The Verge

Image: Garmin For the first time since Varia devices launched seven years ago, Garmin has added a built-in camera to its much-loved rearview radar lineup. The Varia RCT715 not only makes road cyclists more visible and warns them of approaching vehicles, it automatically records any incidents that might occur. That means safety-minded bicyclists now only have to worry about mounting and charging a single device instead of two.The Varia RCT715 (the RCT stands for Radar, Camera, Taillight) features a 1080p/30fps camera with a 140-degree field of view. A built-in accelerometer triggers automatic incident detection to capture video footage from before, during, and after an incident. Video can also be set to record continuously, giving you about four hours... Continue reading…

A screenshot of the web search box in the latest Windows 11 Preview Build. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is adding an optional web search to the Windows 11 desktop in the operating system’s latest Insider Preview Build. The company describes the feature as “lightweight interactive content” — the first, it says, of many such tools it’s considering adding to Windows 11 — but let’s call the thing what it really is: a widget.Not everyone signed up to the latest Windows 11 preview build will see the new search box, but anyone who does and doesn’t like it can disable the feature by right-clicking on the desktop, selecting “Show more options,” and then toggling “Show search.”If you are running the latest preview build, you’ll also have to restart your computer to give the search box a chance to show up.Is web search on your desktop... Continue reading…

The complaint centers on alleged anti-union activity in Apple’s World Trade Center store. | Image: Apple Apple has been accused of union-busting at its flagship World Trade Center store in New York City. According to a complaint filed by the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the iPhone-maker violated federal labor laws by interrogating workers about union activity, prohibiting employees from posting union flyers in shared spaces, and forcing workers to attend anti-union presentations.It’s the second time the CWA has accused Apple of union-busting activity this week, with similar complaints filed in Atlanta on Tuesday. These complaints form part of a wave of union organization in retail and tech sectors, including the successful unionization of an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island. Three Apple stores have officially launched union... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Meta is pulling back its investments in a number of products, including the teams it spun up early in the pandemic to compete with Zoom and build shopping features, The Verge has learned. In addition to a hiring freeze for certain engineering roles, the company also recently paused the hiring of recruiters and low-level data scientists.While the hiring freezes have caused employees to fear that layoffs are around the corner, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in an internal all-hands meeting last Thursday that job cuts are not being planned. “I can’t sit here and make a permanent ongoing promise that as things shift that we won’t have to reconsider that,” Zuckerberg said, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by The Verge. “But what I... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge More long-term Netflix subscribers are canceling their subscriptions, according to a report from The Information. Survey data viewed by the outlet revealed that subscribers who have been with the service for more than three years accounted for 13 percent of cancellations in the first quarter of 2022.The Information says it got its data from Antenna, an analytics firm that gathers data from 5 million Americans who share their streaming subscriptions anonymously. The data showed that overall cancellations hit 3.6 million people last quarter, an increase from the 2.5 million cancellations in the past five quarters.As the number of cancellations overall has grown, The Information reports that new users are accounting for a smaller share... Continue reading…

Photo by John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images Tesla is expanding its open Supercharger pilot program in Europe that lets owners of non-Tesla EVs take advantage of the company’s extensive charging network. Previously, the pilot consisted of select stations in The Netherlands, Norway, and France, but now it’s also available in the UK, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, and Austria.Non-Tesla owners in both Belgium and Germany originally could only take advantage of Tesla’s network if traveling to a country that has the open Superchargers. With Belgium now added to the program, German residents remain the only oddity that can use them outside of its borders, but not domestically.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Ransomware — and particularly the Conti ransomware gang — has become a geopolitical force in Costa Rica. On Monday, the new Costa Rican president Rodrigo Chaves – who began his four-year term only ten days ago – declared that the country was ”at war” with the Conti cybercriminal gang, whose ransomware attack has disabled agencies across the government since April.In a forceful statement made to press on May 16th, President Chaves also said that Conti was receiving help from collaborators within the country, and called on international allies to help.“We’re at war and this is not an exaggeration,” Chaves told local media. “The war is against an international terrorist group, which apparently has operatives in Costa Rica. There are very... Continue reading…

