The Verge - All Posts

Samsung Electronics’ Jay Y. Lee (left) receives presidential pardon. | Image: Getty Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong — known in the West as Jay Y. Lee — has won a presidential pardon by South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, allowing the grandson of Samsung’s founder to resume leadership of the powerful conglomerate, Bloomberg reports. The pardon will be formalized on August 15th.The presidential pardon is reminiscent of the two given to Lee’s father, Lee Kun-hee, who was convicted of corruption and tax evasion in 1996 and 2008.“In a bid to overcome the economic crisis by revitalizing the economy, Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jae-yong, whose suspended prison term ended recently, will be reinstated,” the South Korean government said in a statement reported by the Financial Times.The pardon is the latest turn in a... Continue reading…

Shaggy in MultiVersus. | Image: Warner Bros. Games The first season of MultiVersus, Warner Bros.’ free-to-play take on a Super Smash Bros.-esque crossover fighter, will now begin on August 15th, developer Player First Games tweeted Thursday evening. The season had been scheduled to kick off on August 9th, but the studio announced last week that the launch had been delayed.Alongside the news of the season start date, Player First Games announced that Morty from Rick and Morty will be joining the MultiVersus roster on August 23rd; his arrival had been pushed back last week as well. Player First Games also committed to adding “new modes and content” over the course of the season. Ahead of the season 1 delay, the Rick half of Rick and Morty was planned to be added sometime during the season,... Continue reading…

The new Photo Frame mode on Echo Show smart displays and Fire TVs removes ads and other clutter from your photo slideshow. | Image: Amazon Amazon Echo Show smart displays have never been as good as Google's Nest Hub or a dedicated digital photo frame for doing one thing well: showing your pictures. This is because Amazon clutters up the screen with questionably useful info and alternates your pretty pictures with suggestions for the latest Alexa skill you might like to try, a recipe for egg salad, or a news tidbit about a tomato shaped like a duck.But as of August 5th, you can now command your Echo Show to show you just your pictures and nothing else for a whole three hours.Photo Frame mode hides all ads, calendars, and weather notifications to become a photo-only slideshowAmazon’s digital photo frame feature, previously only available on the Echo Show 15, is now on all... Continue reading…

Image: Amazon Ring, the Amazon-owned home security company that’ll sell you a camera just as swiftly as it will give law enforcement access to that same camera’s footage without a warrant, is producing a television show that sounds an invitation to participate in the surveillance state. You know, as a fun family activity.Deadline reports that Wanda Sykes has signed on to host Ring Nation, a new America’s Funniest Home Videos-style clip show from MGM Television, Ring, and Big Fish Entertainment, the production company behind Live P.D. Described as a “daily dose of life’s unpredictable, heartwarming and hilarious viral videos” in a press release, Ring Nation will feature footage captured on people’s Ring cameras presented in a way that’s meant to be... Continue reading…

Photo by Nilay Patel / The Verge Rivian, the buzzy electric vehicle company backed by Ford and Amazon, reported a net loss of $1.71 billion in the second quarter of 2022 based on $364 million in revenue. It’s a sign that Rivian’s nascent EV business is picking up speed, albeit slowly compared to the previous quarter in which Rivian reported a net loss of $1.59 billion based on $95 million in revenue. Still, the company beat Wall Street expectations for revenue by about $26 million.The earnings report was also an indication that Rivian still has a ways to go before it can deliver on its promise to upend the auto industry with beautifully designed, emissions-free, adventure-themed trucks and SUVs. The automaker said it expects to burn through $700 million in additional... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Meta’s AI thinks CEO Mark Zuckerberg is as sketchy as you might — at least, if you ask the right questions at the right time. The BBC and other outlets like Insider have reported on their adventures stress-testing BlenderBot 3, the artificial intelligence chat tool Meta released last week. As they note, it’s easy to make BlenderBot turn against its creator, calling him “creepy” or untrustworthy or even saying he “exploits people for money.” But that’s not precisely an indictment of BlenderBot or Zuckerberg. It’s a funny reminder that most chatbots don’t have straightforward, coherent opinions — instead, they’re an interface for tapping into a vast library of online human thought.BlenderBot is a Meta AI experiment that’s currently used... Continue reading…

