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Photo by James Bareham / The Verge There’s a fantastic discount happening on the previous generation Sony WH-1000XM3 wireless, noise-canceling headphones at Best Buy. Originally $350 (but usually around $250 or so these days), you can get them for $190 new . While these lack some niceties found in the newer XM4 model (concurrent Bluetooth connections, auto play / pause when you remove them or put them on), the package is overall similar in terms of nailing the fundamentals. These have great battery life, USB-C charging, among the best noise cancellation effect around, and sound quality that’s tough to beat at this price. In addition, these come with a zip-up case that makes them easy to stow. I bought these in 2018 and am still patting myself on the back for that decision. ... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2Tmvh5R

LG’s Mini LED use an array of thousands of tiny LEDs as a backlight. | Image: LG LG’s new range of Mini LED TVs, which it’s branding “QNED,” are releasing worldwide starting next month, the company has announced . The lineup consists of three sets, the 8K QNED99 and QNED95, and the 4K QNED90, ranging in size from 65- to 86-inches. LG says the TVs will launch first in North America, with additional regions following “in the weeks ahead.” Mini LED is a relatively new kind of display technology which uses an array of thousands of tiny LEDs as a screen’s backlight. Because there are so many (up to 30,000 in the case of the 86-inch QNED99), they can create a sharper contrast between light and dark areas of an image. LG says the technology, which has previously been used on some TVs from TCL as well as Apple’s latest... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3dvuab7

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple isn’t backing down from its hybrid work model that will require most employees to return to the office three days a week starting in early September. Fully remote positions will be extremely limited. “We believe that in-person collaboration is essential to our culture and our future,” said Deirdre O’Brien, senior vice president of retail and people, in a video recording viewed by The Verge . “If we take a moment to reflect on our unbelievable product launches this past year, the products and the launch execution were built upon the base of years of work that we did when we were all together in-person.” The news comes nearly a month after Apple CEO Tim Cook sent out an email telling employees the company was rolling out a new work... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3jrvZJP

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Zoom has announced that it’s acquiring a company known as Kites (short for Karlsruhe Information Technology Solutions), which has worked on creating real-time translation and transcription software. Zoom says the acquisition is a move to help it make communicating with people who speak different languages easier, and that it’s looking to add translation capabilities to its video conferencing app. According to its site , Kites began at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and its technology was originally developed to act as in-classroom translation for students who needed help understanding the English or German their professors were lecturing in. Zoom already has real-time transcriptions , but it’s limited to people who are talking in... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3y5ZaWT

The Demi Lovato Show will debut July 30th. | Image: Roku The first of a dozen-plus Roku Originals to premiere on the Roku Channel will kick off July 30th with The Demi Lovato Show , a series that had originally been slated for a debut on Quibi. The show will now launch as Roku’s first “original” to land on the Roku Channel, the platform’s free and ad-supported streaming offering. While originally intended for Quibi, the show will be brand new to audiences when it arrives on the Roku Channel this week. Each episode will be 10 minutes long, feature a celebrity guest, and will cover topics as wide-ranging as UFOs, activism, mental health, gender identity, and police reform. In a statement, Lovato said that they have “never been one to shy away from speaking candidly about things.” The show had... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3ybJ8uP

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge WhatsApp’s Spanish language content moderators and customer service representatives are pushing the company for equal pay, according to an internal letter obtained by The Verge . They say they’ve been excluded from a $2 per hour premium paid to other bilingual contractors. The workers are employed by Accenture, a third-party contracting firm, in Austin, Texas. “For several years now, Accenture, Facebook, and Whatsapp have denied equal treatment and pay to Spanish language Contingent Workers,” employees say in the letter. “It is an insult for companies like Facebook and Accenture to publicly champion diversity, but yet fail to deliver this to its own workers.” Accenture classifies much of its workforce as contingent, meaning employees are... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3hkZLNz

