Technology

Google took five days to review several ads with misleading information about voting by mail before opting to approve them, The Washington Post reported. The ads were created by Protect My Vote— a group the Post refers to as “shadowy”— and appeared to target people in several US states, including Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, and Texas, showing up in response to searches for “mail-in voting.” One of the ads reads “think mail-in voting and absentee voting are the same. Think again! There are different safeguards for each,” a misleading and inaccurate claim. Google ultimately declined to remove the ads. Spokeswoman Charlotte Smith told the Post “We have zero tolerance for ads that employ voter suppression tactics or undermine participation in elections. When we find those ads, w...

Buying a capable streaming player for your TV is easier and cheaper in 2020 than it’s ever been. So long as you’re willing to spend at least $50, you can buy something that’ll deliver 4K resolution and HDR color from apps like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+. With universal search that spans all of the big services, streaming players make it easy to find something to watch when you finally make it to the couch after a long day. If you’ve got a fairly new 4K TV at home, you might not see the need for a set-top box or streaming stick; it’s probably already got many of your essential apps preloaded and ready to go. If you’re satisfied with what’s there, no one’s forcing you to buy an extra gadget. But app selection can differ between TV brands, so if you want everything under the sun...

Actor Chadwick Boseman has died at 43 after battling colon cancer for four years, according to a statement posted on his Twitter account. “It is with immeasurable grief that we confirm the passing of Chadwick Boseman,” the statement reads. “It was the honor of his life to bring King T’Challa to life in Black Panther.” Boseman worked on a number of films and TV shows over the last two decades, including 42 where he portrayed iconic baseball player Jackie Robinson, James Brown in Get on Up, and Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, but he was best known for his role as Black Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Boseman first took on the role as T’Challa in Marvel’s 2016 film, Captain America: Civil War, before starring in his own Black Panther film in 2018. “Chadwick’s passing is absolutely devastat...

A former intern at SpaceX is suing the aerospace company, claiming that SpaceX retaliated against her after she reported experiencing sexual harassment and gender discrimination while on the job, according to a new lawsuit. The suit alleges that the former intern was not extended a full-time job opportunity when she brought up inappropriate comments and actions made by her then manager. The plaintiff, Julia CrowleyFarenga, worked as a summer intern for SpaceX in 2015, 2016, and 2017, according to a lawsuit filed August 21st with Los Angeles County Superior Court and first reported by Business Insider. While at the company, she worked in the propulsion division under the same manager each summer, the suit says. During her last summer at the company, CrowleyFarenga went to human resources ab...

Google Assistant is getting a new feature that makes it easier to donate money to important humanitarian and nonprofit organizations, starting with the Center for Policing Equity, an organization that works to promote police transparency and accountability. The news was announced today to coincide with the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington. The new donation shortcut can only be accessed on mobile phones for now, either by saying “Hey Google, donate to racial justice,” to Assistant (either directly on Android or through the app on iOS) or by using a dedicated card in Google Assistant’s daily Snapshot view. Google says it won’t be taking a cut from donations made through Assistant, with 100 percent of all donations passed directly along to the Center for Policing Equity. The compan...

Bloomberg is reporting that TikTok-rival Triller and Centricus (a London-based global investment firm) are the latest suitors looking to buy TikTok’s US business with a $20 billion bid, joining Oracle and a recently combined Microsoft / Walmart effort to acquire the popular short-form video application. Following Bloomberg’s report, things have gotten a little weird. A spokesperson for TikTok told Reuters it has not received an offer, or ever been contacted about a potential bid. They downplayed the idea to Bloomberg, too, replying “What’s Triller?” and calling a deal “preposterous.” And yet, Triller went on the record to confirm a bid to The Verge, claiming that it made the bid directly to TikTok owner ByteDance and not to TikTok itself. Here’s a cheeky statement from Triller executive ch...

