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Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images As Wednesday’s night’s Democratic debate came to a close, Joe Biden somehow confused and combined his campaign website and a text message short code in his closing statement. “Go to JOE 30330 and help me in this fight,” Biden said in his debate night send-off, apparently asking voters to text the number to receive updates from his campaign. But according to a later tweet from Biden’s staff , you weren’t even supposed to text the word “JOE,” but rather “JOIN” to that now viral number. Joe Biden either thinks he's going to be alive in 30330 or he has no idea what his own website is... pic.twitter.com/WqrZhquYmY — Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) August 1, 2019 “With so much happening on the campaign, we want to make sure you’re up-to-date on... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/31/20749722/joe-biden-short-code-30330-website-campaign-2020-democratic-debates

Bird’s monthly program sticks you with a less capable, more annoying scooter Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/31/20747817/bird-electric-scooter-monthly-rental-san-francisco-bike-app-review

Illustration by James Bareham / The Verge There’s no indication that Facebook’s Portal video chat devices have been a hit for the company, but that hasn’t stopped its development of other products. According to The Information , Facebook is continuing to work on a camera that can plug into a TV and double as a video-streaming device a la Roku or Fire TV. Facebook has reportedly approached Netflix, Disney, HBO, and Hulu about potentially including their subscription services on the hardware, which is expected to be announced this fall. This hybrid device has been reported on in the past ( first by Cheddar ), but the release time frame and talks with streaming partners are new to The Information’s story. Facebook has already directly confirmed that it intends to release “new form... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/31/20748589/facebook-portal-tv-camera-video-streaming-device-netflix-disney

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Congress is calling on stakeholders in the self-driving car industry to help reignite their efforts to draft a bill aimed at speeding up the adoption of autonomous vehicles and deploying a regulatory framework, according to a new letter obtained by The Verge . The House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Commerce Committee are pairing up to draft a bipartisan, bicameral “self-driving car bill,” according to the letter. The letter prompts stakeholders to file feedback on a variety of issues involving autonomous vehicles, including cybersecurity, privacy, disability access, and testing expansion to the committees. “The objective of this request is to be as inclusive as possible,” the letter says. It’s not clear how many groups... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/31/20748582/congress-self-driving-cars-bill-energy-commerce-senate-regulation

Image: WarnerMedia Coming in 2020 Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/31/20748588/warnermedia-hbo-max-streaming-service-tv-movies-news-announcements-updates

Image: Little Brown and Company WarnerMedia is set to launch its forthcoming streaming service, HBO Max, later this year. While the service will feature major existing shows, like Friends , the company is also beginning to develop its roster of original content for subscribers. One of those new original projects is an adaptation of Circe, Madeline Miller’s take on The Odyssey. HBO Max gave the project an eight-episode straight-to-series order, according to Deadline (via Tor.com ) . Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Jurassic World writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver will write and produce the series. WarnerMedia is lining up some big names for HBO Max. J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot studio might be signing a huge exclusivity deal with WarnerMedia. The platform has also... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/31/20748573/warnermedia-odyssey-hbo-max-greenlight-retelling

Meet the classified artificial brain being developed by US intelligence programs Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/31/20746926/sentient-national-reconnaissance-office-spy-satellites-artificial-intelligence-ai

Image: Netflix Netflix has released the first look at one of its biggest original films to date: Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman. The film stars Robert De Niro as mob hitman Frank Sheeran and Al Pacino as Jimmy Hoffa. De Niro has been attached to the project for more than a decade, and Netflix picked up the film in 2017 as part of a larger strategy to buy up prestige-style dramas for its platform. Netflix wants to show that it’s a legitimate player in Hollywood , which has looked at the company warily as it’s worked to upend the film and theater industry. The adaptation has been a passion project for Scorsese. It’s an adaptation of Charles Brandt’s 2004 book I Heard You Paint Houses, which is about the life of Sheeran, a World War II veteran who becomes... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/31/20748476/the-irishman-watch-first-trailer-netflix-martin-scorseses-robert-de-niro

