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Kotaku reported on Undead Labs, the developers of the State of Decay series. | Image: Undead Labs Kotaku has published an extensive article about difficult workplace conditions at Undead Labs, a Microsoft-owned game studio known for the State of Decay series , that you should go read. The article details allegations of sexism at the company and a lack of direction that hurt morale, and it arrives amidst several other recent reports and allegations of challenging workplace conditions at game development studios. The YouTube channel People Make Games reported on challenges at three well-known indie studios in a video earlier this month . VentureBeat recently published a long article containing allegations that Ori and the Blind Forest developer Moon Studios is an “oppressive” place to work . And as Microsoft is set to acquire mega-studio... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/31/23004859/go-read-this-story-workplace-conditions-sexism-xbox-studio-undead...

Despite the United States and Russia’s deteriorating relationship here on Earth, Russia is still considering extending its participation on the International Space Station through 2030, according to NASA. However, it could be a few months before there is a solid update on Russia’s official stance. NASA and Russia’s state space corporation, Roscosmos, have been the two largest partners on the International Space Station for the last three decades. The two organizations have agreed to work together on the ISS through 2024, but at the end of last year, the Biden administration announced its intentions to extend the space station program through 2030. Russia has not formally agreed to the extension yet. “we all understand the importance of... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/31/23004797/nasa-russia-roscosmos-international-space-station-partnership-2030

From left to right: reply from feed, the new reshare menu, and online indicators. | Image: Meta Instagram is giving users a host of new options when sending direct messages (or DMs to you and I) on its platform. The most useful is a new option to quickly reply to a DM directly from your feed without having to go into your inbox and lose your place. There are also new share options as well as the ability to send song previews and conduct polls in group chats. The platform’s head, Adam Mosseri, announced Instagram’s intention to focus on messaging this year in a video posted at the end of December . “Messaging is one of the primary ways that people — actually it is the primary way people connect online at this point,” Mosseri said. “Instagram needs to embrace the fact that messaging is that primary form of communication.” ... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/31/23004407/instagram-dms-update-reply-feed-song-previews-messenger-integration

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 08: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House March 8, 2022 in Washington, DC. During his remarks, Biden announced a full ban on imports of Russian oil and energy products as an additional step in holding Russia accountable for its invasion of Ukraine. | Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images The Biden administration plans to use the Defense Production Act (DPA) to ramp up the mining and processing of key minerals used in batteries for renewable energy and electric vehicles. That could include nickel, lithium, cobalt, graphite, and manganese, according to the White House fact sheet. “The President is also reviewing potential further uses of DPA – in addition to minerals and materials, to secure safer, cleaner, and more resilient energy for America,” the fact sheet says. That could include nickel, lithium, cobalt, graphite, and manganese Biden made the announcement as part of a broader set of actions aimed at addressing soaring en...

US passports will soon offer an X gender marker US citizens will have the option to choose the gender-neutral X marker on passports beginning April 11th, the Department of State announced . The agency said the X option will be available for other forms of documentation next year, according to a statement from Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “After thoughtful consideration of the research conducted and feedback from community members, we concluded that the definition of the X gender marker on State Department public forms will be ‘Unspecified or another gender identity,’” Blinken said. “This definition is respectful of individuals’ privacy while advancing inclusion.” The State Department first said last June that it would add a third gender marker to passports, but it didn’t provide... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/31/23004639/us-gender-neutral-x-option-non-binary-transgender-passports-april-11th

Intel’s Arc GPUs debuted today for laptops, but the company hasn’t forgotten its highly anticipated re-entry into the world of desktop graphics cards, either: the company showed off a first look at the final Arc hardware, along with a reveal that the first GPUs will arrive this summer as a “limited edition” release. The company isn’t offering too many details on the desktop Arc cards beyond the quick glimpse of the hardware itself, although presumably, more details will arrive before the summer. The video does show that the Arc card has a dual-fan design, along with a single HDMI port and three DisplayPort ports on the side, although it’s not clear what the specifications for those ports are from appearance alone. Intel... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/30/23003097/intel-arc-desktop-gpu-release-date-preview-summer-2022

