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Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge This report from The Washington Post details how a team of researchers used a combination of Google Maps and radar imagery to track the movement of Russian troops, tipping them off to an invasion of Ukraine before the general public got word of the situation.

Five affordable 30 Series handsets. | Image: TCL TCL, the Chinese manufacturer best known for its lineup of smart TVs, has announced five new affordable Android smartphones as part of its 30 Series. Unlike the TCL 30 XE 5G and TCL 30 V 5G announced earlier this year for the US market, the five new handsets are focused on Europe, and their starting prices range from €139 to €249.At the top of the new lineup is the TCL 30 5G, the only one of the new phones to support 5G. It’s got a 6.7-inch 1080p OLED display with a 13-megapixel selfie camera in a small teardrop notch, and around back it has a trio of cameras including a 50-megapixel main camera, a 2-megapixel depth sensor, and a 2-megapixel macro camera. It’s powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 700 chipset with a 5,010mAh battery, and... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge As the invasion of Ukraine enters its third day, Russia has blocked access to Twitter in an apparent effort to stifle the flow of information, according to a report from the internet monitoring group NetBlocks. Beginning Saturday morning, NetBlocks saw failed or heavily throttled connections across every major Russian telecom provider, including Rostelecom, MTS, Beeline, and MegaFon. Russians are still able to access Twitter through VPN services, but direct connections are restricted.198 Ukrainians have been killed in the fightingJournalists on the ground in Russia have confirmed the block. A BBC reporter described access as “severely restricted,” saying “this message got through, but took a while.”The motivation behind the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter is putting a temporary hold on advertisements in Ukraine and Russia to ensure the visibility of public safety information.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook is blocking state-run Russian media outlets from advertising and monetizing content on the platform amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine (via Reuters).

When paired with the Hue Hub and the Hue TV sync box, the Philips Hue Gradient Lightstrip is a colorful TV bias light. | Image: Signify Philips Hue smart lighting has long been one of the preferred smart home accessories for passionate aficionados and newbies alike. That’s because the lights are relatively easy to start off your home automation with, expansive enough to build off of, and they just look cool.If you’re already invested in the Hue ecosystem, you can pick up the fancier Philips Hue Gradient Lightstrip for $212.49 at Amazon right now when you clip the on-page coupon for 15 percent off. The discount brings the colorful, 65-inch LED strip down to an all-time low price, saving you nearly $38. Unlike Philip’s standard lightstrips, these can display a multitude of colors simultaneously, making them a great fit for mounting behind your TV as a bias light.Keep... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Valve CEO Gabe Newell is open to Microsoft launching its PC Game Pass service on Steam. In an interview with PC Gamer, Newell says Valve has no plans for an Xbox Game Pass competitor, but that it would be happy to work with Microsoft to bring PC Game Pass to Steam.“I don’t think it’s something that we think we need to do ourselves, building a subscription service at this time,” Newell said. “But for their customers it’s clearly a popular option, and we’d be more than happy to work with them to get that on Steam.”Microsoft and Valve have held discussions about bringing PC Game Pass to Steam, but it’s clearly early days and may never happen. “We’ve talked to people there quite a bit about that topic,” says Newell. “If your customers... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On Thursday, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration imposed sweeping sanctions on Russian banks, energy and infrastructure companies, and a number of individual Russian elites.The US Department of the Treasury provided the full list in a press release, which divided sanctioned entities into two categories: “major Russian financial institutions” and “elites and families close to Putin.”Among the sanctioned individuals is Vladimir Kiriyenko, CEO of VK Group, the parent company of Russia’s biggest social network VKontakte. While he isn’t being sanctioned specifically for his work with the VK group, the result still forbids one of the country’s most powerful tech executives from doing business with any US entity.T... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Mobile World Congress organizers will ban some Russian companies from the world’s largest mobile technology show which will run from February 28th to March 3rd, Reuters reports.The Russian Pavilion will not exhibit the country’s mobile products this year at the Barcelona-based event because of international sanctions imposed upon Russia after it invaded Ukraine, confirmed the GSMA, the industry trade body that organizes the event.Although the GSMA strongly condemned the invasion in a statement on its website, its chief executive John Hoffman told Reuters there are no plans to cancel or reschedule the conference. However, he added “it’s an evolving situation” that they “will continue to monitor.”While Hoffman also said a “handful, a... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Valve’s $400-and-up portable gaming PC the Steam Deck went on sale this morning... but you didn’t get an email from Valve, I’m guessing? I didn’t either — and as Valve’s just now explaining, that’s because they’re going out in small batches rather than all at once; the next batch won’t be arriving until Monday, March 7th; and then they’ll go out in weekly batches each Monday, presumably through the month of June.Did you have a reservation for Q1 2022? You should see your email by the end of March. Q2 2022? They’ll start in April, when I’ll hopefully get mine since I ordered on the very first day (but who knows, the reservation website had a lot of trouble that morning).And if your reservation says “After Q2 2022,” Valve says stay... Continue reading…

