The Verge

Image: Samsung We’re getting closer to seeing all the new TVs announced back at CES start making their way to consumers. Today, Samsung announced that it’s officially taking preorders for its sizable 2022 lineup. And for the first time, the company is sharing the full details and pricing on its long-rumored, semi-announced QD-OLED consumer TV, which is now officially called the S95B.The S95B is a 4K QD-OLED set that will come in two sizes: the 55-inch model runs $2,399.99, and the 65-inch model costs $3,499.99. (Amazon is already offering discounts on both sizes.) Those are significantly higher prices than you’d pay for a standard LG OLED, but Samsung Display’s QD-OLED panel should deliver superior color accuracy at high brightness levels, even... Continue reading…

Kaley Cuoco as Cassie Bowden in The Flight Attendant. | HBO Max Though Kaley Cuoco’s Cassie Bowden was still a mess by the end of The Flight Attendant’s first season when she’d become one of the top suspects in a high-profile murder, she had made a more than respectable amount of progress towards getting her life together on all fronts. In addition to helping find the real killer, Cassie also resolved to finally get sober after years of struggling with alcoholism, and it all seemed very much like things might be looking up for the well-meaning flight attendant.That may still be the case on some level, but in the first trailer for The Flight Attendant’s second season, Cassie once again finds herself smack dab in the middle of another convoluted set of circumstances despite all the work she’s put into... Continue reading…

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge Google is releasing the second Android 13 developer preview on Thursday, and it includes a major new feature: apps will have to ask your permission to post notifications. iOS has had a similar feature for years, and it’s a very useful way to make sure only certain apps send you notifications. I’m glad to see that Google plans to bring something like it to Android.Based on Google’s blog post, it sounds as if asking for permission will be a requirement for Android 13 apps. “Apps targeting Android 13 will now need to request the notification permission from the user before posting notifications,” Dave Burke, a VP of engineering for Android, says in the post. Image: Google Google’s example of what a notification... Continue reading…

Tile has announced that it’s rolling out its new “Scan & Secure” feature in its app this week, allowing anyone with the Tile app to run a scan to see if there are any unwanted Tile tags or trackers near you that shouldn’t be there.The safety feature (which was announced last fall alongside Tile’s newest tracking tags) has been a long time coming and offers both iOS and Android users the ability to check for unwanted tags. Apple offers a similar app for Android, which lets users scan for similarly malicious AirTag trackers, too.All trackers — whether they be Tile tag, Apple AirTags, or from another company — carry the potential for abuse by stalkers, and while these devices have been around for years, the recent surge in popularity h... Continue reading…

Image: Apple When Apple introduced the M1 Ultra — the company’s most powerful in-house processor yet and the crown jewel of its brand new Mac Studio — it did so with charts boasting that the Ultra capable of beating out Intel’s best processor or Nvidia’s RTX 3090 GPU all on its own. The charts, in Apple’s recent fashion, were maddeningly labeled with “relative performance” on the Y-axis, and Apple doesn’t tell us what specific tests it runs to arrive at whatever numbers it uses to then calculate “relative performance.”But now that we have a Mac Studio, we can say that in most tests, the M1 Ultra isn’t actually faster than an RTX 3090, as much as Apple would like to say it is.To hear Apple tell it, the M1 Ultra is a miracle of silicon, one that... Continue reading…

Anker’s impressive Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro earbuds, which illuminate when placed into the charging case, are on sale for just $129.99 today. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge This St. Patrick’s Day, you’re certainly in luck — that is, if you’re on the market for an affordable pair of noise-canceling earbuds. That’s because Anker is currently selling the excellent Soundcore Liberty 3 Pro for $129.99 on Amazon today, which is a $40 discount and the best price we’ve seen on the true wireless earbuds this year. These platform-agnostic earbuds deliver a lot of features and value for the price. We were impressed by their powerful sound quality as well as the fact they support LDAC (Sony’s higher-bitrate wireless streaming protocol) and multipoint Bluetooth, which allows you to connect them to two devices at once. That’s a feature not even Sony’s flagship 1000XM4 earbuds, which is our top pick for best... Continue reading…

