LG's G4 is now available in the US

The phone for Android diehards is now available from the Uncarrier. T-Mobile today launched online sales of the LG G4, pricing it at $599.76 outright or $0 down with 24 monthly payments of $24.99. The G4 is available in either metallic gray or brown leather — and apparently T-Mobile has an exclusive on the latter option among US carriers. Sprint will begin selling the G4 next week and will offer a black leather option, and US Cellular will also launch sales on June 4th. Verizon Wireless and AT&T have not yet revealed their own release dates. T-Mobile says it will begin shipping online orders out immediately, which means early buyers will get a jump on those who prefer to buy in-store; the G4 will hit T-Mobile retail shops on June 3rd.

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LG's G4 is now available in the US

ABC completely misses the point, invites Amy Schumer to be The Bachelorette

ABC has invited one of the greatest comics alive, Amy Schumer, to be its next Bachelorette. She shouldn't take the gig. No woman should.

This season of The Bachelorette is determined to destroy the series. After a tasteless two-night season premiere that, for the first time, let a group of men choose between two women who would be this year's Bachelorette, viewers were shown a "this season on" preview montage. Usually, this is where ABC parades the most extravagant dates, majestic sunsets, juicy smooches, and a handful of dramatic showdowns between the men trying to court the woman of their shared dreams.

This season is determined to destroy the series

The first half of the preview delivered as expected, but the second half boiled the...

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ABC completely misses the point, invites Amy Schumer to be The Bachelorette

Watch Jason Segel become David Foster Wallace in the first trailer for The End of the Tour

James Ponsoldt's The End of the Tour, starring Jesse Eisenberg and Jason Segel, debuted at Sundance last winter to rave reviews probably for a few reasons. First, as a movie about David Foster Wallace, it's less a biopic and much more a considered portrait of an author wrestling with his fame. Second, Jason Segel is excellent in his portrayal of Wallace, pained and forever on the offensive against a journalist (Eisenberg) so focused on his genius. The movie is powerful and moving, and its first trailer doesn't hide that fact. Thankfully, audiences will be able to see it in full when it debuts in theaters on July 31st.

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Watch Jason Segel become David Foster Wallace in the first trailer for The End of the Tour

Mice develop thinner skin after just three months in space

Experiencing weightlessness for prolonged periods of time may cause skin to become thinner, according to a very small study of mice that spent three months aboard the International Space Station.

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Mice develop thinner skin after just three months in space

The big drone companies are investing millions to create new drone startups

Three weeks ago, DJI became the most valuable consumer drone company on earth when the venture capital firm Accel invested $75 million in the company. Today the partnership between the two parties deepens, with the announcement of the Skyfund, a joint initiative to invest in drone startups and more broadly across the booming field of robotics and intelligent machines.

Make it rain

They aren't alone. This morning Airware, one of the better-funded drone startups in Silicon Valley, announced it was launching its own venture, the Commercial Drone Fund, with plans to pour millions into exactly the same strategy. The fund will be overseen by Airware CEO Jonathan Downey. It announced the first two recipients this morning, RedBird and Sky...

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The big drone companies are investing millions to create new drone startups

RZA is directing a film about youth and hip-hop starring Azealia Banks

RZA is making more movies. Deadline reports that the Wu-Tang rapper is working on a new film entitled Coco, starring fellow rapper Azealia Banks in her first lead role. Banks, who just released a critically-acclaimed album in Broke with Expensive Taste, will play a young artist trying to start a career in hip-hop while still trying to balance her parents' dream that she finish college. She'll be joined by the likes of Common, Jill Scott, Pitch Perfect's Hana Mae Lee, and Orange Is the New Black's Lorraine Toussaint. Filming is said to begin soon.

Coco will be RZA's second film in the director's chair. His last feature, the kung-fu epic The Man with the Iron Fists, saw release in 2012. Since then, he has divided his time between...

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RZA is directing a film about youth and hip-hop starring Azealia Banks

Google starts answering questions on your phone before you finish asking them

Google is rolling out an update for mobile search that displays answers to certain queries before you've finished typing them. Although instant search results have been available on desktop and mobile for a while now, this tweak puts results directly into the autocomplete bar instead of updating the whole page. The update was first spotted by The Next Web, although we've yet to hear anything official from Google itself.

