The Verge

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge Stock trading app Robinhood is facing dozens of lawsuits after the company restricted several stocks popular on the r/WallStreetBets subreddit. At least 30 parties across 10 states have sued the company in federal court, many seeking class action status. They allege that Robinhood users lost millions of dollars because they were unable to buy or sell stock during the freeze, and that the company chose to “manipulate the market” to help other financial institutions.Robinhood, which bills itself as a democratizing force in the stock market, helped facilitate an unprecedented boom around a handful of “meme stocks” last month. But on January 28th, it infuriated users by freezing trades on several of these stocks. That included GameStop... Continue reading…

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is planning to send its first “all-civilian” crew to space at the end of 2021 in a charity-focused mission commanded by tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman. The company said in a press release it’ll pick three people to ride alongside Isaacman to orbit aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule.Isaacman, a trained pilot and the chief executive of Shift4 Payments, said he donated $100 million to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and wants to help raise $200 million more by inviting people to donate at least $10 to St. Jude for a chance to get picked. Three people will be chosen “to represent the mission pillars of leadership, hope, generosity and prosperity,” according to a press release — though one person was already... Continue reading…

Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images A new report finds that claims of anti-conservative bias on social media platforms are not only untrue but serve as a form of disinformation. The report from NYU’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights says not only is there no empirical finding that social media companies systematically suppress conservatives, but even reports of anecdotal instances tend to fall apart under close scrutiny. And in an effort to appear unbiased, platforms actually bend over backward to try to appease conservative critics.“The contention that social media as an industry censors conservatives is now, as we speak, becoming part of an even broader disinformation campaign from the right, that conservatives are being silenced all across American society,”... Continue reading…

Image: Guy Dupont Classic iPods have their fans, but they’re not built for the modern age of music streaming — except for this one, which has been turned into a Spotify player by tinkerer Guy Dupont. While it may look like an iPod from the outside, inside, it’s got a Raspberry Pi loaded with software custom-built by Dupont to interface with Spotify, while still keeping the classic iPod style. He calls it the sPot.In a video showing off the project and the process behind it, Dupont says he was inspired when his mother-in-law gifted him the old iPod. In a Hackaday post, he says he “had forgotten how good it feels to hold and use one of these things,” but he wanted to update it with some modern features, including (obviously) Spotify streaming, Bluetooth... Continue reading…

Photo by Matt Kennedy / Marvel Studios Writer-director Ryan Coogler is making a new Marvel TV show for Disney Plus that will be set in the Kingdom of Wakanda as part of a five-year TV exclusivity deal with Coogler’s production banner, Proximity Media (which includes principals Zinzi Coogler, Sev Ohanian, Ludwig Göransson, Archie Davis, and Peter Nicks alongside Coogler himself).Coogler — who directed and co-wrote Black Panther, and is set to write and direct a sequel Black Panther II for release on July 8th, 2022 — will develop the new Wakanda Disney Plus series as his first project under the new deal, Deadline reports.The deal with Proximity Media also includes the option to create shows for other parts of the Disney banner, not just Marvel Studios. According to Coogler,... Continue reading…

Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) issued a joint statement Monday saying they would work together to advance comprehensive cannabis reform legislation in the current Congress.“The War on Drugs has been a war on people—particularly people of color. Ending the federal marijuana prohibition is necessary to right the wrongs of this failed war and end decades of harm inflicted on communities of color across the country. But that alone is not enough,” they said. “As states continue to legalize marijuana, we must also enact measures that will lift up people who were unfairly targeted in the War on Drugs.”All three senators have previously supported legislation to decriminalize cannabis in some form. Schumer... Continue reading…

