The Verge

Image: The Verge X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, may have broken the European Union's tough new Digital Services Act rules, regulators said as they announced the opening of a formal investigation today. A key concern of the investigation is the dissemination of illegal content in the context of Hamas' terrorist attacks against Israel," the European Commission says.In a press release, the Commission said it will look at X's attempts to counter the spread of illegal content on its platform and will examine X's efforts to stop information manipulation" via its Community Notes system and other policies. It's also looking into matters beyond content moderation, including deceptive design" relating to the so-called Blue checks," advertising... Continue reading...

A dog passes a pile of destroyed items that were removed from a once flooded home as residents begin the recovery process from Hurricane Harvey August 31, 2017 in Houston, Texas. | Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images More than 16 million people in the contiguous US - roughly 5 percent of the population - live in a place with heightening flood risk and a shrinking population, according to new research. It makes the case that climate abandonment areas" are becoming a more prevalent phenomenon in the US as people avoid places particularly vulnerable to climate-related disasters.What's a climate abandonment area? It's a census block where flood risk has grown high enough to start pushing people to leave. Many of these areas lie along the Texas Gulf Coast, coastal Florida, and the mid-Atlantic.But it's by no means confined to these regions, which can get hit repeatedly by storms during the Atlantic hurricane season. Climate abandonment areas are... Continue reading...

Image: May Mobility You probably haven't heard of autonomous vehicle operator May Mobility because the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based company is exceptionally good at avoiding the types of headlines generated by other AV companies.In its six years in operation, there haven't been any injuries, crashes, blocked intersections, or mass layoffs. While there have been some struggles, the company has proven to be an outlier among AV operators by continuing to raise money while others have seen their funding dry up.And now, May Mobility is ready to go fully driverless, a milestone that has the company taking stock of its successes - and looking ahead to the future.The most capital-efficient AV company that the world has ever seen"It's not robotaxis," May... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Peloton is opening up its app to third-party treadmills for running, walking, or Tread Bootcamp classes. Pelo Buddy spotted a new support page on Peloton's site announcing that the app can now record and display metrics on any treadmill that uses Bluetooth FTMS. The offer is only open to subscribers of the company's most expensive subscription workout plan, Peloton App Plus.To pair, you'll start a Tread class in the Peloton app, then tap the Connect a Bluetooth Device" option. Pick your treadmill from the list, and a green check mark lets you know when it's connected.Peloton says users can check their incline, speed, pace, and distance via the app during a class session. After the class is over, the app will also show estimated... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple announced a pilot program called contingent pricing for subscriptions" on Friday that will let App Store developers offer discounts for customers with multiple subscriptions. Developers will be able to base this on subscriptions from one developer or two different developers" as long as both subscriptions remain active, opening up the possibility of partnerships between different companies.According to 9to5Mac, the discounts can be used in App Store advertising and marketing outside of it, in addition to within the app itself.Pete Hare, an Apple engineering manager, said in a LinkedIn post that the company will handle all the eligibility checks and commerce work" and that customers can download and subscribe to apps being... Continue reading...

Illustration: William Joel / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 18, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you're new here, hello, happy holidays, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)This week, I've been combing this list for new board games to try, reading about the NFL's obsession with ping pong and the rise of chess influencers and the wacky history of Yahoo Pipes, watching Lupe Fiasco thoroughly explain how rap works, testing Anytype as a Notion alternative, trying to figure out how to justify buying myself a Lego Polaroid, and adding Us to all my words on Threads to welcome my European friends.I also have for you a new way to play Grand Theft Auto, some new AI-powered note-taking and journaling... Continue reading...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Congress has extended Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for a few more months to April 2024. According to The New York Times, the program was included in the $886 billion National Defence Authorization Act, which passed the House by a vote of 310 to 118, with support from the majority of both parties, on December 14th. FISA was due to expire on December 31st, 2023.Senator Ron Wyden wrote in a press release on December 8th that the vote to reauthorize FISA was inserted into the NDAA without a vote or debate" before the Senate authorized and passed it to the House. Now, the vote has headed to the desk of President Biden, who has called for it to be reauthorized.Section 702 empowers US intelligence agencies... Continue reading...

Opal's latest webcam makes for a nice carry-on companion, one that packs a bigger, better sensor than Opal's first offering. | Image: Opal Happy Saturday, dear readers! It's been a relatively quiet week on the deals front - well, aside from the return of Walmart's $349 Xbox Series X deal and a smattering of well-timed discounts on smart holiday string lights. Today, however, we have something completely new. Right now, Opal's Tadpole webcam for laptops is receiving its first discount to date at the Moment store, where you can pick it up for $140 ($35 off) when you use coupon code HOLIDAY20 at checkout.Unlike Opal's first webcam, the C1, the Tadpole provides a smooth experience right out of the gates. Opal's second effort features an adjustable clip that fits most laptop displays, along with a half-inch, 48-megapixel Sony IMX582 sensor, an f/1.8 lens, and the ability to... Continue reading...