We tried the function out with a number of queries, and when it works, it seems like a smart and obvious way to deliver simple facts. However, there were quite a few misses (notably nothing for "how" questions such as "how many centimeters in an inch") and the suggested results had an odd obsession with Paul Walker —...

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Google starts answering questions on your phone before you finish asking them

Charter vows to uphold net neutrality as it seeks Time Warner Cable deal

Having just witnessed the sudden collapse of Comcast's Time Warner Cable takeover, Charter is already looking to assuage concerns of investors and the public about its own newly announced merger attempt. Tom Rutledge, who is Charter's current chief executive, pledged during a conference call that New Charter would keep away from data caps and some of Comcast's unpopular business tactics. "Through Charter, we’ll offer consumers a broadband product that makes watching online video, gaming, and engaging in other data-hungry applications a great experience, including at peak times," Rutledge said during a conference call yesterday.

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Charter vows to uphold net neutrality as it seeks Time Warner Cable deal

Splatoon is an online shooter for people who hate online shooters

Nintendo plays it safe too often.

The company has become known almost exclusively for a small list of franchises. When you buy a new piece of Nintendo hardware, you do it because you'll get to play a new Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros., and (eventually) The Legend of Zelda. Those games are great, but you already know what to expect: it's pretty rare when Nintendo releases a game that's genuinely surprising. But when it does, the results can be incredible, like the wacky life sim Tomodachi Life or small experiments like the black-and-white puzzle game Boxboy.

Splatoon is the most surprising release from Nintendo in years. It's an online-focused, competitive shooter where groups of players team up to fight each other across a series of...

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Splatoon is an online shooter for people who hate online shooters

Innovative smartphone design isn’t dead, it’s just taking a really long nap

If it wasn’t for Samsung, this would be the most boring year for smartphone design ever. Let that sink in for a moment. The company that perfected the art of reissuing the same insipid plastic design is now the one that’s making the biggest strides forward. That is to Samsung’s credit, for enacting overdue changes in its phones, but also to the discredit of everyone else. Where have all the exciting new phones gone? Did they all perish when Nokia made the historic decision to sell off its mobile business? It certainly feels that way.

The new and improved HTC One M9 looks the same as the old and imperfect One M8. The Xperia Z4 is indistinguishable from the Xperia Z3. And if you haven’t yet seen the LG G4, just go look at a G3 with a...

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Innovative smartphone design isn’t dead, it’s just taking a really long nap

Author Chuck Palahniuk tells us why it's time to re-open Fight Club

“His theory is that there’s been a rock opera for every generation since Tommy and The Wall, and the millennials really haven’t had a rock opera. So he hopes it will be Fight Club.” Author Chuck Palahniuk is on the other end of the phone, and I’m struggling to match the calm, thoughtful voice I’m hearing with chaotic novels like Choke, Invisible Monsters — and of course, Fight Club. It’s the day before Palahniuk leaves on a book tour promoting his new collection of short stories, Make Something Up: Stories You Can’t Unread, but at the moment we’re talking about David Fincher’s aspirations for the Fight Club musical.

“He’s got Trent Reznor working on the score for one year. And after a year they expect to have enough of the primary...

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Author Chuck Palahniuk tells us why it's time to re-open Fight Club

World Cup sponsor logos redesigned to protest labor abuses in Qatar

Qatar has come under intense criticism in the lead-up to the 2022 World Cup, amid reports that new stadiums and luxury hotels are being constructed under labor conditions that amount to modern-day slavery. Nepalese workers, who comprise about 20 percent of Qatar's migrant labor force, were dying at a rate of one every two days as of late last year, according to The Guardian, often due to extreme heat and poor safety standards. The country's kafala labor system also ties migrant workers to their employers, who can confiscate passports and withhold pay as they see fit. Last week, The Guardian reported that many Nepalese workers were denied leave to attend funerals held after a massive earthquake struck their home country last month.

The...

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World Cup sponsor logos redesigned to protest labor abuses in Qatar

After ending Sean Connery's career, Fox is making another League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is getting a reboot. According to Variety, 20th Century Fox has decided to have another go at adapting Alan Moore's dark and wildly imaginative comic book series for the big screen. Although the comics themselves are much admired, Fox has so far had two failed attempts to get the franchise up and running. A movie adaptation in 2003 starring Sean Connery was financially successful but a bit of a critical flop (it was also Connery's last starring role — though that might just be coincidental), while a planned TV series in 2013 never made it out of development.

