The Verge

The breach went undetected for over a month before T-Mobile detected the malicious activity. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile has revealed the company’s second major breach in less than two years, admitting that a hacker was able to obtain customer data, including names, birth dates, and phone numbers, from 37 million accounts. The telecom giant said in a regulatory filing on Thursday that it currently believes the attacker first retrieved data around November 25th, 2022, through one of its APIs.T-Mobile says it detected malicious activity on January 5th and that the attacker had access to the exploited API for over a month. The company says it traced the source of the malicious activity and fixed the API exploit within a day of the detection. T-Mobile says the API used by the hacker did not allow access to data that contained any social security... Continue reading…

Image: Winnebago Winnebago’s name is synonymous with vanlife, which makes its new all-electric eRV2 notable for an industry built on top of diesel engines. It’s just a prototype, but this one is fully operational and actually on the road with a fleet of customers for six months of field testing. Input from those early experiences will ultimately inform the eRV’s final design and help kick off an era of #eVanlife in the process.The eRV2 is a follow-up to the eRV concept announced last year. It’s built around the Ford E-Transit chassis with a range of 108 miles (174km) from its 68kWh battery. Yes, that’s paltry for a vehicle that will be used by adventure seekers far away from EV charging networks but fine for field testing a prototype, I guess. Winnebago... Continue reading…

The new OGL 1.2 is subject to community feedback known as playtesting, which will be addressed on or before February 17th. | Image: Wizards of the Coast In an announcement on the DnD Beyond website, Kyle Brink, executive producer of D&D, has introduced OGL 1.2, the latest version of the Dungeons and Dragons Open Gaming License. Brink highlighted that this version of the license doesn’t contain any of the ownership, royalties, and revenue reporting requirements found in the more restrictive OGL 1.1 that leaked last week.Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) — the Hasbro-owned publisher of Dungeons & Dragons — released the new draft ahead of its self-imposed deadline of Friday, January 20th. Unlike the previously leaked draft, OGL 1.2 will be subject to community feedback known as “playtesting” in the tabletop gaming community.

Microsoft is copying features from a popular third-party audio tool for Windows. In the latest test build of Windows 11, a new volume mixer can be enabled that looks a lot like EarTrumpet. The new Windows 11 feature provides quick access from the taskbar to switch audio outputs and control individual app volumes.That’s exactly what EarTrumpet was built for nearly five years ago. The awesome utility has improved audio in Windows for years, and I once called it “the Windows 10 volume control app Microsoft should have created.” How ironic.Former Microsoft engineer Dave Amenta and Microsoft MVP Rafael Rivera created EarTrumpet, and Rivera pointed out the similarities of Microsoft’s new Windows 11 feature on Twitter this week. “Oh snap.... Continue reading…

Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images Google is cutting approximately 12,000 jobs — the latest technology firm to initiate significant layoffs as inflation rises and global markets brace for a downturn.Google SEO Sundar Pichai announced the cuts in an email to staff on Friday and a blog post. The job losses constitute around 6 percent of Google’s global workforce, compared to recent layoffs at Microsoft (10,000 jobs or 5 percent of the workforce), Amazon (18,000 jobs / 6 percent), and Meta (11,000 / 13 percent). Earlier this month, Google’s parent company Alphabet announced much smaller cuts at Verily, its health-focused subsidiary, and Intrinsic, a subsidiary developing software for industrial robots.In his blog post, Pichai said the layoffs marked a moment to for the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Genesis, a crypto lending and trading conglomerate of more than 200 businesses, has filed for bankruptcy following the meltdown of the FTX exchange, the Financial Times reports. Genesis, one of FTX’s biggest lenders, had previously suspended withdrawals in November, and cut 30 percent of its staff earlier this month, BBC News reports. Genesis is part of the Digital Currency Group (DCG), which also owns cryptocurrency asset manager Greyscale and crypto-focused news outlet CoinDesk.The bankruptcy follows months of uncertainty at the crypto firm. The Financial Times reported earlier this month that Genesis owes its creditors over $3 billion, including almost a billion to the customers of the Winklevoss crypto exchange Gemini. Its Chapter... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The price of Amazon’s Music Unlimited streaming service is increasing in the US and UK from February 21st. In support pages, which we spotted via Billboard, the company says US users will now pay $10.99 per month for a subscription to Amazon Music Unlimited (up from $9.99 previously), while UK listeners will now pay £10.99 (up from £9.99). The discounted student rate is also increasing from $4.99 (£4.99) to $5.99 (£5.99).According to data from market research firm Midia, Amazon Music had around 13.3 percent of the world’s music subscribers, behind Apple Music with 13.7 percent, and Spotify with 30.5 percent, as of mid-2022.“To help us bring you even more content and features, we’re updating the prices of select Amazon Music Unlimited... Continue reading…

