The Verge - All Posts

Nintendo’s Dragalia Lost is shutting down at the end of 2022. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge When games like Dragalia Lost shut down for good, what happens next? Continue reading…

Samar Haddad / The Verge Even iOS apps occasionally misbehave — they can crash, or freeze, or otherwise stop working. If you’re new to iOS or just haven’t had this happen before, you may not know how to actually quit an app (as opposed to just swiping it off your screen). Here’s how to quit an app and, if you need to, shut down your phone. (We used a phone loaded with a beta of iOS 16, but this will work with earlier versions of the OS just as well.)Quit an app

Image: TCL TCL finally made a Roku TV with excellent gaming specs. The company is in a tick-tock release pattern of sorts with its popular 6-Series TV. One year, there’s a Roku version; the next year, we get a Google TV edition, and now, the company is upgrading the Roku model again. Like previous 6-Series TVs, the latest one features Mini LED backlighting, which utilizes thousands of tiny LEDs spread across hundreds of local dimming zones to create top-notch brightness, impressive contrast, and deep black levels. This panel has up to 360 dimming zones. And it uses quantum dot color, with “a measured 100 percent color volume in the DCI-P3 Hollywood reference color space,” according to TCL.For the 2022 6-Series Roku TV, TCL is putting a big... Continue reading…

The Samsung Galaxy A23 5G in black, featuring a 120Hz adaptive display. | Image: Samsung Samsung is bringing the Galaxy A23 5G to the US today, providing fast 5G connectivity and a 120Hz full HD display for just under $300.The US release only includes a single color (black), with prices starting from $299.99 at AT&T, T-Mobile, and elsewhere. It was previously announced that this handset would also hit the Taiwanese market in blue and peach versions in addition to black.The Galaxy A23 5G comes with a 6.6-inch 1080 x 2408 LCD display with adaptive 120Hz refresh to allow for smoother scrolling and gameplay. It features a Snapdragon 695 processor and will ship with Android 12 running Samsung’s One UI 4.1. Memory is available in 4GB, 6GB or 8GB and you get a choice of either 64GB or 128GB for storage. If that isn’t sufficient,... Continue reading…

A step forward for Motorola, but not a category leader Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter is now testing its highly requested Edit Tweet feature. After years of memes and jokes, editable tweets will be available to some Twitter Blue subscribers later this month. The feature is currently undergoing “internal testing” and appears to mimic Facebook in its edit style, with a linked edit history for tweets that we saw in leaks earlier this year.“Tweets will be able to be edited a few times in the 30 minutes following their publication,” according to a Twitter blog post. “Edited Tweets will appear with an icon, timestamp, and label so it’s clear to readers that the original Tweet has been modified.” Image: Twitter An edited tweet The edit label will include a complete edit history with past... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is publicly pleading for its Activision Blizzard deal to go ahead, just as the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has expressed concerns. Microsoft surprised the gaming world earlier this year with its plans to acquire Activision Blizzard in a $68.7 billion deal, by far the biggest ever in gaming. Now regulators are starting to take notice.The UK’s CMA says it’s “concerned that Microsoft’s anticipated purchase of Activision Blizzard could substantially lessen competition in gaming consoles, multi-game subscription services, and cloud gaming services.” After an initial research phase, the CMA is signaling it will move to what it calls a Phase 2 investigation if Microsoft isn’t able to answer its concerns within five... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In September 2012, Apple introduced the iPhone 5 — it was bigger, faster, and more powerful than its predecessor, but perhaps the most revolutionary change was how you charged it. Onstage to introduce the new phone, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller announced that the company was switching from the 30-pin connector that had been on every iPhone to date over to a small new port called Lightning. Lightning seemed to be everything its predecessor and competitors were not: reversible, compact, and robust. Schiller called it “a modern connector for the next decade.”Fast forward to 2022, and the connector has lasted the decade Schiller promised. Every iPhone still comes with a Lightning cable, and the cable remains a reliable method for... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The European Commission is seeking to improve phone and tablet battery life and spare parts availability. In draft proposals published this week, European regulators are planning to force phone manufacturers to supply at least 15 different parts to professional repairers for five years after a device first goes on sale. Consumers will also get guaranteed access to replacement batteries, displays, chargers, back covers, and even SIM / memory card trays for five years.The draft proposals are designed to improve repairability of smartphones and tablets and reduce their carbon footprint across Europe. The Financial Times reports that extending smartphone lifecycles by five years would be roughly the equivalent of removing 5 million cars... Continue reading…