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks with reporters on her way to a lunch with Senate Democrats at the U.S. Capitol on June 22, 2021 in Washington, DC. | Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images Senator Elizabeth Warren is calling on the Federal Trade Commission for a thorough review of Amazon’s bid to acquire MGM , arguing that the deal could harm consumers and may have anticompetitive effects in the streaming space and beyond. In a letter addressed to newly sworn-in FTC chair Lina Khan and shared exclusively with The Verge , Warren urged the FTC to specifically and closely examine “the possible anticompetitive effects this deal will have on streaming services and entertainment products in addition to the broader impacts that this transaction may have on workers, small businesses, and competition overall as Amazon—which already dominates numerous markets—accelerates its aggressive monopolistic behavior.” The FTC is said to be r... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https:...

Image: United United Airlines is adding a long-awaited feature to the in-flight entertainment seatback screens of its new Boeing 737 Max 8 jets — support for Bluetooth headphones. The company is making the upgrade as part of “United Next” , a new plan to expand and modernize its fleet with what it says are larger, fuel-efficient jets and a more comfortable in-flight experience. I haven’t flown in the last two years — for reasons that are hopefully obvious — but the thing that grinds most of my past flying experience to a halt is dealing with the bizarre two-pronged audio jacks airplanes use for inflight audio. Having headphones with a 3.5mm audio jack isn’t hard, but it doesn’t reflect the Bluetooth audio lifestyle, Apple, and plenty of other tech... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3hnxar9

Our friend, for whom we feared the worst today. Twitter has fixed a bug that left some of us horrified when we opened the site (as is often the case, but for different reasons) — those viewing the social network in a web browser found that they no longer had the option to switch between the algorithmic view and the reverse-chronological one. The algorithmic view, which shows tweets out of order, has been much maligned since it first appeared , and the bug on Tuesday had people worried that Twitter was finally starting to force it on everyone. Twitter’s support account says that web users should be able to change their timeline order again, and a few of us at The Verge have confirmed that the button is back on our timelines. Twitter product lead Kayvon Beykpour called the toggle’s... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3jr4Ial

Last week, a pair of YouTube’s most popular creators was set to spar in the marketplace of ideas in a debate over the government’s simple, common sense advice to wear masks during a global pandemic to stop the persistent spread of COVID-19. The spat grew from a series of videos between right-wing provocateur Steven Crowder and the host of the H3 Podcast , Ethan Klein, calling one another out for their purported bad takes on mask-wearing. In March, Crowder called out Klein for saying that “you shouldn’t think about” what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tells you and just wear the mask, rather than criticizing the agency and its scientists. Crowder, who is widely known as the face of the “change my mind” meme, has challenged... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3x6F92t

Photo by Joan Cros / Corbis via Getty Images SpaceX’s satellite internet network, Starlink, should have roughly 500,000 users within the next 12 months, Elon Musk said at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) conference on Tuesday. SpaceX’s current goal, Musk said, is to beam broadband internet to most of the planet by August. The internet network, in the midst of an open beta phase, has launched more than 1,700 satellites to low-Earth orbit since 2018 and recently surpassed a “strategically significant” benchmark of 69,420 active users, Musk told MWC. He said Starlink is already running in 12 countries and expanding. “We’re I think on our way to having a few hundred thousand users, possibly over 500,000 users within 12 months,” he added. Reaching half a million users in the next year... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3h4FOvF

Illustration by James Bareham / The Verge A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has revealed near-total lack of accountability from federal agencies using facial recognition built by private companies, like Clearview AI. Of the 14 federal agencies that said they used privately built facial recognition for criminal investigations, only Immigration and Customs Enforcement was in the process of implementing a list of approved facial recognition vendors and a log sheet for the technology’s use. The rest of the agencies, including Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Drug Enforcement Administration, had no process in place to track the use of private facial recognition. This GAO report greatly expands the public’s... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3qy2qb0

