The Verge

Illustration: The Verge The EU has updated its antitrust case against Apple and the control it wields over music streaming services on iOS with potentially good news for complainant Spotify.The European Commission, the EU body investigating the charges, says Apple breached antitrust laws by stopping rival music firms like Spotify from advertising where and how users could subscribe to their apps. This update to the case does not constitute a final ruling, and it’s now up to Apple to marshal a defense and prove the charges wrong.Spotify first made a complaint against Apple in 2019, with the European Commission opening an investigation in 2020. The Commission issued an initial “statement of objections” against Apple in 2021, laying out the possible breaches of... Continue reading…

The announcement image for Shadow of the Erdtree is enough to fuel weeks of speculation. | Image: FromSoftware One of 2022’s biggest games, Elden Ring, is getting what looks to be its first major expansion: DLC content titled Shadow of the Erdtree.Developer FromSoftware announced in a tweet this morning that the DLC was officially under development, though the company did not share when we might expect a release.A short blog post confirmed the DLC will be coming to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Steam. It also said a “follow-up report is still a little ahead” (translation from Japanese via Google) so we can hopefully expect more details sooner rather than later.Elden Ring DLC is hotly-anticipated content for a number of reasons. Elden Ring has been a massive success, selling more than 20 million units worldwide, and FromSoftware... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google has announced that Gmail’s client-side encryption mode is now generally available for businesses and educational organizations, after it launched in beta last year. The feature makes it so even Google itself can’t see the contents of the emails it’s hosting, with data being “encrypted before it reaches Google servers.” The company says this can be helpful for companies that have to meet strict compliance or privacy standards.In a blog post on Tuesday, Google writes that client-side encryption for Gmail gives customers “sole control over their encryption keys — and thus complete control over all access to their data.” Users can encrypt emails they’re sending within their organization, as well as emails they’re sending to other... Continue reading…

Image: Aventon Aventon announced a new electric cargo bike, the Abound, which the California-based company describes as “an efficient alternative to driving a car around town.” With a 750-watt motor, a variety of accessories, and a total weight rating of 440 lbs, the Abound is designed to be a versatile, safe, and affordable mobility option for anyone looking to do less driving in their life.Aventon is mostly known for its fat-tired, adventure-themed road bikes, so a cargo bike was never a guaranteed addition to the company’s lineup. That said, Aventon brought a lot of the same attention to detail to the Abound as it did with previous models, which should help give the bike a bit of a leg-up compared to other low-cost models.Aventon says the suggest... Continue reading…

Image: The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) has announced a new platform designed to help remove sexually explicit images of minors from the internet. Meta revealed in a blog post that it had provided initial funding to create the NCMEC’s free-to-use “Take It Down” tool, which allows users to anonymously report and remove “nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit images or videos” of underage individuals found on participating platforms and block the offending content from being shared again.Facebook and Instagram have signed on to integrate the platform, as have OnlyFans, Pornhub, and Yubo. Take It Down is designed for minors to self-report images and videos of themselves; however, adults who appeared in such... Continue reading…

Image: Alex Castro / The Verge We’ve talked before about the problems in the early days of PayPal, which was then called X. Elon Musk, in his infinite wisdom, decided customer acquisition was the most important thing, and as a result, PayPal had to deal with rampant fraud. Don’t just take my word for it — here’s Peter Thiel, describing those days:

The great PlayStation 5 shortage is over — well, at least according to Sony. Thanks to the increased availability of Sony’s next-gen console, there are now multiple options for bringing home a PS5, none of which are an uphill battle. While availability is occasionally limited to bundles that come packaged with a game, specifically God of War Ragnarök, it’s nowhere near as difficult to find a standalone console as it once was. We’re keeping an eye out for where you can buy either the PS5 (with a disc drive) or the PS5 Digital Edition as well as any bundles.Obviously, there’s no guarantee that inventory will remain available for long, but we’ll do our best to keep this article updated with the latest in-stock alerts and tell you where to... Continue reading…

Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for National Board of Review Netflix is doling out some extra entertainment before and after Chris Rock’s live comedy special on Saturday, March 4th. The company announced star-studded pre- and post-shows featuring guests like Leslie Jones, Amy Schumer, Cedric the Entertainer, Jerry Seinfeld, Kevin Hart, Matthew McConaughey, Paul McCartney, Sarah Silverman, Wanda Sykes, Ice-T, and more.The standup special, titled Selective Outrage, marks the first livestreamed event for the streamer. While Netflix previously hosted the live in-person comedy event Netflix is a Joke: The Festival in spring 2022, this will be the first it streams live to subscribers.