New York Attorney General Letitia James. | Photo by David Dee Delgado/Getty Images New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Wednesday that her office has launched an investigation into Twitch, Discord, 4chan, 8kun (previously 8chan), and other web and social media platforms in response to the racist attack in Buffalo, New York. The investigation will focus on “platforms that may have been used to stream, promote, or plan the event.”James is focusing her attention on the platforms the shooter used to “discuss and amplify” the attack. The gunman reportedly planned his attack in a private server on Discord before the shooting. In a document written by the shooter, he mentions using and getting influenced by both 4chan and 8chan, two sites known for a lack of moderation.“As we continue to mourn and honor the... Continue reading…

The new Outlook will feature support for Loop components. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft has announced the beta for the new Outlook for Windows, which will make the desktop email client a lot more like the web version. While screenshots and an entire build of the app were recently leaked, Microsoft’s announcement gives us a good look at what kind of features we can expect to see coming to our inboxes.According to Microsoft’s Tuesday post, Outlook will be getting quite a few new features in addition to an updated design. For starters, it’ll integrate with Loop, Microsoft’s system for collaborating on things like polls, task lists, and more throughout Office. There’s also a new system for attaching files. If you’ve got something stored in the cloud, you can type the “@” symbol and then the filename, and you’ll get a... Continue reading…

Stan Lee as he appeared in Avengers: Age of Ultron. | Image: Marvel Studios Even though Stan Lee has been dead since 2018, a new deal between Marvel Studios and POW! Entertainment may be a sign that the legendary comics creator’s going to be appearing in more than a few Marvel-branded projects in the near future.POW! Entertainment, the production house Stan Lee co-founded in 2001 and subsequently sued in 2018 for allegedly forging his signature on legal documents, has entered a licensing agreement with Genius Brands and Marvel Studios granting the Hollywood giant the right to use Lee’s likeness in its upcoming projects. In a press release about the 20-year deal, Genius Brands CEO and chairman Andy Heyward expressed feelings of pride and stewardship for “the incredibly valuable rights to Stan Lee’s name,... Continue reading…

How people feel about Big Tech has changed since last year.A new study from the Pew Research Center found that fewer people in the US want more regulations for Big Tech companies. This decline, which spans across the political spectrum, showed that 44 percent of Americans are in favor of more government regulation compared to 56 percent of those surveyed last year.That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re all in favor of less regulation; for example, 32 percent of liberal Democrats surveyed say that the current amount of regulation is just right compared to the 23 percent who thought so in 2021. However, 27 percent of moderate or liberal Republicans do support less regulation, up from 13 percent, and 36 percent of conservative... Continue reading…

Climate activists target banks in Germany’s financial capital. Even tech companies that have promised to slash their greenhouse gas emissions have a big climate-related blind spot, according to a new report published by three environmental groups. With their cash and investments, Google, Apple, Meta, and other tech giants are indirectly financing fossil fuel companies.While these companies might have taken steps to cut down on pollution within their own operations and supply chains, the financial institutions they bank with still funnel Big Tech’s profits into heavily polluting industries. Emissions associated with that financial activity are so significant that they actually far exceed emissions from each company’s operations, the report finds.Financial institutions they bank with still funnel... Continue reading…

An investigation will follow the complaint. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The New York State Division of Human Rights has filed a complaint against Amazon for failing to accommodate reasonable changes requested by workers who were pregnant or disabled, according to a Wednesday press release from Governor Kathy Hochul.Even in cases where the company agreed that workers should be accommodated, the complaint alleges that managers would still force them to do work they shouldn’t be doing. According to one example listed in the press release, a pregnant worker filed a request to avoid strenuous activity, specifically lifting boxes over 25 pounds. Amazon approved the request, but the worker’s manager allegedly refused to adhere to the accommodation, and Amazon didn’t intervene despite internal complaints. The... Continue reading…