Photo Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge Bloomberg’s Lauren Etter on the rise and decline of an e-cigarette upstart Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3w7m0fg

The Echo Show 5 (left), Echo Show 8 (middle), and the Echo Show (right). | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge When it comes to the Echo smart speakers, Amazon has a slew of devices to choose from, one for practically every occasion. For example, maybe you simply want to add Alexa to a room, or you are looking for an Echo device that will allow you to easily manage your other smart home products. Regardless of the reason, these are the best Echo deals available right now. Echo Dot deals Late last year, Amazon released the fourth generation of the Echo Dot , which looks more like a sphere than an actual dot. But if you prefer the previous design, don’t worry: Amazon has not discontinued the third-gen Echo Dot , which still retains the familiar dot shape. During Prime Day, we saw the fourth-gen Echo Dot drop to its lowest price of $25. However,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3eUezkD

There’s a crowd for a mini Xbox controller, but this one doesn’t get everything right Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3y57DJZ

The WD My Book Live and My Book Live Duo | Image: WD It looks like there may have been more than one exploit used to cause the mass deletion of data from WD My Book Live NASes last week, according to a report from Ars Technica . When news broke that people were finding that their data was missing, some ( including WD itself ), pointed to a known exploit from 2018 , which allowed for root access of the device. However, it appears as though there’s more going on than was initially suspected. If you have one of these devices, you should unplug it from the internet before reading any further — it’s clear at this point that your data is at risk if the device is online. The second exploit, reported by Ars Technica , doesn’t give an attacker full control over the device like the other exploit. It... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3qwKD44

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge Consumer Reports is restoring its “Top Pick” recommendation to the Tesla Model 3 after the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) released a new evaluation of the car’s camera-based advanced driver assist system. The IIHS was able to show that the Model 3 with Tesla Vision cameras featured effective automatic emergency breaking (AEB) and forward collision warning systems (FCW), two criteria for Consumer Reports ’ Top Pick decision-making. Combined with the IIHS awarding the Model 3 its own “Top Safety Pick” title, Consumer Reports decided to once again recommend the EV. The publication maintains a contemptuous relationship with Tesla. It last revoked its recommendation earlier this May when Tesla began shipping the Model 3 and Y... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/36fs1MN

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge HBO Max is launching in 39 territories in Latin America and the Caribbean today, expanding the service outside the US and US territories for the first time. A key difference for the launch in Latin America is that there won’t be an ad-supported plan as there is in US, a spokesperson told The Verge . Instead, subscribers in Latin America will have the option to subscribe to a mobile-only plan that supports SD streaming and up to five title downloads, or they can choose a standard plan that supports five personalized profiles, up to three simultaneous users, up to 30 title downloads, and high-definition streams in HD and 4K where available. Pricing will vary based on the region. “With today’s launch, we are introducing our global platform... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2SzAzdV

Spam texts can be incredibly irritating — you get a notification and stop what you’re doing to check your phone, only to find somebody is trying to sell you something you don’t want. How can you prevent it? Unfortunately, there are no absolutes in preventing text spam. But there are some ways you can at least minimize the number of spam texts that get through. Here are some strategies to try. Do not answer Top of the list is — as you probably already know — never reply to a spam text, and never ever click on a link within a spam text. If you’re not sure whether a text is spam or legitimate, hold off on replying until you’ve done a bit of research. Use the spam filter on your phone Android phones and iPhones have spam-filtering features... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3dudYXE

Developer Remedy Entertainment announced that it’s making a new game, codenamed “Condor,” a multiplayer spinoff of Control . No release date, price, or story beats have been shared for Project Condor, but all we know so far is that Remedy’s press release says that the game will be built with Northlight, the same engine used for Control . It will release on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X / S consoles. The game will be published by 505 Games. “As a multiplayer game, Project Condor has the potential to engage the gaming community in the long run, contributing to 505 Games’ product revenue stream longer than traditional games,” shared the co-CEOs of Digital Bros Group, the company that operates the publisher, in a statement. ... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2SBSXmD

