Team

A podcast app is exposing subscribers-only shows

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge The beauty and misery of private RSS feeds There’s only supposed to be one way to hear exclusive podcast content from sports host Scott Wetzel: by paying $5 a month to subscribe to his Patreon. But the show’s also been available on a smaller podcasting app for free…. Read more

What actually makes something ‘flushable’?

Go to any drugstore or supermarket, and it’s easy to find wipes and other supplies labeled “flushable.” It’s totally fine to flush those wipes down the toilet, the packaging claims. No problem at all. But according to sewage plants and wastewater experts, those so-called “flushable” products are actually a big problem. They might be flushable… Read more

Instagram blames ‘enforcement error’ for removal of posts about Al-Aqsa Mosque

Instagram removed and restricted posts related to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem after its moderators confused its name with a group designated as a terrorist organization. In an internal company message first obtained by BuzzFeed News, a lead on the company’s Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy team called the removals “enforcement errors.” Facebook, which owns… Read more

‘Misogynistic’ Apple hire is out hours after employees call for investigation

Antonio García Martínez is no longer working at Apple hours after employees circulated a petition calling for an investigation into his hiring. Martínez, a former Facebook product manager on the ad targeting team, authored a controversial book about Silicon Valley where he expressed misogynistic views on women. “We are deeply concerned about the recent hiring… Read more

AMD Goes Fishing for Navi 24, Catches a ‘Beige Goby’

Home News (Image credit: AMD) AMD has begun to enable support of its smallest GPU in the RDNA2 family (aka Navi 20-series) in Linux, which revealed its internal codename, the Beige Goby, reports Phoronix. Not the most exciting of fish names, but let’s continue. The enablement means that the entry-level RDNA2 graphics processor is on track… Read more

Zuma Lumisonic: an ultra-compact speaker light from the engineer of B&W’s Nautilus

Home News (Image credit: Zuma) New British tech company Zuma has launched what it is calling a “world first high-performance product that combines audio and light to give users an incredible immersive experience”. The Zuma Lumisonic is an ultra-compact two-way loudspeaker with a low-energy LED light, all housed within an easily installable ceiling light fixture…. Read more

The original Xbox background is here to haunt the Xbox Series X / S

The Xbox has gone through several visual periods during its life span, from an edgy and yet somehow dorky green alien thing, to a modern look that could be described as “I know how to use Excel but I can still have fun.” But like stumbling on a Facebook album from high school, you can… Read more

Slate is selling audiobooks that you can listen to through your podcast app

Slate is getting into the audiobooks business. The online magazine and podcast subscription seller is launching its own audiobook store today in partnership with multiple publishing companies. The store will list and sell popular titles but with the added benefit of making the audio accessible through listeners’ preferred podcast app instead of a separate audiobook-only… Read more

Dota 2’s The International returns in August with $40 million prize pool

One of the biggest esports tournaments in the world is coming back for 2021. Today, Valve announced that The International, the annual Dota 2 championship, will return after a one-year hiatus caused by the pandemic. This year’s iteration will take place in Stockholm, with the group stage starting on August 5th. The International is well-known… Read more

The Nintendo Switch is finally getting a $10 calculator app

We’re in a relatively quiet period for Switch releases while we wait for Skyward Sword’s remaster to release in July. Thankfully, today marks the arrival of a new $10 calculator app on Nintendo’s console, which should stop your machine from gathering too much dust over the coming months. Hell yeah. Math. The app, which was… Read more

Instacart tells entry-level team to return to office, senior managers can stay home

Instacart is shifting to a primarily remote-first workplace, but employees say the company has arbitrarily chosen which teams have to come into the office in a way that hurts junior employees. Workers on the central operations team — which includes logistics and trust and safety — have been told they need to return to the… Read more

Meet the real Alexa: voice actor reportedly responsible for Amazon’s AI assistant revealed

Amazon’s Alexa has a voice familiar to millions: calm, warm, and measured. But like most synthetic speech, its tones have a human origin. There was someone whose voice had to be recorded, analyzed, and algorithmically reproduced to create Alexa as we know it now. Amazon has never revealed who this “original Alexa” is, but journalist… Read more

The team behind Alto’s Adventure is launching a new app — and studio — aimed at kids

Snowman is best-known for games like Alto’s Adventure and Skate City, but soon the company will be exploring a very different realm: children’s apps. Today, Snowman announced an upcoming game called Pok Pok Playroom, which will be launching on May 20th on the App Store. It’s a charming, minimalist experience aimed at kids between two… Read more

NASA’s asteroid-punching spacecraft begins its trek back home

The NASA spacecraft that snatched a sample of rocks from the distant Bennu asteroid last year fired up a suite of thrusters on Monday and committed to its two-year journey back home. The maneuver kicks the minivan-sized spacecraft, dubbed Osiris-REx, onto a winding cosmic path around the Sun and toward Earth’s orbit. When it returns… Read more

Best sports games for Xbox One 2021: Take on the competition in these top titles

(Pocket-lint) – Whether your chosen sport is golf, football, basketball or something else entirely, there’s a good chance there’s a simulation out there that you can fire up on your console and enjoy. With the arrival of a newer generation, some of the latest and greatest sports games are available at an excellent rate on… Read more