Filed under:The pilot program will only be available in a few states to startGrocery delivery platform Instacart is to begin taking food stamps as payment in its app. The program will only be available at Aldi stores and only in a few states, starting with Georgia, then expanding to California, Florida, Illinois, and Pennsylvania.Instacart said in a statement it is “committed to being a long-term solution for EBT SNAP households nationwide.” Brent Laubaugh, co-president of Aldi US that the company was “eager to roll out this update broadly as quickly as possible,” hinting at possible future...…Filed under:The pilot program will only be available in a few states to startGrocery delivery platform Instacart is to begin taking food stamps as payment in its app. The program will only be available at Aldi stores and only in a few states, starting with Georgia, then expanding to California, Florida, Illinois, and Pennsylvania.Instacart said in a statement it is “committed to being a long-term solution for EBT SNAP households nationwide.” Brent Laubaugh, co-president of Aldi US that the company was “eager to roll out this update broadly as quickly as possible,” hinting at possible future...WW…

Filed under:NHTSA is taking a wait-and-see approach to Tesla’s new controversial stuntFederal regulators are keeping their eye on the rollout of . This week, the automaker began beta testing its latest advanced driver assist software with a select group of customers, and so far, the government is taking a wait-and-see approach.In a statement, a spokesperson for the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it would “monitor the new technology closely and will not hesitate to take action to protect the public against unreasonable risks to safety.” The statement also included...…Filed under:NHTSA is taking a wait-and-see approach to Tesla’s new controversial stuntFederal regulators are keeping their eye on the rollout of . This week, the automaker began beta testing its latest advanced driver assist software with a select group of customers, and so far, the government is taking a wait-and-see approach.In a statement, a spokesperson for the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it would “monitor the new technology closely and will not hesitate to take action to protect the public against unreasonable risks to safety.” The statement also included...WW…

Filed under:The iPhone 12 and 12 Pro will be available tomorrowApple is expanding its new “Express” retail format to more locations, . The Express stores have a wall of plexiglass-protected sales counters and some shelves with accessories right at the front of the store. The new format should allow customers to pick up orders (such as the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro, which launch tomorrow) while respecting COVID-19 safety guidelines.There are about 20 Express stores in the US and Europe right now, and Apple is planning to have 50 across both regions by the end of October, Apple senior vice...…Filed under:The iPhone 12 and 12 Pro will be available tomorrowApple is expanding its new “Express” retail format to more locations, . The Express stores have a wall of plexiglass-protected sales counters and some shelves with accessories right at the front of the store. The new format should allow customers to pick up orders (such as the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro, which launch tomorrow) while respecting COVID-19 safety guidelines.There are about 20 Express stores in the US and Europe right now, and Apple is planning to have 50 across both regions by the end of October, Apple senior vice...WW…

Filed under:And plenty of RGB lightsat its October hardware event. It’s a 360-degree speaker that has the Google Assistant built in to handle queries and tasks, and Acer says it’s one of the first smart speakers to have DTS sound. With that, it should be especially suited to offer a cinematic sound.It’s relatively easy to see what stands out about this device; it has an RGB base that changes color and lighting patterns, and its LEDs can show the weather and other images. Honestly, I think the Halo looks like an oil diffuser, but I’ll take Acer’s word that it’s actually a speaker.This device...…Filed under:And plenty of RGB lightsat its October hardware event. It’s a 360-degree speaker that has the Google Assistant built in to handle queries and tasks, and Acer says it’s one of the first smart speakers to have DTS sound. With that, it should be especially suited to offer a cinematic sound.It’s relatively easy to see what stands out about this device; it has an RGB base that changes color and lighting patterns, and its LEDs can show the weather and other images. Honestly, I think the Halo looks like an oil diffuser, but I’ll take Acer’s word that it’s actually a speaker.This device...WW…

