The Verge

The iPhone 13 Mini and iPhone 13. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge iOS 15.4, the latest version of Apple’s iPhone operating system, has been released and should soon be available to download ahead of the Friday release of Apple’s new third-generation iPhone SE and green iPhone 13. The update includes big new features like the ability to use Face ID while wearing a mask, alongside smaller additions like a handful of new emoji. The new version of iOS launches alongside iPadOS 15.4 and macOS 12.3, which add support for Apple’s new Universal Control feature.Universal Control allows you to use a Mac’s keyboard and mouse to control an iPad completely wirelessly, including the ability to drag and drop files from the tablet back to a computer. Universal Control requires your Mac to be running macOS Monterey... Continue reading…

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands launches on March 25th. | Image: Gearbox Software Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, a new spinoff in the popular Borderlands series, is set to launch on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC on March 25th, and when it’s available, it will support crossplay for all platforms — including PlayStation.Sony has been famously resistant to crossplay, originally blocking support for it in some popular multiplayer games like Fortnite and Rocket League. While the company eventually enabled it for those two games, Borderlands 3’s crossplay update that launched in June 2021 did not include support for PlayStation.However, when Gearbox CEO and president Randy Pitchford revealed Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands’ crossplay support in a tweet on Sunday (via Kotaku), he said that PlayStation crossplay will be enabled and... Continue reading…

Apple is marketing its Studio products to the same people it marketed Pro products to — the creative types. | Image: Apple Apple has a “Pro” problem — while some products bearing the label are clearly intended for professional use (like Logic Pro, Final Cut Pro, and the Mac Pro), years of Apple and competitors slapping the name onto wireless earbuds and slightly fancier phones have made it hard to tell what “Pro” even means. Which is why my ears perked up when Apple used a different word to describe its new computer and monitor that clearly targeted its audience of creative professionals: “Studio.” I wondered if I was witnessing the start of a new brand for Apple.From the jump, Apple made it clear who the Mac Studio and Studio Display were for. It showed them being used by musicians, 3D artists, and developers in its presentation, and the message was... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge It really shouldn’t surprise anyone that when the merger of Discovery and WarnerMedia closes, the two companies’ streaming apps will experience a merger of their own. As noted by Variety, Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels confirmed the move when speaking at the Deutsche Bank 30th Annual Media, Internet, & Telecom Conference (that’s a mouthful) on Monday.This was our first real glimpse of what this new company’s content plan looks like. Wiedenfels gave a very loose roadmap for the streaming app situation post-merger. Before the two apps merge into one mega app, there will be some bundling options. (Think how Disney often bundles Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN.) Then, at some point, the two will be combined into one massive and potentially... Continue reading…

Sabrent’s new Thunderbolt 3 dock. | Image: Sabrent Sabrent has released a new Thunderbolt 3 dock, which includes up to 16TB of storage alongside a more typical array of dock ports. That storage doesn’t come cheap, however. Although the 2TB version of the docking station is listed for $499.99 on Sabrent’s site, opting for the full 16TB of storage sets you back an eye-watering $2,900.That sounds like a lot, but Sabrent’s dock is combining two computer accessories that are already relatively pricey when sold individually. One of the best-regarded Thunderbolt 3 docks on the market, Caldigit’s TS3 Plus, typically retails for between $250 and $300 and doesn’t include any extra storage. And 2TB of external storage can easily cost upwards of $200 depending on the specifications you need. ... Continue reading…

The $249.99 xScreen is a unique Xbox accessory Continue reading…

Ford announced plans to introduce seven new electric vehicles in Europe as part of a $2 billion investment. The automaker aims to sell 600,000 battery-powered vehicles on the continent by 2026, building toward a goal of all EV sales and complete carbon neutrality across its production footprint by 2035.The news comes on the heels of Ford’s announcement that it would be splitting its business into two parts: one focuses on traditional gas-powered vehicles called Ford Blue and the other on EVs and software called Ford Model e. Ford expects half of its global sales to be electric vehicles by 2030, including all of its passenger vehicles in Europe. Previously, the automaker had said it would spend $1 billion to convert a... Continue reading…