Installing an Ericsson Street Radio small cell | Image: AT&T AT&T today announced it’s field testing new 5G small cell radios that can hide on top of street lamp posts. The new radios were born out of a partnership between AT&T, mobile technology manufacturer Ericsson, and urban solutions provider Ubicquia.“It is virtually unseen from street level,” wrote Gordon Mansfield, AT&T’s VP of mobility access & architecture, in a company blog post. Mansfield touted that these new low- / mid-band 5G radios can be deployed within 15 minutes on street lamps. “No long wires and big, bulky boxes – a true aesthetic improvement,” Mansfield wrote.Anything that helps 5G blend in is a good thing since there’s also “ground furniture” and being a target of vandalism to worry about. These new small cell radios are... Continue reading…

Photo by Pierre Crom/Getty Images In an open letter published Friday afternoon, the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov, called on Apple to stop supplying products and services to Russian users as a response to the country’s ongoing invasion.“I appeal to you,” Fedorov wrote in the letter, published through his Twitter account, “to stop supplying Apple services and products to the Russian Federation, including blocking access to App Store!”

Nvidia is confirming to The Verge, Bloomberg, Reuters, and others that it’s investigating an “incident” — hours after The Telegraph reported that the graphics chipmaking giant had experienced a devastating cyberattack that “completely compromised” the company’s internal systems over the past two days.“We are investigating an incident. Our business and commercial activities continue uninterrupted. We are still working to evaluate the nature and scope of the event and don’t have any additional information to share at this time,” reads a statement via Nvidia spokesman Hector Marinez.Even The Telegraph’s sources aren’t suggesting that Nvidia has necessarily had any data stolen or deleted, and there’s no current suggestion that the... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where co-hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories.This week is a pretty gadget-heavy episode about some heavy gadgets. Senior reports editor Sean Hollister starts the show with his review of the Steam Deck, the latest portable gaming system. Sean explains how it was the hardest review he's done and why he decided to give it a 6.5 score, despite the amount of fun he had using it.Verge reviewer Allison Johnson continues the gadget talk with her review of Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra, including improvements on the camera, using the software, and whether this is the end of the “slab... Continue reading…

Illustration by Micha Huigen The Verge was recognized yesterday by the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) with an ASME Award for Photography and Illustration for “Best Digital Illustration” for its “Verge 10” illustration by Micha Huigen. Our “Verge 10” series celebrated the 10th anniversary of The Verge and included more than 20 stories looking back at our last 10 years and ahead to the future. One of those stories, “What The Verge Covered in Our First 120,000 Stories” by Jacob Kastrenakes, received an additional nomination for “​​Best Illustrated Story” for the art by Kristen Radtke.“This is our first ASME award, and we couldn’t be happier it was for the incredible illustration that accompanied ‘Verge 10,’” says Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel. “The... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter is giving all users access to the content warning feature it tested last year. The feature lets you obscure individual photos and videos behind warnings for nudity, violence, and “sensitive” content, rather than adding a blanket warning to all multimedia tweets. It’s available on Twitter’s Android and iOS apps as well as its web client.Users can put a content warning on posts by adding a photo or video, tapping to edit it, and then hitting a flag icon that will bring up the options listed above. You can tag multiple warnings for an individual piece of media, and you can add a warning to one image or video in a tweet but not another — although in the latter case, Twitter appears to place a single warning over both of them.