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Facebook’s parent company, Meta, has been paying one of the most prominent Republican consulting firms to run a nationwide campaign to sow distrust about one of the company’s top competitors, TikTok, according to a new report from The Washington Post on Wednesday. The firm, Targeted Victory, reportedly planted op-eds and letters to the editor in major local and regional newspapers across the country. A Targeted Victory director told staff that the firm needed to “get the message out that while Meta is the current punching bag, TikTok is the real threat especially as a foreign owned app that is #1 in sharing data that young teens are using,” according to emails obtained by The Post . “TikTok is the real threat” News of Facebook’s decision... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/30/23003168/facebook-tiktok-targeted-victory-news-column-campaign-gop

This could be you. If you’ve just acquired a new game and you’re not sure what settings or resolution your PC can run it at without stutter and lag, a benchmark is a good way to try out various profiles before you dive in. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one title with a built-in benchmark that’s easy to run. This benchmark is also a very common test that reviewers run on laptops to put their GPUs to the test. Shadow of the Tomb Raider has ray tracing, so it’s a particularly good way to see how well a gaming rig can handle ray tracing. If you want to see how your GPU stacks up to other systems around the internet, the Tomb Raider benchmark is one of the best ways to do that. Here’s how to run it. Get the game To get started, you’ll need to make sure you... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/23001732/shadow-of-the-tomb-raider-benchmark-how-to-pc-gpu

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft will reveal how the company is building Windows for the future of hybrid work next week. A special event, Windows Powers the Future of Hybrid Work , will take place on April 5th and feature Windows and Surface chief Panos Panay and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. It’s expected to cover a variety of new Windows 11 features for security, productivity, and management, both in the client and cloud. So what exactly are we likely to see next week? We’ll likely get early glimpses at Microsoft’s vision for building Windows for a new world of remote work. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has emphasized how important the move to hybrid work is for Microsoft. “Hybrid work represents the biggest shift to how we work in our generation,” said Nadella... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/30/23002966/microsoft-event-windows-11-future-hybrid-work-rumors

Intel’s first Arc GPUs are launching today , but one of the biggest features for the new discrete graphics cards will be absent when the first Arc-powered laptops arrive: the company’s XeSS AI-powered upscaling technology , which Intel says won’t be available until sometime in “early summer.” XeSS is meant to compete with other AI-based upscaling techniques, like Nvidia’s own Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), and promises to offer players better framerates without compromising on quality. (AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution aims to offer similar results, too, but doesn’t use the same super sampling methods as Intel and Nvidia.) The goal of XeSS is similar to other upscaling techniques, offering players 4K-quality visuals without having... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/30/23001801/intel-xess-ai-upscaling-arc-gpu-release-date

The Sunrise Arc, and Earendel | NASA/ESA, B. Welch, D. Coe The most distant star — or possibly pair of stars — that astronomers have ever seen was just revealed thanks to the Hubble telescope and a massive cluster of galaxies. Far from Earth, the universe bends around the vast bulk of a galaxy cluster, creating a gravitational lens in spacetime much like the curved lens in a magnifying glass. Like a magnifying glass, it revealed something small and hidden: a star system from the early universe. The far-away star system takes the official name WHL0137-LS, but the astronomers who found it nicknamed it “Earendel” from the Old English word meaning “morning star” or “rising light.” Earendel system as we’re seeing it today was shining within just 900 million years of the Big Bang, according to the... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/30/23002980/earendel-hubble-most-distant-star-gravitational-lensing-jwst

Intel’s discrete GPU revolution is finally beginning after months of previews and teasers, with the company launching its first Arc A-series GPUs for laptops today. They bring support for DirectX 12, dedicated ray-tracing hardware, and — at least for the first batch of GPUs — only around twice the power of Intel’s integrated Xe graphics. Today’s launch is just a small taste of what Intel’s full picture for Arc will look like, though: to start, the company is only launching its least powerful Arc 3 series GPUs: the A350M, which has six Xe-cores and six ray-tracing units, and the A370M with eight Xe-cores and eight ray-tracing units. Given the 25W to 50W range for power, they’re meant for ultraportable devices that intend to offer more... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/30/23000576/intel-arc-gpu-a-series-laptop-gaming-release-date