Pete Davidson playing Chad as an astronaut on SNL | Photo By: Kyle Dubiel/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson will actually go to space this month instead of just pretending to on live television. Space tourism venture Blue Origin announced the latest crew to head to the edge of space on the company’s New Shepard rocket, and as rumored, Davidson is the latest celebrity guest to join the crew’s ranks.This will be Blue Shepard’s fourth time sending a crew of people to space and back. The latest flight, set for March 23rd, will carry a group of six. On board with Davidson will be angel investor and former CEO of Party America Marty Allen, as well as husband and wife duo Marc and Sharon Hagle. Marc Hagle is the CEO of Tricor International, while Sharon Hagle founded a non-profit called SpaceKids Global, which... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Walmart is serving up another round of console restocks on this Pi Day (that’s today). The superstore giant is known for reliable console drops that don’t require buying a pricey bundle, but it does require paying for a subscription service. Once again, access to these consoles is exclusive to paying Walmart Plus members when it goes live today at 12PM ET / 9AM PT. All three major consoles will be available, including the standard PlayStation 5 equipped with a disc drive for $499, the disc-less PlayStation 5 Digital Edition for $399, and also the Xbox Series X for $499.To get your console of choice today, you’re going to need a paid Walmart Plus account, which costs $12.95 per month or $98 per year. While free trial accounts are not... Continue reading…

The Elgato Stream Deck Mini set up with Zoom controls One of my missions during the extended work-from-home transition of the past few years has been to find little ways to make the annoying parts of the experience slightly better and less annoying. Like many others, I’ve found a comfortable, ergonomic chair, set up a dedicated standing desk that is only used for work, and explored leveling up my video call quality by repurposing a mirrorless camera as a webcam.But one of the most annoying things has been using Zoom itself — namely, fumbling around for the mute / unmute and leave call buttons. In two years, I’ve not been able to memorize the keyboard shortcuts for them, and since when I’m on Zoom calls, my hands are usually off my keyboard anyways. I’m always the last one to leave the call... Continue reading…

It’s been a long time since I searched the streets for a phone booth — and it turns out to be an even more desperate experience when you’re being tailed by vicious spirits. But it’s something I found myself doing constantly while playing the first few hours of Ghostwire: Tokyo, the latest release from Tango Gameworks, the studio behind the unsettling horror series The Evil Within. While Ghostwire covers some similar ground, with lots of creepy folklore monsters lurking around, it’s also a clear shift from survival horror to action-adventure. And early on, I’m having a blast with the mix of tense firefights and horror-like exploration.As the title implies, the game takes place in modern-day Tokyo, albeit a disturbingly empty one. Thanks... Continue reading…

The new OpenRun are described by Shokz as “Aeropex with Quick Charge.” | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge If you do a lot of outdoor activities, be it riding a bicycle, walking, or anything else, it may be a good idea to, for safety purposes, invest in headphones that don’t completely cut you off from hearing the sounds of the world. One of the best values right now is the OpenRun from Shokz (formerly known as AfterShokz), an unconventional-looking set of headphones. Normally $129.95 at Amazon, they’re $109.95 in black, blue, grey, or red colorways.These connect and operate like regular wireless headphones. But instead of covering your ears, the OpenRun leave them, well, open and instead deliver sound through bones near your ears — and it works surprisingly well. In case you were curious, these are the successor to the AfterShokz Aeropex, a... Continue reading…