An accessibility feature that was introduced with Android 12 allows you to control your screen using facial gestures: raise eyebrows, smile, open mouth, look up, look left, look right. This feature, called “Camera switches,” uses the phone’s camera to watch for these gestures and allows them to signal simple screen operations. These operations include: go to the next actionable screen object, select an object, go to the previous object, touch and hold, scroll forward, and scroll backward; you can also pause the camera switch itself.It’s not a long list: it only includes six facial gestures and not all that many actions. However, it’s a beginning, and it could be useful if you can’t use your hands to work your phone’s screen.If you do... Continue reading…

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Microsoft is rolling out its latest test build of Windows 11 to its Insiders, and the update is promising to make Bluetooth devices simpler and easier to access. Windows 11 Build 22563 will surface a list of Bluetooth devices right into the Quick Settings menu of the taskbar, complete with visible battery levels for supported devices. This new Bluetooth list allows users to connect to new devices and disconnect to current devices without having to open the full Bluetooth settings menu. It takes a small cue from the way Windows 11’s Quick Settings already handles Wi-Fi networks or selecting an audio source.This is the latest update to come to Windows 11 after just recently bringing new touch gestures and Start menu folders. Bluetooth has... Continue reading…

Most of you playing Elden Ring are probably knee-deep in the Lands Between, getting your shit rocked by that asshole on the horse, but my mind hasn’t left the game’s first menus. Though the many classes present a paralyzing wealth of options, it’s not the question of what class to play that has me stuck. It’s the character creator. I’m stymied by the bizarrely incongruous system that allows for an unprecedented level of control of every minute detail of facial feature but only has one kinky hair option.I didn’t expect much from Elden Ring’s character creator. FromSoftware games have a bit of a reputation for being kinda bad at character creation, especially regarding skin. In Bloodborne, skin colors and textures were distinctly... Continue reading…

I just put up a 4,000-word review of Valve’s Steam Deck portable gaming PC, which just went on sale to the first batch of early adopters today. But the company had a surprise announcement too — Aperture Desk Job, a new bite-size experience set in the Portal universe that’ll be a free download March 1st. It’s designed to introduce new Steam Deck buyers to the handheld’s incredible array of controls, and it involves... toilets and chairs.Assuming you’re not already halfway through the video teaser atop this post, here’s how Valve tries to thread the needle between our rampant desire for Valve to remember how to count to three and the potential disappointment that Valve has not yet managed that feat:

Starbucks workers continue to organize amidst attempted stall | Image: Starbucks Workers United There’s been an interesting development in the ongoing unionization efforts of Starbucks baristas in upstate New York to join Starbucks Workers United. The legal team hired by the coffee chain to upset the organization of its workers experienced something of a hiccup thanks to an unfortunate software malfunction on February 11th according to this report on Huffpost by Dave Jamieson.The firm Littler Mendelson, who has been representing Starbucks’ anti-union efforts, failed to submit a dispute with the National Labor Relations Board on time due to an untimely crash in the firm’s Microsoft Outlook.The dispute, called a statement of position, was aimed at stalling the organizational voting of several upstate New York stores. The dispute... Continue reading…

The announcement of new sanctions against Russia provoked a strong reaction from the head of Russia’s space program, Dmitry Rogozin, yesterday, who seemed to threaten that the restrictions would destroy Russia’s partnership with NASA and lead to the demise of the International Space Station. Though Rogozin is known for his bluster and provocative statements, his comments did spark concern over what NASA would do if the Russians abruptly pulled out of the ISS program — a move that could be a substantial problem.President Joe Biden announced the new sanctions on Thursday in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, claiming the sanctions would “degrade [Russia’s] aerospace industry, including their space program.” A list of the sanctions r... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Meta has reportedly broken up the around 300-person team tasked with working on an OS for AR and VR headsets, moving some of the engineers to teams working on AR glasses and Oculus (er, Quest) headsets, according to a report by The Information. This comes after recent reports — which Meta denied at the time — that the company had halted work on the team’s project creating a unified custom operating system for its VR and AR headsets.In January, reports surfaced that Meta canceled the “XROS” project the team was working on (XR is a term used to refer to both augmented and virtual reality). After the reports came out, Reality Labs Vice President Gabriel Aul tweeted that the company was “growing this team, not shrinking it,” and included a... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Discord is overhauling its policies and community guidelines to tackle health misinformation, off-platform behavior, and hate speech, the company announced on Friday. It’s the first big policy update for Discord in nearly two years and is designed to target groups or individuals that participate in organized violence, spread harmful anti-vaccination material, or harass other Discord users with hate speech.After two years of a pandemic, Discord is making its policies more clear about health misinformation. In new community guidelines, which go into effect on March 28th, Discord says users “may not share false or misleading information on Discord that is likely to cause physical or societal harm.” This includes content that could result... Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge The Russian government has partially blocked access to Facebook in the country after it claims the social network “restricted” the accounts of four Russian media outlets.In a statement on Friday, Russia’s tech and communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, said Facebook was violating “the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens,” and that it had recorded 23 cases of “censorship” by the social network since October 2020.“On February 24, Roskomnadzor sent requests to the administration of Meta Platforms, Inc. [to] remove the restrictions imposed by the social network Facebook on Russian media and explain the reason for their introduction,” the Russian regulator said, adding that Meta “ignored” its requests. It’s unclear what Roskomnadzor’s... Continue reading…

