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Facebook seems to have learnt from its mistakes. After a stressful year, which was plagued with several controversies, the social media giant looks to work upon the privacy and safety of the people that it serves. At the annual F8 conference, company CEO Mark Zuckerberg reiterated his previous stance stressing on privacy-focussed social platform. The event saw the announcement of several features that will let users “interact privately.” “I believe the future is private. I know that we don't exactly have the strongest reputation on privacy right now, to put it lightly. At the end of the day, this isn't just about building some new products. It's a major shift in how we run this company,” Zuckerberg said as he set the tone for new new announcements regarding Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. The conference saw updates in areas that have already been talked about previously, like privacy, integration of three platforms into one, among others. “For the last 15 ye...

Facebook made a whole bunch of announcements last evening at its F8 developer conference in San Jose, California, including the much-rumoured integration of Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp messaging services. One of them is that the company’s “Portal” video-calling devices will be sold in Canada and Europe starting sometime later this year. In addition, the devices are expected to support WhatsApp calls, which means the calls will be end-to-end encrypted. The Mark Zuckerburg-led American social media company launched its Portal video-calling devices in the US in early October last year. At the time of launch, the Portal was priced at $199 (Rs 14,700 approx) and the Portal+ was priced at $349 (Rs 25,900 approx). The company also offered both devices as a bundled offer at $298 (Rs 22,000 approx). Facebook announced the Portal devices in a renewed effort to assure its customers of complete data privacy inside the Facebook world while calling and messaging. A few months before launchi...

It’s been nearly two years since we wrote that New York City would finally be upgrading its transit system to take “tap-to-pay” contactless payments, but Apple’s Tim Cook says it’s finally coming true — on the company’s Q2 earnings call today , the CEO told investors that Apple Pay will begin rolling out to New York City’s MTA transit system starting in “early summer” of this year, letting you tap a phone or watch to pay instantly. But it probably won’t just be Apple Pay, because a few quick web searches show that NYC has actually already announced a specific date for a contactless payment system that should support other phone-based wallets (perhaps rival Android Pay?) and even contactless credit cards. It’s called OMNY (you know, like... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2XQmsOm

Spoiler alert: Spoilers ahead for Game of Thrones season 8, episode 3, “The Long Night.” Perhaps you, like countless other that have sounded off on social media in the past few days, had trouble viewing the most recent episode of Game of Thrones , in which the living faced off against the dead in the dark of night . There was plenty of fire to go around, but for the most part, the episode was a flurry of hard-to-see action taking place in poorly lit environments . Even diehard fans were complaining en masse . Know that the decision to film the episode in such a fashion was a purposeful one, according to cinematographer Fabian Wagner, and that he blames your TV settings or the quality of your screen if you had trouble making out what was... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2WgSpPq

Elon Musk has agreed to more specific oversight on his tweets about Tesla, and a court has now approved the deal. After weeks of negotiation , Musk and the Securities and Exchange Commission decided last Friday that Musk must have a company lawyer pre-approve tweets about Tesla’s financial health, sales, or delivery numbers — estimated or otherwise — as well as other specific subjects, according to a court filing. The two sides filed late last Friday to amend the settlement agreement reached last year over the “funding secured” debacle, which originally prompted the SEC to attempt to install oversight over Musk’s tweets. US District Court Judge Alison Nathan, who presided over the case, has approved Friday’s amendment as of today, April... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2Pweebn

Eric Schmidt will depart Alphabet’s board this June, after holding a seat for 18 years. His departure comes just over a year after Schmidt stepped down from his role as Alphabet’s executive chairman — it also comes as Google struggles with internal turmoil over its involvement with US military contracts , potential business in China , and reported cover-ups of sexual misconduct . Schmidt has been a key presence at Google during his time with the company. He initially took a board seat in 2001, when he was made CEO of Google — a role he was given essentially to lend business expertise to what company founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin had been building. In 2011, he left the CEO position and become Google’s executive chairman. At the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2GPU2NP

Workplace communication platform Slack says it will be deactivating a public channel dedicated to giving away $1,000 per day to anyone that can guess that day’s selected vocabulary word, citing company policies. The game, called The Word of the Day Is , was started by Gabriel Whaley last week as an experiment. It used a Slack bot to monitor entries, which were any one-word messages entered into the public channel. Winners were then sent the money via Venmo. Whaley, the founder and CEO of a New York City-based creative agency called MSCHF Internet Studios, told The Verge at the time that he was “just trying to keep the internet a fun place and an escape.” In quick order, the game gained popularity and write-ups from major news... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2UVutjq