J.K. Simmons and Sissy Spacek in Night Sky. | Image: Chuck Hodes / Amazon Prime Video Irene and Franklin York are a lot like other older couples. They keep on top of each other about following doctor’s orders, joke about their complicated daily intake of pills, and, when the mood is right, they put on some Sam Cooke and dance in the living room, just like in the good old days. In short, they’re adorable. But there’s one key difference between the Yorks and most retired couples: hidden away in their shed right behind a wooden sign that says “to the stars” is a portal to another world.This is the basic setup for Night Sky on Amazon Prime Video. The show’s first episode debuts this week and, early on, follows Irene (Sissy Spacek) and Franklin (J.K. Simmons) as they go about their life, which just so happens to include the... Continue reading…

Image: Apple Whenever possible, I like to use FaceTime Audio or WhatsApp instead of making regular phone calls. The people I’m calling see it like a normal phone call, but the audio quality is leaps and bounds better than a good old-fashioned phone call.But! It turns out I wasn’t even doing my internet calls the right way. Today, I learned that there’s a newish feature buried in the Control Center that instantly improves the quality of your microphone during calls, whether you’re audio-only or on video.It’s called Voice Isolation, and it works on most iPhones, iPads and Macs from the last few years as long as you’re running iOS 15 or macOS Monterey. (Anything that supports Spatial Audio seems to also support Voice Isolation.) It’s weirdly hard to... Continue reading…

Photo by Jeremy Moeller/Getty Images Google’s Russian subsidiary will file for bankruptcy, according to a report from Reuters, with the company stating it can no longer keep the branch. The Russian branch reported making 134.3 billion roubles (about $2.086 billion USD) in Russia in 2021 and employed over 100 workers.“The Russian authorities’ seizure of Google Russia’s bank account has made it untenable for our Russia office to function, including employing and paying Russia-based employees, paying suppliers and vendors, and meeting other financial obligations,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement to The Verge. “Google Russia has published a notice of its intention to file for bankruptcy.”In March, Google suspended the sale of ads in Russia shortly after Russia... Continue reading…

Armand Fields as Bussey | Alyssa Moran/Peacock Both the original British and American Queer as Folk series were celebrations of queer culture that also took the time to tell stories about the violence and hatred queer people face simply for existing. In its first trailer, Peacock’s upcoming Queer as Folk reboot from Stephen Dunn appears to be following in its predecessors’ footsteps as it pulls its cast of clubgoers together for a night of drag and debauchery at Babylon, a club in New Orleans, Louisiana.The new Queer as Folk follows recent med school dropout Brodie (Devin Way) as he journeys from Baltimore to Louisiana in search of anything but a committed relationship. Though Brodie’s glad to be reunited with old friends like debutant Brenda (Kim Cattrall) and pop culture nerd... Continue reading…

Honda Honda released a teaser image of the upcoming 2024 Prologue electric SUV, the company’s first battery-electric vehicle to be sold in the US. The company also touted its hybrid vehicles as a way to address questions that it has been slow to roll out an EV strategy as compared to its rivals.The Prologue will be the first of two vehicles that Honda is co-developing with General Motors, using the US automaker’s Ultium battery packs. The other vehicle will carry the Acura nameplate and will also be developed jointly with GM, but the company hasn’t revealed any new information about it at this time. The Prologue, which will go on sale in 2024, also marks the beginning of a wave of 30 hybrid, battery-electric, and fuel-cell vehicles that... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube will now highlight the “most replayed” parts of videos in its web player and mobile apps. The feature was previously available as an experiment for YouTube Premium subscribers but is launching for all users today.You’ll be able to identify the most popular parts of a video from a graph that appears behind its progress bar. Says YouTube: “If the graph is high, then that part of the video has been replayed often. You can use the graph to quickly find and watch those moments.”“most-replayed” will be another signal for creators to steer contentPretty simple! But, it’s interesting to think how this might split the attention of viewers — or, indeed, steer the work of creators, giving them yet another signal to identify exactly what... Continue reading…

