The Verge

Image: Getty Images The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday subpoenaed the Federal Trade Commission for documents related to its ongoing privacy investigation into Elon Musk’s Twitter, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal.Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chair of the committee, authorized the subpoena sent to FTC Chair Lina Khan, accusing the agency of refusing to comply with a handful of other requests the committee has made over the last few months. The demand requires the FTC to hand over all internal communications related to Musk’s October 2022 purchase of Twitter.In his letter to Khan Wednesday, Jordan accused the FTC of making “inappropriate and burdensome demands” of Musk’s Twitter, calling the agency’s responses to past requests for... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge There’s a lot of them Continue reading…

Currents was introduced in 2019. | Image: Google Currents Update April 12th, 2023, 5PM ET: Google announced it will begin winding down Currents on July 5th, with data available for export until August 8th, 2023, when it will no longer be available.Google has announced that it’ll shut down Currents, which was introduced in 2019 as a replacement for Google Plus for G Suite. In a blog post, the company says it’s “planning to wind down” Currents, and that it’ll push the people who were using it to Spaces, which is sort of like Google Chat’s version of a Slack channel or Discord room.Google says that it’s making the change so users won’t have to work in a “separate, siloed destination” — instead, they’ll be using Chat and Spaces, which will soon be prominently integrated into Gmail. The company... Continue reading…

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge The first beta of Google’s Android 14 OS is available to download today, introducing new features focused on system navigation, privacy, performance, and user customization. We already had a good idea of what to expect thanks to the first two developer-only previews, but the beta release is the first opportunity for the general public to test the changes.Gesture navigation has been updated to include a more conspicuous Material You-themed back arrow that adjusts to complement the device’s theme or wallpaper. Aside from arguably being more aesthetically pleasing, the updated back arrow is designed to help users better understand Android 14’s predictive back gesture experience, which now previews the screen users are navigating to within... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Update, April 12th: And here it is — WBD has officially revealed Max, which will launch May 23rd, and we have all the details right here.Warner Bros. Discovery is getting ready to announce its combined HBO Max and Discovery Plus offering it will supposedly call “Max.” The media giant will officially reveal the service during a press event on Wednesday, which will cost up to $16 per month, according to a report from The New York Times.Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav had been planning on bringing the two services together ever since WarnerMedia merged with Discovery last year, and now that time is closely approaching. The combined service will dump Discovery Plus’ eclectic range of content, including Deadliest Catch, Property... Continue reading…

Collin Farrell as The Penguin. In Matt Reeves’ The Batman, Oswald Cobblepot was still just a two-bit criminal working for other, bigger crime lords who kept Gotham PD on their toes. But in the first teaser trailer for Max’s upcoming Penguin spinoff series starring Colin Farrell, Cobblepot’s well on his way to making it in the big leagues (of villainy).Though the Batman himself doesn’t make an appearance in The Penguin’s new teaser revealed today during the official unveiling of Max, it’s clear from all the back alley dealings and shootouts that Cobblepot’s getting into that Gotham’s as seedy as ever and still a hotbed for criminal activity. Because of all the chaos, it seems very much like Gotham’s in one of its more lawless phases, where even the city’s worst... Continue reading…

The official logo doesn’t actually look like this. | Illustration: The Verge Warner Bros. Discovery’s revamped subscription service is just called “Max,” and the company explained why it dropped the HBO branding at a press event on Wednesday. A key reason was to help Warner Bros. Discovery broaden the appeal of the app so that it’s not mostly targeted at content for adults.“We want [Max] to be welcoming to all and easily recognizable, including to a key customer segment, kids and families,” JB Perrette, president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery’s global streaming and games, said at the event. “We all love HBO. And it’s a brand that has been built over five decades to be the edgy, groundbreaking trendsetter in entertainment for adults. But it’s not exactly where parents would most eagerly drop off their kids.”W... Continue reading…

Image: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Microsoft is getting ready to roll out its new energy-saving features for the Xbox Series X / S consoles this week. This includes an active hours feature that Microsoft initially started testing in January that will let Xbox owners boot their console quickly during certain hours and shut it down fully to save on energy during times when it’s used less.Active hours means an Xbox will only draw 0.5 watts when it’s fully shut down, instead of 10–15 watts during the Standby mode. You can either set active hours times yourself or let your Xbox adjust them automatically depending on when you use the console the most. In other words, if your active hours are set between 12PM and 10PM, that means your console will be ready to boot in seconds... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Redfall, which is set to be one of Microsoft and Bethesda’s biggest Xbox releases of the year, won’t have a 60fps performance mode on consoles at launch, developer Arkane Austin announced on Wednesday. Instead, the game will be limited to a quality mode that enables 30fps at 4K resolution on Xbox Series X and 30fps at 1440p on Xbox Series S.The announcement is disappointing, especially so close to the game’s nearly here May 2nd launch date and when previous footage has been in 60fps. Redfall looks like it will be a decently fast-paced shooter, and I’m worried that the 30fps limitation on Xbox will make the game feel sluggish. (And personally, I always pick a higher frame rate over higher-quality graphics anyway.)Still, the game does... Continue reading…

