The Verge

Image: The Verge As if publishers and users didn't have enough reasons to reconsider their connections to the platform formerly known as Twitter, all outgoing links from X stopped working Wednesday afternoon. A problem with the URL redirect that captures activity before sending users on their way sent people to a simple error page saying, This page is down. I scream. You scream. We all scream... for us to fix this page. We'll stop making jokes and get things up and running soon."After about an hour or so of that happening, the problem was fixed, although we haven't seen any public acknowledgment of the issue from the @Support account, CEO Linda Yaccarino, or X owner / CTO Elon Musk.If this sounds familiar, it's because something similar happened in... Continue reading...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple will require law enforcement to obtain a court order before the company hands over details of customers' push notifications from now on. As Reuters reports, Apple quietly updated its guidelines for law enforcement page on Monday with language specifying that search warrants and court orders are now required for it to give up The Apple ID associated with" an Apple Push Notification Service token. The new policy follows revelations that both Apple and Google have been providing details about the notifications to governments.Apps can push" notifications to your phone so that you receive alerts, like a text message or incoming email, even when the app itself isn't open. But the process involves potentially sensitive information... Continue reading...

Image: Meta Xbox Cloud Gaming is arriving on Meta's range of VR headsets today. A beta version of the cloud gaming app is now available for the Meta Quest 2, 3, or Pro headsets, allowing you to stream hundreds of Xbox games with an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, a controller, and a Quest headset.The beta app is available from the Meta Quest Store, and you'll simply need to pair a supported Bluetooth controller to start playing. You can use an Xbox controller (that supports Bluetooth), a PS4 one, or even Nintendo's Switch Pro controllers. Support for PS5 controllers is coming in the future," according to Meta. Image: Meta The Xbox Cloud Gaming app on a Quest headset. There are a variety of display sizes for an... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted on Threads that the platform is beginning to test making Threads posts available on Mastodon and other ActivityPub-supporting services. Zuckerberg wrote that making Threads work with the interoperable standard will give people more choice over how they interact and it will help content reach more people."Joining the fediverse - the decentralized world of social media that includes Mastodon, Pixelfed, and other services that all interoperate through ActivityPub - has been on the Threads team's to-do list since the very beginning. Instagram head Adam Mosseri told The Verge in July that he believed decentralizing the platform was key to making it relevant to a new generation of creators. I think we might... Continue reading...

The Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro sound good, are compact, and - most importantly - purple. (Yes, they also come in white and black.) | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Samsung's Galaxy Buds 2 Pro are once again selling for their best price of $159.99 ($70 off) at Amazon and Best Buy. The noise-canceling earbuds with 24-bit audio support are among the smaller and lighter options from the current top-flight class of wireless earbuds, making them a very comfy choice. They're also a pretty easy choice if you use Samsung devices, since, in addition to putting out some great quality sound, the Buds 2 Pro feature head tracking and spatial audio with Galaxy phones. Plus, that bora purple color option is just so fun looking.Read our review of the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro.If you live near a Target retail store, you can take advantage of a major one-day deal on Microsoft's flagship Xbox console. Target is... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla will have to skip trash day in Sweden as the country's labor groups continue to protest the company's anti-union policies. Reuters reports the country's Transport Workers' Union will refuse to pick up waste at the automaker's workshops in solidarity with Tesla autoworkers who've been on strike since October 27th.Tesla has resisted collective bargaining agreements worldwide, but Sweden's strong labor culture is continuing to test the automaker's policy.After 130 workers at Tesla repair shops walked out, the first show of solidarity came from union dockworkers who refused to unload Tesla vehicles from cargo ships in early November. Then, on November 20th, postal workers joined the effort by refusing to deliver mail to Tesla,... Continue reading...

Photo by Sjoerd van der Wal / Getty Images Tesla issued a recall notice today for 2 million vehicles in the US to address a defect" with Autopilot, the company's groundbreaking and controversial advanced driver-assist system. Safety experts say the recall will likely make Autopilot harder to misuse.Harder, but not impossible.It's progress," said Mary Missy" Cummings, a robotics expert who wrote a 2020 paper evaluating the risks of Tesla's Autopilot system, but minimal progress."Cummings said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration missed an opportunity to force the company to address concerns around Tesla owners using Autopilot on roads where it wasn't intended to work. Last week, The Washington Post published an investigation linking at least eight fatal or... Continue reading...

