The Verge

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Uber will classify around 70,000 drivers in the UK as workers and give them some benefits after losing an appeal at the Supreme Court level in February, following a years-long legal battle over their employment status. Drivers will still not be considered full-time employees, but will accrue holiday time and receive a minimum wage while driving fares, and will be enrolled in a pension plan starting on March 17th.Although the U-turn by Uber is seen as a big win for drivers, there are some notable caveats. Most importantly, drivers will only earn a minimum wage after accepting trip requests, and will not be paid an hourly rate. This potentially goes against the February Supreme Court ruling, which, in a press summary, states that “time... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Huawei has a plan to compete in 5G without being able to sell its 5G phones everywhere. Today, the technology company announced that it intends to seek royalties from companies like Apple and Samsung in exchange for the use of its patents, according to Bloomberg. Huawei believes it can strike licensing deals despite sanctions in the US, and it plans to use its earnings to invest even further into research and development.Huawei obtained patents on new technology during the development of the larger 5G standard — alongside companies like Qualcomm and Ericsson — that are needed for interoperability between different 5G networks, according to CNBC. “Huawei has been the largest technical contributor to 5G standards,” Huawei’s head of... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple announced today that Apple Maps has been updated with vaccine locations from VaccineFinder, a site run by Boston Children’s Hospital that provides information on vaccine eligibility and availability. People can search for nearby vaccination sites in Apple Maps or ask Siri, “Where can I get a COVID vaccination?” Over 20,000 locations are now listed, with more to be added in the coming weeks. Image: Apple Vaccination sites in Apple Maps Each vaccine site listing in Apple Maps includes the operating hours and contact information for the site, with a link to the provider’s website to find vaccine availability and make an appointment.With the new feature, Apple joins a number of other tech companies offering... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft has once again reiterated that VR support for Xbox was not a focus for the company, following reports earlier today that hinted it was working on a VR headset compatible with the Xbox Series X / S.The rumor first surfaced after IGN Italy reported that some Italian Xbox users received messages, which translated to “[a]n update for the VR headset is available” and “[u]pdate VR headset,” when connecting the recently released Xbox Wireless Headset to their Xbox Series X or Series S consoles. My colleague, Cameron Faulkner, reviewed the Xbox Wireless headset and did not encounter this pop-up message while using the headset on an Xbox Series X console in the US.“VR for console is not a focus for us at this time.”A Microsoft... Continue reading…

Photo: Activision Blizzard Activision Blizzard on Tuesday said it was laying off about 50 people across various divisions dealing predominantly with live events and esports as part of a restructuring. The company cites the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on both the viability of live productions for its esports leagues and the changing viewership habits of its core audience over the past year.“Players are increasingly choosing to connect with our games digitally and the e-sports team, much like traditional sports, entertainment, and broadcasting industries, has had to adapt its business due to the impact the pandemic has had on live events,” an Activision Blizzard spokesperson told Bloomberg in a statement.According to Bloomberg, laid-off employees will receive... Continue reading…

Photo by David Lee / Riot Games / Riot Games Inc. via Getty Images Riot Games is closing an investigation into whether CEO Nicolo Laurent harassed or discriminated against former employee Sharon O’Donnell, saying it found “no evidence” of the claim. “After review of the results of the investigation,” Riot said in a statement, “there is no evidence that Nicolo harassed, discriminated, or retaliated against Ms. O’Donnell. The Special Committee has also expressed its full confidence in Nicolo’s leadership, that no action against him is warranted, and that he will continue to operate as CEO.”The Washington Post reported the news earlier today, and Riot posted an overview of the investigation’s conclusions as well as a letter from Laurent. The Post also reports that Riot asked a court to speed up legal... Continue reading…

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Teenage Twitter hacker Graham Ivan Clark has pleaded guilty to last summer’s unprecedented bitcoin scam attack that involved the takeover of dozens of high-profile accounts on the social network, according to paperwork filed in Florida court on Tuesday. Clark, who was 17 when accused of leading the scam, will spend three years in prison as part of his plea deal. The Tampa Bay Times reported the news earlier today.Clark has already been credited with 229 days of time served since his arrest last summer. As part of the deal, Clark is also being sentenced as a “youthful offender,” which lessened his prison time and also opens up the possibility that he can serve some of his sentence at a boot camp, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Clark... Continue reading…

Photo by Altan Gocher / DeFodi Images via Getty Images The Wikimedia Foundation is creating a new paid service for companies that draw on Wikipedia data. The foundation announced the news today via an article in Wired, and it’s planning to launch later in 2021. Wikimedia Enterprise, as it’s called, won’t change how current Wikipedia services work. Instead, it will offer new options for companies that use its content, a category including giants like Google and Facebook.Wikimedia is still finalizing how Wikimedia Enterprise will operate. But broadly, it’s like a premium version of Wikipedia’s API — the tool that lets anybody scrape and re-host Wikipedia articles. Enterprise customers could get data delivered faster or formatted to meet their needs, for instance, or get new options for... Continue reading…

A deposit of sediments, called a delta, captured by NASA’s Perseverance rover on March 5th at the Jezero Crater. | Image: NASA / JPL Vast amounts of ancient Martian water may have been buried beneath its surface instead of escaping into space, scientists report in the journal Science. The findings, published Tuesday, may help untangle a clash of theories seeking to explain the disappearance of Mars’ water, a resource that was abundant on the planet’s surface billions of years ago.Through modeling and data from Mars probes, rovers, and meteorites, researchers at the California Institute of Technology found that a broad range — between 30 to 99 percent — of the Red Planet’s earliest amounts of water could have vanished from the surface through a geological process called crustal hydration, where water was locked away in the rocks of Mars.Evidence of past water on Mars... Continue reading…

Tugboats guide a container ship of Maersk Line at the Yangshan Deepwater Port, operated by Shanghai International Port. | Photo by Ji Haixin / VCG via Getty Images Pressure from some of their biggest customers is pushing companies like global shipping giant Maersk to pollute less when they transport goods. It’s a sign that individual companies’ commitments to tackling climate change can influence others along the entire supply chain.One of the latest trends in retailOne of the latest trends in retail has been for companies to pledge to essentially eliminate their greenhouse gas emissions. In order for them to have any chance of meeting those goals, they’ll need to work with the companies that move their products. That means cleaning up the global shipping industry, which is responsible for close to 3 percent of the world’s total emissions.Maersk said last month that it’s significantly... Continue reading…

Image: Xbox Xbox is announcing the next round of games coming to Game Pass, and it’s a pretty stacked deck with games like Undertale and Octopath Traveler, both of which are coming to Xbox for the first time.Coming to all the Game Pass platforms (cloud, console, and PC) are:

Photo by Curtis Waltz The chairman of Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn says the electronics giant is considering making electric vehicles at its mostly empty worksite in Wisconsin, where the company originally planned to make LCD panels. Either that, or Foxconn may make EVs in Mexico. The decision will be made by July 1st, chairman Young Liu said at a press conference Tuesday.Best known for manufacturing iPhones, Foxconn has recently shifted some of its attention to the booming electric vehicle space as a way to diversify its revenue. Late last year, the conglomerate announced an EV platform on which other companies could build. This year, Foxconn announced tie-ups with China’s largest private automaker, Geely, and with a number of EV startups. It has agreed... Continue reading…

Longtime industry veteran Jade Raymond is heading up a new studio that will create original games for PlayStation. Raymond announced the news today via the PlayStation Blog. “We want to create worlds where players can escape, have fun, express themselves, and find community,” Raymond wrote about the new studio, Haven. “We want to pour our passion into a project. We want to make something wondrous for people to experience.”Raymond is one of the game industry’s most prolific developers; her career’s spanned major stints at companies like Electronic Arts and Ubisoft in leadership roles. Most recently, she was leading Google’s first-party games studio, Stadia Games and Entertainment. Earlier this year, however, Google shut down its in-house... Continue reading…

Image: Nintendo Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ already robust design tools are getting some improvements with a free update hitting March 18th. One new addition is a big upgrade to the NookPhone’s design app that will let you customize umbrellas, small flags, uchiwa fans, and photo stands.The app already let you make designs for shirts, dresses, and hats, so with the upgrade, you’ll be able to tailor an even more custom look (and make a fun photo stand while you’re at it). The upgraded app will also add 50 design slots to both the normal and Pro custom design modes, allowing you to create and save even more designs than before. Image: Nintendo You can make designs for new items in the New Horizons update. You’ll be able to... Continue reading…

Image: Ufotable The excellent and massively popular anime Demon Slayer has had as successful of a run at the box office as you can get in Japan — the movie adaptation of its “Mugen Train” manga arc is the highest-grossest film in the country’s history. Now, the film is finally coming to North America, starting with a theatrical run in the US and Canada on April 23rd with distribution from Aniplex of America and Funimation.The film’s official title, in true anime style, is a bit of a mouthful: Demon Slayer – Kimetsu No Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train. But that hasn’t stopped the film from its box office domination. It broke the $100 million milestone in Japan in just 10 days, and it’s since grossed nearly $400 million in the country alone, beating out... Continue reading…

Photo by Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images For years, the broadband debate has centered around connecting people living in rural and unserved areas across the country. But while some rural Americans don’t have the infrastructure necessary to connect to the internet, other families in urban communities face difficulties affording what’s already available. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) is set to introduce a new measure Tuesday that could help millions of households access more affordable broadband.“The more access to broadband people have, the more access and opportunity they have to the world beyond where they currently exist,” Bowman told The Verge on Tuesday. “The internet is a library. It’s an encyclopedia. It’s information.”“The internet is a library. It’s an encyclopedia. It’s... Continue reading…

Tinder Tinder is giving 500 users a pair of free mail-in COVID-19 test kits — one for them and one for a Tinder match. The company says it’s a way to help people feel more comfortable meeting up with matches for real-life dates.It’s using tests from the medical testing company EverlyWell. People taking EverlyWell’s coronavirus tests swab their noses at home and mail the sample to the lab. Results are posted online within one to two days.Throughout the pandemic, dating app companies have introduced new features to help people date safely. One main focus was on ways to facilitate virtual dates, which are actually a good way to meet people without the risk of spreading or contracting COVID-19. Bumble recently launched Night In, a feature that... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge State antitrust watchdogs are targeting Google’s plans to phase out third-party tracking cookies, building on a major lawsuit filed last year. The group of 15 attorneys general, led by Texas, updated its complaint about Google yesterday to include a more detailed case against the search giant, including new claims about Google’s strategic use of the Chrome browser. In particular, the new complaint takes aim at recent privacy updates to Chrome, which could better protect users’ personal data while also entrenching Google’s market position.Filed in December, the Texas complaint is one of three ongoing antitrust cases against Google. That same month, the Colorado attorney general led a group alleging that the company stifled competition by... Continue reading…

Image: LastPass LastPass, the popular password manager, announced changes last month to the free version of its software designed to make its Premium paid version much more attractive — and the free one much less so.“LastPass offers access across two device types – computers (including all browsers running on desktops and laptops) or mobile devices (including mobile phones, smart watches, and tablets),” the company wrote in a blog post. “Starting March 16th, 2021” — that’s today — “LastPass Free will only include access on unlimited devices of one type.”What that means: if you’re a LastPass free user, you’ll have to choose whether you want to access your passwords on your computer — in browser or via desktop app — or on your mobile device. You won’t... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is reducing its long-standing 30 percent cut, which it takes from each Play Store digital purchase for all Android developers around the world, on the first $1 million they make on the digital storefront each year, starting on July 1st. According to Google, that change means that 99 percent of Android developers that “that sell digital goods or services” will see a 50 percent reduction in fees.Google’s news follows Apple’s announcement of a reduced 15 percent fee last year as part of a new small business program, with one critical difference: Apple’s fee reduction only applies to developers that make under $1 million per year. But if an app maker goes over the $1 million threshold at any point in the year, they’ll be booted from... Continue reading…

Intel’s next-generation desktop chips are finally here: after a brief preview at CES, the company is fully unveiling its 11th Gen Core desktop chips (better known by their codename, Rocket Lake-S.)Leading the pack is Intel’s new flagship chip, the Core i9-11900K, with eight cores, 16 threads, boosted clock speeds up to 5.3GHz, support for DDR4 RAM at 3,200MHz, a total of 20 PCIe 4.0 lanes, and backwards compatibility with Intel’s 400 Series chipsets.Eagle-eyed Intel fans might notice that the new chip is, on paper, actually a downgrade from last year’s top model, the Core i9-10900K, which offered 10 cores and 20 threads (and a similar boosted clock speed of 5.3GHz).That’s because Intel is debuting a new desktop core architecture for... Continue reading…

I woke up at 3AM this morning so I could help a glowing butterfly save all of reality. At least I think that’s what happened during the most recent mind-bending Fortnite event, which kicked off the game’s new season and served as a showcase for its narrative ambitions.Epic’s battle royale has become defined in part by its massive in-game events. There was the original rocket launch in 2018, the sprawling mech vs. kaiju battle, and a black hole that erased the original Fortnite island and took the game down for several days. Last season ended with Marvel villain Galactus fighting millions of players, creating a rift that caused multiple realities to converge. These events have been exciting in part because they were shared, something... Continue reading…

Image: ViacomCBS Earlier this month, streaming service CBS All Access was rebranded as Paramount Plus, combining the franchises and assets from both Viacom and CBS. It offers a wide range of TV shows and movies available to stream from studios and networks such as CBS, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, and Paramount Pictures.If you are interested in subscribing to Paramount Plus and want to save some money, you can get a one-year subscription with ads for $30, or get a one-year subscription with no ads for only $50. There are a few steps you need to follow to apply the code, however.First, you will need to go to the Paramount Plus website, click “Try It Free,” and choose the plan you want; at the bottom of the subscription plans, check the box that reads... Continue reading…

Illustration by James Bareham / The Verge Facebook wants to be a part of the newsletter business, and it’s willing to pay for it. Axios reports today that the company will soon start testing its newsletter product, which will integrate with Pages. As part of that test, Facebook will also court writers, some of whom the company will pay.Axios doesn’t name any writers and says the product itself is still unnamed, but it also reports the initial user group will be composed of small and independent writers. This newsletter tool will also help writers set up a website outside Facebook. The idea is that writers can charge for subscriptions to their work and potentially create additional revenue streams while relying on Facebook to engage their community. Facebook will let them... Continue reading…

GoPro is releasing a new version of its main smartphone app that will now be called “Quik.” The new app will remain the main interface for connecting to and controlling GoPro cameras, but it is also getting new features, including one called “mural” that’s sort of like a private Instagram feed meant to help people organize their favorite images and videos — regardless of whether they were taken by a GoPro camera — and save them from the “abyss of your camera roll,” GoPro CEO Nick Woodman says in an interview.Close followers of GoPro’s efforts in the software space know that the company already once launched an app called Quik way back in 2016 that was all about auto-editing footage to a beat. But that app has not been supported for a... Continue reading…

Hear traffic and also podcasts Continue reading…

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Atlassian CEO Scott Farquhar on the challenges of governing online companies Continue reading…

Photo courtesy of Katie Moussouris | Photo illustration by William Joel / The Verge After a bruising lawsuit with Microsoft, Katie Moussouris is fighting for fair pay Continue reading…

Google’s new Nest Hub looks very similar to the prior model, but adds advanced sleep tracking features. | Photo: Google Google has announced a new version of its Nest Hub smart display. The updated Nest Hub includes several enhancements over the model that debuted as the Home Hub in 2018, including a refined design, faster processor, and louder speaker. But the most significant upgrade is found in its ability to measure your sleep without requiring you to wear anything. The new Nest Hub is $99.99, comes in four colors, and will be shipping on March 30th, with preorders starting today, March 16th.The new Nest Hub looks basically identical to the prior model, but you can now get it in a light blue color (Google calls it “mist”) in addition to the light pink, light gray, and dark gray options. Google says it has refined the bezel around the screen to be... Continue reading…

Photo by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images Dropbox is adding a new feature on top of its usual offerings of storage and file sharing for free Basic accounts. Dropbox Passwords, the password management feature the company introduced for paying customers in 2020, will be free for Dropbox Basic accounts in April — with a new, arbitrary limit of 50 passwords that makes it seem suspiciously like a way to upsell you on a paid Dropbox account.Now that LastPass is putting a device limit on its free plans, many are looking for a free alternative, and Dropbox Passwords will indeed allow you to sync your passwords across three devices for free. Like other password managers, it exists as a web browser extension, a mobile app on iOS and Android, and desktop applications on MacOS, Windows,... Continue reading…

Corsair Corsair is the latest company to introduce a 60-percent wired mechanical keyboard of its own, lopping off the arrow keys and other functions for a more compact design. The K65 RGB Mini costs $110 and has a design that is about as subtle as Corsair has ever produced. It connects via its included, detachable USB-C-to-USB-A braided cable to your PC, macOS computer, or Xbox One. This keyboard joins the ranks of Razer’s $120 Huntsman Mini, HyperX’s $100 Alloy Origins 60, and Ducky’s One 2 Mini, among others.Like other 60-percent models, many of the function keys are embedded as secondary functions you can execute by holding the “FN” key. As a result, it lacks about several keys you might be accustomed to seeing on a keyboard. If you... Continue reading…

AMD AMD has announced its new Ryzen Pro 5000 series mobile processors, its competitor to Intel’s vPro platform. The company claims the chips, based on the same Zen 3 architecture as most of its consumer-focused Ryzen 5000 series, will provide “uncompromised performance and battery life” for thin-and-light business laptops. They’ll appear in a slate of business notebooks including Elitebooks, ProBooks, ThinkPads, and ThinkBooks throughout this year.On paper, the chips look pretty similar to their Ryzen 5000 counterparts. The headliner is the Ryzen 7 Pro 5850U, with eight cores, 16 threads, 20MB cache, and base frequency of 1.9 GHz with boost up to 4.4 GHz. AMD’s Ryzen line currently contains the only processors for thin-and-light laptops... Continue reading…

The challenge of documenting a virtual world Continue reading…

Adults are now unable to message teenage users that don’t follow them. | Image: Instagram Instagram is introducing new policies limiting interactions between teenagers and adults to make its platform safer for young users. The app has banned adults from direct messaging teenagers who don’t follow them and is introducing “safety prompts” that will be shown to teens when they DM adults who have been “exhibiting potentially suspicious behavior.”Safety prompts will give teenage users the option to report or block adults who are messaging them. The prompts will remind young users not to feel pressured to respond to messages and to “be careful sharing photos, videos, or information with someone you don’t know.”Notices will appear when Instagram’s moderation systems spot suspicious behavior from adult users. The company is not... Continue reading…

“What’s a computer?” Continue reading…

Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge Nvidia made a big deal about reducing the hash rate of Ethereum mining on its new RTX 3060 graphics card last month. A special system was supposed to make the RTX 3060 undesirable for cryptominers, but Nvidia has now confirmed that it has accidentally unlocked those restrictions with a new driver.“A developer driver inadvertently included code used for internal development which removes the hash rate limiter on RTX 3060 in some configurations,” says an Nvidia spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. “The driver has been removed.”While Nvidia has now removed the driver, the genie is out of the bottle. Nvidia’s latest 470.05 beta driver automatically unlocks performance for most RTX 3060 cards, boosting hashing rates for Ethereum... Continue reading…

Dark Patterns put obstacles between the user and what they want to achieve. If you’ve ever struggled through a maze of online customer service to cancel a subscription or delete an account, you’ve likely encountered “dark patterns” — user interfaces that are designed to trick and frustrate users. The concept was coined in 2010 but is slowly being addressed in US legislation, with California this week announcing that it is banning the use of dark patterns that stop users from opting out of the sale of their personal data.The updated regulation strengthens enforcement of the 2018 California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), one of the toughest consumer privacy laws in the US. The CCPA gives Californians the right “to say no to the sale of personal information,” but the state government is evidently worried that these... Continue reading…

A new season of Fortnite is upon us, and the latest digs even deeper into the battle royale’s reality-spanning narrative. Today, Epic Games officially launched season 6 of the game’s second chapter, which is dubbed “Primal.” It takes place directly after the “Zero Crisis Finale” that concluded season 5 and introduces a new prehistoric biome to the island.When players start playing the season for the first time, they’ll be greeted with a quick cinematic — which you can watch below — following a short-yet-intense single-player adventure where you help Agent Jonesy attempt to save reality.That new setting includes a towering spire in the center of the island — right where the zero point explosion from season 5 took place — which is... Continue reading…

Logitech Logitech’s latest earbuds, a $50 model called the G333, are unremarkable in terms of design, with a flat cable that houses an inline remote and mic, swappable silicone ear tips, and the ability to connect to gadgets via a 3.5mm jack. What makes them stand out is the included 3.5mm-to-USB-C adapter.If your phone or other audio device lacks a headphone jack but has a USB-C port to spare, you’re all set to plug in with this model. With the adapter attached, I had no issues hooking up the G333 to my 3.5mm-less Pixel 3, my Nintendo Switch, or through a USB-C port on the MacBook Pro I use for work. Also included with these earbuds are two additional sizes of silicone ear tips and a small mesh carrying case.The G333 looks almost identical to... Continue reading…

Image by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft is fixing the issue where trying to use certain printers would freak out your Windows 10 computer and cause it to blue screen. If you (or your IT department) have been dealing with the issue, today’s update should let you get back to printing.In the update notes, Microsoft says that the issue only affected “certain printers using some apps,” but doesn't clarify which. It seemed to impact some printers from Kyocera, Ricoh, and Zebra, and if you owned one it’s the type of error that would be extremely annoying — or worse, workflow-breaking, if printing’s a need and not something you just do occasionally.If this issue has been affecting you, you can download the update by going to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update,... Continue reading…

A Jewish GitHub employee who was fired for warning co-workers in Slack to stay safe from Nazis during the January 6th attack on the US Capitol has declined to take his job back after an offer from the company, GitHub told TechCrunch.“We offered the employee his job back immediately after reviewing the investigation findings, and he declined,” a GitHub spokesperson said to TechCrunch. GitHub shared the same statement with The Verge.“Me and the company reached an amicable resolution,” the employee said in a statement to TechCrunch. “I appreciate that they have denounced white supremacy and the dangers it poses to everybody.” The terms of the resolution are unclear, but the employee had “previously told me he was seeking damages or some... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge NFTs are seemingly everywhere — and now they're all right here Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Not everyone takes advantage of the “switch” aspect of the Nintendo Switch, and for them, the smaller, easier-to-carry Switch Lite is a worthwhile alternative. A few retailers are now tossing in a free $20 gift card when you purchase Nintendo’s more compact handheld.Amazon, Best Buy, and GameStop are all offering the deal, and all Switch Lite colors are eligible. So regardless of whether you prefer gray, yellow, blue, or coral, you’ll end up with an extra $20 to spend at the retailer you’re buying it from.By going with the Lite model, you lose the ability to dock the Switch to a TV, and features like HD rumble are also omitted from the smaller hardware. But at least you get a better d-pad and sturdier design in exchange. And the... Continue reading…

Photo by Emanuele Cremaschi/Getty Images Bird says it will spend $150 million on a major expansion in Europe. The Santa Monica-based scooter sharing company announced that it will bring its battery-powered two-wheelers to 50 new cities on the continent in the coming months, in addition to growing its fleet in its current markets. The move comes as scooter sharing continues to perform strongly in Europe amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.To help oversee this new initiative, Bird is promoting to two employees to its executive team: Renaud Fages is named head of global operations; and Brendan O’Driscoll will be head of product, growth and data, overseeing both Bird’s global product strategy and its implementation.“Europe is playing a leading role”“Europe is playing a leading... Continue reading…

Photo by Michele Doying / The Verge India is reportedly moving forward with a sweeping ban on cryptocurrencies. According to Reuters, the country’s legislature will introduce a bill that criminalizes trading, mining, issuing, transferring, or possessing cryptocurrency. The bill is likely to pass if it’s introduced, giving India some of the world’s strictest digital currency laws.Under the plan, people who own these digital assets would have six months to liquidate their holdings. Reuters’ source, a government official, didn’t specify the punishment for breaking the rules after that. But a 2019 government panel recommended a jail sentence of up to 10 years for cryptocurrency-related offenses. The official says the discussions are in their “final stages,” although there’s... Continue reading…

Illustration by James Bareham / The Verge Facebook last month shut off the ability for Australian users and media organizations to share news links in the country, and now it seems the company’s extraordinary measure has resulted in a compromise for the most interested parties as media giant News Corp has struck a licensing deal with the social network.Financial terms were not disclosed, but the deal is a multi-year one that gives Facebook’s news platform access to major News Corp Australia properties, including news.com.au, The Daily Telegraph, and Sky News. Google similarly struck a deal with News Corp last month, as the threat of a new Australia law regulating tech company payments to news organizations loomed overhead.Facebook’s news shutdown in Australia wasn’t designed... Continue reading…

Image: Cricut Cricut machines offer a customizable, automated way to speed up the precise cutting required in crafting projects, but the capabilities of these devices are about to be limited by an upcoming update. Cricut is updating the machines’ accompanying software, Design Space, by putting caps on uploads that could restrict the number of projects Cricut owners are actually able to make.Getting a Cricut ready to cut requires using premade patterns or uploading original designs to an application called Design Space. That’s been free and unlimited for all users in the past, but now Cricut is limiting users to 20 free uploads per month. To upload more, owners will soon have to subscribe to Cricut’s Access Standard plan for $9.99 per month / $95.88... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge There’s a newly discovered attack on SMS messaging that’s almost invisible to victims, and seemingly sanctioned by the telecom industry, uncovered in a report by Motherboard. The attack uses text-messaging management services that are aimed at businesses to silently redirect text messages from a victim to hackers, giving them access to any two-factor codes or login links that are sent via text message.Sometimes, the companies providing the service don’t send any sort of message to the number that’s being redirected, either to ask permission or even to notify the owner that their texts are now going to someone else. Using these services, attackers are not only able to intercept incoming text messages, but they can reply as well.Joseph... Continue reading…

I get it — despite all the warnings about climate change, you or someone you know has big Scrooge McDuck-sized dollar signs in their eyes after realizing a pinch of blockchain is all you need to turn a JPG image into cold hard cash, and now you’re casting about for something — anything — to turn into an NFT while the initial gold rush lasts.Then, you spot it: something that doesn’t exactly belong to you. You’re not going to sell that, right? And yet that’s kinda what indie game developer Jason Rohrer is attempting to do, according to Kotaku: sell NFT copies of 155 digital paintings that he originally commissioned for his game The Castle Doctrine as individual artworks online. Which... I mean maybe he’s legally got the rights, even... Continue reading…

Microsoft Teams is still recovering after an outage Monday afternoon. Microsoft says it’s attempting to bring the service back online after “a recent change to an authentication system” took some Microsoft 365 services down.While a roll back to the change has taken longer than Microsoft expected, it’s now complete and Teams, Azure, and other Microsoft 365 services should be coming back online. However, in a 7:19PM ET tweet, the company said it is “taking steps to resolve some isolated residual impact for services that are still experiencing impact.”