[ad_1] Verizon (Engadget’s parent company) will keep offering additional mobile data for a while longer to help people deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. The carrier is adding another 15GB of LTE data to regular and small business shared data plans, including hotspots, for the entire month of May. You won’t have to do a thing […]
Category: covid-19
Bird adds a ‘Warm Up Mode’ for gentler acceleration
[ad_1] Scooter safety will still be a problem when it’s clear to start travelling again, and Bird thinks it can help assuage newcomers to its sharing service when people return to the streets. It’s piloting a Warm Up Mode feature that accelerates the e-scooter more gently than usual — you won’t risk flying off because […]
YouTube Originals launches a star-studded slate of COVID-19 content
[ad_1] The first of the new Originals, Money Talks: Taxes, is already available. It features financial experts answering questions about filing taxes and the COVID-19 stimulus check. Premiering later this month, the weekly series Stay Home With: Yungblud will follow the UK musician trying to shoot a music video and write new songs from an […]
Israel stops using phone tracking to enforce COVID-19 quarantines
[ad_1] Israel’s use of phone tracking technology to track COVID-19 patients has come to a partial end. A parliamentary oversight committee has halted use of the tracking to enforce quarantines after raising privacy concerns. The privacy violations outweigh the benefits, committee member Ayalet Shaked said — the phone monitoring tech doesn’t help much when police […]
Clear skies and social distancing help Europe shatter solar energy records
[ad_1] “This is an astonishing feat and indicates only the beginning of what the industry is capable of,” said Dr Nina Skorupska, CEO of REA, a UK trade association for renewable energy and clean technology. As Bloomberg reports, Germany set a 24-hour record of 32.23 gigawatts on the same day. Spain, meanwhile, peaked with 6.34 […]
Snapchat users surge amid coronavirus pandemic
[ad_1] Snapchat just reported its best growth in a long time: the app added 11 million new users this quarter $SNAP pic.twitter.com/v6jmnLuYhS — Karissa Bell (@karissabe) April 21, 2020 But not all of Snapchat’s growth is due to the pandemic. “While we observed higher engagement in the final weeks of the quarter, as many in […]
GM’s Maven car-sharing service is shutting down
[ad_1] The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed GM’s Maven car-sharing service. Customers are receiving notices that Maven is no longer available “effective immediately.” In its messaging, the company cited business performance, the industry and “what’s going on with COVID-19” as key factors. We’ve asked GM for comment. In a statement to The Verge, global innovation VP […]
France asks Apple to lift Bluetooth limits to further its coronavirus tracker
[ad_1] France has asked Apple to lift a technical obstacle that it says is standing in the way of rolling out a contact-tracing application designed to manage and monitor the spread of COVID-19. The app — similar to that currently being developed by Apple and Google, and which has become a part of daily life […]
Kickstarter’s live project count is down 35 percent from last year
[ad_1] Crowdfunding is taking a serious hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A Kickstarter internal memo from CEO Aziz Hasan obtained by The Verge indicates that new projects have dropped by 35 percent year-over-year with “no clear sign of rebound.” The steep drop has led to the company discussing “potential layoffs” with the Kickstarter employee […]
Microsoft blood bot helps recovered COVID-19 patients donate plasma
[ad_1] “We are now convinced that the CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance has a real chance to save lives, at significant scale, and possibly much sooner than other approaches currently being developed,” Microsoft wrote. Eventually, Microsoft hopes to make the bot available through other web, social and search channels. It will first recruit donors in the US, […]