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Reddit is adding the ability to search for comments within a specific post right from the search bar. The new feature seems pretty handy, as it should make it much easier to find certain comments on a post without having to scroll forever or use CTRL / CMD + F.Here’s a GIF from Reddit showing how it works: GIF: Reddit Handy! I can think of a lot of times this could be quite useful. It could be a great way to find a discussion of a specific character from a TV show or movie, for example, or perhaps to pull up a fitness routine buried in another post. And those are just ways I’d use it; I’m sure the vast number of Reddit users out there will be more creative.Reddit says the feature is available now on desktop,... Continue reading…

Gusts from Hurricane Ian hit Punta Gorda, Florida, on September 28th, 2022. | Photo: RICARDO ARDUENGO/AFP via Getty Images In the next 30 years, 13.4 million more properties in the contiguous US will likely face destructive winds from tropical cyclones, according to a new report. It’s not a risk these properties typically faced in the past, but that’s changing as hurricanes get stronger and weirder with climate change.The shift could cost property owners billions of dollars in damages. This year, the US could see $18.5 billion in losses from hurricane winds, the report finds. In 30 years, average annual losses rise to roughly $20 billion.“This next generation of hurricane strength will bring unavoidable financial impacts and devastation that have not yet been priced into the market,” Matthew Eby, CEO of First Street Foundation, the nonprofit research... Continue reading…

Image: The Verge Apple is reportedly once again working on a next-generation iPhone SE, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, despite his previous reports that it had canceled work on the phone. In a Twitter thread, Kuo says the company has “restarted” the project and that the iPhone SE 4 will feature an OLED display — a first for the company’s budget line — as well as a 5G modem designed by Apple instead of longtime supplier Qualcomm.He predicts that the phone will more or less be “a minor modification of the 6.1-inch iPhone 14” and that it’ll go into production at the beginning of 2024, presumably coinciding with a release later that year. It’s unclear if the phone will have some of the iPhone 14’s premium features like Emergency SOS via satellite, Face... Continue reading…

Lorenzo Insigne during his brief appearance this weekend. | Photo: Randy Litzinger/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images On the field, things didn’t get off to the best start for the opening weekend of Major League Soccer, which kicked off a new 10-year-long streaming deal with Apple. The weekend’s marquee match between crosstown rivals Los Angeles FC and the Los Angeles Galaxy was postponed due to “inclement weather,” and later on, Italian superstar Lorenzo Insigne (the league’s most expensive player) was forced off early with an injury. The opening matches were thusly a little less star-studded — but the product off the field was surprisingly solid, even if it points to a very expensive future for sports fans.This isn’t the first time someone has streamed professional sports, of course, but the MLS deal represents the biggest effort to date. While some... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla is putting a hold on new installations of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta software in the US and Canada until a firmware update can be issued to address a safety recall, according to a new company support page. The automaker issued the recall this month at the request of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which determined that the advanced driver-assistance feature could pose a “crash risk.”Tesla vehicle owners who may have just purchased the $15,000 FSD add-on — or previously bought it but have yet to opt in to it — won’t be able to get access to it until after the automaker issues an over-the-air (OTA) software update. Tesla has not provided a timeline for the rollout of the update but says no immediate... Continue reading…

The iPad Air has the most color variety among the current lineup. | Photo: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple’s sweet spot of an iPad is back down to its lowest price. The 2022 iPad Air is on sale for $499.99 at Best Buy and Amazon in its base 64GB Wi-Fi configuration, about $100 off its regular $599 price. That same $100 discount can be had on the 256GB version, costing $649.99 at Amazon or Best Buy instead of its usual $749.The excellent midrange Air comes in five different colors, each of which is on sale at this great price. In addition to being one of the most colorful iPads, the fifth-generation iPad Air offers great value for performance. It packs an M1 processor that’s more than capable for the most labor-intensive iPad uses, all-day battery life, and a handy USB-C port as well as second-gen Apple Pencil compatibility.At this... Continue reading…

