The Verge

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Beginning Monday, Twitter will bring the ability for accounts with 600 or more followers to host Spaces, its Clubhouse-like social audio rooms, the company announced. Although this is a bit later than the company’s hoped-for April launch, users on iOS and Android devices will be included in the update.The company said it landed on the 600 followers number after feedback from readers and what it’s learned since it introduced Spaces late last year. “These accounts are likely to have a good experience hosting live conversations because of their existing audience,” the company said in a blog post announcing the changes. “Before bringing the ability to create a Space to everyone, we’re focused on learning more, making it easier to discover... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is enabling its Xbox FPS Boost mode on 74 more games today, bringing the total up to 97 games. Titles getting an FPS Boost include Assassin’s Creed Unity, Deus Ex Mankind Divided, Wasteland 3, and Far Cry 5 all moving to 60fps. You can find the full list at Microsoft’s site.The FPS Boost feature for Xbox Series X and Series S consoles is designed to make existing games run better. Microsoft has improved frame rates with some backward-compatible games, but the FPS Boost feature improves older games without developers having to make changes.The updates come just weeks after Microsoft also added FPS Boost mode to 13 EA games, with 12 of them adding support for up to 120fps. Microsoft also added FPS Boost to a number of Bethesda... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge The Epic Games v. Apple trial is starting today, and it has begun with a court conference call full of kids screaming for Fortnite to return to mobile. The public call line allows anyone to dial in and listen to today’s proceedings, but the court didn’t manage to properly mute all participants for more than 20 minutes. The result was what sounded like a chaotic Discord call.More than 200 participants were dialed into the public line, with many screaming “free Fortnite” or “bring back Fortnite on mobile please judge.” Others played Travis Scott tunes, chatted away, or advertised their YouTube channels.The trial was supposed to begin at 11:15AM ET, and court clerks could be heard attempting to mute participants multiple times... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Dronemaker DJI says a firmware update is coming to fix a battery discharge issue in its DJI Mini 2 drone. According to TechRadar, the company says the update will “initiate auto-discharge when batteries are in the drone or charging hub and have not been used recently.” It’s a relatively minor issue that mainly affects the battery’s longevity; lithium polymer batteries like the one in the DJI Mini 2 have a longer lifespan if they can discharge slowly when left at a full charge for a long period of time.Unlike its Intelligent Flight Batteries, the batteries in the DJI Mini 2 “use a minute amount of charge to maintain vital functions and do not initiate auto-discharge,” the company told TechRadar. DJI recommends that batteries in the DJI... Continue reading…

G4’s newest host looks a little different from the rest of its lineup: it’s hired CodeMiko — one of the biggest virtual streamers on Twitch — to bring her eccentric interviews to the network.CodeMiko, unlike the typical G4 host, is not human — or at least, not entirely. CodeMiko is a Vtuber (“virtual YouTuber,” though they’re often found elsewhere), who uses motion capture tech to broadcast herself as a 3D character who can change her appearance on a whim. Since getting started about a year ago, CodeMiko has blown up, with more than 680,000 followers on Twitch and an average audience of more than 6,000 viewers at a time.On G4, CodeMiko will be interviewing “some of the most notable names in gaming and entertainment” and chatting with... Continue reading…

The new tech improves contrast. | Image: Lancer Brigade The US Army’s Lancer Brigade showed footage of the world as seen through the latest in night vision technology, and it’s a major improvement on the familiar blurry green visuals. By swapping the standard green tubes for white (along with other tweaks), the new Enhanced Night Vision Goggle-Binoculars (ENVG-B) clearly show people and objects outlined in a glowing light, almost like a video game objective.