Let's hope the reboot gets it right this time

It's a shame, as the League has more potential than most comic book adaptations. It's basically T...

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After ending Sean Connery's career, Fox is making another League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie

First Click: You don’t have to be smart to sell millions of dumb TVs

The tide seems to be turning against Smart TVs. Just look at the uptick in stories saying “you shouldn’t buy one” or begging for sales of a dumb equivalent. Vlad explained the case in detail last year. Still, it’s damn near impossible to find a dumb TV with cutting edge specs. As such, there seems to be growing opportunity for a budget television maker like TCL or Hisense to step in with the right advertising campaign and make a killing. Hell, the tagline practically writes itself:

"Our TVs are dumb because you’re smart"

or

"They can’t outsmart our dumb TVs"

Diesel won a Grand Prix award at Cannes for its “Be Stupid” campaign back in 2010. The ads played off the idea that it’s better to be stupid than smart. Stupid is daring, it’s...

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First Click: You don’t have to be smart to sell millions of dumb TVs

Confused by the FIFA corruption news? John Oliver explained it last year

If you only pay attention to soccer once every four years for the World Cup, then this morning's news that a number of FIFA officials have been arrested on corruption charges might not strike you as interesting. However, to those with a passing interest in the world's most popular sport, this is very much a Big Deal. To get an idea of how long these arrests have been coming and just how corrupt FIFA is, it's best to watch John Oliver's rant on the subject from this time last year. "FIFA is a comically grotesque organization," Oliver says. "In fact, telling someone about the inner workings of FIFA for the first time is a bit like showing someone 2 Girls 1 Cup. You do it mainly so you can watch the horrified expressions on peoples' faces."...

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Confused by the FIFA corruption news? John Oliver explained it last year

Sure, let's put 'meme' in the dictionary, but call us when they add dank memes

Merriam-Webster has had, in its own words, a bit of a growth spurt, adding a clutch of new words to its unabridged dictionary. These include some genuinely great entries ("colossal squid" is the perfect name for a new cat and/or firstborn) but also a lot of boring-snoring internet words, including WTF, emoji, clickbait, photobomb, and meme. The thing is, I'm not sure if I really care.

savvy marketing from the suits at big Dictionary

I'm not objecting to these additions because they're not particularly new (the Oxford English Dictionary added LOL and OMG to its hallowed pages back in 2011), or because adding them is just more savvy marketing from the suits at Big Dictionary. It's just that there's something about seeing these words...

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Sure, let's put 'meme' in the dictionary, but call us when they add dank memes

Man breaks Guinness hoverboard record after standing on a drone

A Canadian inventor has set a new Guinness World Record for the farthest hoverboard flight, thanks to a homemade contraption that looks nothing like Marty McFly's ride of choice. The engineer, Catalin Alexandre Duru, broke the record this week on Lake Ouareau, Quebec, after riding his hoverboard for a distance of 905 feet and 2 inches — more than five times longer than the previous record. He did it using a propeller-based, drone-like prototype machine that lifted him to a height of about 15 feet above the lake's surface. Afterward, Duru said he undertook the challenge "to showcase that a stable flight can be achieved on a hoverboard and a human could stand and control with their feet."

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Man breaks Guinness hoverboard record after standing on a drone

Identity thieves nabbed 100,000 tax filings from the IRS

Identity thieves used social security numbers and other data to access the tax filings of more than 100,000 Americans this year, the IRS has admitted. In a statement, IRS commissioner John Koskinen said the "Get Transcript" feature, which which allows people to access tax returns and other filings from previous years, was targeted by "extremely sophisticated criminals" who were then able to obtain an estimated $50 million in fraudulently claimed tax refunds.

Security researcher Michael Krebs wrote about the problem back in March, but the IRS said it was was only alerted to the thefts when technicians noted a higher-than-usual number of people using the Get Transcript feature from February to mid-May. Koskinen said that of 23 million...

