continue reading…

Tech giant Salesforce has entered the debate over gun control in the US with a policy that forbids customers who use its software from selling certain firearms. The ban applies to semi-automatic weapons, 3D-printed guns, and a range of accessories, including large-capacity magazines and devices that make semi-automatic guns fully automatic. The policy was made official on April 11th this year, according to company documents , but was highlighted in a recent story by The Washington Post . The Post notes that it’s not clear how many companies the policy affects, but says at least one retailer, Camping World, has been told to either stop selling guns or stop using Salesforce software. A spokesperson for Salesforce confirmed the change to The... Continue reading…

Microsoft had a dream with Windows 8 that involved universal Windows apps that would span across phones, tablets, PCs, and even Xbox consoles. The plan was that app developers could write a single app for all of these devices, and it would magically span across them all. This dream really started to fall apart after Windows Phone failed, but it’s well and truly over now. Microsoft has spent years pushing developers to create special apps for the company’s Universal Windows Platform (UWP), and today, it’s putting the final nail in the UWP coffin. Microsoft is finally allowing game developers to bring full native Win32 games to the Microsoft Store , meaning the many games that developers publish on popular stores like Steam don’t have to... Continue reading…

In today’s digital age, it sometimes feels like hardware has taken a back seat to the software that drives out devices. Button of the Month is a monthly look at what some of those buttons and switches are like on devices old and new, and it aims to appreciate how we interact with our devices on a physical, tactile level. How do you make a tablet feel like a book? Amazon has been whittling away at this question for years with its Kindle lineup, which seeks to offer a reading experience that is as good, if not better than, old-fashioned paper and ink. The best of Amazon’s modern Kindle hardware has been the Oasis: not just because of the high-res screen or slim design, but because it alone has physical page-turn buttons for progressing... Continue reading…

T-Series is the first YouTube channel to reach more than 100 million subscribers after months of racing to the top. YouTube congratulated T-Series on Twitter , telling the Bollywood channel to make room on its shelf for a new trophy — similar to the Play Buttons the company hands out to channels that reach 1 or 10 million subscribers. T-Series also thanked fans for helping the company reach the milestone. Hitting 100 million subscribers doesn’t necessarily help the channel, but it is a point of pride. World’s biggest YouTube Channel, T-Series has achieved another YouTube milestone by being the first one to cross an astonishing #100MillionSubscribers . Thank you for being part of our journey. T-Series - Making India Proud. @... Continue reading…

Ferrari has announced its first plug-in hybrid car, the SF90 Stradale . Alongside its V8 turbo engine, which the company claims has the highest output of any 8-cylinder in its history, the car has a total of three electric motors (two on its front axes and one on its rear). Combined, the combustion engine and motors produce 985 horsepower, allowing the car to accelerate from 0–62 mph in just 2.5 seconds and reach a maximum speed of 211 mph. If you’re looking to run the car in its all-electric eDrive mode, then you might be a little disappointed in its maximum of 15 miles of range. That might be enough for a quick trip to the store or a short commute, but these are hardly the trips you buy a Ferrari to make. At least those 15 miles will... Continue reading…

Motorola has officially announced the Moto Z4, the thoroughly leaked ( and even accidentally shipped !) successor to last year’s Moto Z3 . And yes, the company is still firmly sticking with its strategy of modular Moto Mod attachments. As one might expect, the Z4 is essentially an upgraded version of last year’s Moto Z3. The basic design is still the same: the phone is a glass sandwich with POGO pins on the back for snapping on the Mods. Motorola has followed recent phone trends by excising the bezels on the front in favor of a teardrop notch and a 19:9 OLED panel. Additionally, Motorola has also undone a few of the changes it made on the Z3 that people didn’t particularly like. The smaller 3,000mAh battery on last year’s Z3 has been... Continue reading…

Microsoft says it’s committed to supporting competing PC game stores and it’s announcing today that it will distribute more Xbox Game Studios titles through Valve’s Steam marketplace. Typically, Microsoft has distributed its games through only Xbox Live on its game console platform and through its own Windows storefront on PC. Now, Microsoft says it wants to better support player choice and let customers buy games in more than one destination on PC. “Our intent is to make our Xbox Game Studios PC games available in multiple stores, including our own Microsoft Store on Windows, at their launch. We believe you should have choice in where you buy your PC games,” writes Xbox chief Phil Spencer in a blog post announcing the shift in... Continue reading…

Microsoft announced today that it’s bringing its popular console game subscription service, Xbox Game Pass, to Windows. This is bigger than just a formal recognition that some of its included Xbox games in Game Pass can already be played on the PC. (Right now, any PC game that’s part of Game Pass can be played on either Xbox or Windows, thanks to the company’s Play Anywhere initiative , but a majority of those titles are Microsoft-published games like Forza Horizon 4 and Gears of War 4 .) Instead, Microsoft says it’s launching a whole new version of the subscription for Windows computers with over 100 games from more than 75 developers to start. Right now, fewer than 20 of the games available through Xbox Game Pass can be played on PC,... Continue reading…

Popular wisdom drives home the importance of a head start and specializing early. Not so fast, advises journalist David Epstein . After Epstein wrote about the famed 10,000-hour rule in his first book, The Sports Gene , he was invited to debate Malcolm Gladwell , whose book Outliers had brought the rule into the mainstream. To prepare for the debate, Epstein gathered studies that looked at the development of elite athletes and saw that the trend was not early specialization. Rather, in almost every sport there was a “sampling period” where athletes learned about their own abilities and interests. The athletes who delayed specialization were often better than their specialized peers, who plateaued at lower levels. Epstein filed this... Continue reading…

A group of 47 companies including Apple, Google, Microsoft, and WhatsApp have strongly criticized a proposal by the UK intelligence agency GCHQ to eavesdrop on encrypted messages. In an open letter published on Lawfare the companies say that the plans would undermine security, threaten trust in encrypted messaging services, and ultimately endanger citizens’ right to privacy and free expression. The proposal from GCHQ was first published last November as part of a series of essays, and does not necessarily reflect a legislative agenda from the intelligence agency at this point. In the essay, two senior British intelligence officials argue that law enforcement should be added as a “ghost” participant in every encrypted messaging... Continue reading…