Sky Mavis Roughly $625 million worth of cryptocurrency has been stolen from Ronin, the blockchain underlying popular crypto game Axie Infinity . Ronin and Axie Infinity operator Sky Mavis revealed the breach on Tuesday and froze transactions on the Ronin bridge, which allows depositing and withdrawing funds from the company’s blockchain. Sky Mavis says it’s working with law enforcement to recover 173,600 Ethereum (currently worth around $600 million) and 25.5 million USDC (a cryptocurrency pegged to the US dollar) from the culprit, who withdrew it from the network on March 23rd. The attack focused on the bridge to Sky Mavis’ Ronin blockchain, an intermediary between Axie Infinity and other cryptocurrency blockchains like Ethereum. Users could... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/29/23001620/sky-mavis-axie-infinity-ronin-blockchain-validation-defi-hack-nft

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge We kept using Valve’s handheld game console — here are answers to your burning questions Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/22960536/steam-deck-faq-valve-one-month-later

Elon Musk | Photo by Asa Mathat The latest court filing in Elon Musk’s battle to wrest back control of his Twitter account from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) includes a citation of the 2002 song Without Me by rapper Eminem. Yes, really (see the filing embedded below). In the song, the rapper complains that “The FCC won’t let me be or let me be me so let me see/ They tried to shut me down.” That’s a reference to a 2002 penalty the Federal Communications Commission handed out to a Colorado radio station for playing Eminem’s 2000 song The Real Slim Shady (after clutching its collective pearls for a bit, the FCC ultimately decided not to fine the radio station). In the Tuesday court filing, Musk’s lawyers just substituted “SEC” for “FCC” to make the... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/29/23001516/elon-musk-eminem-tesla-sec-tweets

This photo taken on April 1, 2021 shows a worker adjusting cryptocurrency mining rigs at a cryptocurrency farm in Dujiangyan in China’s southwestern Sichuan province. | Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images Greenpeace and other environmental groups launched a new campaign today to push the Bitcoin network to slash its growing greenhouse gas emissions. The goal of the campaign, dubbed “Change the code, not the climate,” is to switch up the energy-hungry process of verifying transactions and mining new Bitcoins. The cryptocurrency uses more electricity annually than global gold mining operations or the entire country of Norway, according to the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance . Burning through so much energy generates some serious greenhouse gas emissions, but campaign organizers argue that it doesn’t have to be that way. Other cryptocurrencies use just a fraction of the energy Bitcoin requires because they use a different system to... Continue reading… source https://www.th...

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge A comprehensive look at the pricing and offerings of the console subscription services Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/23001397/xbox-game-pass-nintendo-switch-online-playstation-plus-comparison-essential-extra-premium

Sony’s PlayStation 5 is still one of the hottest hard-to-get items in gaming. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge If you’ve been tracking new console restocks along with us, you may have noticed that Amazon has taken a backseat for months to the likes of Walmart and Best Buy. While the online giant has had its share of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles from time to time, availability has been infrequent and riddled with issues, particularly when it comes to adding products to your cart; Amazon lacks a proper queue system like other retailers have set up, making it more susceptible to bots. But now, Amazon is hyping a restock of the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition on Twitter, one set for Wednesday, March 30th, at 11AM ET / 8AM PT. We haven’t seen this kind of buildup from Amazon for just the Digital Edition before, so hopefully it’s a sign that... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/29/23001255/sony-playstation-5-ps5-digital-edition-amazon-prime-consol...

Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge Yesterday, I wrote about receiving a spam text that bizarrely looked as though it came from my own phone number . But what initially seemed like a random, spoofed spam message is increasingly starting to look like a focused effort targeting Verizon Wireless, one of the largest telecoms in the United States. Today, the carrier confirmed it’s aware of the situation and is investigating the matter with the help of US law enforcement. “Verizon is aware that bad actors are sending spam text messages to some customers which appear to come from the customers’ own number,” Verizon spokesperson Rich Young told The Verge by email. “Our team is actively working to block these messages, and we have engaged with US law enforcement to identify and stop... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/29/23001528/verizon-spam-texts-own-number-confirms-statement

