The Verge

TCL’s 20 Pro 5G is priced to compete with established midrangers like the Galaxy A52 5G. | Photo: TCL TCL is bringing three of its 20-series phones to the US today, with the $499 20 Pro 5G leading the way. It’s joined by the $249 TCL 20S with a trimmed-down feature set and the $189 TCL 20 SE equipped with a massive display and 5,000mAh battery.First announced in April, the 20 Pro 5G is positioned to take on midrange devices like the Google Pixel 4A 5G and Samsung Galaxy A52 5G. It features a large curved 6.67-inch 1080p OLED screen, a 48-megapixel main camera with OIS, wireless charging, and sub-6GHz 5G connectivity. The device comes standard with 256GB of built-in storage and 6GB of RAM coupled with a Snapdragon 750G processor. There’s even a headphone jack. Photo: TCL The 20 Pro 5G’s screen is slightly curved... Continue reading…

Microsoft keeps hinting at an October release date for Windows 11. The software giant teased an October date several times during its Windows event last week, including one instance where a Microsoft Teams message says “excited to turn it up to 11... can’t wait for October!” Microsoft has only officially said “holiday” for Windows 11 availability, but the company’s official marketing material strongly hints at an October 20th date.The Microsoft Teams message is from Stevie Bathiche, a key engineer on Surface devices, to Panos Panay, Microsoft’s head of Windows and devices. Bathiche is either hinting at a Windows 11 release date, new Surface hardware, or the possibility of both Windows 11 and new Surface devices in October. ... Continue reading…

Getty Images/iStockphoto Qualcomm’s best mobile processor, the Snapdragon 888, is getting even more powerful at MWC 2021 with the announcement of the Snapdragon 888 Plus. The upgraded model boasts a boosted clock speed, bumping the Kryo 680 CPU from 2.84GHz up to 2.995GHz (which Qualcomm is optimistically rounding up to 3GHz in its marketing.)Also getting upgraded is Qualcomm’s sixth-gen AI Engine. Where the base Snapdragon 888 could perform 26 trillion operations per second (TOPS) for AI tasks, the 888 Plus is approximately 20 percent more powerful, capable of 32 TOPS. Midyear refreshes for its top chips are nothing new for Qualcomm, which took similar approaches with the Snapdragon 855 Plus and 865 Plus, each serving as more powerful mid-cycle... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge IOActive security researcher Josep Rodriquez has warned that the NFC readers used in many modern ATMs and point-of-sale systems are leaving them vulnerable to attacks, Wired reports. The flaws make them vulnerable to a range of problems, including being crashed by a nearby NFC device, locked down as part of a ransomware attack, or even hacked to extract certain credit card data.Rodriquez even warns that the vulnerabilities could be used as part of a so-called “jackpotting” attack to trick a machine into spitting out cash. However, such an attack is only possible when paired with exploits of additional bugs, and Wired says it was not able to view a video of such an attack because of IOActive’s confidentiality agreement with the... Continue reading…

GIF: Veloretti Vintage cool and high tech as hell Continue reading…

Image: Lenovo Lenovo has announced the new $679 Yoga Tab 13, a global version of the Yoga Pad Pro that launched in China earlier this year. The tablet can function as an external display for a laptop (or a Nintendo Switch or any other HDMI device), thanks to its built-in Micro HDMI port. And with an attached stainless steel kickstand that can rotate 180 degrees from the back of the device, you can stand it up or hang it from a wall.The Tab 13 was announced alongside a slew of other Android tablets that Lenovo expects to launch later this summer, including a smaller Yoga Tab 11, a Tab P11 Plus with a 2000 x 1200 display, and the budget-oriented Tab M7 and Tab M8. (This last will not be sold in the US.)The Tab 13 is compatible with Lenovo’s Precision... Continue reading…

Here’s the Smart Clock 2 in “heather grey.” | Image: Lenovo The Lenovo Smart Clock and Smart Clock Essential are both functional, attractive alarm clocks with some extra smart home capabilities. Today, Lenovo has announced the next in line: the Lenovo Smart Clock 2.The big news is that the Google Assistant-powered Smart Clock 2 can come with an optional wireless charging dock, which can juice up Qi-compatible devices. This dock can also act as what Lenovo describes as “a soft, ambient nightlight.”Beyond that, Lenovo says the new Smart Clock has an updated design with three color options that blend in with “nearly any home decor.” And 85 percent of the plastic on the device is made from recycled materials. Image: Lenovo Here it is in “abyss blue.” Compared to the... Continue reading…

