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Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images A French investigative judge has charged Telegram CEO Pavel Durov with enabling illegal transactions among other alleged offenses, according to reports from NBC News and Le Monde. Durov had been arrested Saturday as part of an investigation into child sexual abuse material and other criminal activity on Telegram.The charges were later detailed in a press release posted to the official LinkedIn account of the Paris Public Prosecutor's Office.French prosecutors will release Durov under judicial supervision on a 5 million bail, but he won't be allowed to leave France. As noted by Le Monde, Durov also faces charges of refusing to comply with authorities and complicity in the criminal distribution of CSAM.Durov was arrested as he... Continue reading...

Image: Meta Meta is opening up Horizon Worlds, its 3D social platform, to users between the ages of 10 and 12, the company announced on Wednesday. As part of the rollout, parents will have a significant amount of control over what experiences their preteens can access, and experiences will get age ratings to help parents determine which ones are appropriate for their children.For a preteen to use Horizon Worlds, they'll have to have a parent-managed Meta account and request access to Horizon Worlds itself. Once a parent has approved that, preteens can request access to individual experiences, or parents can mark a setting that lets their preteen jump into all experiences that fall within a certain age rating. (Meta will rate experiences as... Continue reading...

The Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Meta is working on a smaller mixed-reality device that looks like a large pair of glasses, according to a report from The Information. The glasses, reportedly codenamed Puffin, may not arrive until 2027 - if the project comes to fruition at all.Sources tell The Information that the glasses could weigh around 110 grams, putting it somewhere between Meta's lightweight Ray-Ban smart glasses and the bulkier Quest 3 headset. It seems Meta will have to make some adjustments for the device's smaller form factor, though, as The Information reports the glasses may have an external pack containing its battery and processor - similar to the wired battery pack that comes with the Apple Vision Pro.The mixed reality glasses are rumored to feature... Continue reading...

Image: Amazon Amazon's Lord of the Rings show continues to be phenomenal in ways that only a truly wild budget could make possible. Continue reading...

The Ioniq 9 will be based on Hyundai's Seven Concept that was revealed in 2021. | Image: Hyundai Hyundai's next electric vehicle for the US will be the Ioniq 9, a beefy, three-row SUV that will be manufactured at the company's factory in Georgia, Hyundai executives announced during an investor day conference this week.It's a sign that while other automakers continue to second-guess their EV investments amid slowing demand, the South Korean automaker is intent on growing its share of the plug-in market by introducing new vehicles in popular segments.The Ioniq 9 will be based on the Concept Seven, which was first revealed in 2021. At that time, Hyundai said the concept would be built on the automaker's Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP), which also underpins the Ioniq 5, Ioniq 6, Kia EV6, Kia EV9, and Genesis GV60.The Ioniq... Continue reading...

Image: Ubisoft What Ubisoft's new game lacks in innovation, it makes up for in fan service. Continue reading...

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge TikTok must face a lawsuit over the viral blackout challenge" that several parents blame for their children's deaths, a Pennsylvania-based appeals court ruled on Tuesday. The ruling illuminates how courts are thinking about platform accountability in the wake of a major Supreme Court ruling this year and could highlight the potential limits of a key tech immunity shield.TikTok's algorithmic recommendations on the For You Page (FYP) constitute the platform's own speech, according to the Third Circuit court of appeals. That means it's something TikTok can be held accountable for in court. Tech platforms are typically protected by a legal shield known as Section 230, which prevents them from being sued over their users' posts, and a lower... Continue reading...

The rise and fall of NFTs made and unmade OpenSea - the largest marketplace for the crypto asset. But insider accounts of the company reveal a chaotic work environment, ever-shifting priorities, and troubles with the SEC. Continue reading...

Brilliant, maker of smart switches and smart control panels, is back in business. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Brilliant is back in business. Three months after laying off its staff, shutting down its support center, and ceasing sales, the maker of smart home control panels has reemerged with a new name, new focus, and a new product on the way. The good news for Brilliant customers is that existing products never stopped working during the transition period and will continue to operate going forward.Now called Brilliant NextGen, the company was bought by two investment firms - Almeida Strategic Investments and Cullinan Holdings - in late July. (No sale price was disclosed.) Earlier this month, they appointed Lisa Petrucci as CEO, Brilliant's former VP of business development and sales. In the last week or so, the web store came back online, and... Continue reading...

Where to Watch shows you all the sports on ESPN - and elsewhere. | Image: ESPN ESPN's newest feature will be a welcome bookmark for sports fans everywhere: the company just launched Where to Watch," which aims to be a universal guide for streaming sports all over the internet.When you open the page on ESPN's website or in its app, Where to Watch looks like a typical schedule of games, the kind of thing ESPN has had forever - it's sortable by sport and able to show your favorite team at the top. But next to each listing, it now shows where you can watch the game, even when it's not on ESPN.ESPN says Where to Watch has data from more than 250 streaming services. On Wednesday morning, it offered me a baseball game on MLB.TV, a college soccer game on ACC Extra, some MLS on Apple TV Plus, and five different ways to... Continue reading...