Bandai Namco One Piece is getting a new video game. During a video presentation celebrating the 25th anniversary of One Piece, Bandai Namco announced that the celebrated manga / anime series will be getting a new RPG with an original story written by series creator Eiichiro Oda. One Piece Odyssey is a new open-world game in which the Straw Hats have treasures to find a mysterious island to explore. The game is being developed by ILCA, a Japanese studio that recently worked on the Pokemon Brilliant Diamond / Shining Pearl remakes, as well as Dragon Quest XI and Nier Replicant . Though the announcement trailer didn’t show too much outside of cutscenes and exploration, we do know that there will be turn-based combat and that players will have the crew... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/28/22999913/one-piece-rpg-xbox-pc-playstation-odyssey

Eric Schmidt speaks at a technology summit in Washington, DC. | Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s foundation poured money into the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy over the past year, according to a report from Politico . The foundation’s close ties with the office raised ethics concerns with internal watchdogs. Schmidt held a number of roles at Google and parent company Alphabet, including CEO, executive chairman, and technical advisor. He stepped down from that last role in 2020. Now, he sits on the boards and invests in tech companies, including a number focused on artificial intelligence . The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) directs science funding and helps steer AI policy — one of the reasons Rachel Wallace, then the office’s general counsel, raised concerns... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/28/22999754/eric-schmidt-google-money-white-house-science-ai-lander

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge This morning, I received a very blatant spam text offering me “a little gift” for supposedly paying my phone bill. Normally I’d groan, roll my eyes, and quickly delete such a thing, but there was something different about this particular message: it was spoofed as coming from my own phone number. As best my iPhone could tell, it was a legitimate message from me to myself. Tapping into the sender details took me to my own contact card. Equally frustrating was that I had no obvious way of reporting the alarming spoof to my carrier, Verizon Wireless. Spoofed calls and texts are nothing new; most people face a constant deluge of spam calls that appear on caller ID as from a number similar to their own. But this was the first time I actually... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/28/22999719/spam-texts-own-phone-number-verizon-att-tmobile

The Dell XPS 13 is one of the best laptops for high school and college students. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Shopping for a laptop can be stressful — doubly stressful if you or your children will be learning online for the first time. Kids of different ages have a range of different laptop use cases and different needs. And as the choices for best laptop and best Chromebook evolve, so do students’ needs. So I spoke to some experts on the subject: students themselves. My recommendations here are meant to accommodate a variety of preferences and price ranges. But they’re a jumping-off point rather than an exhaustive list: every student is different. Before making a decision, you’ll want to make sure you read reviews and try out devices yourself if you can. I’ll do my best to keep this article up to date with items that are in stock. Best laptop... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/21369381/best-student-laptops-school-high-college

The white-colored model costs $700, while the others cost $30 more. | Samsung Samsung’s latest smart monitor, the 32-inch 4K M8, is now available to reserve in four colors: white, blue, green, and pink . The white-colored option will cost $699.99, while the other colors cost $30 more. Samsung announced the M8 during CES 2022 , though it didn’t share a price or that it would arrive in multiple colorways. The company still hasn’t shared a release date. And for now, you can only reserve — not outright purchase — an M8 monitor. After you reserve by entering your e-mail address, you’ll eventually be able to preorder one, and Samsung says your purchase will include a $100 Samsung credit to use in the future. Its colorful design and thin profile could make the M8 fit in with a group of M1 iMacs. Compared to a more relevant... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/28/22999709/samsung-m8-4k-32-inch-smart-monitor-features-price-airplay-tv-apple-studio-display-comparis...

Photo by Loren Grush / The Verge President Joe Biden is requesting a whopping $26 billion for NASA for 2023, roughly $2 billion more than the space agency received for the current fiscal year, according to newly released budget documents from the White House . If enacted as is, a third of that budget would go toward NASA’s Artemis program – the agency’s ambitious initiative to send humans back to the Moon. Roughly $7.5 billion is being set aside for Artemis, which aims to send the first woman and first person of color to the Moon as early as 2025. Part of that funding will go toward the development of a new lunar lander capable of taking humans to and from the lunar surface— a recent addition to the Artemis master plan. Roughly $7.5 billion is being set aside for Artemis ... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/28/22999641/nasa-budget-biden-request-artemis-lunar-lander