Image: CNSA In March, NASA released audio of its Perseverance rover firing lasers on the surface of Mars. Now China has released audio of what it says is its Zhurong rover arriving on the red planet and getting settled in, Space News reports. China has also released pictures of its Mars rover, which is unexpectedly cute as we saw in its first “selfie” a few weeks ago.Listen to what it sounds like as Zhurong rolls down the ramp of its lander vehicle on to the surface (but just to manage your expectations: you’re not going to hear any “pew pew pew” noises).The solar-powered Zhurong first landed on Mars in May, part of China’s Tianwen-1 mission which arrived in Mars’ orbit in February. After descending from the Tianwen-1 orbiter above the planet’s... Continue reading…

Regina King and Idris Elba in The Harder They Fall | Netflix Since it was one of the top picks on Netflix and everyone’s talking about it, I started watching Manifest and got five episodes in before I realized it was basically a version of Lost with a few wacky twists and I am not falling for THAT again. But the deeply weird and wonderful The Good Fight is back, and the pilot had Christine Baranski and Audra McDonald at their best, so I can’t wait to see what happens this season (although we said goodbye to two of the show’s best characters, boo). Also can we talk about Loki? We probably can’t without giving away spoilers but episode three gave us a LOT, most of which I suspect were attempts at misdirection.I got so engrossed in writing last Sunday’s trailers post that I totally missed the new T... Continue reading…

91Mobiles Leaked renders of the Galaxy Buds 2 obtained by gadget site 91Mobiles suggest the next iteration of Samsung’s earbuds will look pretty similar to Google’s Pixel Buds. A May filing with the FCC showed the earbuds woud come in a white case with rounded edges.The new images confirm previous reports that the buds will come in four different colors: black, green, purple, and white. The cases in the new renders show each will have a white exterior, while the internal color will match the buds. There aren’t a lot of other details available yet, including price, but the new renders show that the Galaxy Buds will have two microphones for improved noise reduction, and their in-ear design will include silicon tips, much like the Galaxy Buds Pro.... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge YouTube took down several videos from a human rights organization’s channel, which was attempting to document human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang province, for violating its anti-harassment policy, Reuters reported.On June 15th, Atajurt Kazakh Human Rights said the Google-owned video platform disabled its channel entirely, telling the group it had received too many strikes against its channel for videos where people displayed identification cards showing they were related to missing Xinjiang residents. That apparently broke YouTube’s rule against displaying personal information, which led to the videos’ removal. The channel was restored three days later, according to Reuters.YouTube reportedly asked Atajurt to cut out or conceal... Continue reading…

An image of a smart display device from a patent application Verizon filed with the FCC | FCC According to a Friday filing with the Federal Communications Commission (first discovered by Protocol), Verizon is preparing to launch a smart display device based on the Alexa voice assistant. The FCC filing shows a basic-looking device that resembles an Amazon Echo, with an 8-inch display and front-facing camera, and the specs show it has 4GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, Bluetooth, wi-fi and 4G connectivity.It’s not clear from the filing what the user interface will look like on its screen but the device, referred to as LVD1, will “wake” when users speak the phrase “Hi Verizon” to it. That would seem to confirm, as Protocol notes, that the device is part of Amazon’s Alexa Custom Assistant program, which allows companies to build... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Volkswagen plans to stop selling combustion engines in Europe by 2035, a board member told German newspaper Muenchner Merkur (via Reuters).Klaus Zellmer, Volkswagen’s board member for sales, told the newspaper that the company would “exit the business with internal combustion engine cars in Europe between 2033 and 2035.” But, he added, it would take longer to stop selling combustion engines in the US and China— that will come “somewhate later,” he said— and in South America and Africa, where he said “it will take a good deal longer.”Zellmer said the automaker’s entire fleet will be carbon neutral by 2050 at the latest. He wants to see electric vehicles to account for 70 percent of the company’s total sales in Europe by 2030.V... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson will pay $230 million to settle an opioid lawsuit with the state of New York, the state’s attorney general said Saturday.According to a release from New York AG Letitia James, Johnson & Johnson “has committed to ending the manufacture and sale of all opioids and opioid products for distribution in the state of New York, as well as to no longer ship these products anywhere within the United States.”The company said in a statement Saturday that it “made the business decision in 2020 to discontinue all of its prescription pain medications in the United States.” The settlement removes Johnson & Johnson from a trial scheduled to begin in New York on Tuesday, but not from other cases across the US,... Continue reading…

