The Verge

Prosecutors allege that the pair enabled up to 1,000 taxi trips to fraudulently bypass the computer-controlled JFK taxi dispatch system a day. | Image: Spencer Platt/Getty Images Two US citizens have been arrested and accused of conspiring with Russian nationals to hack the taxi dispatch system at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), charging cab drivers a $10 fee to access the front of the queue between September 2019 and September 2021.Daniel Abayev and Peter Leyman (both 48 and from Queens, New York) first successfully hacked the dispatch system in 2019 with the help of unnamed Russian nationals, according to a DOJ indictment filed in the Southern District of New York. Leyman and Abayev accessed the system to move specific taxis to the front of the line, says the DOJ, charging drivers a $10 fee for the privilege. Members of the hacking scheme also offered to waive the $10 fee in exchange for... Continue reading…

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images Caroline Ellison and Zixiao “Gary” Wang, two executives in Sam Bankman-Fried’s fallen crypto empire, have pleaded guilty to federal charges and are cooperating with prosecutors. The news was announced late Wednesday by Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.Williams didn’t specify the charges the two pled to but said the guilty pleas were related to their roles as insiders at FTX and its sister company Alameda Research. Wang was a co-founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange and owned 10 percent of Alameda Research. (Bankman-Fried owned the other 90 percent.) Ellison served as CEO of Bankman-Fried’s trading company Alameda Research.Ellison pleaded guilty to seven counts, according to The Washington... Continue reading…

The last image sent back from Mars by the InSight lander. | Image: NASA On Mars, another machine just bit the dust. The marsquake-detecting, photo-snapping InSight lander has now officially completed its mission and will now spend its retirement in the same place it spent its career — sitting on a flat plain on the Martian surface, as dust slowly accumulates on its solar panels and other instruments.We’ve known this was coming for a while. InSight’s solar panels, which generate electricity for the lander, have been getting covered with dust ever since they unfurled. The mission, officially known as the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight), was expected to run out of power this summer, but a spate of good weather bought it a few additional months of work on... Continue reading…

It will be a little clunky to activate at first, but a boost is a boost. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Meta is giving Quest 2 developers 7 percent more GPU compute power to work with, meaning apps and games on the headset you already own might look a little bit better sometime soon.For developers, the increased power should “improve your ability to leverage higher pixel density without substantially reducing the resolution in order to hit the target frame rate,” Meta wrote in a blog post. Phrased a different way, “this means your apps’ visuals will look even better—without sacrificing resolution quality,” Meta says.The change is possible thanks to the Quest using a new 525MHz GPU frequency, which is up from the previous 490MHz, and Meta’s “dynamic clocking system” will automatically up the frequency when it senses an app could use it.... Continue reading…

Mobvoi is just the latest wearable company to start charging users for “premium” features. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge One thing that’s guaranteed to rile up consumers? Tacking on a monthly fee where there was once none. Mobvoi, which is known for making affordable Wear OS smartwatches, is the latest to join the subscription bandwagon. The company will start rolling out new sleep features to its TicWatch lineup this week, but if you want ‘em all, it’ll cost you $4.99 a month.In a tweet, Mobvoi announced the new features would include sleep aid songs, AI sleep insights like sleep cycle reminders, historical sleep data, and more sleep-related metrics like maximum and minimum heart rate and SpO2. Of these new features, in-depth data like SpO2, min / max heart rate, and sleep trends will be available to subscribers only. Members will also get 50 sleep aid... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix is taking a page from Peloton’s playbook. Starting December 30th, you’ll be able to stream classes from Nike Training Club on the platform. In total, Netflix subscribers will have access to 30 hours of content in multiple languages and exercises.For the uninitiated, Nike Training Club is a popular fitness app where users can take strength, yoga, and high-intensity interval training led by Nike trainers. It’s geared toward improving your strength, endurance, and mobility across all fitness levels. While some classes require equipment, many don’t. It’s very much in the vein of Apple Fitness Plus or Peloton, albeit without any Nike-branded hardware.According to Netflix, the episodes will be released in two batches. While the... Continue reading…