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Identity thieves nabbed 100,000 tax filings from the IRS

A tiny string of text can disable iPhone Messages

Apple device owners have discovered a string of text characters that, when received on an iPhone in Messages, can lock people out of the app and — reportedly in some cases — crash the phone. Users who receive the string with Messages open won't be able to go back to other conversations without crashing the app, while users who get the string on their lock screen won't be able to open the Messages app entirely.

People have already started using this forbidden string for evil, sending the code to others in a bid to block them from seeing Messages from any recipients. The effect is undone if the sender follows up with another message, but according to a legion of Twitter users, some nefarious jokesters are refusing to send replies to...

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A tiny string of text can disable iPhone Messages

The first trailer for the Point Break remake shows silly stunts and a sillier script

The bank-robbing antagonists of the original Point Break were a gang of surfers — sufficiently extreme for the '90s, perhaps, but obviously not wild enough for the upcoming remake. 2015's Point Break's villains are surfers, sure, but as the first trailer shows, they're also dirtbikers, snowboarders, wingsuiters, BASE jumpers, and partiers. Just in case you weren't convinced of their extreme-itude, some of them have even have tattoos.

On first glance, the remake appears to have lost something of the original's silliness, giving the death-defying proceedings a cold blue sheen that makes the movie look like a version of Twilight on motorbikes. But even from two-and-a-half-minutes of action, it's clear the script remains as ludicrous as...

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The first trailer for the Point Break remake shows silly stunts and a sillier script

Hot Topic is buying ThinkGeek

Back in the '90s, retailer Hot Topic gained a level of notoriety by gobbling up punk / alternative culture and style and repackaging it for mall-going teens across the country. (I'm not judging, I may have bought a few Tool t-shirts there in my day.) Now, the company is getting its hands into geek culture — Hot Topic just bought Geeknet, owners of the goofy ThinkGeek.com online shop. ThinkGeek is pretty well-known for its wide variety of kitschy, pop-culture focused offerings — the site's banner features huge properties like Marvel, Star Wars, Game of Thrones, and more. But it also has historically offered a host of weird, offbeat products like USB-powered beverage coolers, laser-projected keyboards, and all manner of other oddities.

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Hot Topic is buying ThinkGeek

Snapchat's Evan Spiegel live at Code Conference

Turning Snapchat into a business.

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Snapchat's Evan Spiegel live at Code Conference

SpaceX can now launch military and spy satellites with its Falcon 9 rocket

The US Air Force has certified SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket to launch military and spy satellites, according to Reuters. Currently, the control of those launches is dominated by the United Launch Alliance, a Boeing and Lockheed Martin consortium.

Elon Musk and SpaceX spent two years and more than $60 million to acquire the certification. The company will now compete for about one-third of these launches, as it will apparently won't be able to launch the largest satellites until its bigger rocket — the Falcon Heavy — is built, tested, and certified on its own.

The heated battle between SpaceX and the ULA gets hotter

The battle between SpaceX and the ULA was heated long before today's certification. Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's president, c...

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SpaceX can now launch military and spy satellites with its Falcon 9 rocket

Would the medical research benefits of reclassifying LSD outweigh the risks?

Psychedelic drugs should be reclassified to encourage new research into their medical applications, a researcher argues in an opinion piece published in The British Medical Journal today. Before substances such as LSD were stigmatized during the "war on drugs" in the 1970s, studies suggested they could be useful in dealing with psychiatric disorders, writes James Rucker, a psychiatrist at King’s College London. But a number of restrictions —  some legal and some financial — have made studying potentially-helpful drugs far too difficult.

"Legal prohibition of some psychotropic substances continues to be a condition of UN membership," Rucker writes, "even though the original reasons for classifying them as such were largely fallacious."

I...

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Would the medical research benefits of reclassifying LSD outweigh the risks?

The Verge and Recode are joining forces

I'm excited to announce that The Verge's parent company Vox Media is acquiring Recode, the terrific tech business news site and conference business founded by Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg just over a year ago.

This is going to be fun.

If you've been following The Verge over the past year, you've noticed that we've aggressively expanded our coverage from tech to entertainment, science, and now transportation. That bet worked: The Verge is now bigger and more popular than ever. Over 24.5 million people visited the site in April, a 33 percent increase from last year, and we're delivering 40 million video streams a month.

But along the way, we made a big decision: The Verge is not a business site.

