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Photo by Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images Amazon, Target, and Apple all made modifications to their business operations over the weekend in light of demonstrations in cities across the US, Bloomberg reported . Apple kept many of its retail stores closed on Sunday, including some that had just reopened after weeks of being shuttered due to the pandemic. Target closed 32 of its stores in the Minneapolis area and said Sunday it would temporarily close several more across the country. Amazon told Bloomberg that it had scaled back and adjusted routes “in a handful of cities” to ensure workers’ safety. Drivers in Chicago and Los Angeles received messages Saturday instructing them to stop delivering packages and return home, according to Bloomberg . Minneapolis has been the site of... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/31/21276344/apple-amazon-operations-demonstrations-floyd

Royal Palace Renesse/Instagram A restaurant in the Netherlands has introduced new robot waiters as a way to reduce human-to-human contact in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. The red-and-white robots (which are giving me serious Rosey the robot vibes) will greet customers, serve food and pick up used dishes from diners’ tables at the Royal Palace restaurant in the town of Renesse, according to the Associated Press . The as-yet-unnamed robots say “hello and welcome,” in and they wear little scarves (to seem less creepy? idk). “They help us with the work we do,” says Leah Hu, whose family owns the Royal Palace. “We are often busy and cleaning tables and the robots give us an extra hand. We are not disappearing. We are still here. They will always need people in... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/31/21276318/restaurant-netherlands-robot-waiters-social-distancing-pandemic

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube says it will donate $1 million to the Center for Policing Equity, to demonstrate “solidarity against racism and violence.” The Alphabet-owned video platform tweeted that it was pledging the funds “in support of efforts to address social injustice.” The company did not specifically reference the demonstrations in cities across the US over the weekend protesting the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Authorities charged fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s death, after a video showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck as other officers looked on. The Center for Policing Equity is a nonprofit research think tank made up of research scientists and race... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/31/21276260/youtube-1-million-equity-policing

Eric Espada/Getty Images Jake Paul is denying that he took part in looting captured on video at an Arizona mall after backlash about his appearance sprung up online. In multiple videos posted to Instagram and Twitter , Paul and members of his crew are seen outside and inside an Arizona mall where looting is taking place. It remained unclear from the videos whether Paul and his team were actively involved in any looting, but commenters on social media, including prominent members of the YouTube community, criticized Paul for his appearance at the scene regardless. Paul’s new statement claims that “neither I, nor anyone in our group, was engaged in any looting or vandalism.” “We filmed everything we saw in an effort to share our experience and bring more... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/31/21276125/jake-paul-arizona-statement-looting-filming-instagram-twitter-protests-backlash

Photo by David McNew/Getty Images “US cities face toll of violent protests,” says a headline at the top of Fox News . “Fury in the streets as protests spread across the US,” says The New York Times . “Fire and fury spread across the US,” says The Washington Post . “Wave of rage and anguish sweeps dozens of US cities,” says CNN. But whose rage? Whose fury? Whose violence? Here’s another: ABC local news in Utah runs a graphic saying “violent protests in Salt Lake City.” In the background of the video, police knock an elderly man with a cane to the ground. He was simply standing near a bus stop. Salt Lake City cops shove down an elderly man with a cane for the crime of standing along the street: pic.twitter.com/PCLkHqQtJg — Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) May 31, 2020 Over the... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/31/21276044/police-violence-protest-george-floyd

Crew Dragon Endeavour approaches the ISS. | Image: NASA / SpaceX This morning, SpaceX’s new Crew Dragon capsule successfully docked with the International Space Station, bringing the company’s first crew to the orbiting outpost. Their arrival marks another major milestone for SpaceX’s first crewed mission of the Crew Dragon, which successfully took off yesterday, May 30th, from Cape Canaveral, Florida . Now, the Crew Dragon’s passengers — NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley — are set to begin an extended stay on board the ISS that could last up to four months. They will join three crew mates already living on board the station: NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner. The Crew Dragon’s docking showcased one of the biggest features of SpaceX’s... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/31/21271269/spacex-docking-iss-crew-dragon-nasa-success