WarnerBros Denis Villeneuve’s Dune was among the big 2020 movies that saw its release date delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. After being moved to October 1st, Dune’s release has been pushed back yet again, this time to October 22nd, Variety reports. The move was one of several releases Warner Bros. rescheduled, with the Clint Eastwood-directed Cry Macho moved to September 17th, and The Many Saints of Newark, a prequel to The Sopranos, moved to October 1st.The adaptation of the 1965 Frank Herbert sci-fi classic has an all-star cast that includes Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Stellan Skarsgård, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Josh Brolin, Dave Bautista, and Javier Bardem. Dune is slated to be the first of two movies based on the... Continue reading…

The Bose 700 offer some of the best noise cancellation you can get, especially for shy of $250. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Prime Day is officially behind us — well, sort of. The annual two-day shopping blitz saw an abundance of terrific discounts, from noise-canceling headphones to brilliant OLED TVs, some of which have stuck around for the remainder of the week. Retailers are already moving on, however, and we’re already seeing an influx of deals ahead of Independence Day, including a sizable discount on one of our favorite pairs of noise-canceling headphones, the Bose 700.But eBay isn’t the only one offering discounts this weekend. Right now, you can also save on Apple’s luxe Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro, the perfect summer speaker, and the white whale that is Microsoft’s Xbox Series S.Save 15 percent on refurbished headphones and more at eBayWhile... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Messaging chat app Telegram has added group video chat to its mobile and desktop apps at last, something it promised was coming back in April 2020. Voice chats in any group on the platform can be turned into video calls by tapping the camera icon to turn on your device’s video.Telegram says an unlimited number of users can participate in an audio call, but group video calls will be limited to the first 30 people who join a voice chat. The company plans to increase that limit “soon,” it said in its announcement. Users can also share their screens during a video call. Telegram Telegram CEO Pavel Durov said in January that the company had reached 500 million active users, many of whom came to the platform after the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla has had a run of bad publicity in China so far this year, with officials raising concerns over security risks, and protests about how the US automaker handles customer complaints in the country. On Saturday the stretch of bad news continued, as The Wall Street Journal reported that Tesla is recalling more than 285,000 vehicles in China—most of which were made locally— over a safety risk with the vehicles’ cruise control,China’s State Administration for Market Regulation said Saturday that the recall includes 249,855 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles that were made in Tesla’s Gigafactory in Shanghai, and 35,655 Model 3 vehicles which were imported, all produced between December 2019 and June 2021, the WSJ reported. According to the... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Despite Apple’s efforts to keep anyone from finding out what it’s working on, leaks have continued to give the world early previews of new iPhones, Macs and more. Its campaign to plug the holes is apparently extending to threats of legal action, as the leaker known as “Kang” posted to Weibo this week about a notice he received from the company (via MacRumors).Kang currently holds the number one spot on the AppleTrack leaderboard, which attempts to compare the reliability of the information various leakers share, and AppleTrack indicates that other leakers have received similar messages. Prior to the iPhone 12 launch, Kang posted about all four models that Apple had prepared, revealing their prices, colors and planned release dates.A... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft says some of its customer support tools were accessed by the hacking group Nobelium, which was also connected to the separate SolarWinds attack, due to a Microsoft customer service agent’s computer being compromised. Microsoft told Reuters that the agent had limited access, and was able to see things like what services customers used, and their billing contact information. According to Microsoft, the hackers used the info gleaned from the tools to start “highly targeted” attacks on specific Microsoft customers.The attack, Microsoft says, was part of a larger Nobelium campaign largely focused on IT companies and governments throughout the world. The company says it’s reached out to the customers who were affected by the hacking... Continue reading…

Department of Defense/US Navy For those who feel abducted by the recent UFO hype, this one’s for you Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft Microsoft has updated its PC Health Check App to show more information about why your computer won’t be able to run Windows 11, to help deal with some of the confusion that’s sprung up around compatibility. If you’ve already downloaded the app, it should auto-update when you go to run it again, and if you haven’t downloaded it yet you can get it here.