The upcoming patch will allow the game to run at 60fps on PS5. | Image: Sony Sony’s reboot of God of War, one of the most popular first-party exclusives released on PS4, is getting an update tomorrow, which will allow the 2018 hit to take advantage of the PS5’s hardware, Sony’s Santa Monica Studio announced in a blog post today.The new update will allow early adopters of the PlayStation 5 to run the game in 4K resolution and at 60 frames per second. If you own a PS4 copy digitally or physically, you will receive the update at no additional cost. Santa Monica Studio also announced today that users who downloaded God of War via the PlayStation Plus Collection will have access to the PS5 optimization patch.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Google is shutting down its internal Stadia game development division, the company announced today, as it refocuses Stadia to be a home for streaming games from existing developers instead of developing its own games for the service.“Creating best-in-class games from the ground up takes many years and significant investment, and the cost is going up exponentially,” reads a blog post from Phil Harrison, a vice president at Google and general manager for Stadia. “Given our focus on building on the proven technology of Stadia as well as deepening our business partnerships, we’ve decided that we will not be investing further in bringing exclusive content from our internal development team SG&E, beyond any near-term planned games.”As part... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple’s latest watchOS 7 and iOS 14 beta releases indicate a new casting feature for Apple Fitness Plus subscribers is on the way, according to TechCrunch.The upcoming software updates will allow AirPlay casting of Fitness Plus workouts to compatible smart TVs, which include any with AirPlay 2 compatibility. That’s good news for Fitness Plus users who may not own an Apple TV, which was previously the only way to get an audio or video workout playing on a bigger screen.Fitness Plus was announced in September of last year and launched in December, and the paid service costs $9.99 per month or $79.99 per year for access to guided workouts. The service requires at minimum an Apple Watch Series 3 and a paired iPhone 6S or newer, both... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple is releasing its iOS 14.5 update to beta testers today, and one of the welcome changes is support for the new PS5 DualSense and Xbox Series X controllers. Neither of these new controllers is currently supported in the latest versions of iOS and iPadOS, but 14.5 introduces support for both.Apple’s upcoming iOS 14.5 update follows the company revealing back in November that it was working with Microsoft to include support for the Xbox Series X controllers. Steam also added PS5 controller support last year, followed by Nvidia’s Shield TV support last month.iOS 14.5 will also include the ability to unlock an iPhone with an Apple Watch while wearing a mask, Siri emergency contact calling, CarPlay ETA sharing, and dual-SIM 5G support.... Continue reading…

Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple’s latest iPhones stuck with Face ID as the singular method of biometric authentication in an era when people are wearing face masks everywhere they go. This inevitably means having to enter your passcode constantly throughout the day. But Apple has come up with a stopgap solution that should make it easier to get into your phone during mask life — as long as you’ve got an Apple Watch.As first reported by Pocket-lint, the new iOS 14.5 update, which went into beta today, uses the Apple Watch on your wrist to quickly authenticate and unlock your iPhone. Apple already offers this convenient trick on the Mac, but now it’s coming to the iPhone as well.It works similarly here. You lift your iPhone to turn on the screen, and you’ll... Continue reading…

Image: Lego Lego made a white noise playlist featuring Lego bricks, and it’s surprisingly relaxing. I don’t get many opportunities to build Lego sets anymore, but I’ve been listening to the playlist while writing this story, and it’s taking me back to the hours I spent as a kid building elaborately designed spaceships with an ever-increasing number of wings and laser guns.The playlist has seven different tracks, each about 30 minutes long. Some sound like you’re sitting next to somebody shuffling through a pile of bricks while working on a build. I’m a big fan of “Searching for the One (Brick)” because it captures the feeling of digging through a pile of bricks and finally finding that one piece you were looking for.Other tracks use Lego bricks... Continue reading…

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge An interview with the founder of Backstage Capital Continue reading…

Google is updating its search results with a major new feature: an “about this result” menu that will let you pull up information from Wikipedia about a website in your search results, making it easier to vet sites that you’re not familiar with.To see the new information boxes, just tap on the three-dot icon on the top right of the result’s card, which will pull up a short snippet on the article. Google says “these descriptions will provide the most up-to-date verified and sourced information available on Wikipedia.”Additionally, the new search information box will show more detailed information on the result like whether it’s an organic search result or a paid ad, or if the site uses a secure HTTPS connection. Google... Continue reading…