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon says it has removed images with racist language from some listings for headphones on its UK site, The Financial Times reported . Users posted screenshots to Twitter of search results for “AirPods” and “bluetooth headphones” that appeared on the e-commerce site. Instead of photos of headphones, the search results showed images that contained the N-word. The listings seemed to be limited to the UK site, and appeared on the pages of new Amazon sellers, most of whom had few or no customer reviews, the FT reported. As of Sunday morning the images did not appear on Amazon’s UK site. An Amazon spokesperson told Reuters that it was removing the images “and have taken action on the bad actor.” It wasn’t clear who the bad actor is, and... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/31/21276003/amazon-racist-images-headphones-bluetooth-airpods

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images Twitter finally flagged several of Trump’s tweets that violated its policies Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/21275532/trump-twitter-social-media-tweets

On Saturday afternoon, SpaceX launched its first human crew to space for NASA on the company’s new Crew Dragon spacecraft — but the mission isn’t over yet. After spending nearly a full day in orbit, the two passengers on board SpaceX’s vehicle, NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, will attempt to dock with the International Space Station this morning. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon has an automatic docking system, which uses a series of sensors and cameras to help the vehicle approach the ISS and then grab on to an existing docking port. The Crew Dragon successfully tested out this technique last year when SpaceX launched a test version of the vehicle to the ISS without crew on board. But this time, the Crew Dragon will carry very precious... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/31/21270807/spacex-docking-crew-dragon-watch-live-stream-how-to-nasa-iss

Nearly two hours after NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley became the first astronauts launched to space on a privately-owned rocket , they also became the first to pilot a spaceship using only touchscreen controls. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon eschews the famous maze of manual controls and switches found on retired spacecraft like the Space Shuttle or the Apollo command modules. Instead, Crew Dragon pilots have just three large touchscreen panels in front of them and a few spare buttons below. So during the few times that they have to manually control the spacecraft, they do so using a video game-style interface on those screens. Behnken and Hurley got to take that interface for a brief test ride Saturday afternoon when SpaceX had them... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/30/21275753/nasa-spacex-astronauts-fly-crew-dragon-touchscreen-controls

Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley had some company on their historic flight to space today: a stuffed dinosaur tucked into one of the seats on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. The toy was spotted during preparations for launch on Wednesday and Saturday, and geophysicist Mika McKinnon quickly identified it on Twitter as a TY Flippables Tremor Dinosaur. Toys like this have flown with astronauts and cosmonauts for years . When the toy starts floating, it indicates to the buckled-in passengers that they’ve reached zero-g and are experiencing weightlessness. A plush Earth flew on the uncrewed test flight of Crew Dragon to the ISS back in March 2019. Just before launch, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted a picture, calling the plush a... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/30/21272222/spacex-launch-toy-stuffed-animal-dinosaur-zero-g-indicator

Image: SpaceX / NASA After nearly two decades of effort, Elon Musk’s aerospace company, SpaceX, successfully launched its first two people into orbit, ushering in a new age of human spaceflight in the United States. The flight marked the first time astronauts have launched into orbit from American soil in nearly a decade, and SpaceX is now the first company to send passengers to orbit on a privately made vehicle. The two astronauts — veteran NASA fliers Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley — rode into space inside SpaceX’s new automated spacecraft called the Crew Dragon, a capsule designed to take people to and from the International Space Station. Strapped inside the sleek, gumdrop-shaped capsule, the duo lifted off on top of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/30/21269703/spacex-launch-crew-dragon-nasa-orbit-successful

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is laying off dozens of journalists and editorial workers at its Microsoft News and MSN organizations. The layoffs are part of a bigger push by Microsoft to rely on artificial intelligence to pick news and content that’s presented on MSN.com, inside Microsoft’s Edge browser, and in the company’s various Microsoft News apps. Many of the affected workers are part of Microsoft’s SANE (search, ads, News, Edge) division, and are contracted as human editors to help pick stories. “Like all companies, we evaluate our business on a regular basis,” says a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement. “This can result in increased investment in some places and, from time to time, re-deployment in others. These decisions are not the result of the... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/30/21275524/microsoft-news-msn-layoffs-artificial-intelligence-ai-replacements