Image: Department of Defense / US Navy An unclassified version of the Pentagon’s report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs, aka UFOs) was sent to Congress on Friday, showing that more than 140 instances of strange sightings by military aircraft remain a mystery. This is the public’s first glance at the 9-page report.Last year, Congress gave the Defense Department a six-month deadline to share classified and unclassified versions of a report on UAPs cataloged by the Pentagon’s UAP Task Force. The task force’s existence was announced in August 2020 and its mission is “to detect, analyze and catalog UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to U.S. national security.” Today marks the deadline.Senate committees received the classified version of the report on June 2nd. And... Continue reading…

Image: Microsoft According to an engineer at Microsoft, Windows 11 users will have the ability to sideload Android apps onto the operating system, which looks like an answer to one of the biggest questions we had when Microsoft announced it was bringing Android apps to Windows 11 via the Amazon Appstore (via Android Police). This means that once Windows 11 launches, you won’t just have to stick to the apps that Amazon makes available, but it does raise some new questions about how running Android apps on Windows will work.For example, it’s unclear what the process for running or installing a sideloaded app will be. Chrome OS technically has the ability to run sideloaded apps, too, but the process isn’t exactly easy, as it involves enabling Linux and... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Smartphones helped popularize the modern gig economy, and a new report from The Wall Street Journal suggests some companies like Premise have found a new way to take advantage of workers trying to make extra money — turning them into unwitting spies for corporate and military clients.As Journal reporter Byron Tau writes, Premise was originally started “to register prices in the developing world and help its customers better understand the needs of the population.” But the company reportedly found even more success having contributors perform TaskRabbit and Mechanical Turk-esque work like completing surveys, taking photos of locations, and walking specific paths, while occasionally scooping up information about nearby Wi-Fi networks and... Continue reading…

internet explorer 9 logo At one point in Windows 10’s lifetime, you could have had Internet Explorer, the legacy version of Microsoft Edge, and the new Chromium-powered Edge all installed. This trio of browsers was the perfect illustration of Microsoft’s struggles with the web over the past decade, but now that Internet Explorer is being laid to rest in 2022, it’s disappearing from Windows 11, too.Microsoft revealed yesterday that Internet Explorer will be “disabled” in Windows 11. At first, I was worried that it meant Internet Explorer might hang around ahead of the final nail in its coffin on June 15th, 2022, but it’s actually fully disappearing from Windows 11. “The Internet Explorer 11 desktop application will not be available on Windows 11. Microsoft Edge... Continue reading…

Microsoft’s Windows operating system has been a major presence in the computer industry for decades. Currently, PCs loaded with Windows 10 are being manufactured and sold by a variety of companies in an even wider variety of models. Come the 2021 holiday season, we can expect that PCs will be shipping with Microsoft’s new Windows 11 — and if your current system is compatible, you will be able to upgrade to the new free OS.This abundance of choice has its advantages and disadvantages. While on the one hand, it means you can get a system that is exactly tailored to your needs, it also means you need to do some research before deciding on which Windows device is right for you. And while the operating system’s flexibility is an advantage,... Continue reading…

Microsoft announced yesterday that Windows 11 will require TPM (Trusted Platform Module) chips on existing and new devices. It’s a significant hardware change that has been years in the making, but Microsoft’s messy way of communicating this has left many confused about whether their hardware is compatible. What is a TPM, and why do you need one for Windows 11 anyway?“The Trusted Platform Modules (TPM) is a chip that is either integrated into your PC’s motherboard or added separately into the CPU,” explains David Weston, director of enterprise and OS security at Microsoft. “Its purpose is to protect encryption keys, user credentials, and other sensitive data behind a hardware barrier so that malware and attackers can’t access or tamper... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google will now tell users when search results are rapidly changing around a breaking story. Some searches will now bring up a warning that “it looks like these results are changing quickly,” and a subheading will explain that “if this topic is new, it can sometimes take time for results to be added by reliable sources.” In a blog post, the company suggests that users might want to check back later when it’s found more results.The notice is initially appearing on US-based English-language results “when a topic is rapidly evolving and a range of sources hasn’t yet weighed in.” Google will expand the tool’s presence to other markets in the coming months.“While Google Search will always be there with the most useful results we can... Continue reading…

On Thursday, we saw the official reveal of Windows 11 at Microsoft’s event, which showed off a redesign of the Microsoft operating system — including a replaced Start menu, updated app store, and lots more.This week on The Verge’s flagship podcast, The Vergecast, we dedicate a majority of the show to talk about Windows 11. Co-hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn and Verge senior editor Tom Warren discuss the biggest changes from Windows 10 to 11, the complications of bringing Android apps to Windows with Amazon’s app store, and how Microsoft’s stance on being an open platform has evolved among the other tech giants.We also have a sort of companion piece to this week’s show: Nilay spoke with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on our other... Continue reading…