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Depending on where you live, the HomePod Mini and the iMac may have just gotten more expensive. The Apple Post noted that the company’s small smart speaker went from £89 to £99 in the UK, and outlets like MacRumors and 9to5Mac have reported a similar €99 to €109 jump in other European countries like Austria, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.In the UK, each pre-made iMac configuration also went up in price by £150. In France, iMac prices went up by €100 for the base model and €110 for the other models, though they stayed the same in Germany and Ireland.It’s hard to find a pattern in the increases. In New Zealand, the HomePod Mini’s price went from NZ$159.00 to NZ$179.00, while it stayed the same in neighboring Australia.... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The era of Netflix password sharing will soon come to a close. Netflix has plans to enforce password-sharing rules “more broadly” toward the end of the first quarter of 2023, the company announced in its earnings report today.“While our terms of use limit use of Netflix to a household, we recognize this is a change for members who share their account more broadly,” Netflix writes. “As we roll out paid sharing, members in many countries will also have the option to pay extra if they want to share Netflix with people they don’t live with.”The company also announced that CEO Reed Hastings is stepping down after 25 years of running the company and will pass the baton to Ted Sarandos, who had already been serving as co-CEO, and Greg Peters,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter has updated its developer rules to ban third-party clients, almost a week after it unceremoniously blocked the apps’ access to its platform, offering almost no explanation to what was going on (via Engadget). The new rules state that you can’t use Twitter’s API or content to “create or attempt to create a substitute or similar service or product to the Twitter Applications.”The rules, updated on Thursday, make it clear what that means: “Twitter Applications” refers to the company’s “consumer facing products, services, applications, websites, web pages, platforms, and other offerings, including without limitation, those offered via https://twitter.com and Twitter’s mobile applications.” The clause banning alternative services was... Continue reading…

Apple Lisa 1 Computer, 102747605. Image copyright: Computer History Museum. | Photo illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge We’re excited to announce that The Verge is partnering with the Computer History Museum this year to explore some of the most important innovations that changed the future of technology and our relationship with it. Located in Mountain View, California, CHM does extensive work in preserving, explaining, and making the history of technology accessible to current and future generations. Its mission is to “decode technology — its computing past, digital present, and future impact on humanity” — a charge that resonates with The Verge’s own editorial mission.As part of our partnership, we’ll first be taking a closer look at Apple’s Lisa computer, whose innovative UX changed the way people relate to computers. Today, as part of its Art of... Continue reading…

A Tesla Supercharger in Virginia, where the state’s governor blocked an EV battery project because of its ties to China. | Photo by Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images Remember when “getting ICE’d” was a thing? A few years ago, it was not uncommon to spot internal-combustion engine (ICE) vehicles deliberately parked in electric vehicle-only spots, usually near an EV charging station, effectively blocking access to that charger. It was an extremely stupid and anti-social way for aggrieved gas-powered car owners to express contempt for these new, less-polluting vehicles.Now a bunch of Republicans are taking the concept of “getting ICE’d” to the next logical conclusion. Not content to simply obstruct a parking spot, they are instead looking to stymie the growth of EVs through ill-considered policy decisions. Their reasons are varied: some are trying to protect the oil and gas industry, while others... Continue reading…

