The Verge

iPhone XR | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge As a slew of new iPhones come in, several models go out. This year, Apple pulled the plug on a couple of familiar standbys to make room for the iPhone 13, as MacRumors points out.The iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max have disappeared from Apple’s online store outside of refurb models. This is customary for Pro models when the lineup is refreshed, even though they’ve been shipping for less than a year. If you absolutely must spend more than $1,000 on a brand-new iPhone that isn’t the iPhone 13 (or you love that dark blue colorway), your options today are carriers and third-party retail shops.While the devices are likely to appear as cut-rate options at places like Woot from time to time, Apple’s retail option cuts out the option of buying... Continue reading…

The most 2021 gaming apparel yet | Razer What makes a gamer? I’ll tell you. It’s having the right attitude, the skills to dominate, and of course, the right tech. You won’t get ahead without the best, well, you name it.Razer has already produced gaming monitors, headsets, mice, keyboards, toasters, Chroma-enabled mug holders, chairs, controllers, plush animals, clothing, laptops, desktops, headphones, glasses that are also headphones, and truthfully, a lot more. If you’re still not getting the results you’ve worked for? Don’t worry, the company somehow still isn’t at a loss as to what to put out next to maximize your potential. Razer Pros know that this is elite form The latest essential gamer gear is hardcore thimbles that cost $9.99, with two... Continue reading…

Image: Apple Apple’s big product event today was all about iPhones, iPads, and the latest generation of its smartwatch — but make no mistake, it also underscored Apple’s increasingly aggressive push to dominate streaming.Apple wasted no time on Tuesday showcasing its quickly expanding and award-winning roster of originals on Apple TV Plus, with Apple boss Tim Cook kicking off the “California Streaming” event with a highlight reel of fall premieres and soon-to-debut titles. Cook gave a nod to the more than 130 wins and 500-plus award nominations for the service’s original films and series since launching in 2019, taking time to specifically herald the success of critical darling Ted Lasso, which recently swooped up a record-breaking 20 Emmy... Continue reading…

The Campaign to Organize Digital Employees, known as CODE-CWA, has filed suit against Activision Blizzard for unfair labor practices.As first reported by Protocol, this new suit, filed with the National Labor Relations Board, alleges Activision Blizzard engaged in intimidation and coercive tactics as employees fought to openly discuss pay discrepancy and their desire to end forced arbitration. CODE-CWA, a digital workers rights and labor organizer, filed the suit on behalf of A Better ABK — a group of Activision Blizzard employees working toward improving working conditions at what is one of the largest video game publishers in the US.In July, the state of California sued Activision Blizzard for enabling a culture of “constant... Continue reading…

The iPhone 13 lineup. | Image: Apple Apple just finished its “California Streaming” event, and it announced a whole lot of new products, including the iPhone 13 lineup of smartphones, Apple Watches with bigger screens, and new iPads.If you’re looking for a quick recap of the biggest news from the show, we’ve got you covered right here. Image: Apple The iPhone 13. The iPhone 13 has a familiar design with a smaller notch Apple’s new iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini look very similar to the iPhone 12 but have a smaller notch and a diagonal camera array. They’re equipped with the new A15 Bionic chip and have an improved dual-camera system on the back. Apple is also promising longer battery life than the iPhone 12.The iPhone 13 Mini starts at $729, and... Continue reading…

Apple is releasing the next version of its smartwatch operating system, watchOS 8, on September 20th. The company first introduced the new free update at WWDC 2021 and has been testing it in public beta over the summer alongside iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey.watchOS 8 is a modest change to the Apple Watch, but it still has some nice additions. Apple is adding support for new iOS 15 features like Focus mode for more granular control over app notifications and new types of keys and ID cards in Apple Wallet.The new watchOS is also getting new watchfaces to take advantage of the Apple Watch Series 7’s larger screen and new workout types for Pilates and tai chi (along with other updates to Apple Fitness Plus). The Apple Watch is... Continue reading…