Coda producers Philippe Rousselet (L), Fabrice Gianfermi (R) and Patrick Wachsberger (C) posing with Code’s Best Picture award. | Frederic J. Brown/Getty After years of Hollywood working to re-establish the Oscars as a must-see TV event with tweaks to the ceremony and broadcast, the 94th Academy Awards singlehandedly reminded its viewership that nothing lands quite like genuinely unscripted moments that take everyone by surprise as they’re captured and broadcast in real time. Though Netflix brought more than a few contenders that were favored to win at to this year’s Academy Awards, Apple’s Coda made history last night by becoming the first streaming movie to nab a statue for Best Picture — an achievement made even more impressive by how few Oscars the film was nominated for (three) compared to the competition. While The Power of the Dog didn’t take home the award of the night, director... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/28/22999586/oscars-2022-w...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A prolific hacking group run by teens Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/22998479/lapsus-hacking-group-cyberattacks-news-updates

For the next few weeks, we’re showing you how to run various commonly used benchmarks on your PC. Reviewers like myself find these very helpful in comparing laptops we test to each other. But you don’t have to rely on us — you can easily run these benchmarks yourself on your own PC. Geekbench is one of the easiest and fastest ones to run and will show you how your device stacks up against the competition in a few key areas. Within Geekbench 5 (the latest release), there are a few different tests you can run. Geekbench CPU measures your processor’s performance, simulating both single-core and multi-core usage scenarios. When the test is complete, you’ll get both a single-core and a multi-core score. Geekbench Compute, by contrast, e... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/22996451/how-to-run-geekbench-mac-windows-ios-android

Coda’s stars after winning big at the awards. | Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images CODA has become the first film from a streaming service to win best picture at the Oscars, in a sign of the growing dominance of streamers like Apple, Netflix, and Amazon at Hollywood’s most prestigious awards ceremony. The Apple TV Plus film follows the struggles of Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones), the only hearing member in a deaf family, as she tries to explore a life away from her family. Apple acquired the rides to CODA for $25 million in a bidding war after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival last year. As well as winning best picture, CODA ’s Troy Kotsur won best supporting actor for his role in the film, and its writer-director Siân Heder also took away the award for best adapted screenplay. Kotsur is the first Deaf actor to have... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/28/22999481/apple-tv-plus-oscars-best-picture-coda-netflix-power-of-the-dog-dont-look-up

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Amazon workers claim they weren’t all properly alerted as what they thought was smoke filled the third floor at a Bessemer, Alabama warehouse on Friday, according to a report from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) (via Input ). While workers on the third floor were told to clock out, go on unpaid voluntary time off, and evacuate, employees on the other floors were allegedly left to continue working as an unidentified vapor spread throughout the facility. The “smoke” was later found to be vaporized oil from a malfunctioning compressor. According to the RWDSU’s timeline of events, workers on the third floor evacuated around 1:30PM. Hours later, workers on the first floor started seeing the smoke-like substance and... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/27/22998856/amazon-workers-werent-all-alerted-smoke-spread-through-warehouse-bessemer-alabama

Users could previously watch delayed simulcasts for free on Crunchyroll. | Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Crunchyroll will no longer offer free ad-supported streaming for newly-released episodes, the anime streaming service announced in an update on its site (via Gizmodo ). Viewers who want to watch episodes of new or continuing series will have to upgrade to one of Crunchyroll’s premium plans, which start at $7.99 / month . Users didn’t need a subscription to watch simulcast titles before the change, but there was a tradeoff — Crunchyroll would delay the release of new episodes by one week for free users, while subscribers could watch them one hour after their premiere in Japan. This was something I (and probably a lot of other people using Crunchyroll for free) happily dealt with as long as I actually got to watch the new episodes. The new... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/27/22998591/crunchyroll-e...

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Apple is reportedly planning to release an iPad Pro with the rumored M2 chip sometime between September and November of this year, according to Apple tracker Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter . Gurman expects Apple to issue a major update for the upcoming generation of iPad Pros, which will supposedly include support for MagSafe charging. As Gurman points out, Apple last gave the iPad Pro a significant update in 2018 , when Apple introduced a design with harder corners, an edge-to-edge display, and a USB-C connector. This update came about a year and a half after the release of the iPad Pro 10.5 in 2017 . The new iPad Pro is also rumored to have a glass backing Apple is on track to repeat the same pattern this year, as it launched the most... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/27/22998512/apple-reportedly-release-ipad-pro-m2-chip-magsafe-fall-rumor

Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images The Academy Awards return this weekend to celebrate a standout year of film releases. With vaccinations now widely available, theaters saw record-breaking ticket sales as moviegoers seemed more willing to return to auditoriums to watch highly anticipated releases. But theaters haven’t completely edged out streamers — Netflix swept up a dozen nominations for its critically acclaimed drama The Power of the Dog and several more for its doomsday comedy Don’t Look Up . Folks with traditional cable bundles or an antenna are already teed up to watch the event live on ABC when it airs this evening. But if you’re short the hardware or a cable box, several services will carry the coverage as well. Who is hosting the Oscars? Wanda Sykes, Regina... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/27/22996861/oscars-streaming-94th-academy-awards-wanda-sykes-regina-hall-amy-schumer

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple Pay will no longer support Russian card payment system Mir, closing a loophole that let Russians continue to use the service amid economic sanctions put on the country, according to a report from Reuters . “Apple has informed NSPK [Russia’s National Payment Card System] that it is suspending support of ‘Mir’ cards in the payment service Apple Pay,” a translated announcement on Mir’s site reads. “Since March 24, uploading new ‘Mir’ cards to the service has been unavailable.” The company also notes any Mir cards previously added to Apple Pay will stop working over “the next few days.” Apple Pay first added support for Mir cards last year . Many Russian users have already been cut off from Apple Pay and Google Pay According to The... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/26/22997758/apple-pay-google-pay-loophole-mir-cards-russia-payment-system-ukraine-war

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Uber has secured a 30-month — or two-and-a-half-year — license to keep its ridesharing services up and running in London, according to a report from the BBC . This marks the close of a lengthy battle with the city’s transportation agency, Transport for London (TfL), over Uber’s safety protocols. We’re delighted to announce @TfL has granted Uber a new 30 month licence in London. TfL rightly holds our industry to the highest regulatory and safety standards and we are pleased to have met their high bar. — Uber UK (@UberUK) March 26, 2022 “We’re delighted to announce @TfL has granted Uber a new 30 month licence in London,” Uber announced in a tweet on Saturday morning. “TfL rightly holds our industry to the highest regulatory and safety... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/26/22997671/uber-granted-30-month-license-operate-london-uk

When not in use, Samsung’s Frame TV can be used to display more than 1,400 works of art. | Image: Samsung Now that Samsung’s new Frame TVs are available for preorder , the 2021 model is selling at a new all-time low in multiple configurations until April 5th (or while supplies last). Typically $1,499.99, Woot is selling the HDR-compatible, 55-inch QLED TV for $899.99 , which is $100 cheaper than the previous low we saw during Black Friday and in the run-up to the Super Bowl. The 65-inch model is also on sale for $1,399.99 instead of $1,999, and both TVs come with a one-year warranty from Samsung. While the 2021 model lacks the matte, anti-reflective display found on this year’s model, they’re both designed to display artwork when not in use, allowing them to blend in more easily with your home’s decor. When turned on, they function as... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/good-deals/2022/3/26/22995214/samsung-frame-tv-2021-apple-ipad-philips-hue-bulbs-lg-gram-...

US government agencies are already barred from using Kaspersky products. | Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images The US Federal Communications Commission has added Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab to its list of entities that pose an “unacceptable risk to US national security,” according to a report from Bloomberg . This is the first time a Russian company has been added to the list, which is otherwise made up of Chinese companies, like Huawei and ZTE . Businesses in the US are barred from using federal subsidies provided through the FCC’s Universal Service Fund to purchase any products or services from the companies on the list. In addition to Kaspersky, the FCC also added China Telecom and China Mobile International USA to its list on Friday. Kaspersky says the decision was “made on political grounds” “I am pleased that our national... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/26/22997532/fcc-kaspersky-list-national-security-threats-...