Image: Spotify Spotify’s heart icon is changing to a “plus” button that lets you save music and add songs to specific playlists. The music streaming app announced the change in a post on its blog, noting that you’ll now have to tap the new “plus” icon once to save a song or podcast to your library and then tap it again to add it to a playlist of your choosing.Some users already have the combined “plus” button on their app, as it seems Spotify has been testing the change since late last year. Previously, the Spotify app had a “heart” icon available up front that meant liking a song and saving it to your library as well as a separate “add to playlist” button that it hid within the app’s three-dot menu. Image: Spotify Tap once to... Continue reading…

Yes, Lady Dimitrescu looks even taller in VR. Sony’s new PlayStation VR2 is a solid headset with a relatively small launch catalog, and one of its most exciting titles is a VR mode for Resident Evil Village, Capcom’s first-person 2021 survival horror shooter. Village draws inspiration from Resident Evil 4, which got a stellar Meta Quest 2 port back in 2021, so I had high hopes. And they weren’t unfounded. The free PSVR 2 update to Village offers great shooting with the device’s Sense controllers and makes a solid case for the headset’s quirky “face rumble” feature. If only other parts didn’t torture me as badly as Ethan Winters’ hands.I’m not making any claims to fully reviewing Village in VR here. In my free time since the mode’s launch on February 22nd, I’ve been spending halting... Continue reading…

Image: CHRISTOS KALOHORIDIS/NETFLIX The trailer for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first action comedy TV series is here. The Netflix original, titled FUBAR — an acronym for “fucked up beyond all repair” — follows Schwarzenegger as a ready-to-retire CIA agent who gets wrapped up in one last mission.FUBAR’s first trailer has Schwarzenegger returning to his action movie roots, flashing between scenes of the star hopping on a motorcycle, zipping around in a sports car, and firing off a pistol. Here’s Netflix’s synopsis of the show:

The new Nokia logo. | Image: Nokia Finnish telecoms firm Nokia has redesigned its logo to remind the world that it doesn’t make mobile phones anymore.“In most people’s minds, we are still a successful mobile phone brand, but this is not what Nokia is about,” Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark told Bloomberg. “We want to launch a new brand that is focusing very much on the networks and industrial digitalization, which is a completely different thing from the legacy mobile phones.”Nokia revealed its new brand identity on Sunday at MWC — the first major redesign of the firm’s logo in nearly 60 years. The company has come a long way since its founding as a single paper mill operation in 1865. Its original logo featured a salmon head — a reference to the Nokianvirta river by which... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Snapchat is introducing a chatbot powered by the latest version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. According to Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, it’s a bet that AI chatbots will increasingly become a part of everyday life for more people.Named “My AI,” Snapchat’s bot will be pinned to the app’s chat tab above conversations with friends. While initially only available for $3.99 a month Snapchat Plus subscribers, the goal is to eventually make the bot available to all of Snapchat’s 750 million monthly users, Spiegel tells The Verge.“The big idea is that in addition to talking to our friends and family every day, we’re going to talk to AI every day,” he says. “And this is something we’re well positioned to do as a messaging service.” At launch,... Continue reading…

A rare Apple Lisa desktop computer is among the over 500 retro Apple computers and gadgets being sold by Julien’s Auctions on March 30th. | Image: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images The entirety of one of the most comprehensive collections of retro Apple computers and gadgets released between 1977 and 2008 is about to go on sale. As seen via PetaPixel, the “Hanspeter Luzi Vintage Apple Archive” will be available via auction in California next month and contains over 500 classic Apple products spanning almost half a century, collected over the decades by the late Swiss teacher and entrepreneur Hanspeter Luzi.“The Apples” collection is being auctioned live and online by Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills on March 30th, with an exhibition to view the products running from March 27th through March 30th.