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The Verge and Recode are joining forces

Robert Rodriguez is directing a live-action Jonny Quest movie

Adding to an already massive field of upcoming cinematic retellings, Deadline reports that Warner Bros. is working on a live-action version of the classic 1960s series Jonny Quest, and Sin City director Robert Rodriguez is at the helm. He and Pirates of the Caribbean screenwriter Terry Rossio will both write the screenplay.

The Jonny Quest franchise happens to be one of Hanna-Barbera most beloved properties. The original 1960s show, which was heavily influenced by pulpy classics like John Carter of Mars, followed the sci-fi adventures of a young teenager and his family as they traveled across the globe. The show would spawn a number of later series, and a live-action film has been promised since 1995. At one point, Zac Efron was...

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Robert Rodriguez is directing a live-action Jonny Quest movie

Apple Maps' public transit directions might only support six cities at launch

It's puzzling that two and a half years after its launch, Apple Maps still doesn't support public transit directions, making it more or less useless during the more than 10 billion times each year that Americans ride the bus, take the train, or use some other form of alternative transportation. It was looking like Apple would finally remedy that in iOS 9 with the addition of public transit directions, but a new report from 9to5Mac says that the support will be pretty half-hearted. Apparently, public transit directions may only launch in six cities: New York, San Francisco, Toronto, London, Paris, and Berlin. There may also be some support in China.

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Apple Maps' public transit directions might only support six cities at launch

Oculus acquires 3D mapping company Surreal Vision to turn reality into a video game

Virtual reality company Oculus has acquired Surreal Vision, a UK company whose software can map and recreate the real world in a virtual one. Surreal Vision grew out of its three co-founders' Ph.D. research at Imperial College London; the team will now move to Oculus' lab in Redmond, Washington.

This is the latest of several acquisitions by Oculus, which was itself purchased by Facebook in March of 2014. After the Facebook buyout, it brought on the design team that helped create the Xbox 360 controller and Kinect, followed by motion-tracking company Nimble VR. In a blog post today, Surreal Vision gave us an idea of what it will be doing (emphasis added.)

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Oculus acquires 3D mapping company Surreal Vision to turn reality into a video game

Microsoft Office and Skype will come preinstalled on new Sony and LG Android tablets

Sony and LG will begin preinstalling some of Microsoft's biggest apps on their Android tablets, making them available to new buyers straight out of the box. Those apps include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Skype, OneNote, and OneDrive. That gives Skype, Office, and Microsoft's cloud services an important position, putting them right at the fingertips of new Android tablet owners who more than likely will be interested in finding apps to help them get work done. Microsoft is well aware of this, which is why it's been making these app distribution deals to try to gain a hold on mobile. It's also a bit of a bet that Android tablets will eventually take off.

In addition to Sony and LG, Microsoft is also announcing 18 other partners today,...

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Microsoft Office and Skype will come preinstalled on new Sony and LG Android tablets

What you need to know about space travel

I want to visit space before I die. I have no practical reason to do so. I just want to. Surely I'm not alone. There's something about the concept of space exploration that I pine to achieve. Which is a little silly, considering I haven't seen most of the planet I live on. And that I am not a scientist and I wouldn't really be achieving much on my trip. Still, I look up at night, and there waits space.

I invited The Verge's Science Editor and space expert Elizabeth Lopatto to provide odds on my tentative trip to space. Liz has an astonishing grasp on the history and science of space travel. Her recounting of humanity's efforts to see what is beyond this planet is inspiring. This was one of my favorite episodes to record, and I hope it's...

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What you need to know about space travel

Taco Bell is dropping artificial colors and flavors from its menu this year

If your Taco Bell order tastes a little funky next year, it might not be from the questionable quality of the meat. Today, everyone's favorite provider of FourthMeal announced that it will remove artificial colors and flavors, high fructose corn syrup, and added trans fats from its menu by the end of 2015.

If you need some inspiration to save your struggling startup you might want to take another look at your favorite late-night snack, because Taco Bell is a fast food chain that has mastered the art of the pivot. In the last few years it's put Doritos dust on its hard shells, it launched a breakfast menu with tiny waffle tacos, and it's working on filling Cap'n Crunch-covered donuts with something called "milk icing."

Taco Bell is the...