Yesterday’s iPhone, today Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Russia’s promised ban on Instagram has kicked into effect today, with the social media platform inaccessible for the vast majority of the country’s population, according to internet monitoring service GlobalCheck.The country announced plans to ban Instagram last week, in response to parent company Meta’s decision to allow Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russian soldiers following the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia has been steadily restricting access to online platforms in an effort to control the flow of information about the war and has already banned Facebook and Twitter.Last Friday, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said in a tweet that “This decision will cut 80 million in Russia off... Continue reading…

In the US, CD sales increased for the first time since 2004. | Image: RIAA CD sales in the US for 2021 increased for the first time in almost two decades, according to data published by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Shipments rose from 31.6 million in 2020 to 46.6 million in 2021, and revenue from the format rose from $483.2 million to $584.2 million. The RIAA’s numbers corroborate a similar report from MRC Data published earlier this year.Although CD sales are still far from their 2000 peak — when almost a billion CD albums were shipped in the US — Axios notes that the increase is another key element of the resurgence in physical music. Vinyl sales have been steadily increasing for over a decade-and-a-half now, and hit 39.7 million units in the US in 2021, bringing in $1 billion in... Continue reading…

Photo by Nora Tam/South China Morning Post via Getty Images Foxconn and other manufacturers are suspending operations in the Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen after authorities announced a partial lockdown due to a rise in COVID-19 cases. Businesses providing non-essential services have been ordered to close and everyone in the city of 17 million will be tested for COVID-19 following the reporting of 60 new infections on Sunday.Foxconn is the world’s biggest contract manufacturer of electronics, and the most important supplier to companies including Apple and Samsung. Many Chinese tech giants like Huawei, Tencent, and Oppo are headquartered in Shenzhen, which is situated near the border with Hong Kong. Foxconn says it’s stopping production at its Longhua and Guanlan factories until further notice, N... Continue reading…

Image by Samsung Samsung has started sending out invites for its second event of the year, which is set to air online on Thursday, March 17th, 2022 at 10AM ET. It’s called the Awesome Galaxy A Event on the invite, and it’s dedicated to the phonemaker’s midrange A-series devices, in case you couldn’t tell.The Galaxy A73 and A53 may both come with 5GIt’s rumored that Samsung will add two new phones to the lineup: the Galaxy A73 and A53. Last year, Samsung announced the Galaxy A72 and A52 at an Unpacked event held around the same time. Both phones are due for a refresh, and it’s likely that we just might get our first glimpse at this month’s event.Rumors and leaks indicate the Galaxy A73 and A53 may both come with 5G, which would be an upgrade for the... Continue reading…

The popular Vanced YouTube app is being discontinued, after a legal threat from Google. The creators of Vanced have revealed the project will be shut down in the coming days, with download links set to be removed. While the app will continue to work for anyone who currently has it installed on Android, without any future updates it’s likely to stop working at some point soon. The Vanced owners say they’ve had to discontinue the project “due to legal reasons.”Google sent the Vanced owners a cease and desist letter recently, which has forced the developers to stop distributing and developing the app. “We were asked to remove all references to ‘YouTube’, change the logo, and remove all links related to YouTube products,” says an admin from... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max may be the only models in the upcoming lineup to carry a new A16 chip, according to reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (via 9to5Mac). In a tweet, Kuo indicates that the standard iPhone 14 and 14 Max will be left with the A15 chipset that comes in all models of the iPhone 13.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Ford will soon start selling and shipping some Ford Explorers without the chips that power rear air conditioning and heating controls, according to a report from Automotive News. The automaker will instead ship the missing semiconductors to dealers within one year, which they will then install in customers’ vehicles after purchase.Customers who purchase a vehicle without the rear controls will receive a price reductionFord spokesperson Said Deep told The Verge that heating and air condition will still be controllable from the front seats, and that customers who choose to purchase a vehicle without the rear controls will receive a price reduction. According to Deep, Ford is doing this as a way to bring new Explorers to customers faster,... Continue reading…

The game’s multiplayer still has an effect on me. | Screenshot by Jay Peters / The Verge Journey turns 10 today Continue reading…

Moderators can remove viewers, report comments, and turn off comments for specific viewers during a Live. | Image by Instagram Instagram is finally letting Live creators appoint moderators during their streams. Mods will have the ability to report comments, remove viewers from the stream, as well as turn off comments for a specific viewer.