Twitter headquarters in San Francisco, California, US, on Tuesday, November 29th, 2022. Meta made millions last year on advertising that greenwashes fossil fuel companies and spreads disinformation about climate change, according to a new report. And outright climate denialism exploded on Twitter in 2022, according to the analysis published today by a coalition of environmental groups and researchers.They identified fossil fuel-linked entities that spent about $4 million on Facebook and Instagram ads around the time of the United Nations’ climate change conference in November. Those ads disparage the transition to clean energy that’s necessary to slow climate change, the report says, while portraying oil and gas companies as unlikely environmental champions. Meanwhile on Twitter, the hashtag #climatescam has seen a... Continue reading…

Notepad is the first built-in app to get tabs in Windows 11. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft has officially started testing tabs in Notepad for Windows 11. A Microsoft employee accidentally revealed the feature was on the way over the holidays, and now tabs are showing up in an update to Notepad for Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel today.The tabs support in Notepad lets you use multiple files in a single window, much like how Microsoft has implemented tabs in File Explorer in Windows 11. “There are also new keyboard shortcut keys to support managing tabs as well as some improvements to managing unsaved files, like automatically generating the file name/tab title based on content and a refreshed unsaved changes indicator,” explains Dave Grochocki, principal product manager lead at Microsoft.Notepad is the first... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge WhatsApp will now let you freely message yourself. The new Message Yourself feature has been gradually rolling out to WhatsApp users over the past couple of months and has appeared in the release notes for the latest app update this week. It’s not Meta’s latest AI invention but more of a digital notepad to let you send quick notes, reminders, links, and photos to yourself across multiple devices.You could also use this feature to have a full-blown conversation with yourself, but I wouldn’t recommend it. My colleague David Pierce texts himself every day to share links, notes, and reminders that are all searchable across devices. Screenshot by Tom Warren / The Verge If you talk to yourself in the mirror every... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge A post on the PlayStation blog lists “over 30” titles for the PlayStation VR2’s monthlong launch window (you can scroll down to see the full list here) that starts when the hardware ships starting February 22nd.While the new additions consist mostly of ports from the first PS VR or PC headsets, that list does include two popular puzzle games made by Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s Enhance studio, Tetris Effect and Rez Infinite.Both titles earned stellar remarks from us in their previous VR iterations, so it’s good to see them here (since PS VR games won’t work on the new headset), but it does mean paying a little extra.People who own PS4 / PS VR versions of the game can upgrade each title to its PS5 / PS VR2 edition for $9.99 USD, where they... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Ahead of the Game Developers Conference in March, the organizers of the event have released its annual State of the Industry survey results. Surveying 2,300 respondents, the questionnaire covered developer sentiment on a wide range of topics, including NFTs, unionization, the metaverse, and more.As overall sentiment on NFTs cools amid continuous stories of fraud and scandal, the GDC survey reports only 23 percent of developers say that their studios are interested in Web3 technology — a slight decline from 27 percent last year. There does seem to be a marked decrease in NFTs and crypto in video games, as anytime a studio announces a Web3-based project, consumer backlash usually causes it to reverse course. Of the 2,300 respondents to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram’s adding a way to temporarily silence push notifications whenever you want to take a break from the app. The feature, called Quiet Mode, will send automatic replies to users who try to message you on the platform, letting them know you weren’t notified.Instagram will specifically prompt teen users to toggle on Quiet Mode “when they spend a specific amount of time on Instagram late at night.” However, the platform doesn’t specify how much time teens have to spend on the app to see the prompt and also doesn’t say what timeframe it considers “late at night.” Meta spokesperson Liza Crenshaw tells The Verge the notification will appear after “several minutes.” Image: Instagram Instagram will automatically... Continue reading…