The fine would be the FCC’s largest ever. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is proposing a $299,997,000 fine against a massive auto warranty scam robocall campaign, the agency announced on Wednesday. The fine, which would be the FCC’s largest ever, targets a huge operation; in just three months in 2021, it made more than 5 billion calls to more than a half-billion phone numbers using just over 1 million caller ID numbers. As the FCC put it, that’s “enough calls to have called each person in the United States 15 times during just those three months.”According to the FCC, the operation is run by Roy Cox Jr. and Michael Aaron Jones via “their Sumco Panama company, other domestic and foreign entities, and a host of international cohorts located in Panama and Hungary... Continue reading…

Samsung used nostalgia trip. It’s super effective. | Image: Samsung Samsung is launching a new line of Pokémon-themed accessories on December 26th for its Galaxy Buds, Z Flip 4, as well as the Galaxy Watch 4 & 5. The collection is mostly what you would expect, with a new strap for the Galaxy Watch and a themed case for the Z Flip 4, but the real star of the show, however, is the case for the Galaxy Buds, which just looks like a poké ball.This case was initially made available in limited quantities for South Korean markets and was priced around $105 USD. This new lineup, though, will be available globally and won’t cost nearly as much. Image: Samsung The poké ball case also comes with a small lanyard The case is perfectly round, save for a small flat edge on the bottom that... Continue reading…

You can still gift the Apple Watch Series 8 in time for Christmas. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The holiday shopping window is closing fast, but there’s still time to pick up a few things that will arrive in time for your favorite nondenominational gift exchange. Whether you’re looking for stocking stuffers or still have a few names on your list you need to cross off, we’ve rounded up our favorite fire-and-forget gift ideas for all the procrastinators out there.The collection we’ve put together here includes small-ish gifts that will travel well, like the Apple Watch Series 8, as well as presents that don’t even need to be gift-wrapped, such as a subscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. If you’re looking for more gift suggestions, our deals team has also put together a vast selection of thoughtful ideas for everyone on your... Continue reading…

Twitter has gotten just a little chaotic lately, and several of us here at The Verge are exploring the alternatives. One of the more popular options so far is Mastodon, a decentralized microblogging (yes, I will call the Twitter format “microblogging” till my dying day) network that’s exploded since November. It’s a service with lots of rough edges, but it’s gotten more useful as some of my favorite Twitter accounts have jumped ship.The Verge doesn’t have an official Mastodon presence right now, but we’ve gotten requests for a list of individual members to follow on the platform. So here’s a collection of Verge staff active to varying degrees on Mastodon; we’ll update it periodically as people join.

LG’s brilliant C2 OLED is on sale in the 42-inch configuration for just $796.99 right now. | Image: LG We may be only a few days out from Christmas, but you still have time to save on popular presents without paying extra for expedited shipping. Right now, for example, you can buy LG’s 42-inch C2 OLED at Amazon, Best Buy, B&H Photo, and Target for around $797 ($500 off), which eclipses the TV’s previous low.The C2 is a terrific 4K TV that touts many of its predecessor’s impressive specs, like a speedy 120Hz refresh rate, Dolby Vision support, and variable refresh rate with AMD FreeSync Premium and Nvidia G-Sync. At the same time, it boasts better performance and a brighter display than the prior C1 model, not to mention great contrast and the kind of black levels for which OLED is known. It even touts a few new features, including the... Continue reading…

Users will need to unlock the ability to write notes by increasing their “Rating Impact,” a ranking system that indicates how often a contributor has rated other notes on the platform. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter has announced that its recently released Community Notes feature will now require all contributors to rate a sufficient number of notes before they can unlock the ability to write notes themselves.Rating notes on the platform will increase a user’s “Rating Impact,” a ranking system that reflects how often a contributor’s ratings have helped notes to be identified as “Helpful” or “Not Helpful” by the Twitter community. The ability to write Community Notes will be unlocked when a contributor has achieved a Rating Impact of at least five. Notes in need of ratings can be found under the “Needs your help” section of Community Notes in order to boost your Rating Impact.