Google is expanding its app options ahead of the Pixel Watch launch later this fall. | Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge After a lengthy wait, Wear OS users can now use the YouTube Music app to stream their tunes over Wi-Fi and LTE. And, as a bonus, users can also add the app as a widget for quicker access to recently played playlists or YouTube Music’s browse page.In a user community post, Google says you’ll be able to access 80 million songs via the app. On top of ad-free streaming, the app supports Google’s Smart Downloads feature that automatically refreshes songs downloaded to your Wear OS watch whenever it’s connected to Wi-Fi. There are a few caveats. For instance, you have to be a YouTube Music Premium subscriber. Also, cellular streaming isn’t available for iOS Wear OS 2 users.The road to a Wear OS YouTube Music app had many twists and turns. In... Continue reading…

Image: Anker At CES 2022, Anker announced an addition to its Nano II USB-C charger lineup with this more powerful version sporting two USB-C ports capable of outputting up to 100W, plus an old school USB-A charging port. Now, the Anker Nano II 100W (also known as the Anker 736 charger) has popped up for sale on Amazon (via MacRumors) and quickly sold out on Friday. As of Monday afternoon at 2:33PM ET, it is available to order on Amazon for $75.99 but with delivery dates scheduled for the end of June.Now, on May 18th, the 736 charger is available on Amazon in white for $79.99.The Nano II chargers use the company’s second-generation version of gallium nitride-based components that replace older charger’s silicon components to pump out more power in a... Continue reading…

Alec and his new Hisuian buddy, Zorua. | Image: The Pokémon Company Unlike the Pokémon anime and games set in the present day, where humans and Pokémon live in harmony as friends and competitors, Pokémon: Hisuian Snow — a new limited series of digital shorts based on Pokémon Legends: Arceus — takes place in the distant past at a point when people did not yet fully understand pocketable monsters.Like Arceus, Hisuian Snow’s first episode, “Onto the Icy Blue” from writer Taku Kishimoto and director Ken Yamamoto, tells the story of a young person learning firsthand just how unforgiving the Hisui region can be. Rather than focusing on a time traveler who arrives in Hisui by way of a rift in the sky, Hisuian Snow details how its protagonist Alec (Lizzie Freeman) and his father (Steve Kramer) made lives for... Continue reading…

Nothing brings the cool factor to mechanical keyboards quite like colorful keycaps. | Image: Drop If you’re reading The Verge and you’re a mechanical keyboard fan (and why wouldn’t you be both?), we’ve got an exclusive deal right up your alley. Drop is running a 20 percent discount on some of its popular mechanical keyboard keycap sets, just for you.Aside from typing feel and sound, the colorful stylings of keycaps are the thing that often draws people to mechanical keyboards and has helped fuel this recent resurgence in the scene. There’s just something so cool about a board with some exquisitely vivid colors that pop. While there are many, many styles out there — some of which are clones of popular designs — Drop collaborates with designers to offer a variety of quality keycaps.This sale includes options like the RedSuns GMK... Continue reading…

Coin Crew Games Friends, it’s been exceedingly difficult to naturally produce enough feel good brain juice to function as a normal person. Even the things that I normally take so much joy in, like video games, are just not hitting like they used to for so many reasons. But after spending some time with Escape Academy by playing a little and talking to the developers, I think I have the serotonin delivery system I’ve sorely needed.Escape Academy by Coin Crew Games is a narrative puzzle game formatted to look and feel like real-life escape rooms. You play as an escape room enthusiast invited to a secretive academy where students can train to become the best Escapist. The people at Coin Crew games actually worked on real in-person escape rooms and,... Continue reading…