Nvidia’s DGX A100 workstation is affected by the new restrictions. | Image: Nvidia The US government has imposed new export restrictions on high-end computers chips used to conduct AI research, citing possible military applications for the technology. Two leading manufacturers, Nvidia and AMD, have been blocked from selling certain chips to China and Russia, with the restrictions forming part of the United States’ ongoing strategy of limiting tech exports to curb the rise of rival powers.Nvidia and AMD disclosed the new restrictions on Wednesday, with Nvidia noting in a regulatory filing that the ban affects its A100 and H100 GPUs. The US government told Nvidia it wishes to “address the risk that the covered products may be used in, or diverted to, a ‘military end use’ or ‘military end user’ in China and Russia.” AMD c... Continue reading…

The new Venu Sq 2 has a slightly bigger screen and nearly double the battery life. | Image: Garmin Garmin is launching two new wearables at IFA 2022. The $249.99 Venu Sq 2 is an update to its affordable GPS smartwatch line, while the $89.99 Black Panther version Vivofit Jr. 3 gets a new special edition band.The Venu Sq 2 is mostly an iterative refresh. The OLED screen is a smidge bigger at 1.4 inches. It’s also included its Health Snapshot feature, which lets users log a two-minute session that simultaneously records metrics like heart rate, heart rate variability, blood oxygen levels, respiration, and stress. Both of these updates are fine, but the most significant change is that it’s nearly doubled battery life from six days to 11 days. Like the original Venu Sq, it’ll also come in a Music version that can store up to 500 songs on... Continue reading…

The Nokia X30. | Image: HMD HMD is announcing a trio of new smartphones today — the Nokia G60 5G, C31, and X30 5G — and says the X30 5G is the “most eco-friendly smartphone” it’s ever produced. The three phones are focused on Europe, and are distinct from the range of devices that HMD sells in the US.As well as being sold outright, the Nokia X30 5G will be one of a handful of phones available via HMD’s new subscription service called “Circular,” where customers can subscribe to get a handset for a monthly fee and receive incentives to use a phone for as long as possible. Circular will initially be available in the UK and Germany, but HMD says it’s planning a global launch “in the coming months.”HMD justifies its eco-friendly claims about the Nokia X30 5G with... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Disney is exploring a membership program in the style of Amazon Prime, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal. The program could offer various exclusive perks, discounts, and other enticements for subscribers to spend more money on Disney products and services. A secondary benefit would be allowing the company to collect more information on customers’ tastes and habits, improving its ability to cross-sell across its various businesses — from streaming services to theme parks to merchandise.According to the WSJ, discussion of the membership program is very much in its early stages. It’s not clear what segments of Disney’s audience it would target, how much it would cost, or when the program might launch. Internally, some... Continue reading…

Eve’s latest light switch has Thread and will work with a new Eve Android app. | Image: Eve After years as an Apple-only smart home company, Eve is finally turning to the dark other side and launching an Android app. At the IFA tech show, the company announced that its suite of smart home products – which include smart plugs, smart light strips, smart switches, and smart sensors – will get their own Android app in late 2022. Most Eve products will also become compatible with other smart home systems, including Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings.This giant shift (which we did see coming at CES, but still, we’ll have to see it to believe it) is largely down to the upcoming smart home standard Matter. Matter’s primary raison d’etre is to make more devices work with more platforms, removing the confusion and... Continue reading…