Photo by Chaim Gartenberg Apple says it’s releasing iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 on September 20th. The company announced the new free operating system updates at WWDC 2021 earlier in June and offered public betas over the summer.Both of the new versions of iOS and iPadOS offer a grab bag of features. The headliners include changes to notifications like the addition of notification summaries, Focus modes for creating distinct lists of apps and notifications allowed to reach users at different times of the day, improvements to FaceTime that include the ability to invite Android and Windows users to calls for the first time, and a new look for Safari.A features grab bagOn the iPad, iPadOS 15 finally brings iOS 14 features like the app library and resizable widgets, and... Continue reading…

Apple announced its new iPhone 13 Pro handset today during the company’s California Streaming event. It’s the first iPhone to ship with 1TB of storage as an option, allowing owners to store double the maximum capacity of 512GB on the regular iPhone 13.Apple has previously offered 1TB for iPad storage but has kept the 512GB maximum on the iPhone Pro side until today. Rumors had suggested we’d get a 1TB iPhone this year, and it comes two years after Samsung shipped its Galaxy S10 Plus with a 1TB storage option for $1,600.Apple is also bumping iPhone storage on the standard models. The base iPhone 13 model will now ship with 128GB instead of the 64GB storage found on the iPhone 12.Apple’s iPhone Pro 13 will start at $999 and is shipping... Continue reading…

With a design that’s largely similar to last year’s phones, Apple is leaning on big upgrades inside the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro lineups to get people excited. Some of the most substantial improvements to the 2021 iPhones are found in the camera(s), and the company today announced several new features that will produce better still photographs and videos on the iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Mini, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max.The first is a new “cinematic mode” for video that replicates the rack focus effect commonly seen in movies. The iPhone 13 smoothly transitions between forefront and background focus based on what’s occurring in the frame. The system is intelligent enough to change focus when a subject looks away from the phone.... Continue reading…

Image: Apple Apple has announced a Group Workouts feature for Apple Fitness Plus. Fitness Plus will also be coming to 15 new countries, including Brazil, France, Mexico, and Russia, and workouts will be getting subtitles in six languages. There are new workouts, including guided meditation, Pilates, and programs to help you prepare for winter sports like skiing and snowboarding.Group Workouts will let Fitness Plus subscribers do a workout with a friend (or a group of up to 32 people), starting it through an iMessage or FaceTime call. On your screen, you’ll be able to see both the instructor and the people with whom you’re sharing the workout. (Hopefully Apple will include an option to turn your camera off if it gets too embarrassing.) You’ll also... Continue reading…

Image: Amazon Amazon has announced that most recent Kindles will be getting a new simpler UI through a software update (via Ars Technica). The update mainly focuses on navigation, adding a bar to the bottom of the screen that lets you jump between the Home screen, the book you’re currently reading, and the Library screen. Some have had the update for a few weeks, but Amazon has announced that the update will be rolling out widely over the next few weeks.The way you access the Kindle’s quick settings (which let you turn on airplane mode, adjust brightness, and more) has also changed. You now get access to the menu by swiping down from the top of the screen, instead of tapping a button.Amazon says more changes will be coming later this year, with an... Continue reading…

Well-designed, but far too expensive for most people Continue reading…

The anatomical heart and lungs emoji, as seen on iOS. | Image: Apple/Emojipedia The medical world needs more emoji, according to Shuhan He, an emergency medicine physician who helped propose the anatomical heart and lungs emoji. Now, He and others have laid out the case for an even larger variety of health-related emoji, which they argue could improve communication between doctors and patients.In recent years, emoji related to medicine and health — like stethoscopes, hearing aids, bones, and microbes — have made their way into the Unicode Standard. In commentary published last week in JAMA, He and his co-authors hope Unicode will approve more emoji that could be used in medical contexts, including emoji for more organs, like the stomach, liver, and intestines, and equipment like an IV bag, CT scan, and pill pack.... Continue reading…