The podcast wars are coming. After Luminary’s troubled launch, The Verge ’s Nilay Patel and Ashley Carman sit down with podcast expert Nick Quah of Hot Pod to discuss if Luminary or anyone could be “the Netflix of podcasts” and where the industry is headed. You can listen to the discussion in its entirety on The Vergecast right now. Below is a lightly edited excerpt from the interview. Nilay Patel: I think the podcast war is coming. I think the question of “why isn’t the podcast industry more like TV” is because all of those TV companies have their own distribution. NBC owns antennas in the world, and they control a massive distribution point: cable companies they sell to other cable companies and that’s a massive distribution point.... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2GMbG4N

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki published a blog post today addressing some of creators’ biggest concerns and frustrations, including copyright claims removing ads from their videos, the site’s trending section not showing some of the most popular uploads, and comments being removed for family vloggers. It’s clear from Wojcicki’s blog that addressing the community’s most consistent complaints was a top priority — and chief among those is copyright claims. Copyright claims on videos, which lead to YouTubers not earning ad revenue, are a constant source of aggravation. Many of the situations that Wojcicki indirectly refers to in the blog post are from top creators, like Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson, who has spoken about losing out on ad revenue... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2IRHRDy

Facebook’s F8 developer conference kicked off today, and the company just finished its opening keynote. Its overwhelming theme, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is that “the future is private.” After a year plagued by controversy over whether Facebook is invading its users’ privacy and encouraging social division, it’s pushing hard on helping people connect with close family and friends. During the keynote, Facebook announced updates to Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and Facebook’s core service. We also got more news about the Oculus Quest and Rift S virtual reality headsets — and about a new dating feature that could spark some very intense interactions between you and your friends. Facebook is being redesigned around groups and events ... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2IQTFWA

Instagram announced some new features at Facebook’s ongoing F8 developer conference, where the main Facebook app also received a fresh coat of paint and a bunch of new features were announced for Messenger. For Instagram, the first big change comes in the form of a redesigned camera with a new Create Mode. The new camera design and the Create Mode will appear on the Instagram app in the coming weeks. This new camera will make it easier to use popular creative tools like effects and interactive stickers. Create Mode will help users make stories more easily. All story creation tools will be available in a single tray at the bottom of the Instagram camera, making them accessible easier than before. Secondly, Instagram users will also get the ability to shop from creators and influencers without leaving their posts.  “Today, creators tag the brands they are wearing, add details in the caption and respond to countless comments and DMs. With the ability to tag exactly what they'r...

Apple just reported its second quarter financial results , posting quarterly revenue of $58 billion (down 5 percent from the same quarter a year ago) earnings per share of $2.46. The company said its crucially important services division hit an all-time high of $11.5 billion in revenue. iPhone revenue came in at $31.05 billion and were again down year over year, as were Mac sales. But the iPad, wearables, and services units of Apple’s business all saw gains. “We delivered our strongest iPad growth in six years, and we are as excited as ever about our pipeline of innovative hardware, software and services,” CEO Tim Cook said in the accompanying press release. “We’re looking forward to sharing more with developers and customers at Apple’s... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2IWL7h5

At Facebook’s annual developer conference, F8, the company has announced a slew of big changes that are aimed at making all of its platforms - Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Facebook itself - more social, yet private. Facebook will transition into a more “privacy-focused communications platform,” Mark Zuckerberg told audiences at F8. To this effect, the main Facebook platform, both the app and the desktop, are receiving a major redesign, with Groups and Events at the centre of it all. Facebook is rolling out FB5 (Facebook 5), a fresh design that’s aimed at being simpler and faster, with an emphasis on communities. Groups are now front and centre with the new Groups tab. The tab now shows a personalised feed of activity across all groups a user is a part of. A new discovery tool provides recommendations that help users find groups they could be interested in. “Today, more than 400 million people on Facebook belong to a group that they find meaningful,” Facebook said in ...

