Новости за 04.08.2021

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

On Wednesday, a surreal TikTok ad from an advertiser posing as Amazon confused users into thinking the e-commerce giant was taking a stab at including absurdist internet humor into its online marketing strategy.

Photo by Clive Gee - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images

People will no longer be able to play the digital version of The New York Times daily crossword puzzle in third-party apps, according to an announcement made by the Times on Monday. Starting August 10th, the crossword will be available digitally only via the NYT site or on its own crossword app. Downloadable PDFs, in addition to the physical newspaper, will still be available for people who want to print and play.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Peloton owners will again be able to use their treadmills without a subscription to the Peloton All-Access Membership, according to the company. In June, Peloton released a software update that required its treadmills to be secured with a passcode, a feature the company said was only available to paying subscribers due to “technical limitations.” At the time, Peloton promised that another software update was coming that would enable the feature for everyone... Читать дальше...

Facebook Reality Labs

Facebook Reality Labs wants to help people see your eyes while you’re in virtual reality — even if the results sit somewhere between mildly unsettling and nightmarish. Earlier this week, FRL released a paper on “reverse passthrough VR,” a recipe for making VR headsets less physically isolating. Researchers devised a method for translating your face onto the front of a headset, although they emphasize it’s still firmly experimental.

Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for HBO

The HBO Max team wants its app to not just be the place people find big movie premieres but podcasts, too. The company announced today that it’s planning to release its new Batman podcast, Batman: The Audio Adventures, as an in-app exclusive, meaning it won’t make its way to other podcasting apps or be available through an RSS feed. The scripted show, which features Jeffrey Wright as Batman and Rosario Dawson as Batwoman, will premiere this fall, although no exact date was provided. Читать дальше...

Photo: Sundar Pichai / Twitter

Google’s Pixel 6 is shaping up to be the company’s most ambitious smartphone in years, largely due to the new, custom-designed Tensor processor, which aims to catapult Google to the forefront of the smartphone market with the power of Google’s years of machine learning experience. And Google needs it: despite the popularity of Pixels in tech circles, its phones just aren’t popular sellers in the US, barely moving the needle compared to juggernauts like Samsung... Читать дальше...

Disney has been teasing its upcoming Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser hotel for years now, promising an almost Westworld-style immersive experience (complete with “real” lightsaber props) that will expand its Galaxy’s Edge theme park into a full-fledged two-day interactive Star Wars adventure. You’ll sleep in a Star Wars-themed room, eat and drink Star Wars-inspired fare, and be surrounded by actors guiding you through your own Star Wars vacation.

Sony’s original PSVR.

More and more details for Sony’s planned next-generation PlayStation virtual reality headset appear to be popping up. According to YouTube channel PSVR Without Parole with further corroboration from UploadVR, Sony held a developer summit on Tuesday where it detailed new information about the controllers and game development strategy for the sequel to the PSVR, and seemed to confirm some features that have already been reported.

The University of Alabama will be the first school to exclusively issue mobile student IDs this fall. | ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

Apple Wallet has supported contactless student IDs since 2018, with three US universities supporting the feature at launch. The program has been gradually expanding ever since. Yesterday, the company announced that its virtual IDs will finally arrive in Canada this fall. An unspecified number of additional US universities will adopt it for the first time as well. Читать дальше...

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks at a press conference urging the inclusion of the Civilian Climate Corps., a climate jobs program, in the budget reconciliation bill, outside of the U.S. Capitol on July 20, 2021 in Washington, DC. Ocasio-Cortez was joined by (L-R) Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO), Joe Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and climate activists. | Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

If Democrats and progressives have their way... Читать дальше...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Some Facebook users stymied by the company’s seemingly impenetrable support channels have turned to an interesting — and expensive — loophole to get access to their locked accounts: buying an Oculus Quest headset, as reported by NPR. But it doesn’t appear to be a reliable way to get access, as many reports online indicate that the solution didn’t work out for them.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The 2021 New York International Auto Show has been canceled as the delta variant of COVID-19 continues to spread throughout the United States. The show was supposed to run from August 20th to August 29th at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

If you’ve ever hit “Send” on a Gmail email and regretted it ten seconds later, you’ll know how handy — even necessary — a delayed send function can be. It could be the sudden realization that you accidentally hit “Reply all,” or a feeling that you may have sent it to the wrong contact, or that there is a misspelling somewhere in there — or, perhaps worst of all, the knowledge that you just sent off an angry missive that you probably shouldn’t have. Читать дальше...