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Students normally get $100 off of Apple’s latest 13-inch MacBook Pro. But even if you’re not a student, you’re in luck. Apple’s latest 13-inch MacBook Pro is currently $1,199, $100 off of its normal $1,299 price, on Amazon. This is the first price drop on the 2019 version, which has the Touch Bar by default as well as a True Tone display that can adjust the screen’s backlight to match the ambient lighting in the room. It also comes standard with an Intel Core i5 quad-core processor, so it’s more powerful than the MacBook Air, in case you were deciding between the two. If you are a student, the parent of a student, or school faculty, I recommend purchasing through Apple instead . You’ll get the same deal, plus Apple is throwing in a set... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/good-deals/2019/7/31/20748454/apple-2019-macbook-pro-deal-discount-amazon-nintendo

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Instagram introduced its Close Friends feature nearly a year ago as a way to give users a space to post less curated content, similar to what had become increasingly popular with secondary “Finstagram” accounts. On this week’s episode of Why’d You Push That Button? , Kaitlyn Tiffany and I want to know how Close Friends is going. Who’s using it? Why are they using it? Is the Finsta in trouble? We chat with a few previous guests and our own close friends to figure out how Close Friends has changed their Instagram experience. We chat with Kaitlyn’s sister, who previously told us about her Finstagram, as well as Verge senior reporter Andy Hawkins, who has told us about his Stories habits . Finally, our producer Andrew Marino comes on the show... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/31/20746912/instagram-close-friends-feature-favorites-launch-product-whyd-you-push-that-button

Photo by Armin Weigel / Getty Images Former Audi CEO Rupert Stadler has been charged by German prosecutors over his alleged role in the Volkswagen Dieselgate scandal, along with three other defendants who were not named. Stadler is accused of helping the automaker cheat emissions tests to make Audi’s cars appear cleaner than they really were as well as covering up that fraud. Stadler is the second high-profile Volkswagen Group executive to be hit with criminal charges in Germany; former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn was charged in April . (Winterkorn was also indicted in the United States in 2018 .) Four top Audi managers were indicted by a grand jury in the United States in January, and two employees are in prison here as well. The European Commission has also accused... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/31/20748427/dieselgate-audi-ex-ceo-germany-charges-investigation-obstruction-rupert-stadler-volkswagon-group

DJI is making a fairly bold move into the world of first-person view (FPV) and racing drones with a new equipment kit announced today. The kit is mainly comprised of new FPV goggles and a small, high-definition camera and “air unit” (or transmitter) that can be attached to pretty much whatever you like. DJI’s promise for the new kit is the ability to basically “FPV anything,” from racing drones to remote-controlled cars or boats. The focus is obviously on the drones, though, and what DJI is selling here could offer big benefits in resolution, frame rate, and flexibility. The company will sell two different versions of the kit starting today. The $819 “FPV Experience” combo doesn’t include a controller, but it comes with the goggles and... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/31/20747609/dji-new-fpv-goggles-camera-drone-racing-filming-hd-high-definition-kit-price

Image: Vizio Vizio is the latest TV maker to launch support for Apple’s AirPlay 2 , which makes it easy to play content from an iOS device or Mac on the larger screen, and HomeKit. HomeKit integration allows people to control the TV using Apple’s Home app or with Siri voice commands. Vizio has started rolling out an update to its SmartCast 3.0 software that includes support for both, but it notes it’s a process that’ll continue through “the coming months” before all compatible sets are updated. Speaking of which, Vizio is far exceeding other TV manufacturers in terms of how many past and present models are eligible for AirPlay 2 and HomeKit. SmartCast TVs dating back to 2016 will receive the two features. Meanwhile, other companies are limiting the... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/31/20748398/vizio-apple-airplay-2-homekit-now-available

Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Verizon has hooked four more cities up to its 5G network . Starting today, customers in Atlanta, Detroit, Indianapolis, and Washington, DC will be able to connect to the company’s next-gen wireless network. The additions mean that Verizon’s 5G network is now available in nine US cities, after previously rolling out in Denver, Providence , St. Paul , Minneapolis, and Chicago . Verizon says its 5G network will be live in more than 30 cities by the end of the year . When we tried the network for ourselves in Chicago we found that it was capable of speeds of up to a gigabit per second . However, its reliance on using mmWave techonology meant that these speeds were concentrated in very specific areas , and coverage inside of buildings was basically... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/31/20748373/verizon-5g-atlanta-detroit-indianapolis-washington-dc-coverage-launch