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Taco Bell is dropping artificial colors and flavors from its menu this year

Bill Nye wants you to stop looking for signs the universe cares about your problems

While Neil deGrasse Tyson is surely somewhere in space right now, exploring the vast wonders of the universe, friend and fellow scientist Bill Nye took off into the void recently to prove that the cosmos, in all its untold glory, really does care about you and your insufferable friends at SoulCycle. It's either that or we should just stop pretending it does.

In a new skit on Inside Amy Schumer, Nye appears on his own Spaceship of the Imagination to show that the universe, which we once believed was a chaotic collection of matter whose size can scarcely be comprehended, really exists to send cosmic guidance to yogurt-loving white women in their 20s. Can you imagine? It's as crazy and inspirational as to make, in Nye's words, "no fucking...

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Bill Nye wants you to stop looking for signs the universe cares about your problems

Drone crashes into reporter at Memorial Day parade, reporter surprisingly chill about it

A drone crashed into spectators at a Memorial Day parade, according to The Boston Globe. The drone was capturing footage of the parade in Marblehead, Massachusetts, and may have struck the wall of a building, before toppling to the earth.

One of the two people struck by the drone, The Boston Globe notes, was former NECN reporter Chris Yount, who had monitored drone regulation. "People went nuts because it's a drone," Yount told the paper. "I think there's a lot of controversy over licensing and operating drones."

Yount received and accepted an apology from the person flying the drone.

[Art by Chris Plante.]

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Drone crashes into reporter at Memorial Day parade, reporter surprisingly chill about it

Android's factory reset is a security problem. Here's how to fix it

How do you sell a phone without giving away the data on it? If you've used a phone even briefly, it's filled with all kinds of sensitive data, including passwords and login tokens alongside personal texts and photos, all of which need to be erased before you can safely put the phone up for sale. The standard answer is a factory reset, which wipes the memory and restores the phone's setting, but there's a growing body of evidence that, for Android phones at least, the factory reset isn't enough.

A study published last week revealed methods that can dig up incredibly sensitive data from supposedly wiped phones, including the login token used to sign into Google accounts. The core of the problem is flash memory, which limits how often a...

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Android's factory reset is a security problem. Here's how to fix it

The latest Humble Bundle is for Nintendo fans

The Humble Bundle has turned into a great way to grab cheap games for your PC or mobile phone, while also giving money to several worthy causes. But starting today, it's expanding to consoles as well; the latest bundle features a selection of indie games available for Nintendo devices. The base, pay-what-you-want bundle includes Guacamelee for the Wii U and Woah Dave and Mighty Switch Force on 3DS. Pay more than the average amount, and you can grab games like Steamworld Dig and OlliOlli as well. As with most Humble Bundles, more games will be added partway through the sale, which runs for the next two weeks. And while nothing has been announced just yet, the bundle could also mean more sales for more consoles in the future. "I hope this...

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The latest Humble Bundle is for Nintendo fans

Google's Roboto font for Android and Chrome is now open source

Google introduced the Roboto font nearly four years ago as part of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Since then, it's grown to be the default for Android and Chrome OS, and it's a big part of Google's overall Material Design language that we're seeing spread across many of its web services (like Inbox and Google Play Music) as well. Google released the font to the public not long afterwards, but today the company's taking things a step further and making the font open source — everything related to Roboto is now up on GitHub, including a "revamped font production toolchain" that was used to create the font in the first place.

It's an interesting move for Google — the company freely admits in its blog post announcing the release that...

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Google's Roboto font for Android and Chrome is now open source

Jamie xx's debut album is now streaming for free on iTunes

Jamie xx's debut solo album has become one of the most anticipated releases in a very crowded field this spring, and now the album is finally available to stream. A week ahead of its release, In Colour has started streaming for free on iTunes. It's one of the more interesting album previews to appear on iTunes, too — it includes an abstract and colorful visual component that moves throughout each track. The album is officially out and available to purchase next week, and it's definitely worth checking out ahead of time. In Colour already sounds like it has some of the most vibrant and danceable electronic tracks put out in a while.

