The Verge - All Posts

The Apple Watch has several heart-related health features. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Modern smartwatches have a wide array of heart-rate monitoring features. That includes passive all-day monitoring as well as spot checks for specific metrics. Some will even alert you if your heart rate suddenly spikes when it shouldn’t. The most advanced devices also have FDA-cleared electrocardiograms that may help detect atrial fibrillation.These are impressive features considering that, just a decade ago, smartwatches were basically pedometers. In practice, heart rate monitoring can be a helpful tool for people hoping to understand more about their bodies or measure their fitness progress over time. For instance, some athletes prefer to train in heart rate zones — which is hard to do unless you can check it in real time. There have... Continue reading…

An example of what a co-authored tweet could look (though, confusingly, in this example both accounts are the same). | Image: Alessandro Paluzzi / Twitter Twitter has confirmed it’s “exploring” a new feature that would allow two account to co-author a single tweet, TechCrunch reports. App researcher Alessandro Paluzzi has been posting evidence of the feature’s development since at least December, but more recently discovered what appears to be an official dialog box from Twitter about how these tweet collaborations could work.A co-author feature wouldn’t be a stretch for Twitter, given competitor Instagram has offered something similar since 2021. There are plenty of reasons why two accounts might want to have their names attached to a single post, ranging from brand partnerships, influencer campaigns, or even just sharing credit for a funny post.

Image: Adrienn Szabo / Paramount Plus The live-action Halo show on Paramount Plus is already onto its second episode this week, but the first one is now available for free on YouTube. As long as you’re in the US, you can access the first episode of Halo on YouTube.The Halo show is nothing like the games, and Verge video games reporter Ash Parrish, a self-confessed Halo lore hobbyist, says it “offers a far more compelling look at the Master Chief than anything the games have done so far.”Halo stars Pablo Schreiber of American Gods as Master Chief, Natascha McElhone of Californication as Dr. Halsey, and Jen Taylor, the voice actress for Cortana in the Halo games, as Master Chief’s AI assistant. The show has already been renewed for a second season, and debuted on Paramount... Continue reading…

Heart Machine, developers of the acclaimed, stylish, and difficult 2D action RPG Hyper Light Drifter, have announced a new game set in the same universe: Hyper Light Breaker.Available via Steam Early Access some time in Spring 2023, Hyper Light Breaker is a 3D title with single player and co-op modes. As per the game’s Steam page, players will:

Dell’s new stylus in action. | Image: Tile Dell’s new stylus, the Premier Rechargeable Active Pen, has a neat trick up its sleeve that makes it easier to find when misplaced. It features built-in finding technology provided by Tile, which means you can use the object-tracing company’s app to make the stylus buzz and flash its LED lights to help you find it when it’s nearby. If you lose it further afield, Tile says its app will be able to show its last known location, and use its network to track it down.The stylus is Tile’s latest foray into building its tracking technology into third-party devices. It’s been working with Intel for a couple of years to help track lost laptops, and says Tile’s tracking network can now help find compatible HP, MSI, and Fujitsu PCs. Its tracking... Continue reading…

Users will have the option of turning the suggestions off. | Image: Google Google Docs could soon suggest ways to improve the quality of your writing in addition to fixing straightforward grammar and spelling errors, the company has announced. A purple squiggly line will appear under suggestions to help make your writing more concise, inclusive, active, or to warn you away from inappropriate words.These new Google suggestions have long been available via third-party services like Grammarly, which is able to integrate with Google Docs and aims to help improve the quality of your writing. Depending on the quality of Google’s native suggestions, it could vastly reduce the need for these third-party services. Does it count as “sherlocking” when someone other than Apple does it? Image: Google ... Continue reading…

Don’t mind me, just enjoying this NFT in my living room. | Image: Samsung Samsung is making good on its promise from CES 2022 to bring NFTs to its TVs, by announcing a partnership with NFT auction site Nifty Gateway. In a press release, Nifty Gateway says that it’s “now integrated with Samsung’s NFT platform,” letting you “browse, display, and interact with NFTs” on the company’s “2022 premium TV product lines such as QLED and Neo QLED TV.” Nifty Gateway will also have an app on Samsung’s The Frame and Micro LED TVs.Basically, you’ll be able to display NFTs on your Samsung TV. And maybe even buy or sell them, according to Decrypt, though it’s worth noting that Nifty Gateway is significantly more strict about who can sell artwork on its platform than OpenSea, the NFT marketplace most people will be familiar... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A major responsibility for tech companies is to monitor content on their platforms for child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and if any is found, they are legally required to report it to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Many companies have content moderators in place that review content flagged for potentially being CSAM, and they determine whether the content should be reported to the NCMEC.However, Facebook has a policy that could mean it is underreporting child sexual abuse content, according to a new report from The New York Times. A Facebook training document directs content moderators to “err on the side of an adult” when they don’t know someone’s age in a photo or video that’s suspected to be CSAM,... Continue reading…