Image: McRib Locator The McDonald’s McRib’s last seasonal appearance in 2022 was said to be its last. McDonald’s marketed last fall’s release as its “farewell tour,” encouraging customers to get it before it was gone forever. Despite this, Alan Klein, creator of the McRib Locator, will continue to keep up his self-made website that reports and tracks McRib sightings. “I’m helping a larger community,” Klein says. “It’s fellow fans like myself, and that really is what keeps me driven to keep doing it.”Since McDonald’s introduced the McRib in 1981, an avid fan base has developed around the sandwich — and dealt with its inconsistent availability ever since. Despite its popularity, McDonald’s has removed the McRib from its menu numerous times over the past 40... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Uber is splitting its annual product event into two separate gatherings in order to place more emphasis on its efforts to go carbon neutral.The first event, entitled Go/Get, will be held May 17th in New York City and will focus on “family and travel,” the company said. The second will be called Go/Get Zero and will be convened in London on June 8th. That event will highlight the various ways Uber plans to tackle climate change.The choice to hold the sustainability event in London is no accident. The city is a microcosm of the company’s efforts to green its platform, with 15 percent of the company’s vehicle kilometers traveled done in electric vehicles. Uber drivers in London are also the first to get access to a fleet of EVs through... Continue reading…

The Verge Google Chrome’s giving its page zoom feature a boost, which should make it more helpful for people who have difficulty reading the smaller screen on a phone. With the improved feature, you can increase the size of text, images, videos, and interactive controls on mobile web pages by up to 300 percent while preserving their original formatting.While the feature hasn’t yet become available for all Chrome users, you can access it now if you download the Chrome beta on your phone or tablet. To enable the feature, tap the three dots icon in the top right corner of the browser, hit Settings > Accessibility, and then adjust the zoom level to your liking. Image: Google New basketball-themed emoji combinations are coming... Continue reading…

Those glowing blue lines on the back aren’t (just) for show. | Photo by Jon Porter / The Verge OnePlus’ latest concept phone is all about keeping cool. The company showed off the OnePlus 11 Concept device at MWC Barcelona, which features glowing blue pipelines on its back to represent the cooling liquid of its “Active CryoFlux” cooling technology.Yes, it’s designed to look flashy, but OnePlus argues the cooling system serves an important practical purpose. By keeping the phone cooler under load, the company claims you can get better performance from games, and faster charging speeds. All without the need for the “size, weight, and noise” of a physically spinning fan like we’ve seen from the likes of Nubia or in smartphone cooling accessories from Razer or Asus.Two quoted performance benefits include a 2.1 degree Celcius (around... Continue reading…

Lenovo’s rollable laptop concept, with its screen fully extended. First teased last October, the devices made an in-person appearance at Mobile World Congress 2023. But it’s clear they’re still far from ready for a public release. Continue reading…

Photo by Paul Hennessy/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images The Crew-6 mission bound for the International Space Station was postponed on Monday after experiencing last-minute technical issues just minutes from launch. With the help of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, the company’s Dragon Endeavour spacecraft was set to lift off early Monday morning at 1:45AM ET from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch countdown was “scrubbed” with just two minutes remaining “due to an issue with ground systems,” according to NASA, later revealed to be a problem with the TEA-TEB ignition fluid used to ignite the SpaceX Falcon 9’s rocket engines.NASA and SpaceX are now hoping to launch the Crew-6 mission at 12:34 a.m. EST Thursday, March 2nd “pending resolution of the technical issue preventing Monday’s... Continue reading…

Image: Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The massive mobile show is back. Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter product manager Esther Crawford no longer has a job at the company following yet another wave of layoffs, as first reported by Platformer’s Zoë Schiffer. Crawford headed up various projects at Twitter, including the company’s Blue with verification subscription as well as Twitter’s forthcoming payments platform.Alex Heath of The Verge confirmed Crawford and most of the remaining product team were laid off this weekend, leading to speculation that Twitter’s owner Elon Musk may be about to install a new regime at the company.In a recent interview, Musk said, “I need to stabilize the organization and just make sure it’s in a financially healthy place in that the product roadmap is clearly laid out” before guessing that “before... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Since Thursday morning, Dish Network has been experiencing a major outage that’s taken down the company’s main websites, apps, and customer support systems, and employees tell The Verge it’s not clear what’s going on inside the company. The company’s Dish.com website is completely blank save for a notice apologizing for “any disruptions you may be having” while promising that “teams are working hard to restore systems as soon as possible.” The Boost Mobile and Boost Infinite sites display a similar message.When we called each brand’s customer support lines, there were no humans on the other end — each call automatically hung up after delivering a recorded message about the outage. Dish’s website is currently just a... Continue reading…

