The Verge

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Ireland’s High Court has dismissed Facebook’s bid to block a European Union privacy regulation — created by the Irish Data Protection Commission (IDPC) — that could interrupt the flow of data from the EU to the US, The Wall Street Journal reports.Facebook first appealed the order in part because it claimed the Commission and the EU’s other privacy regulators were moving too quickly and hadn’t given the company appropriate time to respond. Facebook also told The Verge the IDPC’s privacy order “would have damaging consequences for the European economy.” Irish officials clearly didn’t share the same concerns.The IDPC originally created the new privacy order because Facebook and other international companies often store EU residents’ data... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple might have bigger plans for next week than initially thought. The new iMac, iPad Pro, and Apple TV 4K are all set to start shipping to early preorder customers on or around May 21st, but now it seems there could be two surprise announcements: a hi-fi streaming tier of Apple Music, and maybe even AirPods 3.The Apple Music part seems extremely likely when you factor in a report from 9to5Google. Digging into the latest Apple Music for Android beta app, they discovered direct references to high-resolution audio that didn’t exist previouslyThese are the prompts found in the app’s code, though they’re not user-facing quite yet:

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge One of Waymo’s fully autonomous minivans got stuck at an intersection in Chandler, Arizona, prompting the company to send a roadside assistance team to come extract it. But when the crew arrived, the vehicle started to drive away before pulling over and completely blocking a three-lane road. It was a rare moment captured on video of one of Waymo’s driverless vehicles performing erratically.The incident was recorded from inside the vehicle by Joel Johnson, who publishes videos on YouTube under the handle JJRicks Studios about his experiences using Waymo’s Level 4 autonomous vehicles, which operate without a safety driver behind the wheel. Johnson’s video is a rare unedited look at what happens when one of the world’s most proficient... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge BuzzFeed News has published a great story that looks at the cultural phenomenon that was on display when that picture of a mile-long Starbucks order (which included over 18 pumps of flavor) went viral earlier this month. It explores both the phenomenon of people ordering more customizations when using apps (something I know I’ve fallen prey to myself, though nowhere close to the extent displayed in the photo), as well as the world of TikTok Starbucks influencers.Wait, what? Starbucks influencers? If you, like me, had never heard of this corner of the internet, be prepared to read about TikTok teens and even some Starbucks employees on the platform coming up with drink recipes that can become so popular that some employees estimate they... Continue reading…

Images show what could become Samsung’s least expensive 5G phone, nabbing the A32 5G’s title. | Image: 91mobiles A new batch of leaked images shows what could become Samsung’s least expensive 5G phone yet: the Galaxy A22 5G. The Galaxy A32 5G currently holds that title at an already low $279. The images come from 91mobiles and match up with previous leaks hinting that the phone might be on its way with a 200,000 KRW price (~$180), though it may be only destined for India and parts of Asia in the immediate future.The leaked images show two variants — 5G and 4G versions — with two slightly varied sets of specs. The 5G model will allegedly have a 6.4-inch LCD and a rear triple-camera array (probably a 48-megapixel main / macro / depth sensor combo). A MediaTek Dimensity 700 chipset looks likely, thanks to a previous Geekbench leak, plus a substantial... Continue reading…

Indie game storefront Itch.io is waiving sales fees on everything today, May 14th, as part of the company’s first Creator Day. Anyone selling things on the diverse storefront (which includes everything from indie games to music to entire magazines) will be able to keep “100 percent of sales after taxes and payment processor fees.” It’s similar to Bandcamp’s monthly creator program Bandcamp Fridays (although Itch.io hasn’t said on what schedule it’ll run the promotion in the future).Itch.io is beloved by creators for being relatively easy to use and generally more transparent than other bigger game storefronts like Steam. It also takes a smaller cut than most other online game platforms: Itch.io traditionally only asks for 10 percent of... Continue reading…

