The Verge

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple is censoring words and phrases customers can engrave on products in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, according to a new report by the Brussels-based CitizenLab. The iPhone-maker has always said it filters engraving requests to avoid racist language, vulgarities, or intellectual property violations, but CitizenLab says the company’s restrictions of political references in Hong Kong and Taiwan particularly go above and beyond legal requirements.“We found that part of Apple’s mainland China political censorship bleeds into both Hong Kong and Taiwan,” write the report’s authors. “Much of this censorship exceeds Apple’s legal obligations in Hong Kong, and we are aware of no legal justification for the political censorship of content in... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge You’ll likely be able to verify yourself twice on Tinder before you can do it once anywhere else Continue reading…

Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3080 GPU. | Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Nvidia warned earlier this year that the great GPU shortage would last throughout 2021, and now the company expects supply issues to continue well into 2022. Speaking on Nvidia’s Q2 fiscal 2022 earnings call this week, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said he expects supply constraints for the majority of next year.“I would expect that we will see a supply-constrained environment for the vast majority of next year is my guess at the moment,” said Huang according to a transcript of the call, spotted by Videocardz. Nvidia has committed to securing long-term supply commitments, but demand is still higher than supply right now during a global chip shortage.Nvidia’s warnings of a GPU shortage well into 2022 might not seem as bad as they sound,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has admitted for the first time that the company’s planned acquisition of British chip designer Arm may take longer than the initially-scheduled 18 months. The acquisition, which would bring together two of the most powerful chip companies in the world, is facing scrutiny from regulators in the US, UK, and China.“Our discussions with regulators are taking longer than initially thought, so it’s pushing out the timetable,” Huang told The Financial Times. “It’s not one particular delay,” he added. “But we’re confident in the deal, we’re confident regulators should recognize the benefits of the acquisition.”“Our discussions with regulators are taking longer than initially thought”Huang was previously unwavering... Continue reading…

The Jabra Enhance Plus. | Image: Jabra Jabra’s Enhance Plus are a new pair of true wireless earbuds aimed at helping people who experience “mild-to-moderate” hearing loss. They’re meant as a half-step towards a more traditional hearing aid solution, for people who might not be ready to wear a device all day. The Enhance Plus will be released first in the US at the end of the year, and will be sold through licensed hearing care professionals at a price that’s yet to be announced.Although Jabra is perhaps best known for its true wireless earbuds like the Elite 85T, its parent company GN Group has a long history in the hearing aid business. Now Jabra is also getting involved. It announced a new hearing aid lineup in June, and last year it added a hearing test feature to its... Continue reading…

Oppo has held a “Future Imaging Technology Launch Event” online today to make some camera-related announcements, following the reveal of its “next-generation” under-display selfie camera earlier this month.Oppo is known for demonstrating camera tech in prototype form long before it hits the market. The company was the first to demonstrate periscope telephoto cameras and under-display cameras, for example, both of which are increasingly common on high-end devices. The first new announcement is a telephoto lens with continuous optical zoom. Unlike periscope telephoto lenses used today, the lens elements move throughout the 85-200mm-equivalent zoom range meaning that the images should be crisp at every focal length without... Continue reading…

Half a decade ago, dronemaker DJI realized its miniature aerial steadicams might be handy to carry around on foot — but it’s not the only company monopolizing on the shrinking tech. Rival FeiyuTech now has a DJI Pocket competitor that ups the ante by letting you detach the entire motorized gimbal, so you can stick a lightweight self-balancing camera to your car, helmet, wrist, or any magnetic surface up to three feet away.It’s called the FeiyuTech Pocket 2S, and it’s on crowdfunding site Indiegogo right now for $399, or a little less if you take advantage of its early bird discounts.According to the company, the camera shoots up to 4K footage at 60 fps with a Sony IMX 317 sensor, and can do up to 3 hours of continuous recording at... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Netflix is beginning to roll out support for Apple’s spatial audio feature on iPhone and iPad, the streaming giant said to 9to5Mac on Wednesday. A Netflix spokesperson confirmed the rollout to The Verge, saying that the rollout begins Wednesday and that users should expect to see it over the next few days. You may have it already — some users on Reddit are reporting that it’s working for them.Apple’s spatial audio, which you can only take advantage of with the AirPods Pro and AirPods Max on an iPhone or iPad, is designed to make you feel more immersed in what you’re listening to with an impressive surround sound effect. If you want to give spatial audio a shot and don’t have it on Netflix yet, you can try it out on other services like... Continue reading…