Smokey the cat is his full glory on the Echo Show 15’s large display. | Photo by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge As screens proliferate in our homes, it’s nice to put them to good use outside of when you’re using them. Just like your computer has a screensaver, your Echo Show smart display can be set to show pretty pictures when it’s not on active duty serving up YouTube recipes or streaming your favorite tunes and TV shows. In fact, all the smart displays in the Echo Show line double as more-than-capable digital photo frames.The current Echo Show range includes the Echo Show 5, Echo Show 8, Echo Show 10, and the newest picture-perfect addition, the Echo Show 15, The simplest way to use one of these devices as a digital photo frame is to use Amazon’s Photos service, which has free unlimited storage of photos for Amazon Prime members. But there... Continue reading…

Image: Supermassive Games Supermassive Games, the studio behind interactive horror games like Until Dawn and The Dark Pictures Anthology, has announced its next foray into the genre: The Quarry.It’s described as a “teen-horror narrative game where your every choice, big or small, shapes your story and determines who lives to tell the tale.” Much like Until Dawn, the game appears to start from a very familiar place for horror fans, in this case a summer camp where players can control nine different counselors. It’ll also feature a multiplayer aspect: there’s a co-op mode where two players control different characters, and a mode for up to seven players where everyone can vote on the choices made. Image: Supermassive Games Until Dawn made a... Continue reading…

The rocket is headed to the launch pad with a lot of baggage Continue reading…

Bandai Namco The latest Elden Ring patch nerfs two extremely popular abilities, adds some sorely needed quality of life updates, and provides a significant buff to caster builds. Late last night, Bandai Namco announced patch 1.03 for Elden Ring. The patch fixes several bugs including one that prevented players from obtaining items after a boss kill. The developers have also seemingly heard the many complaints about the game’s lack of quest tracking, and while they didn’t add a quest log, they did make it easier for players to find the appropriate NPCs.

The Maserati GranTurismo will be the Italian automaker’s first electric vehicle. | Maserati Italian luxury automaker Maserati announced an all-electric range of vehicles called Folgore, including a next-generation GranTurismo sports coupe, an electric version of the best-selling Levante, the all-new Grecale SUV, and several other luxury sports cars and convertibles. The company said it would offer electric versions of all of its models by 2025 and shift to EV-only sales by 2030.In a press conference with reporters, Maserati CEO Davide Grasso said that the automaker will also aim to completely phase-out sales of its internal-combustion engine vehicles by 2030 — though that will depend on individual markets and customer demands.“That’s the landing spot,” Grasso said of the target date of 2030. “It will affect different parts... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The UK has outlined new legislation that could see top managers at tech companies sent to jail if they fail to meet the demands of regulators. The rules are part of the government’s mammoth Online Safety Bill, a new draft of which was introduced to Parliament today — a major milestone to the bill becoming law.Tech execs could be jailed if they fail to respond to requests for information from newly-empowered regulator Ofcom “in an accurate and timely manner,” according to the bill. The latest draft stipulates that senior managers will be liable for criminal prosecution just two months after the bill becomes law (instead of two years, as previously outlined).New offenses have also been added, including suppressing, destroying, or... Continue reading…

It may be best known for its regular bundles of games and other entertainment, but Humble Games is also an indie publishing label. And today the company detailed its upcoming slate of games which includes everything from a sequel to the classic heist game Monaco to a roleplaying musical called Stray Gods.We don’t know much about Monaco 2 — it doesn’t have a release date yet — but it is once again being developed by Pocketwatch Games, and is described as a game that “will test players’ skills in brain-bending 3D environments, procedurally generated by an AI mastermind designed to concoct high-stakes challenges and infinite sneaky, stealy fun.”Stray Gods, meanwhile, was previously known under the name Chorus, and is being developed by... Continue reading…