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Spotify’s podcast audience is experiencing huge growth, the company revealed in its earnings report today . The company reports that its podcast audience has grown by over 50 percent since the last quarter, and that it has almost doubled since the start of the year. The company also saw subscriber numbers grow overall, with its total number of premium subscribers growing by 9 percent to 108 million compared to the last quarter, and monthly active users growing to 232 million, an increase of 7 percent that The Wall Street Journal notes exceeded expectations. The growth in its podcasting business suggests that Spotify’s investment is starting to pay off. Earlier this year the company acquired the podcasting network Gimlet Media as well as... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/31/20748337/spotify-earnings-q2-2019-podcasting-growth-users-subscribers

Photo credit should read DENIS CHARLET/AFP/Getty Images The inventor of the jet-powered “Flyboard Air” hoverboard will try to fly across the English Channel once again this weekend, after his previous attempt ended in failure . The Associated Press reports, via France24 , that Franky Zapata will make the crossing attempt on Sunday, when he will try to make the 20 minute flight from Sangatte in France to St Margaret’s Bay on the south coast of England. Although the route will be the same, Zapata’s team said the refueling station will be different this time around to try and avoid a similar crash to the one that occurred last week. The Flyboard Air only has enough fuel to fly for around 10 minutes at a time, forcing Zapata to stop to refuel halfway across the 20 minute crossing. Last time it was... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/31/20748325/flyboard-air-channel-crossing-second-attempt-bigger-refueling-boat

Illustration by James Bareham / The Verge A few days ago, Facebook disentangled itself from a nettlesome investigation by the Federal Trade Commission into how the company violated users’ privacy. And then, with that matter now squarely behind it, Facebook on Tuesday stepped forward to share some information about its effort to read our minds. Two years after the company announced its mind-reading initiative , Facebook has an update to share. The company sponsored an experiment conducted by researchers at the University of California San Francisco in which they built an interface for decoding spoken dialogue from brain signals. The results were published today in Nature Communication . The work itself is fascinating, as you might expect from the subject matter. Brain-computer... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/interface/2019/7/31/20747916/facebook-brain-computer-interface-policy-neuralink

Even the launch of LG’s first 5G handset wasn’t enough to reverse its fortunes. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Both Sony and LG sold far fewer smartphones last quarter than they did the previous year, according to earnings releases from the two companies. LG reported that sales from its smartphone division declined by 21 percent compared to the same quarter the previous year, while Sony’s dropped by almost 30 percent. LG blames “slow sales of 4G premium models and intense market competition in mass-tier products” which dragged down its results in spite of the launch of its first 5G phone, the LG V50 . Meanwhile, Sony reduced its annual forecast for smartphone sales from 5 million to 4 million units for this year, according to Bloomberg . These declining numbers are especially concerning given the high profile launches we’ve seen from both companies... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/31/20748292/lg-sony-smartphone-sales-q1-q2-2019-g8-v50-xperia-1...

Jaybird is back with another attempt at truly wireless headphones with the Vista, a redesigned model that looks to fix the various issues that held back the company’s Run and Run XT models. The new buds improve on the old ones in nearly every way, including more reliable connectivity, a lighter design, better battery life, and USB-C for charging. Jaybird already released a pair of truly wireless headphones this year in the form of the Run XT , but they were a lightly updated version of the company’s original truly wireless Run model from 2017. They also stuck with the same design and all of the same problems that the first-generation model had. I’ve been using the Vista for about a week as my main headphones, and so far, they have held... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2019/7/31/20747294/jaybird-vista-truly-wireless-headphones-connectivity-good-running-usb-c

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Samsung Electronics has released second-quarter earnings results in line with its prior guidance , which is to say that they are not great. Operating profit fell 56 percent year-on-year to 6.6 trillion won — the lowest since the company had to deal with the fallout from the 2016 Galaxy Note 7 fire risk — while revenue slid 4 percent to 56.13 trillion won. Samsung puts its troubles largely down to weak market conditions for its all-important semiconductor business, despite a slight bump in demand for memory. The situation is expected to improve somewhat in the second half of the year, though Samsung is warning of “external uncertainties,” likely a reference to the implications of various international trade disputes. While revenue was up... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/30/20748162/samsung-q2-2019-earnings-galaxy-s10-sales

