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Illustration by Michele Doying / The Verge Twitter told reporters on Thursday that it kicks over 1 million spam accounts off of its platform a day, according to a report from Reuters. That’s double the number CEO Parag Agrawal stated in a May Twitter thread, though the company maintains its long-held position that bots make up less than 5 percent of its active user base. The number of spam accounts and how Twitter deals with them has become a sticking point in recent months, as Elon Musk threatened to back away from his buyout of the company citing concerns the company is downplaying the scale of the problem.In May, Agrawal tweeted about spam to discuss the situation “with the benefit of data, facts, and context.” In the thread, he said the platform suspends “over half a million... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge An “erratic” pedestrian attacked a Waymo autonomous vehicle late Tuesday evening in Tempe, Arizona, smashing the windshield and injuring the safety driver, the company said. It was the latest incident of people in Arizona attacking Waymo vehicles — and occasionally their safety drivers — as the company ramps up its commercial service in the state.According to the company, a Waymo vehicle was traveling down the street in autonomous mode at 3AM on July 5th when a pedestrian ran out in front of it. The safety driver saw the pedestrian and switched the vehicle into manual mode, bringing it to a full stop before the person leaped onto the hood. The person, whom Waymo spokesperson Nick Smith described as “erratic” then punctured the... Continue reading…

Sunny Balwani, former Theranos president Ramesh Balwani, the former business partner and romantic interest of Elizabeth Holmes, defrauded investors and patients of the blood testing company Theranos, a jury found today.Balwani, who goes by Sunny, faced 10 counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He was found guilty of all counts and faces up to 20 years in prison for each count.Holmes was convicted of four counts of fraud against investors in January after a months-long trial. She was found not guilty on charges of defrauding patients.Balwani joined Theranos in 2009 as president and chief operating officer. He also supervised the company’s labs. Balwani initially met Holmes when she was 18, and they began dating after she’d already started the... Continue reading…

Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock and Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk in Marvel’s Daredevil. | Disney Plus The unexpected return of Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin in Hawkeye and Charlie Cox’s Daredevil in Spider-Man: No Way Home were both highlights in their respective stories that made clear Marvel’s plan to work those characters back into the MCU post-Netflix. While a new Daredevil series is in the works, it turns out that Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk will actually be making their next appearance in Disney Plus’ upcoming Echo show.According to The Hollywood Reporter, both Cox and D’Onofrio have signed on to reprise their roles as crime-fighting lawyer Matt Murdock / Daredevil and brutal crime lord Wilson Fisk / Kingpin for Echo, the Hawkeye spinoff centering Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox). Hawkeye’s final few episodes gradually revealed that in... Continue reading…

Ubisoft After suffering in development hell for the last few years, Skull and Bones — Ubisoft’s live-service pirate game — is finally seeing the light of day. The developer showed off new footage of the game as a part of its Ubisoft Forward event highlighting all the timbers you’ll get to shiver and buckles you’ll get to swash.Skull and Bones takes place in the waters of the Indian Ocean during what was known as the “golden age of piracy.” Players start off marooned on an island and must work to build their reputation — known as infamy — in order to become the most feared pirate on the high seas. Infamy seems to be at the core of the game. Players can engage in all kinds of activities from looting, hunting other pirates, and treasure hunting to... Continue reading…

Gif: SnoopyTech Asus accidentally leaked a promo video for its apparently upcoming Zenfone 9 on its YouTube channel, and the phone’s got some very interesting quirks and features, to borrow a phrase (via XDA, TechGoing). Perhaps the most interesting (at least for the people who could take or leave a headphone jack) is what Asus has done with the side-mounted fingerprint sensor, which the video labels as the “smart key”: it shows a creepy CGI hand swiping through a webpage by sliding its finger along the side of the phone.It’s not exactly unusual to have some sort of gesture built into the fingerprint reader — phones like Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip / Fold 3 let you bring down the notification shade with a similar swipe. (And those phones are far from the... Continue reading…