Android 12 may be released on October 4th, according to an internal document shared by XDA Developers. The next version of Google’s mobile operating system features the new Material You visual design and has been in public beta since May.The document is used by Google to inform OEM partners when it will stop approving software builds for the various versions of Android (which it does for every software update to maintain compatibility with Google Mobile Services), according to XDA Developers. October 4th is the date Google lists as the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) release of Android 12 in the document. XDA editor-in-chief Mishaal Rahman notes that these AOSP release dates typically fall on the same day as the launch of a stable... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge President Joe Biden is expected to nominate privacy hawk Alvaro Bedoya to the Federal Trade Commission, as first reported by Axios on Monday.Bedoya is a professor at Georgetown University’s law school, focusing on privacy law. If confirmed, he would replace current Democratic Commissioner Rohit Chopra, who was nominated to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau earlier this year. In 2014, Bedoya founded Georgetown’s Center on Privacy and Technology. He also served as chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law under the chairmanship of Sen. Al Franken (D-MN).Bedoya’s expected nomination comes at a time when the FTC has faced heightened scrutinyA naturalized immigrant from Peru, Bedoya... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple is still weighing whether to appeal last week’s Epic v. Apple antitrust ruling, the company said today. In a call with reporters, a representative said Apple was still evaluating its legal options and had not made a decision about its next steps. The position contrasts sharply with Epic, which announced yesterday that it intends to appeal.Apple reiterated a position it took last week, casting the ruling as a near-total victory. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers dismissed nine of Epic’s 10 claims, including ones that would have required iOS to allow third-party app stores and payment processors. She ordered Epic to pay damages for breaching its developer contract. Apple also doesn’t have to return Epic’s hit game Fortnite to the iOS App... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On September 10th, a verdict finally arrived in Epic v. Apple, and it has left the App Store model in a precarious state. Epic wanted to do away with the system entirely, breaking Apple’s control over software distribution on iOS — but the ruling stopped well short of that. Instead, we got an ambiguously worded injunction that seems to open the door to developers skirting Apple’s commission system — or at least making it easier to use non-Apple payment methods outside their apps.In the immediate aftermath of the ruling, Apple pushed to cast it as a victory — and Epic seemed sure it had lost. It’s understandable: until we see how Apple reacts and how the court looks on Epic’s recent appeal, it’s hard to know for sure what the injunction... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook maintains an expansive program that exempts athletes, politicians, and other high-profile users from its typical moderation process, according to The Wall Street Journal. The program is reportedly meant to stop “PR fires,” or bad press caused by pulling down photos, posts, and other content from high-profile users that should have been allowed to stay up. In reality, the program just lets these users break the rules in ways that would have gotten most people into trouble, according to the report.The program is known as XCheck, or “cross check,” and it’s ostensibly meant to provide additional quality control around moderation when it comes to high-profile users, according to the Journal. Posts from users flagged for XCheck are... Continue reading…

Zoom plans to expand its support for automatic live transcriptions with the addition of live translation, and turn its whiteboard feature into a more of a fully-featured app, among several other changes the company announced at its Zoomtopia conference on Monday.Automatic live transcriptions / closed captions in English were announced to be coming to free Zoom accounts in February 2021. Now Zoom says it “plans to provide real-time transcription for (as many as 30 additional languages) by the end of next year.” As part of that push, Zoom will also offer translation services for paid accounts, with the plan “to support real-time translation across as many as 12 languages by the end of next year.” Zoom wasn’t able to share details about... Continue reading…