Image: Epic Games Apple rules the iPhone's App Store with an iron fist - sideloading outside it is not allowed. Google lets anyone install any app on an Android phone. But guess which one of these two companies has an illegal monopoly, according to the courts?As you probably already know, Google is the one that lost its fight against Epic Games this week. It's a fight that Apple previously (mostly) won in a similar trial in 2021, beating claims that it had violated antitrust laws by charging mandatory in-app transaction fees and kicking Epic's game Fortnite off the App Store. Google tried a similar move, but in its case, a jury found it had maintained an unlawful monopoly with the Play store; a judge is scheduled to consider remedies next month.L... Continue reading...

The two women are the stars of one of the most watches shows on Netflix this year. | Image Amanda Matlovich/Netflix Stop me if you've heard this one. You're at a holiday gathering and some very offline family member starts chatting about the show Yellowstone. Pretty soon after a very online family member looks up in confusion and asks either what the show is or why they keep hearing about it when no one they know seems to watch it.But maybe it's not Yellowstone. Maybe its La Reina Del Sur, or The Glory, or maybe its Ginny & Georgia. What those three shows all have in common is they're three of the most watched shows on Netflix between January and June 2023, and if you haven't heard of them it's probably because you're part of the increasing gulf between the shows people talk about online and the ones everyone is actually watching.These new Netflix... Continue reading...

Image: Max Though there are a handful of human survivors at the core of its story, the real star of Scavengers Reign isn't a person; it's a planet. The animated series features a group of astronauts stranded on a bizarre alien world and follows them as they contend with the harsh, confusing, and downright odd environment around them. There are flying creatures that can double as gas masks and giant monkey-frogs that use psychic powers to lure in victims. Things only get weirder from there. But the fun of the show is seeing how the characters are able to use the strange plants and animals to their advantage. I think it's a universally satisfying process to watch people try to survive with limitations," says supervising director Benjy Brooke.Based... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge On Friday, two days after Threads finally started publicly testing ActivityPub integration, Instagram head Adam Mosseri shared a thread on Threads detailing the company's plans for its continued integration with the fediverse. Right now, it's possible to follow a few Threads accounts (including Mosseri's) from other platforms, but Meta has much bigger plans for Threads interoperability that Mosseri says will take the better part of a year" to realize.Here's what's in the works, according to Mosseri.

Screenshot by Emma Roth / The Verge Researchers found Microsoft's chatbot on Copilot provided false and misleading information about European elections.Human rights organization AlgorithmWatch said in a report that it asked Bing Chat - recently rebranded as Copilot - questions about recent elections held in Switzerland and the German states of Bavaria and Hesse. It found that one-third of its answers to election-related questions had factual errors and safeguards were not evenly applied.The group said it collected responses from Bing from August to October this year. It chose the three elections because these are the first held in Germany and Switzerland since the introduction of Bing. It also allowed the researchers to look at local contexts and compare responses in... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Apple has paid $25 million to settle a class action lawsuit over its Family Sharing feature, and you might be eligible for a payout, as reported by MacRumors. The settlement, which you can read about on a dedicated website, stems from a 2019 lawsuit accusing Apple of misleading users about the apps you can use Family Sharing with.Family Sharing is a perk that lets you and up to five other family members share subscriptions to Apple services, including Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple News Plus, Apple Card, and Apple Arcade. It also lets you share subscriptions to third-party apps if the developer allows it. That part is what the lawsuit takes issue with, arguing that Apple misrepresented the ability to share subscriptions to non-Apple... Continue reading...

Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge If you haven't enabled Bluetooth on your Stadia controller yet, you don't need to rush. Google has extended the deadline for when its controllers will no longer work wirelessly from the end of this year to December 31st, 2024, as shown on its website (via @wario64).After Google announced the discontinuation of its Stadia cloud gaming service last year, the company said it would let its controllers live on as wireless Bluetooth gamepads compatible with PCs, Macs, phones, and other systems. It also rolled out a special web-based tool in January that you can use to activate Bluetooth on your Stadia controller. Screenshot by Emma Roth / The Verge Google previously gave users until December 31st, 2023 to complete the... Continue reading...

Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Google will soon store Maps users' location history locally on their devices instead of in the cloud, a big change that will make it more difficult for law enforcement to access the data.Controversial geofence warrants" allow law enforcement to gather tech companies' data on mobile phones that have passed through a certain area during a specific time period. The FBI has used the warrant to collect information about a Black Lives Matters protest in Seattle as part of an investigation into attempted arson, for instance.With privacy concerns and the potential for geofence warrants to turn anyone at the scene of an alleged crime a potential suspect, Google has faced pressure for years to change the way it stores users' location history.... Continue reading...

Marc Corfmat was a teenager when he began to compete for Lego's ultimate prize: the chance to design an official set. He and his brother Nick had been building custom Lego creations ever since they were kids, sometimes in California, sometimes during vacations at their grandparents' home in La Rochelle, France. They shared their models on YouTube and posted their creations to Lego's website, but interest from the Lego world came slowly, if it came at all.Then, in 2020, the brothers started having some luck. The Lego Ideas program gives fans the chance to turn their designs into reality, offering both fame and a small fortune - 1 percent of net sales - to anyone who can convince 10,000 peers and The Lego Group that their set deserves to... Continue reading...

The Vivo X100 Pro in blue. | Image: Vivo Even in tiny smartphone cameras, lenses matter. Vivo seems to agree since lens improvements are a major emphasis on its new flagship smartphones: the Vivo X100 and Vivo X100 Pro. They launched in China first on November 13th, and now Vivo is releasing them internationally with matching 6.78-inch 120Hz OLED screens.The X100 will be available in Southeast Asian markets, including India and Indonesia, and the higher-tier X100 Pro will also be available in European markets. And no surprise - the US isn't getting either of the devices.Like the X90 Pro before it, the X100 Pro offers a 50-megapixel one-inch-type main camera - a huge sensor by smartphone standards. Vivo says it's been tuned with Optical Precision Calibration" for consistent... Continue reading...

The Verge This is Hot Pod, The Verge's newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.Mailchimp, one of the podcast industry's best-known sponsors, recently reached out to Pineapple Street Studios about making a new show. Pineapple and Mailchimp first collaborated in 2019, producing narrative ads for Mailchimp and branded series. So given their longstanding relationship, Pineapple Street staff were shocked when management at their parent company, the radio giant Audacy, informed them at a meeting on October 3rd that the new Mailchimp contract required all work on the series to be performed by non-union workers.Many of the producers who worked on Mailchimp projects in the past, or would take on a new branded series,... Continue reading...

Alexander Skarsgard. | Photo by Marc Piasecki / WireImage Another day, another sci-fi announcement from Apple TV Plus. The streamer is continuing to expand its presence in the genre with the news that it's adapting The Murderbot Diaries novels from author Martha Wells.There's no word yet on when the show will premiere, but it'll be a 10-episode-long series and feature Alexander Skarsgard as the lead. Chris and Paul Weitz will serve as showrunners, while David S. Goyer - who helms the Apple TV Plus adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Foundation - will be one of the executive producers.If you haven't read the books - you can check out our review right here - Apple says the adaption is about a self-hacking security android who is horrified by human emotion yet drawn to its vulnerable clients.'" In... Continue reading...

Photo: Netflix No thank you for waking me up. Continue reading...

Image: Google Google is releasing a tool to help users diagnose problems with their Pixel phones. Users can launch the app by entering #*#7287#*# on the dial pad, allowing them to check whether their phone is working correctly before or after a repair.There are a bunch of diagnostic tools available within the app. While users can run a full diagnostic test to detect issues across the entire device, there are also options to run individual tests for physical defects and problems affecting the phone's display, sensors, and connectivity. The new tool is available on all Pixel phones in English. Image: Google Aside from the diagnostics app, Google is introducing redesigned repair manuals the company says are easier for technicians... Continue reading...

Image: The Verge Online shopping giant Temu is suing its competitor Shein, saying the fast fashion giant is using Mafia-style" intimidation tactics on merchants.In the suit filed on Wednesday, Temu says Shein has deployed increasingly aggressive strategies to illegally interfere with Temu's business," including intimidating merchants who list their products on both platforms and issuing tens of thousands of illegitimate copyright takedowns.Temu and Shein have previously sued each otherShein recently has gone so far as to falsely imprison merchants doing business with Temu, including detaining merchant representatives in Shein's offices for many hours while Shein confiscates the merchants' electronic devices, obtains access to proprietary Temu... Continue reading...

A screenshot of Neko Atsume Purrfect. Sure, Meta's Quest VR headsets have games like Beat Saber, a VR Assassin's Creed, and access to the entire Xbox Cloud Gaming library, but starting today, you can play Neko Atsume Purrfect Kitty Collector, a VR take on the classic cat-focused mobile game Neko Atsume.The game is adorable. The cats have that same cartoony and slightly vacant look that makes them so endearing in the mobile game, and they get up to plenty of shenanigans. But because you're playing in VR, you'll also be able to do things like pet" the cats and pick them up using your controllers.I was given early access to the game ahead of today's launch, and I've messed around with it for about 30 minutes. Like with the phone version of Neko Atsume, Purrfect is not a... Continue reading...

Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images Cruise, the self-driving unit of General Motors, will lay off nearly a quarter of its employees, or 900 workers, after grounding its fleet in response to an incident in which a hit-and-run victim became pinned under a Cruise vehicle and then was dragged 20 feet to the side of the road.After the incident, the California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended Cruise's permit to operate driverless cars in the state. The company then grounded its entire fleet nationwide. (It had vehicles in Arizona, Texas, and Florida as well.) In response to the pause in operations, GM said it would reduce spending on Cruise and appoint its own executives to oversee the company.In response, several top executives have left the company, including... Continue reading...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Federal Communications Commission could soon stop cable companies from fining customers who cancel their subscriptions early. In a release on Wednesday, the FCC voted to move forward with a rule that eliminates junk fees" from cable and satellite providers.The rule, which FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel first proposed last month, tackles the fees cable and satellite providers sometimes charge when customers cancel their subscriptions before the end of a contract. In addition to doing away with early termination fees, the proposed rule would also require providers to give subscribers a prorated credit or rebate for the number of days left in their billing cycle upon cancellation. The proposed rule passed with a 3-2 vote.Consumers... Continue reading...

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge The next time you sit down to watch YouTube on your TV, you might notice fewer ads breaking up the video you're watching. That's because YouTube is making ads on TVs appear less frequently, but in exchange, you'll have to sit through longer commercials.YouTube started testing longer but less frequent ad breaks in September, and now they're launching across all TVs. The change means you'll see an updated countdown timer in the bottom-right corner of your screen that will now show how long you have left until the entire ad break ends or when you can skip. GIF: YouTube YouTube previously displayed how many ads were included in the break in the top-left corner of your screen, along with a countdown timer for each... Continue reading...

A mockup of the upcoming Rivian electric van for AT&T. | Image: AT&T Rivian finally has a second customer for its commercial electric vehicles. Today, AT&T announced it's spinning up a pilot program to switch its commercial fleets to EVs, including Rivian's commercial van and R1 platform trucks.AT&T is Rivian's first customer to purchase commercial EVs outside of the automaker's long-exclusive deal with Amazon. In 2019, Amazon agreed to purchase 100,000 delivery vans from Rivian, but the retail giant reportedly only met bare minimum orders of 10,000 units per year, adding fuel for Rivian to try and end its exclusivity agreement.AT&T's first Rivian EVs are expected to join the fleet in early 2024. However, there are no details on how many vehicles are in the initial pilot or whether there are more orders... Continue reading...

Image: Intel Intel is taking the wraps off its next generation of CPUs. During its AI Everywhere event on Thursday, Intel revealed all the details on the Core Ultra - no longer Core i" - mobile processors that will be part of its Meteor Lake lineup, promising better power efficiency and performance thanks to a new setup that splits tasks across different chiplets.Intel says its Core Ultra 7 165H chip offers an 11 percent improvement in multi-threading performance when compared to competing laptop processors, like the AMD Ryzen 7 7840U, Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3, and Apple's in-house M3 chip. It also offers a 25 percent reduction in power consumption when compared to the previous Intel Core i7-1370P and has up to 79 percent lower power than... Continue reading...

Illustration: The Verge Google is about to launch its grand plan to block third-party cookies in Chrome that many websites use to track your activity across the web for profit.Starting on January 4th, Google will start testing its new Tracking Protection feature that will eventually restrict website access to third-party cookies by default. It will come to a very small subset of Chrome users at the start, specifically to one percent of users globally. Afterward, Google plans to phase out the use of third-party cookies for all users in the second half of 2024.If you're randomly selected to try Tracking Protection, Google will notify you when opening Chrome on desktop or Android. If there are issues detected by Chrome while you're browsing, a prompt will appear... Continue reading...

The new Training Peaks integration lets you directly import custom workouts from the Apple Watch. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge The holiday season is arguably not for training. The major races of the year are done! Yet Apple and TrainingPeaks are getting a head start on next year's resolutions with a new integration that lets you directly import custom workouts to the watch.If you're unfamiliar with TrainingPeaks, it's an app that helps endurance athletes find training plans for their next half marathon, triathlon - you name it. If you want, it also has a coaching service that matches you up with an accredited coach to customize your plan based on your individual schedules, performance, and needs. The idea is to take some of the guesswork out of what you should be doing to prepare for an event.The integration itself is simple. It's based on a new watchOS 10... Continue reading...