TikTok logo | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Hundreds of employees at TikTok’s parent company ByteDance used to work for Chinese state media outlets — and more than a dozen apparently still do, Forbes reports.Forbes surveyed LinkedIn profiles of ByteDance and TikTok employees and found that 300 people had previously worked for state media entities, with current roles at the tech firm including content partnerships, strategy, policy, monetization, and “media cooperation.”Of the profiles Forbes reviewed, 15 suggested that the ByteDance employees work at the tech firm and state media outlets simultaneously. It’s possible these employees simply neglected to update their profiles — employees contacted by Forbes didn’t respond. But the overlap between state media and ByteDance... Continue reading…

Pavel Durov had some sharp words about app stores. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge An upcoming Telegram update has been stuck in Apple’s app review for two weeks “without explanation,” according to a Telegram post from CEO and founder Pavel Durov (via MacRumors). He claims that the update is “about to revolutionize how people express themselves in messaging” but it hasn’t yet been approved.Durov discussed the unexplained holdup as part of a broader critique of app store business models. He says that Telegram is discouraged by the “obscure” app review process that’s “imposed on all mobile apps by the tech monopolies.” He goes on to say that “If Telegram, one of the top 10 most popular apps globally, is receiving this treatment, one can only imagine the difficulties experienced by smaller app developers.” ... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Friction is the mind-killer when it comes to cloud gaming. You can’t just click a game trailer to instantly be playing a game quite yet. But this week, Google appears to be rolling out a feature that could reduce that friction: if you simply search for the name of a game in Google search, you might be presented with a “Play” button that can instantly launch the title.

Flip phones are so hot right now. | Image: Motorola Motorola is finally updating its Razr foldable — but only in China. The 2022 Razr offers a larger main screen, an extra camera, and Qualcomm’s latest and greatest chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1. There’s also a new Flex View mode so you can open the screen halfway and use the phone hands-free. Kind of reminds us of another folding phone...The 2022 Razr includes an upgraded main camera with 50 megapixels and optical stabilization plus a new 13-megapixel ultrawide. The main screen is a 6.7-inch OLED with a 144Hz refresh rate. It outdoes the Galaxy Z Flip 4 with a bigger 2.7-inch cover screen — while the Flip’s is a much smaller 1.9 inches, making it more of an at-a-glance display. With 2.7 inches, the Razr’s screen can offer a lot... Continue reading…

Photo illustration by Joe Raedle/Getty Images Pandemic-era rules around telemedicine have been a huge boost to efforts to prevent opioid overdoses in the US. But those rules are also how controversial startup companies like Cerebral were able to prescribe Adderall and Xanax to huge numbers of people — and efforts to stem that flood of prescriptions could sweep away overdose prevention efforts in the process.Since 2020, doctors have been able to prescribe controlled substances after a telehealth visit without needing to see patients in person. But that’s a big umbrella: Adderall and Xanax are controlled substances. So are buprenorphine and methadone, which are used to treat people dependent on opioids. Opioid overdoses have reached epidemic proportions in the US, with tens of... Continue reading…

Image: Peter Kramer/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images In the endless cavalcade of Fortnite crossovers comes a new one that I’m actually surprised hasn’t happened sooner. Goku’s potentially coming, meaning a handful of beloved Dragon Ball characters are also about to get dropped off at Tilted Towers strapped with an AK and some slurp juice. Sweet lord Jesus, that’s a sentence.

It’s got a smart display, too. | Image: Anker Anker launched a new $149.99 portable PowerCore 24K GaN charger housing a big 24,000mAh battery for you to carry around, which is capable of being fast charged at 140W but can also dish out power at the same rate (via 9to5Toys). That’s powerful enough to charge a 16-inch MacBook Pro to 50 percent in 40 minutes, assuming you’re using the MagSafe to USB-C cable.The PowerCore is equipped with the new Power Delivery 3.1 specification that can pump more than the previous maximum of 100W from a single USB-C port. Anker’s new battery bank can pump 140W of power out of either of the two USB-C ports, and there’s also one USB-A port capable of 18W charging.PowerCore also includes features from Anker’s set of new “GaNPrime” chargers introduced... Continue reading…

A heat pump installed outside a house on February 8th, 2018, in Cardiff, Wales. | Image: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images The humble heat pump has finally found its moment in the spotlight. The appliance can potentially save you money on your energy bills, fight climate change, and reduce Europe’s dependency on Russian gas, proponents say. One day, heat pumps might even replace air conditioning and heating systems across the world.Sure, that sounds super ambitious, but lawmakers are scrambling to deploy heat pumps everywhere they can. President Joe Biden invoked the Defense Production Act earlier this year to boost domestic manufacturing of the technology, and Congress crafted major climate legislation that makes it easier for Americans to afford them. Across the pond in Europe, heat pumps are part of efforts to pivot away from Russian fuels.Lawmakers... Continue reading…