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Jamie xx's debut album is now streaming for free on iTunes

Gigaom is being relaunched in August

Gigaom is being brought back to life. The pioneering tech site and its existing content have been purchased by Knowingly, a startup based in Austin, which plans to relaunch the publication on August 15th. The big catch is that Knowingly doesn't say what the new Gigaom will look like. Its entire staff was laid off after the site ran out of money in March, meaning that the relaunched site may be Gigaom in name only. On Twitter, Gigaom's former managing editor, Laura Owen, said that the site's most recent writers were not informed of the purchase, which suggests that they may not be involved.

Knowingly's CEO, Byron Reese, says that Gigaom will continue reporting on how technology is creating a "more prosperous," "more fair," and "more...

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Gigaom is being relaunched in August

What to expect from Google I/O 2015

Google's I/O 2015 conference starts Thursday with a monster 2.5-hour keynote. Android M, the next major version of Google's mobile operating system, is likely to lead the way. You can expect Google to run through its usual showcase of Android's latest and greatest features on stage, and it's likely the company will shine a similar spotlight on Android Wear and Android Auto.

But Google has also been keeping busy with Chrome OS, virtual reality, and its Project Fi cellular service. It's a thrilling time to be following the company, and you'll want to keep it locked on The Verge when Sundar Pichai takes the stage Thursday at 12:30PM ET. We'll be live from Moscone West bringing you all the news as it happens.

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What to expect from Google I/O 2015

Facebook begins adding critics' reviews to restaurant pages

Two weeks after starting to host news articles on its servers, Facebook said today it would add a new kind of editorial content: critics' reviews of restaurants, which are rolling out today to "select" restaurant pages in the United States. When you browse Facebook looking for restaurants, critics' reviews will now show up alongside reviews left by friends or other people who are not paid to eat all day and then complain that the lobster bisque was under-seasoned. It may help to goose interest in Facebook's local-search product, which hasn't yet done much to peel away eyeballs from similar products from Yelp and Google.

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Facebook begins adding critics' reviews to restaurant pages

Now that Android Auto is here, get ready to sell your car

On a recent trip to San Francisco, I crossed the bridge connecting SFO's terminals to board the light rail, commuting a couple stops down the line to the rental car garage. I walked past what seemed like 20 aisles of 100 cars each in the Avis section, eventually arriving at my ride for the week, a newer-model Mazda3. I just wanted to get going: I was exhausted, in the way a transcontinental flight exhausts you without even moving a muscle, and I was a little exasperated that my car was about as far from the garage's entrance as it could possibly be. (The perils of not being a Platinum member, or a Diamond member, or whatever it is they call you if you're a preferred rental-car client.)

But it's not that simple, of course. You can't...

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Now that Android Auto is here, get ready to sell your car

Samsung proposes an Android phone that transforms into a Windows laptop

Samsung has been thinking up new ways to transform smartphones into laptops. In a patent application filed last week, first spotted by Patently Mobile, Samsung describes a mobile device that runs Android and is able to switch over to Windows when inserted into a dock. Individually, these ideas aren't new — dual-OS devices and docking smartphones have been tried a number of times over the past several years — but they haven't been put together in a particularly straightforward way. Of course, this is only a patent application, so there's no guarantee that Samsung will actually make it.

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Samsung proposes an Android phone that transforms into a Windows laptop

See one large spoiler in motion on the set of Suicide Squad

Caution: reading beyond this graf will may spoil a key part of DC's upcoming Suicide Squad — at least until the trailer spoils it months from now. It's nothing too surprising, to be honest, but we don't want you to come into this unprepared. Cool? Cool.

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See one large spoiler in motion on the set of Suicide Squad

iPhone 6S said to come with Force Touch for power users

Apple appears to be bringing one of the most important — and divisive — features of the Apple Watch to the next iPhone. According to 9to5Mac, the iPhone 6S will include Force Touch and haptic feedback, allowing the phone to perform additional functions when pressure is applied to the screen.

While Force Touch allows for some smart new interactions — for instance, pressing harder on a fast-forward button to move ahead faster — it's also led to some confusion: you don't always know where Force Touch works or what it's going to do. That may be why, as 9to5Mac reports, the initial uses of Force Touch on the iPhone are said to be designed for "power users," meaning you won't have to use Force Touch in order to properly use an iPhone.

