The Verge

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple Music has flipped the switch on its previously announced lossless-quality streaming and spatial audio features. Starting now, if you’ve got the latest iOS, iPadOS, and macOS updates installed, you’ll be able to stream select tracks both in standard lossless/CD-quality audio and high-resolution lossless (if you have an external DAC for the latter).Apple said both features would arrive “today” during the WWDC keynote, but it took many hours after the event concluded before customers started seeing them appear in the app. You still might not if the rollout hasn’t reached you yet. The update is server-side on Apple’s part.Be aware that lossless audio files take up considerably more storage when downloaded and also burn through more... Continue reading…

During the privacy segment of WWDC, Apple talked about moving Siri’s processing from the cloud onto your device, using the “Neural Engine” built into Apple silicon. While having the voice processing happen on your phone instead of one of Apple’s servers is obviously better for privacy, it can also help speed up performance and reliability, as Apple showed off in its demo.The power of on-device learning.Now let’s see how fast it is when I try it.

Photo by Nathan Stirk/Getty Images A new report citing an internal letter to Amazon’s human resources department alleges mistreatment of women within Amazon’s Prime membership division, including but not limited to harassment and disproportionate growth opportunities for men versus women at the company.Citing a letter to a former head of diversity and inclusion, as well as accounts from 11 former and current workers within the Prime unit, Insider reported Monday that the Prime team had been anonymously accused in March of being “institutionally biased against women.” The memo’s author — whose identity Insider says it independently verified but did not name in its report — described a culture in which women were often overlooked for promotions, demeaned and condescended... Continue reading…

At today’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple showed off its new version of macOS, and with it a feature called Universal Control, which lets you use your Mac’s mouse or trackpad to control the cursor on an iPad or another Mac’s screen, reaching into and across multiple devices. On paper it doesn’t sound that groundbreaking, but Craig Federighi did something really cool during the demo: he moved his cursor onto an iPad, then clicked on a photo and dragged it across two other computers to drop it into a Final Cut timeline.The feature is called Universal Control, and could be incredible if it actually works this well.While Logitech’s Flow and programs like Synergy have similarly allowed users to easily jump between computers,... Continue reading…

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge Apple has just updated its App Store Guidelinesd, the document that tells iPhone and iPa that tell iPhone and iPad developers what kind of behavior the company will tolerate and where it’s likely to reject apps or crackdown after the fact — and as TechCrunch reports, many of today’s changes are aimed directly at scammers and fraudsters who prey on Apple users. But not all of them.I just put the entire thing through a diff checker to show you exactly what’s changed. Check out all the differences here for yourself, or read on for the highlights.Apple is warning fraudsters it’s coming for their entire accountsApple already had a section titled “5.6 Developer Code of Conduct” that warned devs not to “prey on users or attempt to rip off... Continue reading…

Image: LG FuboTV, one of the best over-the-top services for sports enthusiasts, is finally arriving on newer LG Smart TVs.While the app was already available on many set-top boxes like the Apple TV or Chromecast, it’s now available on LG’s native webOS platform on 2018–2021 Smart TV models (including LG’s fantastic OLEDs). That’ll give any consumers with newer LG models the ability to access the service’s 100-plus sports and entertainment channels directly from their sets, rather than having to rely on a third-party device for access.“Over 90 percent of FuboTV’s viewership is on the big screen and today’s launch on LG Smart TVs expands FuboTV to even more smart and connected TV platforms,” Mike Berkley, FuboTV’s chief product officer, told The... Continue reading…

You’ll get some fancy, new features, if you have the right devices. Apple announced iOS 15, macOS Monterey, watchOS 8, and iPadOS 15 software at WWDC 2021. The public beta period will begin in July, and whether you’re curious to download them then, or just waiting for the final release, you’ll need to have the right hardware to do it. Apple usually eliminates support for a few devices each year as it leaps ahead with major software releases, so you’ll want to check below to see if your iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, or computer makes the cut.For iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, Apple is extending support for all iPhone models that currently have iOS 14, along with the seventh-generation iPod Touch.Here’s the list of supported devices for iOS 15:

On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission charged the executives of the long-defunct MoviePass app over allegations that they fraudulently blocked customers from using the service as advertised while failing to protect their data privacy. The FTC also announced that it had reached a settlement with MoviePass and its executives as a result of the investigation.Under the proposed settlement, MoviePass, its parent company Helios and Matheson Analytics, its CEO Mitch Lowe, and chairman Ted Farnsworth are forbidden from falsely representing their business and data security practices to customers. Any businesses controlled by these entities are also required to roll out comprehensive information security programs to protect consumers.“... Continue reading…

Apple just wrapped up its WWDC 2021 keynote, and it was jam-packed with news and announcements, including our first looks at iOS 15, the new macOS Monterey, big improvements to FaceTime, and more.Our live blog has moment-by-moment commentary on what Apple announced from Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn. But if you just want to know the big-ticket items from the show, we’ve got you covered right here.iOS 15 brings big improvements to FaceTime, updates to notifications, and more Apple announced iOS 15, which brings improvements to FaceTime such as spatial audio, a new “SharePlay” feature that lets you share media with people on FaceTime virtually, updates to Messages, a new look for notifications, the ability to set different... Continue reading…

Apple Siri is finally coming to third-party devices. Apple announced at its WWDC keynote that HomeKit accessory makers will be able to integrate Siri voice control into their products starting later this year. The voice assistant will be routed through a HomePod if the devices are connected to your network.Apple hasn’t released a comprehensive list of devices and brands that will support Siri. The company demoed it on an Ecobee thermostat during its WWDC keynote presentation. It also announced support for Matter — a new interoperability standard that has big players like Amazon, Google, and Samsung on board — will come with iOS 15.Apple also revealed a number of smaller smart home features. Home Keys, which allow you to remotely lock and... Continue reading…

Apple will let people share the data from their Health app with family members or others, the company announced. It’s one of a new slate of health features for iPhone.With permission, someone can share access to their overall heart rate and movement data. They’ll also be able to share access to alerts, which will ping authorized users when the feature notices things like a high heart rate or change in mobility. The person they’re sharing the data with can message them directly about any changes.“Many people around the world are caring for someone, and we want to provide a secure and private way for users to have a trusted partner on their health journey,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer, in a statement.The... Continue reading…

Apple has announced the next version of macOS at its WWDC keynote, after showing off iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS. It’s calling it Monterey, in keeping the California location-based theme it’s had since 2013.The company is promising even more interoperability with iOS, including the ability to share a keyboard and mouse between a Mac and an iPad. The feature is similar to the one found on Logitech keyboards and mice, letting you seamlessly move your cursor and files between a Mac and iPad.The jaw-dropping drag-and-drop demo.Macs are also getting the ability to act as an AirPlay target, allowing you to use your Mac’s screen and speakers to play content from your iPhone and iPad, or even another Mac if you’re feeling spicy.Apple has... Continue reading…

Vjeran Pavic Apple has just announced watchOS 8, the latest version of the company’s smartwatch platform for the Apple Watch. The new software succeeds last year’s watchOS 7 and is going to be first available for developers to test their apps with starting today, with a public beta coming in July. A final public release is expected later this fall.Apple is debuting a new Mindfulness app, an extension of the Breathe app that nags you to breathe throughout the day. It’s adding new animations and other features to help you relax.The Fitness app is getting more workout types for tai chi and pilates. The Apple Watch’s Health app will explicitly track your respiratory rate while sleeping and notify you if it’s outside of your normal patterns. ... Continue reading…

Apple Apple has always stressed user privacy as part of its core mission. At its WWDC 2021 event, it announced it would be adding a spate of powerful new functions to Mail and Safari, as well as giving users broader insight into what their installed apps are doing with their information.First, Apple’s Mail appears to have declared war on tracking pixels, which can be included in some emails to give third parties insight into if or when their messages were opened — though it didn’t provide much detail on how it will win said war. According to Apple’s manager of user privacy software Katie Skinner, Mail will also now hide user IP addresses by default. Safari, likewise, will hide IPs.More surprisingly, Apple announced it’s adding an App... Continue reading…