The new Paint design in Windows 11. Microsoft is redesigning its Paint app in Windows 11. The app will be updated with a new command bar that borrows most of the same options and tools as what exists in the ribbon interface for Paint on Windows 10. It’s the first major update to Paint in years, and it even includes a dark mode.Microsoft’s head of Windows and devices, Panos Panay, teased the new Paint redesign on Twitter today. The teaser video includes a brief look at improvements to the font picker, brushes, and a dark mode for Paint. The tools look a lot more usable now, with a quick picker that shows all the different brushes and their effects. Microsoft’s font tool for Paint also floats now, with options for size, alignment, and more.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook announced plans to delay employees’ return to the office until 2022 earlier in August, but CNBC writes that some Facebook contractors employed by Accenture have been working in person since a week before. This might not be a surprise as The Verge previously reported that some of Accenture’s contractors in Texas were instructed to return to office work as early as October 2020.A Facebook spokesperson tells The Verge that the 2022 return to office plan applies to a majority of all full-time and contingent office employees in the US, regardless of if they’re employed by Facebook or a contracting firm:

Can you spot the Alan Walker logo? If there’s one company I trust to do a good job with utterly ridiculous computer ideas, it’s Asus. Last fall, the company worked with cyberpunky fashion designer Acronym to make possibly the weirdest-looking gaming laptop I’ve ever seen (the ZPHYRS G14 ACRNM). This year, it’s partnered with popular DJ Alan Walker to create a less avant-garde, more musical version of the same device. This is the Zephyrus G14 Alan Walker Edition, a laptop for gamers, DJs, and (ideally) gamer DJs.The insides of this laptop are nothing ROG fans haven’t seen before. There’s only one configuration, selling for $1,999.99, which includes an AMD Ryzen 5900HS processor and a low-end GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics card, as well as a QHD 120Hz screen, 16GB of RAM,... Continue reading…

Blizzard With one more tournament and the playoffs to go, here’s an overview of the league’s fourth season Continue reading…

Photo by John Lamparski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images T-Mobile has released more information about its most recent data breach, and while the company’s findings fall short of the reported 100 million records, the numbers are staggering.While saying its investigation is still ongoing, the company confirmed that records of over 40 million “former or prospective customers” who had previously applied for credit and 7.8 million postpaid customers (those who currently have a contract) were stolen. In its last earnings report (PDF), T-Mobile said it had over 104 million customers.The data in the stolen files contained critical personal information included first and last names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and driver’s license / ID numbers — the kind of information you could use to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook has released a report to show what content was most widely viewed by Americans in the last quarter, and the list includes a post from President Biden, a video from 5-Minute Crafts, and arguments about whether you should put sugar on spaghetti. Facebook’s report comes as a response to frequent reports that some of the platform’s posts with the most interaction are from right-wing sources that critics say could have a radicalizing effect on users. Facebook says that the report shows what people actually see on the platform, as opposed to what content on Facebook gets the most interaction, and that it’ll be creating these reports on a quarterly basis in the future. However, the picture the report paints is, by Facebook’s own... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter is updating its API v2 so that developers can look up its Spaces social audio rooms, the company announced Wednesday, which could allow them to share information about Spaces more easily outside the Twitter app.Twitter has been rapidly improving Spaces, but before now, you could only see them on Twitter’s own apps. But starting Wednesday, “all developers using the new Twitter API v2 will be able to look up live or scheduled Spaces using criteria like Spaces ID, user ID, or keyword,” Twitter says, which sounds like it means that a developer can use that information to point you to a Space from within their own app.You can still only attend a Space on Twitter, thoughThis doesn’t appear to mean that developers will be able to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Last week, the Senate approved a massive infrastructure package making serious investments in building out the US’s roads and bridges. It would be the largest domestic spending bill in almost a decade, and nearly every powerful lobbying shop circled Washington for months trying to shape its language.But one industry was surprisingly thrown into the fight last minute: cryptocurrency. When the Senate finally announced the bill text earlier this month, it included a provision that could impose devastating new tax requirements for wallet developers and miners. Suddenly, the cryptocurrency industry and its few lobbying shops faced one of its largest regulatory threats ever. They needed all of the digital foot soldiers they could get to help... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Senators Ed Markey (D-MA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) have asked new Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan to investigate Tesla’s marketing of its advanced driver assistance system, Autopilot. The Senators are particularly concerned with how Tesla has been charging customers thousands of dollars for what it refers to as “Full Self-Driving capability,” despite the fact that buying that package does not make the company’s cars fully autonomous.“Tesla’s marketing has repeatedly overstated the capabilities of its vehicles, and these statements increasingly pose a threat to motorists and other users of the road,” the senators wrote in a letter published Wednesday. “Accordingly, we urge you to open an investigation into potentially... Continue reading…

