When this article was originally written in February 2022, the big Spotify controversy was that artists were abandoning the audio service in protest of the company's contract with podcaster Joe Rogan, and some subscribers were deciding to follow the musicians' example. More recently, some users have threatened to bail after CEO Daniel Ek invested in […]
Microsoft blames incoming UK Online Safety Act, says you have until 2026
Microsoft has begun emailing users of its Xbox gaming platform with likely unwelcome news: users will need to verify their age if they want to keep access to the company's various social services, and it's blaming the UK Online Safety Act.…
You can now add swappable magnetic PopSocket grips to Kindle e-readers without undertaking any DIY hacks. PopSocket has launched new PopCase Kindle cases that come with a built-in MagSafe ring, optimally positioned for hand placement and weight management when a MagSafe-compatible PopGrip is attached. The $40 cases are available for 11th and 12th-generation Kindles in […]
DJI is making its latest wireless lavalier microphone system even smaller without scrimping on features or battery life. The DJI Mic 3 is half the size and weight of its Mic 2 predecessor and introduces new capabilities, including two adaptive gain control modes, three voice tone presets, and a sizable increase in storage capacity for […]
US payments platform back in action, says it's informing affected customers
Shoppers and merchants in Germany found themselves dealing with billions of euros in frozen transactions this week, thanks to an apparent failure in PayPal's fraud-detection systems.…
Apple has removed the iPhone torrenting client, iTorrent, from AltStore PAL’s alternative iOS marketplace in the EU, showing that it can still exert control over apps that aren’t listed on the official App Store. iTorrent developer Daniil Vinogradov told TorrentFreak that Apple has revoked his distribution rights to publish apps in any alternative iOS stores, […]
Apology issued after names tied to redress scheme revealed in mass mailing
A London law firm leaked the details of nearly 200 people who requested to receive updates about the redress scheme set up for victims of abuse at the hands of the Church of England (CoE).…
Labor group says new technologies could increase inequality if we're not careful
AI-Pocalypse Over half of the British public are worried about the impact of AI on their jobs, according to employment unions, which want the UK government to adopt a "worker first" strategy rather than simply allowing corporations to ditch employees for algorithms.…
UK starts early warning system combing through stuff that folks flush away
The UK Health Security Agency is looking to set up an early warning system ahead of future pandemics, launching a £1.3 million (around $1.75 million) program to identify "cutting-edge technologies" which could turn people's pee and poop into valuable data on the spread of viruses.…
Idit Levine on going from startup to a billion-dollar valuation
Interview "I feel that a founder always needs to be a little bit stupidly optimistic." Solo.io CEO Idit Levine has been on an interesting journey in cloud computing since starting the networking and API management company in 2017.…
13 governments sound the alarm about ongoing unpleasantness
China's Salt Typhoon cyberspies continue their years-long hacking campaign targeting critical industries around the world, according to a joint security alert from cyber and law enforcement agencies across 13 countries.…
Stolen painting still mising, sadly
Police in Argentina reportedly raided a home in a coastal town on Monday after someone spotted a real estate ad that included images of art the Nazis looted in the Second World War.…
If regulators heed the lessons of Fukushima, testing will have to jump Godzilla-sized hurdles
Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority has requested extra funds to experiment with AI-powered nuclear plant inspectors.…
Microsoft has fired two employees that were involved in a sit-in protest in vice chair and president Brad Smith’s office. Software engineers Riki Fameli and Anna Hattle were both dismissed today, after being part of a group of seven protesters that managed to get inside Smith’s office in Building 34 yesterday. Microsoft was forced to temporarily […]