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Demand for Microsoft’s latest Xbox Series X console is high, but supply isn’t likely to keep up until at least through June now. In an interview with The New York Times, Microsoft’s head of investor relations, Mike Spencer, revealed supply of its new Xbox consoles will be constrained at least through June.Microsoft had warned that the Xbox Series X would be in short supply until at least April or beyond, and it’s now clear the wait for stock is going to continue for longer. The difficult supply situation does mean that Microsoft sold every Xbox unit it had last quarter, during a quarter it hit $5 billion in gaming revenue for the first time ever.It’s been incredibly difficult to buy an Xbox Series X, PS5, or even the latest AMD and... Continue reading…

How it Ends. | Photo: Sundance Institute. From cult films to VR experiences Continue reading…

Cryptozoo. | Photo: Sundance Institute. Like most recent events, the 2021 edition of the Sundance Film Festival has shifted from an in-person showcase to a virtual one. Despite the change, we’ll still be bringing you reviews on the most interesting experiences we find, from indie films to VR experiments.Halfway through Cryptozoo, a hypnotizing and beautiful animated film about classic cryptid creatures, the somewhat meandering story becomes apparent. And it’s distracting.Dash Shaw’s latest feature takes place in a fictional world where cryptids — mythical creatures like the kraken, Loch Ness monster, and Bigfoot — are feared and hunted by humans. In an effort to try to protect the creatures from being killed, two people operate a sanctuary that keeps cryptids safe. Lauren... Continue reading…

Image: Samsung Samsung has dropped the price of its folding flip phone, the Galaxy Z Flip 5G, by $250. It’s now $1,199.99, which, on its face, looks like a fairly big drop from its original asking price of $1,449.99 in July 2020.However, there are two things to keep in mind about the price change. First, this phone is about six months old and is the same design as the non-5G version released last February. Samsung phones are famous for seeing early and aggressive deals; now that trend is hitting its folding phones, too. So while a price drop is nice to see, it’s not exactly rare.Second, $1,200 is still very expensive for a phone that has essentially the same specs and functionality as a Galaxy S20 FE 5G, which can be had for $700 (or less if you can... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Facebook will begin showing a prompt on its mobile app for the iPhone and iPad that’s designed to convince users to allow ad tracking, in preparation for an upcoming privacy change in which Apple will force developers to obtain permission to track users across apps and websites in the future. The new screen, first reported on Monday by CNBC, will be shown to users globally starting today and will provide Facebook will early data on how Apple’s privacy change might affect the social network’s business, ahead of Apple’s planned update in early spring that will make the opt-in request mandatory.The prompt will give users a page of information detailing why Facebook thinks a user should give the company permission to track them on iOS. The... Continue reading…

Photo by Sean O’Kane / The Verge Ford is the latest automaker to turn its vehicle operating systems over to Google. The Dearborn, Michigan-based company said it will use Google’s Android to power the infotainment systems in “millions” of its cars starting in 2023. That means Google’s voice-activated Assistant, Google Maps, and other automotive-approved Android apps will be available in Ford’s cars without requiring the use of an Android smartphone.The deep integration of Android will allow drivers and passengers to use Google Assistant to change things like climate settings, and it will also enable over-the-air updates that can add new features or address some maintenance issues, according to Ford. But iPhone people, don’t despair: Ford’s system will still be... Continue reading…

Prisoners of the Ghostland. | Photo. Sundance Institute. Like most recent events, the 2021 edition of the Sundance Film Festival has shifted from an in-person showcase to a virtual one. Despite the change, we’ll still be bringing you reviews and insight on the most interesting experiences we find, from indie films to VR experiments.Prisoners of the Ghostland seems like a movie made for Nicolas Cage. It’s the English language debut from prolific Japanese director Sion Sono — Western audiences might know him best from the strange and gruesome series Tokyo Vampire Hotel on Amazon Prime Video — and it mashes together elements of Westerns, samurai films, and post-apocalyptic action movies. Cage’s genre work has become a genre itself, thanks to cult hits like Mandy and Color Out of Space. So on the... Continue reading…