If you own a compatible iPhone, you can try out T-Mobile just by downloading an app. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge T-Mobile is offering a new, low-stakes way to try out its network for free for 30 days with no additional equipment required. Identified by Light Reading , T-Mobile’s existing Test Drive program now works over eSIM with compatible iPhones. All you need to do is download an app, follow the instructions to start the trial with eSIM, and you’re up and running — no billing information required. There’s no change to your current carrier plan or phone number, but you’ll be using T-Mobile data on your device. The Test Drive program has been around in one form or another since 2014. With the most recent iteration — which is still available to those who can’t use the eSIM feature — T-Mobile will send you a free Wi-Fi hotspot you can connect to... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3w9Kuoi

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook is getting into the subscription newsletter game. It’s launching a new service today, called Bulletin , that allows writers to publish free and paid newsletters that can be posted to the web, sent to subscribers’ inboxes, and shared across Facebook. Perhaps the biggest perk for now: Facebook says it won’t take a fee from writers “at launch,” and writers retain full ownership of their work and subscriber list. Malcolm Gladwell, Tan France, and Erin Andrews are among the debut writers The new platform is “focused on empowering independent writers, helping them reach new audiences and power their businesses,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a live audio call discussing the launch. At launch, Facebook has signed up Malcolm... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2TaYssP

Photo By Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Joanna Masel is quick to recognize that the contact tracing apps built to track cases of COVID-19 aren’t as good as they could be. The apps, built on a framework offered by Apple and Google, aren’t used by many people in the United States and didn’t seem to make a big difference in the spread of the virus. But Masel, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona and advisor to the team behind the Arizona exposure notification app, thinks there are ways to make the apps more useful. In a paper published last week with colleagues, she outlined one possible improvement: adjust the apps so that they could better recognize situations where people who are exposed to the virus have a lower risk of catching COVID-19. Then, they may not... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3AaUEIz

The UltraSharp shown on its two included mounts. | Image: Dell Dell has launched the high-end UltraSharp webcam that costs $199.99 and is available now worldwide. Its cylindrical design is reminiscent of Apple’s old but iconic iSight external webcam, but its features are aimed to compete with Logitech’s Brio and other modern 4K-ready webcams. In addition, it aims to serve as a more affordable and easier-to-set up alternative to mounting a DSLR camera behind your monitor. The UltraSharp is a USB-C webcam that houses a Sony STARVIS CMOS 8.3-megapixel sensor. It’s capable of recording or streaming in 4K at 30 or 24 frames per second and in 1080p or 720p at 24, 30, or 60 frames per second. You can tweak the field of view (FOV) between 65 degrees for a close crop, 78 degrees, or 90 degrees for the... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2UP9zbf

Image: Nothing Tech startup Nothing will announce its debut pair of true wireless earbuds, the Nothing Ear (1), at 9AM ET on July 27th, the company’s founder Carl Pei announced today . The launch comes around a month later than the June launch window Nothing previously announced , after Pei tweeted that the company was delaying the launch because it had “a few things left to finalize.” Carl Pei is best known as one of the co-founders of OnePlus, a company he parted ways with last year . Details about the Nothing Ear (1) are thin, but the company has teased several details about them over the past few months. We know they’ll have a “stripped-down aesthetic” featuring transparent materials in their construction, and that they’ve been designed in... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3w5g6eA

OTPs can be set to delete automatically after 24 hours. | Image: Google Google is updating its Messages app in India to allow it to delete one-time passwords (OTPs) automatically, to stop the single-use codes from clogging up your inbox, the company has announced . Alongside it, Google also says the app will be able to sort messages into categories, keeping your personal correspondence away from notifications about bank transactions and special offers. As someone that almost exclusively uses WhatsApp for personal communication, my phone’s default texting app is typically a graveyard of six-digit codes, which by design become useless mere minutes after they’re received. Having the ability to automatically delete them after 24 hours should make Messages less cluttered and more usable. Source:... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2ThidPk