On Wednesday, the FDA approved the new round of COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, and Novavax for use by seniors over the age of 65. But for anyone younger than that, the FDA approval only mentions people who have “at least one underlying condition that puts them at high risk for severe outcomes from COVID-19.” […]
Harvard researchers find model guardrails tailor query responses to user's inferred politics and other affiliations
OpenAI's ChatGPT appears to be more likely to refuse to respond to questions posed by fans of the Los Angeles Chargers football team than to followers of other teams.…
China would be a $50 billion a year market for Nvidia if Uncle Sam would let us sell competitive products, says Jensen Huang
Nvidia's top brass urged Washington to approve the sale of Blackwell accelerators to China during the GPU giant's Q2 earnings call on Wednesday.…
Apple isn’t the only tech company to send out launch event invitations this week. If you’re keeping score at home, September is actually next week somehow, and Samsung is sneaking a virtual Unpacked in on September 4th before Apple hosts its annual iPhone event the following week. But it’s not just a convenient date to […]
Virtzilla also helping banks to sink and re-float software-defined infrastructure to stop stealthy malware
VMware has tweaked its software licensing so submarines can keep their computers running when they’re beneath the waves.…
On Wednesday, 4Chan and Kiwi Farms, two of the most controversial social media sites on the internet, filed a federal lawsuit against the British government, arguing that the requirements of the UK's Online Safety Act infringe on their Constitutional rights as American corporations. In a filing submitted to the U.S. District Court in the District […]
Starting at $2,999, tiny doesn't mean cheap
Hot Chips Back in 2023, Nvidia's superchip architecture introduced a new programming model for accelerated workloads by coupling the CPU to the GPU via a high-speed NVLink fabric that makes PCIe feel positively glacial.…
There's also a rogue Russian on the list
The US Treasury Department has announced sanctions against two Asian companies and two individuals for allegedly helping North Korean IT workers fake their way into US jobs.…
AI lowers the bar for cybercrime, Anthropic admits
comment Anthropic, a maker of AI tools, says that AI tools are now commonly used to commit cybercrime and facilitate remote worker fraud.…
Not a disaster recovery option, but good enough for a migration
Microsoft continues to take what's familiar to ordinary users and offer it to enterprises. The latest functionality is Windows Backup for Organizations.…
Fast-glob is widely used in government, security lab says
A Node.js utility used by thousands of public projects - and more than 30 Department of Defense ones - appears to have a sole maintainer whose online profiles identify him as a Yandex employee living in Russia.…
Microsoft’s Copilot AI assistant is officially coming to TVs, starting with Samsung’s 2025 lineup of TVs and smart monitors. With the integration, you can call upon Copilot and ask for movie suggestions, spoiler-free episode recaps, and other general questions. On TV, Copilot takes on a “friendly, animated presence” that resembles the opalescent Copilot Appearance Microsoft […]
FEMA has suspended at least 30 employees after they warned that spending limits, staffing cuts, and gaps in leadership hurt the agency’s ability to respond to disasters. The employees received emails notifying them that they’d been put on administrative leave on Tuesday night, according to The New York Times, which reviewed copies of the email. […]
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater seemed to be designed specifically for me, at first. I've played and loved nearly every entry of the Metal Gear Solid series, and the original MGS is one of my favorite games of all time. These weird, third-person stealth action games feature bizarre characters and scenarios that have lingered […]
Feature rolls out to Microsoft 365 Insiders, stashing unnamed files in OneDrive by default
Ever get that sinking feeling when Word crashes before you've made your first save? An application update is set to save the day by automatically enabling autosave to the cloud for new documents, before you've even given them a filename.…
Feature bloat, or added value for this JavaScript toolkit?