Image: SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images NPR has announced that it will no longer use Twitter to distribute its content after the social media platform began labeling the network as “US state-affiliated media,” putting it in the same category as government mouthpiece publications like RT and China Daily. NPR is the first major news organization to pull from the platform and comes at a time when Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s relationship with the press is at a low point.NPR’s main Twitter account has been silent since getting the label a week ago, but CEO John Lansing made the stance official in a memo sent to staffers Wednesday morning. “We are not putting our journalism on platforms that have demonstrated an interest in undermining our credibility and the public’s understanding of... Continue reading…

Mario music composer Koji Kondo (right) joins Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto (center) and Nintendo camera programmer Takumi Kawagoe at a Super Mario Bros. Movie screening in April. | Image: Kayla Oaddams/WireImage We’re living in a Nintendo renaissance right now, which includes the release of one of the most successful animated movie launches ever, brand-new theme parks, and a bestselling console. But now, the Super Mario Bros. theme — one of the most recognizable tunes ever — is being eternally honored with an entry into the US Library of Congress (via The Guardian).The Super Mario Bros. theme is officially known as “Ground Theme,” as in the aboveground music in Super Mario Bros., and was first included in the game when it was released on the Famicom and Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985. It marks the first video game music to be inducted into the Library of Congress. Image: Umar Shakir / The Verge Super Mario Bros.... Continue reading…

LinkedIn now has a verification system. | Image: LinkedIn Microsoft-owned LinkedIn is rolling out a free verification system that will allow users to prove their identity and where they work. The verification options include the ability to use CLEAR to prove your identity, verification of your workplace through an email address, and Microsoft’s Entra verified ID platform to obtain digital workplace IDs for free.Unlike Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, you won’t need to pay to get verifications that will show up on your LinkedIn profile. You can verify your workplace just by using a company-issued email address or through Microsoft Entra if your organization already uses Entra.If you want to verify your own identity, then LinkedIn has partnered with CLEAR to allow you to securely confirm your... Continue reading…

Image: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Microsoft is bringing Windows 11 to its HoloLens 2 headset. The update will be available free of charge, and Microsoft says it should appear by the end of June as an optional upgrade. HoloLens 2 owners can continue to use Windows 10, but Windows 11 will offer better app performance and some key developer-focused additions.“The free upgrade to Windows 11 promises continuous platform support, meaning our customers can trust in the continued security of their devices,” explains Robin Seiler, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Windows and devices, in a blog post. “With the upgrade, HoloLens 2 users will continue to receive monthly security servicing updates that reinforce the protection of sensitive information while also improving app... Continue reading…

Image: Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images The Environmental Protection Agency announced new emissions standards to slash tailpipe pollution, fight climate change, and accelerate the transition to electric vehicles.The proposal, which was first reported over the weekend and released Wednesday, represents the most aggressive plan to reduce carbon emissions by an administration to date. Depending on how the auto industry responds, the EPA projects that the new standards could result in electric vehicles accounting for 67 percent of new light-duty vehicle sales and 46 percent of new medium-duty vehicle sales by 2032 — a dramatic increase over the current EV sales numbers of around 6 percent.The Biden administration is portraying the proposal as a critical effort to reverse the... Continue reading…

Image: The Verge What’s the best streaming service? It feels like a big and important question to answer. It’s also a completely impossible, completely subjective question that depends on everything from your budget to your favorite Mission: Impossible movie. The streaming market is a teeming mass of stuff, with various platforms rising and falling, and nothing ever stays the same for very long.But here at The Verge, we like answers. So, for this episode of The Vergecast, we decided to answer that big question the only way we know how: chaotically and at great length. So we held the first annual Vergecast Streaming Services Draft, in which our three co-hosts each drafted their top five streaming services. There were surprises from the very beginning,... Continue reading…