The National Academy of Sciences took a major step today to oust sexual harassers when members at its annual meeting voted to approve a new amendment that would allow the organization to kick out people who badly violate its new code of conduct . This vote isn’t the final verdict, however: the entire membership of the NAS still needs to weigh in — a process that’s expected to be wrapped up by mid-June. The National Academy of Sciences, or NAS, was founded in 1863, and is one of the three academies that make up the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Together, they conduct massive research analyses and produce reports to help “solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions,” according to their website .... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2J6bu3m

Google employees say they will hold a sit-in tomorrow to protest the alleged retaliation against workers. In a tweet, the organizers of last year’s walkout of Google employees said the sit-in was scheduled for 11AM. From being told to go on sick leave when you're not sick, to having your reports taken away, we're sick of retaliation. Six months ago, we walked out. This time, we're sitting in. 11am tomorrow. #NotOkGoogle #GoogleWalkout pic.twitter.com/GCq0x1O8cZ — Google Walkout For Real Change (@GoogleWalkout) April 30, 2019 “From being told to go on sick leave when you’re not sick, to having your reports taken away, we’re sick of retaliation,” the organizers said in the tweet. “Six months ago, we walked out. This time, we’re... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2J15gSe

Facebook has made a bunch of announcements at its ongoing F8 annual developer conference. While the keynote opened with CEO Mark Zuckerberg stressing on a privacy-focussed platform, there were a lot of new developments shared as far as all of Facebook’s products are concerned. Starting with Messenger, Facebook finally shared plans about integrating the chat app with Instagram and WhatsApp. It was rumoured for a long time that Facebook will make all the three apps interoperable and that’s exactly what’s coming - the ability to chat and make calls across Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram. "We believe people should be able to talk to anyone anywhere," Messenger's Head of Consumer Product, Asha Sharma, said while announcing all the new features coming to Messenger 5. Watching Videos together in real-time on Facebook Messenger One of the biggest changes coming to Messenger is that it will now be a faster and lighter app. Facebook is re-building the architecture of the Mes...

Facebook announced at its annual F8 developer conference today that its Portal and Portal Plus video calling devices will soon be available in Canada and Europe, starting this fall. The device will also support WhatsApp calls, and all calls will have end-to-end encryption. The $199 Portal and the larger $349 Portal Plus launched last year at a time when consumer trust in Facebook was waning after a string of privacy scandals, and the product had to be delayed for several months in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data breach. Despite this, Facebook shared onstage today that Portal sales have exceeded expectations, and it’s notable that the company is expanding distribution for the product. Among some of the other features announced... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2DHnGUs

After announcing plans to reshape Facebook around privacy last month, Mark Zuckerberg used the company’s annual F8 conference to outline more of what that might look like. Zuckerberg opened the conference stating, “The future is private ... So today, we’re going to start talking about what this could look like as a product.” The initiative is still in very early stages, though, and so many of the announcements hint at that direction without actually taking the large steps needed to offer a truly private experience. Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2UMAOO1

Facebook and Oculus have finally revealed a release date for their Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S headsets: May 21st. Both headsets will ship in 22 countries next month, they’ll cost $399, and you can preorder them today. The Oculus Quest is a much-anticipated standalone VR headset that Oculus announced last year. It works without external tracking cameras or a separate computer, using a Snapdragon mobile chipset. The Oculus Rift S is a refresh of the 2016 Oculus Rift; it’s not a “Rift 2,” but an upgrade that replaces the old Rift’s tracking cameras with more convenient inside-out tracking. Neither one is a definite must-buy, but we’ve been impressed by the new Insight tracking system, and Oculus consistently backs some of the most... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2ZOhQdE

One big upgrade, more small trade-offs Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2ISF7Wi

Facebook’s plans to pivot into private messaging now have a desktop software component. The company said today that it would bring Messenger, its popular messaging client, to Mac and Windows later this year. Facebook made the announcement at its F8 developer conference in San Jose, California. There are far more mobile phones in the world than desktop computers, and the pace of development for computers has slowed accordingly. But for office workers who spend most of their days using a Mac or PC, messaging is a core function, and a dedicated messaging app could keep them inside Facebook’s ecosystem for hours a day. “People want to seamlessly message from any device, and sometimes they just want a little more space to share and connect... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2J7pkST

Instagram announced at its F8 developer conference today that it’ll start testing a new feature later this week that’ll hide users’ public like counts on videos and photos. The test will only be in Canada, and likes will be hidden in the Feed, permalinked pages, and on profiles. Instagram says it wants followers to “focus on the photos and videos you share, not how many likes they get.” Only the person who owns the account will be able to see how many likes their content received. We thought a feature like this might be in the works. Code hunter Jane Wong published screenshots of this test earlier this month, and at the time, Instagram said it hadn’t tested the feature. Now, we can see it was prepping for the test to run after F8. A... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2ISEH2a