Photo by John Moore/Getty Images The US military created a vast database of biometric data — one report suggests it had a goal of 25 million entries — as part of its effort to track terrorists in Afghanistan. Now that the US has withdrawn from the country, reports from The Intercept and Reuters suggest the Taliban could potentially use it to target allies left behind.As The Intercept notes, the collection of biometric data was primarily billed as a military project, but Afghan civilians who worked for US embassies and the broader coalition government were reportedly also included in the database. The biometric information that could be on file for those people varies: the Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment (HIIDE) used by the military collects... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge It’s been almost a year since Apple first debuted the iPhone 12 lineup, and introduced its MagSafe accessory system. So where are all the MagSafe chargers?Don’t get me wrong. There are plenty of accessory developers making cases, wallets, car mounts, desk stands, and even magnetic Qi chargers and battery packs that work with MagSafe — but almost no actual MagSafe accessories.And that’s a big difference because of how Apple has designed the MagSafe standard. Anyone can wirelessly charge an iPhone 12 device using a Qi charger at Apple’s standard rate of 7.5W. Magnets, being a physical phenomenon, are even more universal, meaning that device manufacturers can easily stick an iPhone 12 and a Qi charger together. (Many already have.) ... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The memory machines that Apple, Facebook, and Google have built to remind us of our favorite moments can, like any algorithmic creation, serve up subpar output. Instead of evoking recollections of those times we felt like we were living our best lives, they can invoke the low points of our existence — a miserable job, a rotten commute, a bad breakup, or the death of a loved one.Apple Photos, Facebook, and Google Photos provide tools to manage what their “memories” features can push out to you. But these settings to control what pictures and posts get algorithmically bubbled up to your screen aren’t always easy to find — even, in some situations, after these apps have presented a gut-punch of a reminder.Here’s how to control, at least... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Waymo announced plans to build a hub for its autonomous semi-trailer trucks on a nine-acre site near Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. The Alphabet-owned company also said it is partnering with rental truck company Ryder on fleet management as it looks to grow the delivery and logistics portion of its business.The hub in South Dallas will be Waymo’s “primary operations center” in the state for its fleet of autonomous trucks. The hub will be built to accommodate “hundreds of trucks and personnel” as the company gets closer to launching a full-scale freight-hauling operation using its fully autonomous vehicles — though Waymo has yet to say exactly when that will be.“primary operations center”Currently, Waymo is testing the fifth generation of... Continue reading…

I’m not sure I could’ve solved the intricate mystery of Twelve Minutes on my own. The interactive thriller — which boasts a star-studded cast including James McAvoy, Daisy Ridley, and Willem Dafoe — forces players to relive the same short span of time repeatedly. Over that time you’ll die repeatedly at the hands of Dafoe, but during each loop you’ll also pick up some tiny new breadcrumb of information to help explain what’s happening. It can be frustrating, with fiddly controls and an ending that goes completely off the rails. But as a group experience, it’s a lot of fun; even though it’s technically a single-player game, I found myself sharing ideas and theories with my partner, and it was helpful having an extra pair of eyes to spot... Continue reading…

Bugs and design flaws Continue reading…

Pinterest’s new hair pattern search feature. | Image: Pinterest Pinterest is launching a search tool to help people narrow their hair inspiration searches by hair pattern. When users search for hairstyles, new filter options — for coily, curly, wavy, and straight textures, as well as shaved / bald and protective styles — will appear under the search bar.The filters should be particularly useful for people of color looking for styles tailored to their hair textures, and Pinterest says they were created with Black, brown, and Latinx people in mind. “Just the simple idea that I don’t have to work twice as hard to find a hairstyle because of my hair type is a game changer,” says Naeemah LaFond, an editorial hair stylist and global artistic director of the Amika hair care brand, who advised Pinterest... Continue reading…