T-Mobile and BMW are partnering to debut the first 5G-connected cars available in the United States: as of today, the new 2022 BMW iX and i4 models now work with the company’s 5G network, essentially allowing owners to use their cars as a gigantic Wi-Fi hotspot.Adding a BMW to your T-Mobile plan will tack on $20 a month and will allow your car to get unlimited data and voice calls — even if you don’t happen to have a phone with you. (SMS, however, is not included.) In addition to unlimited data in the US, subscribers also will get 200MB of roaming data, should you be driving somewhere where T-Mobile’s network doesn’t reach, along with 5GB of 4G data per month in Canada and Mexico (once that 5GB allotment is used up, you’ll still get... Continue reading…

Margrethe Vestager | Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge The European Commission’s competition watchdog is thinking bigger than lawsuits Continue reading…

Not much has changed on the outside, but there are a couple important tweaks under the hood. | Image: Samsung Last spring, Samsung announced a trio of Galaxy A-series phones that were all destined for US retailers’ shelves. This year, it’s promising just one new model for US customers: the Galaxy A53 5G. It offers some modest upgrades, which is fine because the A52 5G was a really good phone. But its best new feature is a $50 lower price tag, which at $449 for 128GB of storage, puts it juuuuust under Apple’s $479 iPhone SE with 128GB. Maybe that’s a coincidence! Probably not!The A53 5G’s most notable hardware change is the switch to Samsung’s new Exynos 1280 5nm processor. The version of the A52 5G sold in the US included a Qualcomm processor, so using the house-brand chip represents a shift in strategy, maybe to accommodate a lower price... Continue reading…

The Matter standard promises to unify the smart home. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Matter, the new smart home interoperability standard being developed by Google, Apple, Amazon, Samsung, and others, has been delayed. Again. Expected this summer, the launch has been rescheduled for fall of 2022, Michelle Mindala-Freeman of the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) which oversees Matter, told The Verge.The delay is needed to finalize the software development kit (SDK) device manufacturers will use to incorporate their products into the Matter ecosystem. According to Mindala-Freeman, because of a larger than expected number of platforms adopting Matter, the code for the SDK needs more work to ensure everything will operate together smoothly – which is the overall promise of the Matter standard.Additionally, she says... Continue reading…

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge When Russia invaded Ukraine, Niki Proshin was already a year into making a living as a vlogger — he had a YouTube channel, a TikTok channel, and an Instagram. He also ran an online Russian club for anyone who wanted to learn the language. His website, like his videos, is in English.Instagram no longer functions in Russia. Google has stopped selling ads in Russia. It is no longer possible to subscribe to his Russian club via PayPal, which has suspended its services in Russia. Patreon, his other payment option for the Russian club, “kind of works,” but because many Russian banks have been kicked out of SWIFT, he can’t withdraw his money.“With everything going on in the world, you can officially call me hairy and bankrupt.”“It is quite... Continue reading…

MIT’s Mini Cheetah robot takes off running. | Image: MIT Quadrupedal robots are becoming a familiar sight, but engineers are still working out the full capabilities of these machines. Now, a group of researchers from MIT says one way to improve their functionality might be to use AI to help teach the bots how to walk and run.Usually, when engineers are creating the software that controls the movement of legged robots, they write a set of rules about how the machine should respond to certain inputs. So, if a robot’s sensors detect x amount of force on leg y, it will respond by powering up motor a to exert torque b, and so on. Coding these parameters is complicated and time-consuming, but it gives researchers precise and predictable control over the robots.AI uses trial and error to develop... Continue reading…