A slideshow of texts are projected onto the side of the Hidden Gem during a demonstration against deep-sea mining. | Photo by Charles M. Vella/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images The race is on to figure out how to protect the ocean abyss as deep-sea mining operations look to extract minerals like nickel, cobalt, and copper from the sea floor. But there’s one potential risk to the deep-sea environment that tends to fall under the radar. Not only will mining dredge up the seafloor, but it’ll also create a lot of noise that poses its own problems for marine life, according to a newly published paper in the journal Science.People have talked about mining the deep sea for minerals for decades, and that future is almost here. Driven by a need for more of the minerals used in everyday gadgets and batteries, the first efforts to raid polymetallic nodules at the bottom of the ocean for these resources could begin in... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter has started testing a new CoTweets feature this week with users of the social network. The CoTweets feature allows two accounts to co-author a tweet and both be tagged in a single tweet. Twitter has confirmed to The Verge that this new feature is now live for some users for a limited amount of time after the company started experimenting with the idea earlier this year.“We’re continuing to explore new ways for people to collaborate on Twitter,” explains Twitter spokesperson Joseph J. Nuñez in a statement to The Verge. “We’re testing CoTweets for a limited time to learn how people and brands may use this feature to grow and reach new audiences, and strengthen their collaborations with other accounts.”In a tweet from the Twitter... Continue reading…

Comedian Lewis Black is the latest comedian to sue streamer Pandora over publishing rights. | Photo by Paula Lobo/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images Comedian Lewis Black filed suit against SiriusXM-owned audio streamer Pandora on Thursday, arguing that the company ran recordings of his performances without obtaining the copyright to his written work.It is the latest escalation in the messy fight between comedians, streamers, and the performing rights organizations that have recently stepped in to standardize spoken-word copyright in the digital age. This suit, along with several others filed against Pandora, seeks back pay for millions of dollars worth of publishing royalties and to fundamentally change the way copyright for comedy functions. If the comedians win, it could have major ramifications for Pandora, Spotify, and other audio streamers.Publishing rights for spoken-word... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales Tesla plans to open up its Supercharger network to non-Tesla electric vehicles in the US in late 2022, according to a White House memo.The company has been allowing non-Tesla EVs to use its Supercharger plugs in several cities in Europe as part of a limited pilot program but has been quiet about when US charging stations would be available to non-Tesla EV owners. A “fact sheet” published by the White House on June 28th and noticed by InsideEVs indicates that those EV owners may be able to use Superchargers as soon as the end of this year.“Later this year, Tesla will begin production of new Supercharger equipment that will enable non-Tesla EV drivers in North America to use Tesla Superchargers,” the White House states.“Tesla will... Continue reading…

Image: Bungie If you were worried that the real-life foam firing version of the infamous Gjallarhorn rocket launcher from Destiny would be disappointingly kid-sized, you can put those fears to rest: Bungie has just revealed what an actual blaster looks like — and when fans can get it. Preorders for the over 4-foot-long, 1:1 scale blaster began July 7th at 10AM PT / 1PM ET, and existing Gjallarhorn owners get dibs. If you’re looking to purchase the prop-grade Nerf LMTD blaster first, you needed to unlock it in-game in the Destiny 2 Bungie 30th Anniversary Pack before July 7th at 9AM PT before you can join the “virtual waiting room” for your purchase. So at the time we originally wrote this post, you had just over a week.... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Dish says SpaceX has been lying to customers about how a plan to expand the use of certain airwaves for 5G could disrupt its Starlink internet-from-space service. SpaceX sent a “manipulated filing” to the Federal Communications Commission in an attempt to prove the expanded 5G usage would lead to substantial interference, writes Dish and a group of other companies known as the 5G for 12 GHz Coalition. They write that SpaceX is conducting “a public misinformation campaign” against 5G.“This tactic, which is commonly used by Elon Musk, is not only disingenuous, but it promulgates an anti-5G narrative that is harmful to American consumers who deserve greater competition, connectivity options and innovation,” the Coalition writes in a... Continue reading…