Photo by Nilay Patel / The Verge Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where co-hosts Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn discuss the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories.This week on The Vergecast, Nilay and Dieter talk with Verge senior reporter Adi Robertson about the second week of the Epic Games v. Apple trial, which involved a lot of arguing over the definition of a game and whether a banana should wear clothing.Both Nilay and Verge writer Monica Chin have tried to use Starlink, Elon Musk’s space-based ISP. The results have been middling — and infuriating if you think too much about why everybody is so excited for Starlink in the first place. Plus, Monica has the details on Intel’s newest Tiger... Continue reading…

Walmart DTD 555 Contrary to published reports, Walmart confirmed in an email to The Verge on Friday that it has not suspended the sale of any trading cards, including the Pokémon cards that Target recently took off its shelves. There have been reports on social media of people seeing signs at Walmart stores indicating that the retailer would also no longer be selling the cards in stores, but it appears that’s not official policy.There’s been a bit of a mania around Pokémon cards, and trading cards in general lately, with card rating companies being buried in “an avalanche of cardboard” as collectors try to up the value of their cards with an official grade. Apparently, the collectors’ market has people excited about buying new cards: the Pokémon... Continue reading…

Northern right whale.Eubalaena glacialis.Courting group. Several males approach a female (on left). Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick, Canada. | Photo by: Francois Gohier/VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Adorable drone footage came out last week showing two right whales touching bellies and wrapping their flippers around each other — appearing to “hug.” It was a moment rarely caught on camera. Scientists still aren’t exactly sure what that behavior really means, but the moment is a window into the dramatic world of whale sex and conservation.The video that’s been released to the public was just one snippet of a series of footage from two drones that was captured on February 28th in Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts. The team documenting what happened that day included veterinarian and senior scientist Michael Moore from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), National Geographic photographer Brian Skerry, and Amy Knowlton from the... Continue reading…

There’s something about the Nintendo Switch that makes it a great fit for murder mystery stories. Just like a good novel, these are games best enjoyed while curled up in a comfy chair with a warm drink, ideally when it’s dark and rainy outside. That’s one of the reasons why games like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and Murder By Numbers are best enjoyed on Nintendo’s tablet, which lets you play wherever you want. It’s also what makes the Famicom Detective Club series so interesting — a pair of long-lost titles from the ‘80s that have been given a fresh new life.There are two titles launching today: The Missing Heir and a prequel called The Girl Who Stands Behind. Though they look new, these games were first released in 1988 and 1989,... Continue reading…

Photo illustration by William Joel / The Verge Great gift ideas for those graduating into college and adulthood Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google I/O, the company’s big developer conference, is back after being canceled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The keynote kicks off on Tuesday, May 18th, at 1PM ET / 10AM PT, and it will likely be packed with news about Google products.In the keynote’s official description, Google is unsurprisingly coy about what might be announced: “Tune in to find out about how we’re furthering our mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” But we can make a few educated guesses about what could be shown off at the event. Read on to find out what to expect from the big show.We’ll likely learn a lot more about Android 12 Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge G... Continue reading…

Starlink’s Dishy McDishface satellite dish. SpaceX’s satellite internet service is a technological marvel — when it works Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The second-generation Apple Pencil, released in 2018, that can magnetically attach to the iPad Pro and iPad Air tablets that feature USB-C ports is $20 off at Woot. It’s a relatively small discount on its usual $129 price, but it seems like the best deal on the stylus happening right now. Compared to the infamous first iteration that can only recharge by plugging into a Lightning port, endangering itself while also looking very silly, this one charges wirelessly through the side of the iPad Pro or Air. It also supports gesture controls on the side of the Apple Pencil.Resident Evil Village was the biggest game released last week, and you can already get a hearty $15 discount on the Steam PC version through digital storefront Eneba. If... Continue reading…