Ring Intercom adds smart doorbell capabilities to audio intercoms. | Image: Ring Smart door locks and video doorbells are great conveniences for those who live in single-family homes, but what about the millions of people who live in flats, apartments, and condos? They might also like to answer their front door from their phone — whether they’re home or not — and perhaps buzz their visitor in without getting off the couch or rushing home from the office. Ring, maker of the original video doorbell, thinks it has a solution.Ring Intercom is a DIY, retrofit device that attaches to the intercom inside your home and connects via Wi-Fi to the Ring app on your smartphone. It’s specifically designed for European apartment buildings where multiple flats (or apartments) have one entry point and only an audio intercom system... Continue reading…

Sony’s excellent autofocus capabilities come to all three rear cameras in the Xperia 5 IV. | Image: Sony Sony is renewing its “compact” phone for another season with the announcement of the Xperia 5 IV. It’s a step down from the 1 IV in size, price, and features but shares the same emphasis on parity across its camera system. That means all three of the phone’s rear cameras — standard wide, ultrawide, and telephoto — include the company’s excellent Real-time Eye AF for better portraits and are capable of super-fast burst shooting speeds even with HDR enabled. It has other flagship specs to back up its camera features, too, and comes with an equally flagship-y price: $999.The Xperia 5 IV (side note: what are they going to call next year’s phone? The 5 V?) includes a 24mm-equivalent standard wide, 16mm-equiv ultrawide, and 60mm-equiv... Continue reading…

Image: Kobo Kobo’s announced its first fully waterproof six-inch e-reader, the Kobo Clara 2E, will be available on September 22nd. However, you can preorder it now from Kobo for $129.99.Kobo says the new e-reader is also the Rakuten-owned company’s first built from over 85 percent recycled plastic, with ocean plastic accounting for 10 percent of that. These changes are a part of Kobo’s goal to offset 100 percent of the carbon emissions related to shipping its e-readers to customers. Made from FSC-certified recycled paper and printed with soy ink, its magnet-free packaging is also supposed to be more eco-friendly.On the features front, the new e-reader also differs from its predecessor, the Clara HD, in that it supports Bluetooth so you can listen... Continue reading…

It’s just another ThinkPad...or is it? I reviewed Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Fold, the first PC with a foldable screen, in late 2020. At the time, it was a very cool idea, but not particularly, shall we say, usable. Today, Lenovo has announced its second go at this, the “Next-generation” ThinkPad X1 Fold. I spent a few minutes with the device, and let me tell you: I am much more optimistic about this one.Much of this new X1 Fold will be familiar to fans not just of the previous X1 Fold, but of the ThinkPad line in general. The device is outfitted with the series’s standard black and red color scheme, with the staple ThinkPad X1 logo on the lid. There’s a ThinkPad-style keyboard with a trackpoint and inverted-T arrow keys. It’s well-built, sturdy, and sleek.But some changes have... Continue reading…

The issue stems from its 2021 startup purchase. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Arm is suing Qualcomm and Nuvia, a startup the chipmaker acquired in 2021, claiming that the companies violated the licenses they have to use Arm’s processor designs and architecture (via Reuters). Arm’s argument is that the licenses it gave Nuvia before it was acquired aren’t valid now that it’s under new ownership. If Arm wins its suit, Qualcomm could be forced to destroy any work it’s done with the particular licenses in question — a significant setback for its ambitions to create desktop and server chips using Nuvia’s technology.Qualcomm hasn’t been quiet about its goals, or the role that Nuvia’s acquisition plays in them. Earlier this year, Cristiano Amon, its CEO, told The Verge: “As soon as I got named CEO, I made the acquisition... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), along with six states, filed a lawsuit against John Shriber and Roman Zaks, owners of the room renting and roommate finder platform Roomster, for allegedly defrauding consumers, accusing them of paying people for fake reviews and listings on their site. The agency says that the “deceptive tactics” violated the FTC Act and state laws.In a complaint filed by the FTC and the attorneys general of New York, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, and Massachusetts, the group alleges that Roomster released “tens of thousands of fake positive reviews to bolster their false claims that properties listed on their Roomster platform are real, available, and verified.” They also allege that Roomster would post... Continue reading…

Image: Jay Peters / The Verge Leakers have long suggested that 2022 iPhone models would include two notches at the top of their screens: one for the camera, and one for the FaceID system (the “hole + pill design,” as consultant Ross Young referred to it). A new leak from MacRumors, citing “an anonymous tipster,” suggests that the two notches will appear as a single pill-shaped notch when the iPhone’s display is active. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman later corroborated the report.Apple, per MacRumors’ source, intends to turn off the pixels between these two notches to create a contiguous black space.

