The Verge

The Detect COVID-19 test is an at-home molecular test. | Image: Detect The at-home molecular COVID-19 testing company Detect is partnering with healthcare provider Carbon Health to give customers who test positive easy access to antiviral treatments, the companies announced today.The “Test to Treat at Home” program runs directly through the Detect app, which connects people who test positive for COVID-19 with Carbon Health. Then, they can set up appointments for virtual or in-person visits, depending on their location. At that appointment, a provider can prescribe an antiviral like Paxlovid, and patients can pick the drug up the same day — a timesaver for a drug that has to be taken within five days of symptoms starting.The program is modeled off the Biden administration’s Test to Treat program, which... Continue reading…

Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/FilmMagic After bottomless headlines about podcast licensing deals, I guess getting acquired is cool again. Or maybe Conan is just tired. I’m tired, and I didn’t even spend three decades as the “good king” of late night. On that note, I will be out for the next few days, so send all pitches and thoughts to Jake (nice ones, please!!).SiriusXM acquires Conan O’Brien’s podcast networkSo much for sticking to mid-tier deals, SiriusXM (though kudos on the misdirection). On Monday, the audio giant announced it has acquired Conan O’Brien’s production company, Team Coco, and locked the comedian down in a five-year talent contract. At a reported $150 million, the transaction is by no means the industry’s largest, but it’s a callback to the kind of M&A... Continue reading…

The Microsoft Store for Windows 11. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is finally adding restore apps to the Microsoft Store on Windows 11. The software maker will soon start testing a new feature that allows you to restore apps onto a new Windows 11 PC. The existing Microsoft Store hasn’t offered an automatic way to restore apps, instead forcing Windows users to manually install apps from their library.“To make it easier for customers to transition to their new PCs quickly and seamlessly, we will soon test a new feature in the Windows Insider channel that helps customers automatically restore their apps, previously installed from the Microsoft Store, to their new Windows device,” explains Giorgio Sardo, general manager of the Microsoft Store. “This will also help developers retain their... Continue reading…

Image: Waze Waze has finally introduced support for Apple Music on iPhones, allowing you to control your music through the navigation app’s built-in audio player. This should make it easier for you to pause, play, and switch between songs while following the directions to your destination. You’ll also get access to Apple Music’s wide selection of playlists directly through Waze, which means you shouldn’t have to open the Apple Music app at all.Apple Music joins a host of other audio streaming services that already connect with Waze. The app first rolled out support for Spotify in 2017 and later added Pandora, TuneIn, and Deezer. In addition to other popular music services like Amazon Music, YouTube Music, and iHeartRadio, Waze also supports a... Continue reading…

The Logitech G435 wireless headset comes in three unique colorways. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Today’s deals kick off with some great prices on Logitech gaming and streaming gear from Amazon’s deal of the day, and just like monkey see, monkey do, Best Buy is following suit and matching many of those prices.The selection of discounted Logitech products ranges from mice and headsets to steering wheels and a webcam. There’s even a Blue Yeti USB microphone kit with a Compass desk mount for $143.99 (about $46 off compared to buying them separately) that’s ideal for podcasting and streaming — and because Logitech actually owns Blue. A lot of these deals are great, but let’s dive deeper into some of our favorites.One of our overall top choices for gaming headsets is the Logitech G435 Lightspeed wireless. It currently sits number one in... Continue reading…

The new panel will appear to the right after a Lens search. | Image: Google Google Lens, the search giant’s powerful image recognition software, is becoming slightly less cumbersome to use within the Chrome browser on desktop. Currently, if you want to use Lens on an image on a website, the browser opens a page of results in a new tab. But in the future, the browser will instead show results in a panel to the right of a webpage. Only when you want to find an image’s source will Chrome open a new browser tab.The search giant’s image recognition software has long been available on mobile, where it’s accessible via Google’s apps on iOS or the native camera app on some Android phones. But last year, Google Lens came to desktop via the Chrome browser and can be accessed by right-clicking an image and then selecting... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge; Photo by Oliyarnyk / CC-BY-SA-4.0 With Michael Chobanian, the president of the Blockchain Association of Ukraine Continue reading…