LG has announced an updated version of its 27-inch UltraFine 5K Display , the monitor that Apple endorsed as the best option for the current generation of MacBook Pros but which has been unavailable for some months. The new model boosts power delivery to 94 watts and now offers USB-C connectivity as well as Thunderbolt 3. That means it’ll work with the 2018 iPad Pro over USB-C, though it’s not clear what resolution will be supported. Otherwise, the product appears to be basically identical to its predecessor, so our buying advice will likely remain the same. LG’s UltraFine Displays have extremely good panels and excellent native support for macOS features, even including True Tone when hooked up to a compatible laptop. But their... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2019/7/30/20748047/lg-ultrafine-5k-display-apple-new-model

Jessica Bowman helps address some of the common questions that an otherwise well-versed marketing technology leader might have about enterprise SEO. Please visit Marketing Land for the full article. Via Marketing Land - Internet Marketing News, Strategies & Tips https://ift.tt/2uxGgu1

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 and Galaxy Watch Active 2 have been all but outed by Samsung in a brief YouTube clip, via SamMobile . The clip stops just shy of mentioning the devices’ full names, but at the very least, we have confirmation that the Galaxy Watch Active 2 exists and that the Galaxy Tab S6 will have a notch on its back that an S Pen stylus can attach to magnetically. The Galaxy Watch Active 2 looks to have a glass watchface that extends out to the edge, giving your finger plenty of space to use its rumored touch-sensitive bezel . This teaser shows the watch’s heart rate sensor flickering, possibly hinting at its EKG capability . However, this feature supposedly won’t be ready until 2020, according to a report from Wareable . S... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/30/20746943/samsung-galaxy-watch-active-2-tab-s6-launch-note-10-teaser-youtube

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Just over a year after its official launch , the Data Transfer Project is announcing a new set of partners and features . Today, Apple announced that it will be joining the project, developing interoperable systems to bring data in and out of iCloud. A number of alternative social networks have also joined the project, with Tim Berners-Lee’s Solid project enabling the import and export of contacts, and Mastodon allowing for the import and export of posts. An open-source project aimed at making it easier to transfer data from one service to another, the Data Transfer Project has mostly consisted of back-end coding to make data export tools like Google Takeout and Facebook’s Access Your Information tool compatible with each other. Right now,... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/30/20746868/apple-data-transfer-project-google-microsoft-twitter

Russian hackers targeted US elections in 2016. They spread misinformation across social media platforms and attempted to infiltrate voting machines. Last week, Special Counsel Robert Mueller warned Congress that 2016 “wasn’t a single attempt” and that foreign actors continue to threaten the democratic process “as we sit here.” He wasn’t the first to give that warning. This spring, FBI director Chris Wray said that protecting the 2018 midterm elections from foreign interference was just a “dress rehearsal for the big show” in 2020. Earlier this year, the director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, gave a similar warning : “Despite growing awareness of cyber threats and improving cyber defenses, nearly all information, communication... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/30/20747088/congress-election-security-mitch-mcconnell-cybersecurity-paper-ballots

Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images New York Attorney General Letitia James announced today that her office plans to investigate the Capital One data breach that impacted more than 100 million people in the US and Canada. “[We] will work to ensure that New Yorkers who were victims of this breach are provided relief,” James said in a statement. “We cannot allow hacks of this nature to become every day occurrences.” The breach, allegedly carried out by a former Amazon Web Services engineer, compromised names, addresses, phone numbers, emails, dates of birth, and self-reported incomes. Capital One’s press release also claims that 140,000 US Social Security numbers, 80,000 bank account numbers, and 1 million Canadian social insurance numbers were also compromised. This data... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/30/20747003/new-york-attorney-general-capital-one-data-breach-investigation

Early adopters of Peloton’s fitness bikes are in for a pricey upgrade: this week, the company announced via an email to users that it will stop sending updates to bikes using the first generation of its touchscreen monitor. This model was sold in 2014 when Peloton first launched its bike before releasing a second iteration in 2016 that allows users to cast their screen to a smart TV. Peloton says users with the first-generation screen on their bikes will still be able to ride and access live stream and on-demand content as usual, but they will stop receiving support for new features. The company confirmed to The Verge that it will continue to support bug fixes, however. In the past few months, lag and performance issues had been a... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/30/20746919/peloton-first-generation-bike-monitor-screen-stop-updates