In an aerial view. an empty water trough in the desert that has been recently visited by wild burros is seen on July 7, 2021 near Yucca, Arizona. Large portions of the West are now classified as being in exceptional drought, the most extreme drought category. | Photo by David McNew/Getty Images Major semiconductor manufacturers looking to expand in Arizona will likely be spared from water cuts induced by an unprecedented water shortage in the Southwest, at least for now. As part of the scramble to end a shortage of another kind — the global dearth in semiconductor chips — both Intel and TSMC plan to open new facilities in Arizona. But they’re setting up shop just as one of the worst droughts in decades grows worse across the Western US.Federal authorities officially declared a shortage on the Colorado River for the first time ever this week, which will trigger water cuts in several states and Mexico starting January 1st, 2022. The shortage is at the Hoover Dam’s Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the US and a huge source of... Continue reading…

Photo by Steve Pfost/Newsday RM via Getty Images Everyone in the United States who got a COVID-19 vaccine will need a booster shot to keep protection from fading, the Biden administration said today. Vaccinated Americans will be offered boosters eight months after their initial shots. Plans are that the first round will be offered in September and will go to nursing home residents, health care workers, and others vaccinated early.“Current protection against severe disease, hospitalization, and death could diminish in the months ahead, especially among those who are at higher risk or were vaccinated during the earlier phases of the vaccination rollout,” federal health officials said in a joint statement.The current proposal only includes the Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.... Continue reading…

Nintendo Nintendo announced a ton of new information for the hotly anticipated Pokémon Legends: Arceus during today’s Pokémon Presents showcase. In addition to covering a new battle system, new regional pokémon, and the new skills trainers will need to catch ‘em all, Nintendo also released a brand-new, beautiful trailer.Pokémon Legend: Arceus takes place in the Hisui region — a natural paradise filled with different ecosystems and stuffed all kinds of regional pokémon. Your goal is to help the Galaxy Expedition Team study and catalog the pokémon of the region by compiling the very first Pokédex.Nintendo offered a glimpse into Pokémon Legends: Arceus’ battle system, which combines classic pokémon gameplay with a couple of new twists. One new... Continue reading…

It’s Google’s new smartwatch OS, but it’s Samsung’s watch Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Researchers have produced a collision in iOS’s built-in hash function, raising new concerns about the integrity of Apple’s CSAM-scanning system. The flaw affects the hashing system, called NeuralHash, which allows Apple to check for exact matches of known child-abuse imagery without possessing any of the images or gleaning any information about non-matching pictures.On Tuesday, a GitHub user called Asuhariet Ygvar posted code for a reconstructed Python version of NeuralHash, which he claimed to have reverse-engineered from previous versions of iOS. The GitHub post also includes instructions on how to extract the NeuralMatch files from a current macOS or iOS build.“Early tests show that it can tolerate image resizing and compression,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Recruitment, robots, and really powerful supercomputers Continue reading…

Image: Nintendo Pokémon Unite, the five-versus-five MOBA game that released in July for the Nintendo Switch, will debut on iOS and Android devices on September 22nd. The Pokémon Company shared today during a livestream that you can pre-register for the mobile game now on your respective devices (iOS, Android). You’ll be notified when it’s officially available to download.Whether you play Pokémon Unite on mobile or a Nintendo Switch, the game will offer cross-platform play to broaden who you can play alongside or against. By linking your account on both the Switch version and the mobile game, you’ll be able to have cross-progression, which will allow you to play the game with your saved data and characters on whichever device is more convenient.

Microsoft’s upcoming release of Windows 11 will make it even harder to switch default browsers and ignores browser defaults in new areas of the operating system. While Microsoft is making many positive changes to the Windows 11 UI, the default apps experience is a step back and browser competitors like Mozilla, Opera, and Vivaldi are concerned.In Windows 11, Microsoft has changed the way you set default apps. Like Windows 10, there’s a prompt that appears when you install a new browser and open a web link for the first time. It’s the only opportunity to easily switch browsers, though. Unless you tick “always use this app,” the default will never be changed. It’s incredibly easy to forget to toggle the “always use this app” option, and... Continue reading…

