The Verge

T-Mobile is embracing eSIM. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile is pushing some new app features focused on getting prospective customers to switch with as little friction as possible, all thanks to eSIM technology. There’s a new version of the existing Test Drive program called Network Pass, which allows people to try out T-Mobile’s network with unlimited data for three months. Another new feature called Easy Switch aims to streamline the process of setting up a new account with T-Mobile using eSIM. They’re all part of an update to the company’s app coming to iOS today, with an Android update to follow “soon.”T-Mobile already supports switching via eSIM, which is just a digital version of the physical SIM card you probably have in your phone. In fact, the Department of Justice made sure... Continue reading…

The flooded Windsor Bridge along the Hawkesbury River in the suburb of Windsor, on July 4th, 2022, in Sydney, Australia. Thousands of residents were forced to leave their homes overnight. | Photo by Jenny Evans / Getty Images We’re about to see the first “triple-dip” La Niña of the century, spanning three consecutive Northern hemisphere winters, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) predicts. The organization issued a forecast today warning of the unusual turn of events: the current La Niña, a weather pattern that can drive severe weather, will likely persist over the next six months into 2023.“It is exceptional to have three consecutive years”“It is exceptional to have three consecutive years with a la Niña event,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a press release. The phenomenon is expected to continue fueling bad weather across far-flung corners of the world.La Niña typically shows up every two to seven years, usually lasting a year... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Congress wants to know what Coinbase, Binance.US, FTX, Kraken, and KuCoin are doing to address scams related to cryptocurrency. In separate letters sent to each crypto exchange, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform expresses concern over “the rapid growth of fraud and consumer abuse,” as well as the “lack of action by cryptocurrency exchanges to protect consumers conducting transactions.”The committee’s letters cite data from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) indicating that over 46,000 people in the US lost a combined $1 billion due to crypto scams since the start of 2021, with individuals losing $2,600 on average. Investment and romance scams have been particularly lucrative for bad actors, who collected about $575 million and... Continue reading…

Nick Barclay / The Verge A vulnerability in the TikTok app for Android could have let attackers take over any account that clicked on a malicious link, potentially affecting hundreds of millions of users of the platform.Details of the one-click exploit were revealed today in a blog post from researchers on Microsoft’s 365 Defender Research Team. The vulnerability was disclosed to TikTok by Microsoft, and has since been patched.The bug and its resulting attack, labelled a “high severity vulnerability,” could have been used to hijack the account of any TikTok user on Android without their knowledge, once they clicked on a specially crafted link. After the link was clicked, the attacker would have access to all primary functions of the account, including the... Continue reading…

Hopefully this child isn’t scared by the sounds of a spooky, scary skeleton. | Image: Google Google — along with Starbucks, Spirit Halloween, and seemingly every grocery store in my area — is starting to gear up for fall. It’s bringing seasonal ringtones to the Nest Doorbell (battery) even earlier this year, with the addition of a festive accordion jingle for Oktoberfest that’ll become available in the Google Home App starting September 5th.Like last year, Google will also let you set your doorbell chime to some spooky sounds for Halloween, starting on October 1st. Previously, those included things like witch, werewolf, and ghost sounds. Those are pretty easy to imagine, but here's what the Oktoberfest ringtone sounds like:

The new Paramount Plus app will feature Showtime’s catalogue | Image: Paramount You can now access the content packed into Paramount Plus and Showtime from a single app. First bundled as a subscription last September, Paramount and Showtime’s catalogs have been separated between two apps for viewers in the US, but viewers can now access the full roster of TV shows and films from the Paramount Plus app.For new subscribers, the Paramount Plus and Showtime bundle is available at a discounted rate until October 2nd, at $7.99 per month for the Essential plan (which includes ad breaks) with Showtime and $12.99 per month for the Premium plan with Showtime that adds more sports, live broadcasts of your local CBS station, and downloads for offline viewing on mobile, and mostly removes ads, except on live TV and certain... Continue reading…