The new DualSense controller comes in two iterations: Midnight Black and Cosmic Red (pictured). | Image: Sony With the PlayStation 5, Sony opted for a less traditional color scheme, one that ditched the classic jet-black exterior found on earlier PlayStation consoles in favor of a black-and-white finish. For some, the new exterior was an acquired taste, as was the matching aesthetic found on the accompanying DualSense controller.On Thursday, however, the company announced two new color schemes for the DualSense — at least for those lucky enough to have landed a PS5 console amid the ongoing supply shortages. Dubbed “midnight black” and “cosmic red,” both controllers offer the same features as the standard DualSense, including a built-in microphone, haptic feedback, and adaptive triggers designed to make games more immersive.Right now, both... Continue reading…

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge The biggest government fleet is about to start turning over — but the replacements aren’t as green as many hoped Continue reading…

Katy Perry’s latest video features an electric rat. The pop star released her new video for the single “Electric,” which is a surprisingly charming coming-of-age story about growing up with Pikachu as a best friend. It features a young Perry and her Pichu struggling early on in her career, while the current version of the star and Pikachu watch on, A Christmas Carol-style. (In a curious twist, the video was directed by Carlos López Estrada, who also wrote and directed Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon.)It may sound like a strange crossover, but it’s all part of Pokémon’s music-focused 25th anniversary celebration. Previously, Post Malone released a baffling cover of Hootie and the Blowfish’s 1992 hit “Only Wanna Be With You,” which was... Continue reading…

Veritone’s Marvel.AI platform will let celebrities and influencers create AI copies of their voices. | Image: Veritone Recording advertisements and product endorsements can be lucrative work for celebrities and influencers. But is it too much like hard work? That’s what US firm Veritone is betting. Today, the company is launching a new platform called Marvel.AI that will let creators, media figures, and others generate deepfake clones of their voice to license as they wish.“People want to do these deals but they don’t have enough time to go into a studio and produce the content,” Veritone president Ryan Steelberg tells The Verge. “Digital influencers, athletes, celebrities, and actors: this is a huge asset that’s part of their brand.”With Marvel.AI, he says, anyone can create a realistic copy of their voice and deploy it as they see fit. While... Continue reading…

A Samsung laptop you might actually want Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Dolby Vision gaming is arriving on the Xbox Series X and S for testers who are a part of the Xbox Insider’s “alpha ring” group. This HDR format offers an upgraded set of features like support for dynamic metadata. Microsoft says the feature means “brighter highlights, sharper contrast, and more vibrant colors” in games when you’re playing on a Dolby Vision-compatible TV, offering “better clarity in both light and dark scenes.” The consoles currently support HDR via the less advanced HDR10 standard.We’ve known Microsoft’s current generation of Xboxes would support Dolby’s HDR standard since before the consoles’ release. Last September, Dolby announced that they’d be “the first consoles to support the Dolby Vision HDR format with dynamic... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google has filed an amicus brief to protect a program that allows the spouses of H-1B visa holders to work in the United States. The brief has been signed by numerous tech giants including Apple, Amazon, Twitter, and Microsoft.The tech industry has long relied on foreign talent to fill the gaps in its workforce. In 2020, Google and Amazon were among the top sponsors of H-1B visas, which are reserved for highly skilled workers.Under President Trump, the program came under fire. The former president drastically boosted denial rates of H-1B applications, as reported by the Seattle Times. He also went after H-4 visas, which are reserved for the spouses of people with H-1B status. Trump threatened to ban H-4 visa holders — a group that is... Continue reading…

Balmuda, a Japanese design company known for its stylish appliances, has announced plans to make a smartphone. There aren’t many details on the device itself yet, but it’ll be a 5G handset that’s expected to be released in November. SoftBank will sell it as a carrier model, while Balmuda will also offer an unlocked version.In its announcement, Balmuda notes that since the smartphone business is getting increasingly commoditized, the company wants to provide an experience that only it can. However, the actual manufacturing is out of Balmuda’s wheelhouse, so it’s partnering with Kyocera on the phone.Balmuda’s toaster sells for about $235 in JapanBalmuda has a fairly limited product line for the home including air purifiers, humidifiers,... Continue reading…