The $1,199 Galaxy S21 Ultra, which showed ads in its default apps. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Samsung has confirmed that it will stop showing ads in default apps including Samsung Weather, Samsung Pay, and Samsung Theme. It follows comments made by its mobile chief TM Roh in an internal town hall meeting reported by Yonhap. “Samsung has made a decision to cease the advertisement on proprietary apps including Samsung Weather, Samsung Pay, and Samsung Theme,” the company said in a statement given to The Verge. “The update will be ready by later this year.”“Our priority is to deliver innovative mobile experiences for our consumers based on their needs and wants,” the company said. “We value feedback from our users and continue our commitment to provide them with the best possible experience from our Galaxy products and services.”“... Continue reading…

The ROG Phone 5S Pro has a small display on its rear. | Image: Asus When you’re selling high-spec gaming-focused phones, it makes sense to have the most powerful processor possible. At least, that’s the only explanation I can come up with for why Asus would announce its new Snapdragon 888 Plus-powered ROG Phone 5S lineup, just months after releasing the original ROG Phone 5.There are two new S-branded phones, the ROG Phone 5S and the ROG Phone 5S Pro. Aside from its 888 Plus processor, more responsive 360Hz touch-sampling rate, and increased maximums of 18GB RAM and 512GB of storage, the 5S appears to be a very similar device to the ROG Phone 5. That means it’s also got a 6.78-inch 144Hz display, 6,000 mAh battery, and triple rear cameras with a 64-megapixel main sensor.Both feature more responsive... Continue reading…

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge Google has started to push out the silent upgrade to its new Fuchsia operating system on first-gen Nest Hub devices (known as the Google Home Hub on release), meaning the secretive project will be broadly used by consumers after years of opaque development. The OS, which unlike Android isn’t based on Linux and uses a microkernel called Zircon, was previously made available to some devices enrolled in a preview program back in May.Now, Google has confirmed to 9to5Google that a new firmware update for non-preview Nest Hub devices includes the Fuchsia upgrade, meaning that all first-gen devices should be running Fuschia already or very soon. I just checked the one on my desk — which Google explains how to do here — and sure enough, turns... Continue reading…

Intel’s RealSense computer vision tech will soon be going away, as the company is “winding down” the business, according to CRN. If you don’t remember the tech from January of this year, where Intel pitched it as a way to create facial recognition systems, you may remember it from some incredible tech demos (or possibly a few devices, if you were really paying attention).Now that the tech is on its way out, perhaps it’s a good time to look back at some of the cool ways we’ve seen it shown off to remember the good times.

Roku users who’ve been unable to get Charter’s Spectrum TV app through the platform’s channels store can once again do so after months of being unable to download it.Roku announced on its blog today that new and existing users can access Spectrum TV on its devices by signing into the app using their Charter broadband credentials or by signing up for an account through Roku. The agreement resolves an ongoing carriage dispute that resulted in Roku pulling the Spectrum TV app from its store in December. The companies issued a joint statement on Tuesday that both had come to “a mutually beneficial agreement to renew distribution of the Spectrum TV App.”“As a result of the renewal, the Spectrum TV App is now available for download from the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Update August 17th, 6:04PM ET: Sony appears to have sold out of PS5 consoles for the day. We’ll make sure to let you know when the next opportunity comes up.Sony began releasing a fresh batch of PlayStation 5 consoles through its online storefront today at 5:15PM ET / 2:15PM PT. Both the $499.99 version of the PS5 that can accept discs and the discless version that costs $100 less are currently available for order, however, there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to purchase one if you make it through the public queue, which can take an upwards of an hour.If you’re unfamiliar with Sony’s ordering process, it uses a slightly better queuing system that automatically places you in line if you’re on its site when the sale goes live. Consoles... Continue reading…

Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge For the first time in many years, August will come and go without the introduction of a new Galaxy Note smartphone from Samsung. Instead, with their lower prices and improved durability, the company is giving its latest foldables — the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 — a firm push into the mainstream phone market. With the Z Flip selling for a penny under $1,000, it’s certain to stand out from the iPhone and Samsung’s own Galaxy S21 devices that cost a similar amount (or more).But for repeat buyers of Notes past and present, it does feel like there’s something missing. We’re talking about the brand that established Samsung as the leading manufacturer of huge phones. Yet the company has completely skipped producing a new Note this... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Google is offering a new promotion to YouTube Premium subscribers — three free months to try the games included in Stadia Pro, as long as you’re a new subscriber (via 9to5Google). While there’s a chance someone willing to pay to remove ads from YouTube may have already messed around with Stadia, three months is a solid amount of time to see if cloud gaming makes sense for you, and it’s two months longer than Stadia’s usual free trial.The deal comes with a few caveats, naturally. Besides limiting the free months to new subscribers, Google is also only offering the promotion in the following countries: the US, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. You... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge For over a year, Anti-Defamation League researcher Daniel Kelley has been finding re-creations of a horrific mass shooting on Roblox — and every time he looks, he says he finds more. Kelley told The Verge it’s happened three times: first in January 2020, then again in May 2021. The most recent incident came on August 13th, as he was preparing a presentation on how to report offending content.“I would like one time,” Kelley said on Twitter after the last incident, “to search for ‘Christchurch’ on Roblox and not find a new recreation of the 2019 Christchurch mosque shooting on a game platform aimed at very young children.”The mosque shooting, which killed more than 50 people, has been condemned as one of the most violent single acts of... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple has updated Safari’s design in the latest iOS 15 beta (Developer Beta 6), making the address bar look and act more like what users are used to and giving you the option to put it at either the top or bottom of the screen. Safari’s redesign, especially on iPhones, has been controversial since it was first announced, but it seems like Apple is starting to walk back the floating design that’s persisted throughout the beta.MacStories founder and podcaster Federico Viticci has posted screenshots of the new design on Twitter, showing off the changes. If the user chooses to have the address bar on the bottom, it sits above a row of controls, including back and forward buttons, a share button, and the tab button. (In previous versions of... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge EVgo is changing how it prices the electricity that gets doled out on its electric vehicle charging networ, and is launching a nationwide rewards program for its customers.Starting in September, the company will start offering three ways to pay for charging on its network across the country. There’s the typical pay-as-you go option, which has the highest price-per-minute of charging and requires a $1.99 fee for each charging session. There’s a basic membership program that requires $4.99 per month of pre-payments toward charging, but which waives the session and (in most locations) offers per-minute rates that cost a few cents less. And now there’s a higher-tier $6.99 per-month subscription plan called EVgo Plus that drops the session... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On Tuesday, Twitter announced that it will begin testing a new reporting feature for users to flag tweets containing possible misinformation.Starting today, users will be able to report misinformation through the same process as harassment or other harmful content, through the dropdown menu at the top right of every tweet. Users will be prompted to select whether the misleading comment is political, health-related, or falls into another category. The politics category includes more specific forms of misinformation like content related to elections. The health category will also include an option for users to flag COVID-19-specific misinformation.The new feature will be available on Tuesday for most users in the US, Australia, and South... Continue reading…

Photo: Alderwoman Rossana Rodriguez Amazon has removed two of its Hub lockers from parks in Chicago after public outcry over blocked sidewalks, Book Club Chicago writes. While they offer a convenient place to pick up packages and drop off returns, a locker making a public park less accessible might not be the kind of tradeoff even a devoted Amazon customer is comfortable with.Photos shared by the 33rd Ward Alderwoman Rossana Rodriguez make it pretty clear how egregious the placement was, at least in Brands Park. Technically, you could still roll by the locker and get to the rest of the park, but that possibility goes away as soon as someone stands in front to get something out.

That huge carry handle, pump-action underbarrel grenade launcher, and digital ammo counter on the side: is there a more iconic sci-fi weapon than the Aliens M41A Pulse Rifle? Now, it’s about to become an iconic Nerf blaster as well, because Hasbro has just announced a $95 version that flings foam darts — enough of them that it might actually be viable in a stock Nerf war! You see, unlike Nerf’s $130 blaster rifle from The Mandalorian or most of its Overwatch toys, this 28-inch long blaster isn’t just a prop with a few token foam projectiles inside: it’s a fully-automatic blaster that takes Nerf Elite-sized dart magazines a la the fan-favorite RapidStrike, powered by four C batteries, plus “movie-inspired blast sounds.”O... Continue reading…

Image: Apple One of iOS 15’s marquee new features, SharePlay, has been delayed and now won’t be rolled out until after the major update is released this fall. Apple has informed developers that SharePlay will be disabled in the next betas of iOS 15, iPadOS15, tvOS 15, and macOS Monterey. SharePlay allows people to enjoy entertainment (TV shows, movies, music, etc.) together at the same time and syncs everything up across devices.The company has confirmed that this feature will be absent in the official release of iOS 15 when it widely rolls out in the fall. Apple now says that SharePlay will return “in future developer beta releases and will launch to the public in software updates later this fall.”“We’re thrilled with the high level of enthusiasm... Continue reading…