WiZ’s Mobile Portable Light can go with you to the bathroom. | Image: WiZ WiZ, the more budget-friendly, hubless sibling to Philips Hue (both companies are owned by Signify), beefed up its range of Wi-Fi-powered smart lighting products with new releases this week.The $89.99 WiZ Mobile Portable Light is coming in October, and the $24.99 WiZ Smart Button, which acts as a switch or remote control for all WiZ lighting, arrives in September. The company also added WiZ bar and floor lights as options for indirect lighting and wall-washing, which are available now.The current WiZ range starts at under $11 a bulb and includes the standard shapes for white and colored bulbs, light strips, and downlights. There are also smart plugs, a wired dimmer, and a motion sensor — most of the building blocks for a smart... Continue reading…

Image: Nintendo Kirby’s Dream Buffet, the Kirby-flavored Mario Party-like game that will undoubtedly cure our collective depression, has a release date. On August 17th — less than a week away — you and three other friends can roll, eat, and puyo your way to becoming the fattest, happiest Kirby on the block.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Ethereum network has been on a years-long path to switch its energy-hungry proof-of-work blockchain to a more efficient proof-of-stake system, and now its developers are suggesting a date to make the switch. It’s not final yet, but on a call streamed via the Ethereum Foundation’s YouTube page, they decided to submit this pull request proposing to make the change when the network reaches a specific difficulty mark, which should occur on September 15th or 16th.Dubbed Terminal Total Difficulty (TTD), it specifies the mining of a particular block where the old network ends and the new one begins at 58750000000000000000000.

Acura teased its first electric vehicle Thursday, and the grille alone is worth taking note of. The Acura Precision concept, which will make its public debut on August 18th during Monterey Car Week, has one of the most outlandishly bright LED grilles that I’ve ever seen on an EV (and I’ve seen a few).The front end appears to carry over a lot of the design language from the Integra and MDX, including the five-point diamond shape and the angular headlights. But the embedded LED lights are far and away the most ostentatious grille that has been released to date.The concept may or may not inform the actual production version of Acura’s first EVFull caveat: the concept may or may not inform the actual production version of Acura’s first... Continue reading…

Morty and Rick hosting a podcast. | Adult Swim Though Rick and Morty’s fifth season tore its titular duo apart and focused on just how evil some of their multiversal counterparts could be, it ultimately brought the grandfather / grandson team even closer together to highlight how they’ve matured as people. While Rick and Morty’s new season 6 trailer doesn’t directly touch on any of the series’ dangling plot lines, like what became of the “evil” President Morty after he stepped through a golden portal, it suggests that the entire Smith family’s going to become more involved in Rick’s adventures.After years of wanting more chances to mix it up with aliens from other worlds, Rick’s (Justin Roiland) granddaughter Summer (Spencer Grammer) seems to be finally getting what she asked for... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On Thursday, the Federal Election Commission approved a new proposal from Google to keep campaign emails from being marked as spam.Google’s plan, first reported by Axios in June, would allow for candidates, political party committees, and leadership political action committees to apply for the program that would make their messages exempt from Gmail’s spam detection systems. While Google did not need the FEC to approve the plan before rolling it out, it sought a vote earlier this summer to ensure the program wasn’t at risk of breaking current election regulations. In its Thursday ruling, the FEC confirmed that Google’s plan was legal.“I have a hard time getting around the fact that this is a unique benefit offered to political... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Federal Trade Commission has issued a new notice calling for input into how tech companies handle consumer data, a crucial first step in setting binding rules for the industry. Formally known as an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR), the filing calls for public comment on data collection, algorithmic discrimination, and commercial surveillance.The notice stops short of suggesting specific rules, which are unlikely to come this year. Still, the questions suggest the commission is focused on concrete harms caused by data collection, whether through data breaches, ad targeting, or algorithmic discrimination. There’s particular focus on how large companies use automated decision-making systems that might impact consumers... Continue reading…

