Новости за 28.10.2021

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Amazon wants to avoid holiday shipping delays as much as you do. The company said today that it plans to spend “several billion dollars” to avoid problems during the holidays, which might extend from product delivery issues to keeping items in stock. The money will be spent on increased pay for workers, heightened shipping costs, and mitigating supply chain issues.

Vjeran Pavic/The Verge

The company unveiled a new name and vision for the future in its keynote

Photo by Erin Clark/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

There’s good news in the latest version of the White House budget deal: the proposed federal tax credit for new electric bike purchases has survived the most recent round of Congressional bloodletting. Not only that, but it’s been restored to its former glory of 30 percent, after the House of Representatives slashed it to 15 percent.

A collage of Meta logos. | Image: Meta

The company formerly known as Facebook just revealed its new name, Meta. And while that change brings a whole lot of questions, there’s one that many of us at The Verge have been pondering for about 30 minutes: how does the Meta name change the acronym used to refer to the biggest tech companies in one fell swoop?

Dropbox will finally be updating its Mac app to natively support Apple Silicon sometime in the first half of 2022, the company confirmed today. A previous forum thread saw Dropbox staffers claim that a native app would require “a bit more support before we share your suggestion with our team.”

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Meta, formerly known as Facebook, is rebranding its hardware to match its new name. Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth announced that the company is phasing out its Oculus branding, including on the Oculus Quest virtual reality headset. Starting in 2022, the Oculus Quest product line will be known as the Meta Quest, while the Oculus App will become the Meta Quest App. The Facebook Portal video device is also getting rebranded to “Meta Portal” sometime in the next few months. Читать дальше...

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Facebook just announced that it will change its company name to Meta. The new name comes with a new logo, a blue M that looks kind of like a pretzel, and now that logo has replaced the iconic thumbs-up Like icon at the company’s global headquarters in Menlo Park.

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

After months of negotiations, President Joe Biden released the latest version of his Build Back Better framework on Thursday, advancing the landmark proposal into what will likely be its final phase before approval. The plan’s original $3.5 trillion budget resolution now sits at $1.75 trillion, unveiling scaled-back initiatives to tackle climate change and other social services.

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot | Image: NASA

NASA’s Juno spacecraft is revealing the massive structure of Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot, a gargantuan storm that’s been raging on the gas giant for centuries. By passing over the circular storm a couple times, Juno helped scientists confirm that the spot doesn’t just exist on the upper surface but extends hundreds of miles into the planet itself.

You can now buy Google’s newest Pixels, pending availability. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

Google’s new Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro have been announced, reviewed, and are now up for order. These Pixels promise new designs, new cameras, a uniquely designed Google Tensor CPU, and more.

The new Pixels are the best phones Google has ever made

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Sony’s PlayStation games on Steam are now published by PlayStation PC LLC instead of PlayStation Mobile. Forum posters at Resetera noticed the change yesterday, and it appears the PlayStation PC company was formed earlier this year. It could mean we’ll see Sony use more PlayStation PC branding in the future.

Brendan Hunt, Cristo Fernández and Jason Sudeikis in “Ted Lasso” | Image: Apple

Comcast’s X1 platform has slowly added apps to its library over the years, and this morning on the company’s earnings call, CEO Brian Roberts announced that the Apple TV app would join the roster soon, while Comcast’s Xfinity Stream app will launch on Apple TV devices.

‘Shadow Planet’ was made by Robin Sloan and Jesse Solomon Clark, aka The Cotton Modules, using OpenAI’s Jukebox AI music model.

The scare is over and the fun can begin. That’s how I tend to think of creative endeavors involving artificial intelligence these days. We’ve moved past, I think, hyperbolic claims about AI making human art redundant and can now enjoy all the possibilities this technology affords. In that light, Shadow Planet — a new album made as a three-way collaboration between two humans and AI ... Читать дальше...

One of the core promises of the Nintendo Switch — the ability to easily play multiplayer games on the go — has long been undone by a flimsy piece of plastic. While the original Switch model technically made it possible to whip out the tablet for some impromptu Mario Kart, the terrible kickstand made this impractical at best and dangerous (for your Switch’s screen) at worst. The latest iteration of the hardware finally fixes that — along with the showcase feature, a much-improved OLED screen —... Читать дальше...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The company is attempting to minimize its own research

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick sent a letter updating employees on the further steps he and the company will take to change its image in the wake of multiple sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits. Most notably, Kotick says that Activision Blizzard will employ a zero-tolerance harassment policy, waive arbitration in sexual harassment and discrimination claims, and the billion-dollar-net-worth CEO will take a massive pay cut — earning only... Читать дальше...

Image: Ford

BlueCruise, the “hands-free” driver assist feature that Ford sees as a viable competitor to GM’s Super Cruise and Tesla’s Autopilot, won’t reach car owners until the first quarter of 2022, the company’s executives said Wednesday night. The automaker had originally planned on pushing an over-the-air (OTA) software update activating BlueCruise for select Ford customers before the end of 2021.

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge

Rad Power Bikes announced that it had raised $154 million from investors as it seeks to grow its e-bike empire in the US and abroad. The company now claims it is the “most funded electric bike company in the world,” a little more than a month after Amsterdam-based VanMoof made the same claim.

Cloud gaming may have finally arrived — for some

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You can save up to $700 on LG’s brilliant C1 OLED today at multiple retailers. | LG

You can save up to $700 on one of the best TVs for gaming today, the LG C1. Right now, BuyDig’s digital storefront on eBay is selling the 55-inch model for $1,297 instead of $1,500, while adding $120 of eBay credit and a four-year extended warranty. Meanwhile, Costco and Amazon have the 65-inch versions for $1,800 and $1,797, respectively, though you’ll need to be a Costco member to take advantage of its discount. Читать дальше...

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge

Photographs from a historic moment in tech news history, the day a Gizmodo reporter published hands-on pics of the then-not-yet-announced iPhone 4, are now missing. And they’re not alone — vast quantities of pictures from G/O Media sites like The Onion, Jalopnik, and Deadspin (as well as Gizmodo) have been removed, reportedly intentionally, according to Gawker.

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

In 2020, Samsung weathered the pandemic by posting a record high for revenue in the third quarter of 66.96 trillion won. The company just revealed that it set another record for the same period in 2021, reaching 73.98 trillion won, or about $63 billion. While its revenue was up about 10 percent, Samsung says its profits grew by 26 percent from last year to hit 15.82 trillion won ($13 billion).

Photo by Alienware

Alienware’s new Aurora R13 gaming desktop comes with Intel’s newly released 12th Gen Alder Lake chip and a brand-new design. You can choose anything from the Core i5-12600KF up to an i9-1200KF, as well as a range of Nvidia graphics cards.