Image: Google Google is rolling out the ability to access Chat messages right from Gmail to more iOS and Android users, after introducing it as a feature for Google Workspace users last July (via 9to5Google). It’s still a test feature, so getting access to it can take a bit of work, and it may not be available to your depending on your account settings (my colleagues and I were able to enable it on personal accounts, but not our work accounts). If you can get it working, though, you’ll be rewarded with a new tab at the bottom of the Gmail app, giving you access to your IMs.To enable the feature on iOS or Android, open the side menu and scroll down to Settings. If you have multiple accounts, select the one you want, then look for “Chat (early access)”... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Expert testimony continues Continue reading…

Image: Netflix Netflix announced that it’s partnering with Tsuburaya Productions to create a new CG Ultraman movie, in the hopes of bringing the popular Japanese character to an even larger global audience. Ultraman’s never been a household name outside of Japan despite leaving a huge impression on popular culture — the original Ultraman series popularized the “giant man in a suit fights people dressed up as monsters in a model city” genre — but Netflix is hoping to change that.The new CG Ultraman film, besides leaving the franchise’s original live action format, will feature a different version of the character and what sounds like a slightly unusual setup for the plot — Ultraman has undergone “dadification”. Per Tsuburaya Productions’ synopsis:

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Justice, Bloomberg reports, with officials who handle money laundering and tax offenses in particular taking a interest in Binance’s business.Founded in 2017, Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. It’s incorporated in the Cayman Islands and has an office in Singapore. According to Bloomberg, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has been investigating whether Binance allowed Americans to make illegal trades on its platform, by letting them buy derivatives linked to digital tokens. US residents can only purchase these kinds of products from firms registered with the CFTC. Binance has said in... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge TikTok is being sued by a voice actor who claims to be behind its viral text-to-speech feature, but says she never authorized TikTok — or just about anyone, really — to use her voice this way. The lawsuit, filed last week, says Bev Standing’s voice has been used to repeat “foul and offensive language” and that TikTok’s use will cause her “irreparable harm.”It’s unclear how Standing’s voice could have come to be used by TikTok, at least by the lawsuit’s telling. Standing says that she did voice recordings for a text-to-speech feature “several years ago” for a group called the Institute of Acoustics (IOA). Those recordings were meant to be used for translations of Chinese texts as part of a contract with an unnamed Chinese company, the... Continue reading…

The Google Pixel 3 was one of the best Android phones of 2018, and though it might not be the showstopper it once was, it’s a standout if you can find it for the right price. Thankfully, if you’re looking to upgrade or take the plunge into the Android ecosystem, Woot is currently offering a 64GB, unlocked version of the Pixel 3 for $160 — a discount of $240.Despite its age, the Pixel 3 remains more than capable with its Snapdragon 845 processor. The phone lacks a headphone jack and its bezels aren’t exactly small, but it packs a 5.5-inch OLED display and a terrific 12-megapixel rear camera, one capable of capturing vibrant shots and decent low-light photos. The Pixel 3’s dual front-facing cameras even churn out wide-angle selfies, while... Continue reading…

Disney has confirmed that its upcoming releases Free Guy and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will be the company’s first two films to debut exclusively in theaters (on August 13th and September 3rd, respectively).But when they do hit theaters, it’ll be for a far shorter amount of time, with just 45 days of theatrical exclusivity, instead of the traditional 90 days.Shorter windows are the new standardThe studio is by no means the only one: Warner Bros. has already announced that its return to theaters in 2022 will feature a 45-day window; Paramount has said that upcoming blockbuster films like Mission: Impossible 7 will get 45-day windows, while smaller movies will have an even shorter 30-day window. And Universal has signed... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Can you imagine being able to actually search Twitter to find a conversation, instead of just scrolling through endlessly to hopefully find what you’re looking for? That could be a reality for Twitter DMs in the near future.First off, the company’s finally bringing a DM search bar to Android today, nearly two years after it first appeared on iOS. More importantly, it’s going to drastically expand how helpful that bar is by surfacing older conversations and even actual words you’ve typed in those conversations sometime “later this year.” (Currently, you can only search for the names of the people you’ve spoken to.)