The Roomba i3 doesn’t feature an auto-empty base, but that shouldn’t be a deal breaker. | Image: iRobot Another Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event has come and gone, leaving behind a flurry of announcements pertaining to foldable phones, wireless earbuds, and the beastly Galaxy Watch 5 Pro. Thankfully, there are still plenty of ways to take advantage of Samsung’s ongoing preorder promotions — ahem, see here, here, and here — all of which will be available until the latest batch of Galaxy devices arrive on August 26th. If flagship-level foldables and newfangled Android smartwatches aren’t your thing, though, we’ve got you covered with a smattering of deals.First up is the iRobot Roomba i3 EVO, which is currently on sale on eBay in refurbished condition for $179.99 ($170 off) with a two-year manufacturer’s warranty from iRobot. Although the... Continue reading…

Epson 2720 printer, a model known to be impacted by the ink pad error. | Image by Jess Weatherbed / The Verge Epson gained some scrutiny on Twitter in recent weeks after the company disabled a printer that was otherwise working fine, leading to accusations of planned obsolescence. Epson knows its printers will stop working without simple maintenance at a predictable point in the future, and it knows that it won’t be cost-effective for many owners to send their home printers in for service. So why not build them to be user serviceable in the first place?The inciting post from @marktavern mentions that his wife was unable to use her “very expensive Epson printer” after an end-of-service error message appeared.

Margaret Kimball / The Verge One of the internet’s better-known ringtone archivists was barely alive to witness the golden age of his biggest hobby. The 20-year-old Scottish musician, who prefers to be known by his online handle Fusoxide, got hooked through an Alcatel flip phone he had as a kid. “I love the sound of old ringtones, partly due to nostalgia and partly because I think there’s genuine underlooked gems,” he says. Today, Fusoxide is behind the popular @ringtonebangers Twitter account. With others, like @OldPhonePreserv, he helps to maintain Andre Louis’ phonetones directory — a repository of phone software, sound banks, ringtones, and audio ephemera from a bygone era.Reaching out to Fusoxide about a defining part of my lived childhood — the ’90s were a... Continue reading…

E2EE is currently available in Messenger as an opt-in feature. | Image: Meta Facebook has shared an update on its long-awaited plans to turn on end-to-end encryption (E2EE) by default in its Messenger chat platform, saying it has begun testing the feature for chats “between some people” this week.Facebook currently offers Messenger users the option to turn on E2EE on a per-chat basis, but such opt-in schemes are generally only embraced by a security-conscious minority. Making end-to-end encryption the default will be a big step: adding a substantial layer of security to a chat platform used by more than a billion people worldwide. It’s also likely to trigger arguments with governments who say E2EE hinders their ability to fight crime.End-to-end encryption makes it harder, though not impossible, for third... Continue reading…

Joyce Hu / The Verge For an app with over a billion users, WeChat doesn’t make a very strong first impression.When I opened up WeChat for the first time during freshman orientation at Indiana University (IU), I was amazed at how haphazard it was. The design looked outdated, drenched in a hideous shade of green. The media feed was limited to low-quality photos for reasons I didn’t understand. Even basic navigation was illogical and confusing. I already knew WeChat was a cornerstone of Chinese online life — arguably the most powerful app in the world. Was this it?For most non-Chinese college students, WeChat is relatively unknown. The only non-Chinese people who use it are usually those who have a specific connection to China. As I learned more of the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Patrick Wardle is known for being a Mac malware specialist — but his work has traveled farther than he realized.A former employee of the NSA and NASA, he is also the founder of the Objective-See Foundation: a nonprofit that creates open-source security tools for macOS. The latter role means that a lot of Wardle’s software code is now freely available to download and decompile — and some of this code has apparently caught the eye of technology companies that are using it without his permission.Three different companies were found to be incorporating techniques from Wardle’s workWardle will lay out his case in a presentation on Thursday at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference with Tom McGuire, a cybersecurity researcher at Johns... Continue reading…

Cat Gloeckner / The Verge A young software engineer looks back at his formative experiences in Karachi, Pakistan Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple has reportedly signed a deal with podcast producer Futuro Studios to help it fund the development and production of future podcasts, Bloomberg reports. In return for its Futuro deal, Apple gets first refusal on the rights to turn any resulting podcasts into a film or TV show. It has already produced TV shows based on the podcasts WeCrashed and The Shrink Next Door.Long-form podcasts have emerged as a rich source of inspiration for TV shows at a time when streaming services are more desperate than ever for original content. Hulu’s The Dropout was based on an ABC News podcast of the same name, and the streaming service is also reportedly adapting the podcast Wind of Change into a TV show.Multiple podcasts have already been adapted... Continue reading…

