Technology

Spotify is offering two new deals, starting today, to bring more people over to its premium subscription service. New users can get three free months if they sign up from today through June 30th, and the deal applies to any premium plans including family, student, and individual. Meanwhile, people who once were individual premium members, but canceled their plan before April 14th, can sign up again for $9.99 for three months, bringing the cost of a subscription to a little over $3.00 per month. People can access both deals from spotify.com/premium. The offers seemingly suggest Spotify is trying to ensure it’ll keep making subscription revenue while the COVID-19 pandemic continues. Its overall revenue partially comes from advertising, which is an area that’s been particularly hard hit acros...

The Nintendo Switch, like everything else that can lighten the mood during this incredibly tough time, is in short supply. And as soon as retailers like Best Buy, Amazon, and Walmart gets it in stock, it quickly sells out. It can be disheartening to miss out on the opportunity to buy a Switch — but fear not! The purpose of this article is to help you do just that without paying more than it would usually cost at retail. We’re keeping a lookout across the web to find where, when, and how you can buy a Nintendo Switch (the one you can dock to your TV or remove for portable use) or a Switch Lite (the portable-only version of the console) as well as any bundles that seem like good deals. Keep in mind that stock — even Switch consoles that are preowned or refurbished — will likely continue to s...

The latest educational tech comes in the form of a seven-pound robot that looks like something ripped out of a Pixar movie. Moxie, an adorable educational robot, is designed for teaching kids at home. But it’s expensive: the robot itself is $1,500, and it requires a $60 monthly subscription after the first year. Embodied, the robotics and AI company behind Moxie, says the robot will teach kids ages six through nine using weekly themes and lessons designed to promote cognitive, emotional, and social learning. Kids will be tasked with helping Moxie explore and learn human experiences and life skills, like learning new words or chatting about significant experiences like going to the dentist. Parents will be able to control Moxie through a “parent app,” which will let them check their child’s...

Amazon has requested that Congress pass a law that would make price gouging illegal during times of national crisis, in light of inflated prices on crucial goods like hand sanitizer and N95 masks that have hounded the online retailer during the COVID-19 pandemic. In an open letter posted by Brian Huseman, Amazon’s VP of public policy, the company highlights its own ongoing efforts to try to crack down on price gouging. To date, Amazon says that it’s removed half a million price-gouged listings from its online stores and has banned 4,000 seller accounts on its US store alone for violating its Fair Pricing Policy. And as CEO Jeff Bezos noted in a letter to investors, Amazon has set up a special line of communication for state attorneys general to directly pass along price gouging complaints....

Gaming accessory maker Razer says it will place 20 face mask vending machines in Singapore by June 1st to help the city-state, where the company’s global operations are based, in its COVID-19 relief efforts, Reuters reports. “Razer will continue our endeavours in supporting Singapore to be self-sufficient for face masks as a nation,” Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan, who hails from the city-state, tells Reuters. The company already has a fully automated face mask production line in Singapore that the company set up in just 24 days last month, after it initially shifted some of its manufacturing to support production of medical equipment in March. Razer said on April 24th that it’s already shipped more than 1 million of those masks all over the world. Razer’s automated face mask production line in S...

Car sharing service Zipcar will now allow people in the US to access a car within minutes of signing up, which Zipcar is calling Instant Access, the company announced today. Previously, it could take days after you first signed up until you’d actually be able to rent one of Zipcar’s vehicles. Now, as part of the signup process, you can have your identity confirmed by matching a selfie with your driver’s license, according to Zipcar. Then, once you’re approved, you’ll be able to access a car via the company’s smartphone app. Zipcar says it will still send RFID-enabled “Zipcards” to members that you can also use get into cars you reserve. You’ll match a selfie to your driver’s license in the Zipcar app “Shortening the time it takes from joining Zipcar to booking a vehicle has been one of our...

Uber outlined a series of measures it is taking Wednesday to adapt its ride-hailing and delivery businesses to a world changed by COVID-19. Chief among them is a new rule limiting the maximum number of people allowed in each vehicle. Starting May 18th, only three passengers will be allowed in each vehicle across its product line, the company said. Previously, Uber had allowed up to four passengers in its UberX vehicles. Passengers will not be allowed to ride in the front seat. This is meant to promote social distancing from the driver — if not exactly between passengers, three of which will still be allowed to pile into the backseat. “We do not want them to be in the front seat because we want them to be physically distanced as much as possible from the driver,” Sachin Kansal, Uber’s head ...

Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter is the latest company to resort to layoffs during the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The company filed a regulatory notice in New York last week revealing it had laid off 25 employees, or about 18 percent of its workforce. But Kickstarter tells The Verge its workforce reduction is more than twice that, as 30 employees decided to take voluntary buyouts as negotiated between the company’s management and Kickstarter’s employee union. “The filing is correct, however, it does not reflect an international employee that was affected, nor does it take into account further staff reduction via the voluntary buyouts offered to staff. In total, we’ll see a 39 percent reduction in staff,” a Kickstarter spokesperson tells The Verge. “The majority ...

President Donald Trump has extended his executive order banning US companies from working with or buying telecommunications equipment from companies deemed a national security risk until May 2021, via Reuters. While the ban doesn’t explicitly call out specific companies, it’s been used to virtually shut down US operations with Chinese companies like Huawei and ZTE, which can no longer sell products in the US or work with companies like Google or ARM for critical software and licenses. The White House issued its original executive order almost a year ago, barring US companies from doing business with Huawei due to national security concerns about the Chinese firm supplying equipment for network infrastructure (particularly as the US undergoes its ongoing rollout for 5G). But since the order...

Finding TV shows and movies that you can stream on Amazon’s Fire TV devices for free without any subscriptions is about to get much simpler. The company is adding a new “free” tab to the main Fire TV navigation bar. In this section, you’ll be able to browse content that can be viewed at no charge — aside from dealing with ads — from apps like Pluto TV, Tubi, Crackle, IMDb TV, the CW, and Amazon’s News app. “Over the past year, we’ve received great feedback from Fire TV customers about their growing interest in watching free content and their desire for an easier way to find the free content that is available on Fire TV,” Amazon’s Michael Polin wrote in a blog post. “We wanted to build a curated experience that provides a simple way for customers to find movies and shows they love while als...

Amazon’s Eero announced today that its routers are now for sale on Apple’s website. The full product line, including the Eero and Eero Pro Mesh Wi-Fi Routers, are available to customers in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. Eero did not specify whether its products will be available in Apple’s retail stores as they reopen. “This is an exciting step towards delivering our vision to bring eero to more customers and homes around the world, providing them with a safe and reliable network for their smart home,” Eero’s blog post reads. Apple already sells mesh Wi-Fi systems from Linksys and Netgear, but it does not commonly sell Amazon products, many of which directly compete with its own offerings. Amazon didn’t start selling Apple products until late 2018 (and its selection...

Multiple people say Chris Hemsworth’s workout app, Centr, charged them up to a $99 or more subscription fee without warning, even after they attempted to cancel a free trial. The app has been flooded with complaints across Instagram, Facebook, and app stores, with users calling the company “sneaky” and a “scam” and demanding refunds. Multiple fitness apps have offered free trials during the COVID-19 pandemic, and known good-body-haver and app founder Chris Hemsworth did the same with his Centr fitness app, offering new users a free, six-week trial they could cancel at any time. The app, which launched in February 2019, combines fitness with meditation and meal planning. It ended up being something not everyone wanted, only using it a few times, and many attempted to cancel the pricey subsc...