Nick Barclay / The Verge Meta is setting up a product organization to identify and build “possible paid features” for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, according to an internal memo sent to employees last week that was obtained by The Verge.The new division is Meta’s first serious foray into building paid features across its main social apps, all three of which boast billions of users. It’s being set up after Meta’s ads business was severely hurt by Apple’s ad tracking changes on iOS and a broader pullback in digital ad spending. The group, called New Monetization Experiences, will be led by Pratiti Raychoudhury, who was previously Meta’s head of research.In an interview with The Verge, Meta’s VP of monetization overseeing the group, John Hegeman, said the... Continue reading…

The ShoeCare cleaner will take the stench out of your sneaks. | Image: LG If you’ve browsed around the Container Store looking for the perfect sneaker storage, you’re looking in the wrong places. Maybe what you really need is LG’s new Styler ShoeCase — a shoebox with a window that’s currently being displayed at IFA. The enclosure can keep your shoes safe from moisture and has filters to protect them from UV light.Oh, then you went to Ikea to get stackable shelving for all your kicks? Well, I’m happy to report that the Styler ShoeCase lets you stack up to four of these bad boys on top of each other. And each has a built-in Lazy Susan that can be rotated to show off your Jordan VII’s best angles — and hide that one scuff mark from when homie moved the chair over it.LG’s also presenting its new Styler ShoeCare... Continue reading…

Samar Haddad / The Verge If you’re an organization junkie and an iPhone user, then iOS has provided you with a useful tool: the App Library, which organizes your apps in labeled groups to make them easier to find. Introduced with iOS 14, all your current apps can be found there, and any apps you download are placed there as well. (You can decide whether you want the apps to also be visible on your homescreen; we’ll tell you how later in this article.)If you haven’t paid any attention to the App Library up until now, here are some ways to begin.Automatic groupingsThe App Library appears as a separate page on your homescreen. Wherever you are on your homescreen, just keep swiping left — the App Library will be the last page you hit.It automatically organizes... Continue reading…

A screenshot of Horizon Worlds | Image: Meta Mark Zuckerberg is betting his company’s future on the metaverse — a virtual space in which people interact with each other using avatars and developing AR / VR technology — investing tens of billions of dollars in an attempt to build the platforms and hardware that capture a new generation of users. Now, the question is: will Zuckerberg’s gamble on the metaverse being the future of the internet — and his company — actually succeed?One of the biggest parts of that bet is Horizon, Meta’s software for people to socialize, work, and play in the metaverse. Think of Horizon as a blend of The Sims, Minecraft, and Roblox, with users interacting through their avatars in virtual worlds they build.“We are seeing the youngest generation spend an... Continue reading…

Samsung’s nailed the gaming aesthetic here. | Image: Samsung Samsung has announced its first OLED gaming monitor, the 34-inch Odyssey OLED G8. It’s also one of the company’s first gaming monitors we’ve seen that includes Samsung’s Gaming Hub, which lets people stream games from services like Nvidia’s GeForce Now, Google Stadia, or Xbox Game Pass without the need for a console or PC. (The feature, which also lets you stream movies from services like Amazon Prime, Netflix, and the recently upgraded Samsung TV Plus, has been available on Samsung’s Smart Monitor line, but those aren’t really built for gaming.) But while it seems like a totally reasonable display in its own right, there are a few confusing things about it, as well as some important unknowns.Let’s put those to the side for just a... Continue reading…

