Technology

Motorola has announced the One Fusion Plus, its second phone with a pop-up selfie camera, just six months after first including one on last year’s Motorola One Hyper. Like its predecessor, it has a 6.5-inch 1080p display with no notch or hole-punch cutout, but the new phone features a number of internal and external improvements over the One Hyper. The most obvious change is on the rear of the device, where you’ll now find a quad-camera array consisting of a main 64-megapixel sensor alongside a wide-angle 8-megapixel camera, a 5-megapixel macro camera, and a 2-megapixel depth camera. In contrast, the One Hyper had a more simple dual-camera setup. There’s also a bigger 5,000mAh battery, 6GB of RAM (compared to 4GB on the One Hyper), and a faster Snapdragon 730 processor. The One Fusion Plus...

Lee Jae-yong, Samsung Electronics vice chairman and the de facto leader of the Samsung Group conglomerate, may soon find himself back in jail. Prosecutors are seeking an arrest warrant against Lee, known as Jay Y. Lee in the West, arguing that he should be detained while they investigate new allegations against him. The new legal controversy involves the 2015 merger of two Samsung Group companies, Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T. Lee is accused of accounting fraud that allegedly could have helped him gain more power over the sprawling chaebol. Samsung last week said it was “beyond common sense” to suggest that Lee was directly involved, according to Reuters. Lee attended a hearing this morning in Seoul and is currently waiting to find out if he will be re-arrested. Courts can order de...

More people are booking local holidays in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bloomberg reports. According to Airbnb’s CEO, the number of nights booked at US listings between May 17th and June 3rd was greater than the same weeks from the previous year, and similar increases in domestic holidays are being seen in other countries including Germany, Portugal, South Korea, and New Zealand. The shift is a small piece of good news for the travel industry, which has been hammered by travel restrictions, social distancing regulations, and a wider economic downturn caused by COVID-19. At the beginning of May, Airbnb laid off 25 percent of its staff as business slowed. Vacation homes are reportedly growing more popular than hotels Things are far from being back to normal, but this latest data suggest...

Apple has updated the satellite imagery in its maps app to include Washington DC’s new Black Lives Matter mural. The mural takes over two blocks of 16th Street near the White House, since renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza by DC mayor Muriel Bowser. Notably, Apple appears to have patched its existing satellite imagery to show the new mural, leaving the surrounding area as it was, as noted by app sleuth Jane Manchun Wong. That suggests a fast-track update outside of normal refresh cycles. Google Maps shows the renamed plaza but not the new mural in its satellite imagery. I like how Apple Maps only patched this part of the satelite image for Black Lives Matter Plaza (notice how the cars partially fade out at the edges, and that this part is noticeably grainy than the rest) pic.twitter.com/lXIG...

When you’re stuck at home because of pandemics, bad weather, or just because you don’t feel like going out, there’s nothing more satisfying than cooking something really fantastic. Even if you’re not an experienced or enthusiastic cook, sometimes it’s really satisfying to create a new and tasty dish for you, your friends, and / or family. We asked the staff of The Verge what kinds of equipment, gadgets, and tools they use to make their kitchen adventures better tasting, easier, or just more fun. Here are some of the answers we got. Immersion blender The Mueller Austria Ultra-Stick hand blender.Photo: Mueller Austria This is one of my favorite tools in the kitchen. It’s a hand-held blender that can be used to prepare soups, smoothies, whipped coffee, and more. I often use it in my Indian co...

Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have all removed a Trump campaign video from their platforms after receiving copyright complaints, Reuters reported. The nearly four-minute video featured images of the late George Floyd of Minneapolis, who died May 25th after a police officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes. A video of the incident has prompted nationwide protests of police violence. Twitter disabled the video, while Facebook and Instagram removed posts containing the video. When President Trump objected to the removal in a tweet, calling it “illegal,” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey responded: “Not true and not illegal. This was pulled because we got a DMCA complaint from copyright holder.” A spokesperson for Facebook, which owns Instagram, told Reuters it also had received a copy...

HBO Max is here, and while I’ve been dreading the ways AT&T will inevitably ruin HBO, I actually like a lot about the new service. The app is far nicer to browse than Netflix thanks to its curated highlights. But the real standout to me has been that the service has most of Studio Ghibli’s catalog of films, which haven’t previously been available to stream. I watched My Neighbor Totoro for the first time in years over the weekend. The story is simpler than I remembered (perhaps too simple!), but the story is a lot more charming than I remembered, too. It really encapsulates what Ghibli would continue to do so well in later movies — build out worlds that feel real, quaint, and expansively magical all at once. My colleague Sam Byford wrote a starter’s guide to Ghibli films if you’re just...

Facebook published new recommendations for group admins yesterday evening in an attempt to help them facilitate conversations about race and inequality. Groups, which are essential to Facebook’s business strategy, have struggled to moderate discussions about the Black Lives Matter movement and injustice in the US, with many admins and moderators deleting posts they consider “political.” The deletion decisions prompted members to leave groups they’d been in for years, argue with each other, form splinter groups, and sometimes temporarily shut the groups down entirely. Facebook directly addresses the political post ban that many groups follow and recommends that leaders create specific lists of topics that aren’t allowed. It cites “discussions on legislation, political candidates, or specifi...

The beloved online game Neopets is launching an open beta for a new mobile site, the company announced on Twitter Friday. “The Neopets Mobile Beta has arrived! Now you can explore the breathtaking land of Neopia from the palm of your hand!” the very excited company tweeted. In a video posted to Twitter, Neopets brand manager Stephanie Lord thanked fans for their support over the past 20 years, and encouraged fans to test the site. “While this is an open beta, we’re in the very early stages of development and looking forward to all your feedback to help guide the product moving forward.” Neopets has been slowly fading over the past several years, but has maintained a cult following, especially among young women who credit the site with helping them learn to code. Its creators sold the site ...

Destiny 2’s first ever Fortnite-style live event just wrapped earlier today, and it was unfortunately not quite what some players were expecting. Instead of something monumental and game-changing for a key part of the game world, it was more of a slow burn alternative to a standard video game cutscene. And instead of delivering a strong narrative pay off on a season’s worth of otherwise dull and repetitive activity, the Almighty event ended without any meaningful change in direction or surprising new development. For the last three months, developer Bungie has been building up a clash between the Destiny world’s artificial intelligence supercomputer Rasputin and a large planet-destroying ship called the Almighty. All of this past season’s activities have revolved around communicating with ...

Apple will allow customers to buy products including iPads, Macs, and AirPods, via monthly installment payments on the Apple Card, Bloomberg reported. Payments will be managed through the Apple Card section in the iPhone Wallet app and added to customers’ monthly Apple Card bills, according to Bloomberg. For iPads, Macs, the Apple Pencil, iPad keyboards, and the Mac XDR Display monitor, a 12-month, interest-free payment plan will be available, and for AirPods, HomePod, and Apple TV, the plans will be six months interest free. Last year, Apple rolled out a 24-month, interest-free payment plan for iPhones purchased with an Apple Card, and gives 3 percent cash back. Apple launched the Apple Card last August in partnership with Goldman Sachs. Users get a digital card connected to the Apple Wal...

More than 140 scientists who receive funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Saturday urging him to better enforce the social media platform’s policies against incendiary language, The Washington Post reported. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) is the philanthropic organization founded by Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan in 2015, which focuses on using technology to solve social challenges, including criminal justice reform. It is a separate entity from Facebook. The scientists said in the letter that allowing President Trump to use Facebook “to spread both misinformation and incendiary statements” was not only a violation of Facebook’s policies but “directly antithetical” to CZI’s goal of building a “more inclusive, just and he...