Workers at Amazon’s warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama held their second union vote | Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images The votes for the union drive at Amazon’s warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, have been counted, but the final result is so close that it will depend on a court hearing yet to come.The vote count announced on Thursday was 993 against and 875 in favor, with 59 ballots counted as void and 416 counted as challenged. Since the challenged ballots are sufficient to swing the election, the result will depend on a court hearing adjudicating the status of the challenged ballots. That hearing has yet to be scheduled but is likely to take place in the next few weeks. Both parties will also have a chance to file objections to the election over the coming month.In a statement posted to its website, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Uber will hold its annual product event on May 16th, during which the company will showcase new products, updates, and features focused on travel and sustainability.It will be Uber’s second product event, after last year’s “Go/Get 2021” gathering presented a host of pandemic-themed announcements, including the ability to book a vaccine appointment in the Uber app. Other features included car rentals, 30-day windows for trip reservations, and multi-stop rides.“We are excited to introduce our latest innovations at Go/Get 2022,” said Uber’s chief product officer, Sundeep Jain, in a statement. “As the world keeps changing, the Uber team keeps building products to serve consumers’ changing needs. We can’t wait to share what’s next.”“We... Continue reading…

If your battery life has been bad, consider updating. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple has released iOS and iPadOS 15.4.1, an update that fixes some accessibility bugs, improves security, and fixes a battery drain bug that plagued some people’s phones and iPads after they updated to iOS 15.4.It’s unclear how widespread the issue was (nobody on The Verge’s staff reported notable battery problems), but earlier this month, the Apple Support Twitter account told customers complaining about battery drain that it was “normal for your apps and features to need to adjust up to 48 hours after an update.” Still, over two weeks after the update was released, it’s not hard to find recent posts reporting poor battery life. Hopefully, though, the update will solve those — iOS 15.4 brings the really handy update of being able to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro There will be no E3 this year. In a tweet, Will Powers, PR for gaming peripheral manufacturer Razer, said that he received an email stating the digital event was canceled. IGN initially reported the news, saying they had also independently viewed the email confirming E3’s cancellation.

Photo by Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images Microsoft started testing Minecraft ray tracing on the Xbox earlier this week, and now the software giant says it was mistake and will be removed. A preview version of Minecraft appeared for Xbox testers with optimizations for Xbox Series X / S consoles and the ability to enable ray tracing.“The previous Minecraft Preview build available to Xbox Insiders inadvertently included prototype code for ray tracing support on Xbox consoles,” says the Minecraft team in a tweet. “This early prototype code has been removed from Preview and doesn’t signal near future plans to bring raytracing support to consoles.”

The new feature works on fourth generation or newer Echo smart speakers. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Amazon’s Alexa has launched a new feature that will notify Prime customers up to 24 hours in advance about specific discounts, the company announced today. Amazon says the new feature is designed to help customers save money while saving time.The smart voice assistant will alert Prime members when eligible products in their wish list or shopping cart, or that they’ve marked “saved for later,” are on sale. Customers will then be able to ask Alexa to order the items when the deal is live or send a reminder.Amazon did not elaborate on exactly what it defines as an “eligible” item or if these deals will also include products sold by third parties.Only US Amazon Prime customers who own Echo smart speakers that are fourth generation or... Continue reading…

Jared Leto as Michael Morbius, the Living Vampire. | Columbia Pictures Sony’s latest Spider-Man villain feature will drain you Continue reading…

Dell’s latest laptop dock adds a little something extra: a Qi wireless charging stand that lets you see and charge your phone while also connecting your laptop to monitors and peripherals (via Ars Technica). The Dual Charge Dock can provide 90W to your computer over USB-C and 12W of power to your phone via the fabric-covered wireless charger.In a press release, Dell says that the charging coils in the Qi portion of the dock are widely spread out — meaning that you can charge your phone while it’s in portrait or landscape, and you can even use the charger to juice up a pair of wireless earbuds.Of course, as a dock, it’s also meant to let you plonk your laptop down on a desk, plug in a single cable, and be able to use external displays... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Did I speak too soon? Two days after my one-month check-in with the Steam Deck portable gaming PC, Valve has already addressed a few of the most annoying issues I pointed out.In a pair of updates, one in the stable channel and one only currently available in beta (full changelogs there), Valve has:

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The social network touts downranking as a way to thwart problematic content, but what happens when that system breaks? Continue reading…

Kotaku reported on Undead Labs, the developers of the State of Decay series. | Image: Undead Labs Kotaku has published an extensive article about difficult workplace conditions at Undead Labs, a Microsoft-owned game studio known for the State of Decay series, that you should go read. The article details allegations of sexism at the company and a lack of direction that hurt morale, and it arrives amidst several other recent reports and allegations of challenging workplace conditions at game development studios.The YouTube channel People Make Games reported on challenges at three well-known indie studios in a video earlier this month. VentureBeat recently published a long article containing allegations that Ori and the Blind Forest developer Moon Studios is an “oppressive” place to work. And as Microsoft is set to acquire mega-studio... Continue reading…

Blizzard Entertainment Overwatch is bringing back some of its most popular seasonal events to celebrate the game’s sixth anniversary. In the Overwatch Anniversary Remix: Volume 1, Overwatch will open its vault, allowing players the chance to participate in the many special events of seasons past and earn “remixed” versions of some of the game’s best skins.The first week of the anniversary celebration starts on April 5th with the return of the Summer Games event and Overwatch’s Rocket League-like game mode Lucioball. If trying to score goals with an oversized soccer ball using nothing but a sound gun wielded by a frog DJ isn’t as appealing to you as it is to me, the next day’s event brings back Halloween Terror and, with it, Overwatch’s very own zombie horde... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is reportedly planning to introduce an Xbox Game Pass family plan this year. Windows Central reports that Microsoft has been contemplating a family plan for Xbox Game Pass for quite some time and that the company is now in the position to announce one in the “near future.”The family plan option will reportedly provide access to Xbox Game Pass for five players and will be priced cheaper than the cost for separate accounts. Microsoft will reportedly integrate its Family Account system, which is what the company also uses for its Microsoft 365 Family subscriptions.Five players will reportedly be able to access an Xbox Game Pass family planIt’s not clear whether there will be separate family subscriptions for Xbox Game Pass, PC... Continue reading…

Despite the United States and Russia’s deteriorating relationship here on Earth, Russia is still considering extending its participation on the International Space Station through 2030, according to NASA. However, it could be a few months before there is a solid update on Russia’s official stance.NASA and Russia’s state space corporation, Roscosmos, have been the two largest partners on the International Space Station for the last three decades. The two organizations have agreed to work together on the ISS through 2024, but at the end of last year, the Biden administration announced its intentions to extend the space station program through 2030. Russia has not formally agreed to the extension yet.“we all understand the importance of... Continue reading…

Illustration by Ana Kova At-home health testing company LetsGetChecked has acquired the genetic testing company Veritas Genetics and spinoff Veritas Intercontinental, it announced Tuesday. It’s the latest pivot for a direct-to-consumer genetics company, most of which have spent the past few years struggling to sell DNA test kits to consumers more and more concerned about genetic privacy.Partnering with an industry like home testing, which grew over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, is one path forward. But that integration could risk conflicts of interest for patients if a company is incentivized to nudge consumers towards tests based on their genetic information, experts told The Verge. With all of these products on board at one company, genetic... Continue reading…

The Nanoleaf Lines Smarter Kit is currently on sale for $179.99 instead of $199.99. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy If you’re on the market for artistic LED lighting to decorate your home with, Nanoleaf’s new Lines are some of the best lights you can buy. At $200, however, they’re also some of the more expensive. Luckily, you can now get these stunning lights as a part of a starter set for a little less. Regularly $199.99, Nanoleaf’s new Lines Smarter Kit — which includes an adapter and nine Lines you can affix to your wall to display colorful lights in a variety of patterns — is on sale for $179.99 at Amazon and Best Buy.Unlike Nanoleaf’s other lighting fixtures, these LED light bars are backlit, making them perfect for sticking behind a gaming monitor or TV. There’s also a music visualizer that uses a built-in microphone to pick up on ambient noise... Continue reading…