Elon Musk’s brain-machine interface company Neuralink showcased a pig outfitted with the company’s device, at an event livestreamed on YouTube. One pig, Gertrude, had a device recording signals from an area of the brain linked to her snout. She’d had the implant for two months at the time of the demonstration. As Gertrude’s snout touched things, an array of dots and a series of noises indicated when more neurons were firing. Pigs have large parts of their brains that are devoted to the snout, a sensitive sensing instrument. “Like a Fitbit in your skull.” The design of the Neuralink device has changed since it was unveiled last year, rendering the device itself hard to see on Gertrude. It is now coin-shaped, and meant to sit flush with the skull, rather than having a small module resting ne...

Amid the search for a COVID-19 vaccine and launch of a new Mars rover, there is yet another technological breakthrough on its way — at least, according to Elon Musk. Today at 6PM ET, his company Neuralink will demonstrate what may be one of the first “ultra-high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect humans and computers.” Apparently, Neuralink is looking to connect to the human brain using flexible electrodes thinner than a human hair. And it is now willing to show us a working model. Interested? If so, you can watch the demo today and judge for yourself. When is the Neuralink demo? Today, Friday, August 28th, 2020, at 6PM ET (3PM PT). Where can I find the demo? The live stream will be shown here on Neuralink’s YouTube channel. [embedded content] What am I going to see? Your guess ...

In a companywide meeting on Thursday, Mark Zuckerberg addressed the recent shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, both in a seven-minute public address and in a heated series of questions from employees that was subsequently reported by Buzzfeed News. Protests in Kenosha erupted into violence on Tuesday night, as two people were killed by a bystander later identified as Illinois resident Kyle Rittenhouse. Rittenhouse has been charged with two murders in connection with the event, as well as reckless endangerment and unlawful possession of a firearm. In the wake of the shooting, Facebook has been criticized for allowing self-proclaimed militia groups to organize on the platform, including a group called the Kenosha Guard, which had solicited armed attendees for an event on the night of the protest...

Apple has officially terminated the Epic Games account on the App Store on Friday, following its Fortnite dispute and ongoing legal battle with the game studio over in-app payments in the battle royale game, the company confirms to The Verge. That means the app is no longer available on the iPhone or iPad whatsoever, even if you’ve once downloaded it once before — and other Epic games like Infinity Blade are also no longer re-downloadable. Here’s Apple’s statement: We are disappointed that we have had to terminate the Epic Games account on the App Store. We have worked with the team at Epic Games for many years on their launches and releases. The court recommended that Epic comply with the App Store guidelines while their case moves forward, guidelines they’ve followed for the past decade ...

Post Malone is the latest celebrity to jump into the world of competitive gaming. Today, Envy Gaming announced that the pop star had joined as a co-owner, acquiring “an undisclosed equity stake” in the company. Envy operates teams in multiple games, and it owns the Dallas Empire of the Call of Duty League and Overwatch League team Dallas Fuel, which hosted OWL’s first home game in 2019. “I grew up in Texas and I’ve been gaming my whole life, so this just really felt right,” Post Malone said in a statement. “I have always wanted to be a part of bringing gaming into the professional sports world so to be involved with what Envy is doing in my hometown feels like such a perfect fit.” He joins a growing list of big stars investing in esports. That includes Offset (Faze Clan), Drake (100 Thieve...

Michigan-based electric truck startup Bollinger Motors hasn’t started production on its rugged electric trucks, the Jeep-like B1 and the B2 pickup, but it’s already rolling out a new vehicle type. This week, the company unveiled the Deliver-E, its all-electric delivery van concept that is slated for production in 2022. A lot of companies, from legacy automakers to tech startups, are developing their own electric delivery vans right now. But what sets Bollinger apart is the variability of its platform. The EV startup is promising a variety of battery pack sizes, including 70 kWh, 105 kWH, 140 kWh, 175 kWh, and 210 kWh. This will mean customers will have a variety of range-options, prices, and wheelbase sizes to chose from. The front-wheel-drive platform will be engineered to fit Classes 2B,...