Image: Apple Apple is amping up iCloud with a new set of features called iCloud Plus. The cloud storage service will now come with access to a VPN, burner email addresses, and unlimited storage for HomeKit-enabled home security cameras.The VPN, called Private Relay, will route your internet traffic through two relays in order to mask who’s browsing and where that data is coming from. The burner email feature, called Hide My Email, lets you create single-use email addresses that will forward to your actual account; that way, you can provide a junk email to a service you don’t trust in case it starts spamming you. Apple already offers a similar feature through Sign In With Apple.Apple will also include unlimited storage for video from HomeKit-enabled... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple’s digital assistant Siri will process audio on-device by default in iOS 15, meaning you will be able to use the feature without an active internet connection. Apple says the upgrade will also make Siri faster.Processing audio on-device will make using Siri more private, says Apple. This follows the company’s well-established preference for implementing machine learning features on-device, rather than sending data away to the cloud to be processed.“This addresses one of the biggest privacy concerns for voice assistants, which is unwanted audio recording,” said Apple in a press statement. Obviously, if you don’t have an internet connection, then you won’t be able to carry out certain Siri functions like searching... Continue reading…

Apple has announced that AirPods will be getting some quality-of-life improvements with iOS 15, including the ability to boost the sound of people talking to you, better Find My support, and the ability to announce a wider range of notifications.Apple says the “Conversation Boost” feature will help people who have difficulties hearing other people’s voices when they’re talking. It will try to isolate the voice of the person in front of you, with sliders that let the user control how much ambient noise is let in. AirPods can already announce messages and texts, but now they’re getting the ability to read out other important notifications, like when a food delivery is made.The easy-to-lose headphones are also getting more... Continue reading…

Image: Apple Apple has announced a forthcoming update to its Wallet app that will allow you to use your iPhone as digital identification in US airports. The company showed how you’ll be able to scan your driver’s license or state ID in participating US states, which will then be encrypted and stored in the iPhone’s secure enclave. The company says it’s working with the TSA to enable the iPhone to be used as identification at airport security checkpoints.As well as secure ID, Apple says it’s working to allow hotels to distribute room card keys via Apple Wallet, allowing you to collect a room key before you arrive at a hotel. Home keys and work keys were also announced as coming to the Wallet app. Image: Apple ID cards can be... Continue reading…

Widgets can be placed anywhere on the home screen in iPadOS 15. | Image: Apple Weeks after introducing its most powerful iPad Pro devices ever, Apple is today announcing the latest version of iPadOS — and there’s a clear focus on making Apple’s tablets more capable productivity machines. At least if you find yourself using split-screen mode a lot, that is. Otherwise, there aren’t any radical changes for the platform.As rumored, iPadOS 15 will make the homescreen more customizable and allow for more flexible placement of widgets. You can now stick them anywhere you’d like, a capability that came to iOS 14 last year. But iPadOS 14 didn’t offer the same functionality, and widgets could only be placed in the Today View sidebar despite the tablet’s vast screen real estate.Apple is also bringing the App Library to... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge As expected, Apple offered a preview of iOS 15 at today’s WWDC 2021 keynote, highlighting some changes coming to FaceTime and notifications.FaceTime gets some major updates, with spatial audio and voice isolation, to help make conversations feel more natural and reduce distracting background noise. Portrait mode’s blurred backgrounds can also be used in FaceTime, and users can also share music and videos during calls. It’s also possible now to include Android users on FaceTime with a shareable link that opens the call in a browser. Shareable links make it easier to schedule FaceTime calls. Notifications get a new look, with contact photos on text notifications and bigger app icons, and they will get new filter modes... Continue reading…