The long-awaited League of Legends animated series is coming to Netflix. The streaming service confirmed today that the show, called Arcane, will be available later this fall. The show was first announced back in 2019 as part of a League 10th anniversary celebration event; last year, developer Riot announced that Arcane would be delayed to 2021 due to the pandemic.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Follow the money, baby Continue reading…

Marvel has just revealed a first look at one of its most exciting upcoming projects: Eternals, the studio’s next big superhero team-up that’s set to arrive in theaters on November 5th. It’s the next big project from Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao, following her Best Picture and Best Director wins for Nomadland earlier this year.Unfortunately, the teaser (which primarily serves as a hype reel for Marvel’s return to blockbuster films after a months-long pandemic-induced break from theatrical releases) doesn’t provide too much footage from Eternals. Instead, there are just a few quick glimpses of some of the bigger stars, including Salma Hayek’s Ajak riding a horse, Kumail Nanjiani’s Kingo staring off into the distance, and Richard... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Whether you’re a new or not-so-new Switch owner, everyone needs some good games to play. If you want some of the best titles released for Nintendo’s console, you can get them for $20 off their full $60 price. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen these discounts, but it’s rare that these price cuts extend to both physical and digital versions of the games. So if you’d prefer to purchase a game code so you can instantly download it to your microSD card, that’s an option.You can find a few other Nintendo-published games like Mario Tennis Aces, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, and more discounted at Amazon, Target, and GameStop. In other Switch-related deal news, a reputable eBay seller has copies of the New Pokémon Snap for $10 off its... Continue reading…

ArtStation As it prepares to do battle in court with Apple over App Store fees, Epic Games has acquired ArtStation, an online marketplace for digital artists, the companies announced. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.“The ArtStation leadership team brings tremendous talent and an unparalleled track record of supporting a vibrant creator community and ecosystem,” Epic Games vice president and general manager Marc Petit said in a statement. “We look forward to working with them to provide creators with access to even more resources and tools, empowering them to do their best work.”Founded in 2014, ArtStation is a popular portfolio site for professional artists in gaming and entertainment. ArtStation artists can also sell their work on the site,... Continue reading…

Verizon has sold its AOL and Yahoo properties to Apollo Global Management in a deal said to be worth $5 billion, about half of the nearly $9 billion Verizon originally paid for the pair. Verizon will maintain a 10 percent stake in the company, now known as Yahoo and led by CEO Guru Gowrappan. The deal, which includes Verizon’s ad tech business, was heavily rumored over the last week and is still subject to closing conditions. Once complete, it’ll bring an end to Verizon’s troubled experiment with media production and advertising.Apollo is a private equity firm that owns the Venetian resort in Las Vegas and crafts retailer Michaels. Apollo co-founder Leon Black recently stepped down as Chairman, soon after it was revealed that he paid... Continue reading…

Kroger is partnering with Drone Express on deliveries of packages up to five pounds. | Image: Kroger Kroger is joining rival Walmart by launching a drone delivery pilot program for groceries later this spring. The supermarket chain is partnering with Drone Express to deliver items like baby products, over-the-counter medications, and picnic supplies weighing up to about five pounds from a test store in Centerville, Ohio.A landing page for the Kroger Drone Delivery service says that groceries will be flown by “certified drone pilots under FAA approval.” A press release suggests that deliveries can be made to street addresses as well as to parks or beaches by homing in on a customer’s smartphone location.As part of the pilot, Kroger is designing bundled product offerings that fit within the size and weight constraints of the Drone... Continue reading…

Castlevania | Netflix Just started watching season four of The Handmaid’s Tale and I remember why I prefer the weekly release schedule for this show: Bingeing it is utterly draining (Monica Hesse makes this point much more eloquently in her mostly spoiler-free review in the Washington Post). The show has a conundrum: it can’t kill off its main character (which would be an incredible plot twist) and it can’t take her out of Gilead because that’s where the action is. So June has to keep suffering over and over. And over. After the first three episodes, June’s done plenty of suffering already. Over the rest of the season I’m really hoping to see A) much more of Alexis Bledel and Samira Wiley and B) something good happen to June. Anything.Here’s the roundup of... Continue reading…

iFixit did a teardown of Apple’s AirTags | iFixit The team over at iFixit has done its teardown thing again, this time examining Apple’s AirTag trackers. Part one of its two-part review digs into the guts of the little trackers, and for those lamenting the lack of a key ring loop on the AirTag, iFixit (carefully) drilled a hole into one without damaging any of its parts.