It’s a better 360 camera, but it still doesn’t give me a reason to need a 360 camera Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/30/20732263/insta360-one-x-review-360-camera-video-price-specs-features

Following tests that show email address misclassified as “undeliverable”, 250ok Validation seeks to help marketers reach engaged consumers. Please visit Marketing Land for the full article. Via Marketing Land - Internet Marketing News, Strategies & Tips https://ift.tt/2uxGgu1

The next Super Smash Bros. Ultimate fighter is coming sooner than you think: Nintendo has revealed that Dragon Quest XI’ s hero, the second of five DLC characters, will be available later today. The DQ hero follows the addition of Persona 5 ’s Joker to the growing roster of characters. The new combatant will naturally feature a number of attacks and spells familiar to longtime Dragon Quest fans, as well as multiple forms spanning heroes from the series’ long history. In addition to the fighter, a new DQ -themed stage, based on the mythical Yggdrasil’s Altar, will be available. You can either buy the character on its own or as part of a multi-fighter pack. For more on how the fighter works, be sure to check out this in-depth rundown from S... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/30/20746907/super-smash-bros-ultimate-dragon-quest-11-hero-release-date-nintendo-switch

Big Alcohol is pouring billions into the drinkable marijuana market. But is that how anybody wants to get high? Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/30/18639829/weed-beer-drinkable-marijuana-cannabis-drinks-alcohol

Photo: Epic Games Fresh off a $3 million first-place finish at the inaugural Fortnite World Cup Finals , 16-year-old Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf stopped by The Tonight Show to talk about his win with Jimmy Fallon. Despite his newfound fame, the teenager comes off as charming and humble, taking Fallon through his daily routine of Fortnite practice. Bugha also reveals the origins of his handle — it was a childhood nickname from his grandfather — and Fallon gets a chance to confirm that the Battle Bus trophy is, indeed, quite heavy. Of course, it’s fairly normal for athletes to celebrate major wins on the talk show circuit — last year, Alexander Ovechkin and Braden Holtby stopped by The Tonight Show with the Stanley Cup, for instance — but it’s still relatively... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/30/20746864/fortnite-world-cup-champion-bugha-jimmy-fallon-tonight-show

Photo by Leigh Vogel for The Verge Snapstreaks, YouTube autoplay, and endless scrolling are all coming under fire from a new bill, which is sponsored by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), targeting the tech industry’s “addictive” design. Hawley’s Social Media Addiction Reduction Technology Act , or the SMART Act, would ban these features that work to keep users on platforms longer, along with others, like Snapstreaks, that incentivize the continued use of these products. If approved, the Federal Trade Commission and Health and Human Services could create similar rules that would expire after three years unless Congress codified them into law. “Big tech has embraced a business model of addiction,” Hawley said. “Too much of the ‘innovation’ in this space is designed not to create... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/30/20746878/josh-hawley-dark-patterns-platform-design-autoplay-youtube-videos-scrolling-snapstreaks-illegal

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Google security researchers have discovered a total of six vulnerabilities in Apple’s iOS software, one of which the iPhone manufacturer has yet to successfully patch. ZDNet reports that the flaws were discovered by two Google Project Zero researchers, Natalie Silvanovich and Samuel Groß, and five of them were patched with last week’s iOS 12.4 update , which contained several security fixes. All of the vulnerabilities discovered by the researchers are “interactionless,” meaning they can be run without any interaction from a user, and they exploit a vulnerability in the iMessage client. Four of them (including the as-yet-unpatched vulnerability) rely on an attacker sending a message containing malicious code to an unpatched phone and can... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/30/20746827/apple-ios-security-flaw-imessage-google-project-zero