The Bun team has released version 1.2.21 of its JavaScript bundler and runtime, written in Zig, adding features including built-in drivers for MySQL and SQLite, a YAML parser, and a secrets manager for tools and local development.…
Stolen dev credentials posted to GitHub as attackers abuse CLI tools for recon
Nx is the latest target of a software supply chain attack in the NPM ecosystem, with multiple malicious versions being uploaded to the NPM registry on Tuesday evening.…
My desire to make authentic-tasing barbecue at home was always tempered by the intimidation of regularly using a smoker. I’ve tried a couple of smart smokers before, but none were as easy to set up, cook with, and maintain as Brisk It’s Zelos-450. An early Labor Day deal has dropped its price to around $328.99 […]
Some Microsoft employees are willing to risk everything to protest their employer. No Azure for Apartheid, a group led by current and former Microsoft employees, started last year as a petition to Microsoft executives. It demanded that Microsoft end all Azure contracts and partnerships with the Israeli military and government, disclose all ties, call for […]
No stew on the stove, but plenty of heat as devs compete to flag suspect Medicare data
Seeking to rein in healthcare fraud, the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is seeking explainable AI models that can identify patterns suggestive of malfeasance.…
Last year, Google proved it could make a phone that looks and feels like a true flagship, despite the software feeling like an AI jumble. This year, the Pixel 10 Pro starts to put AI features together in a way that actually makes sense - and it manages to upgrade the hardware a bit, too. […]
Don't let it happen to you
Storm-0501, a financially motivated cybercrime crew, recently broke into a large enterprise's on-premises and cloud environments, ultimately exfiltrating and destroying data within the org's Azure environment. The criminals then contacted the victim via a Microsoft Teams account that they'd also compromised in the attack, demanding a ransom payment for the stolen files.…
Disney is suing Sling TV over its new streaming passes that give you access to live cable networks for as little as one day. The lawsuit, filed under seal, claims Sling violated the terms of its licensing agreement with Disney and included its networks in the short-term packages without permission, according to a report from […]
With Dish Network owner EchoStar selling $23 billion in valuable spectrum to AT&T, any pretense that the TV provider will become a serious wireless competitor is dead. But the project was always doomed to fail, and despite plenty of assurances by the Trump administration and other companies involved, the very obvious writing was always on […]
After a 16-year-old took his own life following months of confiding in ChatGPT, OpenAI will be introducing parental controls and is considering additional safeguards, the company said in a Tuesday blog post. OpenAI said it’s exploring features like setting an emergency contact who can be reached with “one-click messages or calls” within ChatGPT, as well as an opt-in […]
Kwikset is doubling down on open standards and new technologies as it expands its smart lock offerings. In an exclusive interview with The Verge, the company revealed that it will launch its first NFC-powered tap-to-unlock smart lock, as well as a less expensive Matter-over-Thread deadbolt, and a smart garage door opener this fall. Kwikset also […]
Chipmaker keen to protect assets as race for 2nm process heats up
Taiwanese prosecutors have charged three people over the alleged theft of TSMC's trade secrets.…
Vintage computing boffinry to please palmtop enthusiasts
Vintage computing enthusiast Colin Hoad has released a gift to anyone who fondly remembers Psion's classic EPOC-based palmtops and their Open Programming Language (OPL): a language server which brings modern quality-of-life features to the OPL programmer, regardless of their development environment.…
Microsoft is expanding its Xbox Cloud Gaming technology to Xbox Game Pass Core or Standard subscribers, dropping the requirement for the highest tier Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for access to cloud games. As part of an Xbox Insider test, Microsoft is also providing access to some PC games for Game Pass Core and Standard subscribers. […]
French provider seizes on Redmond's admission that US law could override local protections
Interview European cloud provider OVHcloud has long warned about the risks of relying on foreign tech giants for critical infrastructure – especially when it comes to data sovereignty.…
President Donald Trump has made no secret of his disdain for electric vehicles. On the first day of his presidency, he signed an executive order to eliminate EV incentives that he has often falsely portrayed as an “electric vehicle mandate.” And last month, Republicans in Congress voted to kill the $7,500 tax credit, among other […]