Image: Quantic Dream Quantic Dream, the game developers behind titles like Detroit: Become Human and Heavy Rain, has been acquired by the Chinese technology giant NetEase (via CNBC). In a blog post, the French game studio announced that it will continue to operate independently despite joining the company.While Quantic Dream has just a handful of games under its belt over the 25 years it’s been around, it’s currently working on a new Star Wars: Eclipse action-adventure game that’s set in the High Republic Era. The studio says the acquisition should help it expand its team and “develop several projects simultaneously.”NetEase is a China-based internet technology company with a growing division dedicated to PC, console, and mobile games. It first became a... Continue reading…

Updates for Apple’s older devices are rare but worth paying attention to. | Photo by Michael Shane / The Verge Almost a year after the last update, Apple released a new version of iOS 12 on Wednesday, meant to patch a security hole that was recently fixed in newer versions of the OS. If you’re still using an iPhone 5S or an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, it’s worth taking the time to update — Apple obviously doesn’t release security updates for its older software that often, so when it does, you know it’s a reasonably serious issue.The vulnerability fixed by iOS 12.5.6 is one that could let a malicious website run unchecked code on your phone if you open it in Safari or another browser. What’s more, Apple says it’s possible someone out in the world has tried to use this exploit. While this type of warning isn’t a reason to panic — it’s relatively common... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean Rayford / Getty Images South Carolina Republican politicians distanced themselves from a widely criticized plan to outlaw offering abortion guidance online — a proposal that raised fears about internet censorship after the end of Roe v. Wade.Lawmakers introduced the proposed abortion ban in June, basing it on model legislation from the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC). Among other provisions, the proposal would have banned “hosting or maintaining an internet website, providing access to an internet website, or providing an internet service” that told people from the state how to obtain an abortion. Groups like the Knight First Amendment Institute argued that the model legislation raised serious First Amendment questions, and its introduction in South... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge When a group of Etsy sellers announced in March that they would temporarily shut down their shops to protest changes on the platform, organizers made a promise: the strike was just the first step.Now, following the week-long strike and small concessions by Etsy, organizers have formed the Indie Sellers Guild, a nonprofit they hope will function as an advocacy organization for anyone who sells handmade, vintage, and craft goods online.“We are modeling ourselves after a union as much as possible, with the same goals as a more traditional union and other organized labor movements,” says Chiarra Lohr, interim secretary-treasurer of the guild who has also worked on organizing the guild and drafting the bylaws. “We are very bottom-up,... Continue reading…

Electric vehicles are very helpful for fighting climate change. But EVs need batteries, and batteries need minerals like nickel, cobalt, and lithium. The US has some of these minerals underground, and it wants to dig them up, expeditiously, so that it doesn’t have to rely as much on other countries, including China.But this is where it gets tricky. Mining operators say they can speed up the digging process, but a bunch of regulatory roadblocks stand in their way. And environmentalists and tribal groups remain extremely skeptical that all this mining can be done in a way that doesn’t ruin the land and spoil the water.27,000 commentsThis more or less summarizes the nearly 27,000 comments that the Department of the Interior has... Continue reading…

T-Mobile is embracing eSIM. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile is pushing some new app features focused on getting prospective customers to switch with as little friction as possible, all thanks to eSIM technology. There’s a new version of the existing Test Drive program called Network Pass, which allows people to try out T-Mobile’s network with unlimited data for three months. Another new feature called Easy Switch aims to streamline the process of setting up a new account with T-Mobile using eSIM. They’re all part of an update to the company’s app coming to iOS today, with an Android update to follow “soon.”T-Mobile already supports switching via eSIM, which is just a digital version of the physical SIM card you probably have in your phone. In fact, the Department of Justice made sure... Continue reading…