Image: Nike Nike is pushing the envelope of shoe technology further with today’s announcement of the Go FlyEase, a contact-less $120 shoe for both athletic and everyday use.The core innovation here is a so-called bistable hinge that lets the shoe move between two positions: an upright one in which the inner sole of the shoe sits at a roughly 30-degree angle so you can easily slip your foot in, and the collapsed position in which the outer layer sits snugly around the inner one while you walk or run. It is effectively two shoes in one, with the inner shoe popping out as needed.The concept comes from the standard motion most people make when taking off slip-on shoes like Crocs, slippers, or plain old loose sneakers that involves using one foot to... Continue reading…

Photo by Doug Mills-Pool / Getty Images Just a few years ago, it would have been unthinkable for a major political party to call for decriminalizing marijuana — but in 2020, the Democrats did just that. Approved in August, the platform called for decriminalizing and rescheduling marijuana through executive action, with support for legalizing medical marijuana and expunging past criminal convictions for cannabis-related offenses all on the table.“Democrats believe no one should be in prison solely because they use drugs,” the platform states. “Democrats will decriminalize marijuana use and reschedule it through executive action on the federal level.”A lot has changed since August, and the first few weeks of the Biden administration have been consumed with trillion-dollar... Continue reading…

Sundance Institute Like most recent events, the 2021 edition of the Sundance Film Festival has shifted from an in-person showcase to a virtual one. Despite the change, we’ll still be bringing you reviews and insight on the most interesting experiences we find, from indie films to VR experiments.Censorship is the bane of artists, but it’s also a grudging compliment — because being a devoted censor requires believing that art has power. That belief is the dark heart of Censor, a horror film about the horror film world’s most infamous moral panic.Censor, which premieres at the Sundance Film Festival this week, is the feature debut from Welsh director Prano Bailey-Bond. It’s set in 1980s Britain during the height of the “video nasties” controversy, which saw... Continue reading…

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Apple’s AirPods Pro are, once again, selling for $190 through Woot. These truly wireless earbuds with noise cancellation originally cost $249, with many retailers currently selling them for around $200. We saw this deal pop up around Black Friday 2020, and while it has come back a few times since then at Woot, it’s still the lowest price we’ve seen yet for a new set. Apple makes a few different kinds of AirPods (including the newer over-ear AirPods Max), but this is the high-end in-ear model that sounds great and has a spatial audio feature.Woot says this deal will go until February 15th, or until supplies last.Best Buy is selling refurbished AirPods Pro for just $170, if you want to roll the dice on a used (but cleaned and inspected)... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge 23 great gift ideas for your significant other Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge If your PlayStation Plus membership is about to expire or you want to extend the subscription for another two years, Eneba is offering an exclusive deal to The Verge readers. You can purchase two one-year PlayStation Plus subscriptions for only $56 when you enter the discount code VERGEFEB at checkout, while supplies last. This is a great deal — the usual price for one year of PlayStation Plus is $60, so purchasing two one-year subscriptions for less than the price of one is a real bargain. If you want just one year, you can buy it for $29. (No code needed.)This works for both PS4 owners and early adopters of the PS5; the subscription is compatible with both consoles. So if you own a PS4 but are lucky enough to then get hold of a PS5,... Continue reading…

Users are reporting seeing Froggy as a screensaver option on their smart displays. | Screenshot: Jay Boromeusz / YouTube Google is testing a new background for Assistant smart displays that shows a cartoon frog enjoying, or coping with, the weather in real-time. The character, Froggy, has previously been a fixture in Google’s weather search results, and has also moonlighted as a minor character in several Google Doodles. Now 9to5Google reports that the critter is randomly cropping up as a new “Photo Frame” option for the smart displays for users on Reddit and Twitter, where it appears alongside existing backgrounds like images displayed from your Google Photos account.The software describes the screensaver as “a lovable frog to bring you an animated weather experience.” When enabled, the display shows the current weather, a two-day weather forecast, and... Continue reading…