Google is working with non-profits to aggregate 90,000 locations with free food support across all 50 states . | Image: Google Google announced a new website designed to be a “one-stop shop” for people with food insecurity. The “Find Food Support” site includes a food locator tool powered by Google Maps which people can use to search for their nearest food bank, food pantry, or school lunch program pickup site in their community. Google is working with non-profit groups like No Kid Hungry and FoodFinder, as well as the US Department of Agriculture, to aggregate 90,000 locations with free food support across all 50 states — with more locations to come. The new site is a product of Google’s newly formed Food for Good team , formerly known as Project Delta when it was headquartered at Alphabet’s X moonshot division. Project Delta’s mission is to... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2Tk9Cvh

Microsoft is introducing a new Dynamic Refresh Rate (DRR) feature in Windows 11 that’s designed to save laptop battery life and boost refresh rates when they’re really needed. A number of laptops now ship with 120Hz and beyond displays, which make Windows feel a lot smoother across scrolling, animations, and inking. While the added smoothness feels great, running at higher refresh rates takes its toll on battery life. In Windows 10 you have to decide between 60Hz and 120Hz on a laptop, and it’s a static choice. Microsoft is now building DRR into Windows 11, which will allow a laptop to dynamically adjust its refresh rate. “This means that Windows 11 will seamlessly switch between a lower refresh rate and a higher refresh rate based on... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2UbklrO

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google is working to enhance the integrity of the Play Store by adding new restrictions and safeguards to developer accounts. Google Play Store developers will soon have to verify their email address and phone number and provide extra details like a physical address in an attempt to increase security and ensure that accounts are being created by ‘real people,’ the company has announced . Developers will also be required to use two-step verification. The search giant says it’s making the changes “to keep Google Play safe and secure and to better serve our developer community,” and to “make sure that every account is created by a real person with real contact details.” The Record reports that the announcement coincides with the emergence... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2SAthH1

Nikon is going all-in on the retro aesthetic with its latest Z-series mirrorless camera. The company says the new Z FC, officially styled “Z fc,” is designed specifically to evoke its FM2 film SLR from the ‘80s, with dedicated dials for settings like shutter speed, exposure compensation, and ISO. The approach is similar to the Nikon DF , a retro-style full-frame DSLR that Nikon released in 2013. But the DF was much larger than the film cameras it was inspired by. The Z FC has a 20.9-megapixel APS-C sensor (and of course no SLR mirror and prism), which means the resulting camera is far more compact and looks a lot closer to something like an FM2. Beyond the exterior, the Z FC is a modern camera with broadly similar specs to... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3wddiwp

With Dolby Vision gaming HDR technology available on Xbox Series X and Series S consoles , some TV owners have noticed that suddenly there’s a new setting to worry over. While some HDMI 2.1-equipped 4K displays could handle 120Hz, and some can support Dolby Vision for gaming, at first there weren’t any that could do both things at once. Now LG has confirmed it’s the first manufacturer with Dolby Vision HDR at 4K 120Hz support on some of its TVs, just a couple of weeks after owners noticed it arriving in updates. The 03.15.27 firmware enables the feature on C1 and G1 2021 OLED TVs , and today LG says support is on the way for other premium TVs in its 2021 lineup. Additional premium models in LG’s 2021 TV lineup such as OLED Z1 series, QNED... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3hw24xJ

Photo Illustration by Thiago Prudêncio/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images The alternative social network Parler and representatives of former president Donald Trump were reportedly considering an idea to make Trump an active member of the platform after he left office, but Parler apparently pushed back on one key part of the proposed arrangement: the platform did not want to ban Trump’s detractors, according to an excerpt of Michael Wolff’s upcoming book about the last days of Trump’s presidency published in New York Magazine . Here’s what was going on, according to Wolff: One curious point of consideration for the [Trump] family [the morning of January 6th] — prescient of the events that would shortly unfold — was a follow-up to a discussion initiated some months before by aides and family. Trump... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3x3conh

