Technology

Facebook has a fringe conspiracy theory problem, and it’s getting worse by the day. According to a new investigation from The Guardian, the far-right QAnon movement continues to flourish on the social network, despite its attempts last month to begin removing accounts and pages promoting it. The investigation, by journalist Julie Carrie Wong, details in depth how QAnon account and page owners caught wind of Facebook’s crackdown in early May and the clever methods they relied on to avoid detection. Earlier today, Verizon announced its participation in a growing advertising boycott of Facebook and Instagram, in part it appears because its ads continue to show up next to QAnon content. Verizon just announced that its pulling ads from Facebook following a letter from the ADL showing that its a...

Ford has revealed the 2021 model of the F-150, and many buyers will find the newest version of the automaker’s super popular pickup truck stuffed with technology. The new F-150 will have an optional hands-free driving mode, be capable of receiving over-the-air software updates, and come with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The company will also start selling a hybrid version of the 2021 F-150 that can travel about 700 miles on a full tank of gas. The hands-free driving feature — which Ford calls “Active Drive Assist” — is the same that’s coming to the Mustang Mach-E electric SUV next year. That will make the F-150 one of the only vehicles in the US that has hands-free driving when the feature is available, along with Cadillac’s And GM’s Super Cruise-equipped cars and SUVs. Active ...

The $999 Skydio 2 self-flying drone is one of the most incredible gadgets I’ve ever touched, but it’s got its fair share of issues. It’s been practically impossible to buy, and we found the nearly crash-proof drone could crash during some landings. But at least those two specific issues may be going away soon. Today, Skydio says it’s back on sale, greatly increasing its production capacity, and the company just issued a huge software update that could make landing your drone way the heck easier. You can check Skydio’s blog post and changelog for the main details, but the grabbiest feature is this: the carrying case that comes with your drone now doubles as an autonomous landing pad. Skydio CEO Adam Bry tells me that landing’s been a tricky problem for an autonomous drone because most peopl...

Google and Aclima, a company that maps hyperlocal air pollution, announced today that researchers can now access a treasure trove of new data that can bolster efforts to both combat climate change and clean up the air. It’s the result of four years of measurements taken by Google Street View vehicles in California outfitted with Aclima sensors. The dataset offers researchers a close-up look at changes in air quality from block to block. It includes more than 42 million measurements of smog, soot, black carbon, nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide, and methane. The ability to zoom in to see differences on one street versus another is key to pinpointing where the most pollution is coming from and who it affects the most. “We’re really increasing the pixels on the picture of air quality.” “We’re r...

California EV startup Lucid Motors gave up majority ownership to Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund in exchange for the $1.3 billion investment it closed last year, according to an email from the company’s lawyers that was included in a lawsuit filed on Wednesday. The lawsuit was filed by Lucid Motors’ former head of finance, Doug Coates, who believes he’s entitled to certain severance benefits based on the language of the deal he signed with the company. Coates argues he’s eligible for these benefits because the Saudi Arabia investment triggered a “Change in Control” clause in his agreement with Lucid Motors because it resulted in “a change in the majority shareholder of the Company,” according to an email from his lawyer to the startup sent last year. That means Saudi Arabia’s Public I...

Cadillac will reveal its first electric vehicle, the Lyriq SUV, during a virtual event on August 6th. The vehicle’s original April 2nd debut was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. GM, Cadillac’s parent company, announced the Lyriq at an “EV Day” event last March in Warren, Michigan, that showcased a new modular electric vehicle platform meant to power a wide range of the company’s electric models in the coming years. The Lyriq will be the first electric luxury SUV from Cadillac, with a sedan — the Celestiq — to follow. An early version showed off at the EV Day featured a 34-inch pillar-to-pillar screen, power doors, a long wheelbase, and lots of high-end materials. Over a year ago, GM named Cadillac as the brand to lead the automaker’s push into an electric future. At the time, it m...

In some ways, yesterday’s announcement of Pokémon Unite felt a few years too late. There was once a period of time when it seemed every major publisher was experimenting with the then-burgeoning MOBA trend, trying to emulate the newfound success of League of Legends and Dota 2. That was years ago. Yet, here was The Pokémon Company teaming up with Tencent, announcing its own competitive 5 vs. 5 strategy game in the year 2020. It was a blast from the past. But while it’s easy to be cynical about the announcement, there’s no denying a simple fact: Pokémon Unite has the potential to be absolutely massive when it finally launches and open up the world of competitive gaming to a whole new audience. For one thing, while the flood of new MOBA games has slowed significantly, the genre is still incr...

After five years as the dominant solution for photo storage across platforms, Google Photos is getting a big new redesign. The refreshed look, which includes fresh ways to navigate the app and a simplified pinwheel icon, is designed to better highlight your favorite old pictures, Google said. It also answers the top feature request Google says it’s received: a map view that lets you explore the photos and videos that you’ve taken by location. “A lot of people really love the product, and the reason they love it is a little bit different than what we initially designed it for,” said David Lieb, product lead for Google Photos. “The thing they really love it for is this idea of nostalgia, and reminiscing, and looking back on your photos. So in this redesign, we decided to really lean into tha...

NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are keeping track of how COVID-19 has changed the economy and environment. The three space agencies brought together satellite observations to create a new dashboard that was unveiled today. The COVID-19 Earth Observation Dashboard lets users explore how the ongoing pandemic has affected airport and shipping traffic, city night lights, and agricultural production in locations across the world. It also includes data on greenhouse gases, air quality, and water quality. “The pandemic was not only leaving a staggering toll of human suffering. It was having a global impact that we could document from space,” Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said in a video rel...

The deals are a little slower today than we’ve seen so far this week, but there are still a few that we want to tell you about. In case you missed out, Best Buy’s $100 off sale on the latest MacBook Air laptop ends later today. Instead of paying $1,000 for the base model with 256GB of storage, 8GB of RAM, and a 10th Gen Intel Core i3 processor, you can get it for $900. It’s available in silver, gold, or space gray, and unlike the maligned butterfly key switches used in the previous generation, this keyboard is far better. Image: LG If you’re on the hunt for another monitor for your desk, or your first one, LG’s 27-inch G-Sync-compatible IPS monitor at Costco is down to $180 (usually $250). It’s tough to find a 27-inch FHD monitor for under $200, let alone one that has an IPS panel with a 1...

Lately a question I have been asking myself is: how worried do we need to be about the Boogaloo groups? The Boogaloo movement, if you’ve been sitting this one out so far, refers to a loosely knit group of right-wing extremists, some of whom advocate for second civil war. (The name derives from the camp classic breakdancing movie Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo. In the delightfully dry phrasing of Wikipedia authors, “2: Electric Boogaloo became a verbal template appended to a topic as a signal of pejorative parody.”) While the use of the term in this way dates to at least 2012, it has gained new prominence after a series of violent incidents linked to its adherents. An Air Force staff sergeant was charged with the murder of a Federal Protective Service officer and a Santa Cruz sheriff’s serge...

Apple is greatly improving its gaming support in iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and tvOS. The biggest additions are support for controller button remapping, haptics, rumble, motion, and even the ability to properly use a keyboard and mouse for iPad gaming. Game developers and players have long been asking for zone-based rumble and haptics support, and it’s finally coming later this year. Developers will be able to program feedback into their games, so players can feel specific things like the recoil from guns or explosions. Apple is also planning to support some controllers with motion inputs, like Sony’s DualShock 4 controller. This includes support for the Lightbar, allowing Apple developers to change the color of the light on the controller when a health bar decreases for example. The touchpad surf...