The LinkBuds S come in black or white. | Image: Sony Sony is indeed adding a new product to its lineup of earbuds. Today, the company announced the $199.99 LinkBuds S. While they share branding with the open-design LinkBuds released earlier this year, the “S” model have a more conventional form factor and in-ear fit. Available in black, white, or beige (exclusively at Best Buy), the LinkBuds S have a compact design and weigh just 4.8 grams each.Despite their small presence on the scale, Sony’s latest earbuds don’t go light on features: they include active noise cancellation, an ambient sound / transparency mode, and support for the company’s LDAC Bluetooth codec. Like the standard LinkBuds, Sony is positioning these as earbuds you can wear all day and “link” your outside and digital... Continue reading…

An airy fit, ANC, and LDAC all in one pricey package Continue reading…

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon and Alex Castro / The Verge When you’re stuck at home because of pandemics, bad weather, or just because you don’t feel like going out, there’s nothing more satisfying than cooking something really fantastic. Even if you’re not an experienced or enthusiastic cook, sometimes it’s really satisfying to create a new and tasty dish for you, your friends, and / or family.We asked the staff of The Verge what kinds of equipment, gadgets, and tools they use to make their kitchen adventures better tasting, easier, or just more fun. Here are some of the answers we got.Pots, pans, and cookersAir fryer Photo: GoWise GoWise air fryer. We just received a GoWise Air Fryer as a quarantine gift, and we couldn’t be happier with it! It replaces our... Continue reading…

Several smartwatches will allow you to make emergency calls. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge While smartwatches have always been able to relay notifications, the ability to make emergency calls was a big step forward in making them standalone devices.Generally, Emergency SOS features have two functions. The first is to call local emergency responders if you find yourself in a bind. For instance, if you take a nasty spill and can’t make it to the phone, your watch can call 911. The second is to relay your location to a select group of trusted contacts. For folks who want to leave their phone at home, these features can ensure that your loved ones will be able to find you if you’re injured or need help.You don’t necessarily need a cellular watch to make use of Emergency SOS. However, a cellular watch is the best option if you... Continue reading…

Shadow’s focus has historically been on cloud gaming. | Image: Shadow Shadow is adding a new subscription tier to its cloud gaming service with access to the equivalent of Nvidia and AMD’s latest generation of graphics cards for an additional $14.99 a month. The new Power Upgrade tier is an optional add-on to Shadow’s existing $29.99 subscription service, bringing the total cost to a little under $45. Alongside it, the company is announcing an expansion to more countries, a new online storage service, and a service that makes its cloud-based machines available to professional users.Unlike Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming service or Google Stadia, which only let you stream their games, Shadow’s functionality is a lot broader. It essentially offers you remote access to a Windows 10 desktop in the cloud... Continue reading…

Image: Hisense Hisense’s new 4K Fire TV (50U6HF) costs $529 and has a 50-inch 60Hz display with a bezel-less design. It uses Hisense’s proprietary ULED technology — a more affordable version of QLED that Hisense says boosts color, contrast, and brightness. The TV also comes with support for Dolby Vision HDR and Quantum Dot technology for color enhancement.With Fire TV built-in, you can expect everything that typically comes with Amazon’s Fire OS, including a lineup of streaming apps and an Alexa-enabled voice remote, allowing you to call on the smart assistant to control volume, playback, and TV power, as well as search for something to watch. You can also use Alexa to control any compatible smart devices around your home.Hisense’s Amazon TV is here... Continue reading…

Illustration by James Bareham / The Verge Today, let’s talk about Facebook’s latest effort to make the platform more comprehensible to outsiders — and how its findings inform our current, seemingly endless debate over whether you can have a social network and free speech, too.Start with an observation: last week, Pew Research reported that large majorities of Americans — Elon Musk, for example! — believe that social networks are censoring posts based on the political viewpoints they express. Here’s Emily A. Vogels:

The Pixel 5 in its Sorta Sage color. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge There’s been a lot of talk about new Pixel phones lately, with last week’s Google I/O showing off not just a new Pixel 6A but a brief glimpse of the upcoming Pixel 7 and 7 Pro. But Woot is showing love for some slightly older Pixels with a sale event that’ll end later today. Somehow, Woot got its hands on phones that are all still new in the box with full one-year warranties.This includes the soon-to-be-replaced Pixel 5A for $429.99, 2020’s Pixel 5 for $449.99, and 2019’s Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL for $329.99 and $349.99, respectively. Now, yes, the Pixel 5A is not that old and it’s still available for sale from Google. But who would expect that in 2022 there would still be Pixel 4 available new-in-box?Now, if you are tempted by that... Continue reading…

Ugreen Nexode is a capable and fiddly charger at a high price Continue reading…

Peep the SpatialLabs camera array at the top of the Helios 300. | Image: Acer Acer has debuted another round of new gaming laptops for 2022. This time, it’s focused on more unique entries, having gotten most of its yearly refreshes out of the way a couple of months ago. Its 15.6-inch Predator Helios 300 is getting the SpatialLabs treatment with a display that supports glasses-free, stereoscopic 3D content that includes “over 50 popular games at launch,” with a commitment to add support for new games moving forward.The description for the built-in camera on this Helios 300 is wild. Acer says that its 15.6-inch 4K panel has “a liquid crystal lenticular lens optically bonded on top of it.” Because of that, the display can toggle between 2D and 3D modes. In case you’re curious how this SpatialLabs implementation... Continue reading…

The Chromebook Tab 510 is all rubber and rugged. | Image: Acer The Acer Chromebook Tab 510, which Acer announced on Wednesday, is not a very attractive tablet. Let’s just get that out of the way right up front. But what this blocky, rubbery brick lacks in aesthetics, Acer’s hoping it makes up for with raw get-stuff-done ability, including a keyboard attachment, an integrated stylus, and an optional LTE connection — still an uncommon feature among Chromebooks.The Tab 510 is a 10.1-inch slate with a 1920 x 1200 display that runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7c chipset along with up to 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. None of that qualifies the $399 device for high-end status, but the 7c does have a solid reputation for battery life, and Acer seems to imagine the device more like a rugged companion you can... Continue reading…

Contrast isn’t the luxury it once was. | Image: Acer It wasn’t too long ago that the phrase “OLED laptop” implied a luxury product. But, over the past few years, that tide has slowly begun to shift. Samsung has begun mass-producing OLED panels for more portable form factors. And while they’re still not exactly commonplace, we’ve begun to see sub-$1,000 OLED devices trickle onto shelves.But Acer made an announcement today that should make folks who want to see more affordable, accessible OLED (like myself) very excited. The Acer Swift 3 — hailed by many outlets, The Verge included, as one of the best student laptops on the market — is getting an OLED screen. This doesn’t sound like one of those cheaper FHD OLEDs you sometimes find on ultraportables, either. It’s going to have 2.8K... Continue reading…

New name, new look. I’ve reviewed quite a few Chromebooks in the past few years, but the one that has consistently topped the competition is the Acer Chromebook Spin 713. Not only is it fast with good battery life but it also sports one of the best screens and port selections you can find in the Chromebook category. But there is one complaint I’ve had about multiple Spin 713 models: they’re just kind of ugly.The Spin 714, the company’s newest premium Chromebook certified through the Intel Evo platform, looks like a similar package to the 713 in many ways. It has up to a top-notch Core i7-1260P, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. There’s an option for a high-resolution 2560 x 1600 display covering a claimed 100 percent of the sRGB color gamut.But Acer... Continue reading…

