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Small satellite launcher Rocket Lab successfully returned to flight late Sunday night, less than two months after the company’s previous mission failed to reach orbit during launch. The company’s primary rocket, the Electron, took off from Rocket Lab’s launch facility in New Zealand, deploying a small Earth-observing satellite into orbit around Earth.The launch marked a quick turnaround for Rocket Lab after its failed launch on July 4th. During that mission, the company’s Electron also took off from New Zealand, carrying seven small satellites into space. But just a few minutes into the flight, a faulty electrical connection set off a chain reaction of events that caused the engine on the upper portion of the rocket to shut down early.... Continue reading…

Intent is in the eye of the beholder Continue reading…

Thousands of protesters gathered at McCarren Park in Brooklyn for a massive march around Williamsburg, making a loud call for the defunding of the police force. This comes after NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio promised ‘intense change’ with police reform proposals amid calls to defund law enforcement, including shifting resources from NYPD and publicizing officers’ disciplinary records. Brooklyn, NY on June 7th, 2020. | Photo by Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images Real change takes time, willpower, and sustained resistance — and the technology to make police brutality visible to policymakers Continue reading…

A protester holds up their homemade sign that says, “Say Her Name” while holding her iphone to record a speaker during a protest at Trump Tower. This was part of the Black Womxn’s Empowerment March that started at Trump Tower and marched to Gracie Mansion. Protesters continue taking to the streets across America and around the world after the killing of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer Derek Chauvin that was kneeling on his neck during for eight minutes, was caught on video and went viral. During his arrest as Floyd pleaded, “I Can’t Breathe”. | Photo by Ira L. Black/Corbis via Getty Images They’re harmful to the mental health of Black and Latinx adolescents and teenagers Continue reading…

A volunteer watches protesters from a mutual aid van on August 14, 2020 in Portland, Oregon. | Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images Amid police targeting, strenuous days, and COVID-19, mutual aid networks provide vital support Continue reading…

‘It made me feel like I was going to get picked up by a black van one day’ Continue reading…

Leon Ford was 19 when he was shot by police and paralyzed. | Photo by Emmai Alaquiva In 2012, Leon Ford was shot by the police. That was only the beginning of his journey. Continue reading…

Samsung has opened up preorders for the Galaxy M51 in Germany, officially confirming that its latest midrange phone has an absolutely massive 7,000mAh battery. It costs €360.01 (about $429), and Samsung’s site says that it expects the phone to start shipping on September 11th. There’s no sign of preorder pages on Samsung’s other regional stores just yet, but a release in India seems likely given that Samsung teased the phone there last week.At 7,000mAh, it isn’t the biggest phone battery we’ve ever seen. Last year, for example, Avenir Telecom showed off an Energizer-branded smartphone containing a bulbous 18,000mAh battery. But it’s almost unheard of in devices from mass-market manufacturers like Samsung, and we’ll be interested to see... Continue reading…

OnMail — the new email service from Edison Mail — is officially launching today in a public beta, offering the company’s reinvented take on email to the masses.Edison is best known for its regular email app (which recently debuted a new premium subscription service), but at the end of the day, the original app is effectively just a fresh coat of paint and some additional nice features onto the regular Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, or iCloud mail experience. OnMail, on the other hand, is a more drastic attempt at fixing email from the ground up, offering a wholly new email service that’s designed around privacy and convenience. Interestingly, OnMail is second major new email service to launch in 2020 with an eye towards fixing... Continue reading…

Screenshot: Netflix Some of Netflix’s original TV shows and movies, including the Oscar-nominated Two Popes and horror thriller Bird Box, are now available to watch for free without a subscription, Gadgets360 reports. The free content, which also includes the first episode of Stranger Things, can be found here, and is available globally.Netflix confirmed the promotion in a statement given to Gadgets360. “We’re looking at different marketing promotions to attract new members and give them a great Netflix experience,” a spokesperson said. The free content includes a selection of films that can be watched in their entirety, but for TV shows only the first episodes are available.Here’s a full list of the TV shows and films available to watch for free:

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A Sunday tweet from Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) showing a video of activist Ady Barkan got a “manipulated media” label from Twitter. Barkan has ALS and speaks through voice assistance.In the video, a conversation between Barkan and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, Barkan asks “But do we agree that we can redirect some of the funding?” The version Scalise tweeted edits in the words “for police,” to the end of the question, words which Barkan says in a different context earlier in the video.A Twitter spokesperson confirmed in an email to The Verge that the tweet was labeled “based on our Synthetic and Manipulated Media policy.” As of 10:45PM ET Sunday, the tweet with the manipulated video appears to have been deleted from... Continue reading…

This evening, SpaceX launched another rocket from Florida, but this vehicle took a very different kind of path than most flights from the East Coast. Rather than head eastward after launch as most Florida missions do, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket headed south after liftoff, skirting over Florida’s southeast coast and heading over Cuba.That’s because this mission was headed to what is known as a polar orbit — a path that runs mostly north-to-south over the Earth’s poles. It’s a type of mission you don’t normally see taking place from Florida. In fact, this will be the first time since 1969 that a rocket taking off from Florida heads southward.Up until now, most polar launches in the US have taken place from the southern coast of California.... Continue reading…

Jeff Daniels as James Comey | Showtime After the sad news of Chadwick Boseman’s death, I planned a marathon of his movies this weekend. We’re still definitely planning to re-watch 42 and Get on Up, but so far we can’t stop watching Black Panther.Boseman is just so magnetic as T’Challa and everything about the movie is as stunning on the sixth or seventh watch as it was the first time— the acting, the cinematography, the music, the costumes, and of course the script— all amazing. If you have not seen it (honestly, why?) you should absolutely remedy that as soon as possible.In addition to four other trailers to check out this week, a bonus:Black PantherThat’s the original Black Panther trailer from 2017. The movie went on to earn a Best Picture nomination and three Oscar... Continue reading…

Photo by Matt Kennedy / Marvel Studios ABC will show the 2018 movie Black Panther without commercials on Sunday night, followed by an ABC News special “Chadwick Boseman: A Tribute for a King.” The Walt Disney Co., which owns ABC, said in a statement that the special will “celebrate Boseman’s storied life, legacy and career,” and will “shine a light on the medical condition he privately battled.”Boseman died of colon cancer Friday at age 43, and according to a statement from his family, was first diagnosed with the disease in 2016.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Cloudflare said its Sunday morning outage affecting numerous websites was due to an IP outage by internet service provider CenturyLink. According to a tweet from CenturyLink, all affected services have been restored as of 11:15AM ET.“Today we saw a widespread Internet outage online that impacted many multiple providers,” a Cloudflare representative said in an email to The Verge. “This was not a Cloudflare-specific outage. Level 3/CenturyLink was responsible for an outage that affected many Internet services, including Cloudflare. Cloudflare’s automated systems detected the problem and routed around them, but the extent of the problem required manual intervention as well.”

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Tesla is pushing a software update that will let its vehicles’ Autopilot system detect speed limit signs using their cameras, Electrek reported. When the camera detects a speed limit sign, it will be displayed on the driver visualization in the car and used to set a speed limit warning, according to the software release notes.The latest software update also adds to its traffic light and stop sign control features, and will sound a chime when your Tesla is sitting at a stoplight that turns green. It’s only intended as a notification so it’s up to the driver to decide whether and when to actually move the car forward.In April, Tesla rolled out a software update in beta for its newer cars to allow them to see and respond to stop signs... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge French game publisher Ubisoft is apologizing to fans after a video showing the opening sequence for Tom Clancy’s Elite Squad showed images of a raised black fist, which critics said was “insensitive” and appeared to connect the Black Lives Matter movement to a fictional terrorist organization in the game.The game’s opening sequence shows UMBRA, an anarchist group which the narrator explains is taking “advantage of escalating civil unrest” to “generate more chaos and weaken governments.” The black raised fist image was associated with UMBRA.After the video was uploaded, several fans criticized how the imagery, including the fist, appeared to cast the Black Lives Matter movement as a terrorist group. One Twitter user who is a senior... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Plans for a TikTok sale may have a new obstacle, with China implementing new rules on AI technology exports, The New York Times reported. The new export control rules, which focus on technology the Chinese government considers sensitive, could mean that TikTok’s parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance, might need a license before it can sell TikTok to an American company.The updated regulations prohibit exporting technology including text analysis, voice recognition, and content suggestions without a license from the Chinese government. According to The Wall Street Journal, a Chinese government official told state-run Xinhua News Agency that ByteDance should “seriously and cautiously” consider halting talks for a sale of TikTok.M... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge More than 180,000 people have died because of COVID-19 in the United States. And this week, the agency tasked with fighting the worst pandemic in a century recommended surrender.Earlier this week, the US Centers for Disease Control updated its COVID-19 advice to recommend fewer people get tested for the virus. The agency’s previous advice urged tests for “all close contacts” of infected people, stressing the importance of contacts being “quickly identified and tested.” Now, it says people without symptoms “do not necessarily need a test,” even if they were directly exposed or attended a large gathering in a viral hotspot. It makes exceptions for “vulnerable individuals” and adds a vague instruction to follow local health officials —... Continue reading…