Intel’s Arc A750 is arriving later this year. | Image: Intel Intel has released 48 benchmarks that show its upcoming Arc A750 GPU should be able to trade blows with Nvidia’s RTX 3060 running modern games. While Intel set its expectations low for its Arc GPUs last month, the company has now tested its A750 directly against the RTX 3060 across 42 DirectX 12 titles and six Vulkan games.The results look promising for what will likely be Intel’s mainstream GPU later this year. Intel has tested the A750 against popular games like Fortnite, Control, and Call of Duty: Warzone, instead of the cherry picked handful of benchmarks the company released last month.“These are all titles that we picked because they’re popular,” explains Intel fellow Tom Petersen, in Intel’s benchmark video. “Either reviewers... Continue reading…

The Google Fiber logo. | Image: Google Fiber Google Fiber, the Alphabet division focused on offering high-speed internet access in the US, has ambitious plans to expand its fiber services in the next three to five years, the company announced in a blog post. It wants to launch fiber services in five new states, which include previously announced plans to enter Arizona and Colorado, as well as Nebraska, Nevada, and Idaho. In total, Reuters reports that Google Fiber hopes to expand to 22 metro areas, from 17 today.It’s a big turnaround from 2016, when the business reportedly layed off 9 percent of its workforce and paused plans to launch services in over half a dozen cities. In subsequent years, reports emerged that the company was canceling hundreds of installations in existing... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The team behind Google Search is tweaking its featured snippets — the text boxes that sometimes spread false information while trying to offer help. The company announced an update that’s supposed to make answers more accurate and avoid the problem of false premises, or questions where no definitive-sounding answer would make sense. It’s paired with an expansion in Google’s “about this result” option and warnings for low-quality data voids, as well as a new partnership on information literacy lesson plans for middle and high-school students.Snippets appear under many searches, but because they appear to directly answer questions by quoting pages, they can backfire in ways that standard query responses don’t. In a presentation to... Continue reading…

3D product render by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge After reporting bumpy third quarter earnings on Wednesday, Sonos announced that it has decided to push back a product launch that was originally penciled in for the near future. The product in question is almost certainly the long-awaited Sub Mini, a more affordable subwoofer that would join the company’s home theater lineup alongside the existing $749 Sub.The Sub Mini appeared at the FCC in June. If Sonos had followed its typical window of time between that filing and a consumer release, the product would’ve been arriving relatively soon. But Sonos says it’s now been delayed until the fiscal first quarter of 2023. “We always consider the kind of product that it is, and the timing,” CEO Patrick Spence said on Wednesday's earnings call.... Continue reading…

Image: Blizzard Getting fired is never fun, but it’s even worse when you find out via Tweet. Sang-min “Myunb0ng” Seo, support player for New York’s Overwatch League team, found out he wasn’t going to be playing in this or any other week’s games when his organization bid farewell to him in a tweet. Roster changes in the OWL are usually announced via tweet, so this wasn’t out of the ordinary. Problem is, it seems like no one told Seo of his release beforehand. He responded to the farewell tweet with question marks, seemingly confused. Image: Twitter He also quote-tweeted the announcement with another question mark, seemingly confirming the idea that he hadn’t known this was coming. Image: Twitter This particular... Continue reading…

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge When you start using TikTok, you’re asked for a profile name and a username. If you’ve been using TikTok for a while, though, it wouldn’t be unusual to decide that you want to change one or both. Perhaps you used your real name and weren’t aware at first that your name would be made public. Or perhaps the name you originally chose is no longer quite right for the type of content you’re going to post. Or perhaps you simply decided that you want to be known by something more exciting.Either way, it’s simple to change either your profile name or your username. (In TikTok, the username is the one preceded by an @ sign.)