The Last of Us Part I | Image: Sony Interactive Entertainment The original The Last of Us first debuted on the PS3 in 2013 and was remastered for the PS4 just a year later. But here we are, less than a decade from its debut, and the game is already being remade. The newly christened The Last of Us Part I takes that original experience, the one that helped make Naughty Dog one of gaming’s most revered studios, and makes it feel comfortably at home on the PS5; in fact, the new version makes the game look and play a lot like its controversial sequel. In some ways, The Last of Us Part I seems superfluous, given the relatively young age of the original, which is still very accessible. It’s not like the PS4 remaster doesn’t hold up. But after spending some time with the remake, I have to say — it’s also... Continue reading…

Various Nanoleaf lights are on sale, including the Nanoleaf Lines starter kit. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge Smart lighting accessories make for cute home and dorm decor, but they’re often expensive. However, today until September 5th, Nanoleaf’s back-to-school sale is making it just a little more affordable to brighten up your dorm or house. Right now, you can buy Nanoleaf’s colorful Mini Triangle five-pack starter kit for just $49.99 ($70 off) at Amazon and directly from Nanoleaf itself. The kit consists of five small triangles you can customize into whatever kind of layout you prefer, as well as a controller and power supply. All of the lights integrate with Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, and Google Assistant, and you can sync them with music or even the lights emanating from your games for a more immersive experience.However, if you want... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The Los Angeles Lakers arena sponsoring and Matt Damon-endorsed cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com accidentally transferred $10.5 million AUD (~$7.2 million USD) to an Australian customer instead of issuing a standard $100 AUD (~$68 USD) due to a pretty unfortunate typo. According to Australian news outlet 7News (via CoinTelegraph), the exchange didn’t even notice the error until seven months later, and by that time, a portion of the money was already gone.The initial transfer occurred in May 2021 after an employee accidentally typed an account number in the payment amount field. Crypto.com only realized the mistake when conducting an audit in December 2021.Apparently code isn’t lawInstead of reporting the incorrect refund to... Continue reading…

Image: Amazon Studios The Rings of Power will take you there and back again with some new stops along the way Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge People cry at airports all the time. So when Jai Cooper heard sobbing from the back of the security line, it didn’t really faze her. As an officer of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), she had gotten used to the strange behavior of passengers. Her job was to check people’s travel documents, not their emotional well-being.But this particular group of tearful passengers presented her with a problem. One of them was in a wheelchair, bent over with her head between her knees, completely unresponsive. “Is she okay? Can she sit up?” Cooper asked, taking their boarding passes and IDs to check. “I need to see her face to identify her.”“She can’t, she can’t, she can’t,” said the passenger who was pushing the wheelchair.Soon,... Continue reading…

The small city of Mexico Beach, Florida, always had a certain charm. It had been lucky. Even though it sits on the Gulf of Mexico, which gets rocked by hurricanes each year, it had never been affected by a major storm. The cinder block buildings and the cottage-style houses still had the same look and character as they did back in the ‘50s and ‘60s when the town was first built. Says longtime mayor Al Cathey, “We were just an old Florida look.”That luck ended with Michael, a Category 5 hurricane that slammed into the Gulf Coast in 2018. It leveled Mexico Beach. Nearly every building was destroyed or unlivable. In the aftermath, there was no power grid, no sewage, no water lines. No police station, no fire station.Cathey, surveying the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge COVID-19 vaccines designed to target the omicron variant have just been authorized by the Food and Drug Administration. Both Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna got the FDA’s sign-off for their booster doses of the reformulated shot. This is the first update to COVID-19 vaccines to be authorized in the United States.The Pfizer / BioNTech booster is available to people 12 and older, and the Moderna shot will be available to people 18 and older. They’ll only be boosters — they can’t be used by people who haven’t already had their first doses.The new booster shots target both the original strain of the coronavirus and the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the omicron variant — which are currently the predominant versions of the virus in circulation.T... Continue reading…