Chris Evans as Lloyd Hansen. | Netflix In both the Mark Greaney book, The Gray Man, and Netflix’s forthcoming movie adaptation by the Russo Brothers, one of the CIA’s most highly-trained and valuable agents becomes its number one target after he unearths a dark truth about the agency. The Gray Man’s first trailer introduces you to Court Gentry (Ryan Gosling) as he fights to stay alive with one of the world’s largest bounties looming over his head and a mustachioed psychopath hot on his heels.Though Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans) and Gentry were once technically colleagues, the two men find themselves at odds in The Gray Man’s first trailer as Hansen’s tapped to lead the worldwide hunt for Gentry’s head. Gentry’s able to hold his own against Hansen to a point, but his survival... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge It’s all about developers Continue reading…

Microsoft’s Project Volterra device. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is working on a native Arm64 version of Visual Studio 2022 and a miniature Arm PC. A preview version of an Arm native version of Visual Studio 2022 will be available “in the next few weeks” and is expected to ship fully later this year alongside Arm64 .NET support.While Arm devices like the Surface Pro X have been able to run Visual Studio through x64 emulation, some features haven’t been supported and performance has suffered, too. Developers will certainly be intrigued to hear more about native Arm support for Visual Studio 2022 and VS Code, and Microsoft is creating what it describes as an “Arm-native toolchain”:

Windows 11 widgets. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is planning to support third-party widgets inside Windows 11 later this year. At its annual Build developer conference today, the software giant says it will open up access to Windows 11 widgets to developers as companions to their win32 or PWA apps.Currently, the Windows 11 widgets system is restricted to native widgets created by Microsoft, and the selection is rather limited. Microsoft has built widgets for its Outlook and To Do apps, but the rest are largely web-powered ones that present the weather, entertainment feeds, or news in the dedicated widgets panel for Windows 11.Third-party widgets will need a companion Windows app“We’re energized by the customer feedback on Widgets to date, people are enjoying the quick... Continue reading…

The new OneNote design. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft has started testing its new OneNote design refresh. The software maker first teased the visual update last year, revealing that it will unify its OneNote and OneNote for Windows 10 apps into a single OneNote app. Beta testers can now get access to some of the new OneNote design changes as part of the traditional desktop version of OneNote.The design changes allow OneNote to slot in more seamlessly with the rest of the Windows 11 aesthetic. The navigation panes and full-screen mode are being updated, and the page list, section tabs, and notebook dropdown all look different, too. Microsoft is using its Mica effect, which is used in the Windows 11 theme and desktop wallpaper, for the general app window of OneNote. ... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Microsoft put PCs in the cloud with Windows 365 last year, and now, it wants to entice developers to use a cloud-powered developer workstation. Microsoft Dev Box is a new cloud service that includes apps and services designed for developers to quickly access a preconfigured developer workstation.Microsoft Dev Box is built on top of the foundations of Windows 365, so it’s easy to spin up a new virtual machine and get working. That means Microsoft Dev Box will work on any modern browser, and the machines support any integrated development environment (IDE), software development kit (SDK), or tools that run on top of Windows. Image: Microsoft Microsoft Dev Box integrates with Windows 365. Microsoft is pitching... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Microsoft is adding a new Live Share feature to Microsoft Teams, which will allow participants to start co-editing or co-creating during Teams meetings. Live Share will be available through apps that integrate into Microsoft Teams, offering more interactive meetings that go beyond simple screen sharing.Developers at Frame.io, Hexagon, Skillsoft, MakeCode, Accenture, Parabol, and Breakthru are all currently experimenting with apps that utilize this new Live Share functionality. Hexagon has created an app prototype that uses Live Share in Microsoft Teams to allow engineers to zoom in, annotate, and edit 3D models in real time during a Teams meeting. Image: Microsoft Microsoft Teams Live Share in a Hexagon prototype... Continue reading…