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge An Oregon man who authorities say stole and resold customers’ credentials for Netflix and other streaming services has been indicted on fraud charges, the US Attorney’s office announced.According to the indictment, Samuel Joyner and Evan McMahon stole and sold more than 200,000 customer account credentials — for streaming services including Netflix, HBO Max, and Spotify Premium — as part of the operation of an online service called AccountBot. Users of the site paid a subscription fee to obtain others’ credentials for paid streaming services at a lower rate than the services charged.As of March 2019, the service allegedly had some 52,000 customers and offered more than 217,000 stolen streaming account credentials.AccountBot allegedly... Continue reading…

SpaceX plans to have its first Starship test flight to orbit launch from Texas and splash down off the coast of an island in Hawaii, according to a document the company filed with the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday. The orbital flight test would mark the first time SpaceX stacks both elements of its massive Starship system together, the next key development step in its attempt to build a rocket that could one day land on Mars.As outlined in the document, a super heavy booster stage will launch Starship from SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas, facilities and separate in midair nearly three minutes into flight. About five minutes later, that booster stage will return back to Earth and splash down in the Gulf of Mexico — or as... Continue reading…

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge There’s been some buzz recently about how Apple is having problems getting rid of its HomePods, with the now-discontinued Siri speakers still being on sale two months after Apple announced their discontinuation. And yet, the speakers are still $300, which is only slightly lower than their launch price of $350. Apple: it’s time to put them on sale.Here’s an anecdote to show how hard it’s been for Apple to unload these things: I bought a HomePod the day its discontinuation was announced. An online tool tells me that it was made in October 2017, which was before Apple even started selling them in January 2018. That’s pretty rough, especially given that it’s a “space gray” one, seemingly the more popular of the two colors given that the... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge The Italian Competition Authority (ICA) handed Google an approximately $120 million (€100 million) fine today for not letting a third-party charging app on Android Auto in 2019 (via 9to5Google). The case started with a probe into the search giant’s automotive software business, which until October 2020 had limitations around what kinds of apps were allowed to be developed and released for use while driving.Enel Group, an Italian energy company, originally complained in 2019 that Google wouldn’t allow its Enel X Recharge app on Android Auto. The app can help find charging locations for electric cars, a feature Google first added to Google Maps in 2018. Today’s ICA fine is focused on Enel X JuicePass, which is the renamed version of the... Continue reading…

Illustrative image of two commemorative bitcoins seen in front of the Tesla car logo. On Saturday, February 27, 2021, in Dublin, Ireland. | Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images Elon Musk shouldn’t hold his breath waiting for bitcoin to become environmentally friendly enough for Tesla to take it as payment. Musk announced yesterday that Tesla was walking away from the cryptocurrency because of the fossil fuels used for bitcoin mining and transactions. In the announcement, he left the door open for Tesla to accept bitcoin again if mining the cryptocurrency eventually runs on “more sustainable energy.” But some experts caution that renewable energy is not a silver bullet for bitcoin’s sustainability problem.

A woman receives a vaccine in a Pennsylvania clinic. | Photo by Preston Ehrler / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images People who are fully vaccinated can shed their masks and gather indoors or outdoors without worrying about social distancing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced today.“If you were fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic. We have all longed for this moment, when we can get back to some sense of normalcy,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky said in a press conference today.People are considered to be fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving their final dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.There are a few caveats. Vaccinated people who are immunocompromised should talk to their doctor before getting rid of their masks, Walensky said. Certain settings will... Continue reading…