The button you reach for in someone else’s time of need. | Image: Mitchell Clark / The Verge Elevator buttons can sometimes be fickle things — confusing labels or tricky security systems can start a trip up or down a building off on a slightly sour note. But on the control panel, there’s one button that stands out for its ability to make someone’s day instead of ruining it: the open door button.There’s no mystery as to what its job is. If the elevator doors are open, pressing and holding the open door button will usually make sure they stay that way. If the doors have started to close, jabbing the button often adorned with an icon of opposing arrows should stop the process and make the elevator accessible again.What makes the open door button special is that it gives elevator passengers (the ones standing within arm’s reach of... Continue reading…

[NOTE: As of Friday, September 2nd, 2022, the program offering free home COVID-19 rapid antigen tests has been suspended due, according to the website, to a lack of funding from Congress. In other words, we’re on our own.]Original story belowWith the rise of the Omicron variant, we’ve been urged to use COVID-19 rapid antigen tests to make sure that we don’t spread the virus to friends and family. However, it’s been very difficult to follow that suggestion, what with long lines at COVID testing stations and high prices for home kits — when you can find them.To try to alleviate this situation, the US federal government has created a website where you can order four free rapid test kits per month per household. While the site was... Continue reading…

The Reno 8 Pro comes to more markets starting September 1st. | Image: Oppo Oppo is launching its Reno 8 series — previously announced for China and India — in Europe and the UK. The Reno 8 Pro sits at the top of the range with almost-flagship features and pricing: £599, or about $698. One of its key spec points is the inclusion of Oppo’s Marisilicon X neural processor (or NPU), which the company says enables better high-res video capture in very low light. The Reno 8 comes next, with a smaller screen and different processor, and the Reno 8 Light is the most basic model with a lower IP rating and reduced fast charging.The Reno 8 Pro ranks just below Oppo’s flagship Find X5 series, which also includes the Marisilicon X processor. Oppo says the NPU enables 4K video capture in very low light situations that... Continue reading…

Image: Bang & Olufsen Today at IFA 2022, Bang & Olufsen introduced the Beosound Theatre Dolby Atmos soundbar, a soundbar that doubles as both a stylish speaker and a TV stand.The Beosound Theatre is an all-in-one sound system, containing 12 speaker drivers, including two custom-made long-stroke 6.5” woofers. If you have grander plans for your audio setup, however, the Theatre can also form the heart of a Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 surround system thanks to its seven built-in outputs and support for up to 16 external loudspeakers.The interface bracket is motorized, allowing the TV to rotate so that users can find the best possible viewing angle, though if you have no need for it you’ll be able to buy the soundbar separately from the stand. The bracket itself also... Continue reading…

Image: OBS Popular open-source streaming software OBS Studio is getting some new features, including AI-powered virtual backgrounds from Nvidia Broadcast that allow you to change your virtual environment without using a green screen.The feature is far from perfect and won’t replace the quality of a physical green screen, but we can attest that it does a decent job. There’s a bit of flickering and feathering when you move, but for streamers who scale down their webcams to a small corner of their broadcast, these problems won’t be very noticeable. The quality can also be improved further with strong lighting and a clear background environment.Those who use an Nvidia RTX graphics card could probably already have the software installedStreamers... Continue reading…

Dashlane’s password manager is ready to support passkeys. | Image: Dashlane Passwords are dying, long live passkeys. Practically the entire tech industry seems to agree that hexadecimal passwords need to die, and that the best way to replace them is with the cryptographic keys that have come to be known as passkeys. Basically, rather than having you type a phrase to prove you’re you, websites and apps use a standard called WebAuthn to connect directly to a token you have saved — on your device, in your password manager, ultimately just about anywhere — and authenticate you automatically. It’s more secure, it’s more user-friendly, it’s just better.The transition is going to take a while, though, and even when you can use passkeys, it’ll be a while before all your apps and websites let you do so. But Dashlane is... Continue reading…

watchOS 9 will bring new running metrics, which hints that a “Pro” Apple Watch is on the way. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge 2022 is a big year for smartwatches. Samsung just refreshed its Galaxy Watch lineup with a new “Pro” model, Google is finally releasing a Pixel Watch, Qualcomm launched a new wearable chip, and some Wear OS 2 watches will finally get the upgrade to Wear OS 3. And over in Apple’s camp, the Apple Watch lineup is about to see its biggest overhaul in years. This year, we’re expecting to see not one, not two, but potentially three new Apple Watch models. A new Series 8, a new SE, and a never-before-seen rugged “Pro” model — a new high-end option that could potentially shake things up in the smartwatch world.That’s because an Apple Watch Pro would mean Apple’s entering a whole new wearable category: multisport fitness watches. This is a... Continue reading…