Spotify is the latest company to suspend its services there. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Spotify is suspending its services in Russia as the country’s invasion of Ukraine continues into its second month. In a statement, the company appears to reference Russia’s new law that punishes spreading fake news about the military with up to 15 years in prison as the primary reason for why it’s shutting down in the country. “Spotify has continued to believe that it’s critically important to try and keep our service operational in Russia to provide trusted, independent news and information in the region,” according to a Spotify spokesperson, who asked not to be named because of “the situation in Russia.” “Unfortunately, recently enacted legislation further restricting access to information, eliminating free expression, and... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/25/22996412/spotify-russia-suspending-services

A cute look can’t hide the slow processor Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/22996164/microsoft-surface-laptop-se-review-education

It seems likely to be a combination of PlayStation Plus and Now. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge Sony will reportedly announce its answer to Xbox Game Pass, a service that’s currently known as Spartacus , “as early as” next week, according to Bloomberg . Previous reports say that Spartacus could be a combination of Sony’s two current subscription services, PlayStation Plus, and PlayStation Now. Bloomberg says that the service will launch featuring popular, recent games, but that it may not include the upcoming tentpole game God of War: Ragnarok. The service is expected to have three different tiers, which will offer different games at different price points. One tier is expected to be very similar to the current PlayStation Plus subscription, while subsequent tiers would add PS4 and PS5 games (though the latter are expected to come... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/25/22996376/sony-playstation-spartacus-subscription-game-pass-rumor-ps5

Florida, smartphone extreme threat alert warning. | Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images The United Nations wants to make sure every person on Earth can receive early warnings ahead of disastrous weather events. It set a goal of hitting that target within five years in an announcement this week. Early warning systems are needed urgently to save lives as climate change makes extreme weather even worse, UN officials said. Such systems include technology to forecast dangerous weather systems and the ability to share those forecasts with the public so that they can take precautions ahead of storms, floods, heatwaves, and droughts. One in three people in the world still aren’t protected by early warning systems, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). One in three people in the world still aren’t protected “... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/25/22996059/united-nations-early-warning-systems-extreme-weathe...

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Apple would be forced to allow users to install apps from outside the App Store under legislation recently unveiled by the EU. This stipulation was included in the initial proposal for the bloc’s sweeping Digital Markets Act , or DMA, which came one step closer to being signed into law this week, and an EU spokesperson confirmed that the provision is still included. “We believe that the owner of a smartphone should have the freedom to choose how to use it,” said European Commission spokesperson Johannes Bahrke in an emailed statement. “This freedom includes being able to opt for alternative sources of apps on your smartphone. With the DMA, a smartphone owner would still be able to enjoy safe and secure services of the default app store on... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/25/22996248/apple-sideloading-apps-store-third-party-eu-dma-requirement

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) logo seen displayed on a smartphone. | Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Come July, the EPA plans to retire the archive containing old news releases, policy changes, regulatory actions, and more. Those are important public resources, advocates say, but federal guidelines for maintaining public records still fall short when it comes to protecting digital assets. “Web services is the language of the government now, [but] we’re not treating it with the same sort of respect that we are paper documents,” says Gretchen Gehrke, one of the co-founders of a group that initially came together to prevent the Trump administration from destroying environmental data . The group, called Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI), is still fighting for public access to resources like the EPA’s online archive. “We’re... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/24/22993628/epa-online-a...

Photo by Vlad Savov / The Verge About to buy the latest Samsung phone or are you more of a Pixel person ? Whether you plan to trade in your old Android phone for a discount on your new phone, sell it on eBay, give it away to a friend, or drop it off for recycling, you’re going to want to wipe it of all your data first by resetting it to factory conditions. Luckily, that’s pretty easy to do. Before you start, be aware that these instructions were tested on a Pixel 3 running Android 12, but the process for most current Android phones should be pretty much the same. Needless to say, first make sure that all of your data is transferred to your new phone, backed up, or both. Once your old phone has reset, there’s no going back. Go to Settings Select System > Reset options ... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/21419919/delete-data-android-phone-sell-trade-how-to

The Samsung Jet Bot Plus and its cleaning station, rendered in a very fake home. | Image: Samsung Samsung is no stranger to attacking a product category with multiple options at different price points, and offering large discounts on those products is another of its signatures. The robot vacuum space isn’t an exception, with the Samsung Jet Bot Plus — its mid-tier option — available today for $399.99 at Best Buy and Amazon . The Jet Bot Plus offers fairly strong suction, a soft brush that’s especially good for hard surfaces, and a self-cleaning station borrowed from its pricier, AI-infused counterpart . This package usually costs $799, which is a bit much for a robot vacuum that lacks object detection, but the current discount of 50 percent makes the Jet Bot Plus more approachable. The Jet Bot Plus’ addition of a self-cleaning station... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/good-deals/2022/3/24/22994306/samsung-jet-bot-plus-robot-vacuum-jabra-elite-65t-earbuds-me...