Starlink terminals have provided essential satellite internet service to Ukraine as the Russian invasion targets Ukraine’s communications infrastructure. | Photo by Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov has announced that over 10,000 additional Starlink terminals will be sent to Ukraine in the coming months, confirming that issues regarding how to fund the country’s critical satellite internet service have been resolved.The governments of several European Union countries are ready to share payment said Fedorov (who is also Ukraine’s minister for digital transformation) in an interview with Bloomberg, affirming that “As of now all financial issues have been resolved.” Fedorov did not publicly identify which governments are contributing towards the payments but confirmed that there’s currently no contract in place and that Ukraine will need to find additional funding by spring 2023. ... Continue reading…

A close up of the Raspberry Pi logo on a Pi 3 Model B. | Photo by Olly Curtis/Future via Getty Images The twinned impacts of the pandemic and subsequent supply chain problems mean that Raspberry Pi is unlikely to update its flagship miniature computer next year, its CEO Eben Upton has said. Upton made the comments during an interview with Explaining Computers (via Ars Technica), in which he referred to 2023 as a “recovery year” for the company.“Don’t expect a Pi 5 next year. Next year is a recovery year,” the CEO said. “There’s merit, I think, in us spending a year before we look at introducing anything new, spending a year recovering from what just happened to all of us.”“Next year is a recovery year”While there have been supply chain problems across much of the technology sector, Raspberry Pi has been a particularly high profile... Continue reading…

George Hotz is moving on from his Twitter internship. | Photo by Michael Zelenko / The Verge George Hotz, known for being the first person to carrier-unlock an iPhone and jailbreaking the PS3, both under his hacker alias “geohot,” has resigned from his Twitter internship, he announced Tuesday evening on Twitter.“Appreciate the opportunity, but didn’t think there was any real impact I could make there,” he wrote. He also said it was “sad” to see his GitHub “withering.”

Image: Eufy On the last episode of “Will Anker ever tell us what’s actually going on with its security cameras rather than lying and covering its tracks,” we told you how Eufy’s customer support team is now quietly providing some of the answers to the questions that the company had publicly ignored about its smart home camera security.Now, Anker is finally taking a stab at a public explanation, in a new blog post titled “To our eufy Security Customers and Partners.” Unfortunately, it contains no apology, and doesn’t begin to address why anyone would be able to view an unencrypted stream in VLC Media Player on the other side of the country, from a supposedly always-local, always-end-to-end-encrypted camera.What it does contain is a clear... Continue reading…

Photo by Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge Besides its more obvious stated goal of reducing inflation, the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was designed to force profound changes in the electric vehicle market. The legislation revises EV tax credit rules as it seeks to build up domestic battery manufacturing so that the US doesn’t cede the supply chain to China.It’s also profoundly confusing, hinging new EV tax credits not just on where the cars are built but also where batteries are assembled and where battery materials are sourced from. These rules were all supposed to take effect on January 1st, 2023 — that’s next weekend for anyone keeping track.Now, however, it’s going to take a little longer for all of the new provisions to be in place. On Monday,... Continue reading…

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Two men have been accused of hacking into Ring doorbells and using their cameras to livestream swatting attacks, according to the Department of Justice. Kya Christian Nelson, 21, James Thomas Andrew McCarty, 20, and unnamed others allegedly spent a week using stolen Yahoo email addresses and passwords to access video from a dozen security systems before calling the police to each residence, according to the indictment, which you can read below.The DOJ says the scheme worked like this: the alleged perpetrators would get the info for the Yahoo accounts and then figure out if the owner also had a Ring account. If they did, Nelson, McCarty, and the others would allegedly “gather information” about the people before calling the police on... Continue reading…

Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge A very happy holidays to you all! The news is slow, and the food is fried. I made the best latkes of my life (of anyone’s life?) this weekend and also ate four Peter Pan jelly donuts in the span of 24 hours. It really is the most wonderful time of year.On that note, we have a modified Hot Pod schedule for the next two weeks. We’ll have a Thursday issue for HP Insiders and be off Friday. Next week, we’ll only be publishing on Wednesday. And I am not saying that I hope you don’t read any of them, but I do hope you take some well-deserved time with loved ones and away from the internet.Today, Spotify flirts with an Anchor rebrand, and Angela Merkel loves true crime. Who knew?Anchor may be getting a rebrandSpotify simply loves a user... Continue reading…