It’s a mildly annoying problem: when you’re reading the snippet of a news article on Facebook and you click through to read the full article, even if you’re subscribed to the news publication, you hit its paywall and have to manually log in. Facebook says it’s now testing a feature that will help reduce how often you have to log in to news sites, allowing paying news subscribers to link their Facebook accounts to their subscriptions.The goal, according to Facebook, is to “provide a better news consumption experience on Facebook,” and allowing publishers to “deepen their relationships with subscribers.” Here’s how it works: Facebook identifies a subscriber from one of its publisher partners, and the subscriber is invited to link their... Continue reading…

Transforming classic video game consoles into on-the-go gadget gaming goodness is practically a time-honored tradition — I remember writing about Bacteria’s bulbous portable Nintendo 64 a decade ago.But @GingerOfMods new “Wii Boy Color” (via NintendoLife) is so clean, so compact, I just have to share it with you.OK, it’s a little bit thicker than an actual Game Boy Color if you count the rear triggers. But it’s remarkably close — and when have you had a Game Boy that can play Nintendo Wii and GameCube games on the go?

Illustration by Alex Castro Google took five days to review several ads with misleading information about voting by mail before opting to approve them, The Washington Post reported. The ads were created by Protect My Vote— a group the Post refers to as “shadowy”— and appeared to target people in several US states, including Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, and Texas, showing up in response to searches for “mail-in voting.” One of the ads reads “think mail-in voting and absentee voting are the same. Think again! There are different safeguards for each,” a misleading and inaccurate claim.Google ultimately declined to remove the ads. Spokeswoman Charlotte Smith told the Post “We have zero tolerance for ads that employ voter suppression tactics or undermine... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge At T-Mobile, you can get a free iPhone 11 Pro if you meet all of the carrier’s qualifications. First off, you have to switch from another carrier and trade in your old device, or if you’re an existing customer, you can get one by adding a line to your plan. For either one, you’ll pay for the phone up front, then T-Mobile will pay you back in billing credits each month over a 24-month period.It’s worth noting that Apple is likely a month out from announcing the rumored iPhone 12, and with any new iPhone release, there are usually a bunch of carrier incentives. Still, it’s a free iPhone now, if you want it and meet the criteria. Control Ultimate Edition just launched this week on Steam, following a yearlong exclusive stint... Continue reading…

Update August 29th, 8:15AM ET: At just 3 seconds to liftoff, the Delta IV Heavy aborted the launch, just after the engines initially ignited and then shut off quickly. ULA says “an unexpected condition” prompted the abort. ULA’s CEO, Tory Bruno, noted the vehicle is in good shape, but the company will take at least a week to review all the data and try again.Original Story: In the very early morning hours on Saturday, the United Launch Alliance is set to launch its most powerful rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, lofting a classified spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. The mission could be the first of three back-to-back launches out of the Cape, too, with SpaceX set to launch two missions shortly afterward.Such a... Continue reading…

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

Steve Granitz/WireImage Actor Chadwick Boseman has died at 43 after battling colon cancer for four years, according to a statement posted on his Twitter account.“It is with immeasurable grief that we confirm the passing of Chadwick Boseman,” the statement reads. “It was the honor of his life to bring King T’Challa to life in Black Panther.”Boseman worked on a number of films and TV shows over the last two decades, including 42 where he portrayed iconic baseball player Jackie Robinson, James Brown in Get on Up, and Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, but he was best known for his role as Black Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Boseman first took on the role as T’Challa in Marvel’s 2016 film, Captain America: Civil War, before starring in his own Black Panther f... Continue reading…