Photo by Jeff Halstead/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Wickr, the encrypted messaging app founded in 2012, has been purchased by Amazon, the company announced today. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.“We’re excited to share that AWS has acquired Wickr, an innovative company that has developed the industry’s most secure, end-to-end encrypted, communication technology,” Stephen Schmidt, Amazon Web Services’ vice president, wrote. With a nod to the company's ever-deepening relationships with the military, and Washington in general, Schmidt added that Wickr’s features give “security conscious enterprises and government agencies the ability to implement important governance and security controls to help them meet their compliance requirements.” Schmidt himself has a background in this... Continue reading…

Ever since Marshmello first took the virtual stage in Fortnite, developer Epic Games has experimented with different ways to bring music into the game. That could mean a gigantic Travis Scott stomping around the battle royale island or even building a separate space dedicated explicitly to live performances. This week’s musical experience featuring English band Easy Life is yet another new technique: a strange world built in Fortnite’s creative mode. It might be the trippiest virtual concert yet.It starts out normal enough. Players are ushered into a virtual re-creation of The O2 Arena in London, where the band welcomes you via gigantic screen. From there, things get progressively weirder. First, you’re pushed into a room that slowly... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is probing whether Amazon and Google broke consumer laws by failing to take action against fake reviews on their sites, the agency announced Friday.“We are investigating concerns that Amazon and Google have not been doing enough to prevent or remove fake reviews to protect customers and honest businesses,” Andrea Coscelli, the CMA’s chief executive, said in a statement. “Our worry is that millions of online shoppers could be misled by reading fake reviews and then spending their money based on those recommendations.” She added that it was unfair to businesses that adhere to the rules if other businesses can give their own products fake 5-star reviews.An Amazon spokesperson said in an... Continue reading…

The big Windows 11 leak earlier this month was never part of Microsoft’s plan. Developers at the company have spent the majority of the pandemic working from home and secretly building a new version of Windows that’s designed for a post-pandemic era. “It didn’t really leak. It was some early weird build,” says Microsoft’s Windows and devices chief Panos Panay in an interview with The Verge. “It didn’t matter, when something like that gets out incomplete, you’re like: okay.”Panay describes it as just another test of patience in the distinctive journey of how Windows 11 came to be. Just months before the pandemic began, Panay stood onstage and introduced the world to two new dual-screen devices: the Surface Neo and Surface Duo. These were... Continue reading…

Photo by CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT/AFP via Getty Images In fits and starts, the US is reopening — in many cases to the chagrin of office workers who have settled into work-from-wherever setups they’ve had the past 16-ish months to perfect. And given the willingness of many of those same workers to quit rather than go back to full-time cubicle life, many companies have offered some form of “hybrid” arrangement as a compromise.It seems that benefit isn’t being extended to all workers, though. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft were short on concrete answers as to which contingent workers — which comprise sizable, sometimes majority portions of their workforce, and perform functions from hospitality and security to content moderation and coding — if any would be allowed to work... Continue reading…

Bose Noise Canceling Headphones 700 | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge If you’re in the market for a set of headphones, a security camera, phone charger, or other gear and don’t mind buying something that’s certified refurbished, eBay is taking an additional 15 percent off the price of many items (up to $150) with a coupon code. You can view everything that qualifies here; we’ve highlighted some of our favorites below.In addition, we’ve got a selection of new headphones, smart thermostats, smartwatches, and more in today’s roundup, so there should be something for almost everyone.

Photo by Craig Barritt / Getty Images for BuzzFeed From surfing Facebook’s wake to trying to get big enough for a better deal Continue reading…

If you’re on the Un-carrier, the N200 offers 5G and a high-quality screen for the right price. Continue reading…

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge The Lucid Air has been in the works for a very long time, nearly a decade by some accounts. The first time I rode in the 1,000-horsepower electric sedan was in Las Vegas in 2017, when Lucid Motors had an engineering prototype on hand at the Consumer Electronics Show. I rode in the Air again just this past Monday, in a near-final version of the massive, roomy vehicle. Suffice to say, it was better the second time around.In the four years between then and now, the EV startup struggled to raise money and very nearly went out of business. But thanks to a timely investment from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, in which it put up its own intellectual property as collateral, and a recent SPAC deal that will leave the company with $4.4... Continue reading…