Image: Sega Netflix has figured out that the only thing better than having a bunch of Sonic cartoons on its platform is having a Sonic game. The streamer has announced that Sonic Mania Plus - y'know, the best Sonic game this decade - is coming to mobile via Netflix in 2024.Sonic Mania launched on console and PC in 2017 and, in 2018, was updated to Sonic Mania Plus. The upgrade to Plus added two new playable characters - Mighty and Ray - a new tutorial zone, and expanded, color-swapped levels.But the biggest addition was a new game mode called Encore mode. In this new mode, instead of Sonic and pals accumulating lives that get spent every time they find themselves on the wrong end of the drowning timer music, you accumulate party members a la the... Continue reading...

Illustration by William Joel OpenAI and Axel Springer, the parent company of Business Insider and Politico, signed a deal to share content on ChatGPT.The deal allows ChatGPT to pull information to user prompts from articles published on Axel Springer's publications and provide links to full stories for transparency. It will also enable Axel Springer to build with OpenAI's technology, the company said in a statement.Axel Springer owns Business Insider, Politico, and European publications Bild and Welt.The company said the partnership with OpenAI creates new financial opportunities. Julia Sommerfeld, deputy spokesperson for Axel Springer, tells The Verge ChatGPT will have access to premium paywalled articles on Business Insider but not from paid subscription... Continue reading...

Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge Amazon is rolling out a new feature that puts every book you've ever purchased on the site - whether it's digital, physical, or an audiobook - into a single searchable hub. The new feature, called Your Books, lets you sort through all your titles while also providing recommendations based on your previous purchases.The main Library" tab lays out your entire catalog of books, which you can search through based on various filters, such as author, genre, and series as well as some tailored to the titles you currently own, like Literature & Fiction." There's also a tab for saved books that includes every book you've ever wishlisted on Amazon. Screenshot by Emma Roth / The Verge You can sort through your library... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram is going to help you spice up your Notes by letting you post video Notes, Meta announced on Wednesday.Notes have so far been text-based, meaning they currently function like the AIM status messages of my millennial youth. (You can even share what song you're listening to!) The addition of video gives you a little more room to be creative with your Notes, and you can add a text caption, too. But since video Notes can only be two-second loops, they probably aren't going to replace Instagram Stories anytime soon.The company is also introducing additional ways to reply to Notes from your friends, including photos, videos, audio messages, stickers, and GIFs. If you reply to a Note, your friend will see that reply as a DM. ... Continue reading...

Image: Murray Close / A24 The next film from director Alex Garland looks like quite the action-packed dystopia. A24 just released the first trailer for Civil War, which is set in a near-future version of the US that is, as you can probably guess, in the midst of a violent civil war, with forces from Texas and California making their way to the White House. It's hard to glean too many story details from the trailer, but it features a small group attempting to infiltrate a heavily fortified Washington, DC. It also features the tagline all empires fall," so you know things aren't going so well.Civil War stars Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, and Stephen McKinley Henderson, alongside Nick Offerman as the president and frequent Garland collaborator Sonoya... Continue reading...

Because Autopilot is a standard feature on new Tesla models, almost every X, S, 3, and Y (pictured) model sold within the US is impacted. | Image: Tesla Tesla is pushing software updates to over 2 million vehicles in the US - or almost every Model S, Y, X, and 3 ever sold in the country - to address a defect in the company's Autopilot system. On Monday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a recall notice for the vehicles following a two-year investigation into a series of collisions that occurred involving Tesla vehicles using Autopilot, which comes as standard on every new Tesla.In certain circumstances when Autosteer is engaged, the prominence and scope of the feature's controls may not be sufficient to prevent driver misuse," the agency said in the recall statement, noting that this could lead to an increased risk of a collision."The notice applies to... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Apple has announced an expansion of its self-service repair program, allowing iPhone 15 users and owners of newer M2-powered MacBooks to repair their own devices. But perhaps more interesting is the release of Apple Diagnostics for Self Service Repair," which Apple says will help self-repairers test devices for optimal part functionality and performance, as well as identify which parts may need repair."The web-based diagnostics tool is available now in the US, and this Apple support page offers some details on how it works. You start by putting the device you're troubleshooting into diagnostics mode, enter its serial number into a secondary device, and then follow Apple's instructions to troubleshoot the broken device. Available tests... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft currently offers free access to Fortnite on its Xbox Cloud Gaming service (xCloud), but there are signs the company may offer free game streaming in exchange for ads. Microsoft Gaming CFO Tim Stuart hinted at this prospect in a Wells Fargo TMT Summit interview late last month, spotted by TweakTown.The vision I like to talk about is we have xCloud game streaming, so you can subscribe to Game Pass Ultimate and you can stream hundreds of games to really any endpoint that has a browser experience," explained Stuart. For models like Africa, or India, Southeast Asia, maybe places that aren't console-first, you can say, hey, do you want to watch 30 seconds of an ad and then get two hours of game streaming?'"Stuart's spitballing... Continue reading...