Finally, form and function in one Continue reading…

Mike Calabro urbancamper.com Serial 1, the e-bike company spun out of Harley-Davidson nearly two years ago, unveiled another premium model designed to make you open your wallet in helpless surrender. The Bash/Mtn is the company’s first electric mountain bike, and from the look of it, it can absolutely destroy an off-road trail.A rigid, single-speed eMTB (electric mountain bike), the Bash/Mtn is designed for serious off-roading, while also promising to require less maintenance thanks to its simplified design. But it won’t be cheap, with a suggested retail price of $3,999.“No fussy suspension to tune, no finicky drivetrain to adjust — just two wheels, one gear, and one purpose, to provide the most direct connection between you and the trail,” the company says.“... Continue reading…

The new game will be released one day before Amazon’s big new show. | Image: Daedalic Entertainment The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, the upcoming video game starring Gollum that was first revealed in 2019, will finally be released on September 1st, developer Daedalic Entertainment announced Tuesday. The game will be available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X / S, with a Switch version in the works for “later this year,” according to a press release.I was able to see a short preview of the game in a Zoom call last week. If you’re familiar with Gollum’s shadowy nature from the books and movies, you won’t be surprised to hear that you’ll be doing a lot of sneaking around to get to where you need to go. But the video featured quite a bit of environmental traversal as well — Gollum spent a lot of time scaling walls and making... Continue reading…

The standard Nova Pro is a compelling wired option, too Continue reading…

You can’t summarize the webcomic Mr. Boop better than its first panel, which emerged out of what felt like the raging id of the internet on February 28, 2020. “My wife Betty Boop is really hot,” says Alec, the strip’s spectacled, grinning protagonist, a cartoon avatar for actual writer and artist Alec Robbins.His wife, you see, is Betty Boop. She’s really hot.At first blush, Mr. Boop might not seem all that different from the webcomics that largely defined the genre’s boom a decade or so ago: imperfectly drawn panels, constant flirtation with copyright violation, and a horny, endlessly self-indulgent hero based directly on the author.But Robbins isn’t just channeling the tropes of a largely bygone era of fanfiction; he’s weaponizing... Continue reading…

Remember, the x360s are the flippy ones. | Image: HP HP’s newest budget laptop, the Pavilion x360 14, will be available this summer for a starting price of $599, the company has announced. The clamshell, higher-end Pavilion Plus 14 — HP’s thinnest ever Pavilion model at 0.65 inches — is another addition to the line, available now for a starting price of $799.The new x360 14 also has optional 5G support via Intel’s 5G Solution 5000. While we don’t know exactly how much the 5G-enabled model will cost, the $599 base price makes it likely that this will be one of the most affordable ways to get 5G on a laptop this year (many other 5G-enabled models cost well over $1,000).The Pavilion x360 14 will also be HP’s first consumer laptop to include a manual camera shutter — another feature... Continue reading…

Sample images from Google’s new text-to-image AI. | Image: Google (collage by The Verge) Imagen what else this thing can do Continue reading…

Microsoft’s Build social media profile template has a cute cat as a placeholder. You can download it here (warning: 75MB zip file) along with themed wallpapers and Teams backgrounds. | Screenshot: Umar Shakir / The Verge Microsoft’s yearly developer conference is kicking off Tuesday, May 24th and running through Thursday, May 26th. The conference, historically attended by IT professionals, engineers, and students, moved online in 2020 due to the pandemic and also became an entirely free event.Microsoft is continuing this trend in 2022 and keeping its sessions open to anyone interested in learning the latest on what the company is cooking up. So if you’re into checking out the latest Windows and Edge browser updates, understanding the difference between a product and a platform, and learning from other people that work heavily in Microsoft land, check out the links below!How to watch MS Build 2022 Keynote and SessionsIf you want to attend any sessions,... Continue reading…