In 2008, Macworld devoted five pages to the kind of midtower Mac that Apple refused to make. | Photo by Jason Snell The myth of xMac, the midrange Mac tower that never was Continue reading…

Photo by David Graff/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images The next-generation Subaru WRX STI could be electric. In a press release shared by the automaker on Friday, Subaru says it has no plans to build a gas-powered STI based on this generation’s WRX platform.“Subaru Corporation is exploring opportunities for the next generation Subaru WRX STI, including electrification”“Subaru Corporation is exploring opportunities for the next generation Subaru WRX STI, including electrification,” the company writes. “In the meantime, a next generation internal combustion engine WRX STI will not be produced based upon the new WRX platform.”Subaru cites its efforts to meet the “regulations and requirements for greenhouse gasses (GHG), zero emissions vehicles (ZEV), and Corporate Average Fuel Economy... Continue reading…

Photo illustration by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images Alexandre Dreyfus, the CEO and founder of fan token site Socios, has been accused of withholding payments in order to maintain the price of Chiliz (CHZ), the cryptocurrency used by the Socios community, according to a report from Off the Pitch.Fan tokens are tied to real-life sports teams, creators, or artists, and give token holders access to exclusive fan clubs where they can vote on decisions within their community. In Socios’ case, the platform centers around sports, with users buying Chiliz to purchase the fan tokens representing various teams in soccer, football, motorsports, and more.Staff members, who were also supposed to receive a portion of their salary in Chiliz, weren’t so luckyAs reported by Off the Pitch, Dreyfus... Continue reading…

The first change is always free | Photography: Vjeran Pavic It wasn’t always easy to change your PlayStation Network (PSN) account name. Actually, it wasn’t until April 2019 that Sony allowed account holders to do it at all. Now, each account is allowed to change its username once for free. Any changes after that come at a cost: $4.99 if you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber, or $9.99 for everyone else.Whether you’ve outgrown your username or you simply want to change it, we’re going to walk you through the process. However, there are a couple of warnings to run through first.If you mostly play newer games (specifically, games released after April 1st, 2018), Sony says that you shouldn’t encounter many, if any, issues with the username change since those games were developed to support this... Continue reading…

A24 Martial arts meets surreal sci-fi Continue reading…

Jabra’s Elite 85t offer solid noise cancellation, excellent controls, and multipoint functionality for just $149.99. If you’re on the market for a great pair of noise-canceling earbuds, it’s hard to go wrong with Jabra’s comfortable Elite 85t, which are on sale at Amazon right now with a pair of Qi-certified wireless charging pads for just $149.99 ($80 off). Although the Elite 85t are not Jabra’s newest model, they still offer good noise cancellation, solid on-earbud controls, and the ability to pair with two devices simultaneously, a feature many true wireless earbuds still lack. They also come with a case that charges wirelessly or via USB-C, and they carry an IPX4 rating for water and sweat resistance. Read our review.The 12.9-inch iPad Pro is a capable device, but it can’t do it all. Luckily, there are accessories like Apple’s well-made Magic... Continue reading…

Crunchyroll’s Russian website has been temporarily shut down. | Screenshot: Crunchyroll Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) has suspended all operations in Russia, halting home entertainment releases, such as Spider-Man: No Way Home, and temporarily blocking access to its anime streaming service, Crunchyroll, according to a report from Variety. The move will also pause any TV distribution deals in the country.“We stand with many businesses around the world who have now paused their business operations in Russia, and in support of the humanitarian efforts currently underway in Ukraine and the surrounding region,” SPE CEO Tony Vinciquerra said in an email to employees seen by Variety. “We have also halted our planned home entertainment releases, including ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home,’ and any future television distribution deals.... Continue reading…