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - DECEMBER 11: Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber (C), President of the COP28 UNFCCC Climate Conference, emerges from negotiations over the wording of the Presidential draft on day eleven of the UNFCCC COP28 Climate Conference. | Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images What would have been a historic deal to tackle a planetary crisis slipped out of reach at the eleventh hour. Even so, climate-vulnerable countries and environmental advocates scored some key wins with clean energy after heated climate negotiations wrapped up in the United Arab Emirates, a top oil- and gas-producing country.This was the closest yet that countries have gotten to striking a global deal to phase out the use of coal, oil, and gas. But the summit was arguably still a home game for fossil fuel interests who threw their weight around the United Nations climate conference, called the 28th Conference of the Parties or COP28, where tens of thousands of delegates and activists from nearly every nation on Earth have gathered over... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The FCC announced today that it won't award Elon Musk's Starlink an $886 million subsidy from the Universal Service Fund for expanding broadband service in rural areas. The money would have come from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund program (RDOF), but the FCC writes that Starlink wasn't able to demonstrate that it could deliver the promised service" and that giving the subsidy to it wouldn't be the best use of limited Universal Service Fund dollars."That was the same reason the FCC gave when it rejected Starlink's bid last year, which led to this appeal. SpaceX had previously won the bidding to roll out 100Mbps download and 20Mbps upload low-latency internet to 642,925 locations in 35 states," funded by the RDOF.The FCC is... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Snapchat is getting even more generative AI features. The messaging app now lets Snapchat Plus subscribers create images based on a text prompt and send them to friends.Those who subscribe to Snapchat's $3.99 plan can use the feature by tapping the AI" button from the toolbar on the right side of the camera interface. This opens up a window where users can type a text prompt or choose from one of the premade options, like a futuristic disco" or a rocket preparing for liftoff." Image: Snap From there, Snapchat's AI will spit out an image based on the prompt, allowing users to edit it and add a message before sending it off to friends and family on the app. Snapchat is rolling out some other AI-powered perks for... Continue reading...

Photo by Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images Back at E3 2017, I had a plan. The annual convention always had a wide range of game developers in attendance, offering reporters like me the opportunity to talk to prominent folks from all over the world. I decided it would be the ideal place to chat with Japanese creatives about the then-resurgent mood surrounding the country's video game efforts. First on my list was Toshihiro Nagoshi, the infamously prickly creator of the Yakuza series. In an attempt to break the ice, I asked the stylish director where he bought his shoes. He replied, very simply - and in a very serious tone - very expensive." The only words of English he spoke during our entire conversation.Now that E3 is dead - for real this time - I can't help but think back on... Continue reading...

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge Sony is investigating claims by the Rhysida ransomware group that it stole sensitive data from Insomniac Games, including personal information for the voice actor who portrayed Peter Parker in Spider-Man 2. Australian outlet Cyber Daily reported today that the group had posted some of the data as proof of the hack and is currently auctioning the full set for around $2 million worth of bitcoin.Some of the data published by Rhysida reportedly includes details about Insomniac's upcoming Wolverine game, including a screenshot and some character art that Cyber Daily wrote seems to relate to other Marvel characters" from the game. The outlet also says the data included scans of Insomniac employees' passports, as well as one for Yuri... Continue reading...

Aqara's Presence Sensor FP2 can now be used as a sleep tracker. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge The innovative Aqara Presence Sensor FP2 that debuted at CES 2023 is getting three significant new features that could make it more useful and more effective as a smart home sensor.Sleep Monitoring Mode, AI Person Detection, and People Counting are all coming to the Wi-Fi sensor, which is one of the first to use millimeter wave (mmWave) radar tech to accurately detect a person's presence even when they're sitting still, rather than relying on passive infrared motion sensing.The small puck-shaped device can now be set to monitor and analyze sleep status, real-time heart rate, and respiratory data," according to a press release from the company. Sleep monitoring is available via a firmware update (V1.2.3_0002.0059) that's rolling out... Continue reading...

Image: BBC Russell T. Davies' hearts are in the right place, but the introduction of Ncuti Gatwa's new Doctor Who was marked by a number of questionable decisions and racist tropes. Continue reading...

Photo illustration by Alex Parkin / The Verge Ten years after healthcare.gov, the fed's tech consultancy wants you to help with the next big thing. Continue reading...