Google is rolling out a basic version of Vids to everyone. Until now, the AI-powered video editor has only been available to Google Workspace or AI plan subscribers, but now users can broadly access the app with templates, stock media, and a “subset of AI capabilities,” product director Vishnu Sivaji tells The Verge. Launched last […]
Hybrid of GNUstep and Xfce channels classic NeXT vibes
The latest release of GhostBSD, an easy graphical FreeBSD distribution, includes a brand new macOS-like desktop environment, "Gershwin."…
As we approach the end of August, early Labor Day deals have begun to appear, offering you a chance to save on speakers, noise-canceling headphones, TVs, and outdoor gear. Now we can add Google’s 128GB Pixel Tablet to the list, which is down to $249 ($150 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and the Google Store, […]
Attackers steal OAuth tokens to access third-party sales platform, then CRM data in 'widespread campaign'
Google says a recent spate of Salesforce-related breaches was caused by attackers stealing OAuth tokens from the third-party Salesloft Drift app.…
Every once in a while, Slack conversations among The Verge’s staff are interrupted by photos of incredibly cute dogs, cats, and other pets. (We even have an occasional discussion about smart home editor Jennifer Pattison Tuohy’s chickens.) Naturally, anyone who has a pet wants the best for them — and that includes carriers, feeders, and automatic […]
Plaud, the company behind an AI wearable that actually works, is launching an upgraded version of its credit card-sized note-taking device. Just like its Plaud Note predecessor, the Plaud Note Pro uses AI to record, transcribe, and summarize your conversations, but it now comes with two additional microphones that allow it to pick up audio […]
Device tracker brand Chipolo announced the Loop and Card, two new Bluetooth-powered item trackers that can be recharged instead of requiring users to replace their batteries. The Loop and Card both support Apple’s Find My and Google’s Find My Device networks, and will sit in Chipolo’s tracker lineup alongside the colorful Pop pucks that the […]
Microsoft is addressing muffled audio quality on Bluetooth headsets by introducing a new LE Audio feature for Windows 11. Built on top of the Bluetooth Low Energy radio spec, LE Audio uses a new compression algorithm that results in higher quality audio that Microsoft says will “drastically” improve the audio experience in games and calls […]
Because the DBaaS has lately become AI-tastic, among other things
It's less than two years since MariaDB spun out SkySQL, but it's already unspinning the database-as-a-service outfit, which has since been marinated in AI sauce.…
$23B deal with AT&T shows where the money is
US telco EchoStar, valued around $14.5 billion on Wednesday morning, has sold its American spectrum allocation to AT&T for $23 billion.…
Tech brand Nothing has been caught passing off stock images from professional photographers as samples taken by the Phone 3. Five sample images that Nothing claimed were captured by the device were actually licensed photos taken with other cameras. The photographer behind one of the images has anonymously confirmed to The Verge that it wasn't […]
The DevOps dance has new steps, but Virtzilla thinks it can teach ops folks to tango
Private clouds are all about keeping developers happy and productive, according to Krish Prasad, senior veep and general manager of Broadcom's VMware Cloud Foundation division.…
Explosions all expected and on schedule this time
SpaceX has finally managed a test flight of Starship without anything creating an impromptu firework display.…
"Agentic AI systems are being weaponized." That's one of the first lines of Anthropic's new Threat Intelligence report, out today, which details the wide range of cases in which Claude - and likely many other leading AI agents and chatbots - are being abused. First up: "Vibe-hacking." One sophisticated cybercrime ring that Anthropic says it […]
Vendor insists passkeys are the future, but getting workers on board is proving difficult
Infosec pros are losing confidence in their identity providers' ability to keep attackers out, with Cisco-owned Duo warning that the industry is facing what it calls "an identity crisis."…
After bringing 4G and 5G connectivity to the Underground, London’s public transport authority has started scolding noisy passengers who subject everyone to music and calls blasting out of their phones. A new poster campaign launched by Transport for London (TfL) this week encourages customers to wear headphones when watching or listening to content on their […]
Analysts warn cooling demands could outstrip supplies as heatwaves intensify
Water scarcity is rising up the agenda as one of the major concerns for datacenters in Europe following an unusually hot and dry summer, marked by intense heatwaves in southern parts of the continent.…
Quick, get some investment money before the bubble bursts
The number of companies developing AI processor chips now numbers well over a hundred, according to new research.…
Chipzilla's first datacenter part to use 18A process tech is another core-packed monster
Hot Chips The first datacenter silicon to use Intel's two-nanometer-class 18A process tech won't arrive for a while yet, but that's not stopping the struggling x86 giant from making its sales pitch early.…