Twitter Blue is currently only available to users in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, regardless of what system you use to subscribe. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter has rolled out Twitter Blue to Android users a month after the service was relaunched on the platform’s iOS app. As seen in Twitter’s updated help page for Twitter Blue, Android users can now purchase a monthly subscription for $11 — the same price as iOS users. The service is currently still limited to users within the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.Along with providing users with a blue “verified” checkmark, a subscription to Twitter Blue currently grants users access to the ability to edit tweets, upload longer 1080p videos, and access reader mode. Additional features like seeing fewer ads than nonsubscribers and prioritizing Tweets from verified users are listed as “coming soon.” Image:... Continue reading…

Spoiler alert: this is one of them. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge It’s going to be an interesting year for laptops. We’re coming out of CES 2023, the annual trade show where the tech industry shows off the products we’ll be seeing hit shelves throughout the upcoming year. Big players, from Dell and HP to Razer and MSI, unveiled their weirdest and wackiest new products. There’s a lot to look forward to this year when it comes to display technology, chip capability, AI features, build, and more. But a few products really stood out from the rest.In no particular order, here are the laptops that I’m most excited about testing in 2023.Lenovo Yoga Book 9i Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The Yoga Book 9i’s kickstand is included! Various companies have been trying to do funky... Continue reading…

The US Treasury Department has identified Bitzlato as a “primary money laundering concern” in connection with the Russian government. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge US authorities announced on Wednesday that the Russian co-founder of Hong Kong-based crypto exchange Bitzlato had been arrested in Miami for allegedly processing $700 million in illicit funds. Bitzlato’s crypto assets were seized and its digital infrastructure was dismantled by French authorities working alongside the US (in addition to other international authorities).The US Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has since identified Bitzlato as a “primary money laundering concern” in connection with the Russian government.In a statement coinciding with the arrest, FinCEN accused Bitzlato of “repeatedly facilitated transactions for Russian-affiliated ransomware groups, including Conti, a... Continue reading…

You can currently get a $35 Dell Gift Card when you buy a Nintendo Switch from Dell | Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Discounts on the Nintendo Switch are pretty rare, but today, picking up the standard, non-OLED model from Dell at full price will get you a free $35 gift card. Nintendo’s handheld needs little introduction at this point; it’s a marvelous console to play at home or on the go, and its two Joy-Con controllers allow for two-player gaming right out of the box. And it’s the only place to experience exclusive and very fun titles like Splatoon 3 and Fire Emblem Engage. There are also ports of big open-world games, like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and it’s one of the best consoles to get if you like role-playing games (RPGs).Something to note is that Dell’s gift card can only be applied to future purchases at its online store, not to this one,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Whenever I come across a sales campaign that boasts, “if you buy our product, we’re going to give part of our profit to this deserving charity,” I’m often tempted to call a doctor and consult them about all the grains of (to me) forbidden salt I’ve just eaten. I’m very well aware that the amount of money that is going to be moved to that charity is probably very small, that the tax advantages to the company will be worth more than what it may lose in immediate profit, and that I’d be better off just sending some cash to the organizations I support.All that being said, I must admit that I made an exception (practically and emotionally) for the AmazonSmile program. This decade-old program let me, as an Amazon customer, choose among a... Continue reading…

Kim Hyun-joo in Jung_E. | Image: Netflix With 2016’s Train to Busan, director Yeon Sang-ho managed to do something surprising: offer a fresh take on a zombie story, one of the most well-trod genres around. Now, he’s tackling yet another oversaturated space with Jung_E, a sci-fi tale about how humanity will adapt to living alongside AI. The new film introduces some fascinating ideas about class and technology, along with some very fun action sequences. But it manages to stand out mostly thanks to its extremely personal take on our AI future.The movie is also notable for being the final on-screen performance from Kang Soo-yeon, a Korean star who died suddenly last May. Jung_E represents not only her last role but also a return to the screen after nearly a decade away.Jung_E... Continue reading…