It’s a 17-inch foldable that actually works Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Portal 2 will be the last Xbox 360 game available free to Xbox Live Gold subscribers through Microsoft’s Games with Gold program. Microsoft announced last month that Xbox Games with Gold will no longer include Xbox 360 games in October, simply because the company has “reached the limit of our ability to bring Xbox 360 games to the catalogue.”The Games with Gold for September, spotted by Ars Technica, lists Portal 2 for Xbox 360, the last title before the October 1st cutoff point. Valve’s classic puzzle-platform game was released more than 10 years ago on Xbox 360, so it’s a fitting end to the nearly decade-long program of free Xbox 360 games for Xbox Live Gold subscribers.Games with Gold is a monthly benefit for subscribers of Xbox... Continue reading…

Image: LG LG has announced its first bendable OLED TV which works either completely flat or as a curved display. The LG OLED Flex (model LX3) is a 42-inch OLED TV that bends into a curved (900R) TV thanks to LG’s latest display technology. Curved displays are suited for a more immersive gaming experience, while flat screens are better for watching TV broadcasts or streaming services.LG OLED Flex owners can automatically bend and adjust the TV into its curved mode using a dedicated button on the TV remote. (As opposed to some morphing monitors which have to be manually adjusted). There are two presets or owners can adjust the curve of the display in five percent increments through 20 different levels. Image: LG LG is... Continue reading…

NASA/Ben Smegelsky Clear your plans on Saturday: NASA says we’re going to have a rocket launch.The space agency moved the date for the next Artemis I rocket launch attempt to Saturday, September 3rd, after determining that the initial plan for Friday was going to run into bad weather.There was a 60 percent chance that the launch would have been delayed for weather on Friday, officials said during a media briefing. The two-hour launch window opens at 2:17PM.This will be NASA’s second attempt this week at launching its massive next-generation rockets. The first attempted launch on Monday was scrubbed after one of the four RS-25 engines failed to reach the appropriate temperature to allow for liftoff.This will be NASA’s second attempt this week at... Continue reading…

Image: Samsung Samsung’s bringing more content to TV Plus, its free, ad-supported streaming package that’s built into a range of Samsung devices and available on the web. The update introduces several new shows, such as Top Gear, Law & Order Special Victims Unit, NCIS, and Chicago Fire.In addition to the new shows, TV Plus is getting two exclusive Samsung-owned channels: Ride or Drive, a station geared toward car fans, and Samsung Showcase, a channel dedicated to “concerts, events, and special programming.” It’s also partnering with A&E to launch a new home improvement-focused channel, called Home.Made.Nation.And while Samsung already offers several local and nationwide news channels, including ABC News Live, CBS News, NBC News Now, and more, Samsung... Continue reading…

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge Netflix has found an executive to lead its plan for an ad-supported tier: Snap’s chief business officer and top ad exec, Jeremi Gorman.Gorman on Tuesday told colleagues at Snap that she was leaving to join Netflix along with Peter Naylor, Snap’s vice president of ad sales for the Americas, according to two people familiar with the matter. Russ Caditz-Peck, a Snap spokesperson, confirmed the departures.Both Gorman and Naylor are leaving Snap amid a restructuring of its ads team and layoffs hitting the social media firm this week. Snap plans to cut roughly 20 percent of its workforce starting Wednesday, The Verge earlier reported.Netflix has had its own rounds of layoffs this year, cutting hundreds of employees and paring back... Continue reading…