I still remember the hush that fell over the audience when Sony revealed the first trailer for Final Fantasy VII Remake — and the cheers. Fans couldn’t wait to see these characters again in HD. But there may now be an even more immersive way to thrust yourself into the world of Cloud, Tifa, Barret, and Aerith: a virtual reality mod by Luke Ross for the PC version of the game.Ross is the modder we profiled last month whose day job is unofficially bringing games to VR; you pay $10 a month to support his work and get access to his mods. The last time we left him, he’d just been slapped with a DMCA takedown notice seemingly over his popular mods for Red Dead Redemption 2, Grand Theft Auto V, and Mafia: Definitive Edition. While neither game... Continue reading…

Samsung is trying to smooth out the pain points of folding phone ownership. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge The Flip and Fold turned a corner last year. Previous versions of Samsung’s folding phones were more tech demos than anything — awkward, very expensive, and too fragile for just anyone to consider against a garden-variety slab-style phone. That started to change in August 2021 when Samsung figured out how to waterproof folding phones.This year, Samsung has made some key upgrades that bring even more parity to the foldable line versus the S-series flagships. Picking a Z Fold 4 over the S22 Plus doesn’t require you to make as many sacrifices as it did in the past (except for, you know, an extra $800 or so). But there’s still a lot to prove if foldables are really going to go mainstream.A cracked folding screen could cost you as little... Continue reading…

Photo by Nilay Patel / The Verge The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has rejected Starlink’s application for $885 million in federal subsidies that it would use to provide satellite internet to broadband customers in rural areas. The FCC cites the SpaceX-owned company’s $600 dish and states that Starlink “failed to demonstrate” that it “could deliver the promised service.”The funding is part of the broader $9.2 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund that provides an incentive for telecom companies to extend internet service to rural and underserved locations. In 2020, Starlink won an initial $885.5 million subsidy as part of a Phase 1 rollout of the program. The FCC also rejected LTD Broadband’s bid for the funding after it initially received $1.3 billion in... Continue reading…

Image: Marvel Studios Disney’s ad-supported tier of Disney Plus will cost $7.99 per month — the current cost of the ad-free plan — and will be available beginning December 8th, the company announced on Wednesday. That same day, there will be a price hike for the ad-free plan, which will cost $10.99 per month.The ad-supported plan doesn’t come as a surprise; Disney had said earlier this year that the plan would be arriving in late 2022. Netflix is also planning to launch its own ad-supported tier, though the company isn’t expecting to launch it until early 2023. When Netflix’s tier is available, it won’t have everything at launch. We don’t know yet if there will be similar restrictions if you opt for Disney Plus’ ad tier.When the ad tier launches, it will... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Disney has announced that it’s raising the price of Disney Plus to $10.99 / month, up from its current price of $7.99 / month, starting December 8th in the US. The move comes as the company is looking to restructure its pricing options, which will soon include a $7.99 / month ad-supported tier.Disney’s also raising the price of its Hulu subscription. The ad-free tier will jump from $12.99 / month to $14.99, while the ad-supported version will cost $7.99 / month, up from $6.99. The new pricing goes into effect on October 10th. A price hike for unbundled ESPN Plus streaming was announced in July, taking the monthly price from $6.99 to $9.99 / month. Image: Disney The updated pricing across Disney Plus, Hulu, and... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Hackers, fraudsters, and others laundered at least $540 million through the cryptocurrency bridge network RenBridge since 2020, according to blockchain analysis group Elliptic. Elliptic researchers published the report today, citing RenBridge as an example of the risks of decentralized cross-chain networks.RenBridge is pitched as a way to easily convert virtual currencies like ZCash and Bitcoin to the Ethereum network and then to other blockchains. But “as well as a legitimate tool, cross-chain bridges have also emerged as a key facilitator of money laundering,” letting users avoid regulations and move money easily across networks, the report says. That includes the proceeds of ransomware operations and theft from other chains.C... Continue reading…

Microsoft has claimed Sony pays for “blocking rights” to stop developers from adding their content to Xbox Game Pass. The explosive claims are part of documents (Word doc) filed with Brazil’s national competition regulator and part of a review of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.“Microsoft’s ability to continue expanding Game Pass has been hampered by Sony’s desire to inhibit such growth,” claims Microsoft in an August 9th filing to the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), as translated from Portuguese. “Sony pays for ‘blocking rights’ to prevent developers from adding content to Game Pass and other competing subscription services.”Does this mean Sony is evil and Microsoft is casually out here revealing... Continue reading…