Once the Stadia service goes down on January 18th, 2023, this controller is useless. That is, unless you turn on its Bluetooth mode before the end of the year. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Google has turned off its Stadia cloud game streaming service, but it’s giving the wireless Stadia controller a second chance as a Bluetooth controller that can be connected to PCs, Macs, phones, and presumably other devices, too. The change won’t happen automatically; it’s a manual process that can’t be reversed. What’s more, you only have until December 31st, 2023, to do the switch to enable Bluetooth wireless. After that date, any unconverted Stadia controller will still work as a wired USB gamepad, but it’ll be locked out of playing games wirelessly.I’m going to walk you through the process for converting your Stadia controller by using Google’s browser-based tool.Charge your controller, plug it in, and open the tool

I’m making a note here: huge success. Continue reading…

Google Stadia is survived by its gamepad, fans, and its Nvidia and Amazon rivals. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Google made a few mistakes with its Stadia cloud gaming service. Maybe more than a few. Okay, it made a lot of promises it didn’t keep and said a lot of things that look pretty laughable in hindsight and totally pulled the rug out from under its indie developers. We did our best to warn you!And yet, I don’t think Stadia will be remembered poorly now it’s gone — because in the end, Google did right by its customers. Pay attention, rival companies: this is how you shut down a service right.I can’t remember a company ever trying so hard to erase its mistakes: Stadia users got full hardware and software refunds, save game transfers, even a final celebratory test game they could play on the eve of the shutdown. They were warned over three... Continue reading…

The announcement of AmazonSmile’s closure comes as Amazon begins another round of job cuts. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon is shutting down its AmazonSmile charity program next month. The closure coincides with a variety of cost-cutting efforts announced by the e-commerce giant that includes laying off thousands of employees.The AmazonSmile program functioned like an overlay for the standard Amazon site, allowing users to shop as normal, but select a charity to which the e-retailer donated 0.5 percent of the cost of all eligible products. Amazon claims that over $377 million has been donated through the scheme since it launched in 2013, but in its closure notice suggested this was not sufficient to keep the scheme running.AmazonSmile will shut down on February 20th“After almost a decade, the program has not grown to create the impact that we had... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, has issued a citation against Amazon, alleging that the company violated safety laws and failed to keep workers in three warehouses safe. The regulator has also proposed $60,269 in penalties related to the violations — a drop in the bucket for a company that recorded over $127 billion in sales during the third quarter of 2022 alone but a relatively high penalty compared to many of the ones it faced from OSHA before.According to a press release, the citation stems from inspections at three warehouses located in Deltona, Florida, Waukegan, Illinois, and New Windsor, New York. OSHA says that Amazon “exposed workers to ergonomic, struck-by hazards” in the location, putting them at... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge Plus good news if you want to repair a Galaxy S22, but bad news if you’re counting down the days to Apple’s AR glasses. Continue reading…

Illustration by Lille Allen / The Verge Elon Musk tweets, and “regular people” watch their fortunes evaporate.That was the argument put before a jury by lawyers representing a class of Tesla investors in opening arguments in Musk’s securities fraud trial, which kicked off today in a courtroom in San Francisco. The plaintiffs are arguing that Musk’s 2018 tweets about taking Tesla private, in which he said he had “funding secured,” led them to lose millions of dollars.“His lies caused regular people, like Glen Littleton, to lose millions and millions of dollars,” attorney Nicholas Porritt said Wednesday, referring to the lead plaintiff in the class-action case. In order for markets to operate normally and fairly, it’s “critical that he is held — and the company is held —... Continue reading…

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Apple is working on a brand-new slew of smart home devices, at least according to a report by Bloomberg.In addition to the very similar but Matter-equipped relaunch of the original HomePod, Apple appears to be pushing deeper into the home space with a smaller display akin to a Google Nest Hub or Amazon’s Echo Show. According to sources close to the discussions, the device would be similar to an iPad but less expensive, oriented toward home use, and would include a magnet for mounting. The device would appear to be more limited in scope than an iPad and would mainly be used for FaceTime chats, as well as controlling other smart home devices. Here’s hoping it can solve the multi-user problem that makes current iPads unpleasant for home... Continue reading…