Philips is discounting bundles of its outdoor lighting tech until July 17th. | Image: Philips Even with Amazon Prime Day 2022 right around the corner, kicking off on Tuesday, July 12th, there are lots of early Prime Day deals to check out, in and out of Amazon. One of the standouts is on Philips Hue smart lights. There’s a promotion that’ll knock 15 percent off your total when you buy two or more outdoor lights. This includes outdoor lighting strips, accent lighting, as well as other Hue essentials you may want, like the Hue outdoor sensor and Hue Bridge, the latter of which lets you easily control and coordinate your smart lights through an app. This promotion will go lights out after July 17th.If you’ve been itching to invest in a new wearable to get fit and keep closer track of your notifications, Wellbots is offering Verge... Continue reading…

Delivery service Instacart is rolling out a new Uber Pro-like incentive program for its shoppers called Cart Star. Cart Star’s tiered incentives are available in three categories: gold (for 200 points); platinum (for 1,000 points); and diamond (for 2,000 points). Shoppers earn points based on the number of orders they complete in the preceding three-month span. To maintain their place in the program, shoppers must keep an average customer rating of 4.7.The company’s highest diamond tier offers more exclusive benefits. Diamond shoppers will be able to have first access to delivery batches before stores open. They will also have access to two days of caregiving for a child, senior, or pet per quarter for the cost of $1 per hour or $10... Continue reading…

A server room at a Microsoft data center. Data centers like this have lithium-ion batteries that keep their systems running in the event of a power outage. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft says its data centers could soon provide backup power to electric grids transitioning to renewable energy. The data centers already have lithium-ion batteries on-site so that they can keep running during a power outage. Now, that backup system could also shore up grids in need of more batteries to store energy produced by growing numbers of solar panels or wind farms.That kind of energy storage is absolutely critical for any city or region trying to get its grid to run on renewables. Microsoft’s newest data center in Dublin, Ireland, due to come online next year, will be the company’s first full-scale attempt at providing that service.Energy storage is absolutely criticalUnlike coal or gas, solar and wind energy ebb and... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Meta is introducing a new account system for its virtual reality headsets, changing a 2020 requirement that most users log in with Facebook. The new “Meta accounts” don’t require users to sign up for Facebook, and they come with a slew of other updates to Meta’s VR social interface.Meta accounts will start rolling out in August 2022 for new and existing Quest users. If you’ve been using a Facebook account with a Quest headset (including a Facebook account merged with an earlier Oculus account), you’ll need to create a Meta profile that month. If you’ve been logging in with an Oculus account, you can keep using it until January 1st, 2023, as previously promised. If you migrate your account, you’re supposed to see all the VR apps you... Continue reading…

Inscryption. Roguelike sensation Inscryption is coming to console: today, Sony revealed that the diabolical deck-building card game will be launching on both the PS4 and PS5. There’s no word yet on when the port will be available, but it will include some PlayStation-specific features like haptic feedback that “enhances every grisly action.” Inscryption first made waves when it released on PC last year and recently made its way to Mac and Linux.The news comes as part of a handful of indie game announcements from Sony. In addition to Inscryption, the company announced PlayStation versions of Cursed to Golf, Signalis, Cult of the Lamb, Schim, and the retro RPG Sea of Stars. A new version of Q-Games’ The Tomorrow Children, called the Phoenix Edition,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix has announced that, beginning today, it’s rolling out spatial audio for select original programming. The feature should deliver more immersive sound, particularly for customers who are listening to a TV show or movie with headphones. Netflix has collaborated with Sennheiser to convert surround sound mixes into an expansive spatial audio presentation that can be played through stereo speakers or headphones; you don’t have to buy anything new or own a proper surround system for this to work. According to Netflix, spatial audio “is compatible with all devices, all streaming plans, and does not require surround sound speakers or home theater equipment.”“Netflix spatial audio helps to translate the cinematic experience of immersive... Continue reading…

According to a report by Insider, Elon Musk is the father of twin children with current Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis. Insider shared a court document from this May with Zilis and Musk petitioning for a name change for both children, making “the children’s last name to be their father’s, and for their mother’s last name to be contained in their middle name.” CNN Business obtained a Travis County, Texas, court docket showing the petition was filed in April 2022 and obtained in May.Seemingly in response to the article, Musk tweeted, “Doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis. A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces by far,” followed by “mark my words, they are sadly true.”