The typewriter might be a reference to Hanx Writer, another app from Tom Hanks that emulates writing with a typewriter. | Image: Blueline Studios Hanx101 Trivia, a trivia game that is narrated by actor Tom Hanks, will soon be one of the games exclusively available on the Apple Arcade subscription service (via Variety). Despite the name, it’s not a game dedicated to quizzing you about Hanks’ career — a press release from the game’s developer, Blueline Studios, says it’ll feature “tens of thousands of questions” about subjects like history, math, geography, and food. (I’m hoping the later set contains at least one question about a box of chocolate.)The game will feature a head-to-head competition mode, a team mode, and a “Hanx101 mode” where you apparently try to get a high score while answering 101 questions. There will also apparently be “unique formats such as ‘Word Jam’ and ‘I... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Snap is planning to lay off approximately 20 percent of its more than 6,400 employees, according to people familiar with the matter.The layoffs, which Snap has been planning for the past several weeks, will begin on Wednesday and hit some departments harder than others, the people said. For example, the team working on ways for developers to build mini apps and games inside Snapchat will be severely impacted. Zenly, the social mapping app Snap bought in 2017 and has since run separately, will also see deep cuts.Another team that will see layoffs is Snap’s hardware division, which is responsible for its AR Spectacles glasses and the Pixy camera drone that was recently canceled after being on sale for just a few months. The company’s ad... Continue reading…

Photo by Lars Niki / Corbis via Getty Images A Virginia judge has dismissed an unusual case that could have banned selling two books to children in the state. Following a hearing on Tuesday, Virginia Beach Circuit Court Judge Pamela Baskervill found that Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer: A Memoir and Sarah Maas’ A Court of Mist and Fury failed to meet the standard for obscenity under Virginia law — and, more consequentially, that the obscenity law itself was unconstitutional.Republican State Delegate Tim Anderson and former congressional candidate Tommy Altman instigated the dispute earlier this year, exploiting a little-used rule that allows anyone to launch obscenity proceedings in the state. Altman and Anderson objected to what they characterized as sexually explicit material in both... Continue reading…

Photo by Scott Olson / Getty Images Truth Social is strapped for cash and facing a mountain of tech and legal troubles that could doom the future of former president Donald Trump’s personal social media platform.The most immediate problem is the platform’s stalled SPAC, initially planned as a way to publicly trade shares in the new company without the diligence of an IPO. But the SPAC has been delayed, leaving the Digital World Acquisition Corp., which was projected to take ownership of Truth Social, in an awkward position. SEC filings show that the company has lost over $6 million in the first half of this year, hasn’t generated any revenue, and holds only $293 million in a trust that houses most of its assets.DWAC’s stock price has shed nearly 75 percent of its value... Continue reading…

You can currently find the Sony WF-1000XM5 headphones at Woot for just $340. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Our Tuesday deals begin with the first substantial discount we’ve seen on the Sony WH-1000XM5 noise-canceling headphones. The original price for the XM5 headphones was $399.99, but Woot has discounted them to just $339.99. If you’re okay with settling for Woot’s 90-day limited warranty instead of the one-year warranty offered by Sony, this is definitely a deal worth looking into. While the XM5 headphones don’t offer any sweeping changes over the previous iteration, the XM4, they still include some of the best noise cancelation capabilities you’ll find in a pair of headphones, in addition to improved sound quality and better performance on voice calls. Read our review.Hot on the heels of some of our Xbox Series S deals from last week,... Continue reading…

An important and sometimes overlooked part of security | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Google has introduced a new vulnerability rewards program to pay researchers who find security flaws in its open-source software or in the building blocks that its software is built on. It’ll pay anywhere from $101 to $31,337 for information about bugs in projects like Angular, GoLang, and Fuchsia or for vulnerabilities in the third-party dependencies that are included in those projects’ codebases.While it’s important for Google to fix bugs in its own projects (and in the software that it uses to keep track of changes to its code, which the program also covers), perhaps the most interesting part is the bit about third-party dependencies. Programmers often use code from open-source projects so they don’t continuously have to reinvent the... Continue reading…