The flooded Windsor Bridge along the Hawkesbury River in the suburb of Windsor, on July 4th, 2022, in Sydney, Australia. Thousands of residents were forced to leave their homes overnight. | Photo by Jenny Evans / Getty Images We’re about to see the first “triple-dip” La Niña of the century, spanning three consecutive Northern hemisphere winters, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) predicts. The organization issued a forecast today warning of the unusual turn of events: the current La Niña, a weather pattern that can drive severe weather, will likely persist over the next six months into 2023.“It is exceptional to have three consecutive years”“It is exceptional to have three consecutive years with a la Niña event,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a press release. The phenomenon is expected to continue fueling bad weather across far-flung corners of the world.La Niña typically shows up every two to seven years, usually lasting a year... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Congress wants to know what Coinbase, Binance.US, FTX, Kraken, and KuCoin are doing to address scams related to cryptocurrency. In separate letters sent to each crypto exchange, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform expresses concern over “the rapid growth of fraud and consumer abuse,” as well as the “lack of action by cryptocurrency exchanges to protect consumers conducting transactions.”The committee’s letters cite data from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) indicating that over 46,000 people in the US lost a combined $1 billion due to crypto scams since the start of 2021, with individuals losing $2,600 on average. Investment and romance scams have been particularly lucrative for bad actors, who collected about $575 million and... Continue reading…

Nick Barclay / The Verge A vulnerability in the TikTok app for Android could have let attackers take over any account that clicked on a malicious link, potentially affecting hundreds of millions of users of the platform.Details of the one-click exploit were revealed today in a blog post from researchers on Microsoft’s 365 Defender Research Team. The vulnerability was disclosed to TikTok by Microsoft, and has since been patched.The bug and its resulting attack, labelled a “high severity vulnerability,” could have been used to hijack the account of any TikTok user on Android without their knowledge, once they clicked on a specially crafted link. After the link was clicked, the attacker would have access to all primary functions of the account, including the... Continue reading…

Hopefully this child isn’t scared by the sounds of a spooky, scary skeleton. | Image: Google Google — along with Starbucks, Spirit Halloween, and seemingly every grocery store in my area — is starting to gear up for fall. It’s bringing seasonal ringtones to the Nest Doorbell (battery) even earlier this year, with the addition of a festive accordion jingle for Oktoberfest that’ll become available in the Google Home App starting September 5th.Like last year, Google will also let you set your doorbell chime to some spooky sounds for Halloween, starting on October 1st. Previously, those included things like witch, werewolf, and ghost sounds. Those are pretty easy to imagine, but here's what the Oktoberfest ringtone sounds like:

The new Paramount Plus app will feature Showtime’s catalogue | Image: Paramount You can now access the content packed into Paramount Plus and Showtime from a single app. First bundled as a subscription last September, Paramount and Showtime’s catalogs have been separated between two apps for viewers in the US, but viewers can now access the full roster of TV shows and films from the Paramount Plus app.For new subscribers, the Paramount Plus and Showtime bundle is available at a discounted rate until October 2nd, at $7.99 per month for the Essential plan (which includes ad breaks) with Showtime and $12.99 per month for the Premium plan with Showtime that adds more sports, live broadcasts of your local CBS station, and downloads for offline viewing on mobile, and mostly removes ads, except on live TV and certain... Continue reading…

The Last of Us Part I | Image: Sony Interactive Entertainment The original The Last of Us first debuted on the PS3 in 2013 and was remastered for the PS4 just a year later. But here we are, less than a decade from its debut, and the game is already being remade. The newly christened The Last of Us Part I takes that original experience, the one that helped make Naughty Dog one of gaming’s most revered studios, and makes it feel comfortably at home on the PS5; in fact, the new version makes the game look and play a lot like its controversial sequel. In some ways, The Last of Us Part I seems superfluous, given the relatively young age of the original, which is still very accessible. It’s not like the PS4 remaster doesn’t hold up. But after spending some time with the remake, I have to say — it’s also... Continue reading…