Lego has debuted a new Back to the Future DeLorean set, recreating the time-traveling car from the film series with its most accurate brick model yet — one that, unlike the original 2013 version, actually looks like the iconic vehicle.The $169 set has 1,856 pieces (compared to the 401 pieces in the original model) and is considerably bigger and more detailed in virtually every way. There’s functional gull-wing doors, a far less blocky hood, a brand-new windshield piece that Lego created specifically for the new set to match the real car, and a light-up flux capacitor (especially notable given the rarity of light-up pieces on Lego’s modern sets). Image: Lego The DeLorean set can be built in Back to the Future, B... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge Valve’s Steam Deck has a lot of cool tricks up its sleeves — but one of them wasn’t exclusive to the gaming handheld PC for long. You know how the Steam Deck can turn on FidelityFX Super Resolution upscaling for any game of your choice, no need for the game’s developers to formally offer support? As promised, AMD just brought that same driver-level version of the framerate-boosting tech to every Radeon RX 5000-series or newer graphics card as “Radeon Super Resolution.” Image: AMD Today, you’ll be able to download the new AMD Adrenalin drivers, turn on the in-game overlay with Alt + R, and lower your game’s render resolution to theoretically get a big framerate boost in most games — at the expense of some quality, of... Continue reading…

This computer is a historic achievement Continue reading…

From your wallpaper to the functions in your control center, you’ve got lots of options to make your iPhone lock screen feel more you. | Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge Compared to Android, iOS has historically been the less customizable, more you-get-what-you-get operating system. While that remains true to an extent, it has come a long way, with customization options that didn’t exist three or four years ago. For example, these days, you can do a lot more with your lock screen than you might realize.Here’s how to customize what you see — and how it looks — on your iPhone lock screen. (This was tested on an iPhone running iOS 15.3.)First: the basics. Your lock screen shows the time, date, and current notifications on the default view. We all know and love it.Other features can be accessed on the lock screen if they’re enabled in settings. To choose which features appear, go to Settings > Face ID... Continue reading…

A software update for iRobot’s line of vacuuming and mopping robots is coming this spring. | Image: iRobot Roomba robot vacuums have worked with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa voice commands for a while, and now Apple’s Siri is getting in on the party. Today, iRobot announced native Siri Shortcut integration for its line of vacuums and mops, joining Roborock as one of only a handful of smart vacuum manufacturers to work with Apple’s voice assistant.The update is part of iRobot’s version 4.0 of its iRobot Genius Home Intelligence software, which was described by CEO Colin Angle at its launch in 2020 as “a lobotomy and replacement of the intelligence systems in all of our robots.”The rollout of Genius 4.0 includes about a half dozen new features for the company’s connected Roomba robot vacuums and Braava Jet robot mops. In addition to... Continue reading…

The hopes and fears driving an online movement to help Ukrainian researchers Continue reading…

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge, Icons by Shutterstock Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed into law a bill that effectively legalizes the cryptocurrency sector in the country. The decision comes as Ukraine has received cryptocurrency donations worth tens of millions of dollars from individuals and groups hoping to help the country’s war effort against Russia.The bill signed by Zelenskyy was approved by Ukraine’s parliament last month and “creates conditions for the launch of a legal market for virtual assets in Ukraine.” It allows Ukrainian banks to open accounts for crypto firms; appoints the National Bank of Ukraine and the National Commission on Securities and Stock Market as financial watchdogs for the sector; and, as reported by CoinTelegraph, means crypto exchanges and... Continue reading…

Season five of Formula 1: Drive to Survive could potentially include scenes of McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown smashing a Chromebook or Android tablet, Tom Brady-style, thanks to a new arrangement between the team and Google.In 2020, McLaren exited its deal with OnePlus that produced several powerfully-specced black and orange Android phones, but there’s no indication of a similar branding exercise coming to the Pixel series anytime soon.Instead, the new “multi-year” agreement between Google and McLaren is putting branding on the MCL36 driven by Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo (who is now available to drive in this weekend’s season-opening Bahrain GP after multiple negative tests following a case of COVID-19), their race suits and... Continue reading…