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro start at $279.99 and will be available August 26th. | Image: Samsung Samsung announced the new Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Pro alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 4, Galaxy Z Flip 4, and the forthcoming Galaxy Buds Pro 2 during its Galaxy Unpacked event this week. Both smartwatches are set to launch on August 26th but are available for preorder today starting at $279.99 and $449.99, respectively.Like its predecessor, both versions of the Galaxy Watch 5 are built on Google and Samsung’s Wear OS 3 platform as well as the Exynos W920 processor, announced last year. However, Samsung says the new Galaxy Watch 5 lineup offers longer battery life, faster charging, and a sapphire crystal display that should be more durable and scratch resistant than the glass found in previous models.The new smartwatch also comes with... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge At one point in time, Facebook’s relationship with politicians was relatively uncontroversial.But after the 2016 US elections, everything changed.Early in the campaign, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump tested the limits of Facebook’s rules against hateful speech at the same time that the company became a vehicle of political exploitation by foreign actors.Facebook’s first test: dealing with Trump’s 2015 Facebook post calling for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the US. While some inside the company saw a strong argument that Trump’s comments violated Facebook’s rules against religious hate speech, the company decided to keep the post up. Until then, most Facebook employees had never before grappled with the... Continue reading…

Meta’s smart displays gain support for Duet Display and can now be controlled by a Mac. | Image: Meta As the corporate world embraces its work-from-home future, Meta is doubling down on turning its line of smart displays into ultimate video calling devices. This week, the company announced its $349 Portal Plus (second-gen) and $199 Portal Go can now do extra work as a second display for your Mac or PC thanks to new support for the Duet Display app.Meta is also launching the Meta Portal Companion app for Mac so you can share your computer screen while on a video call and more easily access controls to raise your hand, mute yourself, and adjust the volume.The 10-inch Portal Go and the 15-inch Portal Plus are the newest — and likely last — additions to the company’s foray into consumer smart displays. Meta has reportedly decided it won't... Continue reading…

Your friends, for real. | Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images If you’ve been hearing about this BeReal thing but you’re not exactly sure what it is or how to use it, fear not. The concept can be an odd one to wrap your head around, but the app is, by design, one of the more intuitive and low-effort social networks out there.BeReal’s basic premise is that you’re prompted at a specific (but different) time every day to take a picture of what you’re doing, regardless of what it is, and share it with your friends. You can’t see anyone else’s BeReal until you’ve shared your own. If you’re over the age of, say, 22 years old, your feed is likely to be full of people sitting at their desks. Still, that can be a nice comfort to see.BeReal: how to take picturesTo get started, download the app. It’s... Continue reading…

The Z Fold 4 looks like Samsung’s best foldable yet. But is it really an upgrade from your phone? | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Folding phones seem, intuitively, like a great idea. Phones are good! Tablets are good! Put them both together, fold it in half, and presto: you’ve made the best of both worlds. Credit to Samsung, too, for willingly subjecting itself to all the growing pains of figuring out how to make a good foldable phone. Last year’s Galaxy Z Fold 3 was a good foldable, and the new Z Fold 4 looks to be even better, if ever so slightly. (I have lots of thoughts about the new era of flip phones, like the Z Flip 4, but we’ll save those for another day.)What Samsung hasn’t done — what no one has done yet, really — is make the case for why you’d actually want a foldable phone. And until it can explain why it’s worth all the extra cost and tradeoffs, I’m... Continue reading…

The iPhone 13. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple could make the upcoming iPhone 14 more expensive than the iPhone 13, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Kuo believes that the average selling price (ASP) of the combined iPhone 14 lineup may increase by 15 percent when compared to the iPhone 13 lineup.For reference, the standard iPhone 13 model starts at $799 (with carrier discounts), while the Pro and Pro Max models bump that price up to $999 and $1,099, respectively. While Kuo doesn’t mention price predictions for individual devices, he thinks the ASP of the iPhone 14 lineup (Pro models included) could hover around $1,000 to $1,050. Kuo blames the ASP increase on a potentially more expensive iPhone Pro and Pro Max, as well as a “higher shipment proportion.”

Senator Mike Lee. | Photo by Andrew Harnik - Pool/Getty Images No cap, Sen. Mike Lee himself is tweeting from the @BasedMikeLee Twitter account.The account cropped up seemingly out of nowhere towards the end of last month, posting news articles about the Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry; claiming that Lee is taller than his colleague Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY); and shaming the tech companies he aims to regulate as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.“The haters can’t handle this frickin’ smoke,” Lee said in a July 24th tweet on the account.Quote-tweeting Turning Point USA contributor Benny Johnson that same day, Lee wrote, “This account is no cap — bussin, forreal forreal.”The Salt Lake Tribune was the first to confirm that the account belonged to Lee on Tuesday. Lee Lonsberry, a Sen. Lee... Continue reading…