Bad weather at Cape Canaveral forced SpaceX to postpone its first launch attempt on Wednesday, May 27th. | Photo by Joel Kowsky / NASA With less than 20 minutes to go before SpaceX’s first crewed flight, weather conditions remained miserable, forcing meteorologists at the Air Force’s 45th Weather Squadron to deliver bad news to NASA and SpaceX . “It definitely hurts, especially when we have those hard requirements that when something hits, there’s nothing we can do about it,” Capt. Jason Fontenot, the space lift weather operations flight commander at the 45th Weather Squadron, said during a press call. “And we just kind of have to pass on the information, saying, ‘Even though we’re not at the launch window yet, this is very unlikely that we will see this take off today.’” Military personnel who work at the Squadron in Cape Canaveral, Florida are used to being the ones... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/21275436/spacex-launch-rocket-weather-45th-space-wing-squ...

The Falcon 9 rocket set to carry SpaceX’s Crew Dragon to the ISS. | SpaceX On Saturday, May 30th, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon is set to become the first private spacecraft to carry humans into orbit. The launch, scheduled for 3:22PM ET, will also mark the first time in nearly a decade that NASA astronauts have launched into orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida. For NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, this will be their second attempt at this historic launch. The first launch attempt, on Wednesday, May 27th, was scrubbed due to poor weather conditions less than 17 minutes before launch. They’ll get another chance today. If today’s launch is delayed for any reason, the next launch attempt will be on Sunday, May 31st, at 3PM ET. NASA plans to cover today’s event live, starting at around 11AM ET. If all goes... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/30/21272529/spacex-launch-watch-live-stream-crew-dragon-nasa

Photo by Andrej Sokolow/picture alliance via Getty Images Waymo’s self-driving cars are returning to Bay Area roads for the first time since the company halted its public testing in early March because of the coronavirus outbreak. The Alphabet-owned company plans to return its fleet of autonomous minivans to service starting June 8th, according to an email obtained by The Verge . Waymo’s self-driving cars will be put to use delivering packages for two Bay Area non-profits: illustrator Wendy McNaughton’s #DrawTogether, which provides art kits to Bay Area kids; and Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired . The company is the latest autonomous vehicle operator to discover that doing deliveries allows it to sidestep restrictions that would otherwise require them to keep their autonomous... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/30/21275441/waymo-self-driving-car-delivery-bay-area-resume-covid

Follow along as the astronauts suit up and board the Crew Dragon Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/30/21273591/spacex-launch-live-blog-crew-dragon-news-updates

Putting things in jars is a surprisingly therapeutic activity. | Photo by William Poor / The Verge If you’re anything like us, over the past couple of months you’ve probably finished every “must watch” TV series on Netflix, cleaned your apartment from top to bottom, and completed every video game in your backlog. We get it: social distancing can get pretty boring. So if you’re finding yourself with a lot of time to kill, why not spend it on learning something completely new? With some basic supplies and online resources, it’s possible to learn a lot of cool and sometimes downright useful skills, like knitting, calligraphy, or even taking care of a bicycle. We’re a tech site (obviously) so we’re not claiming to be experts in all of the hobbies we’re recommending below. But what we are good at is locating a lot of very specific and... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/21270393/hobbies-stuck-at-home-bicycle-maintenance-terrarium-knitting-karaoke

Zoom will add stronger encryption to its paid customers’ video calls, but isn’t planning to offer the enhanced security to all accounts, Reuters reported . A security consultant with the company told Reuters that it still wasn’t clear whether some accounts, such as nonprofit users, might qualify for the more secure calls. “Zoom’s approach to end-to-end encryption is very much a work in progress - everything from our draft cryptographic design, which was just published last week, to our continued discussions around which customers it would apply to,” a company spokesperson said in an email to The Verge . The videoconferencing platform has boomed in popularity during the coronavirus pandemic, but has been plagued by myriad security issues .... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/30/21275460/zoom-paying-customers-encryption-security