Photo by Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge Today, Samsung announced a new self-repair program that will give Galaxy customers access to parts, tools, and guides to repair their own devices. The program is in collaboration with popular repair guides and parts website iFixit, which has worked with manufacturers such as Motorola and Steam on similar ventures. The Galaxy S20 and S21 series phones and the Galaxy Tab S7 Plus are first in line for the spare parts — but not Samsung’s latest S22 family of phones.“We are working with Samsung to improve their repair guide and DIY parts offerings,” iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens tells The Verge. The new program follows Apple’s recent change of heart in announcing a self-service program and Microsoft’s work with iFixit to manufacture Surface tools.... Continue reading…

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Google is announcing a whole bunch of Workspace updates intended to improve virtual collaboration. But as a big fan of emoji, I have to say the new feature I’m most excited about is in-meeting emoji reactions in Google Meet.With these reactions, you’ll be able to drop emoji like a heart or a thumbs-up to show how you’re feeling during a meeting. The emoji will show up in video tiles or in a list that floats up on the side of your screen. Here’s a GIF from Google that gives an idea of what to expect: Zoom has a similar feature that I find really useful. It’s a great tool to indicate how I’m feeling about something without having to unmute and disrupt an entire meeting, and I think they’ll be handy in Meet as well. Google... Continue reading…

From left to right: reply from feed, the new reshare menu, and online indicators. | Image: Meta Instagram is giving users a host of new options when sending direct messages (or DMs to you and I) on its platform. The most useful is a new option to quickly reply to a DM directly from your feed without having to go into your inbox and lose your place. There are also new share options as well as the ability to send song previews and conduct polls in group chats.The platform’s head, Adam Mosseri, announced Instagram’s intention to focus on messaging this year in a video posted at the end of December. “Messaging is one of the primary ways that people — actually it is the primary way people connect online at this point,” Mosseri said. “Instagram needs to embrace the fact that messaging is that primary form of communication.” ... Continue reading…

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 08: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House March 8, 2022 in Washington, DC. During his remarks, Biden announced a full ban on imports of Russian oil and energy products as an additional step in holding Russia accountable for its invasion of Ukraine. | Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images The Biden administration plans to use the Defense Production Act (DPA) to ramp up the mining and processing of key minerals used in batteries for renewable energy and electric vehicles. That could include nickel, lithium, cobalt, graphite, and manganese, according to the White House fact sheet.“The President is also reviewing potential further uses of DPA – in addition to minerals and materials, to secure safer, cleaner, and more resilient energy for America,” the fact sheet says.That could include nickel, lithium, cobalt, graphite, and manganeseBiden made the announcement as part of a broader set of actions aimed at addressing soaring energy prices. The move is also part of an immediate pivot away from Russian imports since... Continue reading…

US passports will soon offer an X gender marker US citizens will have the option to choose the gender-neutral X marker on passports beginning April 11th, the Department of State announced. The agency said the X option will be available for other forms of documentation next year, according to a statement from Secretary of State Antony Blinken.“After thoughtful consideration of the research conducted and feedback from community members, we concluded that the definition of the X gender marker on State Department public forms will be ‘Unspecified or another gender identity,’” Blinken said. “This definition is respectful of individuals’ privacy while advancing inclusion.”The State Department first said last June that it would add a third gender marker to passports, but it didn’t provide... Continue reading…

Phone Link is the new Your Phone. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is rebranding its Your Phone app to Phone Link and updating it with a Windows 11 design overhaul. Your Phone launched more than three years ago as a key way to link an Android phone to Windows and avoid picking up your device to check calls or notifications. Phone Link is naturally a better description for the app, and it has now been updated to match the Windows 11 design changes.Phone Link now places the notification panel upfront, and the notifications tab is now pinned to the left-hand side panel. Microsoft has also moved the Messages, Photos, Apps, and Calls sections into a navigation bar that sits at the top of Phone Link. The notifications section has also been cleaned up to make it easier to see the notifications that... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Yesterday’s restock of PlayStation 5 Digital Edition consoles at Amazon left a lot to be desired, but today presents a new opportunity. Amazon is preparing for another drop of the $499.99 PlayStation 5 (the standard model with a disc drive) today, and it already has Xbox Series X consoles available for $499.99. If recent events tell us anything, the PS5 is going to sell out quickly once it goes live, and the Xbox may stick around for much longer, as it’s been regularly available at Walmart. Though once again, you need to subscribe to Amazon’s popular Prime service to even have a chance at a console.You have to act quickly, especially if you’re going for a PS5. Amazon’s site does not have the same level of bot protection and timed... Continue reading…