06 June 2021, Schleswig-Holstein, Travemünde: A ferry emits exhaust fumes from a smokestack. | Photo by Daniel Reinhardt/picture alliance via Getty Images Not even a global pandemic could stop carbon dioxide concentrations from spiking. They reached historic levels yet again in May 2021, the month that scientists compare CO2 concentrations from year to year.Planet heating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere averaged 419 parts per million this May, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). That pileup of CO2 is comparable to where it was a little over four million years ago, when the average global temperature was about 7 degrees Fahrenheit hotter and sea levels were a whopping 78 feet higher than they are today.Without much more drastic action, scientists warn, CO2 levels will keep trending upward — which also brings the world closer to more inhospitable... Continue reading…

OnePlus has confirmed the N200 5G for North America, and has revealed a few key specs like a 90Hz screen to PCMag. | Image: OnePlus OnePlus recently confirmed that it would launch an affordable 5G device, the N200 5G, in North America, and has revealed a few more details — and a photo of the phone — to PCMag. Most notably, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau says that the N200 5G will cost less than $250 and will include a 90Hz screen.Lau says the N200 is “fully upgraded from OnePlus Nord N100,” a big-battery, budget 4G phone launched in the US earlier this year. He says that the N200 will get a 6.49-inch 1080p display, which will be a resolution boost from the N100’s 6.52-inch 720p screen. Its 90Hz refresh rate will make motion and animations on screen appear a bit smoother than the standard 60Hz rate. It’s a feature not often seen in the budget class, outside of OnePlus’s own... Continue reading…

Image: Apple What’s new in the Apple ecosystem? Continue reading…

How many operating systems can Apple update at once? Continue reading…

Confirmed: Ford’s first electric truck is a truck Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Less than two hours before Apple’s big Worldwide Developers Conference, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company would be launching a new interface for creators that shows how different fees affect their earnings on the platform. The announcement comes as Apple is under intense scrutiny for its App Store fees.Here’s a preview of what the new interface will look like. This example breaks down exactly how taxes and fees are taken away from a creator’s event revenue: Image: Facebook A screenshot of Facebook’s new payout interface. Zuckerberg wasn’t clear as to when the new interface would be launching beyond saying that there’d be “more to come soon.”Zuckerberg also says the company will keep paid... Continue reading…

Apple paid an unknown multimillion-dollar sum to a woman after iPhone repair technicians uploaded nude photos from her phone to Facebook. The Telegraph reported the 2016 payment based on court documents recently tied to Apple’s name, and Apple confirmed the incident in a statement to The Verge.The case involves an unnamed Oregon college student known as Jane Doe, who sent her iPhone to a major Apple repair contractor called Pegatron Technology Service. While the phone was being repaired at Pegatron’s California facility, two technicians uploaded sexually explicit photos and a video from her phone to her Facebook account. Court documents say the files were uploaded in a way that suggested Doe had posted them herself, and her attorney... Continue reading…

Google is expanding the availability of its Stadia game streaming service to more TVs and streaming devices later this month. The first version of Stadia on Chromecast with Google TV is launching on June 23rd, more than eight months after the device launched without official Stadia support.Alongside Chromecast with Google TV support, Stadia will also be available on a number of Android TV devices on June 23rd. Not every Android TV device is supported, but Nvidia’s Shield TV devices have made the list. Here’s the official support list:

Courtesy of Marvel Studios Loki, the one-time Marvel villain played for over a decade now by Tom Hiddleston, is on the verge of starring in his own series. Instead of playing the scene-stealing antagonist — or, later, grudging sidekick — to Chris Hemsworth’s square-jawed Thor, the God of Mischief is finally going to get to be fully in the spotlight. It’s something that fans have been asking for since the character first made his scenery-chewing debut in 2011’s Thor — but the new show looks far more detached from the MCU than any of his previous adventures.Loki is a new kind of series for Disney Plus. It’s the first that intentionally feels like a capital-S Spinoff. The first two Marvel shows, WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, occupied very... Continue reading…