Photo by Sina Schuldt / picture alliance via Getty Images This is the last week to order free COVID-19 rapid tests from the United States government. The program will be suspended on Friday, September 2nd, “because Congress hasn’t provided additional funding to replenish the nation’s stockpile of tests,” the program’s website reads.The White House launched COVIDTests.gov in January of this year, soon after the omicron variant first started burning through the US. Every US household is eligible for three sets of tests from the website, so if you still haven’t gotten all of your tests, now’s the time to place the order. Here’s our how-to guide.An unnamed White House official told CNN that the Biden administration didn’t have enough funding from Congress for all its COVID-19 response programs... Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images After Elon Musk tried to get out of his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter and the company sued to hold him to it, his lawyers unsuccessfully tried to hold off the trial until next year, and now they’re pushing for another delay. The Musk team’s proposing a new timeline that would push the week-long trial’s start from the currently scheduled October 17th date until some time in mid- to late-November.This time, they cite the testimony of former Twitter security head Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, who has filed a whistleblower claim against the company accusing it of security flaws, making “false and misleading statements” to users and the FTC, and hiring agents of foreign governments. His lawyers also submitted an amended filing adding more... Continue reading…

Image: Netflix Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is coming very soon. Netflix announced today that the anime spinoff will start streaming on September 13th. As part of the announcement, the company also released a new “NSFW” trailer ahead of the show’s debut next month. The series will consist of 10 episodes, each 30 minutes long.Edgerunners has been in the works for some time. It was first announced back in 2020 in the lead-up to Cyberpunk 2077’s launch (which didn’t go quite as planned — though the game ended up being a hit eventually). While TV and film adaptations of games are increasingly common, Edgerunners is particularly exciting, mostly for the talent behind it — it’s being created by Studio Trigger, the famed anime studio behind the likes of Kill la... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram is testing new settings for users to control what kind of content they see on the platform.In a blog post, Meta says its tests include the ability to select multiple posts and mark them using the “not interested” button, which is supposed to flag to the app that a user doesn’t want to see similar content. Currently, users can click into an individual post to flag it, but there’s no way to do that at scale.Instagram will also soon start testing a way for users to make a list of keywords, phrases, emojis, and hashtags in recommended posts that they’re not interested in and that they don’t want to see. TikTok rolled out a similar keyword-based feature in June — it already gave users the ability to “dislike” videos to steer... Continue reading…

An employee moves a used lithium-ion electric vehicle battery under a Nissan Leaf electric vehicle at a factory in Namie Town, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, on Mar. 26, 2018. | Photo by Akio Kon / Bloomberg via Getty Images The Department of Energy just took a first step toward launching new lithium-ion battery recycling programs in the US. It issued a Request for Information (RFI) yesterday to ask for public input on how to spend $335 million in federal investments for battery recycling that was included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed last year.Lithium-ion batteries used to power electric vehicles and store renewable electricity are a major building block for a clean energy economy. Recycling could ease the impending squeeze on materials needed to meet rapidly rising demand for those technologies — especially as the Biden administration tries to keep the US on track to meet pollution-cutting goals it’s agreed to under the Paris climate... Continue reading…

Cox Communications had planned to launch the service in October. | Image: Cox Communications Cox announced on Monday that it is launching a pilot for Cox Mobile that will be available to Cox’s internet customers. This will be the company’s second major attempt to get into the mobile industry, after its effort launched in 2010 shut down after less than two years, citing an inability to offer “iconic phones” (like Apple’s iPhone, for example) along with its suite of feature phones and Android handsets.Under the new Cox Mobile, customers will have access to both 4G and 5G coverage with access to “on-the-go wifi hotspots.” They will also have access to high-speed data plans “Pay As You Gig” that will let customers pay for needed data and an unlimited data plan called “Gig Unlimited.” The Wall Street Journal reported that prices... Continue reading…

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Whether you’re trying to quickly record ideas, an interview, or even a song idea, a voice recording app on your iPhone can come in useful. While Apple’s App Store is filled with third-party apps that can do that for you, Apple’s built-in Voice Memos app is particularly easy to use, given there’s no need to download anything — and it’s totally free. Plus, once you’re finished recording your voice note, you can also easily share it — and even edit the recording if need be. Below, we’ll guide you through just how to do so.How to record your voice on an iPhone