Normally $80, the Lenovo Smart Clock is 50 percent off | Image: Google Memorial Day deals are a tough act to follow, and we’ve definitely seen the frequency of sales this week slow down a bit. Nevertheless, there are plenty of places where you can save on tech, video games, and more. We’ve put those below, and we’ll be back next week with more deals. If you’ve been thinking about buying a smart display, but you don’t need an abundance of extra features, like YouTube support or a built-in camera, the small Lenovo Smart Clock seen above might be a good choice. Best Buy is offering the Smart Clock for $40 , and this 50 percent discount is the best price that we’ve seen yet. In addition to having Google Assistant voice support and being able to show off your Google Photos catalog, it works with Spotify and other... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/good-deals/2020/5/30/21274578/lenovo-smart-clock-google-assistant-iphone-xr-samsung-galaxy-note-10-deal-sale

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google had been planning to unveil new features coming in Android 11 on June 3rd , but it has decided to delay the unveiling. In a tweet on Friday evening, Android’s developer account said that “We are excited to tell you more about Android 11, but now is not the time to celebrate.” Google says that it will “be back with more on Android 11, soon,” but did not say when that might be. Although Google doesn’t explicitly say why, the reason is very clear. The announcement comes as many American cities are filled with protests, looting, and fires. The response to the death of George Floyd in Minnesota has extended well beyond the conflict in Minneapolis . The Bay area where Google and most of its employees are based has seen major conflicts in... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/30/21275399/google-delays-android-11-beta-announcement-protests-george-floyd

Images:  Ben Geskin / Twitter OnePlus accidentally pushed an over-the-air update that disables a filter that can see through some thin black plastics and, in certain cases, clothes. Though OnePlus said on May 19 that it would temporarily disable the filter in the Chinese version of its operating system in an update, the company hadn’t planned on removing the filter from its global software. Instead, OnePlus said it would update the filter. The recent update removed the filter for people outside of China anyway. The filter, called “Photochrom,” creates an X-Ray-like effect by using the infrared sensors built into the OnePlus 8 Pro to capture light that’s not visible to the human eye. The feature was intended to be used to create interesting-looking photos. But it... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/29/21275171/oneplus-disable-x-ray-filter-ota-update

Facebook will not remove or take any other action on a President Trump post that Twitter removed for “glorifying violence,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Friday . “I know many people are upset that we’ve left the President’s posts up, but our position is that we should enable as much expression as possible unless it will cause imminent risk of specific harms or dangers spelled out in clear policies,” Zuckerberg said. Facebook “looked very closely at the post that discussed the protests in Minnesota,” Zuckerberg said, “to evaluate whether it violated our policies.” Ultimately, the company “decided to leave it up because the National Guard references meant we read it as a warning about state action, and we think people need to know if the... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/facebook/2020/5/29/21274729/facebook-trump-post-shooting-mark-zuckerberg-rationale

As the martech industry continues to grow exponentially, two paradoxical truths remain constant: Massive consolidation in platforms and massive expansion in apps. Please visit Marketing Land for the full article. Via Marketing Land - Internet Marketing News, Strategies & Tips https://ift.tt/2uxGgu1

We will share the results and plan to continue to track this Event Participation Index so that others in the events space, like us, are better equipped to make decisions. Please visit Marketing Land for the full article. Via Marketing Land - Internet Marketing News, Strategies & Tips https://ift.tt/2uxGgu1

Image: Hulu The United States is a difficult country to live in if you believe in anything. Our nation’s institutions fail us frequently and disastrously; our politics favor corporations over people; our cultural discourse is frequently weighted toward the cynical and disingenuous. Faith must be practiced, and a belief in most things — social justice, an equitable society, even the American Dream — is rarely rewarded. Religious faith is even harder. Any non-Christian belief is barely recognized or accommodated, and even if you fall into a form of widely accepted Christianity, its prominence in the culture is rarely felt from within, eschewed in favor of an endless war against secular culture. America is not a nation of believers, and our pop... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/29/21274504/ramy-hulu-review-season-2-comedy-mahershala-ali