Image: Eero Amazon is gearing up for Prime Day 2021 — which is happening on Monday, June 21st, and Tuesday, June 22nd — by releasing some teaser deals for Prime members. Today’s big deal is on the Eero 6 mesh Wi-Fi 6 router. It’s normally $129, but you can get one for $83. This is a good starting point if you have plans to build a multiroom mesh Wi-Fi system to blanket every corner of your home in reliable internet access.This router has two ethernet ports, one for a modem and another for any other device you’d prefer to have wired for the fastest speeds. The Eero 6 claims to cover 1,500 square feet with Wi-Fi signal, and you can easily add another one to your network to expand coverage.If you want to dive into the Eero ecosystem more fully,... Continue reading…

Samsung’s prototype heart rate monitor with stretchable OLED display. | Image Samsung / SAIT We’ve had curved displays for a while now, but what about stretchy ones? Samsung says it’s making progress building screens “that can be stretched in all directions like rubber bands,” and that the first applications for this material could be in building flexible health tech.The company’s researchers recently created an OLED display that can be stretched by up to 30 percent while operating as normal. As a proof of concept, engineers integrated this display into a stretchable heart rate monitor that can be stuck onto the skin like a Band-Aid.“The strength of this technology is that it allows you to measure your biometric data for a longer period without having to remove the solution when you sleep or exercise, since the patch feels... Continue reading…

The Realme GT, Realme’s Snapdragon 888-equipped flagship phone, is coming to Europe and will sell for €549 (about $670) for a model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, according to the company’s website. The price makes it among the cheapest Snapdragon 888 devices available to date, if not the cheapest. Xiaomi’s excellent-value Mi 11 started at €749 (~$910) for an 8GB / 128GB model, for comparison.Realme says the GT will ship to Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Portugal, though the device isn’t currently available to actually order. It’s not clear which other European markets it’ll be available in when it does launch.Realme announced the Chinese version of the GT in March. It started at 2,799 yuan there for the 8GB... Continue reading…

Image: Apple Apple’s hosting its second all-virtual Worldwide Developers Conference this year, and it seems like the company plans to squeeze in even more hardware announcements alongside its usual software updates. WWDC 2021 will run all week long, but things start off with the traditional Apple keynote on June 7th at 10AM PT / 1PM ET.Apple is expected to try to win back professional users at WWDC by leaning in with a new more powerful M2 chip and a redesigned MacBook Pro that ditches maligned features like the Touch Bar and brings back the HDMI port and MagSafe. The new M2 is rumored to have double the processor and GPU cores, and it might not even be Apple’s top-of-the-line: the company is rumored to launch a more powerful iMac and Mac Pro... Continue reading…

Jeff Bezos is headed into space, and he’s taking his brother with him.The Amazon CEO announced the news via a video on Instagram (below). In it, he says he and his brother Mark will be launching into space on July 20th aboard a rocket built by Bezos’ space company Blue Origin. The firm announced in May it would be targeting this date for a first crewed flight, but did not say that Bezos himself would be taking part.In the Instagram video, Bezos says that taking a journey into space has been a lifelong dream for him, and that it will be “meaningful” to have his brother along for the ride.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The return of the Angry God of ARPU Continue reading…

Image: YouTube Being able to sample audio from other users’ videos is one of TikTok’s greatest strengths. It allows memes to percolate across the platform and lets users discover new content by watching videos with the same sound. Soon, YouTube will expand this feature in its TikTok competitor, Shorts, letting users sample sounds from any content uploaded to YouTube.YouTube officially announced this feature last month in a community support post, but tells The Verge it should now be available for the first time in new markets as part of the launch of Shorts in the UK, Canada, and a number of Latin American countries (including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela). The YouTube-sampling tool will then roll out to other Shorts... Continue reading…