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Juul has agreed to settle its first state lawsuit over deceptive business practices with North Carolina, a move that will limit the vaping company’s marketing claims and placement of products in stores. Under the settlement , Juul will no longer use marketing strategies geared toward young people, including most social media marketing campaigns, advertising near schools, and sponsoring sporting events or concerts. The company also cannot use models under 35 years old for advertisements in the state, and it’s required that Juul products are sold behind the counters of stores, according to The News & Observer . Juul will also pay a $40 million fine to the state. “North Carolina is now the first state in the nation to hold Juul accountable... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3qyh02i

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on Windows 11. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is announcing that the next version of Office for Windows 11 will have a native 64-bit Arm version, for improved performance on large or picture-filled documents, and support for 64-bit add-ins. The new version of Office is currently in beta, available to Office Insiders . Microsoft also announced a redesign of Office , which you can see above and below. While it uses a similar design to Windows 11, it’ll be available whether you're running the Windows 11 Preview or Windows 10. In addition to the new design, Office will also adapt to your Windows light / dark mode, so you should be able to avoid the experience of opening a document and having it blast light into your eyes at night. Image: Microsoft The... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/35YbU5Z

SoftBank is reportedly restructuring its robotics business and has already halted production of its Pepper robot, according to Reuters . Robotics is just one of many businesses the large Japanese firm has invested in, but potentially permanently ending production of Pepper is notable because of the robot’s role as a sort of unofficial mascot for the company. SoftBank plans to lay off 330 staff members based in France, the original home of SoftBank’s robotics efforts, and apparently half of the division’s sales team in the UK and the US, Reuters writes. Production of Pepper robots was reportedly halted last year and would be costly to restart, Reuters’ sources claim. We’ve reached out to SoftBank to confirm the details of the report. The R... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3h3ZmAt

YouTube Theater | YouTube Google-owned YouTube will have its name on a new live event venue in Inglewood, California, part of the new Hollywood Park mixed-use development, the companies announced Monday . YouTube Theater will be a 6,000-seat performance venue, which will host concerts, comedy shows, YouTube creator events, esports competitions, and community shows. Financial terms of the multiyear naming rights deal were not disclosed. The development is the site of the former Hollywood Park Racetrack and part of the same complex as SoFi Stadium — where the Rams and Chargers play — and American Airlines Plaza. Hollywood Park also houses 3,000 apartments, a 300-room hotel, and an 890,000 square-foot retail area. “YouTube Theater will drive the uniqueness of... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3hdlNBW

If the internet has looked a little empty to you over the last day or so, check to see if your browser is using AdBlock or Adblock Plus. According to several users , ad blockers have inadvertently wiped out the content they’re looking for on a number of mainstream sites. It’s unclear exactly what caused the problem, but the issue should either resolve itself or it can be fixed by going into settings and requesting an update for your filter lists. In an email, the Adblock Plus support channel confirmed the problem “has already been fixed” without going in depth about what it was. Several posts on social media pointed to a recent change in filtering that works in other blockers but was interpreted by Adblock Plus to block content tagged as... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3gY4RAt

Image: Amazon Amazon Music Unlimited customers can now score several months of Disney Plus for free, and the offer extends to new subscribers as well as existing users. Amazon announced Monday that existing Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers in the US and Canada can activate three months of Disney’s streaming service for free through a new promotion . New Amazon Music Subscribers, meanwhile, will be able to access six months of Disney Plus through the offer. Amazon’s ad-free music streaming service costs $8 a month or $80 annually after a trial period. It is separate from Prime Music, the music service bundled with an Amazon Prime subscription. But where Prime Music has a catalog of roughly 2 million songs, Amazon Music Unlimited’s library comprises... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3x61nBz