Litecoin spiked Monday after a false press release claimed Walmart would accept the cryptocurrency | Photo Illustration by Avishek Das/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images The Litecoin cryptocurrency saw its price spike by as much as 20 percent on Monday after a fake press release claimed Walmart would begin accepting Litecoin as payment.The press release posted to GlobeNewswire linked to a non-functioning website, and there was no evidence of any Securities and Exchange Commission filing, which would have been expected since Walmart is publicly traded. Walmart’s official newsroom never included the release, and the company typically uses Business Wire to distribute releases.Several news outlets published reports based on the hoax press release, and a short time later Litecoin’s price jumped, along with those of other cryptocurrencies, before quickly falling back to the previous levels.It’s not yet... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge You’re on Instagram looking for your best friend’s daily dog update, but you have to scroll endlessly through a sea of posts you care little about, and probably forget what you’re looking for in the first place. After a few extra annoyed scrolls, you close the app in frustration.It seems Instagram is well aware of your plight, because it is quietly testing out a solution for your messy feed called “Favorites.”According to Alessandro Paluzzi, a mobile developer who first posted about the new feature on Twitter, Favorites lets you categorize your most important Instagram accounts (friends and creators) as your priorities, so that their posts will land “higher” in your feed.

In partnership with The Verge, New York’s cover story looks at how workers are fending for themselves Continue reading…

You can do more with your iPad Pro by connecting it to a wireless keyboard, especially one that features a trackpad to help you navigate more like a traditional laptop. Brydge’s Pro Plus wireless keyboards with a trackpad for the 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro are $50 off at Best Buy. Normally $170, the model built for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro is $120. Naturally, the smaller Brydge Pro Plus for the 11-inch iPad Pro costs a bit less. It’s normally $150, but you’ll pay $100 for it now.The Brydge Pro Plus is one of a few options available that has a backlit keyboard and a trackpad built in. It connects to your tablet via Bluetooth and recharges via USB-C. Read our review.Also seeing a steep discount today are Samsung’s Galaxy Buds... Continue reading…

The first trailer for Disney Plus’ Hawkeye has arrived, giving a first look at the surprisingly whimsical Christmastime adventures of Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) — and his new successor, Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), who also is running around New York City as a preternaturally skilled, purple-clad archer.Hawkeye picks up with the titular character after the events of Avengers: Endgame, which saw Renner’s character flip out into a gothic edgelord style as the murderous vigilante Ronin after his family was wiped from existence in Thanos’ snap. But with things back to normal (and his family restored), Clint just wants to enjoy Christmas with his family: visit New York City, see the new Captain America musical, and enjoy fine dining.... Continue reading…

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Microsoft is holding a Surface event on September 22nd, where “the company will talk about devices and Windows 11.” With Windows 11 set to debut on October 5th, we’re expecting to see four new Surface devices showcasing all the latest software features in the new OS. It won’t be all Windows 11, though. Microsoft will also launch a second version of its Surface Duo Android-powered foldable device next week.The Verge will be covering all of Microsoft’s Surface hardware announcements starting at 11AM ET / 8AM PT on September 22nd, and here’s what to expect. Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge We’re expecting a new Surface Pro for Windows 11. Surface Pro 8The Surface Pro is the main flagship Surface device, and one... Continue reading…

Bluetooth, noise cancellation, volume limiting — these kids’ headphones have it all Continue reading…

A screenshot from Toem. | Image: Something We Made Toem is a delightful game about photography. Its emphasis on exploration and low stakes felt vastly different from another photography game I played this year, New Pokémon Snap. And to my surprise, I enjoyed Toem a lot more.In Toem, developed by Swedish indie studio Something We Made, you play as a character armed with a camera who wanders through a number of different themed areas, such as a forest and a city, taking pictures of what you find along the way. The bulk of your exploration takes place from an isometric point of view, but when you use your camera, the game shifts to a first-person perspective, often giving you a whole new look at the world around you. Image: Something We Made The camera view in T... Continue reading…

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge If you’re an iPhone owner, it’s very possible you’re considering trading up to the latest model, which (when this article was last updated) is likely to be the iPhone 13. However, if your current iPhone is still in good shape, you may be wondering about what to do with it. Should you sell it? Trade it in? Give it away?Well — any of the above. This guide will walk you through the process of preparing your old phone, and what your best alternatives are for disposing of it.Are you transferring to a new iPhone?If you’re transferring to a new iPhone — or even if you’re not — you probably want to back up your phone before you do anything else (see below). Backing up to iCloud is probably easiest — and it also gives you the option of... Continue reading…