Photo by Hanna Lassen/Getty Images At the end of March, Netflix acquired the rights to two Knives Out sequels in a blockbuster deal reportedly worth more than $400 million, and the cast for the first sequel is quickly shaping up to be as epic as the one for the original movie.We got the first inkling about the new cast on Monday, when Deadline reported that Dave Bautista was joining the cast of the film. (He talked about his role with Polygon’s Tasha Robinson in an interview published on Tuesday.) Then, on Tuesday, Deadline had another scoop, reporting that Ed Norton has signed on as well. On Wednesday, The Hollywood Reporter said that musician and actress Janelle Monáe is joining the cast. And on Thursday, Deadline reported that Kathryn Hahn, who you might know from her... Continue reading…

The 2720 Flip is a feature phone with a classic design and access to modern apps. | Photo by Jon Porter / The Verge Have you been dreaming of consciously uncoupling from your smartphone? Ready to embrace a digital detox lifestyle but want to stay connected to your friends? Are you nostalgic for the days of tapping out messages in T9?Dream no more — HMD’s Nokia-branded 2720 Flip is arriving in the US soon. It’s an updated take on the classic flip phone, offering 4G connectivity and compatibility with modern apps like WhatsApp, Google Maps, and Facebook. Two years after its launch in 2019, it’s coming to the US on Verizon on May 20th for $80.While in concept the 2720 Flip sounds appealing if you’d like to spend less time staring at your smartphone, in practice we found it to be more frustration than it’s worth. Keeping up with WhatsApp conversations... Continue reading…

Image: HBO The Friends reunion special finally has a release date: Thursday, May 27th. The episode was was meant to launch with HBO Max in May 2020 but was delayed due to the pandemic. It will feature all six original cast members, as well as guest stars like Malala Yousafzai, Lady Gaga, and BTS, according to The Hollywood Reporter.Friends was previously available on Netflix, but HBO bought the streaming rights for an eye-watering $425 million. HBO Max seems to be trying to set itself up as the streaming service for ’90s nostalgia. It’s also hosted a reunion for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and is the streaming home of both that show, Friends, and movies like The Matrix and Pulp Fiction.HBO has even released a teaser for the Friends reunion,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft has announced new text-to-speech and speech-to-text features for Xbox Party Chat, which aim to help make communication on the platform more accessible. The features are currently being tested through the Xbox Insider program.The speech-to-text feature puts a window on the screen with automatic transcriptions of what people in the voice chat are saying, along with an indicator of whether the message was typed or spoken aloud. This could help people who are hard of hearing to participate in the chat, even if the other participants are speaking instead of typing. Image: Microsoft The window in the top right shows transcribed text from voice chat. The text-to-speech feature goes the other way, reading... Continue reading…

Framework The modular Framework Laptop is now available for preorders, with prices starting at $999 for a fully assembled computer or $749 for the DIY Edition, which adds the option of paying less upfront if you’re willing bring your own RAM, SSD, charge, and Wi-Fi card.For prebuilt systems, Framework is offering three starting configurations. There’s the entry level, $999 Base, which offers a Core i5-1135G7 processor, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB NVMe SSD, and Wi-Fi 6. The Performance model, starting at $1,399, ups the processor to a Core i7-1165G7 and doubles the RAM and SSD storage. And the Professional configuration, starting at $1,999, has a Core i7-1185G7, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and Windows 10 Pro.Whether fully prebuilt or DIY, the... Continue reading…

Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images After a devastating and deeply embarrassing cyberattack on one of the United States’ largest oil pipelines, one that forced many gas stations to shut down and reportedly caused average national gas prices to rise above $3 for the first time since 2014, the oil is flowing again. But Bloomberg is reporting that Colonial Pipeline had to pay a nearly $5 million ransom to get there, and it paid that ransom within mere hours.That’s striking, because it’s the opposite of what Reuters, CNN, and others reported in the wake of the attack. “Sources familiar with the company’s response,” a phrase often used when a company doesn’t want to be named, suggested the company had no plans to pay hackers. CNN’s sources insisted Colonial Pipeline had not... Continue reading…

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge The beauty and misery of private RSS feeds Continue reading…