Image: Nvidia Nvidia is making its new RTX 4070 graphics card official today after weeks of leaks. The RTX 4070 will be available on April 13th priced starting at $599 for Nvidia’s own Founders Edition model. Nvidia is pitching the RTX 4070 for 1440p gaming at more than 100fps with ray tracing and the company’s latest DLSS 3 upscaling tech enabled.The RTX 4070 is Nvidia’s first 40-series Founders Edition card that’s reasonably sized, so it can fit inside most cases — even those with small form factors. The RTX 4070 is actually shorter than an RTX 3080 and is designed to match its performance at 1440p at least. Built on Nvidia’s latest Ada Lovelace architecture, the RTX 4070 includes 12GB of GDDR6X instead of the 8GB found on both the prior RTX 3070... Continue reading…

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Microsoft is getting ready to change how the Print Screen (Prt Scr) key works in Windows 11. For the first time in decades the default behavior will now open Microsoft’s own Snipping Tool instead of capturing an image of your entire screen and copying it to the Clipboard. Microsoft has started testing this change in recent beta builds of Windows 11.While Windows 11 already has a setting to allow you to change Print Screen to open the Snipping Tool, Microsoft will set this as the default behavior in the upcoming KB5025310 update. If you have previously modified the option in Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard then Windows 11 will keep the setting you chose, but for many this will be switched over.Print Screen has always been in need of... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge WhatsApp users in Brazil can now officially pay small businesses for goods and services from within the Meta-owned messaging app, the company has announced. The payments-to-merchant feature is available now for a “small number of businesses” but will be rolling out more widely in the coming months, allowing customers to make purchases using Mastercard or Visa credit, debit, or prepaid cards “without having to go to a website, open another app or pay in person.”The rollout of WhatsApp payment services in Brazil has been a multi-year process, and is complicated by the fact that the messaging app has been trying to offer both peer-to-peer transfers and payments-to-merchant services within its app. On the peer-to-peer side, WhatsApp... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge OpenAI has launched a bug bounty, encouraging members of the public to find and disclose vulnerabilities in its AI services including ChatGPT. Rewards range from $200 for “low-severity findings” to $20,000 for “exceptional discoveries,” and reports are submittable via crowdsourcing cybersecurity platform Bugcrowd.Notably, the bounty excludes rewards for jailbreaking ChatGPT or causing it to generate malicious code or text. “Issues related to the content of model prompts and responses are strictly out of scope, and will not be rewarded,” says OpenAI’s Bugcrowd page.Jailbreaking ChatGPT usually involves inputting elaborate scenarios in the system that allow it to bypass its own safety filters. These might include encouraging the chatbot... Continue reading…

You don’t need a Spotify or Strava subscription to use the new in-app widget. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge Strava has been around since 2009, but today, the popular fitness app is finally, finally adding an in-app Spotify integration. Instead of having to switch between apps, you can now access your Spotify favorites from the workout record screen. And, perhaps the best part is you don’t need a Spotify or Strava subscription to use it.“It’s just one of those things we know people have been asking for a long time, and finally, the stars aligned,” says Mateo Ortega, Strava’s vice president of connected partnerships. When asked about the possibility of adding other platforms, Ortega didn’t rule out the possibility but noted that Spotify was a clear first step.It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see why Strava and Spotify partnering matters.... Continue reading…

The emotional core of Succession | Photograph by Macall B. Polay/HBO The key to Succession has been staring you in the face for four seasons and has been played off as comic relief. It is the neglected son Connor Roy, played impeccably by Alan Ruck.Connor is often ignored by the rest of the family. His half-siblings and father seem to view him as irretrievably goofy. But the main theme of Succession is highlighted by his character: he is the oldest son, and he is irrelevant. He even has to remind his half-siblings that he — not Kendall — is the oldest son in the season 3 finale.Spoilers for Succession season 4 belowStill, Connor’s not in the race to replace his father, Logan Roy. He’s not even tasked with anything important. His mother got shipped off to “the funny farm,” and Logan remarried. In the... Continue reading…

The logo for PlayStation Now, Sony’s cloud gaming service that got folded into PS Plus. | Image: Sony Now that Google Stadia is dead and buried, it looks like Sony may seriously care about cloud gaming again. Despite a recent round of layoffs, Sony is currently hiring 22 roles related to cloud gaming tech — including one person whose job will literally be to “Develop and deliver the strategic vision for cloud game streaming at PlayStation.”“Are you a ground-breaking innovator in the cloud streaming product space? Then you likely agree that Cloud Gaming is on its way to becoming a major part of the gaming industry,” reads part of a Sony job posting for a Director of Product Management for Cloud Gaming.That person won’t be alone: Sony is also hiring five senior platform engineers, three software engineers, two technical project managers... Continue reading…