Asus’ ROG Swift 500Hz monitor | Image: Asus Nvidia and Asus are announcing the world’s first 500Hz G-Sync display at Computex 2022 today. While we saw a prototype 500Hz gaming monitor earlier this year, Asus is promising a shipping 24-inch 500Hz TN panel that’s designed for esports titles running at 1080p. Asus has not yet announced pricing or a release date for its new ROG Swift 500Hz monitor, though.The announcement comes just over two years since Nvidia and Asus teamed up to introduce 360Hz gaming monitors for esports at CES 2020. PC gamers have typically purchased 144Hz gaming monitors, and even 240Hz panels still aren’t particularly common. So 500Hz might sound like overkill, but Nvidia claims it will make a difference for competitive gamers who want the best of the best.N... Continue reading…

Photo by Annette Riedl/picture alliance via Getty Images Grocery app Gorillas, which promises to deliver goods in as quickly as 10 minutes, is laying off half of its office staff. In a press release, the company said it was letting go of roughly 300 employees from a “global office workforce” of 600. (This workforce also includes roughly 14,400 staff working in warehouse and as delivery drivers.)The company is also planning to tighten its focus on five markets that account for 90 percent of its revenue: the UK, US, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. The company also operates in four other European markets — Spain, Denmark, Italy, and Belgium — where it says it is “looking at all possible strategic options for the Gorillas brand.” That might mean pulling out of these markets, but Gorillas... Continue reading…

Leaked renders of Motorola’s rumored smartphone. | Image: WinFuture Motorola could have not one, but two very interesting smartphones launching in China next month. The company has teased the first in a Weibo post, which promises to be one of the first phones in the world with a 200-megapixel camera. It could be joined by a third-generation foldable Razr, too. Motorola’s general manager Shen Jin recently posted a cryptic teaser for the new foldable on Weibo, which appeared to show a silhouette of a device unfolding.The smartphone with the 200-megapixel camera has reportedly been developed under the codename “Frontier,” and has leaked a couple of times in recent months. In January, WinFuture posted several renders of the device along with a more-or-less complete set of specs. The phone’s all-important... Continue reading…

See how a location has changed over time. | Image: Google Google Maps’ Street View feature is getting a couple of upgrades to celebrate the service’s 15th anniversary, the search giant announced today. The first is a new feature coming to its iOS and Android apps that’ll display historical Street View imagery on your phone. The second is a new, more portable camera that Google hopes will make it easier for it to capture Street View imagery in the future.Since 2014, it’s been possible to use Street View to see how a place has changed over the years via the desktop version of Google Maps. But now, the service’s iOS and Android apps will have the same ability. You access it by tapping anywhere on the screen while in Street View mode, and then select “see more dates” to access a location’s... Continue reading…

A rack full of these could hold so much liquid (and computing power). | Image: Nvidia Nvidia has announced its new plan for reducing the energy use of data centers crunching massive amounts of data or training AI models: liquid-cooled graphics cards. The company announced at Computex that it’s introducing a liquid-cooled version of its A100 compute card, and says that it consumes 30 percent less power than the air-cooled version. Nvidia’s also pledging that this isn’t just a one-off, it’s already got more liquid-cooled server cards on its roadmap, and hints at bringing the tech to other applications like in-car systems that need to keep cool in enclosed spaces. Of course, Tesla’s recent recall for overheating chips shows how tricky that can be, even with liquid cooling.According to Nvidia, reducing the energy needed to... Continue reading…

Thor: Love and Thunder | Image: Marvel The first full trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder has arrived, and somehow found a new angle on the journey of Chris Hemsworth’s titular hero. This time around we’re also getting a solid look at Christian Bale as Gorr the God Butcher, a galactic killer “who seeks the extinction of the gods.”There are also more shots of Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), playing up some interactions she’ll have with Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who, as we saw in the teaser trailer, is wielding Mjolnir, and even a quick flash of some Guardians of the Galaxy friends. Image: Marvel Christian Bale as Gorr the God Butcher. So, who is holding the title of Mighty Thor, and what has Jane been doing for the last eight years, seven months,... Continue reading…