Image: Waze Google-owned navigation app Waze now lets drivers pick up more than one passenger at a time when using the app’s carpooling feature. VentureBeat notes that Waze now supports picking up a maximum of four passengers, which you can do by tapping the “+” icon after confirming an initial ride. The new feature will allow drivers to make use of high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) 3+ lanes where available. Despite the obvious parallels with Uber’s Pool service, the new feature stops short of turning Waze into a fully-fledged ride-sharing app. When the service was launched nationwide in October last year the company noted that drivers are limited to offering just two trips a day, and the feature is designed around matching you with other people who... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/30/20746774/waze-carpooling-multiple-passengers-hov-3-plus

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge It was, in retrospect, perhaps not the best two weeks to go on vacation. Each time I checked in with the news, there was some startling new collision between Facebook and democracy. There was that $5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission . There was that $100 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission . There was an announcement that the FTC would open an antitrust investigation against the company . (Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes volunteered his help to build the case .) There was an announcement that the Department of Justice would open up an antitrust probe against Facebook, Google, and other large tech platforms . And that was only what happened last Wednesday! (OK, the DOJ thing broke late the day... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/interface/2019/7/30/20746427/facebook-ftc-settlement-congress-privacy-law

Photo by Eric CATARINA/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images Alongside the announcement of its first new album in over a decade , the rock band Tool has said that its catalog will finally be available to stream and to purchase digitally on August 2nd. In an Instagram post first spotted by Pitchfork , the band said its albums would available on “all digital and streaming formats,” which is expected to include the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, and Amazon Prime Music. Until now, Tool has been one of the biggest artists to refuse to sell its music digitally. However, over the years the band’s position has become more and more isolated, as the likes of The Beatles , Metallica , AC/DC , and Led Zeppelin have all caved one by one and allowed their music to be steamed as part of a monthly... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/30/20746735/tool-music-spotify-apple-music-digital-streaming

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Nintendo has now sold 36.87 million Switch consoles after moving 2.13 million units in the April-June quarter, a 13 percent increase year on year. Operating profit for the three-month period was down 10.2 percent year on year to 27.4 billion yen ($252 million), while revenue was up 2.4 percent to 172 billion yen ($1.58 billion). Nintendo has reason to be optimistic about Switch hardware sales over the next few months. August sees the release of a tweaked model with longer battery life, while in September the company is launching the Switch Lite , a significantly cheaper handheld-only version. The $199 Switch Lite will be an important device for Nintendo, because its other entry-level option is essentially dead. The company shipped just... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/30/20746721/nintendo-earnings-q1-2019-switch-sales

Sony’s PlayStation 4 console has been a huge hit for the company, and it has now hit the 100 million sales milestone. Sony revealed in its latest earnings that the company sold 3.2 million PS4 devices in the quarter ended June 30th, meaning exactly 100 million have now been sold in total. Sony was previously sitting at 96.8 million PlayStation 4 consoles after the previous quarter. While sales of the PS4 might be slowing down , it’s still the fastest home game consoles to reach 100 million unit sales, according to Daniel Ahmad, Senior Analyst at Niko Partners. That’s faster than both the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo’s popular Wii console. The PlayStation 4 reached this milestone after just 5 years and 7 months, and less than 3 years after p... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/30/20746712/sony-playstation-4-sales-100-million-milestone

Taiwanese chip manufacturer MediaTek has announced its latest flagship processors, the Helio G90 and G90T. The chips include an octa-core CPU clocked at up to 2.05GHz, which uses the same ARM Cortex-A76 and A55 cores as the latest flagship processors from Qualcomm and Huawei. MediaTek’s chip also includes a Mali G76 GPU with speeds of up to 800MHz and support for up to 10GB of LPDDR4x RAM. The G90 and G90T are the first SoCs (system on a chip) in MediaTek’s gaming-focused G-Series lineup. They include what the company calls its “HyperEngine” technology, which consists of several features that are designed to boost the performance of smartphone games. The chips support HDR10, and they also have an intelligent network prediction engine... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/30/20732061/mediatek-helio-g90-g90t-mobile-chip-cpu-gpu-specs-features

Banking institution Capital One has just revealed that it’s suffered a data breach that exposed the names, addresses, phone numbers, emails, dates of birth, and self-reported incomes of approximately 100 million Americans, and 6 million in Canada, due to a “configuration vulnerability” in the servers of an unnamed cloud computing company hosting the bank’s data. ( Equifax, hold my beer .) The hacker is already in custody, according to the US Justice Department : 33-year-old Paige Thompson, aka Erratic, who The Wall Street Journal reports is a former Amazon Web Services engineer. But according to the complaint, the hacker may have shared some of the info on a private Slack chat server before being caught. Capital One’s press release claims... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/29/20746493/massive-capital-one-breach-exposes-personal-info-of-100-million-americans