Various Nanoleaf lights are on sale, including the Nanoleaf Lines starter kit. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Smart lighting accessories make for cute home and dorm decor, but they’re often expensive. However, today until September 5th, Nanoleaf’s back-to-school sale is making it just a little more affordable to brighten up your dorm or house. Right now, you can buy Nanoleaf’s colorful Mini Triangle five-pack starter kit for just $49.99 ($70 off) at Amazon and directly from Nanoleaf itself. The kit consists of five small triangles you can customize into whatever kind of layout you prefer, as well as a controller and power supply. All of the lights integrate with Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, and Google Assistant, and you can sync them with music or even the lights emanating from your games for a more immersive experience.However, if you want... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Los Angeles Lakers arena sponsoring and Matt Damon-endorsed cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com accidentally transferred $10.5 million AUD (~$7.2 million USD) to an Australian customer instead of issuing a standard $100 AUD (~$68 USD) due to a pretty unfortunate typo. According to Australian news outlet 7News (via CoinTelegraph), the exchange didn’t even notice the error until seven months later, and by that time, a portion of the money was already gone.The initial transfer occurred in May 2021 after an employee accidentally typed an account number in the payment amount field. Crypto.com only realized the mistake when conducting an audit in December 2021.Apparently code isn’t lawInstead of reporting the incorrect refund to... Continue reading…

Image: Amazon Studios The Rings of Power will take you there and back again with some new stops along the way Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge People cry at airports all the time. So when Jai Cooper heard sobbing from the back of the security line, it didn’t really faze her. As an officer of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), she had gotten used to the strange behavior of passengers. Her job was to check people’s travel documents, not their emotional well-being.But this particular group of tearful passengers presented her with a problem. One of them was in a wheelchair, bent over with her head between her knees, completely unresponsive. “Is she okay? Can she sit up?” Cooper asked, taking their boarding passes and IDs to check. “I need to see her face to identify her.”“She can’t, she can’t, she can’t,” said the passenger who was pushing the wheelchair.Soon,... Continue reading…

The small city of Mexico Beach, Florida, always had a certain charm. It had been lucky. Even though it sits on the Gulf of Mexico, which gets rocked by hurricanes each year, it had never been affected by a major storm. The cinder block buildings and the cottage-style houses still had the same look and character as they did back in the ‘50s and ‘60s when the town was first built. Says longtime mayor Al Cathey, “We were just an old Florida look.”That luck ended with Michael, a Category 5 hurricane that slammed into the Gulf Coast in 2018. It leveled Mexico Beach. Nearly every building was destroyed or unlivable. In the aftermath, there was no power grid, no sewage, no water lines. No police station, no fire station.Cathey, surveying the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge COVID-19 vaccines designed to target the omicron variant have just been authorized by the Food and Drug Administration. Both Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna got the FDA’s sign-off for their booster doses of the reformulated shot. This is the first update to COVID-19 vaccines to be authorized in the United States.The Pfizer / BioNTech booster is available to people 12 and older, and the Moderna shot will be available to people 18 and older. They’ll only be boosters — they can’t be used by people who haven’t already had their first doses.The new booster shots target both the original strain of the coronavirus and the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the omicron variant — which are currently the predominant versions of the virus in circulation.T... Continue reading…

The button you reach for in someone else’s time of need. | Image: Mitchell Clark / The Verge Elevator buttons can sometimes be fickle things — confusing labels or tricky security systems can start a trip up or down a building off on a slightly sour note. But on the control panel, there’s one button that stands out for its ability to make someone’s day instead of ruining it: the open door button.There’s no mystery as to what its job is. If the elevator doors are open, pressing and holding the open door button will usually make sure they stay that way. If the doors have started to close, jabbing the button often adorned with an icon of opposing arrows should stop the process and make the elevator accessible again.What makes the open door button special is that it gives elevator passengers (the ones standing within arm’s reach of... Continue reading…

[NOTE: As of Friday, September 2nd, 2022, the program offering free home COVID-19 rapid antigen tests has been suspended due, according to the website, to a lack of funding from Congress. In other words, we’re on our own.]Original story belowWith the rise of the Omicron variant, we’ve been urged to use COVID-19 rapid antigen tests to make sure that we don’t spread the virus to friends and family. However, it’s been very difficult to follow that suggestion, what with long lines at COVID testing stations and high prices for home kits — when you can find them.To try to alleviate this situation, the US federal government has created a website where you can order four free rapid test kits per month per household. While the site was... Continue reading…