Technology

There’s a new iPad-related case in town from Pad & Quill: a case for Apple’s newly released Magic Keyboard, which is itself a $350 case for your iPad Pro. It’s called the Copertina, and it retails for $99.95. It looks a little bit like the hard cover of a book; it is made, apparently, from archival-quality buckram linen, which is also used in bookbinding. It is undeniably beautiful. And yet, its existence troubles me. Not all cases are created equally; we hold that particular truth to be self-evident. However, the question must be asked: why would you need a case to go over a case? Does the first case — which has a very nice keyboard that essentially turns your iPad Pro into a laptop — not adequately protect your thousand-dollar investment? Is the Copertina (Italian for “sleeve” or “pr...

Computer and phone accessory maker Belkin is developing an emergency ventilator in partnership with the University of Illinois to be used to treat COVID-19 patients, the two organizations announced today. Called the FlexVent, the gas-operated ventilator is a “single-use, emergency ventilator that can provide constant-flow, pressure-cycled ventilation automatically to patients in respiratory distress.” The FlexVent is currently under review by the Food and Drug Administration. Belkin and the University of Illinois have applied for an emergency use authorization, which allows medical products that haven’t been formally approved by the FDA to be used in emergencies or to treat life-threatening conditions. Image: Belkin Belkin said it “realigned our assets to serve the healthcare community” so...

A new high-resolution scan of The Night Watch lets you zoom in close enough to see all its small details: brushstrokes, small cracks around the eyes and noses, and even the facial expressions of every character. The Night Watch was painted in 1642 by Rembrandt van Rijn. The painting itself is famous for a few reasons, including its large size, measuring at 11.91 feet x 14.34 feet, and its use of light and shadow to emphasize specific characters in the painting. This new scan was published by the imaging team at the Rijksmuseum, a national Dutch museum based in Amsterdam. The release of the high-resolution image is part of a research and conservation initiative to conserve Rembrandt’s piece. This is not the first time the painting was brought online in high resolution, but this version stan...

Twobird is a new email application from Ginger Labs, the company behind popular note-taking application Notability, that wants to make email simpler and more powerful. Today, it’s launching fully after an early access beta that began in September last year. The “powerful-yet-simple” philosophy in Twobird manifests in two ways. The “simple” part lies in things like the slimmed-down UI that cuts out a lot of the cruft from emails like repeated signatures or complex formatting along with an automatic “Tidy Up” feature for clearing out your inbox and easy unsubscribing. But where Twobird tries to stand out is with new features layered on top that add collaborative notes and to-do lists directly in-line with emails. The result is an email app that feels a lot more like a real-time communication...

Waymo’s first external fundraising round, initially expected to bring in $2.25 billion for the self-driving company, just grew to $3 billion, thanks to the addition of some new investors. On March 2nd, Waymo announced its first outside investment round, with investors including Silver Lake, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Mubadala Investment Company, Magna International, Andreessen Horowitz, AutoNation, and Waymo’s parent company Alphabet. That round was extended to include a new crop of investors: funds managed by T. Rowe Price Associates, Perry Creek Capital, and Fidelity Management and Research Company. “COVID-19 has underscored how fully self-driving technology can provide safe and hygienic personal mobility and delivery services.” To date, Waymo has been an outlier in the world ...

Twitter will now let its employees work from home indefinitely, which was first reported by BuzzFeed News. CEO Jack Dorsey reportedly informed employees of the new policy in an email sent on Tuesday. “If our employees are in a role and situation that enables them to work from home and they want to continue to do so forever, we will make that happen,” a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement to The Verge. “If not, our offices will be their warm and welcoming selves, with some additional precautions, when we feel it’s safe to return.” The spokesperson also shared the following information about the company’s reopening plans and how it is thinking about business travel and events this year: Opening offices will be our decision, when and if our employees come back, will be theirs. With very ...

The Internet Archive is alerting users when they’ve clicked on some stories that were debunked or taken down on the live web, following reports that people were spreading false coronavirus information through its Wayback Machine. As NBC reporter Brandy Zadrozny noted on Twitter, the site includes a bright banner on one popular Medium post that was removed as misinformation. Its video archive also creates friction by making users log in to see some videos containing false information, like a reposted version of the conspiracy documentary Plandemic. These videos also include critical comments from Wayback Machine director Mark Graham who described the warnings to Zadrozny as an example of the “importance and value of context in archiving.” A post removed from Medium for making unsubstantiate...

Apple released a big update to Logic Pro X today, adding Live Loops, a beat sequencer, a revamped sampling tool, and more. Apple calls it the app’s “biggest update” since the music production software launched under its current name, Logic Pro X, in 2013. The new tools are particularly focused on electronic music, hip-hop, and beat making. The update adds in a pair of music creation tools that have been in GarageBand for several years now that let users quickly start tinkering with beats and sounds. Live Loops allows musicians to create beats out of a series of adjustable loops that can be dragged and dropped around a grid, and a new Step Sequencer feature lets you create beats by programming a pattern that they’ll play on. More compatibility between Logic and GarageBand These new features...

Google is taking one of its biggest steps yet toward permanently phasing out Google Play Music in favor of the company’s newer YouTube Music service. Beginning today, you can finally transfer your entire Google Play Music library — artists, albums, songs, playlists, purchased music, personal uploads, and recommendations — over to YouTube Music with just a few taps. This is a crucial process that some subscribers of Google Play Music have been waiting for before they’re comfortable making the transition that Google wants to see. YouTube Music will be your only streaming music option from the company later this year when Google Play Music is fully shut down. Google isn’t specifying exactly when that will occur, but it says customers will receive plenty of warning ahead of time. There’s a lot...

Google Play Music is going away at the end of the year, leaving YouTube Music as Google’s only streaming music service. But before that happens, you’ve got the chance to transfer over your music library, recommendations, purchased songs, and personal uploads to YouTube Music with just a few taps. This will ensure that you won’t lose any content when Google Play Music is eventually shut down. The transfer process can be done with an Android device, iPhone, or from the web. No matter which method you choose, all of your stuff gets moved over in the background, and you’ll be able to listen to YouTube Music and use the app like normal. With an Android phone or iPhone The process is the same for mobile devices regardless of whether you’re using Android or iOS. Make sure you’ve got the latest ve...

Uber has made an offer to buy Grubhub, with the potential for a deal to be reached as early as this month, according to a report from Bloomberg. The offer is said to be an all-stock takeover that would see Grubhub — currently valued at $4.5 billion — be absorbed into Uber’s larger operation. Uber operates its own food delivery service, Uber Eats, which is a rival of Grubhub. An October 2019 report had Uber Eats with roughly 20 percent of the delivery app market, while Grubhub had 30 percent. Both fell behind DoorDash, which controls 35 percent of the market and is the fastest-growing of the three. Buying Grubhub could catapult Uber from third place to first and give the company a huge advantage over DoorDash and other services. That Uber would want to invest more into its meal delivery off...

Disney is bumping up the release of its recording of the hit stage musical Hamilton by over a year. Instead of the planned theatrical release set for October 15th, 2021, it’ll be out on July 3rd, 2020, as a Disney Plus exclusive. It’s a huge move on Disney’s part. The company is effectively canceling its planned theatrical run for the Hamilton recording — which it reportedly paid a record-breaking $75 million for the worldwide rights to — to turn it into a streaming exclusive instead. The move from theatrical to digital also emphasizes just how much Disney needs content to put on Disney Plus now to keep customers interested in paying that $6.99 per month subscription. Suspended production on some of its most hyped original shows (like Marvel Studios-produced Falcon and the Winter Solider, ...