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge The Nintendo Switch can now run Android , giving the hybrid game console access to Netflix, YouTube, Spotify, Twitch, a wide array of Android apps, and loads of classic game emulators, of course. Specifically, it’s an unofficial port of LineageOS 15.1 based on Nvidia’s own builds for the Nvidia Shield TV set-top-box, meaning you can play Nvidia exclusives like Portal , Half-Life 2 , and try Nvidia’s own GeForce Now cloud gaming service . That’s right: six years after Nvidia tried to ape Nintendo by releasing a handheld Android game console , you can now load Android onto Nintendo’s own Nvidia-based portable. We’re coming full circle. Not everything works flawlessly, according to XDA-developers , whose members contributed to the port and whose... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2019/7/29/20746304/android-nintendo-switch-nvidia-shield

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge We’re still a few months away from Apple announcing its 2019 iPhones, but rumors have already started for next year’s models, with the ever-reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claiming in his latest report that two of the 2020 iPhones will feature a rear time-of-flight (ToF) 3D depth sensor for better augmented reality features and portrait shots, via MacRumors . It’s not the first we’ve heard of Apple considering a ToF camera for its 2020 phones, either. Bloomberg reported a similar rumor back in January, and reports of a 3D camera system for the iPhone have existed since 2017 . Other companies have beaten Apple to the punch here, with several phones on the market already featuring ToF cameras. But given the prevalence of Apple’s... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2019/7/29/20734550/apple-2020-iphone-time-of-flight-camera-ar-depth-map-lasers-portrait-photography

Photo: Film Frame / Marvel Studios Disney has made more money in the first seven months of 2019 than any studio has ever made in a single year, earning $7.67 billion to date at the worldwide box office . It’s an understatement to call that a major accomplishment for the House of Mouse. It’s more like a testimony to how powerful Disney has become as a monolith. But it’s an achievement that inevitably won’t roll over into 2020. 2019 is an anomaly for Disney. A big part of that impressive number comes from the record-breaking success of Avengers: Endgame , which pulled in more than $2.8 billion worldwide and usurped Avatar as the highest-grossing movie of all time. Captain Marvel was another unusually high earner, the sixth-highest-grossing Marvel movie of all time, crossing... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/29/20734621/disney-record-breaking-2019-box-office-avengers-endgame-lion-king-aladdin-avatar

Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images for BuzzFeed Today, Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” made Billboard chart history, becoming the longest-running No. 1 hit since the chart began in 1958 — beating out Mariah Carey, whose collaboration with Boyz II Men, “One Sweet Day,” had previously held the record. (“Old Town Road” has spent nearly four months at number one.) Twitter also posted a video on its music account , Twitter Music, starring the young rapper and meme impresario, in which he grabs Jack Dorsey’s badge and becomes CEO for the day. His first act? Firing @Jack. His second? Demanding an edit button, and then firing a roomful of engineers when they didn’t begin typing fast enough. The two-minute clip was fun, and funny; honestly, seeing someone ask Twitter for something that users have... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2019/7/29/8938008/lil-nas-x-twitter-ceo-for-a-day-edit-button-old-town-road

Denise Truscello/WireImage After months of vlogs, Instagram Stories, and intense build up, YouTube stars Jake Paul and Tana Mongeau brought their closest friends, families, hundreds of strangers, thousands of online viewers, and a full MTV camera crew to Las Vegas on Sunday to watch the two controversial creators “get married.” The result is a troubling but inevitable forecast of what’s next for YouTube’s biggest personalities and the platform as a whole. Their wedding was arguably the influencer event of the year, but set against the backdrop that it was all orchestrated for Mongeau’s MTV series, Tana Turns 21 . There’s no proof the duo have legally wed, or evidence they’ll stay together beyond the lifetime of the schtick. Even Logan Paul, Jake’s older brother... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/29/8934858/jake-paul-tana-mongeau-wedding-mtv-reality-house-youtube

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