Securing internet infrastructure remains a challenging endeavour
Systems Approach I’ve been working on a chapter about infrastructure security for our network security book.…
Suspects this was Beijing-backed Typhoon and/or Panda crew targeting diplomats in Asia
Google has warned customers of a suspected state-backed attack after observing a web traffic hijacking campaign.…
Microsoft president Brad Smith hosted an impromptu press conference on Tuesday afternoon, just hours after protesters gained access to a building at the company’s headquarters and held a sit-in demonstration inside his office. Seated on the edge of his desk, in the office that had been occupied by protesters earlier that day, Smith addressed a […]
'They have to give us magnets'
world war fee The Chinese lockdown on rare-earth minerals has drawn the ire of President Trump, who is threatening crushing tariffs if the Middle Kingdom doesn't cough up more rare earths.…
AI am inevitable, AI firm argues
Anthropic is now offering a research preview of Claude for Chrome, a browser extension that enables the firm's machine learning model to automate web browsing.…
It will even draw legs and arms not in the source material
Google has updated its Gemini AI image generation tool with a build that caused a stir after it was released under the code name Nano Bananas.…
Oh, look, a use case for OpenAI's gpt-oss-20b model
ESET malware researchers Anton Cherepanov and Peter Strycek have discovered what they describe as the "first known AI-powered ransomware," which they named PromptLock. …
Microsoft has temporarily locked down a building at its headquarters after protesters managed to get inside the office of the company's president. Current and former Microsoft workers held a sit-in protest inside Brad Smith's office in Building 34, demanding that the company cut ties with the Israeli government. The protesters live streamed themselves on Twitch […]
From hardware security chips and trusted execution pipelines to open source Root of Trust modules
Hot Chips Microsoft is one of the biggest names in cybersecurity, but it has a less-than-stellar track record in the department. Given its reputation, Redmond can't afford to mess around when it comes to securing its cloud customers' data and workloads.…
Just because temperatures are dropping and the days are getting shorter doesn’t mean it’s time to hibernate. Fall is a perfect time to get outside, and it’s also a great opportunity to save on gadgets and gear designed for the outdoors. To celebrate the unofficial end of summer, REI is offering up to 30 percent […]
Anthropic has settled a class action lawsuit with a group of US authors who accused the AI startup of copyright infringement. In a legal filing on Tuesday, Anthropic says it has negotiated a “proposed class settlement,” allowing it to skip a trial that would have determined how much the company owes for allegedly training its […]
Nuclear fusion is on the upswing, as more companies pile into the space to achieve what’s often described as the Holy Grail of clean energy, according to an updated map from the Clean Air Task Force (CATF). Nuclear fusion aims to replicate the way the Sun produces light and heat, generating a tremendous amount of […]
Somehow, Red Notice was once the most-viewed movie Netflix had ever released, but the streamer announced today that the honor now belongs to KPop Demon Hunters. Following its initial debut back in June, the Sony-produced animated musical quickly became a cultural phenomenon whose songs have been sitting pretty at the top of the Billboard charts […]
Machine-learning models are automating away some entry-level roles
Researchers with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab say that workers between the ages of 22 and 25 in occupations most exposed to AI, like software developers, have seen a 13 percent relative decline in employment compared to other occupations.…
Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter about the collision between Big Tech and Washington (last week of summer edition). If you enjoy this, consider subscribing to get this newsletter weekly and everything The Verge has to offer. Ever since the US Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United v. FEC that corporations had the right […]
Remember that cost-cutting group once led by Elon Musk? Federal employees are still dealing with it
A Social Security Administration employee has filed a whistleblower complaint alleging that Donald Trump's DOGE cost-cutting unit has put the records of every single American at risk by duplicating an agency database in an unauthorized cloud environment. …
'Many dozens' targeted in ongoing campaign, CheckPoint researcher tells The Reg
Cybercriminals are targeting critical US manufacturers and supply-chain companies, looking to steal sensitive IP and other data while deploying ransomware. Their attack involves a novel twist on phishing — and a photo of White House butlers. …