Facebook announced an overhaul of its main mobile app today that puts more emphasis on two of its most critical features: events and groups. The company says it’s placing groups front and center as a cornerstone of how it wants users to think of the main Facebook app, while events is getting a fresh coat of paint as one of the most-used parts of the app that keeps users coming back day in and day out. “There are tens of millions of active groups on Facebook. When people find the right one, it often becomes the most meaningful part of how they use Facebook. And today, more than 400 million people on Facebook belong to a group that they find meaningful,” the company said in a blog post. “With this in mind, we’re rolling out a fresh new... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2LaS5Rb

Facebook Messenger’s mobile app for iOS is about to shrink. The company said today that it is working on a new version of Messenger that will be fewer than 30MB (or about 20 percent the size of the current app). The new version of Messenger, which is expected to arrive later this year on iOS, was rewritten from the ground up, the company said. It should launch in two seconds or under, the company said. There are currently no plans to bring it to Android where Messenger Lite has been available since 2015. The move represents Facebook’s latest step to return Messenger to its lightweight roots. After years of expanding into bots, payments, games, and areas, the app had become cluttered and slower to navigate than rivals like iMessage and... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2ISEITM

Facebook Dating still isn’t available in the United States. But in the five countries where it launched already — and the 14 more that are joining the service today — there’s a new way to see which friends might be romantically interested in you. “Secret Crush,” as the feature is called, lets you express interest in up to nine friends. If that friend has opted into Facebook Dating and likes you back, they get a notification saying someone likes them. If they pick you as one of their secret crushes, you both get notified. You won’t be able to add anyone who hasn’t created a Dating profile, the company said. That could entice more reluctant Facebook users to give Dating a shot — who isn’t curious to see whether a friend secretly likes... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2J5Vxu0

Instagram is announcing a couple of new features today that are designed to make the app more appealing to influencers, creators, and online business owners. It’s part of a broader shift within the company to position its photo-sharing app, which is now used by more than 1 billion people every month, as a kind of Facebook replacement. Younger users have for years been leaving the main app for greener, more hip pastures, and Facebook seems to recognize that Instagram is now at a scale and level of cultural ubiquity that it can begin carrying the torch — at least partially. The first new feature, announced today at Facebook’s F8 developer conference, is a redesigned camera with what Instagram is calling Create Mode. The new mode will make... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2VI44dm

A lot more convenient, but it’s still first-generation VR Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2J5V1fy

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he’s committed to turning his company around. Onstage at Facebook’s F8 developer conference, the chief executive says that privacy will be the defining pillar of his social network’s sprawling empire going forward. His opening statements build on the massive shift in Zuckerberg’s vision for the company that he first outlined early last month when he announced Facebook would transition away from the News Feed and public posts and toward a “privacy-focused communications platform” that unified its messaging products around concepts like ephemerality and encryption. “The future is private,” Zuckerberg told the crowd, noting that Facebook’s most dominant vision over the last decade was to build global... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2VBo8Ok

Spoilers ahead for Game of Thrones, season 8, episode 3, “The Long Night” As Game of Thrones moves into the second half of its final season, we’re in the endgame — not just for the remaining contenders for the Iron Throne, but also for the behind-the-scenes string-pullers with their own grandiose plans for the fate of Westeros. Littlefinger’s cunning, Varys’ spy networks, Tyrion’s battle strategies, and Melisandre’s prophecies and fire magic have all been involved in manipulating and shaping the kingdom’s current chaos. But the show has not been friendly to any of its masterminds. In the season 8 premiere, Varys, Tyrion, and Davos Seaworth watch Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen from a distance, musing over their suitability as a... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2GTAFnZ

YouTube will live stream 13 Major League Baseball games in the second half of this season, the company announced today. The schedule of which games those will be hasn't yet been announced, but the news is another example of pro sports looking to platforms beyond traditional TV and their own dedicated streaming apps to bring in new audiences. YouTube will have exclusive rights to those games in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico. They’ll be viewable from the MLB’s main YouTube page and via an upcoming channel that’s being added to YouTube TV for subscribers of that $50-per-month service. That said, it’s not as if YouTube is about to give MLB.TV any competition: 13 games are just a drop in the bucket when you factor in the entire 162-game... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2V3pS3r

NASA engineers are investigating a power issue on the International Space Station , which is delaying an upcoming flight to the orbiting lab. On Monday, a switch failure caused some of the station’s power channels to go down. The ISS still has power, though, and the problem doesn’t pose any threat to the crew, but NASA needs to replace the switch before spacecraft can visit the ISS again. To generate power, the ISS boasts eight long solar arrays on the outside of the station that convert sunlight into electricity. That electricity is then rerouted throughout the ISS via four switches known as MBSUs. But now, one of those four switches is acting up. As a result, two of the eight power channels that provide electricity to the station aren’t... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2V3iNQm