Samsung SmartThings is now testing Matter smart home devices to work with its platform. | Image: Samsung SmartThings Matter is picking up steam. Samsung has announced a Partner Early Access Program for its SmartThings smart home platform, allowing companies such as Eve Systems and Aqara to start testing their Matter-compatible devices.What’s notable here is this means there are Matter smart home devices, such as lights, locks, and sensors, out there being tested. While the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) — the organization behind Matter — has already said there are devices going through its testing, it hasn’t revealed what and by whom.Samsung SmartThings announced it’s working with Aeotec, Aqara, Eve Systems, Leedarson, Nanoleaf, Netatmo, Sengled, Wemo, WiZ, and Yale. Between them, these companies make lightbulbs, light switches, contact and... Continue reading…

The Fire 7 looks the same as ever but has some upgrades under the hood. | Image: Amazon Amazon is updating its small and inexpensive Fire 7 tablet for the first time in three years, and it’s bringing some crowd-pleasing features: the updated tablet will feature USB-C charging, better battery life, and faster performance. Amazon is, however, raising the starting price tag a tad — from $49.99 to $59.99.Amazon says that the tablet’s quad-core processor is “30 percent faster” and that it’ll have 2GB of RAM instead of 1GB. In theory, the extra memory should make it so you can load more web pages at a time, and you won’t have to wait around for apps to start back up as often when you’re switching between them. The company also says the tablet will last about 40 percent longer between charges, estimating you’ll be able to do... Continue reading…

Automated “liveness tests” used by banks and other institutions to help verify users’ identity can be easily fooled by deepfakes, demonstrates a new report.Security firm Sensity, which specializes in spotting attacks using AI-generated faces, probed the vulnerability of identity tests provided by 10 top vendors. Sensity used deepfakes to copy a target face onto an ID card to be scanned and then copied that same face onto a video stream of a would-be attacker in order to pass vendors’ liveness tests.Liveness tests generally ask someone to look into a camera on their phone or laptop, sometimes turning their head or smiling, in order to prove both that they’re a real person and to compare their appearance to their ID using facial... Continue reading…

Image: Reply All Reply All co-hosts Alex Goldman and Emmanuel Dzotsi will be leaving the show next month, according to an internal memo obtained by The Verge. It is unclear whether or in what form the show will continue.Gimlet executives emailed staffers Wednesday morning saying “Alex and Emmanuel have both made the decision to explore opportunities outside of Gimlet, and we’ll have more info to share on the future of Reply All soon. … The decision to end this iteration of the show came from a desire of the host team to move on, and we hope that there is a future where a show about the internet that isn’t actually about the internet can be reborn in Gimlet’s library.” Dzotsi confirmed to The Verge that he and Goldman will be leaving the show.Goldman... Continue reading…

The Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro has a sophisticated design. | Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge Last year, as Google and Samsung were upending the Android smartwatch space, Huawei also announced it was launching the Huawei Watch 3 on a new proprietary operating system called HarmonyOS 2. It then followed that up with the Huawei Watch GT 3. So it’s not a huge surprise that Huawei is back again with the Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro.Last year’s Watch 3 was a good attempt and reminded me a lot of Samsung’s Tizen smartwatches. And while I haven’t had the GT 3 Pro for very long, what I’ve seen so far continues that overall vibe. The GT 3 Pro comes in two versions: a titanium model and an all-ceramic model. The former features a 46.6mm case with a 1.4-inch OLED display while the latter is smaller at 42.9mm with a 1.3-inch display. Both also... Continue reading…

The 2022 Omen 16 comes in white or black. | Image: HP HP is announcing some very minor refreshes to its Omen 16 and Victus 15 gaming laptops. Like so many other models, the new Omen 16 ships with support for the latest Intel 12th Gen processors as well as the option to go with AMD’s Ryzen 6000 H-series CPUs. It also supports up to Nvidia’s RTX 3070 Ti with 150W of maximum graphics power, along with up to 32GB of DDR5 RAM and fast PCIe 4.0 SSDs.In terms of dimensions, this year’s Omen 16 is identical to the 2021 model down to the millimeter in terms of thickness, width, depth, and height. One notable change, however, is that its trackpad is a little wider now. Sadly, this model still features a 16:9 aspect ratio display with a large chin near the chassis hinge. And, like last year’s Omen... Continue reading…