Image: Starlink SpaceX’s Starlink is still scaling up its constellation of internet satellites, and the service is only intended for use at the specific location where the user is registered. But as we noted earlier this month, for an additional $25 per month, it will let users take their dish somewhere else every now and then with the service’s new “portability” feature.For that package with portability, you still need to have at-home service first, and it warns users they’ll be de-prioritized while away from home. But if you’re a vanlifer or RV enthusiast who is willing to buy a dish without having a “home” address with prioritized service, now Starlink for RVs will let you sign up and grab a dish for access right now. There’s no waiting required,... Continue reading…

Klarna lost about one-third of its valuation since last year. | Photo by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images Klarna, the Swedish “buy now, pay later” service (BNPL), announced that it’s laying off 10 percent of its global workforce in a prerecorded video message, according to reports from Protocol and TechCrunch. The company currently has about 7,000 employees, and a 10 percent cutback puts the number of affected workers somewhere around 700.BNPL services like Klarna, Affirm, and Afterpay allows users to purchase a product for nothing or a small fraction of its full price. Customers can then make incremental payments over a set period of time but will face a typically interest-free fee for any late payments. BNPL businesses soared at the height of the pandemic when many people were strapped for cash and had nothing else better to do than shop... Continue reading…

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell sent a company-wide email last week responding to a report of allegations of sexual assault against CEO Elon Musk, claiming she doesn’t believe the allegations to be true. The email, first reported by CNBC and reviewed by The Verge, also reiterated that SpaceX has a “ZERO tolerance” policy for harassment.“Personally, I believe the allegations to be false; not because I work for Elon, but because I have worked closely with him for 20 years and never seen nor heard anything resembling these allegations,” Shotwell wrote in the email. “Anyone who knows Elon like I do, knows he would never conduct or condone this alleged inappropriate behavior.”Last week, Business Insider published a report alleging that... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge TikTok has announced a program that lets viewers pay to subscribe to specific live streamers they want to support. Dubbed Live Subscription, it gives fans access to perks like a subscriber-only chat, creator-specific emotes, and badges that differentiate them from non-subscribers (via TechCrunch). It’s launching in beta on May 26th, according to an announcement video posted on the TikTok Live Creator page.That page has also posted videos from several creators announcing that they’re part of the program and announcing the potential benefits to their followers. While custom stickers for livestream chats and the opportunity to take part in subscriber-only chats are likely the biggest draw for viewers, a few creators have noted that they’re... Continue reading…

Google TV profiles are now available to all users — including kids | Image: Google TV After being delayed for months, Google is finally rolling out its personalized profiles for Google TV “over the next few weeks.”Announced in October, Google TV profiles will make it simpler for multi-watcher households to navigate content by giving people access to individualized recommendations, watchlists, and Google Assistant responses.Google has been expanding Google TV to make it less of a single-storefront experience for household members who prefer different content. Just last year, Google TV launched kids profiles, where parents can pick which apps are available and set watch time limits. Earlier this month, the team began rolling out an ambient mode screensaver with personalized cards that will show things like weather,... Continue reading…

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel told employees Monday that the company would significantly slow hiring for the rest of the year after warning investors that its revenue wouldn’t grow as fast as expected.“Like many companies, we continue to face rising inflation and interest rates, supply chain shortages and labor disruptions, platform policy changes, the impact of the war in Ukraine, and more,” Spiegel wrote in a memo to employees obtained by The Verge. He went on to say that Snap expects to report revenue below the low-end of the guidance it gave investors for the current quarter. That news was also disclosed in a filing with the SEC that sent Snap’s stock price cratering to a low it hasn’t seen since mid-2020.Like its larger competitor in... Continue reading…

Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images A US appeals court says Florida’s ban on much social media moderation likely violates the First Amendment, setting up a legal showdown over social networks’ speech rights. Today, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld most of an earlier court order blocking Florida’s SB 7072 while a lawsuit proceeds. It directly contradicts a recent ruling over Texas’ similar moderation ban, setting up a split that the Supreme Court could step in to resolve.The Eleventh Circuit ruling focuses on whether Florida’s law — which heavily restricts suspensions, fact-checking, and content removal involving political candidates and media enterprises — plausibly violates the First Amendment. Florida’s defense of the law characterizes web platforms as... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The University of Oregon is doing a study on the effect phones have on mental health, using Google’s Health Studies app. The goal of the study is to see how people are actually using their phones and how that affects their well-being. A post on the company blog written by one of the lead researchers on the project says that the aim of the research will ultimately be able to help companies design better products and even shape policy and education in the future.According to the blog post, researchers are using the app because it can help them get a better picture of how people actually use their phones, as opposed to other studies when people are asked to track and report their own usage of apps — a method that can be less accurate than... Continue reading…

The LG C1 pairs 4K resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate with FreeSync and G-Sync for an amazing gaming experience. | Image: LG Our inaugural deals post this week is full of amazing deals, many of which are currently matching their best prices to date. Both the 65-inch and 77-inch models of LG’s C1 OLED are on sale for their lowest prices ever at Amazon, for instance, with the 65-inch panel going for $1,596.99 instead of $2,499.99. Other sizes are available for a discount as well, but you’ll want to direct your attention to either the 65- or 77-inch models for the best value.While we’ve never reviewed the C1, several staff members own the 2021 model and can’t seem to shut up about it — not just because it offers excellent visual fidelity but also because of its list of excellent, gamer-centric features. In addition to 4K resolution and support for Dolby Vision —... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images The Game Workers Alliance, the union of quality assurance workers at Activision subsidiary studio Raven Software, has won their union vote. The votes were tallied today and the union passed with 19 out of 22 votes with two challenged ballots. The election makes the Game Workers Alliance (GWA) the first union for Activision Blizzard and only the second formal union in US video game industry.

AT&T subscribers can try a cloud-streamed version of Control Ultimate Edition. | Image: AT&T AT&T customers can now play a cloud-streamed version of Control Ultimate Edition in their browser that uses the white-label version of Google’s Stadia technology. Customers on an AT&T postpaid plan can check out the game by visiting this link on a computer or mobile device and entering their phone number and billing zip code to jump in.Control is the second experience AT&T offers using Stadia’s tech, which Google offers under the brand Immersive Stream for Games. The first was a demo of Batman: Arkham Knight, which launched for AT&T subscribers last year, though that works only on a computer. But AT&T’s Control offering isn’t a demo — it’s the full game, the company confirmed to The Verge. And since it’s the Ultimate Edition, that means... Continue reading…

Speak to Chat works with many of Sony’s high-end headphones and earbuds. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Sony’s best headphones and earbuds come with a wide mix of software features. Aside from helpful tricks like adaptive sound control and EQ customization, a more recent addition has been Speak to Chat. It first debuted with the W-1000XM4 in 2020 and has since come to newer Sony products as well.Since it’s turned off by default, there’s a good chance you haven’t yet tried Speak to Chat. But it’s a very convenient feature that can help you communicate with others without having to fully disconnect from your music.What is Speak to Chat?Speak to Chat is a software feature that’s designed to help you talk to people and have brief interactions without worrying about finding and pressing buttons to activate ambient / transparency sound mode.... Continue reading…

Need to fix your Valve Steam Deck handheld gaming PC? iFixit is selling official parts for practically every piece of the console — and after accidentally putting those components up for sale on Friday, it’s now pushed most of the collection (and a large collection of repair guides) live for everyone.Unfortunately, it looks like you won’t be able to buy some of the most desirable items if you click right now. The motherboard and daughterboards are MIA (if you were hoping to build a FrankenDeck), the fan and screens are out of stock (sorry, upgraders), there aren’t any thumbsticks left, and iFixit only has a literal armful of the Steam Deck’s plastic case halves last we checked.iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens tells The Verge says that won’t be... Continue reading…

Photo by Kimberly White/Bloomberg via Getty Images Heatsinks are the default when it comes to keeping components cool on your PC and practically every other electronic device, but researchers may have found a way to chill your components without the use of these slotted hunks of metal. A report from Science Daily (via Tom’s Hardware) highlights a new, sleeker approach to cooling that involves coating the entirety of the device with poly and copper.If you aren’t familiar with heatsinks, they’re typically made of copper or aluminum, two metals that serve as thermal conductors. They often come with several metal fins that pull and spread heat away from the essential components on your device to help prevent them from overheating. The heat then gets pushed out of the system with a nearby... Continue reading…