Who doesn’t like free Wi-Fly? | Photo by Urbanandsport/NurPhoto via Getty Images Delta Air Lines is reportedly planning to make in-flight Wi-Fi free on a “significant portion” of its planes starting early next year, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. The company has reportedly been running tests where anyone who’s a member of its free-to-join SkyMiles rewards program gets free access to the internet while in the air, but it seems as if that perk may become much more widely available soon.Delta is expected to roll out the free Wi-Fi to an increasing number of planes in its fleet throughout 2023, according to the Journal. If it does, it could solve one of the major pain points of trying to stay connected while flying: inconsistency — not in the sense that in-flight Wi-Fi can often be unreliable or... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Apple’s self-service repair program has just been expanded to include the company’s lineup of M1-powered desktop Macs. As noted by Six Colors, customers in the US can now order genuine repair parts for the iMac, Mac Mini, and Mac Studio. The Studio Display has also been added to the program.You can browse the collection of repair manuals for all of these products on Apple’s website; in fact, you must go through the manual if you want to take advantage of the self-service repair program.The program is only recommended for people comfortable with carrying out these repairs, which involve dozens of steps, require the use of advanced tools, and can be very time-consuming. If you’re not intimidated by what you see in the manuals, the cost... Continue reading…

Image: Krafton PUBG Mobile’s latest major addition isn’t a new weapon, map, or crossover but an entire music label made just for the game. The new label is called “Beat Drop,” and while that’s an admittedly clever pun, we still don’t know much about what it will actually mean for artists or players.Big live service games are increasingly using in-game music to encourage players to hop in. PUBG Mobile hosted its first virtual concert this year with the K-pop girl group Blackpink. Roblox has hosted concerts with artists like Royal Blood and Lil Nas X. Fortnite is famous for its elaborate in-game shows featuring people as big as Marshmello and Ariana Grande, and the game even lets you listen to real-world music when you hop in a car and flip on the... Continue reading…

Image: Blizzard From now until January 3rd, Overwatch 2 players can get a pretty sweet (heh) Gingerbread Bastion skin for the low, low, low price of one Overwatch coin. While the skin is yet another example of the Overwatch design team really nailing it, players might find themselves balking at the price. Not because it’s so cheap but because the offer seems like a poke in the eye, given the ongoing conversation regarding the game’s new monetization system.Before Overwatch 2 took the game free to play, players had the opportunity to win new skins via loot box. And, if luck wasn’t on their side, loot boxes also spat out fair chunks of premium currency that players could use to purchase a skin outright. In Overwatch 2’s new monetization scheme, players... Continue reading…

Image: Getty Cruise is delivering on its promise to expand its robotaxi service to two new markets before the end of the year. For years, Cruise has operated its autonomous ridehail service exclusively in San Francisco. But earlier this year, the GM-backed company said it would launch in Phoenix, Arizona, and Austin, Texas, before the end of 2022.On Tuesday, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt tweeted a short video of passengers from those two cities raving about its fully driverless vehicles as proof of a promise delivered. “Folks, we are entering the golden years of AV expansion,” he added.

The award he’s holding pales in comparison to the internet clout he just got. | Photo by Marcelo Endelli / Getty Images In addition to a World Cup and a full set of other soccer (aka football) awards, Lionel Messi has taken another crown: the person with the most-liked post on Instagram. The pictures he posted after the Argentine team won the 2022 men’s World Cup have racked up almost 64 million likes. That’s enough to beat the former record-holder, a stock photo of an egg on a white background with a caption that starts, “Let’s set a world record together and get the most liked post on Instagram.”The egg’s record has stood since early 2019 after it beat out a post from Kylie Jenner by racking up 19 million likes. At time of writing, it has around 57 million likes.

The USPS’s “Next Generation Delivery Vehicle” built by Oshkosh | Image: USPS The United States Postal Service said that it will add 66,000 fully electric delivery vehicles to its aging and polluting fleet of trucks. The mail agency agreed to spend $9.6 billion on 106,000 “next generation delivery vehicles,” which includes $3 billion secured through the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act. After 2026, USPS will only purchase EVs.It’s a significant shift from the USPS’s previous proposal, which included only 40 percent EVs out of a full order of 84,000 delivery vehicles. And that deal came after an even less climate-friendly one that would have only seen 10,019 EVs being added to the fleet. But the constant pushback from Democrats and the Biden administration, which is requiring all federal vehicle... Continue reading…