Aperture, Apple’s professionally minded photo editing software, will no longer operate on macOS after Mojave, the current version of the Mac operating system. The announcement was quietly made on an Apple support page that was spotted by MacRumors , which gives instructions on how users should import their images into either Adobe Lightroom or Apple Photos. The demise of Apple’s legacy software isn’t exactly unexpected. Apple ceased development of the program back in 2014 , and the following year, it and iPhoto were replaced with the much simpler Apple Photos . Aperture disappeared from the Mac App Store in the same month, but since then, existing owners have been able to continue to use it. That will change in September when macOS 10.14... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2IQiuln

If you want to avoid spoilers, stay current, or participate in social media conversations, you have to watch Game of Thrones the moment it airs. If you have cable, you probably don’t think twice about it. But if you’re looking for an alternative method, one site always seems to have people covered: Twitch. On Twitch, streamers are regularly servicing Game of Thrones fans who want to watch the latest episode for free as it airs — and it’s not exactly with HBO’s approval. With just a few seconds of browsing Twitch’s “Just Chatting” category each Sunday night, it’s easy to come across an assortment of streams showing the new episode. There seemed to be more people streaming the premiere a couple of weeks ago than there were streaming the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2J3yDDn

ACT Fibernet subscribers with 1Gbps plan can get Rs 500 off on monthly Netflix subscription bill, a media report has said. Those who have subscribed to this plan will get a monthly cashback of Rs 500 only by subscribing to six-month or 12-month plans. ACT Fibernet is currently offering ACT Giga broadband plans with 1Gbps speeds in Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru cities, and also operates in 17 other cities. Apart from the Netflix offer, customers will also be eligible for other offers as well. In Bengaluru, the company is giving additional 1500GB data on top of the existing pack’s data benefit. Additionally, users will also be eligible for up to two months of free service on long-validity subscription. ACT Giga plan costs Rs 5,999 in Hyderabad and Bengaluru, and Rs 2,999 in Chennai. The Netflix offer is valid in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Delhi. In Bengaluru city, the Netflix offer is applicable on ACT Storm, ACT Lightning, ACT Incredible and ACT Giga broadband plans. In Hyde...

Right now, hundreds of space startups are racing to develop newer, smaller rockets, in order to take advantage of the proliferation of smaller satellites within the aerospace industry. Many of these companies want to get to space the old-fashioned way, by making a rocket that takes off vertically from the ground. But one company has eyed another method for getting to space — by launching underneath the wing of a giant airplane. This is the strategy of Virgin Orbit, the sibling company to Richard Branson’s space tourism venture Virgin Galactic. Virgin Orbit has developed a small rocket called LauncherOne that can put satellites the size of washing machines into orbit. And its launchpad resides at 35,000 feet. Virgin Orbit owns a Boeing... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2J6UAl8

Spring is a time of change and gift giving. Lots of people are graduating from high school or college, and either heading into the workforce by getting a job or continuing their education. So as it is customary to gift these individuals for their graduations, we have pooled The Verge staff’s expertise into a list of great gift ideas. These things have either served the staff well, or are things they wish they had when they graduated and moved into new periods of their lives. And so, compiled below is a list of 47 things from Ikea’s Frakta bags at around $5 to the Apple Macbook Pro at $1,799 that would be a great gift for any graduate at any price point. Credits Editorial lead: Michael Moore Art direction: James Bareham Photography:... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2V6WCbS

Today, PS2 classic Final Fantasy XII is launching on the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. It’s the same enhanced remake of the game that hit the PS4 two years ago , which proved that, in many ways, FFXII was an experience ahead of its time. Fourteen years ago, the game represented a strange turn for the ever-changing role-playing series, introducing features like real-time combat and a sprawling open world that felt foreign to many players. Today, FFXII feels downright modern — but it doesn’t just hold up well for players. Alexander O. Smith has worked on translating Japanese games into English since the late 1990s. He says that, despite such a long career, FFXII is one of the few games he’s worked on where he doesn’t feel the desire to go... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2UQyAgi

