Technology

Chinese EV startup Nio announced its first-quarter results last week and, by most accounts, the Tencent-backed company appears to have weathered the impact of COVID-19. That argument was further bolstered on Thursday when Nio released strong May delivery figures. But Nio also recently finalized a crucially-timed $1 billion bailout from a local government in China, and the price the company had to pay to survive is becoming increasingly apparent. Now Nio — which is billed as an independent startup with ambitions to sell cars in Europe and the US, and even has offices in London, Munich, and Silicon Valley — is more anchored to the whims of the Chinese government than before. And owners of Nio shares that trade on the New York Stock Exchange have had an extra layer of abstraction placed betwe...

Instacart is adjusting how it handles customer tips following the announcement last week of a congressional inquiry into the practice of tip-baiting, in which Instacart allows customers to promise big tips for shoppers only for those customers to later rescind the tip after the order is dropped off. Instacart now says it will shorten the window a customer can alter their tip from three days down to 24 hours. It’s also now requiring customers leave feedback for removing tips and pledging to deactivate any customer who “consistently and egregiously engages in this type of behavior.” The company claims “only 0.25 percent of orders had a tip adjusted after 24 hours,” and that, “less than 0.5 percent of orders have tips removed after delivery.” Instacart is also expanding its in-app cash-out fe...

SimRefinery, an all-but-forgotten oil refinery simulator from the studio behind SimCity, has been rediscovered and uploaded to the web as a playable game, ArsTechnica reports. The existence of the game came to light last month after it appeared in a wide-ranging report about Maxis’ little-known business simulations division. Now, however, an anonymous user has uploaded the game to the Internet Archive, where it’s actually playable in a browser thanks to a built-in DOSBox emulator. The game’s discovery came about after Ars covered a lengthy report about Maxis Business Simulations, the SimCity studio’s attempt at making business-focused simulators. Soon, one anonymous Ars commentor reported that they actually had a copy of SimRefinery, obtained via a chimerical engineering friend of theirs. ...

This week on The Verge’s flagship podcast The Vergecast, co-hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn welcome back senior science reporter Loren Grush and Silicon Valley editor Casey Newton to discuss their recent reporting on SpaceX and Facebook, respectively. Last Saturday, SpaceX successfully launched its first two people into orbit. Loren explains SpaceX’s mission, partnering with NASA, and what the future of spaceflight looks like going forward. In the second half of the show, Casey explains why Facebook employees are walking out in protest over posts by Donald Trump and how Facebook is handling the controversy in contrast to other social media companies like Twitter and Snap. Of course, our hosts are also able to fit in some gadget news at the end of the show. The Sonos Arc is now available ...

Sony is discounting the cost of its PS Plus online subscription and PS Now cloud game streaming service at Amazon, so now is the time to top off your account. Subscribing to one of these services usually costs $60 for a one-year subscription, but right now each one costs $42. You may know this already, but PS Plus is Sony’s subscription for PS4 that allows multiplayer gaming, and it provides free games and discounts to members. PS Now is its cloud streaming service that lets you stream and download some PS4, PS3, and PS2 games on your console, as well as on your computer — you don’t even need a PS4 to take advantage of this one. So, whether you just want one or both subscriptions, today is a good time to buy. Image: HBO Also happening at Amazon is a promotion that lets you buy two single s...

Whether you’re shopping for your first iPad or upgrading from a previous generation, figuring out which Apple-made tablet is best for you can be confusing. There are a bunch of models out there, which makes it hard, and a new version usually comes out each year. And since most of them look similar, it becomes even more difficult to shop with confidence. Let’s break it down. Currently, Apple sells five different models. In order of most affordable to most expensive, there’s the 10.2-inch iPad, the 7.9-inch iPad mini, the 10.5-inch iPad Air, the 11-inch iPad Pro, and the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. Thankfully, your odds at picking a good tablet are greater than 1 in 5. Each of them is a really good tablet in its own way, but it’s important to find the right tablet for you. What does the “right” tabl...

President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday allowing major infrastructure projects and energy projects to move forward without rigorous environmental review. Agencies would be able to waive provisions put in place by cornerstone environmental laws like the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). That would apply to projects like new mines, pipelines, and highways, reports The Washington Post. The move is aimed at spurring recovery from the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. An economic emergency, Trump claimed, gives the president authority to essentially suspend environmental laws. “Agencies should take all reasonable measures to speed infrastructure investments and to speed other actions in addition to such investments that will strength...

Google has tweaked the appearance of the compose button in Gmail’s Android app. First spotted by 9to5Google, the old button, a small “floating action button” with a plus in it, is now an oblong button containing a pen icon along with the word “Compose.” It minimizes into its old circle shape when you scroll down your list of emails. Ultimately, though, I’d still argue that the bottom-right of the screen is a bad place for the app’s most important button. I’m sure that Google’s floating compose buttons — which it uses across other G Suite apps like Drive and Docs — are the result of hours of testing that show that users easily find buttons when they’re positioned on the bottom right of the screen. I don’t doubt that there are objectively good reasons for them. The old button was a cross con...

Let’s conclude what turned out to be Free Speech Week on The Interface with a look at a case involving the co-chairman of Facebook’s new Oversight Board, a Zoom recording of his law school class, and the N-word. Can you use a racist slur on Facebook? The answer is probably not, but also maybe. The company’s community standards prohibit “direct attacks” on people based on their race. But the company also published a blog post in 2017 laying out some of the nuances involved in deciding whether a slur is, in fact, an attack, which often depends heavily on context that goes beyond the written word. Later this year, some of the hardest decisions about whether a post should stay up on Facebook will be made by an independent Oversight Board. The board, whose initial members were announced last mo...

Gas stations in Germany will be required to provide charging for electric vehicles as part of the country’s €130 billion coronavirus stimulus package, Reuters reports. In addition, the government is also increasing its subsidy for electric vehicles by €3,000 to €6,000 for cars costing less than €40,000. Combined, these measures could be a big boost for electric car adoption in a country where many of the world’s biggest automakers are headquartered. Electric vehicles are currently relatively uncommon in the country. According to Reuters, less than 2 percent of the cars sold in Germany last year were electric, compared to 32 percent for diesel cars and 59.2 percent for petrol. A key limiting factor for adoption is range anxiety, with customers worried that they won’t be able to recharge if ...

On Wednesday, LinkedIn hosted a town hall about racial justice in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd. The forum was supposed to be an opportunity for employees to come together and discuss how they could support one another. Instead, the conversation turned suddenly hostile, as people used the video chat’s anonymous commenting feature to defend racist sentiments and question the efficacy of the protests. The comments were first reported by The Daily Beast; The Verge has independently confirmed them. “Blacks kill blacks at 50 times the rate that whites kill blacks,” wrote one employee. “Usually it is the result of gang violence in the inner city. Where is the outcry?” Another employee said, “As a non-minority, all this talk makes me feel like I am supposed to feel guilty of my s...

A pair of alarming videos appeared to show at least one Caviar delivery worker being arrested by New York City police on Thursday, allegedly for violating the city’s curfew imposed this week in response to demonstrations protesting the death of George Floyd and systemic police brutality. But the worker and other on-demand food delivery app contractors are permitted to work in the city, even past curfew, based on a designation as essential workers by city officials. Caviar parent company DoorDash tells The Verge it is “alarmed” by the reports of the arrests and that it is “prepared to provide them with our support.” “food delivery workers are deemed ‘essential’ and permitted to travel.” “We are alarmed by reports that a courier appears to have been arrested this evening in New York City sho...