Image: NASA New images from the James Webb Space Telescope show the latest big milestone for the space observatory: its 18 mirrors are now aligned enough to act as one massive mirror. The new images released by NASA today include a “selfie” from JWST showing the mirrors’ progress along with updated images of a single star.Since reaching its final orbit, the telescope’s combined 18 mirrors have been focused on the isolated star HD 84406, which the researchers are using as a target to align the mirrors. Images presented last month showed 18 images of the star that were captured individually on each mirror segment. NASA’s latest image of HD 84406 shows what it looks like when all 18 mirrors work together with the Near-Infrared Camera or NIRCam. They... Continue reading…

The ApeCoin logo. | Image: ApeCoin DAO Yuga Labs took its next step toward trying to build a broader media empire around the Bored Ape Yacht Club non-fungible token (NFT) series today with the announcement of a cryptocurrency called ApeCoin that will be the “primary token for all new products and services” from the company. That includes a newly announced play-to-earn blockchain game that the company plans to release later this year in partnership with the developer nWay.ApeCoin’s initial use will be as in-game currency, but it’s being pitched as something that can be used beyond the confines of Yuga Labs’ titles. Starting tomorrow, it’ll be supported in Benji Bananas, a game from Animoca Brands, which also owns nWay. And the hope seems to be that it could be adopted in even... Continue reading…

Photo by Fabian Sommer/picture alliance via Getty Images The Google Home app is getting a fresh design that should make it a lot more intuitive, according to a report from 9to5Google. The upcoming 2.49 update will let you interact with your devices from a single screen, resembling the device control panel on phones with Android 11 and up.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The latest Android Auto update adds a diagnostic feature that checks if your USB cable or port isn’t working as expected, as shown by former XDA Developers editor-in-chief Mishaal Rahman on Twitter. If your phone isn’t connecting to your car, the diagnostic tool might be able to help pinpoint if the USB connection is where the issue lies.In images shown by Rahman, the tool, seemingly called “USB Startup Diagnostics,” will check if a USB cable connects and checks the cable quality. On a support page, Google recommends using connecting to your car with the cable that came with your phone or one that’s less than three feet long and doesn’t “use USB hubs or cable extensions.”

Audi Audi unveiled its latest concept car, the A6 Avant E-tron, a luxury executive car that appears to be relatively close to production-ready.Audi surprised us last year with a concept version of an all-electric A6 sedan, which will be built on a new EV platform the company is co-developing with sister company Porsche. The two Volkswagen group companies are calling the new EV architecture Premium Platform Electric, or PPE. They first started talking about it a few years ago, and it’s slated to power the larger vehicles in Audi’s and Porsche’s forthcoming electric stables.It’s also at least Audi’s fourth distinct platform for its EVsIt’s also at least Audi’s fourth distinct platform for its EVs. Audi adapted one of its internal... Continue reading…

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Google’s big annual developer conference, Google I/O, will take place May 11th and 12th, the company announced Wednesday. The event will once again be fully online, though it sounds like at least some of the conference will be streamed live from the Shoreline Amphitheatre, a frequent Google I/O venue.“This year’s event will be broadcast in front of a limited live audience, and is completely free and open to everyone virtually,” Google spokesperson Alex Garcia-Kummert said in a statement to The Verge. That limited audience will be comprised primarily of Google employees and some partners, according to a Google statement shared with Axios’ Ina Fried.Registration will be free and will begin sometime this month, according to an FAQ. There... Continue reading…

Steam was briefly mentioned during a developer keynote. | Image: Google Google announced that some ChromeOS users would finally be able to start testing Steam during its Google for Games Developer Summit but later revised that message to say that the alpha would be “coming soon.”During the keynote, Google’s product director for games, Greg Hartell, announced that “the Steam alpha just launched” for select Chromebooks and pointed viewers to the Chromebook Community Forum for more information. At the time, the promised post didn’t seem to be there yet, but it was later added with a slightly revised message:

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On Wednesday, Facebook’s parent company, Meta, removed a deepfake video of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issuing a statement that he never made, asking Ukrainians to “lay down arms.”The deepfake appears to have been first broadcasted on a Ukrainian news website for TV24 after an alleged hack, as first reported by Sky News on Wednesday. The video shows an edited Zelenskyy speaking behind a podium declaring that Ukraine has “decided to return Donbas” to Russia and that his nation’s war efforts had failed.In the video, Zelenskyy’s head is comically larger than in real life and is more pixelated than his surrounding body. The fake voice is much deeper than his real voice as well.