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Whether your wallet is ready or not, Amazon Prime Day 2022 is less than a week away. The annual two-day super sale — which grants Prime subscribers access to a deluge of discounts, promotions, and bonafide deals — remains one of the best times of the year to pick up a range of tech outside of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, whether you plan to shop at Amazon or one of the many other retailers running counter sales elsewhere.This year’s Prime Day kicks off on July 12th, once again establishing itself as the premier shopping event of the summer. Instead of rounding up every minor price cut and promotion we see, however, we plan to collate only the best deals on the products we know and love, from 4K TVs and noise-canceling headphones to... Continue reading…

VW says it hopes to eventually produce 240 GWh of battery capacity. | Image: VW Volkswagen said it would invest $20.38 billion to build electric vehicle batteries, a move the company says will create 20,000 jobs and generate $20.38 billion in annual sales. The automaker will create a new company called Power Co to oversee the vast effort as VW races to secure enough capacity, materials, and supplies to power its EV ambitions.Power Co will manage VW’s entire battery supply chain, from research and development of new technologies to the mining of the raw materials to end-of-life recycling. The news was announced at a groundbreaking ceremony for the company’s first battery plant in Salzgitter, a city in Germany’s Lower Saxony.Power Co will manage VW’s entire battery supply chain“The battery cell business is one of... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro Mere weeks after the ESA announced that, no, seriously this time, E3 will make an in-person return in 2023, it’s ready to share some more details. In a press release, the ESA announced that it’s partnering with ReedPop, the production company known for running the Penny Arcade Expo and New York Comic Con, to facilitate the industry event.“We are thrilled to bring back E3 as an in-person event with ReedPop, a global leader in producing pop culture events,” said ESA CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis.According to the press release, E3 2023 will return to its home at the Los Angeles Convention Center. It’s the same convention center that was so inundated with attendees at last week’s Anime Expo that it produced some truly horrifying pictures (that... Continue reading…

The new $1,495 rower is meant to save space and money Continue reading…

An artistic rendering of JWST fully deployed in space. | Image: ESA The last six months for the James Webb Space Telescope have been packed full of tasks Continue reading…

Photo: Lego How tall is Bowser, the fire-breathing dragon-turtle-lizard thing who regularly roils the Mushroom Kingdom as Mario’s chief nemesis? It is the age-old question, and there’s no single answer. But if you’ve been holding back on Lego’s cutesy interactive Mario sets because their Super Koopa didn’t meet your satisfaction, I might have the set for you.You’re looking at Lego’s 2,807-piece “The Mighty Bowser,” a supersized $270 version of the reptile that looks ready for some of the biggest boss fights we’ve ever seen in the games. It’s the biggest Lego Super Mario build yet, and much bigger than the original: Photo: Lego Here’s the original Lego Bowser for comparison. While the company hasn’t told us quite how tall... Continue reading…

Image: Reddit Compared to other social networking sites, Reddit has taken a slow and limited approach to features that carry a stain of self-promotion or branding. Even a decision to add simple profile pages that users could fill with their own posts faced criticism. Browsing the site, you’re more likely to see posters using variations of the site’s mascot, Snoo, in their profile picture than the selfies that dominate Twitter or Facebook. Now, we’ll see how the community responds to Reddit’s offer of “blockchain-backed Collectible Avatars.” In case you’re wondering, yes, these are non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that are available for purchase in the Reddit Avatar Builder.These limited-edition avatars, which purchasers can then customize in the Avatar... Continue reading…

CD Projekt Red has launched new single player title based on the Gwent card game from The Witcher series. Gwent: Rogue Mage is a roguelike deckbuilder, in which players enter a procedurally-generated map and fight their way through a series of monsters and bosses using a deck of card-based abilities and characters deployed on the battlefield.The game is set hundreds of years before the events of The Witcher 3, with players taking on the role of the mage Alzur as he attempts to create the first ever Witcher. However, the story is mostly just set-dressing, with game director Vladimir Tortsov telling IGN: “We do not treat this expansion as an official addition to The Witcher lore.”The game is available today on PC, iOS, and Android, and... Continue reading…

