The Verge

Image: Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images House Republicans came to the defense of Elon Musk Thursday, tearing into Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan over an agency investigation they claim borders on obsession" with Twitter and its owner.The blustering support for the billionaire dominated a Thursday House Judiciary Committee hearing overseeing the agency's work under Khan's leadership. The committee's chair, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), set the tone right out of the gate, calling Khan's leadership a disaster" and suggesting that the FTC's Twitter probe was politically motivated.Why are you harassing Twitter?" Jordan pressed Khan Thursday. This wasn't harassment. It was a shakedown."The hearing came hours after Musk asked a federal court to end the FTC's investigation... Continue reading...

LG CEO William Cho (pictured above at CES 2023) has revealed how the company plans to squeeze additional revenue out of its customers. | Photo by David Becker/Getty Images LG Electronics is looking to squeeze some additional cash from its customers by going all in on advertising and subscription offerings for its home appliances and televisions. It's part of a plan to increase global annual revenue from the $51 billion reported last year to almost $79 billion by 2030. Part of that growth strategy is to get webOS - the operating system running LG smart TVs - onto more external TV brands and other product groups."On Wednesday, LG CEO William Cho announced the Korean tech giant's intention to transform itself into a smart life solution company" by diversifying its current business portfolio and creating a business model that focuses on customer engagement." LG's new growth strategy will introduce a... Continue reading...

At press time, we weren't provided images of the rally-inspired Mustang Mach-E, so please enjoy this photo of the Mustang logo until such images become available. | Image: Ford Ford announced a first-ever" rally-inspired Mustang Mach-E for the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK, which kicked off this week. And what's more, the special-edition EV will be available to order in the US and Europe later this year.We don't have much more information about the Mustang Mach-E Rally, as Ford would not provide specifications or images of the vehicle before the publication of this article. But the company did say the EV would be a true off-roader with a focus on speed and performance - as is typical of vehicles designed for the notoriously hilly Goodwood Festival.The freedom to venture off the asphalt and beyond the beaten path"Mustang Mach-E took the freedom and fun of Mustang and made it free from emissions.... Continue reading...

Image: Lego All the Lego news that Verge readers deserve. Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit is sunsetting its current coins and awards systems, meaning you soon won't be able to thank a kind stranger for giving you Reddit Gold for one of your posts.Awards are little icons on posts you might have come across while scrolling around Reddit, and they're given by other users to show appreciation for a post. Perhaps the most commonly-known award is Reddit Gold, which shows up as a gold medal with a star, but there also reaction awards and awards specific to certain communities. Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge See all those icons? Those are awards. To buy an award, you need to use Reddit Coins, but if you don't already have some, you aren't able to get any more of them as of Thursday, according... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The biggest Reddit community that's still private as part of the Reddit protest is now encouraging its users to congregate elsewhere: Discord and Substack.If you currently try to visit r/malefashionadvice, which has more than 5 million subscribers, you'll be greeted with a page that suggests you visit the community's Discord and Substack instead. r/malefashionadvice was a great resource for fashion conversation and guides, and the Discord and Substack offer alternative homes for those resources. Specifically, the Discord lets members of the community chat amongst themselves and post about things like fits and inspiration, while the Substack hosts a lot of guides. Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge One of the... Continue reading...

The AMPTP proposal will sound familiar to Black Mirror fans. | Image: Netflix During today's press conference in which Hollywood actors confirmed that they were going on strike, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA's chief negotiator, revealed a proposal from Hollywood studios that sounds ripped right out of a Black Mirror episode.In a statement about the strike, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) said that its proposal included a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors' digital likenesses for SAG-AFTRA members."When asked about the proposal during the press conference, Crabtree-Ireland said that This groundbreaking' AI proposal that they gave us yesterday, they proposed that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get one day's pay, and their companies... Continue reading...

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Months after Elon Musk announced that some Twitter users will be eligible to earn money via ads on the platform, popular creators are finally getting an update: the money is coming within the next 72 hours."The revenue sharing program is only available to users who pay for a Twitter Blue subscription and is driven by ads placed in the replies to tweets. So far, payout amounts are ranging from a few thousand dollars to nearly $40,000 for accounts with a few million followers. In a thread, Twitter says it will expand eligibility to more creators later this month.

Image: SAG-AFTRA After weeks of unsuccessful negotiations between the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the union representing about 160,000 of the entertainment industry's American laborers will begin striking at midnight tonight.This afternoon, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland announced that the union's national board has unanimously voted to go on strike in direct response to the AMPTP's refusal to offer a fair deal on key issues essential to protecting the livelihoods of working actors and performers."Crabtree-Ireland said that while SAG-AFTRA - which represents thousands of actors,... Continue reading...