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook has joined the ranks of companies valued over a trillion dollars as of today’s market close. The company’s market cap is sitting at $1.008 trillion according to Yahoo Finance , putting it over the mark for the first time in its history. Some of the most notable of Facebook’s divisions are the Facebook site itself, along with Messenger, as well as Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus. On the list of US tech companies that have passed the $1 trillion valuation mark, Facebook is the only one founded in the 2000s, making it the newest — as long as you’re counting from the date that Google was started (which was in 1998), instead of Alphabet (which was created 2015). The news comes alongside the dismissal of the FTC’s case to unwind... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3gY3bXM

BMW will stop selling the i3 electric hatchback in the US starting next month. It’s the latest pint-sized vehicle to fall victim to American car buyers’ insatiable appetite for huge, towering, climate-killing trucks and SUVs. First released in 2013, the i3 was BMW’s first real electric vehicle. Always intended to be more of a city car than anything intended for long trips, the i3 maxed out at 80 miles of range from a 22kWh battery, with a modest 170 horsepower. The battery capacity grew 50 percent — to 33kWh — after a 2017 update , increasing the range to 113 miles. Thanks to its kooky, futuristic, and polarizing design, it was never a sales juggernaut, but it certainly developed a cult following over time. The i3 was able to carve out a... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/35WRrhI

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge On Monday, a US District Court dealt a huge blow to the federal government’s antitrust case against Facebook by dismissing a complaint filed against the company by the Federal Trade Commission. The lawsuit, filed late last year , sought to unwind Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. The judge also dismissed an associated case filed by a group of state attorneys general. In its initial complaint , the FTC alleged that Facebook violated federal antitrust laws by purchasing a would-be competitor in the social media market. But in his decision to dismiss the complaint Monday, Judge James E. Boasberg wrote that the FTC offered insufficient evidence for its central claim — that Facebook wields monopoly power. “This case involves no... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3y7twsd

Dennis Crowley, co-founder of Foursquare, is stepping down from his full-time role with the company | Getty Foursquare founder and former CEO Dennis Crowley is stepping down from his full-time role at the company, he wrote in a Medium post on Monday . He’ll remain on the board of directors. “What started around my kitchen table in the East Village back in early 2009 has grown to nearly 400 people working around the world in 2021,” Crowley wrote. “What started as a quest to ‘build a Marauders Map’ and to ‘turn the real world into a game’ and ‘build a hipster version of Clippy’ has turned into one of the world’s leading location technology platforms, powering location services for thousands of apps and top brands around the world.” Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai launched Foursquare in 2009 as a smartphone app that let people use their... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3y84Uj7

Microsoft’s xCloud, the cloud game streaming component of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate that doesn’t require a console to use, is rolling out fully to iOS devices, including iPhones and iPads, as well as PCs and macOS computers via the web. It’s been in an invite-only beta period since mid-April 2021 , but Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can now access games right from their devices . Microsoft says that on PCs, xCloud can be accessed through the Edge browser and Google Chrome. We’ve gotten it to work within macOS on Microsoft Edge and Safari. More than 100 games are available, and the service is compatible with Bluetooth controllers or ones connected via USB. On iOS, it’ll work as a web-based app via Safari, and you’ll have a choice between a... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3dnTZtw

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge If you haven’t updated to the latest version of Snapchat on iOS, dubbed version 11.34.0.35 and released late Sunday , don’t — the app is crashing on launch ( via Apple Insider ). The company has tweeted that it’s aware of the issue and is working on a fix, but for now if you want to stay snapping you should probably stick with the old version. The bug doesn’t appear to be affecting the Android version of the app. On my iPhone 12 Mini, the app stays open just long enough to give me a message that something went wrong, before crashing to Springboard. It is worth noting, though, that it was giving me that message before I updated as well, indicating that something may be amiss with Snapchat overall. The company did not immediately reply to a... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3doQoeD