Image: Summer Game Fest Even though E3 , Gamescom , and other summer gaming events have become online-only or outright canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems there’s still going to be a lot of gaming news this summer. Publishers and media have already scheduled many digital events, promising news and announcements, which could help fill the void left by the loss of the big tentpole events. And it seems likely that some of these events will provide early looks at the first Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 games, making them particularly intriguing. To help you keep track of everything that’s planned, we’ve collected every event that we know about in this post. We’ve put together details about each event, when they’re scheduled to happen, and how to watch... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/21254666/gaming-events-summer-game-fest-2020-e3-gamescom-digital-announcements

The pandemic has been a strange time for Kickstarter. Over the past month, the company laid off nearly 40 percent of its workforce as projects on the platform dropped off, causing a “sharp” decline in revenue. But now, only weeks later, Kickstarter says it reached a massive milestone: $5 billion in pledges after 11 years of existence. As the world battles COVID-19, the company says backers’ support for projects hasn’t waned, but it is seeing a smaller number of creators putting their ideas out into the world. I chatted with the company’s CEO, Aziz Hasan, about the company’s future, how it could adjust its business model, and the potential future of crowdfunding. Hasan says he’s committed to the core concept of crowdfunding and the tools... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/29/21272287/kickstarter-aziz-hasan-layoffs-update-pledge-project-crowdfunding

It’s been a while since we’ve heard much about League of Legends: Wild Rift , the mobile and console spinoff of the long-running strategy game. Today, as part of the ongoing Summer Game Fest, Riot gave the best look yet at the game, with a lengthy video presentation that covers everything from characters to gameplay to skins. While the game still doesn’t have a release date — it’s expected to launch sometime this year — Riot says that it’s starting its first early tests soon with an early alpha on Android in Brazil and the Philippines . Riot has said in the past that Wild Rift isn’t a direct port of the original PC version of League of Legends; instead, it’s a tweaked version better suited to these new platforms. That includes the obvious... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/29/21274419/league-of-legends-wild-rift-gameplay-trailer-mobile-console

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google rescinded offers to more than 2,000 contract and temporary workers in an effort to curtail new spending as the pandemic continues to sink ad revenue, according to The New York Times . Ruth Porat, Google’s chief financial officer, said last month that the company would slow the pace of hiring this year “given that we are faced with a global crisis of uncertain depth and duration.” The 2,000 contract positions would have been located across the globe, according to the Times , and they represent a small fraction of Google’s workforce. The company reportedly has more than 130,000 contractors on top of 123,000 employees. Ad spending has slowed significantly because of the pandemic Still, it speaks to the significant hiring slowdown that... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/29/21274500/google-contract-job-workers-coronavirus-ad-revenue-slowdown

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon has suspended thousands of third-party sellers for price gouging during the COVID-19 pandemic, but sellers have found a loophole to avoid detection when raising prices: labeling their products as “collectibles,” even if there’s no conceivable way they could be. Take this Bowflex dumbbell set, which my colleague Casey Newton encountered while browsing Amazon. Before it sold out in mid-March, Amazon had been selling the weights for $279. This week, the only available weights were from 20 sellers who were offering the dumbbells for between $899 and $1,275 (with free shipping). All had listed the item as “collectible.” The automated systems that detect price gouging appear not to monitor products if their condition is listed as... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/21273383/amazon-price-gouging-collectible-loophole-dumbbells-hot-tub

Photo by Evelyn Hockstein for The Washington Post via Getty Images Instacart’s tipping system is getting some new scrutiny from Congress. In a pair of letters today, a group of senators led by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) raised concerns that the service’s tipping system may be unfair or deceptive and called for a regulatory investigation of the practice. One letter sent to Instacart CEO Apoorva Mehta took the service to task for allowing buyers to promise large tips but reduce them to zero after an order is fulfilled. “People are facing unprecedented economic hardship because of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the senators wrote, “and so we hope online delivery companies like yours are taking the necessary steps to protect shoppers and prevent unfair and deceptive practices.” Reached for comment, Instacart... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/29/21274540/instacart-tip-baiting-deceptive-shoppers-ftc-investigation-congress

