Новости за 08.09.2021

The James Webb Space Telescope, humanity’s next big space-bound eye on the cosmos, has a new launch date of December 18th, NASA announced on Wednesday. It’s the latest among dozens of other delays for a telescope that was originally planned to go to space as early as 2007.

Fitness company Whoop has a new tracker that squishes five LEDs, four photodiodes, a pulse oximeter, skin temperature sensor, and more into a package that is 33 percent smaller than its predecessor — all while still offering five days of battery life. But a particular change to the tracker’s battery chemistry is one of the biggest reasons Whoop was able to do all this in the first place.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase seems to have some issues with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over a planned feature that lets people lend cryptocurrency through its platform. In a Medium post on Tuesday, Coinbase’s chief legal officer wrote that the regulatory agency threatened to sue the company if it launched the feature. Coinbase’s CEO posted a Twitter thread on Tuesday evening saying that the SEC wasn’t clear about what it wanted. Читать дальше...

Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge

Google is releasing what it says is the fifth and final version of the Android 12 beta, adding that the official release of the full Android 12 operating system is “just a few weeks away.” The new beta release will also be the first one that Pixel 5A owners will be able to install.

Twitter

Twitter is launching Communities, its rival to Facebook Groups and Reddit, for tweeting with others who share specific interests.

A screenshot from The Playroom. | Image: Firesprite

Sony announced that it will acquire UK-based studio Firesprite, the developers of The Playroom and The Playroom VR. It’s unclear what Firesprite might be working on in its new first-party capacity, but executives are already hyping what’s to come. “Firesprite’s ability to weave best-in-class gameplay with new technology is exceptional and I think fans will be excited about their creative vision for the future,” Hermen Hulst, the head of PlayStation Studios, said in a press release. Читать дальше...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Apple, like many tech companies, has an intimidating employment agreement that it makes employees sign to protect its trade secrets. Though the agreement is in place to prevent workers from sharing internal details of Apple’s products and processes, it is unclear whether they can speak out about working conditions, according to a group of activists and Apple shareholders.

A game that balances horror, heartbreak, and mystery

Continue reading…

The Basilisk V3 features more RGB LEDs than the previous iteration. | Razer

Razer’s new Basilisk V3 wired gaming mouse has arrived with more features than its predecessor, as well as a slightly lower price. It’s out now at Razer’s online store, Amazon, and Best Buy from $69.99, a $10 price drop from generation to generation.

It’s not quite as terrifying as the moon falling, but Netflix’s upcoming Don’t Look Up deals with another space-related disaster: a comet that’s on a collision course with the Earth. The twist here is that, after two low-level astronomers (played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence) discover the problem, no one seems to believe them. That includes a president played by Meryl Streep, with Jonah Hill as her annoying son (and chief of staff).

Amazon’s in-house game engine, Lumberyard, can’t normally be used for life-critical or safety-critical circumstances, as stated in the terms of service agreement for Amazon Web Services. Things like medical equipment, automated transportation systems, autonomous vehicles, crewed spacecraft, or military use in connection with live combat are all off-limits.

Batman x FaZe Clan | DC Comics

Ahead of DC’s FanDome event next month, the comics company celebrates Batman Day with a slew of superhero-themed items for fans. That includes a new ten-episode scripted podcast on HBO Max, an augmented reality app, and, of course, a limited-edition comic featuring some of the stars of FaZe Clan.

Lenovo’s Chromebook Duet is a capable 2-in-1 that comes with kickstand and keyboard | Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge

Labor Day is in the rearview and the kids are back in school, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still save some nice coin on a versatile Chromebook offering a great value for tackling homework or everyday tasks. The Lenovo Chromebook Duet, one of our top picks across all Chromebooks — not just budget options — is currently $50 off at Best Buy. The 2-in-1 normally punches above its weight class at full price... Читать дальше...

The Fiido X at the dawn of a new day.

An impressive follow-up to the Fiido D11

Photo Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Holmes was where the girlboss met Silicon Valley founder worship

Toyota’s electric BZ4X SUV concept. | Image: Toyota

Toyota will invest around $13.6 billion in battery tech over the next decade, including a $9 billion investment in production, as it attempts to electrify its vehicle lineup, The Wall Street Journal reports. It reportedly plans to have 10 battery production lines by 2025, eventually increasing to around 70 across an unannounced number of factories around the world. Eventually, it could produce as much as 200GWh of batteries, the company’s chief technology officer... Читать дальше...

Logitech is announcing a new all-in-one dock that’s designed for the new realities of a post-pandemic hybrid workforce. “When the pandemic hit, we spent an incredible amount of time with our end users to understand their needs and pain points in a work-from-home world. The result was Logi Dock,” says Scott Wharton, general manager and vice president of Logitech video collaboration.

Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge

Microsoft is acquiring Clipchamp, a browser-based video editing tool, and is hinting that it will be a great fit for Windows. Founded in 2013, Clipchamp lets people create and edit videos in a browser and utilize the full power of a GPU to render the final result. Clipchamp is used by companies like Google, Dell, and Deloitte.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

HBO Max will launch in Europe next month on October 26th, the streaming service announced today. Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Spain, and Andorra are the first six countries it’ll be available in, before it expands to the following 14 territories next year: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

Typing away on the IdeaPad Slim 7 Carbon. | Image: Lenovo

Joining an army of OLED laptops that have launched this month is Lenovo’s new IdeaPad Slim 7 Carbon (branded as the Yoga Slim 7 Carbon outside of North America). Lenovo claims it’s the lightest 14-inch OLED laptop on the market at 2.37 pounds. (I’m guessing the company is right. The closest competitor I can think of is Asus’ ZenBook 14X OLED, which is 3.09 pounds. It’s also lighter than both the ZenBook 13 OLED and the Dell XPS... Читать дальше...

Here’s the Chromebook Duet 5 in “storm grey.” | Image: Lenovo

Over a year after it was unveiled, Lenovo’s category-defining Chromebook Duet is getting a sequel. The Chromebook Duet 5 (branded as the IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook outside of North America) is a head-to-toe reimagining of the detachable budget-oriented Duet, with a higher price, a new processor, and — most interestingly — a 13.3-inch OLED screen.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter has begun testing the first of its proposed suite of new privacy tools: the ability to remove a follower without blocking them. The remove follower feature is currently being tested on the web and seems to canonize the “soft block” concept as an official Twitter tool.

Tripwire Interactive

John Gibson, CEO of Tripwire Interactive — the studio known for making horror games like Killing Floor and Maneater — was made to step down a blisteringly quick 53 hours after he tweeted in favor of the controversial Texas abortion law.