Android TV on the go Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Microsoft wants to make Windows 11 more flexible and open Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The first COVID-19 vaccines were barely in the arms of doctors and nurses in the United States before people started wondering what might come next. The vaccines would keep them safe, but for how long? Would variants make them less effective? Would everyone need a booster shot in a year or in two years? Could some people get away without that boost?Those questions were front and center at this week’s meeting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). The group isn’t making recommendations around COVID-19 vaccine boosters yet, but the discussion shows how leading health experts are thinking through the issues.Here’s what we know so far: the vaccines authorized in the United... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The world is waiting to see whether the United States Congress, and a US judge, crack down on Big Tech’s monopoly power and decide the future of Apple’s App Store. I don’t think readers have ever cared so much about revenue share, market definition, and anti-steering rules.So it’s a wild time for Microsoft to be pitching the tech industry on a new-and-improved app store, too. Remember, this is the company that famously got sued in the ‘90s for bundling Internet Explorer with its operating system, dominating the nascent web browser market, Some might say it’s up to its old tricks with the new Windows 11 — which similarly bundles the company’s Microsoft Teams video chat and collaboration software at the potential expense of rivals like... Continue reading…

Microsoft’s new app store on Windows 11. Microsoft’s surprise change to Windows 11 is a much more open approach to its Windows store, and it could mean we see Steam games listed in the future. This new open approach sees many changes to the Windows app store, including Microsoft connecting up to Amazon’s Appstore to list Android apps and allowing developers to keep 100 percent of their revenue by using third-party payment platforms. Microsoft also wants other alternative app stores, like Steam and Epic Games Store, to be part of this new Windows app store.“Windows already in many ways hosts those stores, and if we can host it through the Microsoft Store then of course,” says Windows and device chief Panos Panay, in an interview with The Verge. “For sure, it means as others... Continue reading…

Windows 11 is arriving later this year as a free upgrade for Windows 10 users, but many are discovering that their hardware isn’t compatible. Microsoft has altered its minimum hardware requirements, and it’s the CPU changes that are most surprising here. Windows 11 will only officially support 8th Gen and newer Intel Core processors, alongside Apollo Lake and newer Pentium and Celeron processors.That potentially rules out millions of existing Windows 10 devices from upgrading to Windows 11 with full support, and even devices like Microsoft’s own Surface Studio 2 which the company is still selling right now for $3,499. Older devices that aren’t officially supported will be met with a warning during the Windows 11 install that the upgrade... Continue reading…

Google’s announcement about Fi’s VPN coming to iPhone. | Image: Google Google Fi’s VPN service has started rolling out to subscribers on iPhone, the company has announced. The feature, which routes your phone’s internet traffic through an encrypted connection to protect your privacy, has been available on Android since launching in beta in November 2018. The launch comes a little later than Google’s previously announced “spring” release date, but it’s close.In a followup tweet Google says not all iPhone users will have access to the feature straight away, but that it will be widely available “over the coming weeks.” To turn the feature on, 9to5Google notes that you should make sure your Fi companion app is updated to the latest version, and then head to “Phone Settings” in the main Account tab. From there... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram is testing the ability to create posts using the web browser on a desktop computer. The feature was spotted by social media consultant Matt Navarra, who captured some screenshots demonstrating the functionality.Facebook confirmed the test in a statement to Bloomberg. “We know that many people access Instagram from their computer,” spokesperson Christine Pai said. “To improve that experience, we’re now testing the ability to create a Feed post on Instagram with their desktop browser.”

Google While Microsoft previews its next OS, Google is displaying a new look for Contacts. According to the company this Circles-style extra information is “a new experience for Google Contacts which will help Google Workspace users learn more about their colleagues.”In practice, it displays your organizational chart as a part of the Contacts UI as well as your history with a particular person, including both emails and meetings. Keeping things cleanly organized in order to “easily learn more about your colleagues and stakeholders” sounds good. The only problem is that something makes it feel one step away from the bad old days of the early 2010s, when Google forced Google Plus sorting and feeds onto everyone. Events spam and “Email from... Continue reading…

Image: WD product overview If you own a WD My Book Live NAS, you should immediately disconnect it from your network — users have discovered that their data has seemingly been deleted off the device, with no action on their part (via Ars Technica). In a post on its community forum, WD says that the data loss appears to be the result of “malicious software,” and advises any My Book Live or My Book Live Duo owners to disconnect their devices from the internet to protect their data.Some users on WD’s forum report that their devices appear to have been factory reset, while others report seeing a page requesting a password they don’t know.In most cases, those who have been affected say that all of the data on the device appears to be gone, with their file structure... Continue reading…