The new interface shows tabs in a grid layout, and includes the option to group them. | Screenshot: Chrome Chrome’s Android app is being updated with a new interface for switching tabs, and a new tab grouping feature to help organize open web pages, 9to5Google reports. The new interface and functionality has reportedly been appearing for some users after the release of version 88 of Chrome last month, but doesn’t appear to be live for everyone just yet.The grid layout replaces the previous interface consisting of a vertical list of tabs, and is similar to Chrome’s existing iOS tab interface. Around six tabs are shown onscreen at a time, and these can be swiped to the left or right to close them. Incognito tabs can be accessed via a small icon on the top of the screen. Screenshot: Chrome When browsing a tab that’s... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Nintendo has posted earnings for a huge holiday quarter in which the Switch sold more consoles than ever. 11.57 million consoles were moved in total, bringing the Switch close to 80 million sold since its 2017 launch. Nintendo has increased its forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31st to 26.5 million Switch units, also boosting its net profit estimate 33 percent to 400 billion yen, or about $3.82 billion.The Switch has now outsold the 3DS in terms of lifetime sales, with the older handheld reaching a total of 75.94 million units before production was ended. Only 730,000 3DS games were shipped during the last quarter, underlining that the platform really is dead at this point.It was also a massive quarter for Nintendo in terms of... Continue reading…

Apple has released an official extension for the Windows and Mac versions of Chrome that lets you use passwords stored in your iCloud Keychain. For anyone who uses Chrome as their browser and iCloud Keychain in lieu of a dedicated password manager, this could make bouncing between Windows and Mac computers much easier.The release of the extension means that if you’ve used Safari to automatically generate strong passwords on other platforms, those can now be available to you in Chrome when you’re prompted for a login. Passwords created in Chrome for Windows will also sync back to iCloud so they’ll be available on Apple devices as well.The extension is called iCloud Passwords and is available now in the Chrome Web Store. Details of the... Continue reading…

Dwayne Johnson in Young Rock | NBC I think I’m in Ted Lasso withdrawal, you guys; no other shows are quite working for me since I finished it. I just started season 2 of Servant, though, thinking maybe I needed a genre-switch. Servant is still creepy, and Lauren Ambrose’s Dorothy is still both totally unlikeable and totally sympathetic at the same time, which is a marvelous bit of character development. We’ll see how things go, but chances are I’m just going to re-binge Ted again.This week’s trailers are a nice mixed bag of comedy, teen romance, and spy thriller. Also The Rock!The Map of Tiny Perfect ThingsSo the trailer gets the obvious out of the way early on— it’s about is a teenager stuck in a repeating time loop a la “Groundhog Day and Edge of Tomorrow,” as lead... Continue reading…

Photo by Ozkan Bilgin/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images NASA last week quietly delayed its plan to award two high-profile crewed lunar lander contracts, moving the finish line back two months for a crucial program under the Trump administration’s hasty timeline to get astronauts on the moon in 2024. With short funding from Congress and a new administration focused on more pressing national issues, the move was expected.Elon Musk’s SpaceX, a team of aerospace giants led by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, and Leidos-owned Dynetics won a combined $967 million in seed funding from NASA last year to develop rivaling concepts for a human lunar landing system. It’s the space agency’s first effort to spend money on astronaut moon landers since the Apollo program in the 1970s.Last Wednesday, NASA told the... Continue reading…

Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge All but two US states — Montana and Wyoming— now have police or fire departments participating in Amazon’s Ring network, which lets law enforcement ask users for footage from their Ring security cameras to assist with investigations, the Financial Times reported, Figures from Ring show more than 1,189 departments joined the program in 2020 for a total of 2,014. That’s up sharply from 703 departments in 2019 and just 40 in 2018.The FT reports that local law enforcement departments on the platform asked for Ring videos for a total of more than 22,335 incidents in 2020. The disclosure data from Ring also shows that law enforcement made some 1,900 requests — such as subpoenas, search warrants, and court orders— for footage or data from Ring... Continue reading…

Screenshot: Lego The quest to get one of the most popular toymakers in the world to make a little space for bicycles Continue reading…