Over three months after OnePlus’ latest flagship was released in China, the OnePlus 10 Pro has finally launched in the US and Europe. In the US, OnePlus is taking preorders for the model with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage for $899 starting today and will ship the phone on April 14th. Meanwhile, in Europe, the 8GB model will start at €899 / £799, and there’ll be a higher capacity version with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage costing €999 / £899. The phone will ship on April 5th in Europe.Alongside the OnePlus 10 Pro, the company has also announced a new metallic silver version of its Buds Pro true wireless earbuds, which are set to retail for $150 / €149 / £139. But there’s no base-level OnePlus 10 being announced today, and I couldn’t... Continue reading…

The Encode Plus brings support for Apple’s new Home Key feature Continue reading…

It’s Mod-friendly. | Becca Farsace / The Verge GoPro is announcing a new accessory for its action cameras that’s a jack of all trades — the Volta acts as a grippable handle / tripod, a wired or wireless remote, and has a 4,900mAh battery that the company says can triple your camera’s battery life, providing four hours of record time when paired with a completely charged internal battery if you’re shooting 5.3K footage.The Volta uses an integrated USB-C cable to plug into and charge your GoPro with the press of a button and has an additional USB-C port for charging up its internal battery. GoPro says the integrated battery can be charged in as little as two and a half hours and that there’s a quick-charge mode that takes it from 0 to 60 percent in an hour. Becca... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge In 2007, the iPhone ushered in an era of touchscreen gadgets that caused most buttons to vanish from our phones forever. But there was one brief moment in the gray, transitory haze between buttons and touchscreens that an unlikely company tried to fuse the two together. BlackBerry split the difference by boldly asking, “What if a touchscreen was also a hardware button?”Thus was born the BlackBerry Storm, a device whose entire touchscreen doubled as a pressable button. The Storm was one of the first (and last) attempts to bridge the legacy world of physical keyboards and the modern world of touchscreens. But to understand the existence of the BlackBerry Storm and its bizarre clicking screen, we first need to go back and understand... Continue reading…

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images Biden banned Russian fossil fuels, but uranium has been trickier to tackle Continue reading…

The “Highly Cited” label shown on an article’s preview image. | Image: Google Google is adding a new “highly cited” label to search results frequently sourced by other publications, the company is announcing today. Anything from local news stories, to interviews, announcements, and even press releases will be eligible for the new label being added to the search result’s preview image, so long as other websites are linking to it. More info is also being added to Search’s “rapidly evolving topics” and “About this Result” notices.The search giant’s hope is that its highly cited label will help highlight original reporting, which can include important context that’s stripped out when a story gets picked up more widely. But it should also be helpful to find press releases, where you can get information directly from... Continue reading…

This morning, space tourism venture Blue Origin will launch its fourth passenger flight to the edge of space and back — but this time, there won’t be any big name celebrities on board. Six crew members — five paying customers and one company employee — will be flying this mission, as Blue Origin transitions into regular commercial flights.Originally, SNL star and comedian Pete Davidson was supposed to be on this mission as a guest, back when the flight was supposed to take place on March 23rd. But Blue Origin wound up pushing the trip back a week, and Davidson was no longer able to participate with the new launch date. To fill his seat, Blue Origin swapped in Gary Lai, the chief architect of the New Shepard — the rocket the crew will... Continue reading…

“Don’t talk to me or my son ever again.” | Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Microsoft’s latest Xbox beta software reverses a potentially controversial change to how the console shares gameplay captures to Twitter. Rather than having to use a phone to post content to the social media network, as a previous Xbox Insider build forced users to do, the update restores the ability to share it directly from the console. The change was confirmed by Microsoft’s Brad Rossetti on Twitter.Being able to use your phone to share gameplay from the Xbox is a useful feature, and is handy if you want to quickly type out a tweet to accompany your latest clip. But it’s nice to also have the option to share it directly from the console itself, for those times when you might not have your phone to hand. Thankfully, Microsoft’s... Continue reading…

Image: Disney Direct-to-customer streaming is now a focus for Disney, and today it took another step in organizing that business by announcing a new CTO for the Disney Streaming business unit that includes Disney Plus, Hulu, ESPN Plus, and Star Plus. Jeremy Doig is a tech industry veteran with several decades of experience including stints with the BBC and Microsoft, and who has worked for Google for the last 18 years. Variety reports that Doig will take over for Joe Inzerillo, who helped build Disney Plus and joined SiriusXM earlier this year. Image: Google/Weinberg-Clark Photography According to a press release announcing the hire, while there he worked on compression tech for audio and video and streaming protocols that are... Continue reading…