Employees at Code for America (CFA) announced today they are unionizing with the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 1010. Organizers say 62 people have signed authorization cards, meaning 77 percent of eligible employees have indicated their support for the effort.

Ghost of Tsushima: Legends’ new Rivals mode. | Image: Sony

Ghost of Tsushima’s multiplayer mode, Legends, is getting some new free content and a standalone release, Sony and developer Sucker Punch announced Wednesday. The standalone release will be available on September 3rd for $19.99 / €19.99 / £15.99 on both PS4 and PS5.

Aerial view of rescue team using inflatable rafts evacuate residents from flooded area after heavy downpour, on July 26, 2021 in Weihui, Xinjiang City, Henan Province of China. | Photo by Cui Nan/China News Service via Getty Images

Flooding poses a grave risk to tens of millions more people than researchers previously estimated. Up to 86 million more people lived in flood-prone areas around the world in 2015 compared to 2000, according to a new study published today in the journal Nature. Читать дальше...

Oppo

Oppo has announced the latest iteration of its under-screen camera technology, claiming it allows for a selfie camera to be placed under the display “without compromising the integrity of the screen.” Unlike earlier approaches that reduce pixel density in the portion of the screen that covers the camera in order to let more light pass through, Oppo is using smaller pixels to maintain the same 400-ppi sharpness as the rest of the OLED panel.

Street Fighter’s Cammy and Guile in Fortnite. | Image: Epic Games

Epic Games is adding two more Street Fighter icons to Fortnite. Playable Chun-Li and Ryu skins were added to the game in February, but soon, Guile and Cammy skins will make their debut in the game’s item shop. You’ll be able to buy them starting August 7th at 8PM ET.

Apple’s new Apple Store layout. | Image: Apple

The Apple Store was mysteriously down on Tuesday for just about an hour, but it has emerged from the downtime with a brand new look and a dedicated tab on Apple’s top-level navigation.

T-Mobile has wasted no time consolidating Sprint’s network and spectrum with its own. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

As reported by Light Reading and confirmed to The Verge, T-Mobile has committed to a June 30, 2022 shutdown date for Sprint’s LTE network. It’s an expected move as T-Mobile continues to absorb Sprint’s network and customers into its own base, and comes six months after its contentious planned January 1, 2022 shutdown of Sprint’s 3G CDMA network.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images

AT&T announced earlier this year that it would spin its video properties DirecTV, AT&T TV, and U-verse into a new company it would co-manage with private equity firm TPG Capital. That transaction is finally complete, and the services will now operate as a single company under the name DirecTV.

Photo by Joey Roulette / The Verge

SpaceX’s Starlink mobile app got a refreshing upgrade this week that makes it easier to find clear patches of sky and monitor connection outages — and adds a new dark mode for its user interface. The app improvements came out yesterday as SpaceX reported 90,000 active users in its open “better than nothing” beta phase, which spans rural regions across 12 different countries so far.

An image from Google’s online store that shows off a new Nest Cam and Nest Doorbell. | Image: Google

Google has apparently leaked some unannounced Nest security cameras right on its own online store (thanks for the tip, Eric!). Google confirmed in January that it would be releasing a new lineup of security cameras this year, and it seems like the company’s store may have just revealed what’s on the way.

HBO Max is offering free content to potential users. | Image: HBO Max

HBO Max is offering free episodes to potential new subscribers in-app and free of charge so they can take its more popular series for a test drive before committing to yet another streaming service.

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge

Sony released its first PS5 software beta last Thursday, and with it came the much-anticipated support for adding an M.2 SSD, letting you install more PS5 games than the fairly restrictive 825GB built-in SSD allows. Alongside the beta, Sony provided a list of requirements, making it clear that you wouldn’t necessarily be able to just grab any SSD and chuck it in your PS5.