Venue will attempt to curate fan discussion while an event takes place. | Image: Facebook Facebook’s Venue is a new app that’s designed to make the process of watching live events more social. The digital companion app has been developed by Facebook’s R&D group, the New Product Experimentation (NPE) team. Its first live event will be this Sunday’s NASCAR race. Venue appears to be Facebook’s attempt to dethrone Twitter’s role as the de facto way to chat with others while watching an event live, TechCrunch notes . However, while Twitter allows any of its users to join a conversation, usually by tweeting along using a hashtag, Venue is a much more curated experience. Commentary will mainly come from select expert commentators such as journalists or athletes, while public participation will be concentrated into conversations or... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/29/21274534/facebook-npe-venue-live-sports-nascar-moments-polls-discussion

Sony is officially confirming its next PlayStation 5 event will be held on Thursday, June 4th. The event will begin at 4PM ET / 1PM PT, and Sony is promising “a look at the future of gaming on PlayStation 5.” It will run for “a bit more than an hour,” and feature “a first look at the games you’ll be playing after PlayStation 5 launches this holiday,” according to Jim Ryan , president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment. “The games coming to PS5 represent the best in the industry from innovative studios that span the globe. Studios, both larger and smaller, those newer and those more established, all have been hard at work developing games that will showcase the potential of the hardware,” says Ryan. “This digital showcase will run... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/29/21274339/sony-playstation-5-ps5-event-time-date-games-hardware-design

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Spoiler: you can’t nationalize Twitter Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/29/21273191/trump-twitter-social-media-censorship-executive-order-analysis-bias

Photo by Doug Mills-Pool / Getty Images Twitter limited the reach of a second tweet from President Donald Trump this morning, as the White House and its allies sought to escalate their feud with the social media company. On Friday, Trump called people protesting the death of George Floyd in Minnesota “thugs.” The president continued, “Any difficulty and we will assume control, but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Shortly after the message was posted, Twitter determined that it violated rules involving the glorification of violence and placed a notice on the tweet. In doing so, the tweet is hidden from Trump’s timeline but is accessible once a user clicks a “view” button. Likes, retweets, and replies are all disabled from the tweet in an effort to limit its... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/29/21274493/donald-trump-twitter-feud-blocked-message-social-media-executive-order

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge With its ride-hailing business at rock bottom as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Uber is introducing a new feature aimed at riders who need to take longer rides with multiple destinations. Using the new “Hourly” function, riders can set the amount of time the trip should take, thereby locking in a flat, hourly rate for the duration of the ride. Uber has allowed for multiple destinations in one trip since 2017 , but the addition of an hourly rate for these longer, multistop rides is a new approach. Uber seems to be angling for the type of rider who may have once taken public transportation to run multiple errands but now might be avoiding it due to the pandemic. In a statement, Uber’s director of rider operations Niraj Patel also... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/29/21273580/uber-hourly-flate-rate-longer-trips-multiple-stops

If anyone steps inside the circle you’re legally allowed to fight them. | GIF: Google As lockdown measures are eased around the world, it’s more important than ever to observe proper health protocol in public. That means wearing a mask (if you can), washing your hands regularly, and social distancing. This last step can be the trickiest, but Google has released a handy augmented reality tool that makes things a little easier. If you’ve got an Android device, just open up the Chrome browser and go to goo.gle/sodar to launch the tool, named SODAR. There’s no app required, though it won’t work on iOS or older Android devices. Your phone will use augmented reality to map the space around you, superimposing a two-meter radius circle on the view from your camera. Sodar - use WebXR to help visualise social distancing... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/21274383/google-social-distancing-ar-tool-two-meters-six-feet-sodar-measure

Photo by Kim Shiflett / NASA Takeoff is scheduled for 3:22PM ET on May 30th Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/29/21273708/spacex-launch-nasa-commercial-crew-dragon-mission

Give Dad something to make him glad Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/21228615/fathers-day-best-gift-ideas-dads-tech-gadgets-home

Image: Tesla Well, I was going to write about the historic crewed launch and SpaceX, Tesla’s overachieving older sibling, but then the launch got scrubbed . Instead, let’s discuss money. Tesla cut prices on several vehicles earlier this week: the Model S and X now cost $74,990 and $79,990 — respectively — for their base model, a $5,000 drop. The Performance versions of both cars, which are more expensive, have also dropped by $5,000. The Model 3’s cheapest model, the Standard Range Plus Model 3, is now $37,990, a $2,000 decrease. All Model 3s are also now $2,000 cheaper. (The pricing is slightly different for the Model 3s in China, however.) The Model Y, introduced this year, remains unchanged. So did Tesla’s closing stock price the day after the... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/29/21273994/tesla-price-cut-profit-deliveries-demand