Parker Ortolani / The Verge The Tesla Cybertruck has been out for a little more than a week, and already people are ready to declare it a safety nightmare.Guideless missile" and death machine" are some of the loaded phrases being tossed around. Safety experts are raising concerns" about the truck's crumple zones (or lack thereof). TikTok and other social platforms are abound with videos highlighting the poor sight lines and lack of visibility for drivers and passengers.But if the Cybertruck is particularly deadly for pedestrians, cyclists, and other vulnerable road users, it's because it's a large truck in America in the year 2023. We have lots of data that shows that America's favorite type of vehicle is also one of the most deadly. We have very little data... Continue reading...

The Stand One Max is a handsome charging station, but I think it could have maintained its good looks even with better spacing to accommodate StandBy mode. | Image: Nomad After releasing various MagSafe chargers, cheaper MagSafe-compatible Base and Stand chargers, and a 3-in-1 MagSafe Base One Max charger, Nomad is further filling out its lineup by announcing the Stand One Max. Much like its recent charger, the similarly named (and even pricier) Stand One Max is a MagSafe 3-in-1 that simultaneously charges your iPhone, Apple Watch, and a pair of AirPods - all for $180.But its design has a small miscalculation that prevents me from charging all those devices and simultaneously using my favorite new iOS feature, StandBy mode, which lets a charging iPhone in landscape orientation show you all kinds of fun, customizable widgets. You see, plopping down your phone on the charger's upright MagSafe stand... Continue reading...

Just tap the blue dot for more control. Google Maps has gotten some fun updates recently, and now it's offering some more privacy-forward tweaks as it adds more ways to control your location data. It starts, as so many journeys do with that little blue dot in Google Maps: aka, you... or, your current location at least.Right now, tapping the blue dot in Google Maps offers shortcuts to save your parking or share your location. This update - which I'm already seeing on my Pixel 8 Pro review unit - adds options for device location and location history. You can see at a glance whether they're on or off, and you can toggle them with just a couple of taps. Image: Google Clicking the blue dot now offers quick control over more settings. ... Continue reading...

Image: The Game Awards Developers are upset that The Game Awards featured very few awards or opportunities for winners to celebrate their achievements in favor of ads and celebrity guests. Continue reading...

The Bose Frames Tempo are the only ones still listed on the company's site - and they're sold out. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Bose is discontinuing its Frames line of audio smart glasses, which will no longer be available by the end of this year.The news was first reported by Digital Trends, which quotes Bose as saying it's in the process of phasing out the product line. Bose also separately confirmed the news to The Verge. It's also clear the writing is on the wall if you look at the company's website. Although Bose originally had multiple styles for the Frames, the only version still listed on the site is the sporty, Oakley-like Tempo. However, the product is technically sold out and marked down 50 percent at that.According to the report, Bose has sold the majority of its remaining inventory, and while you may see some units pop up from now through the... Continue reading...

The Beats Studio Pro are $170 off in all colors. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge What's with all of our favorite Black Friday deals resurfacing lately? First, it was the Sonos Era, as we highlighted yesterday. Now, both the AirPods Pro and the Apple-owned Beats Studio Pro are just $10 shy of their Black Friday all-time low price. Right now, you can buy the second-generation AirPods Pro with USB-C support for $199.99 ($50 off) at Amazon and Best Buy, while the Beats Studio Pro are around $179.95 ($170 off) at Amazon and Best Buy.In case you need a refresher, the latest version of Apple's AirPods Pro features a new MagSafe case that charges via USB-C instead of a Lightning port along with dust resistance. Otherwise, the earbuds aren't too different from the original second-gen AirPods Pro, delivering stellar sound... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro E3 is dead for good.While the video game industry had already largely given up on E3 - once the largest video game trade show in the industry and the biggest video game showcase event of the year - there was always the chance it would return after multiple years of cancellations. However, in a statement to The Washington Post today, E3's organizer confirmed that the show is permanently canceled.We know it's difficult to say goodbye to such a beloved event, but it's the right thing to do given the new opportunities our industry has to reach fans and partners," Stanley Pierre-Louis, the CEO of the Entertainment Software Association, the nonprofit trade organization that ran E3, told the Post.

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Sometimes there's the world you wish existed, and there's the world as it is.Over the last week, Apple and the messaging app Beeper have been locked in a battle for users' souls and security. The bones of the story are this: Beeper released a new app, Beeper Mini, that cleverly made use of Apple's iMessage protocols to allow you to send blue-bubble, encrypted messages from an Android phone. Apple swiftly shut it down. Beeper spent a few days getting a somewhat less impressive version of Beeper Mini running again. It probably won't last.What's odd about this story is that you have two sides completely at odds, both saying entirely correct things. Beeper CEO Eric Migicovsky has been telling anyone who will listen that SMS is insecure,... Continue reading...

