Новости за 04.11.2021

Apple is reportedly going to lift mask requirements for customers at some of its retail stores in the US. | Getty Images

Apple is reportedly planning to begin ending mask requirements for customers at some of its US retail stores as early as Friday (via Bloomberg). The company told employees about the change in an internal memo on Thursday, Bloomberg reported, saying the decision was based on a decline in coronavirus cases and a rise in vaccination rates.

Sometimes there’s no way around it — you’ve got to use an app. If you need to sign a PDF document from your Android phone, that’s simply how you’ve got to go — unlike iOS, which lets you create a signature using its built-in Markup app, you need to find a third-party source. There are a variety of apps available, but the most well-known is the free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

DoorDash is adding a set of tools for its delivery workers called “SafeDash,” which includes a way to contact an agent from the ADT security company or to call 911 through ADT. The company is first launching the tool in major cities like Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco, but says it’ll roll out to all its US couriers by the end of the year.

Four Riot games are now available on the Epic Games Store. | Image: Epic Games

Riot Games’ League of Legends, Valorant, Teamfight Tactics, and Legends of Runeterra are now available to download from the Epic Games Store, the two companies announced Thursday. They’re free to download and play, just like they are from Riot. When you get them from the Epic Games Store, your computer will install the Riot Client, Riot’s new unified launcher, which is where you can actually install and launch the individual games. Читать дальше...

Climate activists target Facebook with ice protest in front of the US Capitol, on November 4, 2021 in Washington D.C, United States. Activists bring 5000lb iceberg to have it melt in front of the United States Capitol to protest Facebook’s role in promoting climate misinformation. | Photo by Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

As world leaders scramble to forge global agreements in Glasgow this month in a last-ditch effort to avert the worst of the climate crisis, there’s a threat... Читать дальше...

Photo by Micah Singleton / The Verge

A new Alphabet company will use artificial intelligence methods for drug discovery, Google’s parent company announced Thursday. It’ll build off of the work done by DeepMind, another Alphabet subsidiary that has done groundbreaking work using AI to predict the structure of proteins.

Image: Cash App

Square has announced that people over 13 years old can use Cash App to deposit and spend money or send it to friends. The app was previously only available to people aged 18 or older, and while minors will have to get their parent or guardians’ permission to use the app (and that parent-figure will have significant oversight), they’ll still be able to use some of the app’s most popular features.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Verizon and AT&T are delaying the rollout of their wider 5G networks after the Federal Aviation Administration warned that the new wireless technology could interfere with the safety systems of some aircraft, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Jinx in Fortnite. | Image: Epic Games and Riot Games

One of the biggest games in the world is getting a character from one of the other biggest games in the world. League of Legends’ Jinx, a star of the upcoming Netflix series Arcane, is the latest gaming character to join Fortnite. You’ll be able to buy her skin in the Fortnite item shop starting Thursday at 8PM ET.

Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight venture Blue Origin has lost out on its lawsuit against NASA over a contract to build the space agency’s next human lunar lander. The judgement puts an end to Blue Origin’s monthslong quest to receive government funding to develop the company’s lander, called Blue Moon, for NASA.

Elden Ring, the newest Souls game from FromSoftware, was featured in a livestream event showing off 15 minutes of new footage — the biggest chunk of gameplay we’ve seen yet. The preview debuted some exciting, never-before-seen features like item crafting and a very detailed world map while also giving us a glimpse of what’s sure to be a crowd favorite — the spirit horse.

Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

Last year, a small company called Backbone Labs released arguably the best iPhone gaming controller on the market right now, the Backbone One. Starting Thursday, you’ll be able to use that controller with many more devices — including Android phones — though it won’t work exactly as you might expect and requires a new Backbone Plus subscription to set it up.

Image: HBO Max

Warner Bros. may be putting a solid contender in the annual competition for the worst Christmas movie if the official trailer for 8-Bit Christmas is anything to go by. Picture the kid from Jingle All The Way having to embark upon a wacky adventure to find himself the perfect toy for Christmas, told through a How I Met Your Mother-style framing device, and you’re pretty much there.

Image: Google

Google is preparing to beta test new search filters in Google Drive, which will hopefully make it easier to find the exact file you’re looking for. Dubbed “search chips,” the feature adds a line of filters to the top of the Drive interface, letting you limit your search by things like file type, last modification date, or which other users are associated with a specific file.

A human stem cell.

In 2019, the Food and Drug Administration won a major victory when a judge shut down a clinic in Florida claiming to treat everything from back problems to heart diseases with stem cells. The decision was additional juice for the FDA to regulate the growing industry, which sells risky, unproven stem cell procedures as cure-alls.

An artistic rendering of a potential Earth-like exoplanet | Image: NASA

Laying the groundwork for the next few decades of astrophysics

Aurora, the startup that was founded by the former head of Google’s self-driving car project, has officially begun trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol “AUR.” It’s a significant milestone for the AV industry, which has struggled with overinflated expectations, missed deadlines, shuttered businesses, and a host of technological challenges.

Intel’s latest chips fight back against AMD

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Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images

The Biden administration on Thursday announced a rule that requires private businesses with 100 or more employees to ensure their workers are either vaccinated or tested for COVID-19 on at least a weekly basis. This new push to bump vaccination rates comes after the White House set a rule requiring federal contractors to establish plans ensuring their employees are vaccinated against COVID-19.

Our new documentary now streaming on your TV

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Image: Amazon

If you’re in need of an affordable 4K TV that punches above its price class before the Black Friday shopping craze begins, Insignia’s F50 QLED 4K TV might be exactly what you’re after. Normally $650, it’s just $400 at Best Buy and Amazon. The F50 is one of the company’s latest models, and it’s a big upgrade over its previous Fire TV Edition models. The F50 still features Amazon’s Fire TV software built in, with the ever-helpful Alexa just a button press and ping word away... Читать дальше...

Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

Nintendo had a relatively quiet quarter for Switch sales, with 3.83 million units shipped between July and September. That’s a big drop on the same period last year, when the company moved 6.86 million units. Nintendo has now sold 92.87 million Switch consoles to date.

Forza Horizon 5. | Image: Microsoft

Forza Horizon 5 is an absolutely stunning showcase of the Xbox Series X. Cars look incredible, and I’ve loved taking in the game’s lush and colorful landscapes as I’ve raced through the streets of Mexico blasting classical music. On a console that’s largely lacking in big-name exclusives, it’s one of the rare games that really shows what the latest Xbox is capable of. Turns out it’s also a fantastic portable game.

Image: Nintendo

The major 2.0 update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons is now available to download, which is somewhat surprising because Nintendo previously said it wouldn’t be released until November 5th. That means you’ll be able to dive into all the new features two days earlier than expected.

The Sonos Roam. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

When Sonos purchased a privacy-focused voice assistant Snips in 2019, it strongly implied that it planned to build an assistant that would “add to our customers’ ease of use and control” instead of going head-to-head with bigger assistants from other big tech companies. Nearly two years later, we might be close to being using the company’s homegrown assistant, as a Reddit user found code in the Sonos app that appears to show voice commands for Sonos Voice Control (via Protocol). Читать дальше...