Elon Musk’s brain-machine interface company Neuralink showcased a pig outfitted with the company’s device, at an event livestreamed on YouTube. One pig, Gertrude, had a device recording signals from an area of the brain linked to her snout. She’d had the implant for two months at the time of the demonstration.As Gertrude’s snout touched things, an array of dots and a series of noises indicated when more neurons were firing. Pigs have large parts of their brains that are devoted to the snout, a sensitive sensing instrument.“Like a Fitbit in your skull.”The design of the Neuralink device has changed since it was unveiled last year, rendering the device itself hard to see on Gertrude. It is now coin-shaped, and meant to sit flush with... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Bloomberg is reporting that TikTok-rival Triller and Centricus (a London-based global investment firm) are the latest suitors looking to buy TikTok’s US business with a $20 billion bid, joining Oracle and a recently combined Microsoft / Walmart effort to acquire the popular short-form video application.Following Bloomberg’s report, things have gotten a little weird. A spokesperson for TikTok told Reuters it has not received an offer, or ever been contacted about a potential bid. They downplayed the idea to Bloomberg, too, replying “What’s Triller?” and calling a deal “preposterous.”And yet, Triller went on the record to confirm a bid to The Verge, claiming that it made the bid directly to TikTok owner ByteDance and not to TikTok... Continue reading…

Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic Post Malone is the latest celebrity to jump into the world of competitive gaming. Today, Envy Gaming announced that the pop star had joined as a co-owner, acquiring “an undisclosed equity stake” in the company. Envy operates teams in multiple games, and it owns the Dallas Empire of the Call of Duty League and Overwatch League team Dallas Fuel, which hosted OWL’s first home game in 2019.“I grew up in Texas and I’ve been gaming my whole life, so this just really felt right,” Post Malone said in a statement. “I have always wanted to be a part of bringing gaming into the professional sports world so to be involved with what Envy is doing in my hometown feels like such a perfect fit.”

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple has officially terminated the Epic Games account on the App Store on Friday, following its Fortnite dispute and ongoing legal battle with the game studio over in-app payments in the battle royale game, the company confirms to The Verge. That means the app is no longer available on the iPhone or iPad whatsoever, even if you’ve once downloaded it once before — and other Epic games like Infinity Blade are also no longer re-downloadable.Here’s Apple’s statement:

In a companywide meeting on Thursday, Mark Zuckerberg addressed the recent shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, both in a seven-minute public address and in a heated series of questions from employees that was subsequently reported by Buzzfeed News.Protests in Kenosha erupted into violence on Tuesday night, as two people were killed by a bystander later identified as Illinois resident Kyle Rittenhouse. Rittenhouse has been charged with two murders in connection with the event, as well as reckless endangerment and unlawful possession of a firearm.In the wake of the shooting, Facebook has been criticized for allowing self-proclaimed militia groups to organize on the platform, including a group called the Kenosha Guard, which had solicited... Continue reading…

Photo: Neuralink Amid the search for a COVID-19 vaccine and launch of a new Mars rover, there is yet another technological breakthrough on its way — at least, according to Elon Musk. Today at 6PM ET, his company Neuralink will demonstrate what may be one of the first “ultra-high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect humans and computers.”Apparently, Neuralink is looking to connect to the human brain using flexible electrodes thinner than a human hair. And it is now willing to show us a working model.Interested? If so, you can watch the demo today and judge for yourself.When is the Neuralink demo?Today, Friday, August 28th, 2020, at 6PM ET (3PM PT).Where can I find the demo?The live stream will be shown here on Neuralink’s YouTube channel.... Continue reading…

Google Assistant is getting a new feature that makes it easier to donate money to important humanitarian and nonprofit organizations, starting with the Center for Policing Equity, an organization that works to promote police transparency and accountability.The news was announced today to coincide with the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington. The new donation shortcut can only be accessed on mobile phones for now, either by saying “Hey Google, donate to racial justice,” to Assistant (either directly on Android or through the app on iOS) or by using a dedicated card in Google Assistant’s daily Snapshot view.