Image: 343 Industries Microsoft’s Xbox Game Studios is teaming up with Tencent’s TiMi Studios, developer of the wildly successful mobile hits Call of Duty: Mobile and Honor of Kings. According to a Google Translated version of the announcement from TiMi, the two companies have formed a “strategic partnership” to create “game content,” but it’s unclear exactly what that might mean or when we might be able to play anything resulting from the cooperation.TiMi Studios is no stranger to adapting hit franchises to mobile: Call of Duty: Mobile just crossed 500 million downloads worldwide and the studio is also the developer of the upcoming mobile strategy game Pokémon Unite. Perhaps Microsoft wants to bring some of its biggest titles to mobile platforms in some... Continue reading…

Photo: Alex Bailey/Legendary Sherlock’s kid sister is making a return. Today, Netflix announced Enola Holmes 2, a sequel to last year’s crime caper that took the Sherlock story in a slightly younger direction, focusing on the famous detective’s teenage sister.We don’t have many details about the new movie just yet — such as what it’ll be about or when it’s hitting the streaming service — but at the very least, many of the key figures are returning. That means Millie Bobby Brown and Henry Cavill will reprise their roles as Enola and Sherlock, respectively, and that director Harry Bradbeer and writer Jack Thorne are also on board again. The new movie will be produced by Legendary “in partnership with Netflix.”

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Qualcomm has announced that it will skip Mobile World Congress’ in-person show in Barcelona this year, making it the latest major company to announce that it will miss the potential COVID-19 superspreader event in June in favor of an online presence at the show.“While we appreciate the health and safety measures being put into place by the GSMA for MWC Barcelona, we have decided that it is in the best interest of our employees and customers for Qualcomm’s participation to be virtual this year,” the company said in a statement obtained by TechCrunch.Qualcomm is by no means the only major company opting for a digital appearance at MWC this year: Google, Nokia, Ericsson, Sony, and Oracle have all pulled out of this year’s show entirely,... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released a two-page preliminary report on the deadly crash of a Tesla Model S in Texas last month in which local authorities said there was no one in the driver’s seat.There are several relevant disclosures in the NTSB report. The first is that security camera footage from the owner’s home captured the owner entering the driver’s side door, while his companion got in on the passenger side. The car leaves the house, travels 550 feet before departing the road on a curve, hitting a drainage culvert, a raised manhole, and a tree. The car then burst into flames, killing the two occupants.There has been much speculation from Tesla’s many interested online observersThe second relevant finding... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Several Apple suppliers may have used forced labor in China, according to The Information. Working with two human rights groups, the publication identified seven companies that supplied products or services to Apple and supported forced labor programs, according to statements made by the Chinese government. The programs target the country’s Muslim minority population, particularly Uyghurs living in Xinjiang.Six of the seven suppliers were said to participate in work programs operated by the Chinese government, The Information reports, which human rights groups describe as frequently offering cover for forced labor. Workers can be jailed for refusing to join the work programs, the report says, and those enrolled in the programs are often... Continue reading…

Image: FaceBook Facebook has announced on Twitter that it will start testing a pop-up that asks users if they’re sure they want to share an article that they haven’t opened. The pop-up will prompt users to read the article, but they can also choose to continue sharing it if they want. Facebook doesn’t say how wide the test will be.The pop-up is similar to Twitter’s, which it started testing in June 2020. Twitter’s implementation of the feature can be annoying to users (myself included) who have read the article elsewhere and decide to share it when they see it pop up on their feed.Facebook says the pop-up is meant to help people be more informed about the articles they share, likely as an attempt to combat the spread of misinformation the platform has... Continue reading…

Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images The group behind the ransomware that took down Colonial Pipeline late last week has apologized for the “social consequences,” claiming that its goal is to make money, not cause societal problems. The group is called DarkSide, and the FBI has confirmed that the group’s malware was responsible for compromising one of the US’s largest fuel pipelines.According to Vice, the group’s apology was posted to its dark web site. It reads: