The Verge

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A China-based former Zoom employee is being charged with harassment for allegedly disrupting video calls commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Brooklyn federal prosecutors unsealed a case against Xinjiang (also known as Julien) Jin today. The complaint doesn’t identify Jin’s employer, but Zoom published a blog post acknowledging that it employed him.According to the complaint, Jin was a liaison between Zoom and Chinese law enforcement and intelligence services. He allegedly used this position to target dissidents and activists both inside and outside the People’s Republic of China, collecting account information and disrupting meetings. “The allegations in the complaint lay bare the Faustian bargain that the PRC government... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The New York Times’ Caliphate podcast was a hit — until it wasn’t. The 2018 show, which chronicled the radicalization of a man who joined the Islamic State, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, won a Peabody, and was widely regarded as a feat of narrative nonfiction storytelling. The Times’ head of film, TV, and audio, Sam Dolnick, described the show as a “cinematic experience” that “absolutely lends itself to TV” and came with “a lot of interest from Hollywood.”Today, however, those days seem far away. The Times appended a lengthy and apologetic editor’s note to the show’s landing pages after doubts about the central character’s story surfaced. The Times reassigned the show’s star reporter and host, Rukmini Callimachi, and dropped a... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Microsoft is designing its own ARM-based processors for servers and possibly a future Surface device, according to Bloomberg News. The processors will be used in servers for Microsoft’s Azure cloud services and be based around ARM designs, according to the report. Microsoft is also reportedly “exploring” using another chip for some of its Surface devices, but it’s not clear if this will progress into a final product.Microsoft currently uses Intel-based processors for the majority of its Azure cloud services, and most of the company’s Surface lineup run on Intel chips, too. Microsoft has worked with AMD and Qualcomm for custom chips for its Surface Laptop 3 and Surface Pro X devices, showing a willingness to move away from just Intel. ... Continue reading…

I like to end each year by surveying you all about your predictions for social networks and the broader consumer internet in the 12 months to come. One, it’s a lot of fun. And two, a year later I get to read the predictions back and feel extremely dumb. Our collective guesses for 2020 weren’t terrible, exactly — we nailed Libra (er, Diem) failing to launch, the rise of Discord, the splinternet accelerating, and a total stalemate on Section 230 reform.But we missed a lot, too: a rise in curated experiences did not cause algorithms to “fade into the background”; a deepfake app did not go mainstream in the United States; and Twitch streaming did not power the rise of Oculus. (But the pandemic sort of did? It powered the rise of Twitch,... Continue reading…

Image: CD Projekt Red CD Projekt Red (CDPR) has issued yet another statement regarding the ongoing Cyberpunk 2077 debacle, this time clarifying its stance on retail refunds for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game that have been riddled with bugs and performance issues since launch last week. The developer now says it will honor every refund request it receives between now and December 21st out of its own pocket.“We’ve just started reaching out to people who sent us a message with a confirmation of receipt. We send these emails out in waves, so don’t worry if you don’t receive an answer immediately,” CDPR writes in its new statement, issued via the official Cyberpunk 2077 Twitter account on Friday afternoon. “At the same time, we’d like you... Continue reading…

FDA headquarters in Maryland. | Photo by Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images In most contexts, it’s perfectly acceptable to use “approval” and “authorization” interchangeably. But not at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and definitely not when it comes to COVID-19 vaccines. If the topic comes up at your Zoom holiday party, here’s a cheat sheet for the specific uses of these similar terms.Approval — No COVID-19 vaccines have been approved. Approval means the FDA has officially decided that a product is safe and effective for its designated use. The process for approval involves rigorous reviews of all available data on the product and can take several months.Authorization — To speed things up in an emergency like a pandemic, the FDA can grant an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). An EUA, as its name... Continue reading…

Getty Images/Getty Images for EIF & XQ Hulu has ordered a new reality series based around TikTok’s royal family — Charli, Dixie, Marc, and Heidi D’Amelio — seemingly hoping to capture a little bit of what Keeping Up with the Kardashians did for E! back in 2007.The D’Amelio Show is an eight-part documentary series that will follow the four family members as they go about their day-to-day lives. Expect TikTok dancing, TikTok drama, meetings with executives all over Hollywood, and the types of goofs that worked for other reality shows that followed popular families. It will debut sometime in 2021.For the D’Amelio family, this is just another project they’re adding to their list, which includes podcasts, a YouTube channel, commercials, television specials, and more. Like the... Continue reading…

Image: CD Projekt Red Best Buy has joined the list of retailers offering returns for copies of Cyberpunk 2077, with the company announcing (in a forum post) that it’ll be accepting returns through December 21st.The move is an unusual one for Best Buy, which typically excludes opened video games from its usual return policy — in most circumstances, “opened physical copies of computer software, movies, music, video games, books, video game guides and sheet music can only be exchanged for an identical item.”However, in light of developer CD Projekt Red’s own acknowledgement of issues with the game — and its offer to supply refunds through December 21st — Best Buy will be offering a similar opportunity for disappointed buyers to return their copies.Per the... Continue reading…

Image: Riot Games League of Legends developer Riot Games is working on a massively multiplayer online (MMO) roleplaying game in the League universe, Riot’s VP of IP and entertainment, Greg Street, tweeted on Thursday.“My recent job at Riot has been to help develop the League universe, which we’re going to need!” Street said. “My new job is to kick off a big (some might say massive) game that many of you, and many Rioters, have been asking us to create.” If the deliberate use of the word “massive” in that quote wasn’t enough of a hint, in a reply to another Twitter user, Street confirmed the game is an MMO.

Image: CD Projekt Red Microsoft says it’s now offering Cyberpunk 2077 refunds to anyone who has purchased the game via its Microsoft Store. While the company has been offering refunds to some customers already, Microsoft is now expanding this to cover anyone who has purchased the game digitally.“We know the developers at CD Projekt Red have worked hard to ship Cyberpunk in extremely challenging circumstances,” explains a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. “However, we also realize that some players have been unhappy with the current experience on older consoles. To date, we have granted refunds to the vast majority of customers who have requested one. To ensure that every player is able to get the experience they expect on Xbox, we will be... Continue reading…

Skype’s new Together Mode option featuring Verge staff. Microsoft is bringing one of its best Teams video calling features over to Skype this week. Together Mode, which uses AI to segment your face and shoulders and place you together with other people in a virtual space, is now available in Skype. You’ll need at least five people all with webcams to enable the feature, and it will place everyone into a virtual environment as if they’re sitting next to each other.You don’t even need the Skype app to take advantage of Together Mode, as it works through the web version of Skype without the need for an account. Skype users can create a Meet Now meeting and share the link with anyone to join. GIF: Microsoft Together Mode in Microsoft Teams. Microsoft first launched... Continue reading…

For the last eight weeks, waking up on Friday morning has come with a gamble for many Star Wars fans: check Twitter to see the latest headlines or watch the new Mandalorian episode before anyone has a chance to spoil it?This week’s episode of The Mandalorian is a perfect example. The second season finale includes some moments that Twitter’s trending tags and “news for you” curated topic sideline are already ruining. Without getting into spoiler territory here (and use this as a warning to stay away from Twitter if you haven’t seen the finale yet), one of the proposed solutions to this problem seems simple: release the episodes at a later time. Instead of dropping episodes at 3AM ET, why not pivot to 8 or 9PM ET, similar to how Game of... Continue reading…

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon This year, millions of people turned to bicycles as a safe and socially distanced way to get out of their homes, shake off that cabin fever, and get some fresh air, and suddenly — thanks to COVID — bikes were in. But unless concerted efforts are made to ensure people can continue to cycle safely and in great numbers, all those bikes may soon be gathering dust.Things looked grim at first, with bike sales plummeting as cities went into lockdown. But as the year plodded along, bike sales started really getting up to speed. Popular bikes went on backorder. Local shops and big-box retailers struggled to keep up with demand. The humble bicycle emerged as one of the rare winners of the pandemic.For the first time in, well, a century, the... Continue reading…

Photo by Nilay Patel / The Verge It seems like there’s no sign of tech news stopping for the holidays. In The Vergecast’s last regular episode of 2020, The Verge’s Dieter Bohn and Nilay Patel bring on senior reporter Adi Robertson and editor Chris Welch to explain the biggest stories in tech from this past week.In the first half of the show, Adi explains two (!) more antitrust cases brought against Google this week: one from the Texas attorney general and the other from a coalition of 38 states. The Vergecast breaks down their arguments about Google’s alleged anti-competitive behavior around ad tech and search manipulation.In the second half of the show, The Vergecast shift gears to a review of the latest product announcement from Apple: the AirPods Max. Chris... Continue reading…

Animal Crossing: New Horizons for the Nintendo Switch offers some much-needed joy. The holidays are upon us, and we’re just about to enter crunch time for gift-getting. If you haven’t made your selections, it’s possible that gifts might not get where they need to go on time — unless you pay for rush shipping or you take advantage of curbside pickup services. I know that’s a lot of pressure, but if you’re ready to make a few purchases for tech fans in your life, we have a few last-minute suggestions that also happen to be good deals. Depending on the retailer, these might not arrive in time for the holidays, but it’s the thought that counts, right? You’ve got this! Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Google’s latest Pixel Buds wireless earbuds rarely see a discount, but they’re $35 off at online store... Continue reading…

Fortnite’s annual holiday event is back, and this time, it brings a surprise: the return of airplanes. “Operation Snowdown,” as it’s called, lasts from December 18th to January 5th, and it adds the expected to the game, including a snowy map and free unlockables like a soldier snowman called Snowmando. Everyone who logs in before January 5th will also get a free caroling emote.The biggest feature, though, is the return of airplanes. The timing is perfect: planes were first introduced in season 7, back in 2018, which was also a winter-themed update for the game. (There was even a militarized Santa character.) They were later removed, and it sounds like their latest appearance will be short-lived as well.In addition to the new missions... Continue reading…

Photo by Justin Lubin / Lucasfilm For a show about a tiny alien, The Mandalorian sure had a huge impact. The first season of the series helped sell millions on Disney Plus, the company’s Netflix-style streaming service, while simultaneously showing how the Star Wars universe could translate to prestige television. It was, to put it succinctly, a hit — one that became even more popular thanks to the adorable Baby Yoda. Er, I mean, The Child.The second season, meanwhile, faces a very different challenge. Not only does it have to live up to the hype generated by season 1, but it’s also releasing at a time when many of the biggest movies and TV shows have been indefinitely delayed due to the ongoing pandemic, making it arguably the biggest entertainment release of 2020.To... Continue reading…

Image: Lucasfilm Ltd. As expected, The Mandalorian’s finale culminated in a dramatic showdown between Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) — aka, Mando — and Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) over the fate of Grogu (née Baby Yoda). But “The Rescue” didn’t just run into the expected complications for an assault on a massive Imperial cruiser: it also ran into the mainstream Star Wars universe in the biggest way yet.Warning: Spoilers for the entirety of The Mandalorian season 2 and Star Wars: The Last Jedi follow.Par for the course for Mando, though, things didn’t go quite as planned. While the armored hero did succeed in saving his adopted son, it came at a bittersweet cost: Grogu’s earlier callout for any other Jedi was answered by none other than Luke Skywalker (Mark... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge DJI — one of the largest and most popular drone companies in the world — has been added to the US Department of Commerce’s Entity List, designating the Chinese company as a national security concern and banning US-based companies from exporting technology to the company. Reuters first reported the news, citing a conference call with a senior commerce official. The Department of Commerce did not immediately respond to a request for further details.The ban was put in place through the same mechanism as the US government’s ongoing ban on Huawei products, and is primarily focused on blocking the export of US technology to the drone-maker. However, the ban will make it difficult for US businesses to provide parts or components for DJI to use... Continue reading…

Photo by Nilay Patel / The Verge After some initial confusion around how the AirPods Max handle power management, Apple has tried to clarify the issue with an updated support page outlining how and when its new $550 headphones automatically conserve battery life.Originally, the company said that “when stored in their soft, slim smart case, AirPods Max enter an ultra‑low‑power state that preserves charge.” But there was uncertainty about what happens when they’re left outside the case. In my review, I found that the headphones lost only a few battery percentage points when left out overnight with no case — nothing close to a worrying level of drain. But not everyone had that experience; Marques Brownlee observed a greater amount of battery loss when the AirPods Max... Continue reading…

NASA’s Orion capsule attached to its adapter and service module. | Photo by Ben Smegelsky / NASA NASA is opting to fly its future deep-space crew capsule Orion “as is” next year, after the agency discovered that one of the spacecraft’s power instruments had suffered a failure. Engineers had been mulling over whether to replace the instrument before the vehicle’s flight but ultimately decided that there was enough redundancy in the system to withstand the failed component.“NASA has confidence in the health of the overall power and data system, which has been through thousands of hours of powered operations and testing,” the agency wrote in a blog post announcing the decision. “Engineers will perform additional testing and continue to monitor the health of the spacecraft while Orion is powered on to provide continued confidence in... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge US Customs and Border Protection has filed for a significant expansion in its authority to conduct facial recognition at airports. On November 19th, the agency submitted a filing to the Federal Register seeking to expand the ongoing biometric exit program, broadening the program’s scope to include all air and land ports. The filing also shifts the program’s focus entirely to facial recognition, at the expense of alternate methods like fingerprinting.The filing is subject to public comment for a brief time after its submission. That comment period will end on Monday, December 21st.“All aliens may be required to be photographed upon entry”First deployed in 2017, biometric exit has operated as a pilot program, limited to a handful of... Continue reading…

I spent a lot of time in Final Fantasy VII Remake looking up. In Midgar, the sky is obstructed by metal plates, physical barriers that separate downtrodden citizens from their wealthy counterparts. It’s a quiet reminder that in this place, no one is free. People’s paths are already written.Final Fantasy VII Remake is just that: a retelling of the iconic 1997 Japanese roleplaying game that made Final Fantasy a household name. Cloud Strife, a brooding mercenary with a spotty past, becomes entangled with Avalanche, a radical group fighting against an evil corporation with aspirations that are destroying the planet. It’s a journey from Midgar, the bustling metropolis in which the game is initially set, to a globe-trotting adventure that... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge In a year when the spread of COVID-19 made bringing large crowds together impossible, companies around the world had to reevaluate their love affair with the live product launch. Packing hundreds of attendees into extravagant venues to hang on every word of company executives was never going to be possible in an era of social distancing. Instead, events moved online, and many changed completely in the process as companies dropped risky product demonstrations in favor of slick prerecorded video segments. These events effectively turned from live launches into infomercials, and it makes me wonder how the likes of Apple, Amazon, Google, Sony, or Microsoft will be able to go back.It’s a striking change, thanks in part to how consistent the... Continue reading…

While The Verge is a place where stories are told, they wouldn’t be nearly as interesting if it weren’t for the artwork that accompanies them. Alex Castro is the illustrator for The Verge, and he is the best person to describe how his work complements our reporting.What follows are Alex’s thoughts about the tools he prefers to use.IllustrationI’ve heard illustrations described as “visual metaphors” that reflect the meaning of the words. I create artwork for Verge articles that communicates the sentiments of a story and catches the reader’s eye. Sometimes, it’s creating batches of simple graphics that could be used for a number of stories. Other times, it’s reading and rereading reports and features trying to dissect what the main... Continue reading…

Group calling on an Echo Show. | Photo: Amazon Amazon is launching a new group video or audio calling feature for Echo devices today, just in time for the holidays. Originally announced back in September, group calling will allow up to seven participants to join an audio or video call on supported Echo devices like the Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Show.Echo owners will be able to create and name groups using the Alexa app, and Amazon is also planning to support group calling through its Alexa app soon. You’ll be able to add adult contacts into groups, and friends and family will have to opt in to be part of group calling. This new feature also supports Alexa commands like “Alexa, call my family” to connect to a group you’ve created.Echo group calling could be a good alternative to Zoom... Continue reading…

Lucasfilm, Ltd. 2020 has been a strange year, by nearly any metric you choose to use. And that weirdness has bled over to pop culture, as the seemingly endless news cycles of disasters, the ongoing global pandemic, the turmoil of the US elections, the rise of TikTok, the dearth of traditional releases of big movies, and just so many memes resulted in a year of cultural moments that awed, amazed, and just straight-up confused us.It was a year that seemed almost determined to constantly one-up itself on nonsensical events, each headline more impossible than the last. And faced with all that frightening reality, is it any wonder that the weirdness of 2020’s culture became almost a mirror reflection of the year itself? When the world gets strange,... Continue reading…

Sarah Cooper in her Netflix special, Everything’s Fine. | Photo by Lacey Terrell / Netflix Here’s what happens when a product designer becomes a creator Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft president Brad Smith warned that the wide-ranging hack of the SolarWinds’ Orion IT software is “ongoing,” and that investigations reveal “an attack that is remarkable for its scope, sophistication and impact.” The breach targeted several US government agencies and is believed to have been carried out by Russian nation-state hackers.Smith characterized the hack as “a moment of reckoning” and laid out in no uncertain terms just how large and how dangerous Microsoft believes the hack to be. It “represents an act of recklessness that created a serious technological vulnerability for the United States and the world,” Smith argues.He believes that it “is not just an attack on specific targets, but on the trust and reliability of... Continue reading…

Sony is pulling Cyberpunk 2077 from the PlayStation Store and offering full refunds for anyone who bought the game from the digital storefront, the company said on Thursday. If you want to start the refund process now, Sony says to visit this site and sign into your PlayStation account to submit a request.However, later on Thursday evening, Sony said it is “aware some users are experiencing issues” accessing the refund form. If you’re seeing issues, you may want to try again later.Cyberpunk 2077 has already been removed from the PlayStation Store for a few Verge staffers on their PS5s, and the game doesn’t come up in a search for “Cyberpunk 2077” on the web version of the store. Following older, online listing links to the game will... Continue reading…

Grogu’s face upon realizing he lives with me. | Image: Lucasfilm Ltd. Google has added Grogu (formerly Baby Yoda) to its augmented reality search results, so some quick typing can drop an AR version of the little guy straight into your bedroom or home office, no spaceship required.Searching “Grogu”, “The Child”, “The Mandalorian”, or “Baby Yoda” on mobile or in the Google app will return the usual Knowledge Panel with a Wikipedia summary of the character. But now you can click “View in 3D” to check out a model, and if you’re really feeling like noted Baby Yoda fan Werner Herzog, “View in your space” to get up close and personal in AR. Interactions are limited to zooming in and out, but he’s a really cute alien. Maybe that’s enough for you. Conveniently, Grogu is only slightly bigger than... Continue reading…

If you’ve been waiting anxiously for your radio-controlled Cybertruck, you’re going to have to wait a little longer: Mattel has had to delay it until May 2021, according to Bloomberg.The RC cars, announced in February, were supposed to ship this month, but have been delayed because of “unforseen production issues.” Mattel appears to be experiencing “manufacturing hell,” though the company did not release details on the delay.Just another way that the model imitates realityThese toys are scaled-down versions of the real Cybertruck, and come in two models: an 1:64 scale model, which costs $20, and an 1:10 scale model that costs $400. Both models went out of stock after pre-orders.Tesla’s Cybertruck, unveiled in November 2019, is a... Continue reading…

Diablo Immortal didn’t make a great first impression. It was announced at Blizzcon in 2018 when most fans were expecting the next mainline Diablo title, not a free-to-play spinoff for smartphones. Since then, Blizzard has been very quiet about Immortal (though Diablo IV was eventually announced).That’s starting to change. Ahead of a technical alpha that’s set to kick off soon, I was able to play through the early stages of the game. And while I can’t speak to every aspect, one thing was immediately clear: this feels like a proper Diablo game.A mobile version of Diablo makes a lot of sense. There are already countless clones and Diablo-inspired titles on smartphones, while the Nintendo Switch version of Diablo III proved just how fun... Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images An independent committee of experts recommended that the Food and Drug Administration authorize the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for people 18 and older. This is the second COVID-19 vaccine to go before the committee — the first, made by Pfizer and BioNTech, was authorized last week. The agency is expected to issue an authorization for Moderna’s vaccine within a day or two.“This is a really opportune time for us to move science forward,” said Hayley Gans, a committee member and professor of pediatrics at Stanford University Medical Center, during the committee’s deliberations. The evidence available for benefits of the vaccine outweighs any issues, she said. “That really supports us being able to, with the pandemic in the background,... Continue reading…

Twitter has begun testing its Spaces feature, the voice-based chat rooms it first announced last month. In the thread announcing the test, the company said a very small group of users would be given the ability to create Spaces, but that in theory anyone could join them — though who would be allowed into any given space depends on the user who created it.Twitter outlined last month how the first people to be given access to Spaces would be women and people from other marginalized communities, groups who are more likely than others to be subjected to abuse and harassment when trying to engage in conversations in regular, comment-based discussions on the platform.

Image: Shutterstock A stunning new report from the Los Angeles Times details how toxic jet engine fumes can leak into airplanes’ air supplies, sickening passengers and crew — and the airline industry has known this was a problem for several decades.The Times reports that one pilot told colleagues the situation was “the tobacco and asbestos of aviation.”

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google plans to shut down Android Things, a stripped-down version of Android designed for smart home devices. The OS never really got off the ground, so this isn’t all that much of a loss, but it is yet another entry in Google’s expansive graveyard of shut-down projects.The smart home project got its start in 2015 under the name Brillo, which was meant to provide the “underlying operating system for the internet of things.” In 2016, Google revamped Brillo and relaunched the initiative as Android Things, which was likewise meant to run on products like connected speakers, security cameras, and routers. By relying on Android, the OS was supposed to be familiar to developers and easy to get started with.The system will shut down in... Continue reading…

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images A text message program designed to track side effects in COVID-19 vaccine recipients is currently only available in English, which could limit the data it is able to collect.The program, called v-safe, is one way the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will follow up with people who take the vaccine. It was rolled out with the first wave of vaccinations last week.“When you’re talking about technology, literacy and language are usually second tier,” says Jorge Rodriguez, a health technology equity researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “Version one is English-speaking, and the Spanish version will come later, the Mandarin version will come later.”The CDC plans to roll out a Spanish version of v-safe “fairly... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Twitter’s revamped verification policy is launching on January 20th, 2021, after Twitter pressed pause on the formal application process for more than three years. The new policy was refined with input from tens of thousands of user responses after Twitter confirmed in November it would be relaunching verification next year.That January date isn’t when the formal application process will relaunch, so you’ll have to wait a little bit longer if you’re itching to try and get a blue checkmark. Applications will open at some point in “early 2021,” a Twitter spokesperson tells The Verge. But January 20th is when the new policy takes effect and when the company says it will begin removing verification badges from inactive accounts and those... Continue reading…

Image: Warner Bros. Christopher Nolan’s success is the sort of paradox that would be at the center of a Christopher Nolan movie. His films — often characterized as puzzle boxes — are meticulous works that walk the line between indulgent labyrinths and satisfying spectacle. They’re brainier than any superhero movie would dare to be, but they still find comparable success. This blue chip status has made Nolan the patron saint of guys who say, “I like movies that make you think,” even if said thinking is just a question with an extremely clear answer — like “Was the Joker right?”Nolan’s films occupy a unique space in pop culture. The director of The Dark Knight is one of the only filmmakers in Hollywood who is able to make an original nonfranchise film and... Continue reading…

Image: WinFuture Samsung’s new Galaxy S21 line will come in several new colors, according to leaked press renders acquired by WinFuture. Based on the images, the new colors will include light purple / violet, gray, black, white, and rosy pink.Some of the colors will be limited to specific phones in the S21 line, according to Android Police. Samsung will also apparently add the word “Phantom” to the front of each color, maybe to reflect their more muted look. It’s rumored that the base 6.2-inch S21 will be available in phantom violet, phantom pink, phantom gray, and phantom white. Meanwhile the 6.7-inch S21 Plus will offer phantom gray, phantom black, and phantom violet. Finally, the high-end 6.8-inch S21 Ultra will come in just two colors, phantom black... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge The latest development in the ongoing lawsuit between Epic Games and Apple over the iPhone maker’s App Store policies and its removal of the iOS version of Fortnite is a new order from Judge Thomas Hixson outlining rules for Apple CEO Tim Cook and software engineering chief Craig Federighi’s testimony in the case. The court order, spotted on Thursday by iMore and Apple Insider, gives us our first glimpse into how Apple’s executive leadership may be involved in the ongoing antitrust lawsuit, which is scheduled to go to trial as early as July of next year.The order, issued on Wednesday following a December 15th hearing, says Apple will not be able to limit Cook’s testimony to four hours, as the company had sought. Only after Apple... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Instagram is announcing two new features to help combat COVID-19 misinformation: users in areas with surging cases will see a link to their local health authority at the top of their feed and anyone searching for vaccine information will also be directed to credible health sources.These measures will be taken in addition to the social network blocking hashtags that contain vaccine misinformation, which also got a mention in announcement tweets. The features come as many platform companies take steps to keep coronavirus misinformation from spreading at a vital time for the US, as health institutions struggle with record hospitalizations and the first of the approved COVID-19 vaccines start to roll out.