The Ace offers a large screen and massive battery, but it falls short in some key areas Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On November 10th, a Facebook employee sent out an unusual email to an unknown outside party, hoping to arrange a conversation about how the platform moderated against anti-Semitism. “We are looking at the question of how we should interpret attacks on ‘Zionists,’” reads the letter, whose recipient was redacted, “to determine whether the term is a proxy for attacking Jewish or Israeli people.”That strange but seemingly innocuous email has set off a firestorm in certain corners of the left. Since Tuesday, activists have been circulating a petition calling on the platform to halt any potential changes to the way Facebook moderates the word “Zionist.” Both sides agree the term is often used as part of racist rhetoric that is accurately... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Valve’s latest Steam Game Festival begins Wednesday, giving access to playable demos of more than 500 upcoming games from indie developers, along with livestreamed chats and panel discussions. The first iteration of the festival took place alongside The Game Awards in December 2019, and was followed by similar events last fall and spring that provided indie developers a chance to show off their titles after the 2020 Game Developers Conference was canceled.A trailer video from Steam titled Play What’s Next teases a few of the games that look to be available for demo during the event, which include Genesis Noir from Feral Cat Den; The Riftbreaker from Exor Studios; Narita Boy from Studio Koba; Almighty: Kill Your Gods from Runwild... Continue reading…

Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images The first two months of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign have been chaotic: local health departments and hospitals are struggling put the limited shots they have available in arms, and people eligible for those shots are often frustrated by buggy sign-up websites. Older adults, in particular, are having trouble with online tools.In New York City, one of the main pain points is that everything is fractured. Multiple different groups — including the city, the state, and various hospital groups — are distributing the vaccine across dozens of sites. That leaves New Yorkers juggling multiple registration websites as they search for open slotsAfter experiencing the frustration of jumping from site to site to site firsthand, software... Continue reading…

With all of its recent licensed characters, which includes everyone from Sarah Connor to The Mandalorian, the virtual battlefield of Fortnite is starting to resemble a playground full of action figures. When you think about it like that, a collaboration with G.I. Joe makes a lot of sense. With that in mind, Epic and Hasbro announced that iconic character Snake Eyes will be available as part of the Fortnite universe starting today — both in-game and as a physical toy.The new version of the character is called Snake Eyes: Zero Point edition, an allusion to a key part of Fortnite lore (one which took on more significance this season). The in-game version will be available starting on January 30th for 1,800 V-bucks, while a 6-inch-tall... Continue reading…

Photo by Timothy Norris/Getty Images for Coachella Health officials have ordered the Coachella music festival scheduled for April to be canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. It’s the third time the pandemic has forced the annual outdoor festival that draws hundreds of thousands of fans to the California desert to be postponed or canceled.“The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the Stagecoach Country Music Festival currently scheduled for April 2021 are hereby canceled,” Riverside County Health Officer Dr. Cameron Kaiser said in an order issued Friday. Kaiser’s order also canceled the Stagecoach Country Music Festival, also scheduled for April.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge It’s no secret that the US is struggling to distribute coronavirus vaccines; some states haven’t received enough doses, and finding an appointment on sign-up websites has been a chaotic experience. A new report in MIT Technology Review looks at why, almost a year into the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention seemed totally unprepared for actually getting shots into people’s arms.According to Technology Review, the agency knew it needed a robust, one-stop shop that could be used by patients, clinics, employers, and government officials. But instead, the CDC spent $44 million on something called the Vaccine Administration Management System —-VAMS— built by consulting firm Deloitte (via no-bid contracts) which was so... Continue reading…