Honor has released a couple of official images for its upcoming 50 series smartphone via its Weibo page and Twitter. The images focus on the rear of the phone, showing an eye-catching pair of circular camera bumps. The Honor 50 series is currently due to be announced on June 16th.Amidst a sea of square and rectangular camera bumps, the dual circle design is an interesting look for Honor’s next flagship. It’s also a style that Honor’s former parent company Huawei is planning to use for its next flagship, the similarly-named P50. It’s possible that the two companies finalized their designs before Huawei sold off Honor late last year, but it’ll be strange to see such similar looking devices released from two distinct manufacturers within... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Dell is being sued in California over its claims that its Alienware Area-51m R1 laptop would offer “unprecedented upgradeability,” Tom’s Hardware reports. Alienware customer Robert Felter is accusing the company of running a “false and misleading” marketing campaign, in which it promised that the laptop’s core components, including the CPU and GPU, could be swapped out for more powerful models. A year later, the Area-51m R1’s successor was announced with new components not available as upgrades for the original model.“Consumers were misled by Dell’s false and misleading marketing campaign and paid a significant premium for the Area 51M R1 under the incorrect belief that this ‘unprecedented upgradeability’ would save them money in the... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Apple appears to have planned a dedicated event on Apple Music’s upcoming spatial audio feature for later today. According to a video that MacRumors says was uploaded to Apple Music as a teaser — it’s since been removed — Apple will broadcast a special event called “Introducing Spatial Audio.” The event doesn’t appear on the Worldwide Developers Conference schedule but is set for 3PM ET.That is, of course, immediately after the presumed conclusion of Apple’s much anticipated 1PM ET keynote to kick off this year’s online WWDC, where the company is expected to announce its annual updates to each of its operating systems. Later in the afternoon at 5PM ET Apple will give its usual “State of the Union” presentation, which is more focused on... Continue reading…

Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted Sunday that the automaker’s Model S Plaid Plus is “canceled,” since the basic Plaid is “just so good.”Tesla has been teasing its Model S Plaid since 2019, and Musk said late last month that delivery for the vehicle — which will have top speeds of 200 mph and range between 390 and 412 miles— would be pushed to June 10th as it needed “one more week of tweak.”He also tweeted Sunday that the Plaid could go from zero to 60 mph in under two seconds (a statement he’s made previously).

These images of Ganymede were constructed from imagery from NASA’s Voyager 1 and 2 and Galileo spacecraft | USGS Astrogeology Science Center/ Wheaton/ NASA/ JPL-Caltech On Monday NASA’s Juno space probe, which has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016, will get a close-up look at Jupiter’s biggest moon Ganymede, the agency said in a press release. It will be the closest NASA has gotten to the largest moon in the solar system for more than 20 years— Galileo cruised by Ganymede in 2000— coming within 645 miles of its surface. The information Juno gathers will give insight into the moon’s composition and ice shell, as well as provide data for future missions to Jupiter.“Juno carries a suite of sensitive instruments capable of seeing Ganymede in ways never before possible,” said principal investigator Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “By flying so close, we will bring the... Continue reading…

A mockup of what Twitter Super Follows could look like | Twitter Twitter announced earlier this year it was working on a Super Follows feature that would allow some users to charge followers and give them access to extra content. On Sunday, app researcher Jane Manchun Wong tweeted screenshots of what she says it will look like.According to Wong’s research, which is typically very accurate, the Super Follows program will be limited to Twitter users with at least 10,000 followers, who have posted at least 25 tweets within the past 30 days, and are at least 18 years old. As Twitter has referenced, one of the main features of Super Follows will be bonus content, such as exclusive tweets for Super Followers.Wong also discovered a list of content categories that Super Follows users would choose from to... Continue reading…

Apple needs a distraction, and it needs one fast.On Monday, the company will hold its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2021) during one of the most fraught moments for developer relations in Apple history. While Apple emerged from the Epic v. Apple trial in a seemingly strong legal position, its reputation took a body blow. Evidence revealed the company doesn’t “treat every developer the same” — it cut special deals with big companies like Amazon and Hulu and made arbitrary, cutthroat decisions to lock competition out and lock users in.Developers have known or suspected these things for years, and at first, online reactions seemed muted. This is the third year in a row that the shadow of antitrust regulation has hung over... Continue reading…