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge I always enjoy this time of the year. Usually, I take some time off of work and use it as a golden opportunity to tackle my ever-growing backlog of games. With the year wrapping up and a ton of great games already available (and even more coming over the next few years), it’s truly a great time to be a gamer.Today’s deals spotlight an incredible deal for PS4 and PS5 owners, a sale on Dell’s 27-inch 1440p gaming monitor, plus a few deals on some great headphones and wireless earbuds.Get $27 off a year of PlayStation PlusIf you were one of the lucky ones to grab a PS5, I recommend taking advantage of this PlayStation Plus subscription deal, which is $33 at Eneba.com.This is a great price if you want online multiplayer, free monthly... Continue reading…

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge If you’re still hoping to secure a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X / S before the end of the year, Walmart is giving you another shot to purchase one of these next-gen consoles. Today, the retailer confirmed that it would restock the consoles at 12PM PT / 3PM ET on December 17th.When you visit the product pages for the PlayStation 5 or the Xbox Series X / Xbox Series S, you should see a message showing that a restock is confirmed for today. Due to these consoles’ high demand, they will likely sell out quickly, so if you want one, don’t hesitate to bite the bullet and hit purchase.Like previous restocks done at both Best Buy and Walmart earlier this week, you can only purchase a PlayStation 5 or an Xbox Series X / S through Walmart’s... Continue reading…

An alleged render of the Galaxy A72 5G suggests few external changes from the A71. | Photo by Steve Hemmerstoffer / OnLeaks The leaks are coming faster as we near 2021, which is when Samsung is expected to announce a new batch of smartphones. We’ve seen glimpses of what the flagship Galaxy S21 might look like, and thanks to serial-leaker OnLeaks / Steve Hemmerstoffer, it seems we have our first look at the top of the budget-friendlier A-series. These alleged renders of the Galaxy A72 5G hint that, at least on the outside, the changes from its A71 predecessor are subtle. Photo by Steve Hemmerstoffer / OnLeaks The Galaxy A72 5G appears to offer a 6.7-inch display like its predecessor. The images show a 6.7-inch display with a centered hole-punch camera, which is consistent with the A71. That device used a very nice 1080 x 2400 pixel... Continue reading…

Cookie banners are one of the most annoying parts of browsing the web, forcing you to click accept or deny on multiple sites. Microsoft-owned GitHub is starting to address this aggravation by removing cookie banners from its site this week. “At GitHub, we want to protect developer privacy, and we find cookie banners quite irritating, so we decided to look for a solution,” explains GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. “After a brief search, we found one: just don’t use any non-essential cookies. Pretty simple, really.”GitHub, which operates independently from Microsoft, has now removed all nonessential cookies, meaning the site doesn’t send any information to third-party analytics services. This is a change that’s turned into a commitment, so GitHub... Continue reading…

The Space Force, it seems, is not sympathetic to the mission that seems to have captured many across the US: getting a PS5. One of its members has reportedly been reprimanded and demoted for being 30 minutes late to physical training because he was trying to get one of the consoles, according to a post on the Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page (via Task and Purpose).According to the letter, the unnamed airman texted his superior officer that he was going to be 30 minutes late to his fitness improvement program as he had been driving around to multiple Targets (the store, not the military terminology) trying to buy a PS5. The airman then added “Yolo, PS5 > letters of discipline,” according to the letter of discipline. ... Continue reading…

Illustration by William Joel / The Verge Qualcomm and Google have announced they’ll be working to expand Project Treble, Google’s ambitious multiyear project that aims to simplify OS updates so it’s easier for device manufacturers to upgrade phones and tablets to new Android versions without worrying about Qualcomm’s chipset-specific software.The goal is to make it even easier for users to get the latest version of Android on their phones (something that isn’t always guaranteed) and to ensure that new Qualcomm chips will support four Android OS updates and four years of security updates — a huge leap forward from what most Android phones usually offer. Such a feat, if actually accomplished, would put Android smartphones closer to Apple’s iPhones in terms of long-term software... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A coalition of 38 states filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google Thursday focusing on the design of the tech giant’s search engine. It’s the third major antitrust lawsuit filed against the search giant this year.Colorado’s Democratic Attorney General Phil Weiser and Nebraska’s Republican Attorney General Doug Peterson led the bipartisan group of states’ suit accusing Google of anticompetitive behavior like designing its search engine in a way that leverages the company’s own products over those of its competitors.“Google sits at the crossroads of so many areas of our digital economy and has used its dominance to illegally squash competitors, monitor nearly every aspect of our digital lives, and profit to the tune of billions,” New... Continue reading…