Facebook Facebook is continuing its campaign against Apple’s iOS 14 privacy updates, adding a notice within its iOS app telling users the information it collects from other apps and websites can “help keep Facebook free of charge.” A similar message was seen on Instagram’s iOS app (Facebook is Instagram’s parent company).Technology researcher Ashkan Soltani first noted the new pop-up notices on Saturday (see his tweet below), but a Facebook spokesperson directed The Verge to a blog post from earlier last week that detailed the update. The company refers to the notices as “educational screens,” and said they provided “more details about how we use data for personalized ads,” according to the blog post by Dan Levy, Facebook’s vice president for... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Neuralink President Max Hodak tweeted Saturday that he has left the company he co-founded with Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk xxx. Hodak didn’t elaborate on why he left the company or elaborate on the circumstance for his departure. “I am no longer at Neuralink (as of a few weeks ago),” he tweeted. “I learned a ton there and remain a huge cheerleader for the company! Onward to new things.”

An open office, 1960s-style. | Photo: United Artists So it seems that Google, the exemplar of the open-office concept, is trying now to figure out how to keep its design ideals intact while offering its employees at least some feeling of safety in these 6-foot-apart times. Apparently, these measures may include a number of interesting concepts, such as inflatable walls. (A GIF of one of those walls slowly unfolding nearly had me doing a spit-take with my morning coffee.)These rather complex measures may have some people wondering whether we should abandon the entire open-office concept and go back to a more old-fashioned — but in these pandemic days, safer — plan of separate offices and high-walled cubicles. To tell you the truth, it doesn’t sound like a bad idea. But.First, let me... Continue reading…

NASA astronauts Shannon Walker, left, Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins, and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi. | Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images Four astronauts returned from the International Space Station early Sunday morning aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico nearly six months after arriving at the orbital laboratory in November last year as the first operational, long-duration crew under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Soichi Noguchi boarded Crew Dragon and undocked from the space station on time at 8:35PM ET Saturday to begin their roughly six-hour trek home.The crew splashed down off the coast of Panama City, Florida at 2:56AM ET on Sunday, marking the first nighttime splashdown of a crewed US spacecraft since December 1968,... Continue reading…

A sleek, but slow, Chromebook Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft had been planning to cut its Xbox store cut to just 12 percent, according to confidential documents filed in the Epic Games vs. Apple case. The software maker details its store fees and changes in a document from January, where it also lists the 12 percent cut to PC games it announced this week. While most of the important parts of the document are redacted, one page reveals Microsoft also wanted to reduce its 30 percent store cut on the Xbox console side.A table reveals “all games will move to 88 / 12 in CY21,” which means Microsoft had been planning a significant cut to Xbox transactions for some point in the 2021 calendar year. While Microsoft has announced its PC cut, which is also listed in the same table, the company has... Continue reading…

Just two days before Apple gets dragged into a California court to justify its 30 percent App Store fee — and two days after Microsoft axed its 30 percent cut on PC — we’re learning that gaming giant Valve is now facing down lawsuits against its own 30 percent cut and alleged anticompetitive practices with its PC gaming platform Steam.“Valve abuses its market power to ensure game publishers have no choice but to sell most of their games through the Steam Store, where they are subject to Valve’s 30% toll,” argues indie game developer and Humble Bundle creator Wolfire Games, in a lawsuit filed Tuesday (via Ars Technica).Clear parallels to Epic v. AppleMuch like Epic v. Apple, the new suit argues that a platform owner is using an... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Conservative news channel Newsmax has posted an apology to an employee of Dominion Voting Systems, after it reported without evidence that he was involved in manipulating results of the 2020 US presidential election.“On behalf of Newsmax, we would like to apologize for any harm that our reporting of the allegations against Dr. Coomer may have caused to Dr. Coomer and his family,” a statement posted to Newsmax’s website states. According to the statement, there was no substance to the allegations made about Eric Coomer, Dominion’s director of product strategy and security:

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge An expert witness for Epic Games testified that Apple’s App Store had operating margins above 70 percent in fiscal years 2018 and 2019, new court documents show. Ned Barnes testified that information from Apple’s Corporate Financial Planning and Analysis group show the App Store had a 77.8 percent operating margin in 2019, and 74.9 percent in 2018.The figures are close to Barnes’ calculations of the App Store’s profits, he testified, and “also refute criticisms of my report proffered by certain Apple expert witnesses that it is not possible to calculate reliably or usefully the operating margins of the App Store.” Barnes also testified that Apple has been tracking its App Store profits for several years.Apple has hotly contested that... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge An appeals court in California has ruled that Amazon can be held liable for products sold through its marketplace by a third-party seller, the Los Angeles Times reported. It’s the second major case in California where an appeals court has rejected Amazon’s long-held position that it is merely an intermediary between buyers and its third-party sellers. Amazon collectively refers to these sellers as its “Amazon Marketplace” even though it’s not a separate or distinct part of Amazon’s website. Third-party sellers’ products typically appear in Amazon listings, with a small line of text to indicate that Amazon itself is not the actual seller.At issue was the case of a woman who suffered burn injuries after a hoverboard she purchased on... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A former Netflix executive was convicted of taking bribes and kickbacks from vendors doing business with the company, according to the US Department of Justice. Michael Kail, who was Netflix’s vice president of information technology operations from 2011 to 2014, was found guilty by a jury of money laundering, and wire and mail fraud. According to the DOJ, Kail used his position at the company to “unlock a stream of cash and stock kickbacks” for himselfNetflix sued Kail in 2014 claiming he hid payments from vendors by directing them to his personal consulting company. According to the DOJ, Kail accepted bribes totaling more than $500,000, as well as stock options from nine tech companies that provided products or services to Netflix.K... Continue reading…

A screenshot from Disco Elysium. | Image: Studio ZA/UM At some point during my time with Disco Elysium: The Final Cut, after I read yet another minutes-long dialogue sequence to try and learn more information about the game’s murder mystery, I realized I felt like I was slowly working my way through a long novel — one that went just a little bit over my head.In The Final Cut, an enhanced version of the 2019 cult hit role-playing game that made its console debut on PlayStation in March, you play as a cop with amnesia investigating a murder case about a hanged man. You’ll explore a fictional place called Revachol and talk to a huge cast of characters to piece together clues about the hanged man’s killer.Almost every conversation or interaction has an extensive dialogue tree, allowing you... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Florida is on the verge of passing legislation that would fine social media companies like Twitter and Facebook that “knowingly de-platform” political candidates. The bill was first proposed in February by Gov. Ron DeSantis, a supporter of former President Trump, although Florida Republicans insist the bill has nothing to do with the former president, a famous denizen of social media who was banned earlier this year by major platforms.The Florida House of Representatives passed SB 7072 by a vote of 77 to 38 on Thursday, after the state Senate voted Monday to pass the measure. The bill now goes back to the Senate to approve some of the changes made by the House; the Senate’s version called for fines of $10,000 per day for banning a... Continue reading…

A woman gets a COVID-19 vaccine at a mobile vaccine clinic in Texas on April 30, 2021. | Photo by CECILE CLOCHERET/AFP via Getty Images If you’re one of the few thousand people heading to see the Milwaukee Bucks play the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday, May 2nd, you have a chance to get a very special souvenir during the game — your first dose of a Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. The unusual vaccination drive is part of a host of new efforts across the US to get people their shots, whether that’s by bribing them with savings bonds in West Virginia or hosting vaccine clinics at professional basketball games in Wisconsin.In the US, vaccine supplies are high, but demand is starting to taper off, as my colleague Nicole Wetsman wrote last week. That means that people are getting a lot more creative about ways to convince people to get their shots. You know, in case the free beer, free... Continue reading…

Apple We’ve reached the weekend, and the start of another month. Sayonara, April, and hello to May. The past few days at The Verge have been some of the best tech deals so far this year, like the now-expired deal that knocked $150 off the Apple Watch Series 6, putting it lower in price than even the Apple Watch SE. That one sold out in just a few hours, though I wouldn’t be surprised to see it come again soon.Not all of the best sales of the week have ended. You can save on PC games in celebration of Golden Week in Japan, and get $80 off a Google Nest Wifi bundle, to name a couple of examples. Find even more below.Save up to $147 on a preorder of a new M1 iPad Pro or iMacApple announced that the new iPad Pro and the colorful iMacs will... Continue reading…

