Charlie Brown

1. India’s lunar lander reaches the dark side of the moon While western billionaires were busy sending rockets to space only for them to crash and burn, scientists in India were quietly doing something no one had accomplished before. Their Chandrayaan-3 moon lander was the first mission to reach the lunar south pole – an … Read more

Happy holidays! Here is The Vergecast’s gift to you: over 90 minutes of audio content dedicated to USB-C. The Verge’s Nilay Patel, David Pierce, and Alex Cranz start the final show of 2023 with some chat about the state of USB-C: the ups and downs of charging gadgets, the ubiquity of one cable, and what … Read more

As brutal as the streaming wars have become, Netflix is still hanging in there and holding its own with a steady stream of original films and series tailor-made to keep us all entertained. While the content must flow, Netflix’s front page still only does a so-so job of actually letting you know about all the … Read more

Picture a specific image from Google Street View. You’re going to try to guess exactly where in the world the photo was taken. The cloudless sky and desert landscape indicate somewhere hot. The grey road stretches far ahead of you with few defining characteristics. There are telegraph wires to the left of the road, above … Read more

When Google introduced Night Sight on the Pixel 3, it was a revelation.  It was as if someone had literally turned on the lights in your low-light photos. Previously impossible shots became possible — no tripod or deer-in-the-headlights flash needed. Five years later and taking photos in the dark is old hat — just about … Read more

Onn Google TV 4K Streaming Box Don’t let the Onn’s rock-bottom pricing fool you — Walmart’s new Google TV box is an absolute steal at just $20. It may lack support for higher-end specs like Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, but the inexpensive streaming device still touts built-in casting, Google Assistant integration, and the same … Read more

HONG KONG (AP) — China released draft guidelines Friday aimed at curbing excessive spending on online gaming in the latest move by the ruling Communist Party to keep control of the virtual economy. The proposal caused shares in the biggest Chinese gaming companies, Tencent and NetEase, to plunge in Hong Kong. China’s gaming regulator, the … Read more

BANGKOK (AP) — Chinese automaker BYD said Friday that it plans to build a new electric vehicle plant in Hungary, its first car factory in Europe, as part of its rapid global expansion. Hungary will be the center for its European operations, BYD said in a notice on its Weibo social media account. BYD, based … Read more

Bluesky remains an invite-only decentralized Twitter alternative, but now, you don’t need to be logged in to be able to see posts on the platform, according to a blog post from Bluesky CEO Jay Graber. You can now see posts from both the web and from the Bluesky app — like this one. If you … Read more