Photo by AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images A former intern at SpaceX is suing the aerospace company, claiming that SpaceX retaliated against her after she reported experiencing sexual harassment and gender discrimination while on the job, according to a new lawsuit. The suit alleges that the former intern was not extended a full-time job opportunity when she brought up inappropriate comments and actions made by her then manager.The plaintiff, Julia CrowleyFarenga, worked as a summer intern for SpaceX in 2015, 2016, and 2017, according to a lawsuit filed August 21st with Los Angeles County Superior Court and first reported by Business Insider. While at the company, she worked in the propulsion division under the same manager each summer, the suit says.During her last summer at... Continue reading…

Bryce Hall and friends at a recent party. | Bryce Hall/Instagram Los Angeles city attorney Mike Feuer has charged four people, including TikTok creators Bryce Hall and Blake Gray, for allegedly throwing a series of parties in the Hollywood Hills area in violation of public health restrictions in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19.“We allege that these hosts have been incredibly irresponsible with a highly infection disease spreading,” Feuer said during a press conference. He announced that Hall and Gray were being charged with violating the Safer LA health order and the city’s party house ordinance. “These parties can be really out of control night clubs.”The charges follow complaints from neighbors and mayors about the supposedly raucous parties. Hall and Gray are two of TikTok’s most popular... Continue reading…

Image: FCC A new set of Bose sunglasses with built-in speakers could be on the way, as revealed by new filings published by the FCC. You might be looking at the next version of the company’s Frames line of audio sunglasses.Check out this gallery for a few other angles on the glasses, showing where the speakers and hardware are built into the frames and and also revealing that the device will have a USB-C port for charging:The filings also confirm the glasses will be branded under the Frames line and that they’ll be IPX4-certified for water resistance. Image: FCC Bose already offers two sets of sunglasses, the Alto and the Rondo, as part of the Frames line, but these new glasses revealed by the FCC are of a different style... Continue reading…

Photo illustration by William Joel / The Verge The Verge is a place where you can consider the future. So are movies. In Yesterday’s Future, we revisit a movie about the future and consider the things it tells us about today, tomorrow, and yesterday.The movie: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, directed by Jonathan MostowThe future: The Terminator movies are, with the exception of Terminator Salvation, more about fighting the future than living in it. What glimpses of it we get are usually bleak: human civilization is leveled, reduced to rubble by the rogue artificial intelligence Skynet, which seizes control of the world’s nuclear stockpile to use in a pre-emptive attack on its biggest threat: humanity.A funny quirk of this film and the one preceding it is that while they are... Continue reading…

Michigan-based electric truck startup Bollinger Motors hasn’t started production on its rugged electric trucks, the Jeep-like B1 and the B2 pickup, but it’s already rolling out a new vehicle type. This week, the company unveiled the Deliver-E, its all-electric delivery van concept that is slated for production in 2022.A lot of companies, from legacy automakers to tech startups, are developing their own electric delivery vans right now. But what sets Bollinger apart is the variability of its platform. The EV startup is promising a variety of battery pack sizes, including 70 kWh, 105 kWH, 140 kWh, 175 kWh, and 210 kWh. This will mean customers will have a variety of range-options, prices, and wheelbase sizes to chose from. The... Continue reading…

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge This week on The Verge’s Friday episode of The Vergecast, Wired senior writer and Verge alum Lauren Goode stops by to discuss her new podcast Get Wired and stays to talk tech and gadgets with her Verge colleagues Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn.On this episode, we are one step closer to reviewing Microsoft’s long-awaited Surface Duo.Our review of the Microsoft Surface Duo is approachingAround 29 minutes into the show, Dieter reveals he got his hands on Microsoft’s dual screen smartphone, but can only speak on the features of the device with the screen off — so hardware only — until the official release of the product.Dieter discusses how the product feels in-hand, the durability and quality of the glass body, the advantages and... Continue reading…

Amika Mota and a fellow firefighter battled blazes while incarcerated at the Central California Women’s Facility’s firehouse in Chowchilla. | Courtesy of Amika Mota ‘I am still a firefighter’ Continue reading…

asus If you’re looking to do some PC gaming at respectable frame rates, Asus’ ROG Strix G15 gaming laptop seems like an affordable way to go about doing that. Usually $1,000, it’s $880 today. Despite its low price, it has some high-end features, like Intel’s 10th Gen Core i7-10750H six-core processor, a fast 512GB PCIe-based SSD, and an 144Hz refresh rate display that will provide a fluid-looking experience in and out of gameplay.The rest of laptop isn’t quite as impressive, but it’s not bad for the price. There’s 8GB of RAM built-in (and you can add more yourself later on), and in terms of graphics, it has Nvidia’s GTX 1650 Ti graphics chip. You’ll likely be able to run most of your games at smooth frame rates on medium graphical quality,... Continue reading…