Sony’s newest lenses are three new compact primes lenses that each cost $600. The new Sony 24mm f/2.8, 40mm f/2.5, and 50mm f/2.5 are three new compact prime lenses that each cost $599.99 and will be shipping in mid-May. While they uphold the reputation of quality Sony has established with the G lineup, it’s their uniformity and small size that come as a welcomed surprise.Uniformity and size are so rarely a topic of discussion in regards to lenses. As a video-first creator, 67mm, 77mm, and 82mm are common thread sizes in my gear bag. But it feels like with every new lens I buy I have to factor in the cost of a new ND filter or a step-up or down ring. These three new lenses all conveniently share the same 49mm filter thread.Then there is weight and size. It’s no secret that bags with full-frame camera gear are... Continue reading…

Microsoft shook up the PC gaming industry this week with the announcement that it was cutting the fee it takes from game sales on the Windows store. On the surface, it’s a welcome move, with Microsoft matching the 12 percent cut that Epic Games takes, and putting more pressure on Valve, which still takes a 30 percent cut on most Steam purchases. But the cut is also a tactical move: Microsoft wants to help pressure Apple, and this week’s changes could play a role in the bigger app store battles kicking off next week.Microsoft’s announcement comes just days before a huge court trial between Epic Games and Apple, and just as the EU has found issues with Apple’s rules — claiming the company has a “dominant position in the market for the... Continue reading…

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images A report from Vice has opened my eyes to just how big the Pokémon trading card collecting market is getting — apparently to the point where card rating companies have waitlists that range from six to ten months, with one company claiming it’s receiving over 500,000 cards to grade per week. The card graders, who rate trading cards’ conditions to determine how collectable (and therefore valuable) they are, are so swamped that people who want to get their Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh, or sports cards graded are also having to wait in line (or pay out the nose to skip it).One card rating company apparently needed employees so bad it offered $1,000 starting bonuses — and then bumped them up to $2,500. Another company had to buy two warehouses to store... Continue reading…

If you’d like a visual of one way that doom could overtake Earth almost immediately, then YouTube user Anselo La Manna has just the video for you: a large asteroid impact simulation scored to nothing other than Pink Floyd.Specifically, that’s “Great Gig in the Sky,” off what might be the band’s most beloved and over-analyzed album, Dark Side of the Moon. It’s got everything total annihilation needs: contemplative piano, pedal steel guitar, and of course, a plaintive wail, capturing the whole range of emotions that people might feel if they were burned to a crisp because one big rock hit another.Anselo La Manna also hosts the original clip the mashup video uses on their YouTube page, a simulation of a large asteroid impact. It appears... Continue reading…

A screenshot from Onward. | Image: Downpour Interactive Facebook’s Oculus division has snatched up yet another popular virtual reality game developer. On Friday, the company announced it has acquired Downpour Interactive, the studio behind the hit multiplayer military simulator Onward.“We’ve seen great success with Onward on the Oculus platform for several years — first on Rift and more recently on Quest,” Mike Verdu, Facebook’s VP of AR / VR content, said in a blog post. “Becoming part of the Oculus Studios family will give Downpour Interactive the opportunity to cultivate both the Onward community with the full support of Oculus Studios resources, and, in the future, pursue other projects.”Everyone from Downpour will move to OculusEveryone from Downpour Interactive will move over to the... Continue reading…

A digital illustration of SpaceX’s Starship lunar lander sitting on the Moon’s surface, as proposed to NASA under its Artemis program. | Image: SpaceX NASA has suspended work on SpaceX’s new $2.9 billion lunar lander contract while a federal watchdog agency adjudicates two protests over the award, the agency said Friday.Putting the Human Landing System (or HLS) work on hold until the GAO makes a decision on the two protests means SpaceX won’t immediately receive its first chunk of the $2.9 billion award, nor will it commence the initial talks with NASA that would normally take place at the onset of a major contract.Elon Musk’s SpaceX was picked by NASA on April 16th to build the agency’s first human lunar lander since the Apollo program, as the agency opted to rely on just one company for a high-profile contract that many in the space industry expected to go to two companies.As a... Continue reading…