MI5 Director General Ken McCallum (left) and FBI Director Christopher Wray (right). | Photo by Dominic Lipinski/PA Images via Getty Images The heads of the FBI and UK domestic security service shared a platform for the first time to issue dire warnings about the threats posed by the Chinese government’s espionage operations, BBC News reports. FBI Director Christopher Wray and MI5 Director General Ken McCallum were speaking at a joint event at MI5’s London headquarters in front of an audience that included business CEOs and senior figures from universities.“The Chinese government is set on stealing your technology—whatever it is that makes your industry tick—and using it to undercut your business and dominate your market,” the Wall Street Journal reports Wray said in the speech. The FBI director added that the benefits of keeping a piece of technology confidential may... Continue reading…

The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro (left) and the Galaxy Watch 5 (right). | Image: Evan Blass / 91Mobiles 3D renders of Samsung’s upcoming smartwatches, the Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, have appeared online thanks to leaker Evan Blass and 91Mobiles, a month ahead of their expected launch in August. The renders show the two watches from every angle, and line up with other leaked details about the two devices.First up is the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, the more premium of the two and the rumored successor to last year’s Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. The bad news is that the rumors about the watch no longer featuring a physical rotating bezel appear to be true — there’s no sign of the fan-favorite mechanism in these renders. There’s also only mention of one model size, 45mm, rather than the two sizes we saw last year (46mm and 44mm). ... Continue reading…

Download it before Saturday if you want the experience. | Screenshot by Umar Shakir / The Verge If you’ve wanted to experience the impressive visuals in The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience and haven’t downloaded it yet, you’ll want to act fast — according to Unreal Engine’s website, it’ll be removed from the PlayStation and Xbox stores on Saturday, July 9th. After that date you’ll still be able to play and download it, but only if you added it to your library before the cutoff.The Matrix Awakens, released in December 2021 for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S / X, is meant to act as a tech demo showing off the “power and potential” of Epic’s next-generation graphics engine, with its ray traced lighting and “metahumans.” It features digital replicas of Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss, a car chase turret sequence,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge It’s been a few years since Blizzard has hosted an in-person version of BlizzCon, its fan convention, but it sounds like that’s going to change in 2023. The company, known for huge franchises like World of Warcraft and Diablo, is “committed to bringing back BlizzCon in 2023,” Blizzard boss Mike Ybarra told the Los Angeles Times.“We previously announced we’re taking a pause on BlizzCon while we reimagine it for the future but do want to return to a live event that enables us to celebrate the community,” Ybarra said. “We recently hired a new leader of BlizzCon, April McKee, who is hard at work on that plan. ... We are committed to bringing back BlizzCon in 2023.”It’s not clear when the event might happen, and when reached for comment,... Continue reading…

Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith as Jay and Silent Bob. Had Kevin Smith not canceled one of his comedy shows in 2018 after suffering an unexpected heart attack, the Clerks director might not have survived to use his brush with death as the basis for Lionsgate’s upcoming Clerks III. Though the specter of humanity’s mortality is what brings Dante, Randal, Jay, and Silent Bob back together in Clerks III’s first trailer, the relatively dark circumstances also remind them that they’ve still got valuable time left to make some of their dreams come true.Clerks III’s first trailer zooms in on Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) just as he’s having a heart attack at the Quick Stop, where the two have been for decades. While Randal’s heart attack doesn’t kill him, it does leave him... Continue reading…

The rumored watch is expected to be larger than the current Series 7, pictured here. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple is working on a version of the Apple Watch meant for “extreme sports athletes,” which will feature a bigger screen and tougher design, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The report says the sports model will feature a “nearly 2-inch display” with 7 percent more area than the one found on the current 45 mm watches and that it would be powered by a larger battery. (Note that the 45 mm — or roughly 1.77-inch — measurement is in reference to the watch’s case size, not its screen size.)Gurman has reported on a potential rugged Apple Watch before, but now the prediction is slightly different. He previously said Apple could make its Watch more rugged with a rubberized exterior, which he said was sometimes internally... Continue reading…

Last Friday, we introduced you to Luke Ross: a modder who now makes $20,000 a month on Patreon bringing big games like Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2 to virtual reality. But the publisher of those games, Take-Two Interactive, was apparently not amused — and Patreon is now threatening to suspend his account unless he plays ball with a DMCA takedown.What does Take-Two want him to do? That’s not actually clear, but it’s looking like Ross will be forced to remove his VR mods anyhow.Here’s a copy of the message Ross says he received from Patreon on Wednesday morning, as provided to The Verge:

I have fond memories of hanging out at my childhood friend’s house and watching as she downloaded thousands of pirated songs (and viruses) onto her family’s computer using LimeWire. It was a simpler time — we didn’t have to worry about jobs because we were 12 years old. Soulja Boy’s “Crank That” had infiltrated our Midwestern school dances and we reveled in learning the choreography. And this cool service let you listen to whatever music you wanted for free. I love the internet, I thought to myself.As an adult in 2022, reading “[insert bygone brand name] is back!” is a dangerous game. These days, announcements frequently include a string of phrases nonsensical to the average person, as brands like RadioShack, Blockbuster, and other... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Everything you need to know to score the best deals possible Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Food and Drug Administration suspended its ban on Juul’s e-cigarettes as the company goes through the appeals process, the agency said Tuesday.The FDA rejected Juul’s applications to sell tobacco- and menthol-flavored e-cigarettes in June, saying the company had to pull its products off the market. Juul appealed the decision, and a federal court issued a temporary stay of the ban while the company went through the appeals process. The company also asked the FDA to stay its own ban, and the agency initially refused, according to court filings.Juul said in court filings that the FDA did not evaluate its entire application and that it made the decision to ban Juul’s products based on political pressure. Juul said it will continue to... Continue reading…

The joy of Summer Games Done Quick raising $3.01 million for Doctors Without Borders has been marred with a bit of controversy. During the charity marathon, Mekarazium, a Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance runner, faked his run of the Revengeance Blade Wolf DLC, playing a spliced video instead of running the game live. The fake run was discovered when Mekarazium himself confessed to cheating, prompting Games Done Quick organizers to remove the VOD of the run and ban Mekarazium from future events. Mekarazium was able to pull off the deception as, even though this was the first live GDQ since AGDQ 2020, he participated remotely, broadcasting from his home.On Thursday, June 30th, Mekarazium ran Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance on new game plus... Continue reading…

Ubisoft has officially announced The Division Resurgence, a free-to-play mobile game that it hinted was in the works last year. The company says it’ll be an open-world, third-person RPG shooter like the mainline games, with single-player and co-op modes that let players face off against the environment in story missions and other “PvE activities.”Resurgence will take place in the same world as The Division and The Division 2 did, though Ubisoft says its story will be “independent” from the original, offering a “unique perspective on key story events” as well as new characters and weapons. Personally, though, the trailer the company released for Resurgence reminds me a lot of the original 2014 cinematic trailer. It has a lot of the same... Continue reading…

Walmart’s InHome delivery costs $138 annually with Plus. | Image: Walmart Walmart is making its InHome delivery service available to Walmart Plus subscribers for an extra $7 per month or $40 per year. The service, which brings groceries and other goods from your local Walmart to the inside of your home, was previously available as a separate subscription costing $19.95 per month or $148 per year.InHome’s new $138 annual price is $10 less when compared to the previous annual pricing of InHome alone and also comes with the perks of a Plus membership. Of course, this doesn’t count the added fees associated with purchasing a compatible $49.95 Level smart lock, $49.95 Genie automatic garage door opener, or garage keypad (if you don’t have one already) that delivery drivers will use to open your front door or... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan is facing new pressure from top Senate Intelligence leaders to investigate TikTok after new reports that the company shares US data with China-based workers.In a letter to Khan on Tuesday, Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Marco Rubio (R-FL), Senate Intelligence Committee leaders, called on the FTC to open an investigation into TikTok’s data security practices. The call comes after a June BuzzFeed News report detailed how China-based ByteDance engineers had access to TikTok’s US data as late as January 2022.“In light of repeated misrepresentations by TikTok ... we urge you to act promptly on this matter”“In light of repeated misrepresentations by TikTok concerning its data security, data... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple is taking steps to increase security for people like journalists, activists, and politicians with a new setting in iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS Ventura called Lockdown Mode. This setting hardens an iPhone, iPad, or Mac’s defenses in ways that interrupt methods we’ve seen used to compromise devices for highly targeted attacks.Lockdown Mode blocks many message attachment types, disables link previews, turns off certain web browsing technology by default, blocks invitations and FaceTime calls from unknown sources, locks down wired connections to computers or accessories while the device is locked, and disables the ability to add new configuration profiles or enroll in mobile device management (MDM).These are the areas that we know... Continue reading…

