Новости за 16.03.2021

Photo: Activision Blizzard

Activision Blizzard on Tuesday said it was laying off about 50 people across various divisions dealing predominantly with live events and esports as part of a restructuring. The company cites the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on both the viability of live productions for its esports leagues and the changing viewership habits of its core audience over the past year.

Photo by David Lee / Riot Games / Riot Games Inc. via Getty Images

Riot Games is closing an investigation into whether CEO Nicolo Laurent harassed or discriminated against former employee Sharon O’Donnell, saying it found “no evidence” of the claim. “After review of the results of the investigation,” Riot said in a statement, “there is no evidence that Nicolo harassed, discriminated, or retaliated against Ms. O’Donnell. The Special Committee has also expressed its full confidence in Nicolo’s leadership... Читать дальше...

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge

Teenage Twitter hacker Graham Ivan Clark has pleaded guilty to last summer’s unprecedented bitcoin scam attack that involved the takeover of dozens of high-profile accounts on the social network, according to paperwork filed in Florida court on Tuesday. Clark, who was 17 when accused of leading the scam, will spend three years in prison as part of his plea deal. The Tampa Bay Times reported the news earlier today.

Photo by Altan Gocher / DeFodi Images via Getty Images

The Wikimedia Foundation is creating a new paid service for companies that draw on Wikipedia data. The foundation announced the news today via an article in Wired, and it’s planning to launch later in 2021. Wikimedia Enterprise, as it’s called, won’t change how current Wikipedia services work. Instead, it will offer new options for companies that use its content, a category including giants like Google and Facebook.

A deposit of sediments, called a delta, captured by NASA’s Perseverance rover on March 5th at the Jezero Crater. | Image: NASA / JPL

Vast amounts of ancient Martian water may have been buried beneath its surface instead of escaping into space, scientists report in the journal Science. The findings, published Tuesday, may help untangle a clash of theories seeking to explain the disappearance of Mars’ water, a resource that was abundant on the planet’s surface billions of years ago.

Tugboats guide a container ship of Maersk Line at the Yangshan Deepwater Port, operated by Shanghai International Port. | Photo by Ji Haixin / VCG via Getty Images

Pressure from some of their biggest customers is pushing companies like global shipping giant Maersk to pollute less when they transport goods. It’s a sign that individual companies’ commitments to tackling climate change can influence others along the entire supply chain.

Image: Xbox

Xbox is announcing the next round of games coming to Game Pass, and it’s a pretty stacked deck with games like Undertale and Octopath Traveler, both of which are coming to Xbox for the first time.

Photo by Curtis Waltz

The chairman of Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn says the electronics giant is considering making electric vehicles at its mostly empty worksite in Wisconsin, where the company originally planned to make LCD panels. Either that, or Foxconn may make EVs in Mexico. The decision will be made by July 1st, chairman Young Liu said at a press conference Tuesday.

Image: Nintendo

Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ already robust design tools are getting some improvements with a free update hitting March 18th. One new addition is a big upgrade to the NookPhone’s design app that will let you customize umbrellas, small flags, uchiwa fans, and photo stands.

Photo by Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

For years, the broadband debate has centered around connecting people living in rural and unserved areas across the country. But while some rural Americans don’t have the infrastructure necessary to connect to the internet, other families in urban communities face difficulties affording what’s already available. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) is set to introduce a new measure Tuesday that could help millions of households access more affordable broadband. Читать дальше...

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge

Atlassian CEO Scott Farquhar on the challenges of governing online companies

Corsair

Corsair is the latest company to introduce a 60-percent wired mechanical keyboard of its own, lopping off the arrow keys and other functions for a more compact design. The K65 RGB Mini costs $110 and has a design that is about as subtle as Corsair has ever produced. It connects via its included, detachable USB-C-to-USB-A braided cable to your PC, macOS computer, or Xbox One. This keyboard joins the ranks of Razer’s $120 Huntsman Mini, HyperX’s $100 Alloy Origins 60, and Ducky’s One 2 Mini, among others. Читать дальше...

AMD

AMD has announced its new Ryzen Pro 5000 series mobile processors, its competitor to Intel’s vPro platform. The company claims the chips, based on the same Zen 3 architecture as most of its consumer-focused Ryzen 5000 series, will provide “uncompromised performance and battery life” for thin-and-light business laptops. They’ll appear in a slate of business notebooks including Elitebooks, ProBooks, ThinkPads, and ThinkBooks throughout this year.

Google’s new Nest Hub looks very similar to the prior model, but adds advanced sleep tracking features. | Photo: Google

Google has announced a new version of its Nest Hub smart display. The updated Nest Hub includes several enhancements over the model that debuted as the Home Hub in 2018, including a refined design, faster processor, and louder speaker. But the most significant upgrade is found in its ability to measure your sleep without requiring you to wear anything. The new Nest Hub is $99.99... Читать дальше...

Photo by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images

Dropbox is adding a new feature on top of its usual offerings of storage and file sharing for free Basic accounts. Dropbox Passwords, the password management feature the company introduced for paying customers in 2020, will be free for Dropbox Basic accounts in April — with a new, arbitrary limit of 50 passwords that makes it seem suspiciously like a way to upsell you on a paid Dropbox account.

Photo courtesy of Katie Moussouris | Photo illustration by William Joel / The Verge

After a bruising lawsuit with Microsoft, Katie Moussouris is fighting for fair pay

The challenge of documenting a virtual world

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Adults are now unable to message teenage users that don’t follow them. | Image: Instagram

Instagram is introducing new policies limiting interactions between teenagers and adults to make its platform safer for young users. The app has banned adults from direct messaging teenagers who don’t follow them and is introducing “safety prompts” that will be shown to teens when they DM adults who have been “exhibiting potentially suspicious behavior.”

“What’s a computer?”

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Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge

Nvidia made a big deal about reducing the hash rate of Ethereum mining on its new RTX 3060 graphics card last month. A special system was supposed to make the RTX 3060 undesirable for cryptominers, but Nvidia has now confirmed that it has accidentally unlocked those restrictions with a new driver.

Dark Patterns put obstacles between the user and what they want to achieve.

If you’ve ever struggled through a maze of online customer service to cancel a subscription or delete an account, you’ve likely encountered “dark patterns” — user interfaces that are designed to trick and frustrate users. The concept was coined in 2010 but is slowly being addressed in US legislation, with California this week announcing that it is banning the use of dark patterns that stop users from opting out of the sale of their personal data. Читать дальше...

Image by Alex Castro / The Verge

Microsoft is fixing the issue where trying to use certain printers would freak out your Windows 10 computer and cause it to blue screen. If you (or your IT department) have been dealing with the issue, today’s update should let you get back to printing.

A Jewish GitHub employee who was fired for warning co-workers in Slack to stay safe from Nazis during the January 6th attack on the US Capitol has declined to take his job back after an offer from the company, GitHub told TechCrunch.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

NFTs are seemingly everywhere — and now they're all right here

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Not everyone takes advantage of the “switch” aspect of the Nintendo Switch, and for them, the smaller, easier-to-carry Switch Lite is a worthwhile alternative. A few retailers are now tossing in a free $20 gift card when you purchase Nintendo’s more compact handheld.