Image: Ford Ford’s factory in Oakville, Ontario, will begin its $1.3 billion ($1.8 billion CAD) transformation into an electric vehicle assembly plant in the second quarter of 2024. The retooling is expected to take six months to finish, the automaker said Tuesday.During the process, an estimated 3,000 workers will be furloughed, according to Automotive News. Ford, however, says it expects to bring back virtually all the factory workers when the plant comes back online at the end of 2024.The factory, which currently produces gas-powered Edge and Lincoln Nautilus crossovers, will be renamed the Oakville Electric Vehicle Complex and will include a 407,000-square-foot battery assembly plant. The facility will use battery cells produced by Ford’s B... Continue reading…

Image: Loewe If you have a spare couple thousand dollars and love confusing people with your clothing, Loewe has something right up your alley.The Spanish luxury brand is now selling the glitchy clothing shown on the runway at Paris Fashion Week last fall under the “Pixel” capsule collection. The release includes clothing items like a baby blue hoodie, a denim skirt, and a T-shirt as well as accessories like a handbag. If you’re on a budget, the cheapest thing is a T-shirt with a blurry Loewe logo for $590. Staying true to the bit, Loewe says purchases will come in limited-edition pixelated packaging. Image: Loewe Loewe’s “pixelated top in technical knit” retails for $1,850. Image: Loewe A... Continue reading…

Google TV’s live guide is about to include over 800 free channels. | Image: Google FAST (free ad-supported streaming television) channels are becoming inescapable these days and booming in popularity through their combination of familiar reruns and news programming offered at no cost. Nearly any modern smart TV you buy today will include a slew of them. Roku and Amazon (with Fire TV) are both big advocates. And now, Google is doubling down more than it already was on linear FAST content.Starting today in the United States, the company’s Google TV platform is adding a ton of additional FAST channels. Whether you’re watching from a Chromecast or a TV that runs the software, you’ll start seeing them pop up over the next few weeks.Google TV had already offered FAST content from Pluto TV, but it’s now expanding to... Continue reading…

Ana Carballosa/Netflix Jennifer Lopez has figured out how we should all be spending our Mother’s Day, and it’s apparently watching her former assassin character protect her kid and deal with lots of bad guys from her past. That’s when her new film The Mother premieres on Netflix.The film comes from writer Misha Green, who also wrote the exceptional Lovecraft Country and Underground. Joseph Fiennes and Gael García Bernal are playing the bad guys J.Lo needs to deal with, while Omari Hardwick plays the dreamy old friend who just really gets her, and Edie Falco plays the cops. Image: Ana Carballosa/Netflix Sometimes, when you’re a reformed assassin saving your kid, you need a dreamy friend who lost his shirt to help. As action films go,... Continue reading…

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge The Federal Trade Commission has levied its first fine against a company for “review hijacking” on Amazon, or the act of repurposing reviews from another product in order to deceive users. The Bountiful Company, which makes Nature’s Bounty vitamins and other supplements, is accused of artificially inflating the number of reviews and ratings its products received on Amazon.The agency claims Bountiful abused Amazon’s variations feature, which lets sellers merge products into a single listing when offering different colors, sizes, or quantities of the same item. Since these product variations share the same listing, this also means they share the same reviews and labels applied by Amazon, such as the “#1 Best Seller” or “Amazon’s Choice”... Continue reading…

Photo by Spencer Platt / Getty Images Uber says it will fund an e-bike buy-back program for delivery workers in New York City in a bid to get fire-prone batteries off the streets. The company also said it would support an additional fee on food deliveries to help workers afford safer options.The announcement comes amid a worrisome rise in e-bike fires in New York City that have resulted in at least a dozen deaths. Two children were killed last night in Astoria, Queens, in a fire that authorities say was the result of an exploding lithium-ion battery, according to multiple news outlets.The New York City Council recently passed legislation prohibiting the sale of uncertified e-bikes and other micromobility devices, while Mayor Eric Adams has called on the private companies... Continue reading…

Image: Media Molecule Today, Media Molecule has announced it’s terminating live support for its game creation engine, Dreams.“As we continue to evaluate and evolve our priorities for the studio and Dreams, we’ve made the difficult decision to discontinue live support for Dreams after 1st September, 2023,” the announcement read.Dreams isn’t shutting down entirely, so players will still be able to create things like this rendering of an English breakfast that is so realistic that it actually makes the meal look appetizing. But there won’t be any more updates to the game nor will Media Molecule continue to host community-centered events like DreamsCom or the Impy Awards.The shutdown unfortunately answers one of the questions the Dreams community has long... Continue reading…