Photo by Stefano Guidi/Getty Images Things are starting to open up, but for now, the COVID-19 pandemic is still with us and many are still relying on video calls to keep in touch with work colleagues, family, and friends. And for most of us — especially those who are facing financial difficulties — free is best. Zoom continues to top the list of videoconferencing apps, but there are a bunch of applications out there that will allow you to meet others online for free. We’ve listed a few of the best known videoconferencing apps, along with a couple of popular text chat apps that include video calling features. While most of these already have free versions, some are offering access to additional features for those who are currently working from home or who want to check up... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2XSGjzl

In a blog post today , Microsoft is making another attempt at clarifying the minimum requirements for Windows 11, which have confused many, especially regarding what generation of CPUs the new OS will support. The post is clear that Intel 6th Gen Skylake and earlier CPUs, along with non-Zen AMD processors, will not meet “principles around security and reliability and minimum system requirements for Windows 11.” That lines up with the company’s original statement that Windows 11 would require Intel 8th Gen Coffee Lake or Zen 2 CPUs and up, but there is some hope for Intel 7th Gen Kaby Lake and Zen 1 users. Where things get confusing again is the news that its first Insider build of Windows 11, which is available today , won’t require TPM... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3dmka3V

Microsoft is releasing its first Windows 11 preview build today. Windows Insiders can download the Windows 11 preview ( build 22000.51 ) right now, which includes access to the new Start menu, multitasking features, and overhauled Microsoft Store. Unlike the previous Windows 11 leak , this official preview also features an updated File Explorer that replaces the ribbon with a command bar to simplify file management a little more. Most of the Windows 11 visual changes that Microsoft revealed last week will be available in this initial preview. The new Start menu with its centered launcher-like interface is part of this build, alongside rounded corners throughout the OS and improvements to the notification center, volume flyouts, and more. If... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2TcXdZS

Image: 91mobiles and OnLeaks In 2020, OnePlus expanded its product lineup with the midrange OnePlus Nord , and new leaked renders from 91mobiles and OnLeaks have given us a good look at what the rumored next phone in the Nord line might look like. You can see the renders in this video (which I’ve also embedded at the top of this post). The phone, which I will call the Nord 2 (though we don’t know if that might be the official name) looks to take a lot of design cues from the OnePlus 9 , particularly with the similar-looking rounded rectangle rear camera module and the hole-punch selfie camera. That rear camera module houses 50-megapixel, 8-megapixel, and 2-megapixel cameras, while the selfie camera is 32 megapixels, according to 91mobiles . And here comes your very... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2SA9XcU

YouTube TV is today revealing more details about two anticipated new features: 4K playback and offline downloads . As it turns out, the service will be bundling them together in a new add-on package it’s calling “4K Plus.” There’s no getting one without the other. 4K Plus is available starting today and will cost an extra $19.99 per month on top of the standard $64.99 YouTube TV subscription . That sounds awfully expensive, but at least there’s this: customers will receive a free one-month trial — and if you sign up early, 4K Plus will be discounted to $9.99 each month for the first year. That’s easier to swallow than $20, but you’ll eventually be shifted over to the full price once that initial promotion expires. So for the first year,... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/2TdtBM5

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Australia’s Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has warned buyers to keep Apple AirTags away from young children, saying it’s too easy to remove a potentially dangerous battery from the tiny location trackers . An ACCC statement cautions that AirTags’ small lithium button batteries can severely injure children if they leak or become stuck in a child’s throat, nose, or ear. It raises particular concerns about Apple’s design making those batteries too readily accessible. “The ACCC is concerned that the AirTag’s battery compartment could be accessible to young children, and the button battery removed with ease. In addition, the AirTag battery compartment’s lid does not always secure fully on closing, and a distinctive sound plays when... Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3A6uUgr

Smartwatches and security Continue reading… from The Verge - All Posts https://ift.tt/3h12fSr