Photo by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images They say you can’t keep a good brand down. More accurately, you can’t stop it being opportunistically mined by business types for lingering name-recognition and nostalgia.Case in point: the pioneering peer-to-peer music-sharing-and-piracy service Napster has been bought by a consortium of companies who plan to “bring the iconic music brand to web3.” What exactly that means isn’t clear, mostly because web3 itself is such a nebulous concept. However, other web3-focused music startups have let musicians release albums and singles as NFTs, so perhaps expect something similar in Napster’s reimagined future?To dive down into the murky waters here, the lead players buying Napster are Hivemind, a “a crypto-focused investment firm dedicated... Continue reading…

Indian users of Google Messages are facing a deluge of ads within Android’s default messaging app, 9to5Google reports. Users are reporting being sent multiple ads a day, even if they enable the app’s Spam Protection feature, and blocking and reporting the offending accounts doesn’t appear to prevent ads from different companies appearing. Many of the worst offenders appear to be ads for personal loans, gambling companies, and life insurance.As 9to5Google notes, companies appear to be abusing an RCS feature designed to let businesses contact their customers with rich, interactive media. Example’s listed on Google’s site include sending customers QR-code tickets, or letting them make online orders. Instead, some accounts that Google... Continue reading…

Vivo has announced its latest flagship phone, the X80 Pro, and its most prominent new hardware feature is a larger in-display fingerprint sensor. The active area is far bigger than the small sensors found on most Android phones these days, meaning it’s easier to unlock the phone without looking at the screen to align your thumb.The scanner has several advantages beyond just being physically larger. You can register each fingertip with a single press on the screen, instead of having to lift and press it several times as with conventional phones. It works very quickly, even if your hands or the screen is wet. The larger surface area also means you can set the phone up to require two simultaneous fingerprints for an extra layer of... Continue reading…

Free for people, not businesses. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Almost five months after Google announced that it was going to make G Suite legacy free edition users start paying for their accounts, it seems to finally have a path in place that most people will be happy with. According to 9to5Google, there’s now a no-cost option that’ll let people keep using their G Suite accounts for personal use, and signing up for it won’t involve a song and dance of joining a waitlist or transferring data between accounts.In January, Google announced that free G Suite users would have to start paying for Google Workspace if they wanted to keep their accounts, after around a decade of keeping the legacy free tier around. The company said that if users didn’t decide which paid Workspace tier they wanted by May... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix has been showing movies and TV shows ahead of their public release to small groups of subscribers in the US, according to a report from Variety. Subscribers who participate in the feedback panels will watch “several upcoming movies and series over the course of about six months,” Variety says, and after they finish watching a piece of content, they’re asked to fill out a survey. The company then takes that feedback into account for potential changes ahead of a film or show’s debut.Netflix is well-known for testing many of its software features ahead of wider releases, like the Top 10 row and the “Play Something” shuffle feature, so it’s perhaps not too surprising that the company is also testing its content with small groups of... Continue reading…

Image: Disney When Disney Plus’ ad-supported plan goes live later this year, it will reportedly run ads for four minutes on movies or shows that last an hour or less, according to reports from Variety and The Wall Street Journal.As Variety points out, this would make Disney offer fewer ads per hour than some of its competitors. NBC’s Peacock runs no more than five minutes of ads for every hour of content, while HBO Max shows four minutes of ads per hour. Disney Plus’ planned number of ads even beats the Disney-owned Hulu, which runs anywhere from nine to 12 ads in one hour.As for the content of the ads themselves, the company is reportedly taking a cautious approach to maintain its family-friendly image. Disney isn’t just cutting out ads that may... Continue reading…