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge The Nintendo Switch outsold the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 in both unit and dollar sales in February after bouncing back from a weaker January, according to NPD’s Mat Piscatella. Last month, the PS5 took the top spot as the US’s best-selling gaming hardware, while the Switch came in behind the Xbox Series X.The Switch’s on-and-off-again reign has a lot to do with availabilityThe Switch and PS5 have been swapping spots as the number one console ever since the PS5 broke the Switch’s almost three-year streak last October. Its time on top was short-lived, however, as the new Switch OLED boosted the console’s sales, bringing it back to the number one position through November and December 2021. So far in 2022, the Switch has sold the... Continue reading…

Apple’s dramatic introduction to the M1 Ultra. | Image: Apple The shape of Apple’s silicon strategy is clear Continue reading…

EA announced an early 2023 “arrival window” for the next-gen remake of its survival horror hit Dead Space on Friday. The announcement was made as part of a developer livestream focused largely on the game’s audio.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Ubisoft experienced a “cyber security incident” last week that temporarily disrupted some games, systems, and services, the company reported Thursday. Ubisoft hasn’t said who might be responsible, but on Friday evening, the group who purportedly hacked Nvidia took credit.Ubisoft said it believes that “at this time there is no evidence any player personal information was accessed or exposed as a by-product of this incident” and says that games and services are now “functioning normally.” Out of caution, the company also “initiated a company-wide password reset.” When asked for comment, Ubisoft spokesperson Jessica Roache said the company had no additional details to share.News of the incident arrives amid a recent wave of high-profile... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge One week after placing a ban on Facebook in Russia, the country’s communications agency Roskomnadzor announced it will ban Instagram, too. While the Facebook ban cited “discrimination against Russian media,” this time, the government claims it’s happening because of a decision by parent company Meta directing moderators to allow posts calling for violence against Russian soldiers if they originate from certain countries, including Ukraine.The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, said in a tweet that “This decision will cut 80 million in Russia off from one another, and from the rest of the world as ~80% of people in Russia follow an Instagram account outside their country. This is wrong.”

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Uber is adding a “temporary fuel surcharge” to fares to help drivers pay for record-high gas prices around the country, the company announced Friday. “Rides customers will pay a surcharge of either $0.45 or $0.55 on each Uber trip, and Eats customers will pay either $0.35 or $0.45 on each Uber Eats order, depending on their location,” Uber’s head of driver operations in US and Canada, Liza Winship, said in a blog post.The entirety of the surcharge will be passed on to drivers, and the plan is for the surcharge to be in place for the next 60 days. However, Winship cautions that “we will continue to monitor gas prices and may make additional changes.” And this temporary fuel surcharge will even be in place for rides or deliveries done in... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A new trademark application by Samsung in the UK suggests the company may be working on fashionable skins for its phones, as reported by Android Headlines and Let’s Go Digital. The UK Intellectual Property Office application describes “protective and decorative films adapted for smartphones,” using the name “Fashion Film.”This doesn’t confirm that an actual product will follow (you can see other trademarks Samsung’s registered to find out how many are never used). Still, any sign the company is taking a step to enter the skin accessory market is notable. Currently, the space is mainly taken over by smaller companies like Dbrand, which has even had its product featured in Samsung’s stores. And while the trademark application doesn’t... Continue reading…

Google won its court fight with Genius | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google has once again prevailed in an ongoing legal battle with song lyrics website Genius, which claimed that Google was using its transcribed lyrics without permission in search results.Genius sued Google in 2019, arguing that Google was scraping lyrics from its website in violation of Genius’ copyright. Genius has a large database of song lyrics, and bills itself as “the world’s biggest music encyclopedia.” It tried to demonstrate that Google was scraping info from its website by putting watermarks on its lyrics, which it said then appeared in Google searches but without any link back or attribution to Genius.Google said in a blog post at the time that it did not “crawl or scrape websites to source” song lyrics. Canadian lyrics... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Yuga Labs, the creator of Bored Ape Yacht Club, announced today that it had acquired CryptoPunks and Meebits from Larva Labs. CryptoPunks is one of the oldest and most valuable brands in the NFT world, and Meebits quickly joined the list of most valuable NFT collections after launching last May.Yuga Labs hopes to foster a “community of builders” creating derivative works around the two projects. To do that, it plans to grant intellectual property and commercialization rights to CryptoPunks and Meebits owners, allowing them to create works and products based off their NFTs the same way that Bored Ape owners have.“Everybody knows CryptoPunks, everybody loves CryptoPunks,” Greg Solano, a Bored Ape Yacht Club co-founder who goes by the... Continue reading…

Image: Wikipedia The Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption of Belarus (GUBOPiK) has detained prominent Wikipedia editor Mark Bernstein, according to the Belarusian publication Zerkalo. The arrest comes after Bernstein’s personal information was shared on GOBUPiK’s public Telegram channel. Bernstein is one of the top 50 editors of Russian Wikipedia.The Verge was able to confirm that Bernstein’s information — including his social media, Wikipedia handle, and place of work — had been shared in GUBOPik’s channel on the messaging app. A video of Bernstein’s arrest was also posted alongside his photo and personal details. In the photo itself, Bernstein is accused of “distributing fake anti-Russian information.” The channel has since... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facing a tidal wave of backlash following Disney’s failure to speak out against Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, Disney CEO Bob Chapek formally apologized to employees today for the company’s failure to support its queer community.In an internal memo, Chapek addressed widespread criticism of Disney’s witting silence in response to the “Don’t Say Gay” bill passed recently by Florida’s Senate. The message was addressed to all Disney employees, “but especially our LGBTQ+ community.”“Thank you to all who have reached out to me sharing your pain, frustration and sadness over the company’s response to the Florida ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill,” Chapek wrote. “Speaking to you, reading your messages, and meeting with you have helped me better... Continue reading…

Photo by David Crane / MediaNews Group / Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images With gas prices soaring above $4 a gallon, electric vehicles are starting to look a lot more attractive to car buyers. But a combination of supply chain constraints, the global chip shortage, higher-than-average prices, and low inventory at dealerships will conspire to keep EVs out of reach for most people.Interest in switching from gas to electric is at an all-time high. Car shopping site Edmunds reports the number of people searching for hybrid, plug-in hybrid, or electric vehicles jumped 39 percent from February to March and 18 percent over the last week.Following through on that purchase is going to be tough for most people, given the scarcity of new EVs on the market. The EVs that are available are more expensive than their gas... Continue reading…

Microsoft Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass is a subscription service that offers on-demand access to dozens of games. It’s a great value if you like to play and discover new games, and now that it’s on PC instead of solely being a console experience, your subscription can follow you from your Xbox console to your Windows desktop.However, the expansion to Windows PCs hasn’t been seamless. While an Xbox lets you easily access your Game Pass right on the home dashboard, finding Game Pass games on a PC is a whole other story.There are two ways to find Game Pass games on PC. The first and easiest requires you to download a free app, though I think it will be worth the effort. The second method doesn’t require any additional installations, but finding... Continue reading…