A trailer for the new documentary about the late Anthony Bourdain, Roadrunner, is among this week’s titles. | Photo by Mike Pont/WireImage It hit me this morning that there is no new episode of Mare of Easttown on this evening and I felt a little sad, but wow what a finale. Emmys for Kate Winslet and Julianne Nicholson, please (and be sure to read Sophie Gilbert’s excellent analysis in The Atlantic of the way women and mothers were centered in this very good series). I did not correctly predict who the killer was (but ICYMI, Stephen King did and don’t click that link if you haven’t watched the finale because obvs, spoiler). All this is to say I am in the market for a new show so I just started Hacks and can’t wait for the Loki premiere on Wednesday.The (unintentional) theme(s) for this week’s trailers roundup: Memories and nostalgia.Roadrunner This documentary about... Continue reading…

Fossil Fossil executives Greg McKelvey and Steve Prokup said in an interview with CNET that the company’s existing Wear OS watches won’t get upgraded to the new combined Wear software platform from Samsung and Google. Instead, Fossil is planning a premium watch that Prokup said would have “pretty major hardware upgrades,” and existing watches will probably be discounted as budget options.According to CNET, Fossil’s Gen 6 watch should have features similar to upcoming watches from Google and Samsung, with faster performance, longer battery life, new chips, and LTE cellular options. “All of the software benefits that Google’s talking about and launching with the unified platform is something we’ll be building into that as well,” McKelvey said.G... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro Twitter is suspended “indefinitely” in Nigeria, “for the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence,” according to a statement (threaded on Twitter) from the country’s minister of information and culture. The move comes days after the platform removed a threatening tweet by president Muhammadu Buhari which Twitter said violated its “abusive behavior” policy.On Saturday, the office of Nigeria’s attorney general and ministry of justice said it would arrest and prosecute anyone who tried to get around the block, CNN reported, and directed government agencies to cooperate with prosecutors “to ensure the speedy prosecution of offenders without any further delay.” Several news... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The US Department of Justice has charged a Latvian woman for her role in allegedly developing the Trickbot malware, which was responsible for infecting millions of computers, targeting schools, hospitals, public utilities, and governments, the agency said in a news release.The DOJ alleges that Alla Witte was part of a criminal organization known as the Trickbot Group that operated in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Suriname. She allegedly helped develop the malware which was used to enable ransomware demands and payments. Victims would receive a notice that their computers were encrypted, the DOJ said, and were directed to buy special software through a bitcoin address linked to the Trickbot Group to have their files decrypted.A... Continue reading…

Square and Blockstream are partnering on a solar-powered bitcoin mining facility | Blockstream Financial services firm Square Inc. will partner with blockchain technology provider Blockstream Mining to build an open-source, solar-powered bitcoin mining facility, Blockstream announced in a press release Saturday. Square confirmed the news in a tweet, saying it was “committed to driving further adoption and efficiency of renewables within the bitcoin ecosystem.”According to the release, Square will invest $5 million in the facility, which will be a “proof-of-concept for a 100% renewable energy Bitcoin mine at scale,” and will be built at one of Blockstream’s sites in the US. “We hope to show that a renewable mining facility in the real world is not only possible but also prove empirically that Bitcoin accelerates the world toward a... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge India’s government has told Twitter it could face “unintended consequences” if it fails to comply with the country’s new social media rules, Reuters reported. India’s technology minister wrote in a June 5th letter to Twitter that the company’s responses to previous government letters about the new rules did not confirm whether Twitter was in full compliance, according to Reuters.Under India’s Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code, which took effect in May, social media companies could be subject to legal action if they fail to follow the code’s provisions, which are aimed at regulating the platforms’ content. The new rules call for platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp to remove content within 36 hours of... Continue reading…

Getty Images An analysis of the cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline found that the hackers were able to access the company’s network using a compromised VPN password, Bloomberg reported. The hack led to a ransomware payout of $4.4 million, and resulted in gas prices around $3 per gallon for the first time in several years at US gas stations.According to cybersecurity firm Mandiant, the VPN account didn’t use multi-factor authentication, which allowed the hackers to access Colonial’s network with a compromised username and password. It’s not clear whether the hackers discovered the username or were able to figure it out independently. The password was discovered among a batch of passwords leaked on the dark web, Bloomberg reported.The breach occurred... Continue reading…