Image: Apple Apple’s first fall event is coming up on Tuesday, September 14th, at 1PM ET / 10AM PT, right around the time when the company typically introduces its latest version of the iPhone. Like last year’s iPhone event, Tuesday’s announcements will be entirely digital, in the slick, over-produced style that’s become Apple’s trademark during the pandemic.Rumors suggest a potentially less dramatic set of announcements compared to the iPhone 12’s radical flat-edged design. It does seem like the Apple Watch and AirPods could get some serious attention, though, even if the iPhone 13 looks more or less the same.Keep reading below for a roundup of everything we expect to see at the event, including some long-shot surprises Apple could have in store.... Continue reading…

September 1, 6:30 P.M. Anthony Chavez makes dinner deliveries during Hurricane Ida. Exploited by apps. Attacked by thieves. Unprotected by police. The city’s 65,000 bikers have only themselves to count on. Continue reading…

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Nintendo is lowering the price of its base Switch model across Europe ahead of the OLED version’s launch next month. The Nintendo Switch is now priced at €299.99 in Europe, down €30 from the previous €329.99 pricing. In the UK, Nintendo has adjusted the base model to £259.99, down £20 from the previous £279.99 pricing.The new pricing can be found at Nintendo’s own store, and Eurogamer notes it hasn’t been reflected at other retailers like Amazon just yet. Given the small changes, it’s likely more of a currency-related change in pricing, but it does arrive just under a month before Nintendo’s OLED Switch is due to go on sale.“After carefully weighing up a variety of factors, including currency exchange rates in Europe and the upcoming... Continue reading…

A “Transcript” section lets you skip to different parts of the message. | Image: WABetaInfo WhatsApp is reportedly developing a feature that’ll offer transcriptions of received voice messages, letting you easily read what’s been said without having to play it out loud. The feature spotted by WABetaInfo is currently in development for iOS. It’s unclear when it’ll hit the WhatsApp beta for iPhone users or when it’ll come to Android.According to a screenshot shared by WABetaInfo, the feature works by sending speech data to Apple “to process your requests,” not to parent company Facebook. There’s a disclaimer that this data “will also help Apple improve its speech recognition technology.” It’s unclear how the data “sent to Apple” will be secured since the feature is yet to be officially announced. Currently, voice messages are... Continue reading…

The alien invasion is over, and now Fortnite’s island is... full of cubes. Season 8 of the battle royale’s second chapter just launched and it’s called, simply, “Cubed.” The premise is pretty strange: according to developer Epic, the cubes that used to power the giant alien mothership have now been set free to wreak havoc on the island. As with all new seasons, the update means a combination of new characters, locations, weapons, and even portals to transport players to a monster-filled realm. The launch follows an explosive live event that took place over the weekend.First, here’s the basic story, via Epic:

Neo is back in The Matrix: Resurrections | Warner Bros. The clues were there all along if you were paying attention, but I still gasped at the very big reveal in the latest episode of Ted Lasso. I won’t spoil it except to say: it was very well done from beginning to end, my crush on Roy Kent continues, and I’ve had Somewhere Only We Know in my head all weekend.Trailers! Let’s get right to it because pretty much every one of these trailers is extremely relevant to my interests and I just don’t know how I’m going to find the time to watch everything.The Matrix: ResurrectionsThe first trailer for the fourth Matrix movie has arrived at last along with some robust internet analysis of whaaaaat is going on here. It seems Neo doesn’t know what’s real and isn’t in the Matrix, but maybe he also... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Just weeks after forcing the Groovy Discord music bot offline, Google-owned YouTube is now turning its attention to Rythm, the most popular music bot on Discord. The search giant has sent a cease and desist to the owners of Rythm, a bot that lets Discord users play music from YouTube videos and has more than 560 million users.Google wants the Rythm bot closed down within seven days, and the service is complying by shutting down its bot on September 15th.Rythm is currently installed on more than 20 million Discord servers alone. Rythm has more than 560 million Discord users, and 30 million of them actively use the service each month. Given Discord has 150 million monthly active users, this shutdown is a huge blow to a core feature of... Continue reading…