Did you forget that Facebook was building the OASIS? The company has been working on its multiplayer virtual reality social space, Horizon, for a while now, which is comparable in concept if not scope to the fantastical VR world of Ready Player One. This week the company announced it’s expanding access and making Horizon an invite-only public beta.As it goes into public beta, Horizon has been kitted out with new games and environments. Facebook is also introducing new tools to combat abuse on the platform, including the option to step away from the VR world into a “Personal Safe Zone” where you can mute, block, and report the people and content around you You can join Horizon’s waitlist here.The app (service? social network?... Continue reading…

Photo Illustrations by Alex Castro / Photos Getty Images Prisoners at San Quentin are trapped with COVID. We talked to them Continue reading…

The Powerbeats 2 were first released back in 2014. | Image: Beats If you’re a US resident who bought a pair of wireless Powerbeats 2 earbuds before August 7th, then you could soon get a payout over the allegedly “defective” device, MacRumors reports. Apple has agreed to pay out $9.75 million, after it was accused of falsely advertising the so-called “shoddy” earbuds as “sweat & water resistant” and “built to endure.” However, the plaintiffs say that these claims weren’t true, and that the earbuds would stop holding their charge after “minimal use.”Although Apple has agreed to settle, it hasn’t admitted to doing anything wrong. The legal filing notes that the company decided that settling was cheaper than the expense of going to trial. Although the original lawsuit filing claims that Apple’s 2016... Continue reading…

Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge “I think the key for the post-corona era is how real we can feel in a virtual world.” Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge TikTok is in trouble. Over the course of less than a day, the company lost its CEO and gained a surprising new suitor. The breakout social app could be within days of making a deal to sell itself to an American company — but the turmoil surrounding the sale threatens to leave the company permanently damaged.First, the CEO. In May, longtime Disney executive Kevin Mayer left the company to become chief operating officer at ByteDance and CEO of TikTok, its popular US subsidiary. “As one of the world’s most accomplished entertainment executives, Kevin is incredibly well placed to take ByteDance’s portfolio of products to the next level,” ByteDance founder and CEO Yiming Zhang said at the time.Mayer was coming off the wildly successful... Continue reading…

Screenshot: Xiaomi Xiaomi intends to start mass-producing smartphones equipped with its under-display camera technology next year, the company announced today. This is technically the third generation of the technology Xiaomi has developed, the company says, although the first and second versions it produced have yet to find their way into a mass-market consumer device. Xiaomi showed off the technology compared to a more traditional hole-punch notch in a video posted to its YouTube channel.According to Xiaomi, its latest version of the technology works by allowing the selfie camera to see through the gaps in the display’s sub-pixels, which are the red, green, and blue dots that combine to make each pixel. Xiaomi says that the area of the display above the... Continue reading…

OnePlus released the mid-range Nord (pictured) earlier this year. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge OnePlus is planning to release an entry-level handset codenamed Clover for around $200 later this year, according to a detailed but unconfirmed report from Android Central.We’ve seen snippets of information about “Clover” floating about the web for a while now, including a purported GeekBench score for the device. But Android Central’s latest report, citing an anonymous “insider source,” includes a full spec-sheet and the suggestion that Clover will launch “imminently” in global markets, including the US.According to Android Central, Clover will have a 6.52-inch 720p (1560 x 720) IPS LCD display, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage (expandable via MicroSD), a Snapdragon 460 SoC, 6000mAh battery with 18W fast charging, a rear fingerprint... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple blocked Facebook from informing users that Apple would collect 30 percent of in-app purchases made through a planned new feature, Facebook tells Reuters. Apple said the update violated an App Store rule that doesn’t let developers show “irrelevant” information to users.The feature lets Facebook users buy tickets for online events directly through the app. Apple’s rules say that purchases of digital content have to use the App Store’s payments system, giving Apple 30 percent of the total. Facebook says it asked Apple to waive this fee so that all of the revenue could go to event organizers, but Apple refused. The feature is now available, but without the message about Apple’s 30-percent cut.Earlier this month, Facebook released an... Continue reading…