Image: Free Radical Design Free Radical Design, the Nottingham, UK-based studio that had been working on a revival of the PS2-era TimeSplitters franchise, has shut down. Today, we have to confirm the official closure of Free Radical Design, and say goodbye to many remarkable, talented and hard-working people," parent company Plaion posted on LinkedIn. We are beyond grateful for their incredible contributions to Plaion and wish them the best of luck and success on their professional journey from here on out."The official confirmation comes after the message 404 Company Not Found :-(" appeared on the homepage of Free Radical's website. Several employees posted that December 11th was the company's last day, and many more set their LinkedIn profiles as... Continue reading...

Komatsu's 930E mining truck | Image: Komatsu General Motors announced a new partnership with Japanese construction vehicle manufacturer Komatsu to build heavy-duty mining trucks powered by the automaker's hydrogen fuel-cell technology.The company will work with the Japanese firm to install its Hydrotec-branded power cubes," each containing 300 individual hydrogen fuel cells with an output of 80 kW of new power, into the mining trucks.The amount of power needed for each truck will be immense. Komatsu's 930E mining trucks weigh over 500 tons, are capable of generating 3,500 horsepower, and can carry a nominal payload of 320 tons.The amount of power needed for each truck will be immenseHydrogen fuel cells use compressed hydrogen as their fuel, releasing water vapor as its only... Continue reading...

Sarah Jeong @Sarah JeongI've had a really good time on here. I've also had a really bad time on here lolThe first tweet was already unsettling. It was a composite image of things I'd said - largely dug up from five years earlier - screencaps of posts with tiny archive links appended to each one. Out of context, some of my old posts looked bad. The bulk were obviously jokes. Most of them were about white people.Then came another tweet. And another. It became a flood of tweets, nearly all with the same composite image being tweeted and retweeted. It was a coordinated online harassment campaign, the kind that Twitter was uniquely good at powering.I was fair game because The New York Times had just announced that I was being hired as a... Continue reading...

In the early '10s, Twitter was at the height of its power. The company had yet to turn a profit, but it had played a crucial role in the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street, which was nearly as effective for recruiting. While it would never reach the scale of its competitors, the platform dominated in terms of cultural and political relevance. Twitter was fast, its reach was far, and its influence was shaping the world in ways that seemed progressive.Menotti Minutillo, an engineer from Long Island with dark hair and a warm smile, was working as an analyst at Goldman Sachs when he decided to apply for a job at Twitter. At Goldman, there was no illusion about what employees were there to do. The company's mission was to make money.... Continue reading...

The Creator Micro is designed to be used alongside traditional peripherals like a mouse and keyboard. | Image: Figma Design software company Figma is launching its first dedicated piece of hardware. The Figma Creator Micro is effectively a small mechanical keyboard (aka, a macro pad) equipped with 12 keys and two dials for quick access to your most commonly used Figma tools and shortcuts. It's up for preorder for $139 starting today, with shipping expected in the first half of next year.The Creator Micro isn't an entirely original Figma creation. The design company has collaborated with Work Louder on the peripheral, which is a rebranded version of the existing Creator Micro. But this isn't just a Creator Micro with a Figma-branded coat of paint. Figma product manager Rob Bye tells me the company has worked to preconfigure its version of the Creator... Continue reading...

Illustration by Erik Carter for The Verge Here is a very dumb truth: for a decade, the default answer to nearly every problem in mass media communication involved Twitter. Breaking news? Twitter. Live sports commentary? Twitter. Politics? Twitter. A celebrity has behaved badly? Twitter. A celebrity has issued a Notes app apology for bad behavior? Twitter. For a good while, the most reliable way to find out what a loud noise in New York City was involved asking Twitter. Was there an earthquake in San Francisco? Twitter. Is some website down? Twitter.The sense that Twitter was a real-time news feed worked in both directions: people went on Twitter to find out what was going on, and reporters, seeing a real-time audience of people paying attention to news, started talking directly... Continue reading...

Twitter was so many things.Elon Musk killed Twitter. First, he did it figuratively: firing most employees, destabilizing it as a technology and a business, leaving the platform virtually unusable for those who remained. Then, he killed it literally: renaming it X, giving Twitter a final ending after 15 years of chaotic existence.But in death, there is understanding - now that it's over, we can reckon with what Twitter really was: a news cycle accelerator, a tool of mass harassment, an idealistic money-losing workplace, and an infinite joke machine.2023 will go down as...THE YEAR TWITTER DIED