Hulu Amanda Seyfried stars as Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes Continue reading…

This Echo Show 10 is displaying a feed from the Blink Video Doorbell. Video doorbells are handy devices, alerting you to events at your front door via your smartphone, wherever in the world you are. But when you’re just chilling out at home it’s often easier to turn to your Echo Show or Google Nest Hub to see what’s going on outside, rather than pulling out your phone — or actually getting off the sofa.Many smart doorbell cameras can connect to Alexa or Google smart displays, including third-party options from companies like Lenovo and Facebook, as well as Fire TV and Chromecast enabled TVs. This lets you bring up a live view of your doorbell camera on a bigger screen with a simple voice command. Then you can see, hear, and, in some cases speak to your visitor or check on that package on your porch.I... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tumblr and New York City’s Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) have settled discrimination allegations related to the company’s 2018 adult content ban, which city regulators say disproportionately affected LGBTQ users. The settlement requires Tumblr to revise its user appeals process and train its human moderators on diversity and inclusion issues, as well as review thousands of old cases and hire an expert to look for potential bias in its moderation algorithms.The settlement, which did not involve a formal legal complaint and was signed last month, marks one of the first times that regulators have reached an agreement to change a social network’s moderation policies based on algorithmic bias issues. It resolves an investigation that the... Continue reading…

Faraday Future, the California-based EV startup that has nearly gone out of business almost too many times to count, has finally made a car.On Wednesday, the company held an event celebrating the completion of its first “production intent” FF91, the ultra-luxury electric SUV that has been in the works for nearly eight years. Faraday Future — which also goes by Faraday Future Intelligent Electric since merging with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, in July 2021 — claims it is still on schedule to formally begin production of the FF91 in the third quarter of 2022.It’s certainly a milestone for the companyIt’s certainly a milestone for the company, which has experienced high rates of turnover, flirted with bankruptcy... Continue reading…

As Elden Ring rockets up the charts, amassing some of the most glowing reviews this side of Breath of the Wild, Bandai Namco has issued a PSA letting players know it’s working on ironing out some of the day-one kinks.In the PSA, Bandai Namco said it’s working on correcting some issues related to mouse over-sensitivity, PC anti-cheat bugs, and frame rate / game performance issues that, somewhat annoyingly, cause the game to stutter at random moments.One of the biggest warnings concerns a game save bug on the PS5.

Nadine Dorries, now UK Secretary of State, has frequently insulted other Twitter users. | Photo by Rob Pinney/Getty Images The UK says it will force social media companies to introduce ID verification tools in order to curb online abuse as part of its upcoming Online Safety Bill.The plans — which are not yet law — would essentially split platforms like Twitter and Facebook into segregated communities, with “verified” individuals able to opt out of all interactions with non-verified users. Critics say the policy will do little to stop online abuse, though, as many trolls are happy to harass people using their own names.A relevant example of this dynamic has been supplied by the same Tory politician spearheading the new policies: Nadine Dorries, the UK’s Secretary of State. Dorries once threatened a journalist on Twitter that if he tried to contact her... Continue reading…

https://www.vulture.com/2022/02/kanye-west-instagram-fame-prodbyzaqq.html Continue reading…

Galactic Starcruiser invites guests to live in the Star Wars universe for a two-day trip. A galaxy far, far away gets a whole lot closer — for $6,000 per stay Continue reading…

Okay, let’s start with the obvious: it’s important to keep a browser — any browser — up to date so that it can stay ahead of any malware or other nasties that are out there. It also helps you keep up with new features and interface improvements.If you’re a Chrome user, it’s likely that your browser will automatically update itself to the latest available version when it’s restarted. However, if you (like me) have a tendency to keep your browser open for long periods of time, it’s possible that it will not update. In that case, you can do it manually.How will you know whether your browser needs updating? Because when you look at the three dots in the upper right corner (which Google calls “More”), you won’t just see those three dots —... Continue reading…