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Peiter “Mudge” Zatko’s whistleblower disclosure contained a lot of alarming claims about Twitter — from confusing bot measurements to executive misconduct — but one of the most alarming claims was that the company was actively infiltrated by agents of the Indian government. For a platform that has always presented itself as a haven for journalists and activists, it’s a troubling claim and one that the company has not directly confronted in responses given to US media.But the allegations are less outlandish than it seems — and part of a much larger issue for international tech platforms.Zatko’s SEC filing claims that, in the course of his time as Twitter’s head of security, he was informed that the Indian government forced Twitter to... Continue reading…

IFA’s entrance as seen in 2020 | Photo by Fabian Sommer / picture alliance via Getty Images All the product announcements in one place Continue reading…

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON / AFP via Getty Images A Tesla owner from San Francisco filed a proposed class action lawsuit against the electric vehicle company over a phantom braking problem that he claims has turned “a safety feature into a frightening and dangerous nightmare.” The lawsuit was first reported by Reuters.The lawsuit was filed by San Francisco resident Jose Alvarez Toledo in federal court in the Northern District of California. In the complaint, Toledo estimates that there are “hundreds of thousands” of Tesla customers that could seek to join his class action suit against the company.The lawsuit accuses Tesla of fraudulently hiding the safety risks associated with the company’s Autopilot driver assist system, breaching its warranties, unfairly profiting from Autopilot,... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge California has passed a sweeping law regulating how sites operate for minors. AB 2273, the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, passed the state senate and now proceeds to Governor Gavin Newsom, who has not yet indicated whether he’ll sign it. If he does, the bill could raise legal challenges and major questions about the future of anonymity online.AB 2273 was one of several online regulations floated by California lawmakers. Aimed at making online platforms safer for children, it requires web services “likely to be accessed by children” to conduct a survey assessing the potential risks for users under 18. Among many other measures, the sites must limit using personal information from minors and avoid collecting geolocation data... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The event is set for September 7th Continue reading…

You can currently find the Sony WF-1000XM5 headphones at Woot for just $340. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Our Tuesday deals begin with the first substantial discount we’ve seen on the Sony WH-1000XM5 noise-canceling headphones. The original price for the XM5 headphones was $399.99, but Woot has discounted them to just $339.99. If you’re okay with settling for Woot’s 90-day limited warranty instead of the one-year warranty offered by Sony, this is definitely a deal worth looking into. While the XM5 headphones don’t offer any sweeping changes over the previous iteration, the XM4, they still include some of the best noise cancelation capabilities you’ll find in a pair of headphones, in addition to improved sound quality and better performance on voice calls. Read our review.Hot on the heels of some of our Xbox Series S deals from last week,... Continue reading…

The Sense75 has RGB lighting that illuminates the desk underneath it. | Image: Drop Mechanical-keyboard-focused retailer Drop has opened preorders for its latest keyboard, the Sense75. Unlike the retailer’s other recent keyboards like the Icon collection, where it sold pre-existing models in new configurations, the Sense75 is an all-new design — at least for Drop.The Sense75 incorporates a number of recent keyboard design trends popularized by models like the GMMK Pro and Keychron Q1. It has a compact 75 percent layout that’s similar to what most modern laptops use, there’s a volume knob at the top right, and it uses a gasket-mount design. This means the switches are mounted to a circuit board that’s sandwiched between two gaskets, allowing it to flex slightly as it’s typed on. The design has proved popular with... Continue reading…

Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge Some early adopters of the new, beautiful, and undoubtedly polarizing Dell XPS 13 Plus have reported issues with its screen. Dell has confirmed to The Verge that it is aware of a screen issue on some OLED models of the device. The company is reaching out to impacted customers and appears to be recalling some products.The issue being reported (which is among several that buyers and reviewers have complained of since the Plus’ release) may be that the screws connecting the screen to the chassis appear to be coming loose. A video has been circulating for weeks now of an XPS 13 Plus’ screen falling off in a Best Buy demo area (the video is incorrectly labeled as being of the larger XPS 15). Other users have reported XPS 13 Plus screens... Continue reading…