The Biden administration’s version of a COVID-19 vaccine-finding website launched today, along with a Spanish-language version, text messaging tool, and phone hotline.The new website, vaccines.gov, is a new version of VaccineFinder, a site run through a partnership between Boston Children’s Hospital and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. VaccineFinder was originally created during the 2009 swine flu outbreaks and has hosted COVID-19 vaccine information for the past few months.The new version has the same features as the old site. It lets people locate sites offering COVID-19 vaccines nearby, shows which vaccines are on offer at each location, and says if the vaccines are in stock or not. “In stock” does not necessarily... Continue reading…

Image: Apple If you’re hoping to get one of the new 12.9-inch iPad Pros with a Mini LED display, you may be waiting a while — the delivery times for even the base model have slipped to late June or early July (via Bloomberg). Leading up to the device’s announcement, there were rumors that the display tech could be a production bottleneck for Apple, and that appears to be the case — Apple’s site says the 11-inch iPad Pro, announced alongside the 12.9-inch, would be delivered in late May.The Mini LED display that could be to blame for the short supply of iPads is a new tech for Apple, but it promises to bring a ton of improvements compared to normal LED displays. However, they’re trickier to produce — Apple says that the previous iPad Pro’s display... Continue reading…

The Ingenuity helicopter on Mars. | Image: NASA/JPL After acing a set of historic test flights on Mars, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter will embark on a new, more advanced test mission, engineers said today. Having proved itself capable of flying higher and farther with its fourth flight on Friday, the mini helicopter will get ready to demonstrate how it could help Mars rovers, like Perseverance, scout for new locations and probe areas inaccessible to wheeled robots.Ingenuity, which became the first helicopter to fly on another world earlier this month, was initially set to retire forever when its flight demonstration phase ends next week, after completing five flights. But the team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory okayed another round of testing because Perseverance’s post-landing health... Continue reading…

After a controversial blog post in which CEO Jason Fried outlined Basecamp’s new philosophy that prohibited, among other things, “societal and political discussions” on internal forums, company co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson said the company would offer generous severance packages to anyone who disagreed with the new stance. On Friday, it appears a large number of Basecamp employees are taking Hansson up on his offer: according to The Verge contributing editor Casey Newton’s sources, roughly a third of the company’s 57 employees accepted buyouts today. As of Friday afternoon, 18 people had tweeted they were planning to leave.Not long after Fried’s Monday blog post went public — and was revised several times amid public backlash... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On Friday morning, Roku pulled YouTube TV from its channel store. Its removal came after Roku’s distribution agreement for the app expired and negotiations between it and Google fell apart without any new deal in sight.The popular streaming hardware maker warned customers of this outcome earlier in the week, claiming that Google was demanding unrealistic terms to renew YouTube TV’s slot on the platform. Those asks, according to Roku, included access to sensitive customer data and an apparent commitment from Roku to support AV1 decoding in future products. That requires extra hardware that Roku maintains could increase the cost of its devices. Roku also says that Google is trying to have changes made to Roku’s search feature, an... Continue reading…

Image: Instacart Some Instacart shoppers claim that the company has wrongfully terminated their accounts in response to fraudulent activity, locking them out of future earnings until they get reactivated, CNN Business reports.The shoppers CNN Business spoke to were identified as having “linked accounts,” which, in Instacart’s terminology, means an account believed to have indicators of fraud, though not necessarily with compromised data connected to a shopper.The shoppers may be the victims of phishing scamsThe company offers a process for appealing deactivations, but at least one of the shoppers CNN Business spoke to, Rachael Freedman, still hasn’t had her account reactivated because her appeal was denied.Instacart provided the same statement to T... Continue reading…

Photo: Flickr Due to an issue with QuickBooks processing direct deposits, some people had a very unpleasant morning, waking up to see either that their paycheck hadn’t arrived, or that they had a ton of employees asking why they hadn’t been paid. If you’re one of those people, it may not be time to panic just yet — QuickBooks says that the issue has been resolved and that the money should be arriving in accounts by the end of today.QuickBooks claims the missed payments were caused by an issue with a third party. Some users, though, are upset with how Intuit, which owns QuickBooks, handled the situation, claiming that they couldn’t get a hold of the company on their phone or chat lines.