In Elden Ring, it’s killed or be killed — brutally. The game is designed to put you ever on the defensive, ready to lash out before you yourself can be lashed. But that shoot first, ask questions later mindset led to an event I truly and deeply regret. I killed a dragon, and I feel really awful about it.In Elden Ring, even the damn flowers are dangerous, but contrary to the game’s reputation, not everything in the Lands Between wants to kill you. There are those cute rodents that scurry about and delightful little donut-rolling sheep that exist only to bleat at you as you zip by them on Torrent. I’ve had so many peaceful moments sitting on the edge of a cliff, gazing in wondrous awe at the golden Erdtree with a convocation of eagles for... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Hulu with Live TV is giving its users unlimited DVR starting next month at no additional cost — a feature that’ll allow it to compete more directly with cord-cutting rival YouTube TV.The feature will apply to all Hulu with Live TV subscriptions beginning April 13th and will support ​​playback and fast-forwarding on recordings for up to nine months (the same storage period supported by YouTube TV). Previously, Hulu with Live TV supported up to 50 hours of DVR storage but could upgrade to up to 200 hours of storage through add-ons that ranged in price from $10 per month to $15 per month.Those customers who opted into add-on packages that supported additional DVR space will no longer be charged for the added storage beginning April 13th.... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In 2018, Google, Facebook / Meta, Microsoft, and Twitter teamed up to announce the Data Transfer Project, which worked on tools to help users “transfer data directly from one service to another, without needing to download and re-upload it.” Since then, Apple has signed on, while other integrated services include Google Photos, Mastodon, and SmugMug, in addition to the various data export and transfer tools available from the original four companies.This week, Google provided an update on its participation, pledging $3 million in funding and “hundreds” of hours of work from engineers over the next five years to work on the open-source libraries that keep the project going.The Data Transfer Project plays a part in tools that you can use... Continue reading…

Google Pay is a digital wallet and online payment system that’s developed by Google to make it easy for you to make purchases. It automatically syncs your saved credit cards wherever your Google account is logged in for quick payments, and it will import loyalty cards, tickets, and offers from your Gmail account. Google Pay is supported at most major markets, gas stations, and department stores.How to set up Google Pay Setting up Google Pay is straightforward.You need a debit / credit card or PayPal account, a Google account, and a supported Google Pay device (an Android phone, a Wear OS watch, or a desktop / laptop computer). You can even use it with an iOS device. In this article, we’ll concentrate on how to use Google Pay with... Continue reading…

YouTube says it could take time for the change to roll out. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube says that it will start completely blocking YouTube channels funded by the Russian government, after it blocked channels like RT and Sputnik in Europe earlier this month. The company also announced that it would be removing content about the Russian invasion of Ukraine that denies, minimizes, or trivializes “well-documented violent events.”At time of writing, two American Verge staffers were still able to access livestreams from RT, a channel that YouTube’s interface notes is “funded in whole or in part by the Russian government.” According to a tweet from the YouTube Insider account, the change is supposed to be effective immediately, but the company says it expects its systems to take some time to roll it out.

Photo by: IMAGE POINT FR/NIH/NIAID/BSIP //Universal Images Group via Getty Images Image databases of skin conditions are notoriously biased towards lighter skin. Rather than wait for the slow process of collecting more images of conditions like cancer or inflammation on darker skin, one group wants to fill in the gaps using artificial intelligence. It’s working on an AI program to generate synthetic images of diseases on darker skin — and using those images for a tool that could help diagnose skin cancer.“Having real images of darker skin is the ultimate solution,” says Eman Rezk, a machine learning expert at McMaster University in Canada working on the project. “Until we have that data, we need to find a way to close the gap.”But other experts working in the field worry that using synthetic images could introduce... Continue reading…

Tiktok | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge TikTok is reportedly close to finalizing a deal with Oracle that would see the short-form video platform storing its US users’ data without providing access to Chinese parent company ByteDance. As first reported by Reuters, a dedicated team of engineers and cyber security workers would act as gatekeepers for US users’ data and would likely not be under TikTok’s supervision.According to a report by BuzzFeed News, the agreement is known internally at TikTok as “Project Texas,” a reference to Oracle’s Austin, Texas headquarters. The company will put in place new controls that restrict access to US user data, which it will later recreate in Europe, BuzzFeed reported. But BuzzFeed says it’s still undecided how much access Chinese managers... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Is it working? Continue reading…