Now, if only Starfield could get here a little quicker. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge It's not often we see sold-out Amazon Prime Day deals suddenly resurrect from the dead less than a day after the event ended, never mind on a console like the Xbox Series X. That's why it's worth jumping on this rare deal while it's still around. Right now, you can pick up Microsoft's next-gen console on sale at Dell for $449.99 ($50 off).Unlike the smaller Xbox Series S, the Series X features a built-in Blu-ray drive, allowing you to play both physical games and digital titles. It's equipped with 1TB of storage - twice that of the Series S - and more processing power, which, combined with the console's support for 120Hz gaming, make it a noticeable step up from Microsoft's entry-level system. It's also a great way to tap into one of... Continue reading...

Microsoft's new Aptos default font. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is replacing its Calibri default font with Aptos, a new sans-serif typeface that's inspired by mid-20th-century Swiss typography. Previously known as Bierstadt, Microsoft has been on the hunt for its new Aptos default font over the past couple of years. The software giant commissioned five new custom fonts for Office in 2021, and the Aptos font was picked as the default after years of feedback.Today we begin the final phase of this major change where Aptos will start appearing as the new default font across Word, Outlook, PowerPoint and Excel for hundreds of millions of users," explains Si Daniels, a principal program manager at Microsoft, in a design blog post today. And, over the next few months it will roll out to be the... Continue reading...

Photo by Win McNamee / Getty Images The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating ChatGPT creator OpenAI over possible consumer harm through its data collection and the publication of false information.First reported by The Washington Post, the FTC sent a 20-page letter to the company this week. The letter requests documents related to developing and training its large language models, as well as data security.The FTC wants to get detailed information on how OpenAI vets information used in training for its models and how it prevents false claims from being shown to ChatGPT users. It also wants to learn more about how APIs connect to its systems and how data is protected when accessed by third parties.The FTC declined to comment. OpenAI did not immediately... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Ripple's XRP token was an investment contract when the company sold it to institutional investors, a judge ruled today. The case, brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, is one of the biggest in determining whether tokens are securities. Though this is an intermediate ruling in a larger case, it's still significant.In the ruling, Judge Analisa Torres found that Ripple's $728.9 million sales of XRP to institutional investors - hedge funds, etc. - were unregistered securities offerings. However, the programmatic sales and those by Ripple's CEOs weren't. The case will go to a jury trial to decide other claims.There are long-standing questions about whether cryptocurrencies are actually securitiesIn the suit, the SEC alleged... Continue reading...

The rear of 2022's Nothing Phone 1. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Our constantly updated list of all the information about Nothing's second phone. Continue reading...

Form, function, and a good midrange phone. Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The former CEO of the fallen Celsius crypto lending company, Alex Mashinsky, and the company's chief revenue officer, Roni Cohen-Pavon, have been arrested on charges of committing securities fraud, according to Bloomberg. On Thursday, the Justice Department unsealed charges against Mashinsky and Cohen-Pavon for inflating the price of Celsius' crypto token, called CEL, while lying to Celsius customers about the token, their activities, and the company's overall health.The DOJ claims Mashinsky and Cohen-Pavon illicitly manipulated the price of CEL," causing investors to buy the token at inflated prices. The DOJ claims that selling their tokens, even as Mashinsky told Celsius customers he wasn't selling, pulled in $42 million for... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge If you're using the new macOS Sonoma beta, you might want to know about a glorious new bridge between ecosystems that lets Mac Chrome users connect with their iCloud passwords. Apple has updated its iCloud Passwords Chrome extension with a new feature that lets you directly pull passwords from iCloud, keeping you from needing to open Safari or migrate your iCloud passwords to another password manager.Apple software engineering manager Ricky Mondello tweeted about the new feature yesterday. Mondello explained that the Chrome extension can also AutoFill passwords and one-time codes, save new passwords, and lets you right-click QR codes to set up code generators.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge US policymakers hope to require online platforms to disclose information about their algorithms and allow the government to intervene if these are found to discriminate based on criteria like race or gender.Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA) and Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA) reintroduced the Algorithmic Justice and Online Platform Transparency Act, which aims to ban the use of discriminatory or harmful" automated decision-making. It would also establish safety standards, require platforms to provide a plain language explanation of algorithms used by websites, publish annual reports on content moderation practices, and create a governmental task force to investigate discriminatory algorithmic processes.The bill applies to online platforms" or any... Continue reading...