District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine has sued Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg over the Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal. The suit alleges that Zuckerberg was “directly responsible” for creating the lax privacy rules that allowed the consulting firm to harvest user data without consent, then failing to promptly inform users and ensure the data was deleted. It follows a failed attempt to name Zuckerberg in a similar suit against Facebook itself.Racine’s fundamental accusations haven’t changed since the earlier filing last year. The suit covers an incident in which University of Cambridge professor Aleksandr Kogan collected personal information from around 270,000 Facebook users plus data from friends who hadn’t consented to the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram now has auto-generated captions, which means it can automatically transcribe any videos you watch on the app. But before you start seeing captions appear in the app, you’ll probably have to enable the feature first, and the same goes if you want to post videos with captions.Before we get started, it’s worth noting that auto-generated captions are available in 17 languages at the time of writing: English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Arabic, Vietnamese, Italian, German, Turkish, Russian, Thai, Tagalog, Urdu, Malay, Hindi, Indonesian, and Japanese. Instagram plans on adding support for more languages in the future.Here’s how to turn captions on and off on Instagram for iPhone and Android, whether you just want to watch videos... Continue reading…

Reebok’s adaptive footwear collection is called Fit to Fit. | Image: Reebok Nike isn’t the only sneaker company thinking about accessible shoe design. Reebok announced it’s partnering with Zappos to launch its first adaptive footwear collection, called Fit to Fit. The collection features two sneakers that are designed for easy entry and exit for people with disabilities.The shoes were designed in collaboration with Zappos Adaptive — the e-commerce site’s vertical that acts as a shopping hub for accessible shoes, clothing, and accessories. The $90 Nanoflex Parafit TR are trainers that feature a mesh upper, side zipper, and heel pull tab. Meanwhile, the $65 Club MEMT Parafit are lifestyle sneakers with an extra 4E wide fit, side zipper, and leather upper. Both shoes feature high-abrasion rubber outsoles for... Continue reading…

Drew Anthony Smith The latest self-driving startup to allow its vehicles to roam the streets without a human minder is Argo AI, the startup backed by Ford and Volkswagen. Last week, the company announced that it is testing its fully driverless vehicles in Miami, Florida, and Austin, Texas. Argo employees will ride in the passenger seat of the vehicles to test out the company’s robotaxi service before it opens to the public.The announcement comes after a period of consolidation in the AV industry, leaving only a handful of well-funded companies left to push their vision of robotic cars as a solution to the auto safety crisis that has gripped the nation for decades.Argo has been testing its fourth-generation vehicles in Miami, Austin, and Washington, DC,... Continue reading…

Ethan Hunt and his allies on a boat together. | Image: Paramount Pictures After leaking online over the weekend, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’s first trailer has unexpectedly arrived in a blaze of hype and death-defying stunt work.Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt is a man on the run in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’s new trailer that finds the infamous Impossible Missions Force agent being pulled into another job whose outcome will shape the arc of human history. It isn’t clear what sort of MacGuffin former IMF director Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny) is describing to Hunt as the target of this particular mission. But its ability to “control the truth” makes it a powerful enough object that Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), and Alanna... Continue reading…

The popular wedding planning website Zola, known for its online gift registries, guest list management, and wedding websites, confirmed Monday that hackers had managed to access the accounts of a number of its users and tried to initiate fraudulent cash transfers.Over the weekend, some Zola users posted on social media that linked bank accounts had been used to purchase gift cards. One tweet flagged by a Reddit user claimed to show cracked Zola accounts being resold on the black market and used to buy gift vouchers.Zola’s director of communications, Emily Forrest, told The Verge that the unauthorized account access took place through a “credential stuffing” attack, where hackers test out email and password combinations stolen from... Continue reading…