The world's most famous celebrity couple got engaged, and the first place the news broke was on Instagram. By now, it's not much of a surprise that pop star Taylor Swift and football player Travis Kelce opted to announce their engagement on the platform on Tuesday - if it's good enough for Beyoncé, it's good […]
Today, Framework announced the second-gen Framework Laptop 16 with two industry firsts: the first Nvidia graphics card upgrade you can perform at home in just a couple minutes, and the first complete 240W laptop charging solution over a USB-C cable. But the company’s also revealing some intriguing upgrades that didn’t quite make the cut — […]
Expands VMware Cloud Foundation with AI freebie, new security and storage bits
Broadcom has opened its VMware Explore conference in a defiant tone, declaring it now offers a superior user experience compared to public clouds.…
Judge says label is 'misleading'
A German court has told Apple to stop advertising its Watches as being carbon-neutral, ruling that this was misleading and could not fly under the country's competition law.…
Embracer Group-owned CRKD recently launched a backpack, the $99.99 Vortex 1.0. During a recent vacation, I swapped it in place of my go-to for the past eight or so years, the 20-liter Peak Design Everyday backpack, which CRKD has thoroughly cribbed the look of. However, the Vortex has handheld gaming pockets, which helps it stand […]
The GSA is letting AI chatbot makers jump the FedRAMP queue
The US government wants more AI chatbots in fed employees' hands, and its push to do so means that tech companies keen to provide other services will have to get in line behind the LLM makers.…
Administrators can get patches installed via Intune before the first login
From next month, Windows administrators will be able to inflict Microsoft's quality updates on users via the Out of Box Experience (OOBE) by default.…
Dish's parent company, EchoStar, is selling a broad swath of its 5G spectrum licenses to AT&T for $23 billion. Under the deal, the Dish-owned Boost Mobile will primarily operate using AT&T's growing network - a move that marks "the end of the road for the fourth carrier," says Roger Entner, founder and lead analyst at […]
Apple has announced the date of its next big event: September 9th, 2024, at 1PM ET / 10AM PT. The event, which has the tagline “Awe dropping,” will take place at the Steve Jobs Theater in Apple Park. This is where we expect to hear more about the iPhone 17 lineup, which rumors (and at […]
More than three years after revealing “pre-pre-pre-alpha” footage of its new Skate title, EA has finally announced that the free-to-play live service game will be launching for everyone in early access on September 16th. The game takes place in the city of “San Vansterdam,” where you can cruise around to find places to pull off […]
Google is putting AI-powered language learning tools into its Translate app. The new feature, rolling out now in beta, can create customized language lessons based on your skill level and your purpose for picking up a new language, such as vacationing in another country. For now, Google Translate can only help English speakers practice Spanish […]
Criminals already abusing its latest zero-days
Citrix has pushed out fixes for three fresh NetScaler holes – and yes, they've already been used in the wild before the vendor got around to patching.…
Timer fail blamed for probe going quiet as Venus looms
The European Space Agency (ESA) is breathing easier after communications with Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) were restored – the spacecraft is currently barreling toward Venus for a gravity-assist flyby on August 31.…
The Dyson 360 Vis Nav is one of the most powerful robot vacuums out there. In fact, its 65 air watts of suction makes it the best option for carpets (even high pile) that we’ve tested yet. And, right now it’s half off at $499 at Amazon, Target, and directly from Dyson. The robovac’s long, […]
Tesla rejected a $60 million settlement in the wrongful death case that ended up costing the company $243 million in punitive and compensatory damages, Reuters reported today, citing newly filed legal documents. The proposal stemmed from a lawsuit filed by the families of the victims in a 2019 crash in which a Tesla Model S […]
Framework CEO Nirav Patel said he would deliver "the holy grail for gamers" with the Framework Laptop 16. In 2023, he suggested it'd be the first consumer notebook to fulfil the promise of modular, upgradable graphics cards like a desktop PC. We at The Verge were skeptical, because the last time we heard someone tell […]
Four and a quarter years ago, I told you how a USB-C cable could someday power all but the beefiest gaming laptops. Now, Framework is finally fulfilling the promise of 240 watts through a USB plug. Today, it’s opening preorders for the first standards-compliant 240W USB-C PD power adapter ever sold by a computer company. […]
Some TikTok users have reported seeing a troubling product in the last few days: T-shirts for sale on TikTok Shop that are an antisemitic parody of the Jaws movie poster. In the image printed on the shirts, the shark has been transformed into a human nose, the swimmer at the surface of the water is […]