Image: Susie Allnutt / Netflix We're approaching the end of an era for Netflix's adaptation of The Witcher. When the final episodes of season 3 drop on July 27th, it will mark the conclusion of Henry Cavill's run as Geralt of Rivia, with Liam Hemsworth taking over the role for subsequent seasons.In a new trailer, Netflix shows what fans can expect in those last episodes - and it looks like a big, bloody war. At one point, Geralt's sword shatters in battle, suggesting his new big bad enemy is a tough one, and the trailer ends with him saying, There's no coming back from this." Now that's ominous.The first half - or volume, as Netflix calls it - of The Witcher's third season started streaming in June, and it was clearly setting up this kind of large-scale conflict... Continue reading...

Cowboy sends you its love. | Image: Cowboy Belgian e-bike maker Cowboy has released a free app to keep rival VanMoof owners on the road now that the Dutch company is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.The Bikey app - get it... bike key - can generate and save a VanMoof owner's unique digital key, which might be needed if the company's servers are ever taken offline. It also provides basic access to the VanMoof e-bike's settings. The key can be exported elsewhere for safekeeping.The app currently only works with S3 and X3 e-bike models, the most common VanMoof e-bikes currently on the road, with support for new S5 and A5 e-bikes on the way. It's in beta and is iOS only for now, with an Android beta releasing soon. Cowboy says that nothing is shared outside of the app," not... Continue reading...

Image: Telly The free TV company Telly has started shipping its ad-supported TVs to its first wave of customers. Telly first opened its waitlist in May and plans on shipping 500,000 free TVs to customers by the end of 2023 - and millions more" in 2024.Unlike most TVs, beneath Telly's 55-inch 4K display is a smaller screen separated from the main display by a soundbar. That thinner display is dedicated to showing advertisements, which is the point of its business model.To even use the thing, you'll need to commit to having your viewing data sucked up and used by advertisers. If you're okay with that, you can also use the secondary display to show widgets that surface sports scores, a news sticker, the weather, and more. The TV features a camera... Continue reading...

Lou Llobell in season 2 of Foundation. | Image: Apple Adaptations of big, complex books tend to start slow - and that's usually because there's just so much to explain. It was true of Game of Thrones and The Rings of Power, and it was especially true of Foundation on Apple TV Plus, which took Isaac Asimov's novels and turned them into prestige television. With unusual concepts like psychohistory (a kind of math that can predict the future) and a genetic dynasty (a never-ending line of clone emperors who rule the galaxy), the first few episodes of season 1 were bogged down by exposition.According to David S. Goyer, showrunner on Foundation, there really wasn't a way to avoid that. I felt like the first three episodes of season 1 were so exposition heavy, but - trust me - we tormented... Continue reading...

The Last of Us running on a Steam Deck. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge The Last of Us Part I arrived on PC this March as an embarrassing, broken PC port of a game, even on high-end machines. When I tried it on my Steam Deck handheld, the game was utterly unplayable - despite co-creator Neil Druckmann's assurances that the game would grace" the Steam Deck.But after 11 patches, I can finally confirm The Last of Us is completely playable on Valve's portable PC.It's safe to go back in the... clicker-infested water?As of last night I've completed all 14 hours of the game on my Deck alone, and I haven't seen a single crash or game-breaking glitch. I rarely saw the frame rate drop below a locked 30 frames per second on default settings, and I've comfortably pressed the power button at any time to suspend and... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Google is adding some new features to its Bard AI chatbot, including the ability for Bard to speak its answers to you and for it to respond to prompts that also include images. The chatbot is also now available in much of the world, including the EU.In a blog post, Google is positioning Bard's spoken responses as a helpful way to correct pronunciation of a word or listen to a poem or script." You'll be able to hear spoken responses by entering a prompt and selecting the sound icon. Spoken responses will be available in more than 40 languages and are live now, according to Google.The feature that lets you add images to prompts is something that Google first showed off at its I/O conference in May. In one example, Google suggested you... Continue reading...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge There are many, many deals going on during Amazon Prime Day, even now well into day two. But these sub-$100 deals right here are the Goldilocks of Prime Day deals - not too pricey and not too cheap. They're that perfect balance of a good value that's likely to still get you buzzing with anticipation for when the package arrives in the mail.So what can $100 get you in the world of tech? Quite a lot, actually. There's smart home stuff like a very capable smart display, an excellent e-reader for diving into more books than you can read in a lifetime, a mobile game controller for your iPhone, a desktop mic that's a favorite among podcasters and Twitch streamers, and a whole lot more.Here are some of the best Prime Day deals for a cool... Continue reading...

Photo by Robert Nickelsberg / Getty Images Raising speed limits leads to more frequent car crashes, while lowering them leads to fewer crashes, a new analysis by AAA concludes. It's the kind of conclusion that seems obvious on the surface but still needs to be highlighted given how many states seem convinced that raising speed limits can save drivers time, when all it really does is endanger the lives of pedestrians and cyclists.The report is the latest in a growing body of evidence that finds that changing speed limits can have a big impact on road safety in the US. AAA analyzed a dozen roadways of varying types in the US in which half raised their speed limits while the other half lowered the limit. The group then did a before-and-after assessment to see what kind of impact... Continue reading...

The Kindle Scribe has hit a new all-time low, as have other Kindle models. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge It's that time of year again. Amazon Prime Day kicked off in earnest yesterday and will last for several more hours. As an Amazon event, naturally, some of the best discounts you can still get are on Amazon's own devices. As expected, the retailer is offering some steep discounts on some of its newest smart speakers and e-readers, as well as Amazon-branded TVs, streaming devices, smart displays, and various Fire tablets.We've rounded up some of the best deals available below, many of which are set to expire later this evening when Prime Day officially wraps. Thankfully, until then, there are plenty of great discounts to go around.The best Prime Day TV and streaming device deals

Both the WH-1000XM5 (left) and last-gen WH-1000XM4 (right) headphones are on sale right now. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge If you felt left out of Amazon Prime Day this year because you're not a Prime member, it's understandable. Watching everyone else quickly grab deals you don't have access to can inspire a major case of FOMO. The good news is, however, that other retailers are still offering their own competing sales even despite the fact Prime Day is nearly over. Many don't require you to pony up for a premium subscription, either.Right now, for example, retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Target are holding their own sales events and offering some good deals on noise-canceling headphones, robot vacuums, and other gadgets. In fact, in some cases, they're actually matching Amazon's day two prices. There are a lot of deals available, but we've gone... Continue reading...

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Between the ongoing Steam Summer Sale and now Amazon Prime Day, it's a great time to save on a wide swath of video games for both consoles and PC alike. Whether you play games on Sony's PlayStation 5, the Nintendo Switch, Microsoft's Xbox Series X / S, or a Windows PC, gaming can be an expensive hobby - especially with more and more games launching at the higher $69.99 pricing tier. But, thankfully, there are still a number of worthwhile gaming deals available to snag before Prime Day officially comes to a close in just a few hours.Here, we'll highlight and list out all the exceptional gaming deals we can find this Prime Day - on both the games themselves and the accessories that accompany them. From headsets and controllers to... Continue reading...

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says it is appealing a recent US federal court order that cleared the way for Microsoft to purchase Activision Blizzard. The FTC has filed a notice that it's appealing Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley's decision, but we won't know the regulator's arguments until the full appeal is submitted to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.Microsoft won a grueling fight with the FTC earlier this week, with a federal judge denying a preliminary injunction request from the US regulator. The Court finds the FTC has not shown a likelihood it will prevail on its claim this particular vertical merger in this specific industry may substantially lessen competition," Judge Corley wrote in the ruling. To the contrary, the... Continue reading...

The deals are still running during day two. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge We've firmly settled into summer, and the warmer months always make for a good time to upgrade whatever earbuds or headphones you're wearing everywhere during the nice weather. If you're due for something new, you might as well seize some of the best discounts that are on offer for Amazon's Prime Day 2023 event.For day two, you'll find many of the tempting deals that were available yesterday, and Amazon will undoubtedly add a few more impulse purchases throughout the day. Many of our favorite earbud and headphone picks are on sale at some of their lowest prices ever during the Prime Day event; however, many of the deals will expire in just a few hours, making this evening one of the best opportunities to snag a discounted pair before... Continue reading...

Photo by Axelle / Bauer-Griffin / FilmMagic Disney CEO Bob Iger has extended his contract through 2026, the company said in a press release. That means he'll be staying at the company longer than he originally said back when he returned to the company. After his initial run as CEO from 2005 until 2020, Iger returned to Disney late last year in a surprise announcement, and at the time, he promised to only stay for two years and find a potential successor before his tenure was over.Iger's extended contract keeps him at the company until December 31st, 2026, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.In a statement, Iger said he's staying longer because I want to ensure Disney is strongly positioned when my successor takes the helm." He continued: The... Continue reading...