The latest live Fortnite event saw the return of a familiar friend, with an explosion-filled spectacle involving aliens, cubes, and lots of strange bits of lore. And now that it’s over, the game is down in the lead-up to season 8.Before the event started, players were able to hang out in a sort of holding pen, located on some chunks of farmland floating above the island. They were greeted by the booming voice of Doctor Slone — the main protagonist, or possibly antagonist, of this season — who warned “the aliens are about to start their biggest abduction yet.” In my instance of the game, everyone jumped on top of the same grain silo and danced for 20 minutes before the event actually kicked off.When that happened, players were initially... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Epic Games has filed an appeal to a Friday’s ruling in its lawsuit against Apple, calling on a higher court to reexamine the case and overturn the judge’s ruling.“Notice is hereby given that Epic Games, Inc.... appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from the final Judgment entered on September 10, 2021,” the document reads. Few details are given about the legal basis for Epic’s appeal, but it is likely to continue to press on the federal antitrust allegations dismissed by the court.At trial, Epic argued Apple had a monopoly because of how it requires developers to use its payments system for in-game purchases. But Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled Friday that Epic should pay damages to Apple for violating... Continue reading…

Last year’s iPhone 12 | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Days before Apple’s California Streaming event on September 14th, a new investor report from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says he expects the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max to each have a 1TB storage configuration (h/t 9to5Mac). Kuo also says the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini will have storage configurations of 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB, but no 64GB option.Kuo also said he expects Apple to reveal AirPods 3 at Tuesday’s event, but that Apple will probably keep the AirPods 2 available. He cautions that the iPhone 13 could be affected by supply chain shortages, as has been previously reported, but expects there will be limited impact on iPhone 13 shipments.Previous leaks and rumors have pointed to an iPhone 13 lineup that will include four... Continue reading…

Cook has been singing the praises of AR for five years Continue reading…

Image courtesy of Vicki Behringer Whoever lost, we win Continue reading…

An electric vehicle plugged into a charging station. A new proposal would boost the tax credit for US union-made EVs. Honda and Toyota are criticizing a new proposal by Democratic lawmakers to expand tax credits for electric vehicles, saying it discriminates against non-union auto workers, Reuters reported. Under the proposal, US union-made electric vehicles would qualify for a tax credit of $12,500 per vehicle, while keeping a credit for most other EVs at $7,500. The proposal would significantly favor Big Three US automakers GM, Ford, and Fiat Chrysler over non-union companies such as Tesla and the Japanese carmakers, both of which have plants in the US.US Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Michigan) told Reuters “We want to incentivize this. It puts American manufacturers in the lead, which is where we want them, and it reduces emissions faster than any other... Continue reading…

Salesforce will help workers move if they’re worried about abortion access | Photo by Jeremy Moeller/Getty Images Salesforce has told employees that the company will help them and their families relocate if they’re concerned about abortion access in the state where they live. According to a Slack message obtained by CNBC, the company didn’t refer to any specific state, but the message was sent to thousands of employees late Friday, a day after the US Department of Justice sued Texas over its new abortion law.“These are incredibly personal issues that directly impact many of us — especially women,” the Slack message reads, according to CNBC. “[I]f you have concerns about access to reproductive healthcare in your state, Salesforce will help relocate you and members of your immediate family.”The Slack message didn’t suggest the company was taking a... Continue reading…

Google One now has a 5TB storage plan | Photo by Michele Doying / The Verge After it ended free unlimited storage for Google Photos in June, many Google users had figure out how to store images and other data in the Google accounts. They could keep their Google account stored data under 15GB, or pay for a Google One plan. Options included a 100GB plan for $1.99 per month, a 200GB plan for $2.99 a month, a 2TB plan for $9.99 a month, or a plan with 10TB of storage for $49.99 per month. 20TB and 30TB plans are also available, for $99.99 and $149.99 per month, respectively.Now Google’s introduced a middle option between 2TB and 10TB, as noticed by 9to5Google. The 5TB Google One plan costs $24.99 per month, a good (and less expensive) option for people who want a little more than 2TB but don’t quite need a plan... Continue reading…

Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge Google provided some user data to the government of Hong Kong last year, despite promising it would not process such data requests from authorities, according to the Hong Kong Free Press. The company told the news outlet it “produced some data” in response to three of the 43 requests it received from Hong Kong’s government. Two of the requests had to do with investigations into human trafficking and included search warrants, and a third was an emergency disclosure as part of a credible threat to someone’s life, HKFP reported.The company told HKFP that none of the three responses included users’ content data.Last August, Google said it would stop responding to data requests from Hong Kong’s government, unless the requests were made in... Continue reading…

TCL won’t release a foldable phone in 2021 | Photo by Li Zhihao/VCG via Getty Images Electronics company TCL is pausing its plans release a lower-cost foldable phone this year, the company confirmed in an email to The Verge. Its clamshell-style foldable phone, codenamed Project Chicago, was in mid-development when the company made the decision to put it on indefinite hold. According to TCL the delay is due in part to rising production costs and supply chain shortages.“Although the foldable market is growing each year, it is still a premium product category,” Stefan Streit, chief marketing officer of TCL said in a statement to The Verge. “In combination with recent component shortages, the COVID-19 pandemic and rising costs in foldable production, TCL has made the difficult decision to suspend the launch of its first... Continue reading…

The NFT tickets, seen above, change after they’re scanned. | Image: Dreamverse We can all agree NFTs are kind of weird, so here’s another twist to puzzle over: in November, you’ll be able to see the “inaugural display” of The First 5000 Days, the collage/NFT that Beeple sold for $69 million earlier this year. You can also, obviously, view the image right now, for free, wherever you are, on whatever device you’re using, by searching that title on Google. You could also pull the image up on your TV, or display it on a projector, or print it out, because that’s how digital images work.Here, look, I’m just going to embed a tweet with the image in it:

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook apologized to misinformation researchers for providing them with flawed, incomplete data for their work examining how users interact with posts and links on its platform, the New York Times reported. Contrary to what the company told the researchers, the data Facebook provided apparently only included information for roughly half of its users in the US, not all of them.The Times reported that members of Facebook’s Open Research and Transparency team held a call with researchers on Friday to apologize for the error. Some of the researchers questioned whether the mistake was intentional to sabotage the research, or simply an instance of negligence.The flaw in the data was first discovered by a researcher at Italy’s University... Continue reading…

Photo by Kirstin Sinclair/Getty Images The entertainment industry spends millions researching what we watch and why every year. As climate destruction and a global pandemic make it more difficult to turn away from our social media feeds, CBS has found a new way to exploit these horrors with its show “The Activist.” Doomscrollers are their new audience.According to Deadline, the five-week CBS reality series will “feature six inspiring activists teamed with three high-profile public figures working together to bring meaningful change to one of three vitally important world causes: health, education, and environment.”“The show is perfectly timed”The show is perfectly timed: For the last few years, we have been stuck in a crisis loop. When California catches on fire, the... Continue reading…

Disney will release the rest of its 2021 movies in theaters first | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The remaining movies on Disney’s 2021 slate will all be released in theaters exclusively before being released on its Disney Plus streaming platform, the company announced late Friday.“Following the tremendous box office success of our summer films which included five of the top eight domestic releases of the year, we are excited to update our theatrical plans for the remainder of 2021,” Kareem Daniel, chairman, Disney media & entertainment distribution said in a news release, adding that “confidence in moviegoing continues to improve.”The coronavirus pandemic and temporary closures of movie theaters that began last spring led movie studios to delay the release of many of their films, hoping to allow time for pandemic restrictions to... Continue reading…