Mobile World Congress is happening in Barcelona from Monday, February 28th, through Thursday, March 3rd. It’s typically the world’s largest mobile technology show, where some of the biggest smartphone brands announce their latest devices and new technologies.In recent years, the show’s big focus has been on the transition to 5G as well as the emergence of foldable smartphones. But there’s always space for a handful of non-smartphone announcements, whether it’s new laptops or smartwatch updates.In 2020, the show was canceled, and in 2021, it was a quiet affair. 2022 could be a little different, with major announcements expected from several phonemakers. Samsung, which launched its new Galaxy S22 line earlier this month, also has an... Continue reading…

Save a Life’s Patreon tiers were named after military equipment. | Screenshot: Patreon Patreon says it’s suspended the crowdfunding page for “Come Back Alive,” a Ukrainian NGO that was collecting money to support the the country’s military in response to Russian aggression. In a statement given to CNBC, the platform said it “does not allow any campaigns involved in violence or purchasing of military equipment, regardless of their cause.” Come Back Alive’s page said that funds would be used to train soldiers, as well as provide technical equipment, according to Patreon’s blog post.Come Back Alive’s Patreon page dates back to at least May 2020, according to the Daily Dot, but as of January 26th this year it had a modest 936 patrons bringing in around $19,000 a month. That all changed this week after Russia invaded Ukraine,... Continue reading…

Servicemen take part in a joint tactical and special exercises of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ukrainian National Guard and Ministry Emergency in a ghost city of Pripyat, near Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on February 4, 2022. | Photo by SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images Conflict between Ukrainian and Russian forces near Chernobyl raised fears that the site of the worst nuclear accident in history might be disturbed. The site still contains radioactive debris, which the world has worked to contain in the 36 years since the disaster.Russian troops seized the nuclear power plant today, according to scattered reports from officials, including Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak.“It is impossible to say the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is safe after a totally pointless attack by the Russians ... This is one of the most serious threats in Europe today,” Podolyak said, according to Reuters. The International Atomic Energy Agency, however, said in a statement that the Ukraine regulatory body... Continue reading…

Image: Hasbro Paramount is reportedly making a live-action movie based on Beyblade fighting tops, which Deadline says will be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer (who’s had a hand in the Pirates of the Caribbean and National Treasure franchises, and has produced movies like Bad Boys and Black Hawk Down). For those unfamiliar, Beyblades are toys that you fling together into an arena using a specialized launcher, hoping to knock your opponent’s Beyblade out of the ring or stop it from spinning. They also feature in several manga series (the first came out around the same time as the toys in 1999), some of which have been turned into animated TV shows.Deadline says the movie is still in “early production,” but the idea of a Beyblade movie has been floating... Continue reading…

Photo: Chris Welch / The Verge Following a record-breaking 2021 fourth quarter, Etsy is raising seller transaction fees from 5 percent to 6.5 percent, the company announced today. In a report to investors today, the company says the 30 percent increase will take effect beginning on April 11th. The transaction fee is the percentage of the total order amount Etsy charges when a seller makes a sale.The added expense to sellers comes as Etsy announced a fourth-quarter revenue of $717.1 million, which the company attributes to a strong holiday shopping season. Etsy added 10 million new buyers in the fourth quarter of 2021, bringing the number of active buyers to a record 90 million. Stock prices jumped more than 15 percent after market close on Thursday following the... Continue reading…

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge A tool released on GitHub advertised the sought-after ability to unlock the full Ethereum mining capabilities of recent Nvidia RTX graphics cards but actually contains malware. Tom’s Hardware and PC Gamer wrote about the initially promising utility, called “Nvidia RTX LHR v2 Unlocker,” which claimed to remove Nvidia’s “Lite Hash Rate” software that was implemented in newer graphics cards to deter crypto miners from buying gaming GPUs.In a YouTube livestream yesterday on the Red Panda Mining channel, members of the mining community ChumpchangeXD and Y3TI shared less welcome findings: the tool contained multiple viruses.Importantly, according to Tom’s Hardware, the tool doesn’t even perform its namesake function of removing the cap on... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Europe’s big mobile trade show is here Continue reading…

Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images People who speak limited English struggled to access telehealth services in the US during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new analysis, affecting their ability to connect with medical care. It’s something experts worried about as soon as health organizations made the switch from in-person to virtual care.“That was really a concern of ours — who is getting left out?” says Denise Payán, an assistant professor of health, society, and behavior at the University of California, Irvine, who worked on the study.Payán and her colleagues interviewed staff and patients at two community health centers in California about their experiences with telehealth between December 2020 and April 2021. One of the clinics serves a... Continue reading…

Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for TIME A federal judge denied Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s request to force the Securities and Exchange Commission into court to address his allegations about unpaid settlement funds.In a recent court filing, US District Judge Alison Nathan said it was “unclear” exactly what Musk was requesting. Musk has accused the SEC of subjecting him and his company to “endless, unfounded investigations” and alleged that the agency was ignoring its commitment to distribute $40 million in fine money to Tesla shareholders, as per the 2018 settlement. The SEC responded that it was still developing a plan to allocate the funds.Nathan rejects Musk’s request for a conference, arguing that if he wants to impose a deadline on the distribution of funds, he needs to file... Continue reading…

Dish Network promised regulators it would build a 5G network and become the US’ fourth wireless carrier. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Remember when you were signing up for a new phone plan and you considered options from four major wireless carriers? You don’t — at least, not if you were shopping around in the last couple of years. In the US, we only have three major carriers while Dish Network is in the process of building what is supposed to be our fourth option. That’s the agreement that was reached in the wake of the T-Mobile / Sprint merger, and the company is running up against a Federal Communications Commission-imposed requirement to cover 20 percent of the population by June 2022. So how’s that going? Just fine, according to Dish, even though its 2021 Q4 earnings call today didn’t paint the rosiest picture of its current state.Chairman Charlie Ergen spoke... Continue reading…

Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into whether recent stock sales by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his brother Kimbal Musk potentially violated insider trading rules, according to The Wall Street Journal.The investigation began late last year after Musk and his brother sold $108 million worth of Tesla shares, according to the Journal. That sale happened the day before Elon Musk polled his Twitter followers about whether he should sell 10 percent of his stake in the company — and promised to abide by the poll’s results.Elon Musk portrayed the stock sales as a way to cover any fees he would face if Congress imposed new taxes on unrealized capital gains. When the poll closed, 57.9 percent of more than 3.5 million participants... Continue reading…

Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge Authorized Apple service technicians might be able to make Face ID repairs on iPhone XS and newer phones without needing to replace the entire device, MacRumors reports.The tech giant may soon grant Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers access to a new TrueDepth Camera service part that consists of Face ID and front camera modules. As a result, stores and authorized providers would perform same-unit repairs when a phone suffers from Face ID issues instead of replacing the device.As described by Apple in an internal memo provided to MacRumors, the move will reduce the carbon footprint of its products by decreasing the number of whole-unit repairs. If it happens, it also means owners of iPhone XS models and newer won’t... Continue reading…

The battery pack can attach to a phone and dock at the same time | Image: Otterbox When Dieter Bohn reviewed Apple’s MagSafe battery pack, he wasn’t exactly thrilled with its performance. Unfortunately, the relatively small battery pack didn’t have enough juice to top off an iPhone 12 even once. And, like most things from Apple, it came with an unusually high price tag and only worked with a proprietary Lightning cable for charging.Since then, other manufacturers like Anker have produced MagSafe battery packs with friendlier features and better capacity. Now, the case makers at Otterbox have joined that trend with a pair of wireless MagSafe power banks that cost less than Apple’s model but provide better capacity and features. Otterbox’s lineup includes both a 5,000mAh and 3,000mAh model that cost $69.99 and $49.95,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge Late Wednesday night, Russian troops invaded Ukrainian territories across the country’s northern, southern, and eastern borders, kicking off the largest troop mobilization in Europe in a generation. As Russian media attempts to cast the invasion as a response to Ukrainian aggression, on-the-ground reporting has played a crucial role in countering the propaganda, with footage coming from both professional journalists and amateurs on social media.But as the conflict intensifies, many civil society groups are increasingly concerned about the possibility of direct attacks on the country’s internet infrastructure. Russia has previously been linked to DDoS attacks against Ukrainian government sites — but a full blackout would mean going... Continue reading…