Sphero’s founders just wanted to make robots. In 2010, Adam Wilson and Ian Bernstein asked investors for money to build a business around their clever phone-controlled robotic ball. But in some cases, investors wanted to know what more the business could offer: after they sold one robot to a customer, what came next? The answer was one that many hardware companies have turned to: a recurring revenue model that allows them to rely on customers paying every month or year. To find that model, Sphero experimented with turning the robot into a gaming device, but later, it decided to go all in on its developer tools and make the robots into coding toys that would appeal to schools. At that point, the team pivoted to education as a main focus,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2GUSdjJ

Microsoft’s Xbox Adaptive Controller started out as two hackathon projects at the company after an idea from a veteran with limited mobility. Designed for gamers with disabilities, the controller has two large programmable buttons and 19 jacks that can be connected to various accessories to make Xbox and PC gaming far more accessible for a number of players. Microsoft is now partnering with the US Department of Veteran Affairs to provide 22 rehab centers with Xbox Adaptive Controllers and allow veterans with limited mobility the ability to play games again. These controllers, which starred in the company’s Super Bowl commercial earlier this year , will be used in therapeutic and rehabilitative activities for veterans, and they’re designed... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2XPc4Xg

Amazon wants to get inside your car. Last year, the e-commerce giant launched a new service that allowed customers to have packages delivered to the trunks of their vehicles. To start out, only General Motors and Volvo vehicles were eligible. Today, that service has been expanded to include 2017 model year and newer Ford and Lincoln vehicles. There are a few caveats: the service is limited to 50 US cities, and the vehicles must come equipped with a modem that allows them to connect to Ford’s connected car cloud services, FordPass Connect and Lincoln Connect. Only Amazon Prime subscribers are eligible. Packages that weigh over 50 pounds, are larger than 26 x 21 x 16 inches in size, require a signature, are valued over $1,300, or come... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2GUgcQ9

Huawei’s HiSilicon Kirin 985 chipset will be manufactured with 5G modem using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's (TSMC's) new 7nm fabrication process, and it will go into mass production from the third quarter of this year, a media report in CNMO.com has said. TSMC will use 7nm Extreme UltraViolet (EUV) process (called N7+), along with the Flip-Chip Package-on-Package (FC-PoP) process that allows vertical stacking of transistors. A combination of EUV (which increases the accuracy of transistor placement) and FC-PoP manufacturing processes means that the transistor density on the chip will be increased by 20 percent resulting in better performance and lower energy consumption. The news comes almost two weeks after a report in Chinese news outlet Commercial Times claimed the Kirin 985 chipset will enter into mass production in the second half of 2019. Further, it has been reported that Huawei will bring the HiSilicon Kirin 985 in the Mate 30 series of phones. The firs...

Facebook’s developer conference has become a strange affair. Each year in April, the social network convenes a gathering dedicated to its sprawling platform in San Jose, California, for the thousands of companies, creators, and programmers that depend on it. The conference typically includes announcements for new features coming to Facebook’s suite of apps, along with updates on its more experimental efforts in virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. In recent years, the conference has been overshadowed by controversies related to data privacy, security, moderation, and other topics revolving around Facebook’s struggle to police its platform and reckon with its global influence. Last year, Facebook reportedly delayed... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2VATSD9

Tesla plans to sell its solar panels at a price that’s 38 percent lower than the national average in an attempt to halt the decline of its solar business. The New York Times notes that the head of Tesla’s solar department, Sanjay Shah, wants to sell panels for between $1.75 and $1.99 a watt, compared to the national average of $2.85. Shah highlights two main ways Tesla will achieve these price reductions. The first is by standardizing more of its installations. Customers will now only be able to purchase panels in increments of 4kW or 12 panels. Secondly, they will be asked to perform parts of the home installation process such as photographing electric meters and circuit breaker boxes that would have normally required a visit from... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts http://bit.ly/2LbfLoE

The OnePlus 7 launch is looming large over us and every few days, a new feature of the upcoming flagship is being disseminated by the brand to create hype leading up to the launch. After announcing that the OnePlus 7 Pro’s display has been rated A+ by DisplayMate, and confirming triple cameras on the back via a newspaper ad, it was revealed the latest cover photo of Harper’s Bazaar magazine was shot using the OnePlus 7 Pro. The magazine announced on social media that the cover photo of their latest issue featuring actor and activist Jameela Jamil, was shot using the OnePlus 7 Pro. The actor insisted that the photos required no digital retouching or airbrushing. The photograph was shot with Jameela in Los Angeles, on a rooftop terrace, according to an ANI report. “It’s a picture-perfect camera, and the output was amazing. I could not believe we had an option to shoot RAW images without having to connect it to an app or computer. We used the photo to capture behind-the-scenes clips a...