It has been a wild week for the stock market, with amateur traders from Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets subreddit battling traditional investors. The past several days have been full of massive swings in stocks like GameStop and AMC and app-fueled drama that’s sparked a larger debate over the nature of Wall Street as a whole.But if you were hoping to kick back this weekend, relax, and enjoy a classic business movie about shark-like investors and over-confident Wall Street executives, you’re probably out of luck. Nearly every major finance film isn’t available to stream right now in the US (at least, not at the time of publication of this article), thanks to the capricious nature of the streaming marketplace, the increasingly fragmented... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp has started posting Status messages to users about its “commitment to your privacy.” The in-app messages were appearing for members of The Verge staff in the US and UK on Saturday, and some users reported the Status messages — WhatsApp’s version of Snapchat Stories or Twitter Fleets—have been appearing in India for a while now.“There’s been a lot of misinformation and confusion around our recent update and we want to help everyone understand the facts behind how WhatsApp protects people’s privacy and security,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said in an email to The Verge. “Going forward, we’re going to provide updates to people in the Status tab so people hear from WhatsApp directly. Our first update... Continue reading…

According to analysts, Chromebooks had an incredible 2020, with the last quarter being the strongest ever for Google’s laptops (via 9to5Google). According to research firms Gartner and Canalys, over 30 million of the devices shipped last year, with somewhere between 11 and 11.7 million shipping in Q4 alone. Canalys says that’s a staggering 287 percent more than were shipped in Q4 2019.The firms disagree on how much growth this is when compared to 2019, but both estimate that it’s a lot: Gartner estimates that Chromebooks are up 80 percent, while Canalys says it’s 109 percent. For comparison, PC sales were up by 11 percent this year, which is the biggest growth the category had seen in a decade. This isn’t to give the impression that... Continue reading…

A lightweight laptop that doesn’t cut too many corners Continue reading…

Image: Apple Apple has notified subscribers of its Apple TV Plus streaming service that they’ll continue to get refund credits on their accounts until June, following a second extension of its free trial program earlier this month, 9 to 5 Mac reported.Apple extended the free year-long trials of Apple TV Plus to customers until July 2021. The trials were included with the purchase of any Apple device (an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV) and were initially set to last until November 1st, 2020. This was the second extension; an earlier extension had pushed back the free trial end date to February, allowing users who started a free trial between November 2019 and June 2020 to get up to five months of additional access for free.But before Apple issued... Continue reading…

A pharmacy tech holds a dose of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine during a clinical trial in December. | Photo by Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images Experts have been looking forward to seeing results from Johnson and Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine trials for months. The vaccine is a logistical dream compared to the other two authorized in the US. It’s much easier to store, and it requires only one shot instead of the two required by its competitors. The only outstanding question was how well it actually worked. On Friday, they got their answer — it works pretty well.In a 43,783 person trial that spanned the globe, the vaccine was 66 percent effective at preventing moderate to severe COVID-19. Now, 66 percent might seem like a let down compared to the 90-plus percent efficacy from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. But that’s a matter of perspective. Before results of those vaccine trials... Continue reading…

The Magic Keyboard for 11-inch iPad Pros and the new iPad Air is $100 off. Scroll down to find the deal | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge January 2021 has been full of important news, but it’s been a bit lousy when it comes to deals. Still, we’ve done our part in scouring all of the major retailers for discounts on products we care about (and we think you care about, too). There aren’t many brand-new deals to be found in this week’s dispatch, but go ahead and take a look if you haven’t been following them closely.If you feel caught up on deals, here’s a reminder that you can hang out here to have a quiet moment from all of the ongoing GameStop and AMC stock drama. Then again, if this is the first time you’re hearing about all of that and want to hear more, check out my colleague Liz Lopatto’s Big Picture video that’s all about it. Photo by Chris Welch /... Continue reading…

Photo by NASA/Robert Markowitz via Getty Images NASA will make another attempt next month to test-fire its massive Space Launch System rocket after its first try was cut short, the agency said Friday night.The rocket’s 212-foot-tall core stage will try to fire its four engines for eight minutes at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The attempt is the last milestone “Green Run” test before the behemoth rocket gets shipped to Florida for its debut launch toward the moon.All four of the rocket’s Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 engines ignited together for the first time earlier this month. But what was intended to be an eight minute test only lasted a little over a minute — a much shorter runtime than what engineers needed to proceed to Florida. The SLS core has been in development... Continue reading…