Image: Bandai Namco At this year’s Anime Expo in Los Angeles, Bandai Namco announced a new game based on the popular anime series My Hero Academia: a 24-player battle royale that pits teams of heroes and villains against each other. The free-to-play game, called My Hero Ultra Rumble, will be available on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PC.You can sign up for the closed beta, which is currently just for PS4 players, on Bandai Namco’s website. The first phase starts on August 17th at 10PM ET (7PM PT) and ends on August 18th at 6AM ET (3AM PT), while the second phase runs from August 18th at 10PM ET (7PM PT) to August 21st at 2PM ET (11AM PT).The confirmed roster so far includes just 12 charactersMy Hero Ultra Rumble seems like an interesting... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge One of the best ways to restore space to your computer or phone — or to fix a problem that may have been caused by a temporary file screwing up the works — is also one of the simplest: to clear the browser cache. However, unless you’ve been instructed sometime in the past to clear your cache, you may be unaware of this otherwise invisible feature.Here’s how to clear your cache on the major browsers and on your Android or iOS devices. We’ve also included instructions on how to clear the data for a single site if you need to.Chrome Check the cached images and files box.

Patch 1.17 is available now. | Image: Sony Horizon Forbidden West now offers variable refresh rate (VRR) and high refresh rate support as well as a new 40Hz “Balanced” graphics mode on PS5, developer Guerrilla Games announced Wednesday. They’re available as part of patch 1.17, which you can download right now.Variable refresh rates can dynamically adjust the refresh rate of your display while you’re playing a game. In practice, it means that games will generally feel smoother to play, though you’ll need a display that supports the feature.After messing around with the update for a few minutes while writing this article, I can say that Horizon Forbidden West does feel smoother on the “Favor Performance” graphics mode. (I have my PS5 hooked up to a TCL 6-Series Google TV, which... Continue reading…

The Ultrahuman Ring is the latest take on metabolism and fitness tracking. | Image: Ultrahuman Fitness startup Ultrahuman is launching a smart ring that it claims will give users “ultrahuman power.” And by ultrahuman power, the company means a fitness tracker that gives insights into your metabolism by monitoring sleep and movement. The smart ring can also be used with the company’s M1 glucose monitoring patch for more in-depth metabolic tracking.In terms of design and features, the Ultrahuman Ring seems to be taking a page from the popular Oura Ring. It has a PPG heart rate sensor, temperature sensor, and motion sensor. (Though Ultrahuman spokesperson Bilal Mahmood told The Verge it won’t have SpO2 sensors.) Like the Oura Ring, there’s no screen and no haptics — meaning you’ll have to look at the Ultrahuman app to see your... Continue reading…

Image: Sky Mavis The blockchain of high-profile crypto game Axie Infinity was reportedly hacked with an elaborate phishing scheme involving fake LinkedIn job offers. The Block reported the news today, citing two sources with knowledge of the incident. It revealed a new dimension to one of the biggest decentralized finance, or DeFi, hacks to date.According to The Block, hackers — identified by the US government as North Korean group Lazarus — targeted employees of Axie Infinity developer Sky Mavis. They reportedly reached out over LinkedIn on behalf of a fake company, and when employees took the bait, they proceeded with multiple rounds of fake job interviews and then an “extremely generous” fake compensation package. The con culminated in one senior... Continue reading…