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge You can now buy a refurbished iPhone XR from the Apple Store, MacRumors reports . It’s a cheaper way of getting the bestselling phone of last year , and Apple’s refurbishing process means that it should perform almost identically to a brand new model. A 64GB refurbished iPhone XR will set you back $499, a $100 saving over its current $599 asking price, while a refurbished XR with 128GB of storage costs $539, $110 less than the $649 Apple now charges for the phone new. Although the refurbished phone is available in a more limited selection of colors, there’s a wider selection of storage options. The 256GB iPhone XR, which Apple discontinued last year, can be bought refurbished for $629. All refurbished phones come in a new box, complete... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/29/21274343/apple-iphone-xr-refurbished-499-64gb-539-128gb-629-256gb

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office before signing an executive order related to regulating social media on May 28, 2020 in Washington, DC. | Photo by Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images I. Oh boy, there’s an executive order ! About social media! And also the entire internet! And the president signed it, reports Chris Megerian at the Los Angeles Times : The order directs Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to request new regulations from the Federal Communications Commission to determine whether a social media company is acting “in good faith” to moderate content. In theory, that could open the door to users suing social media platforms if they feel their posts are restricted inappropriately. But it could also make the companies more likely to take down false or misleading content rather that just add a disclaimer — the opposite of what Trump wants. “That’s the irony of all this,” said Nathaniel Persily, a Stanford University... Continue reading… source https://www.th...

Twitter’s notice, which says that the tweet broke its rules about glorifying violence. | Screenshot: Twitter Twitter has placed a public interest notice on a tweet from President Trump for breaking the platform’s rules about the “glorification of violence.” However, Twitter has not chosen to remove the tweet from its platform entirely, because it believes it to be in the public interest. Twitter announced the notice in a tweet thread from its official comms account . The notice means that the tweet is hidden from Trump’s timeline, but is accessible if you visit the tweet directly after clicking a “view” button. The reach of the tweet will also be limited as part of the process. Although users can still retweet it with a comment, they cannot reply to it, retweet it directly, or like it. Twitter also says that its notice means that the tweet won’t... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/29/21274323/trump-twitter-glorifying-violence-minneapolis-shooting-lootin...

Photo by Brian Ach/Getty Images for Wired Rony Abovitz, the co-founder and CEO of lavishly funded augmented reality company Magic Leap, will step down from his position, reports Business Insider . Abovitz’s planned departure, which doesn’t yet have a concrete date, marks an unceremonious end to his tenure at the helm of Magic Leap, a once-buzzy startup that earned a high profile for how secretive it was early on about its technology and the eye-popping amounts of venture capital it raised. Magic Leap has so far raised about $3 billion dollars over the last decade, though it has only released one product, the Magic Leap 1 headset . The company raised $350 million of that funding just earlier this month , after laying off about 1,000 employees back in April and ditching its consumer... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/28/21274070/magic-leap-ceo-rony-abovitz-stepping-down-replacement-ar-vr-mixed-reality

Image: Paramount Pictures A sequel to the Sonic the Hedgehog movie is in development, as first reported by Variety . It’s unclear when the film might be released, but Sonic the Hedgehog director Jeff Fowler and screenwriters Pat Casey and Josh Miller are all returning for the sequel. Fowler confirmed that he’ll be back to direct on Twitter . ROUND TWO WITH THE BLUE!! https://t.co/YTabuZy08C — Jeff Fowler (@fowltown) May 28, 2020 Sonic the Hedgehog was a hit for Paramount, earning $70 million in its first four days in theaters this February, according to Variety . However, the film initially had some controversy because of the design of its titular character. The first design for Sonic’s movie representation was strangely (horrifyingly) humanlike . The backlash... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/28/21274020/sonic-the-hedgehog-movie-sequel-in-development-jeff-fowler