Photo by John Sciulli/Getty Images for Turner The 29th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards honors outstanding performances in both film and television. This year’s event will take place at the Fairmont Century Plaza hotel in Los Angeles, California, but won’t air on TNT or TBS as it has in the past.If you’re looking forward to seeing whether Michelle Yeoh takes away an award for her leading role in Everything Everywhere All At Once, or if the stunt performers in Avatar: The Way of Water win for those spectacular underwater action scenes, here’s how to watch the ceremony live.What time do the 2023 SAG Awards start?The SAG Awards take place on Sunday, February 26th, 2023 at 8PM ET / 5PM PT.Where can I watch the SAG Awards?While the year’s event won’t air on cable, you can watch it... Continue reading…

Image: Comedy Central Warner Bros. Discovery is suing Paramount for allegedly “stealing” South Park content it claims it should have the exclusive streaming rights to, as reported earlier by Variety. In a lawsuit filed on Friday, HBO Max’s parent company claims Paramount worked with South Park’s creators and its MTV subsidiary to “divert as much of the new South Park content as possible” to Paramount Plus to attract viewers to the platform.In 2019, Warner Bros. Discovery says it paid around $1.6 million for each of the over 300 episodes that South Park Digital Studios (SPDS) — a joint venture between Paramount and South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone — agreed to license. Warner Bros. Discovery claims Paramount, which also owns Comedy Central, South... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Microsoft has once again accidentally offered the Windows 11 upgrade to PCs with unsupported hardware. Twitter user PhantomOcean3 spotted the mistake earlier this week, where Microsoft was showing fullscreen prompts on unsupported hardware. Microsoft has now explained the mistake, noting that PCs that didn’t meet the minimum requirements for Windows 11 weren’t able to complete the upgrade.“Some hardware ineligible Windows 10 and Windows 11, version 21H2 devices were offered an inaccurate upgrade to Windows 11,” explains Microsoft in a support note. “These ineligible devices did not meet the minimum requirements to run Windows 11. Devices that experienced this issue were not able to complete the upgrade installation process.” ... Continue reading…

Apple’s M2-powered Macbook Air is on sale for $1,049. | Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge Just in case you woke up this morning feeling like spending a thousand bucks, we’re starting off the weekend with a terrific deal on Apple’s latest MacBook Air. Right now, the M2-powered model with 8GB of RAM, an eight-core CPU, and 256GB of storage is on sale at Best Buy and B&H Photo for $1,049 ($150 off), which is one of its best prices to date.If you need a laptop that’s a jack-of-all-trades, the M2-powered MacBook Air will likely fit the bill. It boasts a lot of the same features as the excellent M1 model from 2022 — including all-day battery life, Touch ID, and MagSafe charging — yet it offers faster performance and a lighter build. It also features a 1080p webcam and a brighter display than its predecessor. So long as you don’t... Continue reading…

Image: The Verge A short story titled “The Last Hope” first hit Sheila Williams’ desk in early January. Williams, the editor of Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine, reviewed the story and passed on it.At first, she didn’t think much of it; she reads and responds to writers daily as part of her job, receiving anywhere from 700 to 750 stories a month. But when another story, also titled “The Last Hope,” came in a couple weeks later by a writer with a different name, Williams became suspicious. By the time yet another “The Last Hope” came a few days later, Williams knew immediately she had a problem on her hands.“That’s like the tip of the iceberg,” Williams says.Since that first submission, Williams has received more than 20 short stories all titled “The... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Sony’s PlayStation VR2 arrived this week, and while it’s one of the best virtual reality headsets we’ve ever used, there’s still a number of common VR pitfalls and PSVR 2-specific annoyances new buyers might run into.Whether this is your first VR headset or just your most recent purchase, here are a handful of tips that might keep you from getting sick, tripping on a cord, running out of battery, or — and we hear this is particularly common — thinking Sony shipped you a blurry VR headset when it’s probably just a trick of the light.In fact, let’s start with that one. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge This is how to wear most VR headsets, for that matter. How to wear the PSVR 2 and avoid blurIf... Continue reading…