Facebook Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast, where host Nilay Patel discusses the week in tech news with the reporters and editors covering the biggest stories.This week on The Vergecast, Nilay brings in Verge deputy editor Dan Seifert and news editor Chaim Gartenberg to discuss the features added in Apple’s iOS update to 14.5, Apple and other tech companies’ skyrocketing earnings despite the ongoing pandemic, and how the global semiconductor shortage is affecting the tech industry.Later in the show, senior reporter Ashley Carman runs through the recent developments in podcasting platforms. At an event last week, Apple announced a new subscription feature within Apple Podcasts for creators to offer to their... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Hulu’s live TV service is finally getting nine new ViacomCBS channels — Comedy Central, BET, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., VH1, CMT, MTV, TV Land, and Paramount Network — as part of its regular $64.99 per month cost.If that sounds familiar, it’s because Hulu first announced that these channels would be coming to its service on January 4th, almost four months ago. But despite the long gap, the new channels are finally debuting for subscribers today. Customers who pay for Hulu’s live TV service will also get on-demand access to additional ViacomCBS library titles, including Freaks and Geeks, Moesha, and Sister, Sister, starting today.A long wait, but Hulu customers can finally watch MTVOther ViacomCBS channels — BETher, MTV2, NickToons,... Continue reading…

Photo by Tom Flathers/Manchester City FC via Getty Images English soccer teams and organizations are all shutting down their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts for the weekend as part of a massive social media blackout to advocate for better policies regarding discrimination and abuse that players and members of clubs receive on those platforms.

Image: Capcom We’re just a week out from the release of Resident Evil Village, and as part of the game’s promotional campaign, Capcom has uploaded an absolute treat to the YouTube channel for Biohazard (which is the name of the Resident Evil series in Japan): an official puppet show starring characters from the game. Yes, everyone’s favorite tall vampire lady, Lady Dimitrescu, is one of the puppets.The three-minute video is simultaneously adorable and terrifying. The show is entirely in Japanese, so I don’t have any idea what the actual story is — I think all of the puppets are meeting up to paint together, using blood as the ink? But it’s worth watching for some seriously silly puppet antics, like puppet-Lady Dimitrescu gleefully gulping down a... Continue reading…

Harebrained Schemes I woke up feeling a little strange this morning, but I didn’t think much of it. It’s just another day living in the pandemic. But after I got some strange looks at the cafe, I started to get a little worried. On my way home, I took a sip of my coffee and somehow pierced through the paper cup with bottom fangs that I didn’t have yesterday. I ran to the bathroom mirror when I got inside, only to discover that I’d turned into an ork. Awesome!As decreed by the Shadowrun lore (via Twitter user @Gen_Ironicus), April 30th, 2021 is the day of Goblinization. The Shadowrun wiki over at Fandom says that, today, 10 percent of the world’s population will be transformed into orks and trolls for no apparent reason. Guess I just got lucky!I thought... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Trade groups representing some of the largest telecom companies, including AT&T and Verizon, are suing New York over a new state law forcing them to provide cheaper broadband plans for low-income families in the state, as first reported by Axios.Earlier this month, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill that would require internet service providers to offer a $15 a month broadband internet option for low-income consumers and families in the state. It’s one of the first laws in the country enforcing such a rule. But groups like USTelecom, CTIA, and the New York State Telecommunications Association argue that the state has no authority to set broadband prices and that the law could impair the companies’ abilities to upgrade their... Continue reading…

Deepfakes use AI techniques to generate or manipulate videos and pictures. | Artist: William Joel Last week, numerous news outlets reported that a string of European politicians had been tricked by a sophisticated Russian plot. Parliamentarians from the UK, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia had all arranged video calls with a hoaxer claiming to be Leonid Volkov, chief of staff to imprisoned Russian anti-Putin politician Alexei Navalny. As the politicians tell it, they fell victim to a digital fake: a doppelgänger using “deepfake” technology created specially to trick them — the latest example of Russia’s misinformation campaigns in the West.But the Russian men who orchestrated the calls say the “deepfake” claim is itself misinformation. Speaking to The Verge, the hoaxers say their imitation Volkov was created using effects no more... Continue reading…