Filed under:Faculty, staff, and students say they’ve had enoughBetween August 23rd and 24th, Ian Linkletter, a learning technology specialist at the University of British Columbia (UBC), made a series of tweets criticizing a software that his school uses. The software was called Proctorio, an online test-proctoring tool that monitors students for suspicious behavior while they take virtual exams. The tweets contained links to unlisted YouTube videos describing various aspects of the program, taken from Proctorio’s help website for instructors.“This video from Proctorio’s YouTube channel...…Filed under:Faculty, staff, and students say they’ve had enoughBetween August 23rd and 24th, Ian Linkletter, a learning technology specialist at the University of British Columbia (UBC), made a series of tweets criticizing a software that his school uses. The software was called Proctorio, an online test-proctoring tool that monitors students for suspicious behavior while they take virtual exams. The tweets contained links to unlisted YouTube videos describing various aspects of the program, taken from Proctorio’s help website for instructors.“This video from Proctorio’s YouTube channel...WW…

Filed under:The building ‘may be better suited for demonstration purposes rather than as a viable commercial glass fabrication facility’A state report on Foxconn’s Wisconsin factory depicts a project gone far off course. The report, issued this month by Wisconsin’s Division of Executive Budget and Finance and obtained through a records request, confirms that the company has not built the enormous Gen 10.5 LCD factory specified in its contract. It also says that the building the company claims is a smaller Gen 6 LCD factory shows no signs of manufacturing LCDs in the foreseeable future and...…Filed under:The building ‘may be better suited for demonstration purposes rather than as a viable commercial glass fabrication facility’A state report on Foxconn’s Wisconsin factory depicts a project gone far off course. The report, issued this month by Wisconsin’s Division of Executive Budget and Finance and obtained through a records request, confirms that the company has not built the enormous Gen 10.5 LCD factory specified in its contract. It also says that the building the company claims is a smaller Gen 6 LCD factory shows no signs of manufacturing LCDs in the foreseeable future and...WW…

Filed under:The GM-owned company is also seeking a new exemption from the federal government to mass-produce the OriginCruise, the self-driving car company owned by General Motors, is doubling down on , its steering wheel-and-pedal-less autonomous people mover introduced late last year. With the COVID-19 pandemic discouraging many people from using shared ride services, the company unveiled new safety protocols intended to keep people socially distant during trips and the vehicle sanitized between fares.Cruise is also applying for permission from the federal government to mass-produce the...…Filed under:The GM-owned company is also seeking a new exemption from the federal government to mass-produce the OriginCruise, the self-driving car company owned by General Motors, is doubling down on , its steering wheel-and-pedal-less autonomous people mover introduced late last year. With the COVID-19 pandemic discouraging many people from using shared ride services, the company unveiled new safety protocols intended to keep people socially distant during trips and the vehicle sanitized between fares.Cruise is also applying for permission from the federal government to mass-produce the...WW…

Filed under:What could possibly go wrong?Facebook’s next big play could be all about getting to know your neighbors. The company confirmed this week that it’s testing a new feature that encourages users to post and share news in miniature social networks focused on small geographical areas. Users can create special profiles that share limited information with their neighbors, while Facebook itself will use the detailed location data it collects from those enrolled to serve “more relevant” ads.The feature, named Neighborhoods, is currently being tested in just a single market, Calgary in...…Filed under:What could possibly go wrong?Facebook’s next big play could be all about getting to know your neighbors. The company confirmed this week that it’s testing a new feature that encourages users to post and share news in miniature social networks focused on small geographical areas. Users can create special profiles that share limited information with their neighbors, while Facebook itself will use the detailed location data it collects from those enrolled to serve “more relevant” ads.The feature, named Neighborhoods, is currently being tested in just a single market, Calgary in...WW…

Filed under:Foxconn isn’t building what it promised and failed to hire enough peopleThrough the many twists and turns of Foxconn’s troubled Wisconsin project, one thing has long been clear: the company is not building the promised 20 million-square-foot Gen 10.5 LCD factory specified in its contract with the state. Even before President Trump broke ground on the supposed factory in June 2018, Foxconn it would instead build a far smaller factory than it had proposed.The discrepancy between what Foxconn is doing and what it said it would do in its contract has only grown since then, and it...…Filed under:Foxconn isn’t building what it promised and failed to hire enough peopleThrough the many twists and turns of Foxconn’s troubled Wisconsin project, one thing has long been clear: the company is not building the promised 20 million-square-foot Gen 10.5 LCD factory specified in its contract with the state. Even before President Trump broke ground on the supposed factory in June 2018, Foxconn it would instead build a far smaller factory than it had proposed.The discrepancy between what Foxconn is doing and what it said it would do in its contract has only grown since then, and it...WW…

Filed under:The former Google CEO also seems to think antitrust only kicks in at 100 percent market shareThe Verge used to have a fine tradition of cataloging all of the times , and today’s feels like a worthy addition: the former Google CEO and executive chairman has decided that social networks are “amplifiers for idiots.”The fuller quote, : “The context of social networks serving as amplifiers for idiots and crazy people is not what we intended.”Without knowing who “we” refers to, you might think he’s talking about how the entire tech industry has failed to keep sites like Facebook and...…Filed under:The former Google CEO also seems to think antitrust only kicks in at 100 percent market shareThe Verge used to have a fine tradition of cataloging all of the times , and today’s feels like a worthy addition: the former Google CEO and executive chairman has decided that social networks are “amplifiers for idiots.”The fuller quote, : “The context of social networks serving as amplifiers for idiots and crazy people is not what we intended.”Without knowing who “we” refers to, you might think he’s talking about how the entire tech industry has failed to keep sites like Facebook and...WW…

Filed under:And she’s genuinely pretty good at Among UsRep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) tonight to play Among Us and encourage viewers to vote. She also, very quickly, became one of the platform’s biggest broadcasters: her stream peaked at 435,000 viewers around the time of her first match, according to Twitch. (The stream had dipped to around 350,000 viewers as of this writing, after about two hours of playing.)That peak viewership puts her broadcast among the 20 biggest streams ever, according to the third-party metrics site , and much higher if you’re only looking at broadcasts from...…Filed under:And she’s genuinely pretty good at Among UsRep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) tonight to play Among Us and encourage viewers to vote. She also, very quickly, became one of the platform’s biggest broadcasters: her stream peaked at 435,000 viewers around the time of her first match, according to Twitch. (The stream had dipped to around 350,000 viewers as of this writing, after about two hours of playing.)That peak viewership puts her broadcast among the 20 biggest streams ever, according to the third-party metrics site , and much higher if you’re only looking at broadcasts from...WW…

Filed under:The shortform video service had the shortest run of allQuibi — the shortform mobile-focused streaming service — is shutting down after just over six months of operation, making it one of the shortest-lived streaming services to date, . The company that it’ll be shutting down in a Medium post from Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman.“We feel that we’ve exhausted all our options. As a result we have reluctantly come to the difficult decision to wind down the business, return cash to our shareholders, and say goodbye to our colleagues with grace,” the announcement reads.There is any...…Filed under:The shortform video service had the shortest run of allQuibi — the shortform mobile-focused streaming service — is shutting down after just over six months of operation, making it one of the shortest-lived streaming services to date, . The company that it’ll be shutting down in a Medium post from Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman.“We feel that we’ve exhausted all our options. As a result we have reluctantly come to the difficult decision to wind down the business, return cash to our shareholders, and say goodbye to our colleagues with grace,” the announcement reads.There is any...WW…

Filed under:Netflix is testing the event in India firstNetflix is planning a two-day “event” that will allow non-subscribers in India to stream the company’s library without a subscription plan.The move follows news that Netflix has ended free trial periods, choosing instead to focus on other marketing promotions to try and amass new subscribers. Netflix’s chief operating officer Greg Peters confirmed the promo on the company’s third quarter earnings call, calling it “StreamFest,” and that it’s just for India for now. Peters believes that something like StreamFest “could really create an...…Filed under:Netflix is testing the event in India firstNetflix is planning a two-day “event” that will allow non-subscribers in India to stream the company’s library without a subscription plan.The move follows news that Netflix has ended free trial periods, choosing instead to focus on other marketing promotions to try and amass new subscribers. Netflix’s chief operating officer Greg Peters confirmed the promo on the company’s third quarter earnings call, calling it “StreamFest,” and that it’s just for India for now. Peters believes that something like StreamFest “could really create an...WW…

Filed under:Members of piracy group Team Xecuter were charged with 11 felony countsTwo members of a console hacking and piracy organization known as Team Xecuter have been , one of whom is named Gary Bowser. French national Max Louarn and Bowser, originally from Canada but arrested in the Dominican Republic, allegedly led the group, which makes a line of tools for cracking locked-down gaming hardware.Team Xecuter is a sophisticated operation known best for its Nintendo hacks, including a USB device called the SX Pro that allows the Nintendo Switch to run pirated games. The group’s...…Filed under:Members of piracy group Team Xecuter were charged with 11 felony countsTwo members of a console hacking and piracy organization known as Team Xecuter have been , one of whom is named Gary Bowser. French national Max Louarn and Bowser, originally from Canada but arrested in the Dominican Republic, allegedly led the group, which makes a line of tools for cracking locked-down gaming hardware.Team Xecuter is a sophisticated operation known best for its Nintendo hacks, including a USB device called the SX Pro that allows the Nintendo Switch to run pirated games. The group’s...WW…

Filed under:We won’t know until tomorrow if it worked, thoughThis afternoon, a NASA spacecraft more than 200 million miles from Earth successfully touched the surface of an asteroid, in an attempt to grab a handful of pebbles and dust from the space rock. Data from the spacecraft confirmed that the vehicle did indeed touch the asteroid today, but NASA won’t know until tomorrow if it actually snagged a sample of material.“Touchdown declared,” a mission controller announced when the team received data confirming the maneuver. “Sampling in process.” The news of the success was met with cheers...…Filed under:We won’t know until tomorrow if it worked, thoughThis afternoon, a NASA spacecraft more than 200 million miles from Earth successfully touched the surface of an asteroid, in an attempt to grab a handful of pebbles and dust from the space rock. Data from the spacecraft confirmed that the vehicle did indeed touch the asteroid today, but NASA won’t know until tomorrow if it actually snagged a sample of material.“Touchdown declared,” a mission controller announced when the team received data confirming the maneuver. “Sampling in process.” The news of the success was met with cheers...WW…

Filed under:Your next home or electric vehicle could be part of a virtual power plantIncreasing numbers of homes outfitted with solar panels and batteries have the potential to help power entire regions with renewable energy. Working together, homes with solar setups are turning neighborhoods into virtual power plants that can feed power back to the grid and prevent blackouts.These interconnected solar power systems are popping up across the globe — from apartment complexes in and , to public housing in . In the future, virtual power plants might even be made up of . It’s the next...…Filed under:Your next home or electric vehicle could be part of a virtual power plantIncreasing numbers of homes outfitted with solar panels and batteries have the potential to help power entire regions with renewable energy. Working together, homes with solar setups are turning neighborhoods into virtual power plants that can feed power back to the grid and prevent blackouts.These interconnected solar power systems are popping up across the globe — from apartment complexes in and , to public housing in . In the future, virtual power plants might even be made up of . It’s the next...WW…

In 2017, President Donald Trump and the Wisconsin GOP struck a deal with Foxconn that promised to turn Southeastern Wisconsin into a tech manufacturing powerhouse. In exchange for billions in tax subsidies, Foxconn was supposed to build an enormous LCD factory in the tiny village of Mount Pleasant, creating 13,000 jobs. Three years later, the factory — and the jobs — don’t exist, and they probably never will. Inside the empty promises and empty buildings of Wisconn Valley. Hopes were high among the employees who joined Foxconn’s Wisconsin project in the summer of 2018. In June, President...…In 2017, President Donald Trump and the Wisconsin GOP struck a deal with Foxconn that promised to turn Southeastern Wisconsin into a tech manufacturing powerhouse. In exchange for billions in tax subsidies, Foxconn was supposed to build an enormous LCD factory in the tiny village of Mount Pleasant, creating 13,000 jobs. Three years later, the factory — and the jobs — don’t exist, and they probably never will. Inside the empty promises and empty buildings of Wisconn Valley. Hopes were high among the employees who joined Foxconn’s Wisconsin project in the summer of 2018. In June, President...WW…

Filed under:Only 11 days leftThe Mandalorian’s second season is just on Disney Plus, and a new trailer for the Star Wars series teases what fans can expect.Most of the trailer focused on the Mando’s continued adventures with the Child, including an ominous moment where he’s warned that the worlds he’s trying to visit are no places for a child. Much like executive producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni teased in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the show looks like it will tackle more substantial narrative lines than we got in the first season.Picking up essentially where the last...…Filed under:Only 11 days leftThe Mandalorian’s second season is just on Disney Plus, and a new trailer for the Star Wars series teases what fans can expect.Most of the trailer focused on the Mando’s continued adventures with the Child, including an ominous moment where he’s warned that the worlds he’s trying to visit are no places for a child. Much like executive producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni teased in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the show looks like it will tackle more substantial narrative lines than we got in the first season.Picking up essentially where the last...WW…

Hopes were high among the employees who joined Foxconn’s Wisconsin project in the summer of 2018. In June, President Donald Trump had broken ground on an LCD factory he called “the eighth wonder of the world.” The scale of the promise was indeed enormous: a $10 billion investment from the Taiwanese electronics giant, a 20 million-square-foot manufacturing complex, and, most importantly, 13,000 jobs.Which is why new recruits arriving at the 1960s office building Foxconn had purchased in downtown Milwaukee were surprised to discover they had to provide their own office supplies. “One of the...…Hopes were high among the employees who joined Foxconn’s Wisconsin project in the summer of 2018. In June, President Donald Trump had broken ground on an LCD factory he called “the eighth wonder of the world.” The scale of the promise was indeed enormous: a $10 billion investment from the Taiwanese electronics giant, a 20 million-square-foot manufacturing complex, and, most importantly, 13,000 jobs.Which is why new recruits arriving at the 1960s office building Foxconn had purchased in downtown Milwaukee were surprised to discover they had to provide their own office supplies. “One of the...WW…

In 2017, President Donald Trump and the Wisconsin GOP struck a deal with Foxconn that promised to turn Southeastern Wisconsin into a tech manufacturing powerhouse.In exchange for billions in tax subsidies, Foxconn was supposed to build an enormous LCD factory in the tiny village of Mount Pleasant, creating 13,000 jobs.Three years later, the factory — and the jobs — don’t exist, and they probably never will.Inside the empty promises and empty buildings of Wisconn Valley.The 8th wonder of the world**wonder not guaranteedOct 19, 2020Byamong the employees who joined Foxconn’s Wisconsin project...…In 2017, President Donald Trump and the Wisconsin GOP struck a deal with Foxconn that promised to turn Southeastern Wisconsin into a tech manufacturing powerhouse.In exchange for billions in tax subsidies, Foxconn was supposed to build an enormous LCD factory in the tiny village of Mount Pleasant, creating 13,000 jobs.Three years later, the factory — and the jobs — don’t exist, and they probably never will.Inside the empty promises and empty buildings of Wisconn Valley.The 8th wonder of the world**wonder not guaranteedOct 19, 2020Byamong the employees who joined Foxconn’s Wisconsin project...WW…

Filed under:The original Oculus Quest had this featureIf you bought a new Oculus Quest 2 with the hopes of experiencing games from the now-discontinued Oculus Go, I have bad news: the company has decided not to include support for Go titles on the Quest 2, Oculus’ consulting CTO John CarmackWhen the Oculus Quest 2 launched three days ago, there was no feature on the UI that allowed users to access Go apps and games, something the original Quest headset featured. Carmack did not go into much detail on why support was not added other than “[he] totally lost the internal debate over backwards...…Filed under:The original Oculus Quest had this featureIf you bought a new Oculus Quest 2 with the hopes of experiencing games from the now-discontinued Oculus Go, I have bad news: the company has decided not to include support for Go titles on the Quest 2, Oculus’ consulting CTO John CarmackWhen the Oculus Quest 2 launched three days ago, there was no feature on the UI that allowed users to access Go apps and games, something the original Quest headset featured. Carmack did not go into much detail on why support was not added other than “[he] totally lost the internal debate over backwards...WW…

Tomorrow, a US spacecraft more than 200 million miles from Earth will sneak up to an asteroid larger than the Empire State Building and snag a handful of rocks from its surface. If all goes to plan, the spacecraft will store the precious cache of rocks inside its belly, and will eventually transport the materials to Earth, where they can be studied by scientists in a lab.The spacecraft stealing these rocks is called OSIRIS-REx, part of the first-ever NASA mission tasked with returning samples of an asteroid back to Earth. Launched in September of 2016, OSIRIS-REx spent two years traveling...…Tomorrow, a US spacecraft more than 200 million miles from Earth will sneak up to an asteroid larger than the Empire State Building and snag a handful of rocks from its surface. If all goes to plan, the spacecraft will store the precious cache of rocks inside its belly, and will eventually transport the materials to Earth, where they can be studied by scientists in a lab.The spacecraft stealing these rocks is called OSIRIS-REx, part of the first-ever NASA mission tasked with returning samples of an asteroid back to Earth. Launched in September of 2016, OSIRIS-REx spent two years traveling...WW…

Filed under:The iPhone mini arrives on November 13th starting at $729Apple is announcing a new iPhone 12 mini today. It’s the first time Apple has used the “mini” moniker on its iPhone line, after using it on the iPod mini, iPad mini, and Mac mini previously. The new iPhone 12 mini has a 5.4-inch screen, which means Apple has squeezed a larger display than the 4.7-inch screen found on this year’s iPhone SE into an iPhone 12 mini handset that’s smaller overall.Apple has made the $729 iPhone 12 mini smaller by removing Touch ID and replacing it with Face ID, alongside a significant reduction...…Filed under:The iPhone mini arrives on November 13th starting at $729Apple is announcing a new iPhone 12 mini today. It’s the first time Apple has used the “mini” moniker on its iPhone line, after using it on the iPod mini, iPad mini, and Mac mini previously. The new iPhone 12 mini has a 5.4-inch screen, which means Apple has squeezed a larger display than the 4.7-inch screen found on this year’s iPhone SE into an iPhone 12 mini handset that’s smaller overall.Apple has made the $729 iPhone 12 mini smaller by removing Touch ID and replacing it with Face ID, alongside a significant reduction...WW…

Filed under:Singapore Airlines will serve food on planes at Changi AirportAmidst plunging revenues due to the pandemic, Singapore Airlines is turning two of its Airbus A380 planes parked at Changi Airport into impromptu restaurants on October 24th and 25th, and it’s proved surprisingly popular. that all seats at the restaurants sold out within 30 minutes of bookings opening, as people rushed to recapture the excitement of balancing a tiny meal on an even tinier fold-down airline table.I admit I normally quite like airplane food, but that’s probably because it’s something to focus my...…Filed under:Singapore Airlines will serve food on planes at Changi AirportAmidst plunging revenues due to the pandemic, Singapore Airlines is turning two of its Airbus A380 planes parked at Changi Airport into impromptu restaurants on October 24th and 25th, and it’s proved surprisingly popular. that all seats at the restaurants sold out within 30 minutes of bookings opening, as people rushed to recapture the excitement of balancing a tiny meal on an even tinier fold-down airline table.I admit I normally quite like airplane food, but that’s probably because it’s something to focus my...WW…

Filed under:The social platform changed its news feed algorithm in 2017Facebook designed changes to its news feed algorithm in 2017 to reduce the visibility of left-leaning news sites like Mother Jones on its platform, the , and CEO Mark Zuckerberg had personally approved the plans.But Mother Jones editorial director for growth and strategy Ben Dreyfuss wrote that in , they reassured him that while traffic might go down, “not in a way that favored or disfavored any single publication or class of publisher.”According to the WSJ, some policy executives at Facebook voiced concerns in 2017...…Filed under:The social platform changed its news feed algorithm in 2017Facebook designed changes to its news feed algorithm in 2017 to reduce the visibility of left-leaning news sites like Mother Jones on its platform, the , and CEO Mark Zuckerberg had personally approved the plans.But Mother Jones editorial director for growth and strategy Ben Dreyfuss wrote that in , they reassured him that while traffic might go down, “not in a way that favored or disfavored any single publication or class of publisher.”According to the WSJ, some policy executives at Facebook voiced concerns in 2017...WW…