Coinbase Pay is available through the Coinbase Wallet Google Chrome extension. | Photo by Fabian Sommer/picture alliance via Getty Images Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is introducing a new tool, called Coinbase Pay, that’s supposed to simplify the process of loading cryptocurrencies into your wallet.As outlined on Coinbase’s site, you can access Coinbase Pay through the Coinbase Wallet extension for Google Chrome. You’ll have to connect your wallet to your Coinbase account if it’s your first time using the extension. Once you’ve done that, you can add funds by selecting the “Add crypto with Coinbase Pay” button. From there, you can select the currency you want to add to your wallet, enter the amount, finalize the transaction, and your funds will be available. Image by Coinbase You can use Coinbase Pay to purchase and transfer crypto directly to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Lyft plans to add a temporary fuel surcharge to fares amid rising fuel prices around the country, the company confirmed to The Verge on Monday. Gas prices have spiked recently in part due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.“We’ve been closely monitoring rising gas prices and their impact on our driver community,” Lyft spokesperson CJ Macklin said in a statement. “Driver earnings overall remain elevated compared to last year, but given the rapid rise in gas prices we’ll be asking riders to pay a temporary fuel surcharge, all of which will go to drivers.”The surcharge will go into effect next week, the company said in a blog published Wednesday. Lyft will add $0.55 to each ride, which could be in part an incentive to coax drivers to use its... Continue reading…

ID@Xbox, the Xbox indie game showcase, unveiled a host of new titles hitting the console and Game Pass. Over 20 games were presented during the event, which included live developer interviews, an appearance from T-Pain, and more. Watch the two-hour event (you heard me) here or check out the highlights below. Immortality, new game from Telling Lies and Her Story developer, Sam Barlow. Half Mermaid Productions, developers of the intriguing and unique Telling Lies and Her Story is back with another live-action mystery game, Immortality. Like Telling Lies and Her Story, Immortality is a game composed of full-motion videos and films that the player will sift through to solve the disappearance of a famous actress. I... Continue reading…

Image: The Verge AMC threw both its analysts and memestock shareholders for a loop this week after the company announced it was acquiring a 22 percent stake in a mining company. Not a crypto mining company — a company that mines actual silver and gold. It’s a baffling investment for a movie theater chain, enough so that one analyst we spoke to called it a “complete misuse of shareholder capital.”To acquire a minority stake in Hycroft Mining Holding Corporation, AMC is spending close to $28 million, a not-insignificant chunk of change for a company that not so long ago was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Hycroft, owner of the 71,000-acre Hycroft Mine in Nevada, is sitting on “some 15 million ounces of gold deposits and some 600 million ounces of... Continue reading…

The Winamp 1.0 skin | Winamp Winamp will sell a non-fungible token (NFT) linked to its media player’s original 1997 graphical skin, becoming the latest company to blend nostalgia and crypto. Winamp will put the NFT up for auction through OpenSea between May 16th and May 22nd, followed by a separate sale of 1997 total NFTs based on 20 artworks derived from the original skin. The proceeds will go to the Winamp Foundation, which promises to donate them to charity projects, starting with the Belgian nonprofit Music Fund.The NFT sale appears to be a combination of a publicity move and a fundraising effort. Winamp is sourcing the derivative art NFTs by asking artists to submit Winamp-based works between now and April 15th, then giving selected artists 20 percent of the... Continue reading…

Around 60 workers banded together to demand a $3 raise. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Early Wednesday morning, Amazon workers staged a walkout in two states, quitting work and even shutting off a machine to demand a $3 raise. The workers also demanded that Amazon bring back 20-minute breaks — a “perk” introduced during COVID that the company has since replaced with 15-minute breaks, according to Vice. The actions are part of a wave of labor activism at Amazon as more employees band together to demand better working conditions, compensation, and representation.The roughly 60 workers were employees at three different warehouses in New York and Maryland, working the night shifts. The walkout was organized by Amazonians United, a group that includes workers from at least nine warehouses nationwide, according to Vice. In... Continue reading…