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iPhone 6S said to come with Force Touch for power users

WHO outlines global plan to tackle growing resistance to antibiotics

The World Health Organization (WHO) is marshaling resources to fight the growing threat of antimicrobial and antibiotic resistance. Earlier this week, member states of the United Nations gave unanimous support to a plan to fight what the WHO calls a "serious threat to global public health." The plan's objectives include better control over the use of existing antibiotics, tracking how resistance is developing and supporting investment into new drugs. Countries are expected to have national action plans addressing these points in place by 2017.

"We may be a bit late," Sally Davies, the UK's chief medical officer and the leader of the WHO's discussion of the plan, told The New York Times. "If you look at the trajectories of rising...

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WHO outlines global plan to tackle growing resistance to antibiotics

As it woos advertisers, Snapchat says 60 percent of young Americans are active users

A big glossy profile of Snapchat was published in Bloomberg this morning, and from the start, it sets out to elucidate that this is a company that, despite its youth and rambunctious attitude, is ready to become a serious business. There isn't a ton of new information on exactly how big Snapchat is — it's still referred vaguely as having more than 100 million active users — but the pitch to advertisers will be the details of that audience: more than 60 percent of Americans age 13–34 are claimed as active users.

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As it woos advertisers, Snapchat says 60 percent of young Americans are active users

apple’s most personal device forces us all to speak the same

when i write for the verge, i don’t write like this.

we have a style guide based on american english, journalistic conventions, and certain decisions about grammar. some of it i agree with; some of it i don’t. i am okay with this. adhering to the system is part of my job, and it makes the verge a better publication. i slip in and out of it without having to think much at all.

but i do have to think a little bit, which means it isn’t really me.

the way i write *without* thinking comes out when i send texts, tweets, line or slack messages, emails to my family, and anywhere else i enter text unburdened by shift keys and standardisation. it’s informed by where i grew up, who i’ve known, what i’ve read. all those things and more poured...

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apple’s most personal device forces us all to speak the same

Android Auto review

For years, the center consoles of cars have been dominated by “infotainment” systems, which are designed to control everything from music, to navigation, to climate systems. Though they’ve gotten better over the years, these systems have been almost universally terrible, with confusing interfaces, slow response, and an overwhelming number of options. As a result, the best in-car navigation and entertainment system is often the smartphone in your pocket.

Google and Apple are well aware of this, and that’s why last year both companies announced new in-car systems — Android Auto and CarPlay, respectively — that use your smartphone for navigation and music, bypassing the car’s native user interface. The idea behind both systems is that if...

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Android Auto review

The Mad Max video game looks like Fury Road crossed with GTA

There are a few reasons to be excited for Mad Max, the upcoming video game spin-off of the excellent Fury Road. For starters, the game is being developed by Avalanche Studios, the same developer behind the wild, open-world Just Cause series, and its publisher is WB Interactive, which has a solid history with licensed games like Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and the most recent Batman games. But more importantly, it's a chance to finally drive those insane, weaponized cars featured in the movies. "Car combat is our key feature," design director Magnus Nedfors tells Polygon. You can watch the latest trailer for the game above, with a first look at some of the gameplay — and be sure to check out Polygon's preview for a deeper look at the...

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The Mad Max video game looks like Fury Road crossed with GTA

Windows 10's phone companion aims to link a PC to any smartphone

Microsoft is planning to release a special phone companion app for Windows 10 that's designed to convince smartphone owners to bridge the gap between their handset and PC. The software maker is clearly hoping that its new companion app will convince iPhone and Android phone owners to install a number of apps and services on their devices. Once installed on a Windows 10 PC, the phone companion app works like a hub to direct phone owners to download apps like Skype, OneDrive, OneNote, Outlook, Office, Xbox Music, and even the recently announced Cortana app.

It doesn’t appear to enable any specific features that sync a phone and PC because all of the separate apps it points to are designed with that in mind. OneNote syncs notes across...

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Windows 10's phone companion aims to link a PC to any smartphone

Twitter brings live-streaming app Periscope to Android

Periscope, the promising live-streaming app owned by Twitter, arrives on Android today. Like its cousin on iOS, which debuted two months ago to the day, Periscope for Android lets you watch and record broadcasts from your mobile device. Reaching 1 million users in its first 10 days, Periscope has so far proven a hit with celebrities and media personalities, but is also being used for acts of citizen journalism and pirating pay-per-views.

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Twitter brings live-streaming app Periscope to Android