Technology

Many true wireless earbuds now let you “find” them by either playing a sound (if they’re powered on, out of their case, and nearby) or pulling up the location where they were last paired to your phone. But what if you could track your earbuds even when they’re powered down? That’s the appeal that has led an increasing number of brands to build Tile’s tracking technology into their devices — including laptops, suitcases, and headphones from Bose and Sennheiser — and now Skullycandy is joining in. Today the company is announcing several models of true wireless earbuds, and all of them offer Tile integration, letting you pinpoint their location just like the company’s standalone tracking tags. If the earbuds are somewhere close, the Tile app will let you know that they’re nearby. For cases wh...

Zipline’s drones are delivering medical supplies and personal protective equipment to a Novant Health Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, the two companies announced today. Importantly, considering the COVID-19 pandemic, the deliveries are entirely contactless. Zipline says this is the first emergency drone logistics operation to help hospitals respond to the pandemic, and it’s also the longest-range drone delivery service that’s been approved in the US. “We’re likely in for a long-term fight against COVID-19,” Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo said in a statement. “Using contactless drone logistics will be an important tool in that effort. The work underway here in North Carolina will provide the rest of the country with a blueprint for how to build the most resilient and responsive hea...

Fujifilm has released new software that lets you use certain X-series and GFX-series mirrorless cameras as ultra-high-quality webcams. The app is called Fujifilm X Webcam and works over USB, letting you benefit from much sharper lenses and larger image sensors than the potato camera in your laptop. You’re even able to use Fujifilm’s renowned film simulation modes. The COVID-19 pandemic has driven unprecedented demand for webcams due to the shift to remote work, with extreme stock shortages and jacked-up prices. Canon has already released a similar webcam utility for many of its digital cameras, and it’s possible to make other companies’ cameras work as webcams with a little extra hardware. We published a guide to doing this earlier in the month. Here’s how Dan Seifert’s laptop webcam compa...

A new collection of Samurai Shodown games is coming out in a couple of weeks, and it marks another notable exclusivity deal for the Epic Games Store. Samurai Shodown Neo Geo Collection will be released on Steam on June 18th and PS4 and Switch on June 28th for $39.99, but you’ll be able to get it first on the Epic Games Store on June 11th, and it’ll be completely free for a week. Samurai Shodown Neo Geo Collection includes all six Neo Geo iterations of the classic fighting series, plus a completed version of Samurai Shodown V Perfect, an unreleased game that was supposed to be the final Neo Geo title. Each game has online modes and includes both the Japanese and English arcade versions. There’s also a “museum” featuring interviews, music, development documents, and more. So, it has finally ...

On Tuesday, Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) introduced a bill that would upend political advertising on platforms like Facebook and Google. The Banning Microtargeted Political Ads Act would bar platforms like Google and Facebook from allowing advertisers to target messages based on the demographic or behavioral data of their users. The Federal Elections Commission would act as the primary enforcer of these proposed rules, but the bill leaves room for individuals to bring civil action on companies accused of violating it. A court could award anywhere from $100 to $1,000 in relief for negligent violations and $500 to $5,000 for reckless ones. “Microtargeting political ads fractures our open democratic debate into millions of private, unchecked silos, allowing for the spread of false promises, polariz...

Short-form mobile video service Quibi now supports Apple’s AirPlay protocol, which means you’ll be able to stream content from Quibi on your phone to AirPlay-enabled TVs and devices. Quibi is also “working hard” to have support for Chromecast available in June, according to Tom Conrad, chief product officer at Quibi. That should let Android users cast content from the Quibi app to their TVs as well, once it’s rolled out. Sure we designed Quibi for on-the-go, but these days visiting the family room is like a day trip… so AirPlay support is live for iOS in Quibi 1.3. Working hard on Chromecast too which will be available in June. — Tom Conrad (@tconrad) May 26, 2020 It first came to light that Quibi would be offering some sort of way to stream shows to TVs from the iOS app in a May 11th arti...

Google will begin reopening offices starting on July 6th for a limited number of employees. In a blog post published on Tuesday, CEO Sundar Pichai said that, while returning to work will be optional for the rest of the year, those who need to come in will be able to on a rotating basis — one day every couple weeks. The company is also giving workers a $1,000 stipend for home office equipment to make remote work easier. In September, Google plans to let more people back into the office, until buildings reach about 30 percent capacity. Those who need to come in to do their jobs will be notified by June 10th. Pichai also said the company will be more flexible with remote working options after the pandemic lifts. “Moving ahead, we are looking to develop more overall flexibility in how we work,...

Amazon has been successfully feeding talking points, video footage, and other corporate messaging to local television news stations ahead of its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday. The footage and script are designed to paint Amazon in a positive light as it faces a torrent of bad media coverage and criticism from activists and politicians over its handling of workplace safety issues during the coronavirus pandemic. As Zach Rael, an anchor for ABC affiliate KOCO 5 News in Oklahoma City, pointed out on Twitter earlier this morning, Amazon’s public relations team has been emailing TV stations around the country with prepared scripts and b-roll packages that promote the company’s safety precautions and other measures to combat COVID-19 among its warehouse workforce. So far, eight Amazon ...

On Tuesday, Twitter labeled two tweets from President Donald Trump making false statements about mail-in voting as “potentially misleading.” It’s the first time the platform has fact-checked the president. The label was imposed on two tweets Trump posted Tuesday morning falsely claiming that “mail-in ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent” and would result in “a rigged election.” The tweets focused primarily on California’s efforts to expand mail-in voting due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. On Sunday, the Republican National Committee sued California Gov. Gavin Newsom over the state’s moves to expand mail-in voting. According to a Twitter spokesperson, the tweets “contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide add...

Apple released macOS Catalina 10.15.5 today, adding a new battery health feature and new FaceTime options. That battery health feature could extend the life of your MacBook’s battery. Lithium-ion batteries, like the ones in a MacBook, slowly age over time, which means they typically begin to hold less of a charge as the computer gets older. Apple’s new battery health feature in macOS is designed to slow that aging process so that your battery will hold more charge over a longer period of time. Here’s how the feature works behind the scenes, as described by my colleagues Dieter Bohn and Jacob Kastrenakes last month: …in certain cases, seeing 100 percent battery life in your menu bar may not necessarily mean it’s the maximum your battery could charge to. Instead of meaning that it’s ch...

The controversial film Planet of the Humans, produced by Michael Moore, was taken down from YouTube on Monday because of a copyright infringement claim. The complaint was filed by photographer Toby Smith, who was alarmed that his work was used in a film that he doesn’t support, The Guardian reports. “I don’t agree with its message and I don’t like the misleading use of facts in its narrative,” Smith said to The Guardian. A few seconds of Smith’s video, Rare Earthenware, were used in Moore’s film, which criticizes renewable energy. “I don’t agree with its message and I don’t like the misleading use of facts in its narrative.” In a statement to The Verge, director Jeff Gibbs denied any copyright violation in his film, which garnered more than 8 million views on YouTube. “This attempt to take...