Image: Rockstar Games With this week’s launch of the next-gen versions of GTA Online for the Xbox Series X and PS5, Rockstar has made it easier and faster to jumpstart your life of crime in the best-looking and best-playing version of its online open-world mode. All of the same graphical and quality-of-life changes that recently arrived in GTA V, which my colleague Andrew Webster reported on here, can also be found in GTA Online.Whether you’re a new player, or you’re migrating a character from a previous console, one of my favorite improvements is that it’s easier to be funneled into the kind of content you want to play. From the main menu, you can enter heists, free mode (where you can just roam about with no immediate objective), or be directed to new... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In 2018, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) was alarmed when Facebook notified the commission, between June and December, of 12 separate data breaches that affected up to 30 million users, TechCrunch reports. The DPC began to investigate and now Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has been fined 17 million euros ($18.6 million USD).The DPC concluded from its investigation into the breaches that Meta violated Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). According to its press release, the DPC identified 12 data breach notifications that occurred between June and December 2018. “As a result of its inquiry, the DPC found that Meta Platforms failed to have in place appropriate technical and organisational measures which would... Continue reading…

Image: Getty Russian oligarchs have been looking for ways to park their money outside Vladimir Putin’s control for a long time, and the tackiest method available to them is the megayacht — so obviously, there are a lot of them. It is remarkably satisfying to see the yachts get seized.An expensive toy for worthless people, the megayacht is the epitome of conspicuous consumption. For instance, the Amore Vero, linked to Rosneft CEO Igor “Darth Vader” Sechin, has a swimming pool that converts to a helicopter platform. This boat exists only to please Sechin and impress his guests; it has a similar relationship to regular boats as handmade silk toilet paper does to Charmin.Here is a short and delightful list of megayacht action:

South Korean workers observe collapsed container cranes after Typhoon Maemi pounded the southern port city of Busan on September 13, 2003 in Busan, about 450km (281 miles) southeast of Seoul, South Korea. | Photo by Getty Images Ports around the world stand to suffer billions of dollars in losses if greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow, a new report finds. Extreme weather, flooding, and rising sea levels would all damage vital seaport infrastructure, disrupting global supply lines.Losses from storms and climate-related port disruptions could near $10 billion a year by 2050, according to the report, commissioned by the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). By 2100, without action on climate change, those costs could balloon to more than $25 billion a year. For context, that last figure is more than the total operating profits for the entire global container shipping industry in a year.Many ports are already overwhelmed after the COVID-19 pandemic... Continue reading…

Image: Hulu In the week ahead of former Theranos COO Sunny Balwani’s fraud trial, which was set to begin today before being postponed due to a juror being exposed to someone with COVID, the Santa Clara County Superior Court was hard at work screening potential jurors from the pool of local citizens.This is a typical part of court cases meant to ensure that a jury’s makeup is representative of the larger community. But the process is a bit trickier with high-profile cases like those of Balwani and Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, given the potential for jurors’ opinions to be influenced by information from outside of the trial; things like, say, a flashy 8-episode streaming miniseries based on a podcast by the same name.While the amount of... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge People have vast, spiraling experiences on psychedelic drugs, often returning from a hallucinogenic trip full of new outlooks on their life or even changes to their personality. They describe the trips with vivid, emotional language — which might be able to tell researchers what parts of their brains are reacting to the drugs.In order to figure out how and why hallucinogenics trigger certain experiences, a research team used machine learning to pull common words and phrases out of people’s testimonials about their trips. Then, in a new study published Wednesday, the researchers linked those words to the parts of the brain impacted by the drugs.It’s a different approach to studying drugs and the brain: normally, researchers looking to... Continue reading…