Image: AMD You can't download more RAM, but you can now download better gaming performance if you're the owner of a modern Ryzen desktop CPU. AMD revealed last week that it was working with Microsoft on an optimization patch for Ryzen CPUs that was due with Microsoft's next big Windows 11 version 24H2 update, but Microsoft has now backported this to the existing 23H2 version.The result is a significant performance improvement in gaming across a variety of Zen 4 and Zen 5 desktop Ryzen CPUs, including the popular 7800X3D chip. Users will need to look for KB5041587 under Windows update > Advanced options > Optional updates," says AMD in a statement to Wccftech. We expect the performance uplift to be very similar between 24H2 and 23H2 with... Continue reading...

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images Telegram doesn't have the moderation of most social networks or the privacy of a true encrypted messaging app. That could leave its operator in hot water. Continue reading...

The heavily rumored Apple Watch Ultra 3 might feature a faster processor, but the current model is no slouch. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple's next hardware event is officially set for September 9th at 1PM ET / 10AM PT. The forthcoming iPhone 16 is widely expected to be the star of the show, although if the rumors are to be believed, Apple will also likely use the showcase to introduce a new Apple Watch Series 10 and Watch Ultra 3. That said, Apple's third-gen smartwatch is unlikely to debut under $799, which makes the $100 discount we're seeing at Amazon on the Apple Watch Ultra 2 that much sweeter.Right now, all three Ultra 2 models - specifically the Alpine Loop, Trail Loop, and Ocean Band configurations - are down to $699, matching their Prime Day low. Although the rumored Ultra 3 will reportedly get a faster chip alongside the flagship Series 10, the S9 SiP... Continue reading...

Illustration by The Verge | Photo by Tom Williams via Getty Images In a letter to the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee on Monday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the Biden administration repeatedly pressured" his teams to censor" content related to covid in 2021. Zuckerberg told the committee chair, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), that the pressure was wrong" and he regrets not being more outspoken about it." He also told Jordan he would avoid repeating a 2020 donation to support local election infrastructure, aiming to avoid the perception of playing a non-neutral role in politics.The letter largely comes as a response to increasing scrutiny from Republicans, who have accused platforms like Facebook and Instagram of being biased against conservatives for years. More recently in May, Rep. Jordan led... Continue reading...

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Thirteen years after launching on the iPhone, Snapchat has finally brought its app to the iPad. In an update note on Monday, Snapchat announced that it now offers native support for the iPad, allowing the app to fill your entire screen for the first time.Until now, iPad users were stuck using the iOS version of the app, leaving them with unsightly black borders surrounding an iPhone-sized Snapchat interface. This made it less than ideal to view or take snaps on the app, as well as try on filters. Image: Snapchat Image: Snapchat Of course, this shouldn't be an excuse to start slinging your iPad around in public to send pictures to your friends. Snapchat is available with iPadOS 13.0 or later.... Continue reading...

Image: Konami Three of the best Castlevania games are launching on the Switch very soon - Nintendo just revealed the Castlevania Dominus Collection, which will be available on August 27th.The bundle brings together the trilogy of Castlevania titles that originally debuted on the Nintendo DS; that means Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and Order of Ecclesia. As a bonus, the 1987 arcade game Haunted Castle is also included. Konami says that the games have been updated with extra features such as save states or rewind." That might make up for the lack of a second screen for displaying the map.With the launch, the Switch is slowly turning into the ideal Castlevania machine thanks to a number of other bundles, like the Castlevania Anniversary... Continue reading...

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Sony will now let you customize your PlayStation 5's DualSense Edge controller on your PC. The new Accessories app for Windows lets you customize button assignments, change stick sensitivity, adjust trigger deadzones, and more.This replaces the Firmware updater for DualSense wireless controller" app introduced in 2022. It takes things a step further by letting you customize your DualSense Edge controller the same way you would on your PlayStation 5. Like the outgoing app, you can still use Accessories to update the firmware on the DualSense Edge and the standard DualSense from your PC.

Image: Paramount Oh, hell yes! The first trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is out, giving fans a first listen of Keanu Reeves as Shadow the Hedgehog.Reeves doesn't put too much spin on his interpretation of Shadow, sounding very much like himself. But considering fans were hype as hell that he was doing Shadow's voice, I think Keanu doing his best Keanu will go over fine with audiences. The trailer sets up Shadow the Hedgehog as the toughest enemy Team Sonic has ever had to face, requiring them to call in outside help. Jim Carrey returns as Dr. Robotnik, who has apparently let himself go. For Sonic 3, they're not wasting a drop of Carrey's comedic talent, having him play not one Robotnik but two.Shadow's arrival was teased at the end of Sonic 2.... Continue reading...