Новости за 11.05.2022

Graphics by Michele Doying / The Verge

Fintech is in its flop era, and it would be funny, except that it’s dragging real people down with it.

The Sonos Ray is smaller than the Beam and Arc.

Sonos this afternoon officially announced its Sonos Ray soundbar. Matching the specs and design that The Verge first reported last month, the company’s new entry-level soundbar will be priced at a slightly higher-than-initially-planned $279 when it goes on sale on June 7th. (Hey, maybe Sonos is feeling inflation just like the rest of us.)

Image: Sonos

Sonos will roll out its very own voice control assistant on June 1st in the United States. As The Verge reported earlier this month, Sonos Voice Control will be added to all of the company’s voice-enabled smart speakers through an upcoming software update. Once it arrives, owners of those devices will be able to start music playback, skip tracks, adjust volume, and send audio to other Sonos speakers in their home using “Hey Sonos” voice commands. Sonos Voice will expand to France later in 2022... Читать дальше...

Some of Google’s latest hardware announcements are coming in the summer, while others are further off. | Image: Google

Google just announced a batch of new Pixel products at its I/O 2022 keynote. Among them is a new midrange Pixel phone, the Pixel 6A; some new premium wireless earbuds, the Pixel Buds Pro; and Google’s first wearable, the Pixel Watch. This is a healthy amount of new tech to come out of the online developer conference, in addition to what’s coming soon for Android 13 and other Google services... Читать дальше...

On Wednesday, the Senate voted to confirm privacy expert Alvaro Bedoya to the Federal Trade Commission. The confirmation secured a Democratic voting majority at the agency tasked by the Biden administration with investigating big tech companies like Facebook and Google over potential data privacy and competition violations.

The new Pixel 6A in its three color options: charcoal, chalk, and sage. | Image: Google

Google’s new Pixel 6A, announced at its I/O 2022 keynote, may seem like just another budget-focused A-series model, but the latest midrange Pixel is a little different than its forebears. In the past, the Pixel A-line opted for a cheaper, plastic build and slower processor to hit a lower price point. This time, the Pixel 6A uses the same Google Tensor processor that first debuted in the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro... Читать дальше...

Google wrapped up its I/O presentation with one big surprise: a look at its latest AR glasses. The key feature Google showed off was the ability to see languages translated right in front of your eyes, which seems to me like a very practical application for AR glasses. While a big part of Silicon Valley is heavily invested in making AR glasses a reality thus far no has suggested a truly “killer” app for AR that would let you overlook the wide variety of privacy concerns inherent with the tech. Читать дальше...

The Pixel 6A is one of the many Pixel devices Google showed off today. | Image: Google

Google has wrapped up its two-hour-long I/O keynote, which was absolutely packed with news. We heard about AI, Android, and, of course, a plethora of Pixel hardware. Here are the biggest announcements we saw on Wednesday.

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge

Making ambient computing happen is forcing Google to change how it does everything

The Pixel Watch will support turn-by-turn navigation on Google Maps. | Image: Google

After weeks of rumors and leaked photos, Google finally confirmed that the Pixel Watch is real. Today’s announcement is more of a tease than a full reveal, however, with the watch arriving later this fall alongside the Pixel 7.

One of the few glimpses so far of Google’s upcoming Android tablet. | Image: Google

Google is getting back in the tablet game. The company’s internal hardware division plans to release an Android-powered tablet in 2023, senior vice president of devices and services Rick Osterloh announced on Wednesday at its I/O developer conference. Osterloh was light on details, except to say it’ll run on the same Tensor processor inside Google’s latest Pixel phones and that he imagines it as a consumer-focused... Читать дальше...

Virtual cards are part of Chrome’s autofill system. | Image: Google

Google is adding a feature to Chrome’s autofill system called Virtual Card Numbers, which will let you hide your credit or debit card number while making purchases on the web. Google says the feature will help make it easy to securely buy things on sites that don't support options like Google or Apple Pay.

Airbnb’s design category. | Image: Airbnb

Airbnb is rolling out a huge app redesign this summer that its CEO Brian Chesky calls “the biggest change in a decade.” The new changes are rolling out to users in the US today and will let users search for stays based on categories and plan trips that include more than one home.

Ooblets.

For its first Indie World Showcase of 2022, Nintendo revealed a colorful and occasionally violent slate of independent games coming to the Switch. The bigger-name titles coming to the console include the farming / Pokémon-style adventure Ooblets and the goofy strategy game TABS (or Totally Accurate Battle Simulator), both of which are slated to hit the Switch sometime this summer. (The Switch release for Ooblets will coincide with the game’s 1.0 launch on PC and Xbox.)

Michael Stuhlbarg as Nicodemus West and Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange. | Marvel Studios

First comes the multiverse, then come the incursions

Today’s deal is on the standard Switch with neon blue and red Joy-Cons. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

We may be in a bit of a lull for major new game releases, but there’s been no shortage of great sales. Right now, you can get a Nintendo Switch console with neon blue and red Joy-Cons for just $259.99 at Walmart and Amazon. That’s $40 off Nintendo’s standard Switch console. Sure, it’s not the fancier OLED model that came out last year, but this discounted price is $90 less than that model... Читать дальше...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The European Commission has proposed controversial new regulation that would require chat apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger to selectively scan users’ private messages for child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and “grooming” behavior. The proposal is similar to plans mooted by Apple last year but, say critics, much more invasive.

Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge

One of the most powerful portable battery packs is cheaper than ever. You can get $70 off Zendure’s SuperTank Pro at Wellbots, which has a 26,800mAh capacity, up to 100W charging, and four USB-C ports. Normally $229.99, it costs just $159.99 with the offer code ZENVERGE used at checkout.

When announcing the iPhone, Steve Jobs joked about it looking like an iPod with a rotary dial. | Image: Apple, via John Schroter on YouTube

This week, Apple announced that it’s discontinuing the iPod Touch, its last product with the “iPod” name. More than 20 years after the original iPod was announced, and after over a decade in the shadow of the iPhone, it can be hard to remember just how important the device was to Apple. But the music player helped define the company we know today ... Читать дальше...

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

Google’s annual developer conference, Google I/O 2022, is virtually set to kick off today. The conference is a hub for developers looking to network, but the rest of us are watching to see if Google will unveil new product announcements and major updates.

Samsung’s anticipated 2022 flagship foldable — the Galaxy Z Fold 4 — may have just leaked in unofficial renders published by SmartPrix, based on information from the often reliable Onleaks. The renders of the Galaxy Z Fold 4 show a similar overall design to its predecessor, the Z Fold 3, with a 6.2-inch cover display and a 7.6-inch folding inner display, but with a redesigned rear camera configuration inspired by this year’s Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Apple is preparing to swap the proprietary Lightning port on its iPhones next year for the nearly universally-embraced USB-C, claims company analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

Future foldables could move on from existing single-fold designs to fold twice, use displays that are capable of folding both inwards and outwards, or even use rolling screens to expand outwards. That’s if manufacturers embrace new folding screen technologies being shown off by Samsung Display and LG Display this week in San Jose, California, during the annual Display Week conference.

The Xperia 1 IV brings a true optical zoom lens to a smartphone for the first time.

Real zoom for a steep price

Dish is teasing a new wireless plan called Boost Infinite to launch this fall. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Dish Network seems to be taking its unconventional approach to building a wireless network all the way to the blockchain. Executives hosting an analyst event in Las Vegas today gave a few hints at their vision of this country’s fourth wireless carrier, and it might involve a future where you can pay for a new iPhone in Bitcoin.