It’d be a big selling point for the subscription service. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge It’s starting to look like the upcoming version of TweetDeck, the power-user-focused version of the Twitter app, won’t be free. Security researcher Jane Manchun Wong has discovered a work-in-progress sign-up page for the app, which boasts that it’s a “powerful, real-time tool for people who live on Twitter” and offers an ad-free experience.While the page doesn’t explicitly say you’ll have to pay Twitter to access TweetDeck, companies don’t usually advertise “helps you avoid the thing that makes us money” as a feature of free products (even if, like the current version of TweetDeck, it is). And wouldn’t you know it, Twitter’s already got a paid subscription service that it’s trying to sell to its power users.TweetDeck is essentially... Continue reading…

Image: Wyze I just threw my Wyze home security cameras in the trash. I’m done with this company.I just learned that for the past three years, Wyze has been fully aware of a vulnerability in its home security cameras that could have let hackers look into your home over the internet — but chose to sweep it under the rug. And the security firm that found the vulnerability largely let them do it.Three yearsInstead of patching it, instead of recalling it, instead of just, you know, saying something so I could stop pointing these cameras at my kids, Wyze simply decided to discontinue the WyzeCam v1 this January without a full explanation. But on Tuesday, security research firm Bitdefender finally shed light on why Wyze stopped selling it: because... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge To help bring an end to wrangling with Dutch regulators that stretched over the last several months, today, Apple published a new version of its App Store rules that allow local dating apps to take payments through third-party processors. Until now, its proposals to comply with a December ruling mandating the change had not satisfied the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) and earned Apple 50 million euros worth of fines.Apple previously announced that it would allow dating apps to use alternative payment systems, but it imposed various conditions on how they could do so. Developers would have to submit a separate app binary for the Dutch App Store, and would have to choose between using its in-app payment system or a... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple and Meta handed over user data to hackers who faked emergency data request orders typically sent by law enforcement, according to a report by Bloomberg. The slip-up happened in mid-2021, with both companies falling for the phony requests and providing information about users’ IP addresses, phone numbers, and home addresses.Law enforcement officials often request data from social platforms in connection with criminal investigations, allowing them to obtain information about the owner of a specific online account. While these requests require a subpoena or search warrant signed by a judge, emergency data requests don’t — and are intended for cases that involve life-threatening situations.Fake emergency data requests are becoming... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube is rolling out a picture-in-picture mode for YouTube TV on iOS devices running iOS 15 or newer, the company announced Wednesday. YouTube chief product officer Neal Mohan promised on The Vergecast that the feature was on the way, and now it’s finally here.

The new PlayStation Plus Premium subscription will have PS1 games, but it’s the most expensive tier. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Sony has just announced its new PlayStation Plus subscription tiers, which will be available later this year, and with the new “Extra” and “Premium” levels, you’ll get access to back catalogs of many PlayStation games. However, if you want to play classic PS3, PS2, PS1, and PSP games, you’ll have to pay for “Premium,” the most expensive option, meaning that Sony is joining Nintendo in putting some of its older games behind its highest-cost subscription.Using a subscription to access classic games isn’t new for Sony. For years, the company has offered access to PS4, PS3, and PS2 games as part of PlayStation Now, which is an entirely separate subscription service from PlayStation Plus. But instead of using the Plus shakeup to bring more... Continue reading…

It promised this change in September, 2021. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple is making good on its promise to let some developers link out to their own sites from within their apps, according to an announcement from the company on Wednesday. The new rules, which go into effect today, let developers of “reader apps” (apps that are primarily meant to provide access to digital content, like Netflix, Kindle, or Spotify) link out to their sites for things like account management or creation.This should help improve the historically bad user experience for these types of apps caused by Apple’s previous rules. Previously, if you downloaded the Netflix app but didn’t have an account, Netflix wasn’t allowed to give you a link to sign up or tell you where you could go to create an account. That made apps frustrating... Continue reading…

T-Mobile may be pushing back the shutdown date for Sprint’s 3G network | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile said Wednesday that its shutdown of Sprint’s 3G network is proceeding as planned, beginning on March 31st. As part of the shutdown process, the company said in a statement emailed to The Verge, it will migrate customers over the next 60 days “to ensure they are supported and not left without connectivity, and the network will be completely turned off by no later than May 31.”Earlier reports suggested that the actual shutdown date was being pushed to May 31st, which would have been the second delay; originally, T-Mobile was going to phase out the network in January but said in October that it would extend the deadline to March 31st.As one of the conditions of the T-Mobile / Sprint merger, which closed in 2020, Dish acquired... Continue reading…