Image: Fitbit Google submitted data for a new Fitbit feature that would passively monitor users’ heart rhythms to the Food and Drug Administration, the company announced today. Fitbit currently can only check for irregular heart rhythm periodically; users have to actively decide to take a reading. The new feature would run in the background and alert people if they’re showing signs of a condition called atrial fibrillation. It’d bring Fitbit’s EKG feature closer to the one on the Apple Watch, which checks the wearer’s heart rhythms on occasion and alerts them if it catches any irregularities. Fitbit launched a study in 2020 to test its passive heart rhythm technology. Nearly half a million Fitbit users participated in the study, and it flagged... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/24/22994324/google-fitbit-heart-monitoring-afib-fda

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Google will show the next available appointment with a health care provider directly on search, the company announced today . The company is working with MinuteClinic at CVS and other unnamed appointment schedulers during the initial rollout, which will start in the coming weeks, product manager Jackie DeJesse said during a press briefing. It will initially only be available in English. Google If someone searches for a doctor or a health provider’s office, they’ll see what types of appointments are available and the date of the earliest appointment. A “book” button will direct them to a third-party site to make an appointment. Searching for a San Francisco MinuteClinic, for example, will show an “appointments”... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/24/22993022/google-doctors-appointment-search

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Microsoft and Amazon are both appearing at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) this week with a simple pitch: use our cloud services to build your game. Both companies have been battling to get businesses to switch to the cloud in recent years, and now the focus is truly on game developers during a pandemic that has challenged the norms of creating games. “Every few years, the games industry undergoes a transformation — a reinvention of itself,” says Sarah Bond, corporate vice president of game creator experience and ecosystem at Microsoft. “New platforms and new technologies make way for new genres, new gameplay and new IP. Today, we’re in the midst of one of those transformative moments.” Amazon agrees. “Game developers are embracing... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/23/22992432/microsoft-azure-game-dev-vm-amazon-aws-for-games

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge After the disclosure of a hack affecting its authentication platform, Okta has maintained that the effects of the breach were mostly contained by security protocols and reiterated that users of the service do not need to take corrective action as a result. The statements were made by David Bradbury, chief security officer at Okta, in a video call with customers and press Wednesday morning. On Monday, hacking group Lapsus$ released images demonstrating that the group had compromised Okta’s internal systems, putting thousands of businesses that rely on the authentication tool on high alert . “The sharing of these screenshots is an embarrassment for myself and the entire Okta team,” Bradbury said at the start of the call. “Today I want to... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/23/22992894/okta-hack-cso-security-protocol-sitel-lapsus

Image: WarnerMedia Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has officially been delayed to spring 2023, according to an announcement from Rocksteady Games creative director Sefton Hill on Twitter . “We’ve made the difficult decision to delay Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League to Spring 2023,” Hill’s tweet reads. “I know a delay is frustrating but that time is going into making the best game we can. I look forward to bringing the chaos to Metropolis together. Thanks for your patience.” We've made the difficult decision to delay Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League to Spring 2023. I know a delay is frustrating but that time is going into making the best game we can. I look forward to bringing the chaos to Metropolis together. Thanks for your patience. p... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/23/22992865/suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league-delay-spring-2023-announcement-ps5-xsx-pc

Photo by James Bareham / The Verge ZTE’s probation in the US is coming to an end following a Texas judge’s ruling on Tuesday, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal . The Chinese telecommunications company had been under supervision by the US government since pleading guilty to illegally selling American-made equipment in Iran and North Korea in 2017. ZTE incurred a $1.2 billion fine as a result of violating US sanctions against both countries. The judge decided not to punish ZTE for alleged visa fraud As the WSJ notes, US District Judge Ed Kinkeade decided not to punish ZTE for alleged visa fraud, which is the subject of a separate case that’s currently underway in Georgia. Last March, a ZTE researcher and professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology were a... Continue reading… source https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/23/22992517/zte-iran-north-korea-sanctions-united-states